A. Bouazza,
Your quote from STRONG OPINIONS sent me on a good long search through
my paperback copy of that book. In fact, I searched so thoroughly that
I missed it on page 32 and only turned back to the beginning to try
again after reaching page 159.
In the course of that search I noticed long lists of writers VN
considered mediocrities, short lists of the satisfactory and the
brilliant, but no mention at all of Christian writers or the Bible.
I at last found the quote you cited (exactly where you said it would
be) as the first sentence in a reply to the question, “In what sense do
you copy
“the conceived picture” of a novel [referring to VN’s novels and the
writing process]? The sentence you quote is then followed by this:
“He must possess the inborn capacity not only of recombining but of
recreating the given world. In order to do this ... The artist should know
the given world.”
It seems to me that VN is not referring to the Bible at all but to the
natural world — creation itself -- when he cites the work of the
Almighty.
VN’s reply here, as well as what seems to be an almost total absence of
Christian reference throughout STRONG OPINIONS -- except to mention
“going to church” in a list of things he does not do — indicates that
neither the Bible nor Christianity were influential in his writing.
Andrew Brown