How, Thomas asks ( ST , III, 48, 1), can Christ earn salvation for other people? He answers by reference to the totus Christus : “Grace was bestowed upon Christ, not only as an individual, but inasmuch as He is the Head of the Church, so that it might overflow into His members; and therefore Christ’s works are referred to Himself and to His members in the same way as the works of any other man in a state of... Read more
A charming video made by my son Christian and some friends. Read more
Next door at First Things , I suggest that Shakespeare understood that Lenten penitence leads to final joy. Read more
The Torah never mentions breasts as an object of erotic fascination; they are solely nourishment for infants. In the wisdom literature, things are different. Solomon encourages young men to delight in the breasts of their wives – not of another, a strange woman (Proverbs 5) -, and in the Song Solomon speaks rapturously of the breasts of his beloved. The progression is intriguing. Israel, it seems, is growing from infancy to hormonal young manhood. Wisdom comes into play at the... Read more
Solomon describes the beauty of his beloved in a neat and symmetrical poem in Song of Songs 7:1-6. Framed by “how beautiful you are” (vv. 1, 6), the poem describes ten features of her body. He starts with her feet and his gaze makes its way up. The ten features are neatly divided into two sets of five: Five between feet and breasts (feet, hips, “navel,” “belly,” and breasts) and five from the neck up (neck, eyes, nose, head, locks).... Read more
The old adage applies in spades to the covers of Pride and Prejudice sampled in the NYTBR . Don’t judge the book by any of these covers, especially the Lady Godiva, the Twilight knock-off, and the “smokin’ bad boy Darcy” ones. Read more
Technology promises to accomplish the same things that have always been done more efficiently. Borgmann is skeptical ( Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry ) (45-46), and he summarizes George Sturt’s The Wheelwright’s Shop (Craftsman) to explain the notion of the “concealment” of technology, the fact that technology not only increases efficiency but transforms the work done. Traditional wheelwright’s like Sturt were attentive to the ripening and seasoning of the wood to be used for their... Read more
In his Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry , Albert Borgmann makes a crucial distinction between a technical device and its machinery. This is “a specific instance of the means-ends distinction” (43), the machinery being the means by which the device becomes useful to its user. Devices and machinery can tend in opposite directions, as they do in computer technology: “The theories and technical processes that underlie the production of microcircuits are too complicated and too... Read more
Claude Rawson’s review of Alastair Fowler’s Literary Names: Personal Names in English Literature focuses on names used to mock and deride. Swift, for instance, “attached enormous importance to naming and not being named (a characteristic Fowler incidentally identifies with Milton’s fallen angels). Swift scrupulously marked with an ‘X; every reference to himself in his 1735 copy of Pope’s Works . He was proud to have been attacked by name in the Commons by Robert Walpole, then an opposition MP. Conversely,... Read more
It’s unfitting for God to fail to complete His purpose in the world, Anselm says. But his argument seems to imply that God is constrained to save. If this is true, Boso wonders, do we owe Him gratitude? After all, as Anselm himself admits, “when someone acts beneficently against his will due to the unavoidable force of circumstances to which he is subject, he is owed either no gratitude or less.” But that’s not God’s situation. He is not coerced... Read more
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