"Sir Gawain the good, and gay was he too"
Was Sir Gawain good? From a christian perspective it is hard to justify this statement. For the Bible says "No one is good except God alone."(Mark 10:18). Even if we look outside of the Biblical context, we see that Sir Gawain was deceitful, thieving, and prideful. Sir Gawain demonstrates these sins by not fulfilling the promise of giving back the girdle. His pride is also demonstrated throughout this writing. As I was wrestling with this question, I began to wonder if I should bring Christianity into this since Sir Gawain is literature and we can't truly predispose our Christian beliefs on him. I began to ponder whether a god existed with this reality and my final conclusion was that there was. For to say, that Sir Gawain is good is to say that good exists, and if good exists there must be a moral law, and if there is a moral law there must be a moral law giver. So assuming that Sir Gawain is living in a theistic universe, there is absolutely no way he would be considered righteous or good and thus is a wretched sinner.
I commented on Hannah and Dallas's Posts.
Interesting! I debate the same thing about whether or not we should bring Christianity into things like this but if nothing else, I don't see why not because it gives us practice applying our beliefs and theology on matters that are unfamiliar to us.
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