logical control These generations of violence were a thalamic pause for all humankind Men of insight looked at their gods and their rituals and saw that both were filled with that most temble of all equations fear over ambition It was tune for a new and greater ecumeni cal movement to begin Hesitantly, the lead crs of religions whose followers had spilled the blood of billions in planetary purges and interplanetary wars began meeting to exchange views It was a move encouraged by the Spacing Guild, which was beginning to build its monopoly over all interstellar travel through its superior navigators, and by the Bene Gessent, who foresaw increased opportu mties for furthering their own plans, although their hopes were not all to be realized in the event Out of those first ecumenical meetings came two major developments 1 The reahzdtion that all religions had at least one common commandment ' Thou shalt not disfigure the soul" 2 The Commission of Ecumenical Trans lators "Thou shalt not disfigure the soul", but who is to decide where modification ends and disfigurement begins'' The Fremen believe that the land of your birth makes you what you are "Are there strange animals on your planet? ' they ask The Fremen them selves consider that they arc the Undisfigured Ones, yet their blue-on-blue eyes, the sign of spice addiction, their cruel and secretive customs, their sietch orgies and their worship of the dragomsh Shai Hulud are sufficient indications to most people that they are rather (to use ihe words of their own text) the owners of diseased hearts Nevertheless, there are many admirable individuals amongst the Fremen Abomination happens within the heart or soul, it is not imposed from without Let us be humble enough to acknowledge that, however fair we may consider our physi cal appearance, soul disfigurement might be lying in wait for us, might even have happened to us without our knowledge or consent The recorded experience of Muad Dib, of ORANGE CATHOLIC BIBLE 406 ORANGE CATHOLIC BIBLE Alia and, partial as it is, of Leto II, has given new impetus to psychosomatic theological study and has also shifted the emphasis of concern from eschatological determination (whether seen in terms of Paradise, or Heaven and Hell, or Nirvana) to psychomachy (or "psychomachiavelliamsm" as my witty colleague Miiarz calls it) and its implications for this worldly power politics Ancestor worship and propitiation are also reviving These problems were not, of course, stirring the minds of the C E T, for whom God was safely transcendent not an actual liVmg Vermicular Presence I express myself so freely because I know that these words will be buried deep for generations Then as now, however, all men were deeply and humanistically interested in the idea that they had some great destiny witnm the universe, the religious sought divine guidance and feared Shaitanic interference CONTENTS OF THE ORANGE CATHOLIC BIBLE The O C Bible is more than -