Reichu wrote:It's not framed as the Christian Heaven at all. What's giving you this impression? Elements that Christianity and Kabbalah happen to share?

As I prefaced before making this argument, I don't actually believe it myself. I was simply working within the framework of @Ray's interpretation of Eva "subverting" Christianity, which implied that Heaven = Instrumentality. Playing the devil's advocate if you will, even while the basis of the interpretation that the argument is opposing is significantly flawed.

Probably should have been a bit more clear about that before derailing into a non-sensical ramble. Trust me, I am far too unfamiliar with the philosophies and texts that influence Eva's lore to ever make a claim as bold as, "X is framed as an equivalent to Y", while keeping a straight face. I had only heard about the all the Kabaalistic hoodoo voodoo, and its significance within Eva, once before this thread (someone actually brought it up on /a/ believe it or not). Gonna have to do some of my own legwork on this one.

I don't think it would be surprising if it existed but just wasn't discussed on-screen. We only see a tiny portion of the characters' lives after all, and there are other things to focus the storytelling on.

Plus, most of the characters are Japanese, and thus Christianity simply isn't that big of a thing for them. So we don't expect it to come up as often as it might if, say, most of the characters were Americans. Plus the original audience is Japanese, and Christianity isn't a big thing for them either - that would be a big reason not to show discussion of Christianity even if it does happen "off-screen": the viewers simply wouldn't care.