3.90
The One gave things the appearance of convergence. Objectivity—its expressions, practices, institutions—are devotional. The One and God are catholic: kata-holos, about the whole — they found the ‘uni-verse.’ They aim for one world (one space, one time, all things divisible into universal atoms: just as the world is reflected in universal subjects (the one in the many), and vice versa (the many in the one)).
The universe and its converts.
But the world of the universe couldn’t be hermetically sealed; it constantly bolstered itself against an outside: chaos, superstitions, primitives. It mustered a series of devotional techniques to identify, detect, contain, ward off, and even multiply deviances both inside and out, for it knew there were competing forces, even competing worlds.
It closed an eye and wielded the cross. This continues, even when the cross is crossed-out.