Lovecraft v. Calvin (Preview)
I am working to complete a monograph attempting to answer a challenge by Chad Underkoffler to explain what I meant by a throw-away comment linking the maltheism of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos with my childhood experience of Calvinism. This is the short form answer:
The evil gods of H.P. Lovecraft's imagination are much less scary than the Judeo-Christian god as depicted to a young child in a fire-and-brimstone family. The evil deities of Lovecraft's writing are malevolent primarily by their vast power and inviolate self-absorption; they are deadly and amoral as a box of plutonium. By contrast, the god I grew up trying to appease is very interested in us personally and individually; while we were taught to call it righteousness, he not only left the world in an unhappy state, his infinite might and knowledge allows him to damn billions to an unhappy afterlife for their specific personal sins. Lovecraft's Azathoth will render all into oblivion if he ever wakes. The YHWH of Calvin (and many other traditions) will take the time to personally ensure not only that you suffer, but that you suffer excruciatingly… and forever.
The evil gods of H.P. Lovecraft's imagination are much less scary than the Judeo-Christian god as depicted to a young child in a fire-and-brimstone family. The evil deities of Lovecraft's writing are malevolent primarily by their vast power and inviolate self-absorption; they are deadly and amoral as a box of plutonium. By contrast, the god I grew up trying to appease is very interested in us personally and individually; while we were taught to call it righteousness, he not only left the world in an unhappy state, his infinite might and knowledge allows him to damn billions to an unhappy afterlife for their specific personal sins. Lovecraft's Azathoth will render all into oblivion if he ever wakes. The YHWH of Calvin (and many other traditions) will take the time to personally ensure not only that you suffer, but that you suffer excruciatingly… and forever.