In the Metaphysics , Aristotle says that the metaphysical and epistemological errors of previous philosophers can be traced to their focus on the sensible world: “because they saw that that all this world of nature is in movement and that about that which changes no true statement can be made, they said that of course, regarding that which everywhere in every respect is changing, nothing could be truly affirmed.” In the end, Cratylus abandoned speech altogether: he “finally did not... Read more
My musings on the political import of Advent at the First Things site this morning: http://www.firstthings.com/ Read more
Schmemann says that the distinctive mark of the converted Roman Empire, and of the Byzantine order, was the “state’s” acknowledgement that the end of the church was the end of all things, also then the end of the state. The state no longer existed to promote its own ends, but to serve the end of the kingdom of heaven. When the eschatology changes, the whole political system changes. When America was founded on the conviction that it represented the novus... Read more
Aroma and memory are linked liturgically and spiritually as well as literally. The sacrifices were offered as “memorials” before Yahweh, as was incense. He was called to remember and act. The fragrance of the lover arouses the bride to remember him, and the reputation and name of our Lover, which is His fragrance, call us to remember Him. When the name of Jesus is pronounced, what effect does it have? When His life and death and deed are recounted, how... Read more
What excites erotic desire? Our pornographic culture highlights the sheerly sensual – the visible form of the face and body, the aroma of a perfume, the allure of sexy clothing. Eros is aroused when the lovers are stripped of all external definitions, including finally their clothes and their modesty. For all its reveling in smells and sounds and touches and sights and tastes, the Song of Songs points to attractions that go beyond the physical and sensual. At the outset,... Read more
In the Best-of-2011 edition of the TLS , Mary Beard casts her vote for The Archimedes Palimpsest , which she describes as follows: “This publishes a thirteenth-century prayer book, made up – as has long been recognized – out of earlier manuscripts. An international project has deployed all the most up-to-the-minute, hi-tech imaging devices to decipher the earlier classical texts that lie under the prayers: these include ‘new’ treatises by the third-century bc mathematician Archimedes (including one apparently known as... Read more
A recent issue of the New Yorker had an intriguing profile of Paypal founder Peter Thiel. Thiel’s current obsession is education” “Thiel believes that education is the next bubble in the U.S. economy. He has compared university administrators to subprime-mortgage brokers, and called debt-saddled graduates the last indentured workers in the developed world, unable to free themselves even through bankruptcy. Nowhere is the blind complacency of the establishment more evident than in its bovine attitude toward academic degrees: as long... Read more
You can understand why the medievals, with their earthy practicality, responded to Aristotle, who offers arguments like this one against the irrationalism of monism: If everything is and is not simultaeously, yh not walk over a cliff? “Why do we observe him guarding against this, evidently because he does not think that falling in is alike good and not good?” If “he judges one thing to be better and another worse. And if this is so, he must also judge... Read more
Song of Songs 8:14: Hurry, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices. John came to announce the imminent Advent of the Bridegroom. Jesus came to promise He would come again through His Spirit, who readies the Queen for yet another Advent of the Bridegroom. As Pastor Sumpter said, each Advent encourages us to prepare for an Advent to come. All this coming and going – it seems that it would get... Read more
Singing is the primary expressions of joy in the Bible. Women greet David with singing, dancing, and tambourines when he returns from killing Goliath. Singers and musicians parade with Solomon to his coronation. Israel rejoices when Yahweh descends to the temple, and they sing. When God comes to judge the world, the trees break out in song. To exiles, the Lord says, “Sing for joy and be glad, daughter Zion, for behold I come and dwell in your midst.” When... Read more
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