mewithoutYou is a band that I’ve liked since my senior year of high school when I came across one of their songs on a compilation CD that was given to me at a concert. Their sound has evolved tremendously since then. Their first album is one I very rarely listen to anymore. But their newest album Pale Horses, is very good. One song that really grabs me is Birnam Wood.
Theology as Speculative Knowledge Thomas Aquinas argues, in the Summa, that sacred doctrine (theology) is not a practical science, but instead speculative*:
Every practical science is concerned with human operations; as moral science is concerned with human acts, and architecture with buildings. But sacred doctrine is chiefly concerned with God, whose handiwork is especially man. Therefore it is not a practical but a speculative science.I think that the distinction is important. For instance, even if Christianity is true, the “how-it-happened” of the atonement does not concern human action, but it is a topic that concerns God. Aquinas does note that theology does touch on elements of human action, but the primary object of sacred doctrine is God. Therefore it is not a practical science..Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, n.d.).
We read this book in class when I was in high school and I vaguely remembered finishing it. But we didn’t. We only actually read the first three stories.
Anyway, I had wanted to revisit it because in high school I was distracted by everything and because I thought I recalled the book having some fun logic exercises.
The logic exercises were fun. But they weren’t as good as I’d remembered. Anyway, the stories I hadn’t gotten to were all very good. My favorites are Evidence and Liar. Liar, about a robot whose positronic brain has spontaneously gained the ability to interpret human thought, is a page turner.
In Proverbs 14, the simple get a bad rep. But the point of that is to remind us, who might be simple-minded, to gain some nuance in the way we think.
For instance, Proverbs essentially outlines four ways of coming to know:
Proverbs ESV 14:15 The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.The simple, in Proverbs, is essentially the person who does not stop and think things through, whether a good or bad person. They are easily swayed, this is why Lady Wisdom is always trying to get their attention and way Lady Folly and the scoffers find them such easy prey.Proverbs ESV 14:18 The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.
This is a rough, few minute translation to practice Greek and keep up with my syntax text books. I read my GNT and use for lesson prep, but I rarely work at translating out loud or in written format. So, I’ll try to do this every Tuesday for practice. The italics are added words to help the translation make more sense. I left the verse numbers out today because I was busier and didn’t get to this until late. But normally I’ll do it prior to work in the mornings.
I’ve mentioned before the weird period of time when I listened to The Mars Volta late into the night while fishing. Here is another of their songs.
It’s pretty weird, but I like it. Their music has appealed to me for nearly a decade.
Ever since I first heard NIN’s “Came Back Haunted” I noticed a weird resonance it shared with Paul’s vision story in 2 Corinthians 12.
In 2 Corinthians 1-10, Paul categorizes his vision as a story whose content cannot be revealed. Yet, the vision led to a transformative experience for him. He came back from it a man who was haunted by suffering inflicted by Satan.
2Co 12:1-10 I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. (2) I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. (3) And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— (4) and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. (5) On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— (6) though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. (7) So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. (8) Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. (9) But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (10) For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.In the NIN song below, the narrator has gone to "the other side," he "came back haunted," he's not who he "used to be," and he faces consequences.
The parallels are really striking. Every time I hear the song, 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 comes to mind. I have every reason to think that this intertextuality is purely accidental, but it is still very cool.
How can God not be a being among beings?
In one sense first member of a causal series is a part of the series, but in another sense it isn’t. If ABCD causes something, then A is obviously 1/4 of all the causes you have, but we don’t think about it that way. We don’t say that George Bush played a part in the Iraq War, or even a crucial part in it – it was just his war. Truman wasn’t a part of the system that dropped the bomb – the system was brought int existence by his choice. This is true in every genus of causes. Winning isn’t one part of an athlete’s goals, even if one can isolate other goals than this in the game or in training. A fire hydrant is red and a light wave in the right spectrum is red, but the “is” is not said in the same way. The two things “are red” but not in a way that the one is a part of the whole.James' blog on Thomism is one of the best philosophy blogs on the internet. I really appreciate his succinct explanations of complicated topics. In this case he hits the nail on the head. Many Christians accidentally see God as a figure within the cosmos. This is right and good as far as such images support Christian piety because the are the models utilized in Scripture. But insofar as they are mistaken for giving precise expression concerning God's reality, such ideas (God is a part of the furniture of the universe) tend toward treating God as a creature. The Bible, in its more literal moments, treats God as the being in whom all things live and move and have their being. Similarly, God is the cause of all non-God reality in Genesis 1, John 1, and Hebrews 1. I've written elsewhere about how open theism and forms of Calvinism both take anthropomorphic language about God (preordaining and being surprised) too literally.
In Christian thought, faith often has three distinct meanings:
Faith in the second sense, is usually considered to be what connects the Christian to God, apart from any meritorious work or virtue on the part of the Christian. But such faith certainly leads to good works and meritorious works.
I may have posted this in the past, I don’t know. But here’s my personal algorithm for dealing with social issues and political ideologies as a Christian.