tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23990093172021622272024-02-21T07:26:52.715-06:00Another Reader's ReviewJoshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.comBlogger300125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-67068065566085558402021-10-18T15:50:00.000-05:002021-10-18T15:50:03.591-05:00On Pascal's Wager<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Golden_Lady_Justice%2C_Bruges%2C_Belgium_(6204837462).jpg/1600px-Golden_Lady_Justice%2C_Bruges%2C_Belgium_(6204837462).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="800" height="268" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Golden_Lady_Justice%2C_Bruges%2C_Belgium_(6204837462).jpg/1600px-Golden_Lady_Justice%2C_Bruges%2C_Belgium_(6204837462).jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>When I roast coffee, one of the natural byproducts is CO2 gas, which escapes from the beans for about 18-36 hours of "resting." If one attempts to grind beans and prepare coffee from them before they have "off gassed" the flavor is ruined.</p><p>When one finishes reading a great book (or even in the midst of reading), a natural temptation arises to draw conclusions about the story or ideas the book discovers to the reader. The mind has been heated and agitated (sometimes positively, sometimes negatively) and wants to pronounce judgment in order to regain composure, or make good on the ideas through application.</p><p>The maxim "make haste slowly" (<i>festina lente</i>) applies in this moment of temptation. The mind needs to "off gas" for a period of time before its conclusions will have the flavor of wisdom. Unfortunately, traditions of misunderstanding can be built upon "off gassed" ideas, ruining the value of an author's work for those who do not encounter it directly, or who take up the work with a tainted palate.</p><p>"Off gassed" ideas have accumulated around Pascal's idea of "the wager," which is found in his posthumously published book, <i>Pensées</i>. The standard view takes the wager as a "proof" of God's existence offered to atheists, intended to induce them to belief through an intricate probability game. Here's a portion of it from Pascal:</p><p></p><blockquote>Yes, but you must wager. There is no choice, you are already committed. Which will you choose then? Let us see: since a choice must be made, let us see which offers you the least interest. You have two things to lose: the true and the good; and two things to stake: your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to avoid: error and wretchedness. Since you must necessarily choose, your reason is no more affronted by choosing one rather than the other. That is one point cleared up. But your happiness? Let us weigh up the gain and the loss involved in calling heads that God exists. Let us assess the two cases: if you win you win everything, if you lose you lose nothing. Do not hesitate then; wager that he does exist. (<i>Pensées, </i>p.<i> </i>123 in 1995 Penguin Classics edition, from which all quotations are taken)</blockquote><p></p><p>At first glance the wager seems a straightforward inducement to belief in God, but taken in conjunction with other claims Pascal makes throughout the <i>Pensées</i>, to accept it as a complete apologetic proof would be contradictory.</p><p>Instead, when viewed in the context of Pascal's view of man and how man comes to know God, the best The<i> </i>Wager provides is a goad toward seeking after God rather than remaining indifferent to Him--a propaedeutic to or preparation for faith rather than an inducement to it.</p><p>Consider the following aphorism:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Let us go on to examine the order of the world, and see whether all things do not tend to establish the two main tenets of this religion [Christianity]: Jesus Christ is the object of all things, the centre toward which all things tend. Whoever knows him knows the reason for everything.</p><p>Those who go astray only do so for want of seeing one of these two things [that there is a God, of whom all men are capable, and that there is a corruption in nature which makes them unworthy]. It is then perfectly possible to know God but not our own wretchedness, or our own wretchedness but not God; but it is not possible to know Christ without knowing both God and our wretchedness alike.</p><p>And that is why I shall not undertake here to prove by reasons from nature either the existence of God, or the Trinity or the immortality of the soul, or anything of that kind: not just because I should not feel competent to find in nature arguments which would convince hardened atheists, but also because knowledge, without Christ, is useless and sterile. Even if someone were convinced that the proportions between numbers are immaterial, eternal truths, depending on a first truth in which they subsist, called God, I should not consider that he had made much progress towards his salvation (141).</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Pascal offers here (and elsewhere) his anthropology: Christianity teaches man to know God and to know himself--to know God as the aim of his humanity, but also to know his humanity as incapable of reaching God in its present state. Man can gain either of these propositions apart from Christianity, but it is only in the knowledge of Jesus Christ--as the object of all things and the center towards which all things tend--that man is able to know God or himself truly, that is, unto salvation.</p><p>Aphorisms 189-192 establish the same fundamental claim, that apart from knowing Christ, apologetic efforts are fruitless:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>All those who have claimed to know God and prove his existence without Jesus Christ have only had futile proofs to offer (56)</p><p>The metaphysical proofs for the existence of God are so remote from human reasoning and so involved that they make little impact. . . (57)</p><p>It is not only impossible but useless to know God without Christ (57)</p><p>Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness (57).</p></blockquote><p></p><p>The Wager does not induce either knowledge of God (since it simply offers acceptance of His existence, not knowledge of it) nor knowledge of man's wretchedness, and thus not knowledge of Jesus Christ. If offered as an apologetic, it would contradict Pascal's beliefs about proofs of God's existence and how man enters salvation.</p><p>However, Pascal offers a clue to understanding how the Wager might be understood. In the lengthy aphorism 427 in the section on indifference, Pascal chides those who make half-hearted attempts at Christianity before rejecting it, noting that God is as much the hidden God (<i>Deus absconditus, </i>cf. Is. 45:15) as the revealed God; a fact establishing:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>[T]hat God has appointed visible signs in the Church so that he shall be recognized by those who genuinely seek him, and that he has none the less hidden them in such a way that he will only be perceived by those who seek him with all their heart, then what advantage can they derive when, unconcerned to seek the truth as they profess to be, they protest that nothing shows it to them? For the obscurity in which they find themselves, and which they use as an objection against the Church, simply establishes one of the things the Church maintains without affecting the other, and far from proving her teaching false, confirms it. (127-28)</p><p></p></blockquote><p>In other words, Pascal believes the Revelation of God to be obscured from those who do not seek after Him with all their heart such that those who vainly reject God upon a whim are themselves a confirmatory proof that Scripture speaks truly. He goes on to say,</p><p></p><blockquote><p>They think they have made great efforts to learn when they have spent a few hours reading some book of the Bible, and have questioned some ecclesiastic about the truths of the faith. After that they boast that they have sought without success in books and among men. But, in fact, I should say to them what I have often said: such negligence is intolerable. It is not a question here of the trifling interest of some stranger prompting such behaviour: it is a question of ourselves, and our all. (128)</p><p></p></blockquote><p>From such sentiments, Pascal clearly does not consider the Wager to be the kind of thing one could venture his all upon in order to discover God and salvation. Yet he recognizes that many men are blinded to their own state, and many men fall into complacency, and charity demands some effort on their behalf:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Nothing is so important to man as his state: nothing more fearful than eternity. Thus the fact that there exist men who are indifferent to the loss of their being and the peril of an eternity of wretchedness is against nature. With everything else they are different; they fear the most trifling things, foresee and feel them; and the same man who spends so many days and nights in fury and despair at losing some office or at some imaginary affront to his honour is the very one who knows that he is going to lose everything through death but feels neither anxiety nor emotion. It is a monstrous thing to see one and the same heart at once so sensitive to minor things and so strangely insensitive to the greatest. It is an incomprehensible spell, a supernatural torpor that points to an omnipotent power as its cause. (131)</p><p>As for those who live without either knowing or seeking him [God], they consider it so little worth while to take trouble over themselves that they are not worth other people's trouble, and it takes all the charity of that religion they despise [Christianity] not to despise them to the point of abandoning them to their folly. But as this religion [Christianity] obliges us always to regard them, as long as they live, as being capable of receiving grace which may enlighten them, and to believe that in a short time they may be filled with more faith than we are, while we on the contrary may be stricken by the same blindness which is theirs now, we must do for them what we would wish to be done for us in their place, and appeal to them to have pity on themselves, and to take at least a few steps in an attempt to find some light. (133)</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Perhaps Pascal's observations that many men are pretenders at seriousness and many others are earnestly indifferent lead him to contrive some simple means of goading them to awareness of the folly of their pretense and indifference? It seems to me that Pascal's Wager serves just such a purpose. When taken as a stimulus toward thinking about God and the afterlife rather than as a proof for the reality of God, the Wager might be the means by which the Spirit of God moves the heart of man to seek Him out rather than languish in blindness. At any rate, I think this view of the Wager does more justice to Pascal's work as a whole than viewing it as a conclusive proof of God's existence.</p>Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-87751589782050453742021-09-23T16:02:00.002-05:002021-09-23T16:11:42.321-05:00What Would Abbot Suger Say Today?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Saint-Denis_Basilique_Saint-Denis_Innen_Langhaus_Ost_3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="638" height="640" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Saint-Denis_Basilique_Saint-Denis_Innen_Langhaus_Ost_3.jpg" width="510" /></span></a></div></div><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div>"The dull mind rises to truth through that which is material. And, in seeing this light, is resurrected from its former submersion." ~Abbot Suger<br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">I'd like to thank you for meeting with me Mr. Warbucks, and I'm glad to hear that Peter, Edmund, and Lucy are all enjoying the school year so far. I enjoyed watching you quaff a pint of fresh brewed root beer with Peter at our Medieval Feast earlier this year--it is one of my favorite events of the year. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">As you know, our school hopes to <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">renovate our downtown property, including a 120-year-old Gothic-style church honored with a state historical marker. There are many</span></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> practical benefits the school hopes to achieve with this renovation, such as bringing our entire student body together in one building, reducing the burden on our local Church ministry partner, and returning a historic landmark back to its former glory in our city. But I want you to see the grander vision behind and beyond these modest aims, because </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; white-space: pre-wrap;">I'd like you to be a cornerstone donor of this restoration project, contributing the first 15% to the $1.5 million budget; $225,000. I know that's a lot to ask, but let me put it into perspective.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Perhaps you've seen the Abbey of St. Denis in France, renovated by Abbot Suger in the 12th century? Suger raised an enormous amount of wealth to build the basilica of the Abbey--money that could have been allocated toward the feeding of the poor or the relief of widows or a host of other humanitarian needs surrounding him. Why did he build a basilica? He wanted there to be a place where Divine truth could be discovered and contemplated for generations--a symbol of Christ's glory and His glorification of His Bride. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">You and I both believe that the Classical Christian Education Veritas provides your grandchildren is the richest inheritance they could receive, and it is no less true for the other members of Christ's body and our neighbors in this county. Like the Abbey of St. Denis, the church we want to restore will serve as a symbol for our current families, and for their children and their children's children for generations to come--a symbol of the wisdom and virtue of men passed down through the ages and brought under the banner of aegis of Christ and His Church. The vision of Classical Christian Education will become more visible, more tangible, more glorious to those who are looking for something better for their own children, and I hope you can see the value of it too. Are you willing to set this first cornerstone of the vision into the earth?</span></p>Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-18628047838300681552021-09-22T00:15:00.005-05:002021-09-22T00:18:32.260-05:00My Attempt at Branding<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjphKRoErH8lOPTYw26X7RicToZZbB1bY-3rnftOke_iQISTP58hthSY0kb0O3t2lb-FI430I3Czw2LccK_K3yDfOapglg9h-7H6eLACUI-dcN4_n8NZAJfDWkb2HxOag6fOQfA78fGwSE/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1224" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjphKRoErH8lOPTYw26X7RicToZZbB1bY-3rnftOke_iQISTP58hthSY0kb0O3t2lb-FI430I3Czw2LccK_K3yDfOapglg9h-7H6eLACUI-dcN4_n8NZAJfDWkb2HxOag6fOQfA78fGwSE/" width="147" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In preparation for answering a hypothetical scenario, I wrote the following "sales pitch" to parents in the Bible Belt who might inquire about Classical Christian Education. Despite being a student of rhetoric for half of my life, I don't think persuasion is in my blood. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-2f06d7ac-7fff-6ac6-9672-cfdbd5d5cd1d"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why Classical Christian Education?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why do we educate our children? What do we hope it will make of them? If our education is for acquiring college scholarships, job placements, career paths, and stability for the future, what makes us different from the atheist who denies God, the soul, and life after death? If we make no distinction, our children won’t either, and when they enter a world where remaining faithful to Christ threatens the things we’ve taught them to seek they will jettison Christ for earthly success. Our children will gain the whole world and lose their souls.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul put it this way to the Corinthians, who were also tempted to seek the wrong things:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;">19 </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For it is written:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;"> </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;">20 </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the wise? Where </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the scribe? Where </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;">21 </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;">22 </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;">23 </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;">24 </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;">25 </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 answer the question, Why Classical Christian Education?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wisdom shows us how to live well in the world. Education offers wisdom to its students. At least that’s what education should do. Acquiring wisdom requires more than being around kind people who will keep us safe and provide us with facts and skills. Paul says the message of the cross is the power of God, power that “will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” In other words, those who don’t learn according to the message of the cross will find their “wisdom” brought to nothing. To learn Christ’s message of the cross requires more than learning its truth. It includes learning how to abide in the truth. What is the message of the cross? In 1 Corinthians it is chiefly acknowledging that human weakness—a humble, poor spirit we might say—is God’s chosen vessel of demonstrating His wisdom and power. In one sense education according to the cross is a revelation of man to himself to humble him—I am a mortal, full of vice and corruption. We approach learning in the double darkness of sin and ignorance. In another sense education according to the cross is a revelation of God to man to glorify him—God became man to transform my mortality into immortality, my vice and corruption into incorruptible virtue. We approach learning in the hope of becoming divine.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. The Jews are the people of God who have rejected the message of the cross in hopes of earthly gain, though they possess the oracles of God. Greeks are those who long for knowledge and experience of the divine, but cannot submit their “wisdom” to the “foolishness” of God’s revelation in Christ, the God-man. Classical education, in its most basic form, is remembering; guarding the memory of man’s best efforts—honoring our forefathers that we may inherit God’s promise. We guard the people of God’s best efforts to preserve the Way of Christ against the temptations of the world. We guard the City of Man’s best efforts to “seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him” against the despair of pride. If we want to go further up and further into the wisdom and power of God, we must stand upon their shoulders. And isn’t </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">this</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> what we should want education to make of our children?</span></p></span></div>Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-41100794983094619162021-07-14T13:01:00.012-05:002021-07-14T13:15:22.253-05:00Gareth's Good Word<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ff/56/46/ff56461d5155973297353ec26fa1d179.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="546" height="783" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ff/56/46/ff56461d5155973297353ec26fa1d179.jpg" width="534" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>How does one recognize when one has fallen into idolatry? Though it isn't perhaps the only way, one good way is to examine one's liberty--am I free from guilt, anxiety, covetousness, discontent, wrath, vainglory, and so forth--in other words, am I living like a slave, or am living like a free individual?<blockquote>Who should be King save him who makes us free?</blockquote><p><span style="text-align: justify;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="text-align: justify;">Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. </span><span style="text-align: justify;">“The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. </span><span style="text-align: justify;">“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.</span></blockquote><span style="text-align: justify;"></span><p></p><p></p><p>In the second story in Tennyson's <i>Idylls of the King, </i>Gareth wants to join Arthur's knights, but his mother Bellicent wants him to remain home and hunt until he has grown older and stronger. At the end of one of his pleas, Gareth says, "Man am I grown, a man's work must I do. / Follow the deer? follow the Christ, the King, / Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King - / Else, wherefore born?" Bellicent ignores the noble element of his plea and focuses on the tenuous nature of Arthur's kingship, since his claim to the throne remains disputed. The opening quote is Gareth's final word before his mother relents (with a condition).</p><p>Gareth's simple words strike at the heart of man's plight, reflected in the words of Jesus to the Pharisees in John 8, also quoted above. Those given over to sin remain slaves to sin, and have no sonship, no inheritance, in the Kingdom of God. But those whom the Son has set free, are free indeed--that is, they are no longer slaves to sin, but heirs of the household; sons of the Father. Elsewhere in John's Gospel, Jesus defines His sonship to the Father and the authority such sonship implies by His submission to the Father's will and commands: "<span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">I can do nothing on my own authority; I judge only as God tells me, so my judgement is right, because I am not trying to do what I want, but only what he who sent me wants;" "</span></span><span style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak." </span></span></p><p>A Master and a Father both command and promise. A slave obeys his master out of fear, or because of some promised reward. However, the freedom of sonship is the freedom to obey the Father's commands willingly, in the knowledge that the Father's pleasure and future inheritance remain upon, and are entrusted to the son. Everything a master has belongs to the master alone, not the slave. Everything the Father has belongs to the Son, and will be his to command in the fullness time. The slave has no hope of inheritance, because he is a slave and not a son. The son has no fear of retribution or renunciation, for his mistakes are part of becoming able to command his inheritance.</p><p>Idols are like masters, but worse, for they make promises illegitimately, since only the Father possesses by rights all that He has made. An idol will make demands and offer rewards, but consumptively; not as the Father who commands His son to obey so that he might become greater and be glorified. An idol's promises are illicit--the idol has no power to glorify, no power to save, but only the power to consume and destroy. An idol "would be King," but cannot make his "slave" free. Only the King who can free is a King worthy of honor, fidelity, and worship. So what does it look like to be a son in the Father's Kingdom?</p><p>As expected, the Only Son of God shows us. The freedom of the Son is the freedom to speak as the Father would have us speak and do as the Father would have us do. Idolatry is characterized by the inability to live in this freedom. To cling to patterns of sin, to cling to identities that are abominable in God's sight, to wield worldly powers to coerce others (sex, wealth, fame, intelligence, physical strength, etc.), to live in despair of obedience--these are the rewards of idolatry.</p><p>In John 12, Jesus says this:</p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span class="verse" data-last-offset="28" data-ref="43012024" style="letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-indent: 20px;"><span data-offset="1"></span></span></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span class="verse" data-last-offset="28" data-ref="43012024" style="letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-indent: 20px;"><span class="woc"><span data-offset="1">Truly</span>, <span data-offset="2">truly</span>, <span data-offset="3">I</span> <span data-offset="4">say</span> <span data-offset="5">to</span> <span data-offset="6">you</span>, <span data-offset="7">unless</span> <span data-offset="8">a</span> <span data-offset="9">grain</span> <span data-offset="10">of</span> <span data-offset="11">wheat</span> <span data-offset="12">falls</span> <span data-offset="13">into</span> <span data-offset="14">the</span> <span data-offset="15">earth</span> <span data-offset="16">and</span> <span data-offset="17">dies</span>, <span data-offset="18">it</span> <span data-offset="19">remains </span><span data-offset="20">alone</span>; <span data-offset="21">but</span> <span data-offset="22">if</span> <span data-offset="23">it</span> <span data-offset="24">dies</span>, <span data-offset="25">it</span> <span data-offset="26">bears</span> <span data-offset="27">much</span> <span data-offset="28">fruit</span>.</span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-indent: 20px;"> </span><span class="verse" data-last-offset="20" data-ref="43012025" style="letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-indent: 20px;"><span class="woc"><span data-offset="1">Whoever</span> <span data-offset="2">loves</span> <span data-offset="3">his</span> <span data-offset="4">life</span> <span data-offset="5">loses</span> <span data-offset="6">it</span>, <span data-offset="7">and </span><span data-offset="8">whoever</span> <span data-offset="9">hates</span> <span data-offset="10">his</span> <span data-offset="11">life</span> <span data-offset="12">in</span> <span data-offset="13">this</span> <span data-offset="14">world</span> <span data-offset="15">will</span> <span data-offset="16">keep</span> <span data-offset="17">it</span> <span data-offset="18">for</span> <span data-offset="19">eternal</span> <span data-offset="20">life</span>.</span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-indent: 20px;"> </span><span class="verse" data-last-offset="27" data-ref="43012026" style="letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-indent: 20px;"><span class="woc"><span data-offset="1">If</span> <span data-offset="2">anyone</span> <span data-offset="3">serves</span> <span data-offset="4">me</span>, <span data-offset="5">he</span> <span data-offset="6">must</span> <span data-offset="7">follow</span> <span data-offset="8">me</span>; <span data-offset="9">and</span> <span data-offset="10">where</span> <span data-offset="11">I</span> am, <span data-offset="13">there</span> <span data-offset="14">will</span> <span data-offset="15">my</span> <span data-offset="16">servant</span> <span data-offset="17">be</span> <span data-offset="18">also</span>. <span data-offset="19">If</span> <span data-offset="20">anyone</span> <span data-offset="21">serves</span> <span data-offset="22">me</span>, </span></span></span><span data-offset="23" style="font-family: trebuchet; letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-indent: 20px;">the</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-indent: 20px;"> </span><span data-offset="24" style="font-family: trebuchet; letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-indent: 20px;">Father</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-indent: 20px;"> </span><span data-offset="25" style="font-family: trebuchet; letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-indent: 20px;">will</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-indent: 20px;"> </span><span data-offset="26" style="font-family: trebuchet; letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-indent: 20px;">honor </span><span data-offset="27" style="font-family: trebuchet; letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-indent: 20px;">him.</span></blockquote><p>Shall we follow the deer? Shall we seek those earthly rewards that bring pleasure; those patterns of selfish desire? No! Let us follow the Christ, the King! Let us live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King - else, wherefore born?</p>Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-56945100295464809462021-06-19T13:44:00.001-05:002021-06-19T13:44:36.283-05:00On the Use of Fairy Stories in Communal EducationEducation in a diverse community introduces difficulties that don't exist (or exist less characteristically) within an individual family. Parents have particular convictions and affections, which they pass on to their children directly and indirectly. When parents collaborate with one another to educate their children, whether in a co-op or in a school, they bring not only the convictions and affections they <i>share</i>, but also those that <i>differ</i>. An important conversation involves discovering what differences are irresolvable, but that's a conversation for another time. Assuming that differences do not pose irresolvable difficulties:<div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>What can families do to help one another stay united in the education of their children?</i><div><div><br /></div><div>Sharing common stories offers a means for navigating differences, because shared stories can help people identify wise, virtuous principles and choices in the midst of their differences. In lived reality wise, virtuous principles and choices become confused by the naturally limited perspective of humans and by selfish desires that oppose wisdom and virtue. Fairy stories provide the kind of story well-suited to discover wisdom and virtue since they involve normal characters in abnormal adventures that put vices and virtues on display clearly and distinctly. Fairy stories do not involve ambiguity about what is right or wrong, virtuous or vicious, good or evil; and so the reader or listener knows which characters, motives, and behaviors are worthy of emulation, and why; and which characters, motives, and behaviors are worthy of renunciation, and why. Fairy stories inhabit an imaginative moral reality that provides a clear lens through which one may look at his own moral reality, which is harder to evaluate, but made easier with a "fabulous lens".</div><div><br /></div><div><i>The Lord of the Rings</i> may not be the greatest story ever told, but because it is a fairy tale accessible to people of all levels of maturity it serves as a clear lens through which to evaluate lived reality. For the sake of the following imaginative experiment, suppose the co-op or school requires all members of every family to read (or be read to) <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> each year as part of their enrollment and re-enrollment. Now suppose two parents differ on the amount of rigor a teacher requires of the students. Suppose as well that the rigor-loving parent and teacher have a wiser perspective than the rigor-doubtful parent. Further suppose the differences between the parents include expectations from within their families and churches, but the educational standards of the co-op or school favors the rigorous position. <i>One could (and should) appeal to theological principles, and to hoped-for family outcomes, but since these are not closely shared, the appeal to a commonly shared story might serve better for understanding and agreement.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>How might <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> provide a clear lens in this hypothetical situation?</div><div><br /></div><div>The rigor-loving parent (or teacher) could remind the rigor-doubtful parent of the Scouring of the Shire. Gandalf, the wise and powerful wizard, leaves the younger, less experienced, and less powerful hobbits (Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin) alone to defeat the numerous enemies who have taken over their homeland. The parent could recall that the hobbits make short work of their enemies--an impossible victory but for the fruit produced in them by the year-long journey to destroy the Ring of Power. One could ask, "What made the hobbits brave enough, temperate enough, wise enough, strong enough, and just enough to defeat their enemies without becoming evil themselves?" Of course it was the much greater trials they suffered together on the quest under the tutelage of more mature souls. If the purpose of education is to grow wise, virtuous, and strong, then teachers should strive to provide to children with opportunities to do things that are beyond their powers to perform easily, perfectly, without the possibility for failure, or without the need to rely upon more mature souls to guide them.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is not certain that such appeals would be successful, but where shared stories persist, and especially where they are loved and admired, fodder for such encouragement remains available in ways that transcend the differences within the community.</div></div></div>Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-37678617333867108362021-06-13T10:04:00.000-05:002021-06-13T10:04:30.138-05:00Sabbath Song #1<p>I will arise and ascend to meet,</p><p>Jerusalem of Heaven coming down.</p><p>Saints in glory shall I greet,</p><p>Led by Christ, robed and crowned.</p><p>Ye saints on earth join in the song,</p><p>Shed your sorrows from the valley,</p><p>Thy prayers lift up a tower strong,</p><p>Entwining an unnumbered tally.</p><p>Shout! Let the gates of Hell tremble,</p><p>Shout! The King of Glory descends!</p><p>Shout! Let all His saints assemble,</p><p>Shout! Every power before Him bends!</p><p>Let us arise and ascent to meet,</p><p>Jerusalem of Heaven coming down.</p><p>Saints in glory let us greet,</p><p>Led by Jesus, robed and crowned.</p><p>When we depart, armed for battle,</p><p>Let not vice nor evil arrow land,</p><p>Let foes hear our roar and rattle,</p><p>Let them fear our joyous band!</p><p>Take our lives! Our souls remain,</p><p>Take our goods! We have our King,</p><p>Take our might! God shall sustain,</p><p>Take all away! We still shall sing:</p><p>Shout! Let the gates of Hell tremble,</p><p>Shout! The King of Glory descends!</p><p>Shout! Let all His saints assemble,</p><p>Shout! Every power before Him bends!</p>Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-90658236543630527562021-06-07T14:49:00.003-05:002021-06-07T14:49:32.802-05:00Contrasting Figures of Glory<p>Glory, as God, is revealed,</p><p>Yet remains shrouded:</p><p>Mysterious even for all its familiarity.</p><p>What does the word mean, anyway?</p><p>And can it once, twice, figured out, glimpséd be?</p><p><br /></p><p>Is it like what happens when you first arrive at a beach?</p><p>You step onto the scalding, bleached sand; feet bare,</p><p>("Is this holy ground?" your feet squeak)</p><p>You cannot stare--the orb of heaven's beams break</p><p>Upon the waters and dash into your eyes from the dunes</p><p>Dazzling them with impenetrable light.</p><p>Yet there is sight,</p><p>(and zounds! sounds, too)</p><p>Ocean waves, emerald and azure dejure, speak to you,</p><p>They whisper in harmonic tones, tomes;</p><p>Whishing their wishes for someone to hear,</p><p>Some one, like you, with ears and eyes and pores open.</p><p>The sky lengthens itself across the horizon,</p><p>Kissing the sea along its entire body,</p><p>As its clouds, pluming with loving pride, ascend,</p><p>Stretching their precipitous bulk toward the firmament.</p><p><br /></p><p>Or maybe glory is like a thunderstorm in the wild,</p><p>Where no man wishes to witness its violence unsheltered.</p><p>Spewing liquid bullets at the earth from high turrets,</p><p>(A million gatling guns going off--RA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!)</p><p>Zeus-flung fire bolts from the bow of heaven fall,</p><p>(Drums of thunder shock the air with their sound--BA-BOOM-BOOM-boom-boom)</p><p>Blasting the grasses and trees into oblivion,</p><p>Bringing forth fires to blow their foul breath,</p><p>Popping and hissing across the plains in the rain,</p><p>Leaving behind their black carnage, and scattered bones,</p><p>To be bleached in the sun's bright coroner light,</p><p>Testifying to the storm's death-dealing power,</p><p>From which, in time, new life shall, verdant, </p><p>Spring (copses from corpses).</p><p><br /></p><p>Twice figured glory, are you thus espied, touched, and sounded?</p><p>And in a story, sweetly fabled, moralized and founded?</p>Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-65303222290399964862021-05-02T20:25:00.001-05:002021-05-02T20:35:50.392-05:00Wherein Nietzsche Compliments Classical Students<blockquote>Nobody will very readily regard a doctrine as true merely because it makes people happy or virtuous—excepting, perhaps, the amiable "Idealists," who are enthusiastic about the good, true, and beautiful, and let all kinds of motley, coarse, and good-natured desirabilities swim about promiscuously in their pond. ~<i>Beyond Good & Evil</i>, "The Free Spirit," 39.</blockquote><p>Nietzsche further says happiness and virtue are no arguments (but he also says consequences are the only test of value--go figure), but that's less interesting to me than just what he says in this quotation. I <i>think</i> he is articulating that by letting "swim promiscuously in their pond," "all kinds of motley, coarse, and good-natured desirabilities," the "amiable 'Idealists' who are enthusiastic about the good, true, and beautiful" don't discriminate about the material sources of these values. They take in all kinds.</p><p>Classical students promote the search for the transcendentals (goodness, truth, beauty) wherever they might be strewn about. We are some of those "amiable idealists" (I'm going to keep that one). Our collection is often eclectic. We're happy to let ol' toadie Voltaire sit on his lily pad while electric eel Luther lurks in the depths below; provided that whatever hangs about possesses something true, good, or beautiful in some way, shape, or form.</p><p>Perhaps Nietzsche would consider such a pond too polluted for swimming in himself. The hoi polloi koi swimming in the murky waters might offend his arboreal kookaburra spirit. But then again, a pond full of various life forms tends to be the healthiest and most lively. There's even room for a loud-mouthed, territorial bird, when the right alarums need to be sounded.</p>Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-11569760681834450612020-02-21T09:38:00.000-06:002020-02-21T09:38:24.286-06:00A Fate Worse Than Death?In Plato's <i>Laws</i>, the punishment for husbands killing wives and vice versa is permanent exile from their homeland. Fratricide, Matricide, and Patricide receive the death penalty. From a modern vantage point it would seem that exile is the lesser sentence, but for those in the dialogue, it is much worse. Part of the reason is likely due to certain beliefs about the afterlife--that a murdered soul will continue to inhabit the land where he dies, and thus torment the soul of his murderer. Thus, an exile that dies outside of its homeland must wander not only in life but also in death--permanently separated from the soil from everything that mores his identity and purpose--homeland, people, ancestors, progeny.<br />
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In this observation the punishment of exile seems much closer to the Christian idea of eternal damnation--the torment of being forever exiled from the God who gives identity and purpose to all that He has made. To be exiled in the second death is indeed a fate worse than death itself. The immortal soul destined to wander without identity or purpose seems torment enough--to be left alone, entirely alone, knowing that you abandoned your only hope of restoration would be a torment akin to a lake of fire for the soul.Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-7461348506356679962019-11-16T07:11:00.001-06:002019-11-16T07:12:41.418-06:00How Do I Get My Student to Study Scripture and Practice Spiritual Disciplines? An Example ExerciseI started teaching a new class this year. I originally designed it for 7th graders, but I ended up needing to make it work for a combined class of 11th and 12th graders as well. Like almost all new courses, there are things that are going really well, and things that will need tweaking, or scrapping altogether.<br />
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One of the assignments I've been happiest with in theory, but which has proved a challenge to get students complete with consistency, is the weekly "theological meditations and digests." The idea is to have students begin forming regular habits of reading their Bible, using spiritual authorities to help them understand and gain insights from the passage, and practice a spiritual discipline. The students have a journal in which they copy the Scripture and a brief comment from two Church Fathers or theologians. In class we'll recite our daily prayers, I'll read the passage and comments, and then they'll spend a few minutes completing the "digest," which is their participation in, or a reflection upon their participation in, the spiritual discipline for the week. Part of the difficulty is that each class only meets twice a week, so consistency in practice is hard to achieve. Here's an example of the meditation and digest:<br />
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<span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-style: italic;">Days Fifteen and Sixteen
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<span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">James 3:13</span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">-</span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">18 </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">– </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Who </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-style: italic;">is </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">conduct </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">that </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">his works </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">are done </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">in the meekness of wisdom. </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: 800; vertical-align: 2pt;">14 </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">But if you have bitter envy </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">and self</span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">-</span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: 800; vertical-align: 2pt;">15 </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">This wisdom does </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">not descend from above, but </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">is </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">earthly, sensual, demonic. </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: 800; vertical-align: 2pt;">16 </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">For where envy and self</span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">- </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">seeking </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">exist, </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">confusion and every evil thing </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">are </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">there. </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: 800; vertical-align: 2pt;">17 </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">But the wisdom that is from above is </span><span style="font-family: hoeflertext; font-size: 12pt;">first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">partiality and without hypocrisy. </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: 800; vertical-align: 2pt;">18 </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12pt;">Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those </span><span style="font-family: hoeflertext; font-size: 12pt;">who make peace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Chrysostom comments:<br />
Let us cleanse the eyes of our souls of all filth. For just as filth and mud blind the eyes of the
flesh, so too worldly concerns and discussions about moneymaking can dull the hearing of
our minds more effectively than any filth, and not only corrupt them but do wicked things
as well. </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">(</span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Catena</span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">)
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Desiderius Erasmus comments:<br />
Human</span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">-</span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">made philosophy produces professors who are captious, obstinate, and ferocious.
But the more sincere, the more effective evangelical philosophy becomes, the less it is
marked by arrogance. Its special force is located not in syllogistic subtleties or rhetorical
trappings, but in sincerity of life and gentleness of character, which gives way to the
contentious, attracts the docile, and has no other object than the salvation of its hearers. It
is a heavenly wisdom. </span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">(</span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Paraphrase on James 3:13</span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">-</span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">18</span><span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">)
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><b>Digest</b>: The Discipline of Gratitude<br />
Reflect on the areas of your life where you complain the most. How can you be thankful for
these circumstances rather than complaining? Ask God to help you discover gratitude in
these areas where you tend to complain.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "hoeflertext"; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "hoeflertext";">I've had a few diligent students in the 7th grade who've kept up with their journals each week, but a number of them aren't careful enough to remember to take their journal home consistently and complete the copy work required. Part of the problem there, I suspect, is that some parents expect their student to be an independent worker, but haven't anticipated (or prepared their child for) the necessities of that responsibility. In my own home, I have a 7th grader, and while we've preached organization and discipline, he still forgets and is controlled more by his immediate appetites than the impetus of responsibilities. However, knowing this, I've made it a point to provide a routine he must follow so that he doesn't have the option to forget (as long as he doesn't leave his journal in his locker!). The older students have proven much more consistent in their diligence, but I haven't discovered whether the assignment is bearing the kind of fruit I'm hoping for--am I adding on to Bible reading/study that they already do? Do they recognize the value of consistently being in God's Word and in spiritual disciplines, or is it just busy work to their thinking?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "hoeflertext";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "hoeflertext";">One thing I can say, in preparing the weekly meditations and digests I've had to complete them myself, which has been good for me. In order to gather comments I've been using the <a href="https://www.ivpress.com/ancient-christian-commentary-on-scripture" target="_blank">Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture</a> and the <a href="https://www.ivpress.com/reformation-commentary-on-scripture-set" target="_blank">Reformation Commentary on Scripture</a>, which has been really enlightening, both in terms of illuminating the Scriptures and illuminating the sometimes similar, sometimes different concerns of the Church Fathers and Reformation theologians.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "hoeflertext";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "hoeflertext";">If any of you out there who happen to read this use something similar, or adopt what I've done and have your own reflections to offer, please share them in the comments.</span></div>
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<br />Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-62764408470331477712019-11-11T08:23:00.000-06:002019-11-11T08:23:09.532-06:00An Example of a Deliberative Exercise<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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The Assignment:</div>
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It is the Fourth Age of Men and King Eldarion, heir of
Aragorn and bearer of Andúril, has been dead for many years, and, having left
no heir, his sword was placed in a holy shrine dedicated to Eru Ilúvatar in the
citadel of the kings located in the city of Gondor. A sacred law was
established saying that none could take and wield the sword until he showed
great valor in saving the city. During the Great Battle of the 4<sup>th</sup>
age, orcs of Mardurgil attacked Gondor, breeching its walls and raiding its
citadel. As the raid was taking place, Barahir, the grandson of Faramir, sought
to defend the citadel. During his defense his sword was broken and he fled into
the shrine where Andúril was kept. He took the sword and rallied the men,
slaying Mardurgil and pushing the orcs out of the city. Once peace was secured
the elders called Barahir before the council to decide whether he should keep
the sword because he used it to save the city, or whether he is unworthy to
keep the sword because he took it before achieving any great valor.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Instructions: Write an essay in favor of or against the
claim of Barahir to the sword Andúril using the six-part essay format
(introduction, statement of facts, division, confirmation, refutation,
conclusion) and any available strategies from Hermogenes. Your statement of
facts should arrange the details of the event so as to highlight your
definition (Barahir’s actions meet the standard of “great valor”) or
counter-definition (Barahir’s actions do not meet the standard of “great
valor”). Feel free to ask questions.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
You wisest men of
Gondor, best fathers of us all, I bid you welcome to this assembly. Before you
stands Barahir, our timely hero, whose deeds of late are well known to you. I
need not remind you how he singlehandedly delivered our city from destruction.
You, yourselves know of his desperate charge from the citadel, with Andúril,
Flame of the West held aloft in his bloody hand, calling down the fiery dawn’s
first rays upon the foul orc horde. You have heard sung the testimony of his
beloved soldiers, how he reigned down Eru Illuvatar’s sacred fire upon
Mardurgil’s helm, cleaving it asunder as he cut a path down through the city to
her gates, rallying our men and casting out every last remnant of defiling orc
scum. I would that such words today commemorated the high honors already
bestowed upon Barahir by this great council. Instead, I am compelled to defend
his honor, besmirched by jealous accusers. Men who, instead of showering just
honors upon Barahir, have called him sacrilegious blasphemer, warmonger, and
vainglorious usurper. I come to answer these charges on behalf of Barahir and
to prove not only that he is no usurper, no warmonger, no blasphemer; but also
to show why he is worthy to possess Andúril and lead our city into its former
glory as in the days of Aragorn himself.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
You have heard the
words of his accusers, to which I will turn to in a moment. But before I
address their blasphemies, I wish to remind you of Barahir’s valorous blood; to
bring before your eyes the image of Faramir, his grandfather, in the very man
you see before you. I will then recount the deeds of Barahir in the battle for
Gondor’s Citadel, resting place of our kings, who from their sepulchers witnessed
valor not seen since the siege of Gondor at the end of the Third Age. I must
then say a word about the sacred law concerning Andúril, and what its framers
meant by enshrining it in sacred holiness. Then, if words remain necessary, I
will turn at last to the accusers claims.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Nobility, like the
finest vintage, does not emerge from tender shoots of newborn vines, but
stretches forth from generations in which deep roots have delved into the
earth, both to draw strength from the soil and to hold fast against the
fiercest elements. My fathers, Barahir’s valor draws its strength from
well-anchored roots as you well know. His blood flows from Boromir son of
Denethor, his great uncle, whose valor no man questions. This alone should
quell all doubts! Yet it is not Boromir’s blood that runs thickest through
Barahir’s veins, but his grandfather Faramir’s! It was not Boromir who resisted
the corruption of the Ring of Power, though he paid for his sin with a
sacrifice of blood. It was Faramir whose quality shown the brightest when
tempted by Sauron’s ring. Moreover, it was Faramir who counted not the scorn of
his father so great as to prevent him defending the last stronghold protecting
Gondor from Sauron’s army, led by the Witch King of Angmar! Steward of
stewards, was this Faramir—greatest servant of Aragorn Elf-Stone—and it is his
grandson Barahir who carries his noble blood into our presence today and
stewards our people through his shining quality.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Did not Barahir
lead our men in sorties against the hordes of Mardurgil when they besieged the
city before breeching our walls? Who was it that led the defense of the gates
until they broke before the enemy’s iron fist? Barahir bears the scars on his
right arm from where the shards of that gate embedded in his flesh as he cast
his last spear and swung his blade in mighty arcs when the battering ram
shattered our doors to pieces. It was Barahir who rallied the men into ranks,
some to defend the women and children and some to retreat with him to the
Citadel, where a last defense would be made. No man slew more orcs in that
endeavor than Barahir, though his arm gushed out his strength as a river. When
his sword shattered from hewing so much orc armor, he found himself at the
mouth of the sacred shrine of Eru Ilúvatar. Barahir, who had barely time to
take breath under the onslaught, breathed a prayer to Eru as he sped into the
shrine for Andúril. With a shout of defiance and hope he sprang from the sacred
room with all the might of our fallen kings clenched in his bloody fist, and
what a mighty blow did it wield, my fathers! I ask you, would such a sacred
sword as Andúril sing so lustily and so clearly for a valorless man? Would not
the sword have resisted under an unworthy hand? Could Eru Ilúvatar grant
victory—not just victory but victory of such glory and splendor that songs of
it will stretch into the Fifth age of men—would Eur give such to one whose
valor and nobility was dubious?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Our forefathers
who crafted the sacred law could not foresee the day or hour when Andúril would
be needed again. Instead they entrusted it to Eru Himself, with the explicit
acknowledgment that only the most valorous would be worth of Eru’s blessing to
take the sword up for having delivered Gondor from peril. Had they but known
that Gondor’s peril would be such as Barahir faced, they would have named him
destined heir to Andúril in their law! As it was, by enshrining the sword under
the sacred watch of the fallen Kings, before the face of Eru Ilúvatar, no mere
man, and certainly no base one, would have been granted the victory that
Barahir won by Andúril’s edge and Eru’s might. Did not the sword sense its
rightful place in the hand of Barahir? When his bloody fist gripped its hilt,
could not the sword feel the spirit of Faramir rushing into it from the pounding
of Barahir’s heart, burning with the mighty zeal of that Steward of old?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
And yet we hear
base men of little worth and excelling ambition hurl slanders at our True and
Faithful Steward. They say Barahir committed sacrilege and blasphemy by taking
the sword from its shrine without the blessing of this council. I ask you now,
my wise fathers, which of you, if you were standing with Barahir at the mouth
of the shrine would not have bid him take up the sword? Which of you, having
witnessed with your own eyes all that I have recounted, would not have thrown
yourselves upon Barahir’s knees and begged him to take up the mantle of the
Steward, fix Andúril in his fist, and mow down the enemies of Gondor like so
much dry stubble? Do you deem him unworthy of the sword as he stands before you
now, savior of the city? Then how could his acts of valor with Andúril
disqualify him from possessing the instrument of our salvation?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
These treacherous
men say that Barahir is a warmonger and usurper of Gondor’s throne. They accuse
him of inciting Mardurgil’s wrath so that he could steal Andúril and take the
throne. What madness! No man, no council of men, could orchestrate so elaborate
and spectacular a ruse. Barahir did not send the men of Gondor to the East to
scout the whereabouts of Mardurgil’s horde. Barahir did not put into that black
orc heart the lust for all mankind’s destruction. What fool could believe that
a man so given over to selfish lust would abandon his body to the perils at the
gate, as Barahir did? Who, but a self-righteous and envious dog could believe
that any man would carve up his body on the blades of his enemies, break his
own sword, and save but a remnant band of weary men to make a last charge against
the wrath of evil orcs—even with such a blade as Andúril—by design to usurp the
throne of a city already in flames?!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
I will waste no
more words; indeed one word at all is a waste for such slanders, yet in such
dark times as these even basest slanders gain a hearing, seeing that our eyes
lack the light of former glory. And yet, and yet, O my fathers, here before you
stands a ray of that light from our glorious past shining anew! See him stand
meek and strong to receive your judgment! He does not plead, or beg—his face is
all of peace. For he knows that his cause is just, and that no city is worth
his honor if it condemn the valor it has witnessed in him. Will you not honor
him? Will you go against the will of Eru Ilúvatar Himself, who gave Barahir the
victory and delivered Gondor from destruction? If you refuse him Andúril, you
cannot rob him of the valor he has already achieved, but you can rob yourselves
of the honor of your office. Add your voice to what the silent cries of our
fallen kings shout from the Citadel—the Citadel that still stands because of
Barahir—Andúril is yours, True Steward of Gondor! Andúril is yours, True
Steward of Gondor! Andúril is yours, True Steward of Gondor!</div>
Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-35725089001119257372019-03-05T13:02:00.001-06:002019-03-05T13:02:39.608-06:00A Superficial PoemShall I dwell upon the surface, or<br />
Dive into the depths? Doesn't it depend<br />
Upon the end, the object, the bend of will?<br />
I'm sitting on a surface, my feet upon a surface,<br />
My skin enfolded by surfaces. Each keeps<br />
Its own texture, density, mass, extension, tension,<br />
Opacity, load-bearing capacity, elasticity,<br />
Light sensitivity, composition, and dexterity.<br />
If I could align my eye parallel to these<br />
Planes, would their silent undulations not<br />
Reveal depths? Rolling folds, fissures,<br />
Depressions from long-standing pressures,<br />
Pressed upon their. . .surfaces? My own<br />
Surface cracks at the sinister-side of its cavern,<br />
Curling up cheek folds, closing up a window, to<br />
Keep out--ALL-TOO-SERIOUS--depths; dark,<br />
Shadowy burglars what steal away the best<br />
Superficialities.Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-60846831389920014912019-02-13T10:13:00.000-06:002019-02-13T10:13:13.866-06:00On Plato's Seventh EpistleOccasionally I read something that returns my mind to former days of study, when leisure came at a lower cost and the energy behind youthful visions of grandeur still spurred me on to (vain?) inquiries. Today I read <a href="https://theopolisinstitute.com/leithart/mythic-philosophy" target="_blank">an article by Peter Leithart</a> that summarized some general <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Lord-Your-God-Reflections-Commandments-ebook/dp/B003O6A25K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549477162&sr=8-1&keywords=seitz+lord+your+god%20tag=leithartcom-20" target="_blank">observations of David Bentley Hart</a> about the sacrificial aspects of ancient metaphysics. The following quotation prompted a memory of Plato's <i>Seventh Epistle</i>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Philosopher may have pretended to put all that behind them, but Hart doesn’t think so: “from the time of the pre-Socratics, all the great speculative and moral systems of the pagan world were in varying degrees confined to this totality, to either its innermost mechanisms or outermost boundaries. . . . none could conceive of reality except as a kind of strife between order and disorder, within which a sacrificial economy held all the forces in tension” (63).
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>
Platonism’s “inexterable dualism” of change and stasis, its “equation of truth with eidetic abstraction” treated the world as “the realm of fallen vision, separated by a great chorismos from the realm immutable reality” (63)</b>. Aristotle’s “dialectic of act and potency [is] . . . inseparatble from decay and death” and his “scale of essences” reflected the cosmic determinism of the myths, in which “all things – especially various lcasses of persons – are assigned their places in the natural and social order” (63).
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In Neoplatonism, the task of philosophy is “escape” from everything that is not the One – “all multiplicity, change, particularity, every feature of the living world.” Truth “is oblivion of the flesh, a pure nothingness, to attain which one must sacrifice the world” (64).
</blockquote>
The bolded remark prompted my memory, for in <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/seventh_letter.html" target="_blank">Plato's <i>Seventh Epistle</i></a> he exposits, in brief, what is required of those who would be philosophers over and against those who only pretend. His description reveals some kinship with Hart's observation:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
For everything that exists there are three instruments by which the knowledge of it is necessarily imparted; fourth, there is the knowledge itself, and, as fifth, we must count the thing itself which is known and truly exists. The first is the name, the, second the definition, the third. the image, and the fourth the knowledge. If you wish to learn what I mean, take these in the case of one instance, and so understand them in the case of all. A circle is a thing spoken of, and its name is that very word which we have just uttered. The second thing belonging to it is its definition, made up names and verbal forms. For that which has the name "round," "annular," or, "circle," might be defined as that which has the distance from its circumference to its centre everywhere equal. Third, comes that which is drawn and rubbed out again, or turned on a lathe and broken up-none of which things can happen to the circle itself-to which the other things, mentioned have reference; for it is something of a different order from them. Fourth, comes knowledge, intelligence and right opinion about these things. Under this one head we must group everything which has its existence, not in words nor in bodily shapes, but in souls-from which it is dear that it is something different from the nature of the circle itself and from the three things mentioned before. Of these things intelligence comes closest in kinship and likeness to the fifth, and <b>the others are farther distant</b>. </blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The same applies to straight as well as to circular form, to colours, to the good, the, beautiful, the just, to all bodies whether manufactured or coming into being in the course of nature, to fire, water, and all such things, to every living being, to character in souls, and to all things done and suffered. For in the case of all these, no one, if he has not some how or other got hold of the four things first mentioned, can ever be completely a partaker of knowledge of the fifth. Further, <b>on account of the weakness of language, these (i.e., the four) attempt to show what each thing is like, not less than what each thing is.</b> For this reason no man of intelligence will venture to express his philosophical views in language, especially not in language that is unchangeable, which is true of that which is set down in written characters. </blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Again you must learn the point which comes next. <b>Every circle, of those which are by the act of man drawn or even turned on a lathe, is full of that which is opposite to the fifth thing</b>. For everywhere it has contact with the straight. But the circle itself, we say, has nothing in either smaller or greater, of that which is its opposite. We say also that the name is not a thing of permanence for any of them, and that nothing prevents the things now called round from being called straight, and the straight things round; <b>for those who make changes and call things by opposite names, nothing will be less permanent (than a name)</b>. Again with regard to the definition, if it is made up of names and verbal forms, the same remark holds that <b>there is no sufficiently durable permanence in it.</b> And there is no end to the instances of the ambiguity from which each of the four suffers; but the greatest of them is that which we mentioned a little earlier, that, whereas there are two things, that which has real being, and that which is only a quality, when the soul is seeking to know, not the quality, but the essence, each of the four, presenting to the soul by word and in act that which it is not seeking (i.e., the quality), a thing open to refutation by the senses, being merely the thing presented to the soul <b>in each particular case whether by statement or the act of showing, fills, one may say, every man with puzzlement and perplexity. </b></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Now in subjects in which, by reason of our defective education, we have not been accustomed even to search for the truth, but are satisfied with whatever images are presented to us, we are not held up to ridicule by one another, the questioned by questioners, who can pull to pieces and criticise the four things. But in subjects where we try to compel a man to give a clear answer about the fifth, any one of those who are capable of overthrowing an antagonist gets the better of us, and makes the man, who gives an exposition in speech or writing or in replies to questions, appear to most of his hearers to know nothing of the things on which he is attempting to write or speak; for they are sometimes not aware that <b>it is not the mind of the writer or speaker which is proved to be at fault, but the defective nature of each of the four instruments</b>. The process however of dealing with all of these, as the mind moves up and down to each in turn, does <b>after much effort give birth in a well-constituted mind to knowledge of that which is well constituted</b>. But if a man is ill-constituted by nature (as the state of the soul is naturally in the majority both in its capacity for learning and in what is called moral character)-or it may have become so by deterioration-not even Lynceus could endow such men with the power of sight. </blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In one word, the man who has no natural kinship with this matter cannot be made akin to it by quickness of learning or memory; for it cannot be engendered at all in natures which are foreign to it. Therefore, if men are not by nature kinship allied to justice and all other things that are honourable, though they may be good at learning and remembering other knowledge of various kinds-or if they have the kinship but are slow learners and have no memory-none of all these will ever learn to the full the truth about virtue and vice. For both must be learnt together; and together also must be learnt, by complete and long continued study, as I said at the beginning, the true and the false about all that has real being. <b><i>After much effort, as names, definitions, sights, and other data of sense, are brought into contact and friction one with another, in the course of scrutiny and kindly testing by men who proceed by question and answer without ill will, with a sudden flash there shines forth understanding about every problem, and an intelligence whose efforts reach the furthest limits of human powers</i></b>. Therefore every man of worth, when dealing with matters of worth, will be far from exposing them to ill feeling and misunderstanding among men by committing them to writing. In one word, then, it may be known from this that, if one sees written treatises composed by anyone, either the laws of a lawgiver, or in any other form whatever, these are not for that man the things of most worth, if he is a man of worth, but that his treasures are laid up in the fairest spot that he possesses. But if these things were worked at by him as things of real worth, and committed to writing, then surely, not gods, but men "have themselves bereft him of his wits." </blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Anyone who has followed this discourse and digression will know well that, if Dionysios or anyone else, great or small, has written a treatise on the highest matters and the first principles of things, he has, so I say, neither heard nor learnt any sound teaching about the subject of his treatise; otherwise, he would have had the same reverence for it, which I have, and would have shrunk from putting it forth into a world of discord and uncomeliness. For he wrote it, not as an aid to memory-since there is no risk of forgetting it, if a man's soul has once laid hold of it; for it is expressed in the shortest of statements-but if he wrote it at all, it was from a mean craving for honour, either putting it forth as his own invention, or to figure as a man possessed of culture, of which he was not worthy, if his heart was set on the credit of possessing it.</blockquote>
The whole section provides the context for the bolded portions, which show Plato's struggle to reach permanence (knowledge) whilst using the tools of change (names, verbal definitions, images). What must be sacrificed is also telling, and the passage immediately prior to his exposition of the method makes it clear (though the end of the passage above also indicates the sacrifice):<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
On my arrival, I thought that first I must put to the test the question whether Dionysios had really been kindled with the fire of philosophy, or whether all the reports which had come to Athens were empty rumours. Now there is a way of putting such things to the test which is not to be despised and is well suited to monarchs, especially to those who have got their heads full of erroneous teaching, which immediately my arrival I found to be very much the case with Dionysios. One should show such men what philosophy is in all its extent; what their range of studies is by which it is approached, and how much labour it involves. <b>For the man who has heard this, if he has the true philosophic spirit and that godlike temperament which makes him a kin to philosophy and worthy of it, thinks that he has been told of a marvellous road lying before him, that he must forthwith press on with all his strength, and that life is not worth living if he does anything else.</b> After this he uses to the full his own powers and those of his guide in the path, and relaxes not his efforts, till he has either reached the end of the whole course of study or gained such power that he is not incapable of directing his steps without the aid of a guide. This is the spirit and these are the thoughts by which such a man guides his life, carrying out his work, whatever his occupation may be, but throughout it all <b>ever cleaving to philosophy and to such rules of diet in his daily life as will give him inward sobriety and therewith quickness in learning, a good memory, and reasoning power; the kind of life which is opposed to this he consistently hates.</b> Those who have not the true philosophic temper, but a mere surface colouring of opinions penetrating, like sunburn, only skin deep, when they see how great the range of studies is, how much labour is involved in it, and how necessary to the pursuit it is to have an orderly regulation of the daily life, come to the conclusion that the thing is difficult and impossible for them, and are actually incapable of carrying out the course of study; while some of them persuade themselves that they have sufficiently studied the whole matter and have no need of any further effort. This is the sure test and is the safest one to apply to those who live in luxury and are incapable of continuous effort; it ensures that such a man shall not throw the blame upon his teacher but on himself, because he cannot bring to the pursuit all the qualities necessary to it. Thus it came about that I said to Dionysios what I did say on that occasion. </blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
I did not, however, give a complete exposition, nor did Dionysios ask for one. For he professed to know many, and those the most important, points, and to have a sufficient hold of them through instruction given by others. I hear also that he has since written about what he heard from me, composing what professes to be his own handbook, very different, so he says, from the doctrines which he heard from me; but of its contents I know nothing; I know indeed that others have written on the same subjects; but who they are, is more than they know themselves. Thus much at least, I can say about all writers, past or future, who say they know the things to which I devote myself, whether by hearing the teaching of me or of others, or by their own discoveries-that according to my view it is not possible for them to have any real skill in the matter. There neither is nor ever will be a treatise of mine on the subject. <b>For it does not admit of exposition like other branches of knowledge; but after much converse about the matter itself and a life lived together, suddenly a light, as it were, is kindled in one soul by a flame that leaps to it from another, and thereafter sustains itself.</b> Yet this much I know-that if the things were written or put into words, it would be done best by me, and that, if they were written badly, I should be the person most pained. <b>Again, if they had appeared to me to admit adequately of writing and exposition, what task in life could I have performed nobler than this, to write what is of great service to mankind and to bring the nature of things into the light for all to see? But I do not think it a good thing for men that there should be a disquisition, as it is called, on this topic-except for some few, who are able with a little teaching to find it out for themselves</b>. As for the rest, it would fill some of them quite illogically with a mistaken feeling of contempt, and others with lofty and vain-glorious expectations, as though they had learnt something high and mighty.</blockquote>
<br />
The philosopher must sacrifice the body, the pleasures of common life, and the acceptance of and converse with larger society (though he main gain society amongst his fellow philosophers). One might even say, to the extent that Plato's <i>Republic</i> represents anything close to an ideal, that the philosopher must sacrifice the freedom of individual wills to the pursuit of permanence and of ordering the soul in accordance with its dictates.Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-67085030970557027762018-09-27T09:49:00.000-05:002018-09-27T09:49:26.032-05:00On Love PoemsOn Love Poems: a Sonnet<br />
<br />
Twin turns converge upon a sunswept glade,<br />
And along each a traveler ascends.<br />
With each faint footfall images cascade;<br />
Hand clasp, and coy glance, and soft summer winds.<br />
As when fruits on boughs swell with sweet liquor,<br />
So each heart's pregnant anticipation<br />
Swells to the venules with love's sweet ichor,<br />
Pressing their pace with each palpitation.<br />
As idyll for lovers long since parted,<br />
Or lyric where lonely desires arise,<br />
So too these twin turns converge where started,<br />
In each lover's heartsick sigh's last reprise:<br />
Fancy's false edge can ne'er cut through whetting,<br />
Nor bloodless words join lovers, through letting.Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-7189721638806429522018-03-03T14:13:00.000-06:002018-03-03T14:13:26.146-06:00Theological Virtues in C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity
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A Summary of C.S.
Lewis’s perspective on the Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, Love) in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mere Christianity</i> (Book II, chapters
9-12)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Lewis begins his
discussion of Charity with reference to his chapter on Forgiveness, which he
calls “a part of Charity” (129). He notes that while man consider charity as
“alms,” the giving of money to the poor constitutes only part of Charity. The
central quality of Charity Lewis calls, “’Love, in the Christian sense,’” which
characterizes a state of the will rather than of the emotions. What we like or
do not like are not Charity (though they may aid or detract from Charity).
Charity desires the good or happiness of others as much as one’s own, and it
must be cultivated through habitual actions that put others first, whether or
not one feels like doing so. Loving, like hating, increases itself—the more one
does acts of love, the more one finds he does love the object of his loving
action; and the more one does acts of hate, the more one finds he does hate
object of his hating action. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Lewis defines hope
as, “a continual looking forward to the eternal world,” remarking that, perhaps
paradoxically, such thinking makes men far more useful in the present world
(134). He cites history for examples that show that the most heavenly-minded
Christians did the most worldly good. The principle runs this way: “Aim at
Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get
neither” (134). Lewis then anticipates his famous “argument from desire,” by
observing how often people have desires beyond what any earthy goods can
satisfy. He says there are three possible responses to such desires: 1) The
Fool’s Way, 2) The Way of the Disillusioned ‘Sensible Man,’ and 3) The
Christian Way. The Fool’s way blames the earthly goods for his dissatisfaction
and spends all of his energy moving from one pleasure to the next, always
seeking after what nothing he seeks can provide. The Sensible Man’s way denies
the longing as false and tries to find contentment in the lesser pleasures
earth provides. Whereas the Fool runs up a lengthy account of disappointments,
the Sensible Man avoids small disappointments, but still misses out on the true
satisfaction Reality affords. The Christian way believes it is man’s nature to
desire things beyond this world because he was made for another—the natural
desire for otherworldly pleasure is evidence of the reality beyond this life.
All of the Scriptural imagery for heaven constitute earthly expressions for the
inexpressible treasures of Heaven: music indicates the ecstasy and infinity of
Heaven; crows, our share of God’s splendor, power, and joy in Heaven; gold, the
timelessness and preciousness of Heaven.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Lewis devotes two
chapters to Faith, since there are two senses of the word. The first involves
belief, or acceptance of the truth of the doctrines of Christianity. The nature
of this acceptance constitutes virtue, because it clings to the truth against
the sense, emotions, and moods that make unbelief easier or more comfortable. A
man may “have faith” in a surgeon’s skill, yet feel afraid when he must go
under the knife. His faith shows itself strong when he chooses to quiet his
fear in response to his reason’s acceptance of the truth. Faith then, like
Charity, requires habituation—a continual effort at overcoming emotions and
moods to the contrary. The second kind of Faith pertains to this habituation,
since the revelation of faith, or the strengthening of faith, requires that one
battle against temptation. Giving in to temptation does show temptation’s
strength, but only through resistance does one test the strength of temptation.
Since Jesus alone resisted all temptation, he alone knows temptation’s full
strength, and it is only in striving to overcome temptation that we discover
that God alone possesses the power to resist, and that He freely provides that
power to those who seek it. One cannot know how much one needs faith until one
tries to be good and fails, and one only understands how much one’s good
depends upon God when one’s failure leads one to confess one’s utter dependence
upon God for faith and works. In short, one cannot possess great faith without
exhibiting great moral effort, yet one cannot achieve great moral effort
without the help of God received by faith.</div>
Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-91764281945882228892018-02-13T11:40:00.001-06:002018-02-13T11:40:34.627-06:00Winter SonnetUpon the wastes of field and fen I plod,<br />
And seek one lost, my love, whose body lies<br />
Somewhere between the seafoam and the sod,<br />
Betwixt the grassland greens and azure skies.<br />
Your name I name with cries that sighing blow<br />
Upon cold breezes carrion birds now fly;<br />
Black wings and clouds descending with the snow<br />
To cloak in palest shrouds, for hopes to die.<br />
Ice falls and rests on limbs that lowly sway,<br />
As tears from lookers on in canopies<br />
Collect on shoulders plumed with winged splay,<br />
As if to share the burden of my cries.<br />
If winter ends in death and dirge's plaint,<br />
Yet spring must resurrect my fallen saint.Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-27050923210941812972018-01-29T11:45:00.000-06:002018-01-29T11:45:24.256-06:00Athanasius's On the Incarnation, IVWelcome to the fourth post in the series on Athanasius's <i>On the Incarnation</i>. <a href="http://anotherreadersreview.blogspot.com/2018/01/athanasiuss-on-incarnation-i.html" target="_blank">The first post</a> discussed some of the historical context surrounding Athanasius's work. <a href="https://anotherreadersreview.blogspot.com/2018/01/athanasiuss-on-incarnation-ii.html" target="_blank">The second post</a> discussed the context of <i>On the Incarnation</i> in Athanasius's three-fold portrait (or trilogy) of human salvation. <a href="http://anotherreadersreview.blogspot.com/2018/01/athanasiuss-on-incarnation-iii.html" target="_blank">The third post</a> looked at Chapter 1, the first five sections of <i>On the Incarnation</i>.<br />
<br />
The fourth post will begin covering the text of Chapter 2 of <i>On the Incarnation</i>. The <i>Christian Classics Ethereal Library </i><a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/athanasius/incarnation.pdf" target="_blank">version of the text</a> is easily accessible, so I'll be using that text for this series of posts. I welcome those interested in an alternative translation and arrangement to seek out <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Incarnation-Saint-Athanasius-Popular-Patristics/dp/0881414271/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516140575&sr=8-1&keywords=on+the+incarnation+by+st.+athanasius" target="_blank">John Behr's translation</a>, published by St. Vladimir's Seminary Press.<br />
<br />
I'll summarize each section followed by <i>commentary in italics</i>.<br />
<br />
II.6 Athanasius lays out the first half of the first divine dilemma, that God should leave man subject to death and corruption. He says that ignoring man's plight is unworthy of the goodness of God, since it would result in man being brought to nothing, bringing God's purposes to naught. It would be better that man had not been made than to be made in the image of God only to be lost to corruption.<br />
<br />
II.7 Then comes the second half of the first divine dilemma, that God should go back on His word concerning the just penalty for man's transgression. He could not relent of His sentence, but neither could repentance suffice, since, though repentance removes the action of sin from the soul, it does not remove the corruption that inheres. Repentance does not restore the incorruption. Only by having the Word, who made all from nothing, suffer in the place of man, could man be remade in the incorruptible image which he had forsaken.<br />
<br />
<i>The first two sections present the first dilemma, regarding the plight of man in death and corruption. God, being good, cannot allow what He has made for Himself to be brought to nothing, but God, being just, cannot allow His word to be broken. Thus, in order to fulfill His word as well as His purposes for creation, the Word through which all was made must enter into creation's corruption, satisfying the just penalty in such a way as to bring the corruption through death and into incorruption. The precise way remains to be discussed, but here Athanasius has presented the problem and its only solution.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
II.8 The Word of God fills all things that He has made, yet in the Incarnation He enters into creation in a new and unprecedented way, revealing Himself personally through the thing He has made. For what reason? His pity and compassion for man's plight led him to take up a human body, a human nature--not the appearance of a body and nature, but a body such as our own--using a "spotless, stainless virgin, without agency of human father," that is, not made though intercourse and transmission of sin. Yet he took on a body subject to corruption and carried it into death as a substitute for all; offering it to the Father. His death for all abolished death's power over all, and through resurrection He procured the incorruptible life for all. <i>The great exchange of the Word's flesh for human flesh results from God's compassion for man. He is willing to enter into the lowly flesh, and take it through the penalty for sin, death and corruption, that death might be swallowed up in God's own incorruptible life, resulting in life incorruptible for all men.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
II.9 The exchange of the Incarnate Word's life for man's life is sufficient because of the value of the divine life united in the body. The exchange of the Incarnate Word's life for man's life is complete because the incorruption of the divine life ensures that the body cannot remain in death, but must enter into new life in resurrection. Man possesses solidarity in their common nature, which the Word entered into when He took up flesh, and through the flesh He took up influenced all men by that same commonality of nature. Athanasius compares this to a King who takes up his dwelling in a city, simultaneously ennobling it and preventing it from molestation from evildoers. <i>The analogy of the King's taking up residence in the city must have resonated with Athanasius's audience, not only for its truth, but perhaps even more in contrast to failed kingships that promised the same, yet could not deliver. The affirmation of man's common nature here is striking, since, as yet, Athanasius makes no distinctions between men who appropriate the life of Christ and those who remain in their corruption in Adam. Rather, the exchange apparently affirms the universality of the Incarnate Word's work throughout Creation. Whereas before death reigned in power, now the power of death is swallowed up in life. Whereas before there was only darkness, now the whole earth is swathed in the light of the Son. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
II.10 Again Athanasius highlights the goodness of God as the source of salvation, and he uses the analogy of kingship. The king who founds a city protects rather than neglects it; much more then shall God protect the race of men who are His own. He cites Scripture to show his fidelity to God's Word on the matter and to reinforce the Incarnation as the only proper solution to the problem of death and corruption: the sacrifice of the Word's own body put an end to death and made a new way into life through the resurrection. The divine dilemma regarding death and corruption is solved! <i>Here Athanasius closes his argument with appropriate proofs from Scripture indicating what he has heretofore claimed; that the Word must become man in order to bring man out of death and into life. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Having resolved the first divine dilemma, the next chapter will see Athanasius solving the second, which regards the loss of knowledge due to man's transgression.Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-31457836007503182572018-01-18T15:30:00.000-06:002018-01-18T15:30:57.988-06:00Athanasius's On the Incarnation IIIWelcome to the third post in the series on Athanasius's <i>On the Incarnation</i>. <a href="http://anotherreadersreview.blogspot.com/2018/01/athanasiuss-on-incarnation-i.html" target="_blank">The first post</a> discussed some of the historical context surrounding Athanasius's work. <a href="https://anotherreadersreview.blogspot.com/2018/01/athanasiuss-on-incarnation-ii.html" target="_blank">The second post</a> discussed the context of <i>On the Incarnation</i> in Athanasius's three-fold portrait (or trilogy) of human salvation.<br />
<br />
The third post will begin covering the text of <i>On the Incarnation</i>. The <i>Christian Classics Ethereal Library </i><a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/athanasius/incarnation.pdf" target="_blank">version of the text</a> is easily accessible, so I'll be using that text for this series of posts. I welcome those interested in an alternative translation and arrangement to seek out <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Incarnation-Saint-Athanasius-Popular-Patristics/dp/0881414271/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516140575&sr=8-1&keywords=on+the+incarnation+by+st.+athanasius" target="_blank">John Behr's translation</a>, published by St. Vladimir's Seminary Press.<br />
<br />
I'll summarize each section followed by <i>commentary in italics</i>.<br />
<br />
1.1 Athanasius refers to his first treatise, <i>Contra Gentes</i>, and summarizes his main points against idolatry and for the divinity of the "Word of the Father." He then articulates his plan for the present work, which is to treat the Incarnation of the Word. He states that the sole cause of the Son of God's taking on human flesh is twofold: the love of humankind and the goodness of the Father. Moreover, it is only fitting that the Word of the Father by which the world was made should be the same agent for the salvation of the world. <i>Already in the introduction Athanasius places an antithesis between the wisdom of God and the religion of the Jews and of the Gentiles. That which the Jews reject and the Greeks mock God shows to be fitting and good. The paradoxical nature of God's revelation of Himself to man (what man considers impossible, God shows possible, etc.) arises from man's flight from knowledge and being rather than from the nature of things as God has made them.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
1.2 Athanasius refutes three false views of Creation: Epicurean, Platonic, and Gnostic. The Epicureans deny any Mind to order the universe, but assert that all things are self-originated by chance. If no Mind exists to distinguish one thing from another, then the universe would bear no distinctions, but would be a mass of uniformity. The universe has distinction, therefore a Mind lies behind it, and that mind is God. The Platonists believe matter is pre-existent and that God makes the world from this uncreated material. If matter is uncreated, then God is limited in what He can do by the nature of the matter, thus making God subject to something other than Himself, and only a craftsman rather than Creator. God is not subject to any other than Himself, thus He created from nothing (rather than formed from what was already there) the matter from which things are made. Gnostics believe an Artificer other than God the Father created all things. Yet Scripture clearly declares (in places like Matt. 19:4-6 and John 1:3) that the Father creates and nothing is, but that which God created. <i>Athanasisus's refutations are directed against two heathen views and one heretical view. The heathen views (Epicureans and Platonists) he refutes through reason: discerning the necessity of a rational first cause for rationally organized things (Epicurean view), and the aseity of God, that is, God independence of anything not Himself (Platonic view). The Gnostics represent heresy, since Athanasius reasons from Scripture rather than reason to refute their error.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
1.3. Athanasius provides a true account of Creation. God, the infinite, created finite things out of nothing (non-existence) through the agency of the Word, as Genesis, <i>The Shepherd of Hermas</i>, and Hebrews<i> </i>declare. God created out of His own goodness; a goodness which did not begrudge the good of existence to non-existent things. Man, God made in His own image, reasonable as God is reasonable, yet in limited degree. Reason gave to man choice of will (to follow or forsake God), which God tested by placing man in paradise (place) with a prohibition (law). Forsaking obedience and immortality man chose disobedience and death--a remaining state of death and corruption. <i>Here Athanasius succinctly serves the orthodox Christian doctrine of Creation and the Fall. Of special note is Athanasius's emphasis on God reason for creating--not His love (though that is true as well), but His goodness. Aristotle considered magnanimity (greatness of soul) to be the crowning virtue of man, and whether or not Athanasius is playing upon this Greek idea, the connection seems suitable. The greatness of God's goodness leads Him to create, that His goodness might be made manifest in and to the things which He makes. Also notable is man's likeness to God--man possesses a share in the being of God through his rational/volitional mind, though his creatureliness limits man's expression of this divine quality. Finally, Athanasius sets up the problem which will result in two divine dilemmas--man's sin has plunged him into death, not just the act of dying, but the state of death and corruption that characterizes even his life in the body.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
1.4 Athanasius explains that Creation must be discussed since man's loss of his original state is the cause of the Incarnation of the Word--the love of God caused Him to take up human form for the salvation of man into His initial purpose--uninterrupted, incorruptible communion with God. Man did not remain in the state of Adam's corruption simply, but progressed into greater corruption, which is a return to his original state of non-existence. Not only did man give up the life of God, descending back toward nothingness, but also the knowledge of God by which he participates in communion with, in life with, God. This is what evil is--(the return to) non-being. Only through contemplation of God does man preserve his likeness to God--the turning away from God is both metaphysical (being to non-being) and epistemological (knowledge to ignorance). Athanasius infers this from <i>The Wisdom of Solomon</i> 6:18, "The keeping of His laws is the assurance of incorruption." <i>Athanasius moves from establishing the context of the divine dilemma to providing some definition to the reality of death and its effects upon man. Note especially the intimate relation between being and knowledge. Athanasius appears to place emphasis on knowing as the means to being, indeed, as the foundation of being--to remain in God one must contemplate Him, and so the turning away from the knowledge of God is a divestiture of the life man possesses in God alone. Surely the notion of idolatry undergirds this expression, since in man's giving himself to material things, to idols, he loses his contact with divinity. Note as well the intimacy between knowledge and obedience--contemplation of God includes the meditation upon and keeping of His law.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
1.5 Athanasius elaborates on man in his state of innocence--subject to corruption, but shielded by his union with the Word--from which he fell due to the work of Satan and his own choice. From this point of departure Athanasius narrates the decline of man into greater corruption. He finishes by quoting Paul's same litany of corruption in Romans 1. <i>The most significant addition in this section comes from Athanasius's acknowledgment that man depended upon "the grace of their union with the Word" of God in order to remain incorrupt--even in paradise--since man's nature was subject to corruption. Also significant is man's insatiable lust for corruption after the Fall. Athanasius makes apparent man's incapacity to curtail his appetite for evil left to himself.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
That wraps up Chapter 1: Creation and the Fall. The next post will examine Chapter 2: The Divine Dilemma and its Solution in the Incarnation.Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-37004565922628564432018-01-16T13:06:00.001-06:002018-01-16T13:06:48.124-06:00Athanasius's On the Incarnation IIWelcome to the second post in the series on Athanasius's <i>On the Incarnation</i>. <a href="http://anotherreadersreview.blogspot.com/2018/01/athanasiuss-on-incarnation-i.html" target="_blank">The first post</a> discussed some of the historical context surrounding Athanasius's work. In this second post, I'll briefly set <i>On the Incarnation</i> in its place within Athanasisus's trilogy on human salvation. I'm drawing mainly from John Behr's introduction to the St. Vladimir's Seminary Press edition of <i>On the Incarnation</i>.<br />
<br />
It is undisputed that <i>On the Incarnation</i> is the continuation of Athanasius's earlier treatise <i>Contra Gentes</i> (Against the Heathen). Athanasius refers to this work in the preface of <i>On the Incarnation</i>. In <i>Contra Gentes</i> Athanasius sets out to refute idolatry, the overwhelming religious competitor of his day, and demonstrate the reasonableness of the Christian faith. Having done this, <i>On the Incarnation</i> sets out to show how God solves the problem of death, on the one hand, and the problem of human ignorance of God, on the other. The incarnation of God dissolves two divine dilemmas:<br />
<br />
The Divine Dilemma of Death: since through sin death has entered the world and laid claim to man,<br />
1. Either God must abandon man to death, showing Himself weak or uncaring for His creation,<br />
2. Or God must disregard His own law, which was that disobedience of the creature would result in death and ongoing corruption.<br />
<br />
The Divine Dilemma of Knowledge: since through sin man has turned away from the divine to materials things and lost the knowledge of God,<br />
1. Either God must abandon man to ignorance, showing Himself weak of uncaring for His creation,<br />
2. Or God must reveal himself through the material things to which man has turned, thus breaking His law against idolatry.<br />
<br />
The incarnation dissolves both dilemmas, since the God-man's entrance into death fulfills the demands of death such that all humanity may escape; and through his coming as God-man men come to know him as a true man, yet through his divine works that he draws men's mind back to what is truly Divine.<br />
<br />
Thus, the two works represent Athanasius's defeat of the idolatry that stands opposed to the Gospel and his articulation of salvation proclaimed by the Gospel.<br />
<br />
So what forms the third work, and what is its place in relation to the two? Behr makes the point that Athanasius's <i>Life of Antony</i>, the biographical sketch of the desert ascetic, demonstrates the effects of the work of the incarnation articulated in <i>On the Incarnation </i>in the life of the Church through the life of Antony as a model for imitation. Throughout <i>Life of Antony</i> Athanasius shows that all of Antony's efforts--his renunciation of material goods, his seeking battle with demonic powers in the isolated realms where they dwell, his struggles against the temptations of the flesh, the world, and Satan (or lusts of the eyes, lusts of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life)--are made successful through the work of Christ in Antony. In particular, it is through Christ's conquest of death and corruption in the flesh that has made it possible for men to overcome the corruption of the flesh until death brings them into new life. The general movement of <i>Life of Antony</i> goes from intense solitary preparation for Antony to an outpouring of the fruits of the Spirit's work in his life in the lives of those who come to visit him. Moreover, through the intense suffering of affliction at the hands of Satan and his demons, Antony comes through with greater health and mastery over his body--and all of this Antony attributes to the power of Christ.<br />
<br />
Thus, <i>Contra Gentes</i> demonstrates the vanity of idolatry, <i>On the Incarnation</i> demonstrates the hope of humanity, and <i>Life of Antony</i> demonstrates the faith upon which the Church progresses toward the culmination of the eschaton.<br />
<br />
In the next post we'll look at Chapter 1 of <i>On the Incarnation</i>.Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-66918636337679532742018-01-16T12:33:00.001-06:002018-01-16T12:33:11.570-06:00Athanasius's On the Incarnation IAfter a few months of inactivity, I'm ready to jump back in with a writing project. I'd like to attempt blogging through Athanasius's, <i>On the Incarnation</i>, while I am teaching it to my eighth grade class. I'll begin with a post discussing the historical situation in which the book was written, and then a second post will place <i>On the Incarnation</i> within the corpus of Athanasius's writings. Subsequent posts will deal with each chapter of the work.<br />
<br />
Just for classroom context, I've spent the first half of the year walking my students through the New Testament and the Early Church, using the Bible; Eusebius's, <i>Church History</i>; and several other primary texts. The main topics included how the Gospels and Acts write history and presents the person of Jesus; how Eusebius writes history and presents the narrative of the Church from a relatively peaceful obscurity through persecution and into an ascendant peace with Constantine. That brings us to Athanasius, whose book, <i>On the Incarnation</i>, both presents the orthodox understanding of salvation as well as the orthodox view of the Son of God in contradistinction to Arius. In order to prepare the students for the doctrinal context of the book, we discussed the Arian controversy as it played out between the first two ecumenical councils. We did this relying upon David Bentley Hart's chapter from, <i>The Story of Christianity</i>, entitled, "One God in Three Persons: The Earliest Church Councils." What follows is a summary of Hart's discussion.<br />
<br />
Although the Edict of Milan brought an end to official persecution of Christians, it opened the opportunity for Christians to discuss their own understanding of Jesus Christ, in particular, His relationship to God the Father and to the Holy Spirit. There are three groups of Christians, other than the orthodox, Hart mentions as vying for their understanding of the Son's identity:<br />
<br />
1. "Modalists" held that there is only One God who manifests at different times as "Father," "Son," or "Holy Spirit;" these being "modes" of the One God's singularity.<br />
<br />
2. "Adoptionists" held that Christ had been a man who had been "adopted" into divine Sonship by the Father.<br />
<br />
3. "Subordinationists" held that the Father alone is God in the fullest sense, the Son being a lesser expression of God, and the Spirit being a lesser expression of the Son.<br />
<br />
Subordinationists were particularly concentrated in Alexandria, in part, perhaps, due to the fact that Jews and Pagans also held subordinationist views of God. Philo argued that the Logos, "Son of God," through whom the world was created, served as an intermediary between God and the world. Platonists held that the ultimate divine principle (the One) was so utterly transcendent of the world that all other things exist only through an order of lesser, derivative divine principles. Origen of Alexandria was the most influential early Christian thinker of his day, and his thought, though distinct from these Jewish and Platonist views, nevertheless shared some assumptions about the idea of transcendence and mediation; and he was a subordinationist.<br />
<br />
It was in this Alexandrian context that Arius's own views developed and exceeded subordinationists. While Origen denied that the Father and Son we coequal, he nevertheless considered them coeternal. Arius went further, denying both coequality and coeternality to the Son, arguing that "If the Father begat the Son, the one that was begotten has a beginning of existence and from this it is evident that there was a time when the Son was not" (Hart quotes this from Socrates Scholasticus's <i>The Eccelsiastical History). </i>Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria during the time of Arius's arguments, expelled him Alexandria and from his position as presbyter there in 321. Arius published his views and even put them into popular song in 323.<br />
<br />
By 324 Constantine had conquered Licinius, the last of his rivals, and brought stability to the empire. Having taken up Christianity as a stabilizing religion for the empire, he could not allow the dissension within the Church to continue. When Arius and Alexander could not be reconciled, Constantine called for a universal council of bishops to convene and determine the position of the Church on the relation of the Son of God to the Father. The First Council of Nicaea convened in 325 and included Arius, Alexander, and the young Athanasius (deacon to Alexander) attended in addition to three hundred or so bishops, most of whom came from the Eastern churches. Arius's doctrines were condemned, and only six bishops (included Arius) refused to accept the orthodox formula set forth in the Nicene Creed. The formula included a term foreign to Scripture, <i>homoousios </i>(consubstantial), which means "of the same substance," to describe the relation of the Son and Father. Though the idea reflects Scriptural descriptions of the Father, Son, and Spirit, it would be the source of ongoing strife.<br />
<br />
Despite the unifying purpose of the First Council of Nicaea, the Church continued in controversy over the identity of the Son of God; and even Constantine was persuaded to become Arian by several prominent women in his household. Until the First Council of Constantinople in 381, where the final version of the Nicene Creed was formulated, bishops like Athanasius contended for Nicene orthodoxy over and against the majority who were Arians; often being exiled when Arian emperors came to power, or restored when Nicene emperors came to power. During the aftermath two groups articulated alternatives to Nicene orthodoxy:<br />
<br />
1. "Homoeans" held that the Son is "of similar substance" (<i>homoiousios</i>) with the Father.<br />
<br />
2. "Anomoeans" held that the Son is altogether unlike the Father.<br />
<br />
It turned out to be the anomeans, in the figure of Eunomius, who came to represent the most prominent opposition to Nicene orthodoxy in the generation after 325. Athanasius did not live to see the final stroke fall upon the Arian heresy and its correlates--a threefold stroke struck by the Cappadocian fathers: St. Basil of Caesarea, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, and St. Gregory of Nyssa. Hart notes that their complex defense of Nicene orthodoxy could be faithfully reduced to a simple series of propositions that were central to salvation in the life of the Early Church (represented also in Athanasius's <i>On the Incarnation</i>): "if it is the Son who joins us to the Father, and only God can join us to God, then the Son is God; and if, in the sacraments of the Church and the life of faith, it is the Spirit who joins us to the Father, and only God can join us to God, then the Spirit too must be God."<br />
<br />
The debates all turned on the nature of human salvation--what it took for man to be reconciled with God--and, in the end, only God-Man--fully God, fully Man--could reconcile all men to the Father and restore all Creation to incorruption.<br />
<br />
In the next post we'll look at how <i>On the Incarnation</i> provides the cornerstone for Athanasius's three-fold portrait of human salvation.Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-48565467341378668282017-10-16T14:54:00.001-05:002017-10-16T14:54:28.333-05:00Two Sonnets On TimeI looked upon my life to judge its worth,<br />
Good deeds and bad; its joys with all its woe,<br />
From edge of existence to day of birth,<br />
Thus weighed in balance, I, of all I know.<br />
But vanity of vanities, alas!<br />
The gavel strikes and shadow downward bends.<br />
"What profit" cried I, "O'er this life shall pass,<br />
"When all thy days are gone and soul descends?<br />
"Thy son or servant, wisdom may not keep,<br />
To grow or guard what labors' increase shows,<br />
And thy poor soul cannot awake from sleep,<br />
To chide or buffet backs with whips and blows."<br />
Thy labors thou must now enjoy and love,<br />
As gifts in season, given thee by Jove.<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
A time is there to bless or curse tis said,<br />
A time to laugh and cry; to sow and reap,<br />
A time to work and rest upon thy bed,<br />
A time to give; another time to keep.<br />
The times will change but time will stay the same,<br />
For time is there to stop and time to go,<br />
And time will mend or break a good man's name,<br />
For time will cover up and time will show.<br />
O time! Thus strumpeted by all and naught,<br />
What time have thou to give or take to thee?<br />
Of all the times tis time is time's own thought;<br />
For time is there for time to timely be.<br />
I took of time some time a time to show,<br />
That most of time, in time, one cannot know.Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-39641004351751164802017-10-16T14:45:00.001-05:002017-10-16T14:46:27.633-05:00A SonnetLike a ram's horn that blasts a battle cry,<br />
Or hawk's fell cry before her prey she snares,<br />
So my words whirling on the wind do fly,<br />
And raise a din as far as rocket's flare.<br />
Not war, nor hunt of martial nature signs,<br />
My voice's meaning more of love partakes,<br />
Of all of nature's fit and fair designs,<br />
I praise the image formed without mistakes.<br />
Thy form no jewels' shimmer can outshine,<br />
Thy loveliness surpasses ev'ry grace,<br />
Though sun and stars their countenance combine,<br />
They'd pale before the splendor of thy face.<br />
These words I blast to heaven's highest bend,<br />
None touches thee unless thou wilt descend.Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-61920389841319178422017-01-04T11:45:00.000-06:002017-01-04T11:45:07.888-06:00Isocrates on Using JudgmentThe quote below, by Isocrates, appears to claim that each age deserves to be judged by its own opinion (or, at least, the opinion of its intelligent members). Is this an example of the "golden rule"?<br />
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"It is reasonable that we judge events in our own time according to our own opinions, but for events that are so ancient, it is fitting that we show ourselves to be like-minded with the intelligent people of that time." from Isocrates's <i>Encomium of Helen</i> in reference to judging the virtue of Theseus as a basis for judging the virtue of Helen, whom he admired and abducted.Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-24656725560170549792016-10-28T07:30:00.002-05:002016-10-28T08:25:49.930-05:00Elsewhere, Over There X<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify;">For those interested, I've had <a href="https://www.circeinstitute.org/blog/translation-and-classical-mind" target="_blank">an </a></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.circeinstitute.org/blog/translation-and-classical-mind" target="_blank">article on classical education</a></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"> published</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify;"> over at the </span><a href="https://www.circeinstitute.org/our-story" style="display: inline; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: small; line-height: 19px; outline: none; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.3s;" target="_blank">Circe Institute</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify;">.</span>Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2399009317202162227.post-59247911790271756842016-10-25T09:32:00.000-05:002016-10-25T09:32:02.280-05:00St. Crispin's Day!"This day is called the feast of Crispian. He that outlives this day and comes safe home with stand a tip-toe when the day is named, and rouse him at the name of Crispian" (King Henry, Shakespeare's <u>Henry V</u>).<div>
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October 25th is the anniversary of saints Crispin and Crispian, two brothers who were beheaded under Emperor Diocletian's persecution of Christians in the late 3rd and early 4th century (they were executed on October 25th 285 or 286, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispin_and_Crispinian" target="_blank">according to the Wikipedia article</a>).</div>
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The day is also remembered as the anniversary of the English victory over the French in the battle of Agincourt in 1415. Shakespeare memorialized the battle in his play, <u>Henry V</u>, by putting a speech into the mouth of King Henry that roused his outnumbered troops to fight valiantly in the face of the enemy and gain the glory that would assured whether in defeat or victory.</div>
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I have for the last three years had my senior rhetoric students memorize and perform the St. Crispin's Day speech and this year it just so happens that <a href="https://romanroadsmedia.com/2016/10/crispins-contest/" target="_blank">Romans Road Media</a> is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRXK4PY5KWs" target="_blank">hosting a contest</a> for anyone who can recite, from memory, the best rendition of St. Crispin's Day speech. Unlike many contests in the classical education sphere, this one is open to adults as well as students!</div>
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I will be encouraging my students (current and former) to participate in the contest, as well as some of my colleagues. I'm planning to enter myself, too. I hope the contest gets lots of participants, for several reasons. First, I hope it does well because the speech is magnificent and deserves to be memorized by many. Second, the more folks who hear and gain an interest in Shakespeare, the more folks will come to love his language, which in turn will allow them to love the English language more, too. Finally, I hope it will lead to more recitations of Shakespeare, for the reasons above and because there are so many more beautiful words of the Bard to be committed to memory and performed.</div>
Joshua Butcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05762961484152028177noreply@blogger.com0