Oh, Melville. This is a fascinating interrogation into various philosophies. Melville especially questions the limits of your "basic" Christianity (haha, I know, whatever that is!). It's always helpful to have the Norton annotations, and I think it was particularly helpful to have taken the Melville class! Here, Melville deals with his common preoccupations of why there is evil in the world and the difference between a person's label and how they undermine or support that label. It's a window into the 19th century but still reflects ideas we still think about.