Thanks for a writing! As you say, Christianity is the identity that transcends, and therefore includes, all others.
I wonder if it's significant that the nationalities you describe take a large part of their identity from being in opposition to something else? Russian authors were always regarding the rest of Europe with either suspicion or admiration; Ireland exists in an uneasy relationship with Britain; and Christianity is based on a premise of confrontation with the secular world.
This line resonated with me: "I still check the nationalities of everyone involved. Why, exactly, do I trail this national definition when it’s such a poor garment?" Something similar happens in the visual arts, when knowing the date of a painting is practically a requirement before serious appreciation of its worth or importance can begin. It's almost like we feel that to pigeonhole something is to understand it, or, as you say, we are "more interested in comfort than accuracy." "Oh, that's an Irish novel, I already have a mental map of what it's going to be about." But it could be a useful thing, also: "Oh, that's an abstract expressionist painting from the 1950s, if it had been made in the 1650s I don't think I could understand it at all."
Thanks for a writing! As you say, Christianity is the identity that transcends, and therefore includes, all others.
I wonder if it's significant that the nationalities you describe take a large part of their identity from being in opposition to something else? Russian authors were always regarding the rest of Europe with either suspicion or admiration; Ireland exists in an uneasy relationship with Britain; and Christianity is based on a premise of confrontation with the secular world.
This line resonated with me: "I still check the nationalities of everyone involved. Why, exactly, do I trail this national definition when it’s such a poor garment?" Something similar happens in the visual arts, when knowing the date of a painting is practically a requirement before serious appreciation of its worth or importance can begin. It's almost like we feel that to pigeonhole something is to understand it, or, as you say, we are "more interested in comfort than accuracy." "Oh, that's an Irish novel, I already have a mental map of what it's going to be about." But it could be a useful thing, also: "Oh, that's an abstract expressionist painting from the 1950s, if it had been made in the 1650s I don't think I could understand it at all."