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• Religion and Beliefs in C.J. Cherryh's Compact and Union/Alliance books

>From: Lesley Grant <lgrant@maths.tcd.ie>
>Subject: cherryhlist -- religion in the Compact
>Date: Tue, 4 May 93 9:51:57 BST


Thinking about the various series of Cherryh's books, it occurred to me that
there isn't much religion in any of them. _The Faded Sun_ has its sen-caste
and worship of the Pana, the _Morgaine_ books have the Church, _Angel with
the Sword_ has the Adventists and Revenantists. But all of these are more
or less in the background, as local colour. The series which does show more
of religion, and which shows (maybe) religious people, is the Compact series.
	At first sight there doesn't appear to be much, but there is 
more religion in them than the (almost mindless and automatic) blasphemy of
Pyanfar Chanur, the main character. I feel the books are making the point
that she and her crew are disrespectful religiously speaking, having been away
from home so much. Pyanfar more or less admits this when she prays something
along the lines of "O gods, if you get us through this I'll turn religious, I
swear I will". (Her ship survives, she remains cheerfully agnostic). However,
she is an anomaly, religiously speaking. She knows her blasphemy as blasphemy,
and reprimands her niece when she emulates her; also her husband Khym Mahn,
more recently from home doesn't blaspheme at all (he may eventually, under the
crew's influence...). A little more information is gleanable from the appendix
to _Chanur's Venture_ which tells us that Hani have interests in theology 
("'feathered', an impious reference to a hani religious debate"), and that hani
deities are perceived as having direct power in their worshippers' lives ("gods
give you sons" [a curse]). _Chanur's Legacy_ gives us the information that
there is some sort of pantheon (the crew worries what they'll do if their
shsto passenger Phases, and decides gsts is "Queen of the Gods") -- although
the use of the word 'queen' may be problematic, given that hani society
doesn't seem monarchic -- what does 'queen' mean to hani? 
	The mahendo'sat at first sight seem to be monotheists, though 
I'm not so sure all of them are monotheistic - there seem to be so many
differing mahen cultures. They have a belief in a hell inhabited by torturing
4-armed demons (and Pyanfar's relatively frequent use of "in a mahen hell" may
indicate hani religion has no such idea). They have scriptures, and at least
one religious figure is mentioned ("the philosopher Kohboranua"). It seems 
possible for non-believers (of other races?) to convert - Pyanfar has a mahen
translator bought on the pretext of a client with "a religious interest".
	I'm not sure about the shsto -- perhaps it's not genteel and decorous
to believe in anything apart from pleasant interior decoration :-) And as
for the kif, well, sfik != religious faith, at least not for any kif we're
shown. 
	All that aside, what I want to know is - where's the religion in her
Union/Alliance series? There appears to be absolutely none at all among the
humans. Are Union/Alliance/Earth supposed to be populated totally by atheists
and/or agnostics? Religion is alive and well among the aliens, what happened
to the humans? And wouldn't it be interesting to see a Mahen mission to
Earth....(Number One good faith! You pray, you not tortured by demons)

				Lesley