Successful promulgations are not always successful communications.
People who, taken of a sudden, would hold to their faith in the face of death, will sometimes apostasize in the face of long and grinding poverty.
second-hand knowledge of one's obligations
maybe-obligations and their force
maybe-obligations vs. actual obligations with respect to possibilities
Maybe-obligations would require a hybrid modal logic of an epistemic Diamond and deontic Box (but perhaps the Diamond should be doxastic?). -- Complicated by the need to distinguish genuine candidates from things merely not known to be nonobligatory.
particles as moves in game
(A) primary principles of Mariology
(1) Mary as Mother of Christ, both God and Man
(2) Mary as spiritual mother of all Christians
(B) secondary principles
(1) uniqueness
(2) eminence
(3) fittingness (a) to divine maternity (b) to spiritual maternity (b1) in itself or (b2) as symbol of Christ
(4) likeness to and union with Christ
(C) singular privileges
(D) Marian mission
(1) proper
(2) of Church through spiritual maternity
methodus = artificialis consideratio
Rawlsian veil of ignorance // Cartesian ego in condition of methodical doubt
analogue clustering as primitive classification
Scripture has its primary existence in proclamation and reflection by the Church.
adapting vs nonadapting texts
Even a complete and adequate rule, however authoritative, does not have the kind of authority to apply itself authoritatively.
Authority is primarily an attribute of persons.
constancy & coherence in traditions
Consequence-based arguments often serve as a lowest common denominator in ethical discussions because even ethical morons will accept at least some consequence-based arguments.
As God gives grace that other grace may be received, so God gives authority that other authority may be accepted.
All grace is, among other things, a gift of authority.
triple encounter with Christ: in the sacraments, in the Scriptures, in the poor and vulnerable
the turn of fortune as a basic unit of narrative
rhetorical study of decoy provocations in arguments
The Vedas are ritual manuals; the Sri Guru Granth a songbook for prayer; the Qur'an a collection of prophetic recitations. The Bible, however, does not exclude any of these aspects.
Proverbs 1-9 read ecclesiologically
saint icons, episode icons, allegory icons
In the hands of a master, all things can become a philosophical argument.
Reasons do not so much add as layer.
arguments as guidelines/maps vs arguments as expressions of authority
the iconesque
In early iconography (3rd and 4th centuries), Moses, Jesus, and Peter are often depicted with a staff
On Jesus // Moses cp Clementine Rec 1:57; Ep Barn 12:5; Justin Dial Trypho 86:1-4
Peter striking the rock as Moses striking the rock a common depiction (cp. Acts of Peter 5); association with baptism
Targum of Onkelos: Kepha is used of the rock Moses smote
Acts 7:38 -- the ecclesia is the people of Israel gathered with Moses
transubstantiation as unqualified assertion of real presence
homousios as unqualified assertion of divinity of Son
The priesthood of the people of God teleologically implies the priesthood of a clergy within it.
It is not so much that the natural desire of man is to externalize his religion as that the natural desire of man is to internalize it.
two aspects of corporate almsdeeds: philoxenia & koinonia
Too many attacks on legalism have the import of 'uncircumcision availeth'.
the external world as reliable cause of communication, of knowledge, of interpretation
Genuine good taste is an attempt to reach the true delight in the world that so often eludes us through culpable ignorance, distorting craving, and perverse habit.
(1) Our wills are disposed to good as such
(2) Nothing short of good as such can dispose anything to good as such.
HoP as an n-agent logical concept
In the beginning God created covenant and promise.
baptism : Immaculate Conception :: confirmation : Annunciation :: Eucharist : Dolors :: unction : Assumption :: penance : Intercession :: matrimony : Perpetual Virginity :: Orders : Queenship of Heaven
Fortitude is the sword of prudence and temperance is its shield.
Icons are to grace as laws to providence.
Rosmini's Theodicy and its implicit account of art
the three levels of a story: what is, what is thought to be, what ought to be
If we look to the critical faults Aristotle notes & analogize to evils: impossible and improbable are not issues; thus we get: corruption, instability or inconsistency of good, and imperfection.
Wisdom's gardener parable analogizes to all realism/anti-realism disputes.
uniforms as constant communications
Lists may be analogized, just as the terms in them.
lists as proto-systems
custom // prevenient pleasure
The liturgical calendar is itself a quasi-sacrament in which the mysteries of Christ's own life (nativity, transfiguration, etc.) continue to have effect and shed grace on us. In reality, of course, the sacramentality is due to the sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ on the altar and in Heaven, entering into the prayer of the Church according to His many Mysteries and our disposition as a people. (It takes the entire liturgical year, and all its feasts, to express the basic Mystery of the Eucharist in even its major facets.)
the three primary icons of Christ in the Mass (not counting the Eucharist, which is that to which icons tend): cross, Gospel, priest
the necessarily solidary and subsidiary character of papal jurisdiction
We can easily distinguish sacred and secular aesthetics, rhetoric, poetics, politics, so it would be strange if we could not distinguish a sacred and a secular ethics. (Note, though, that sacred architecture, for instance, does not operate under wholly different principles as secular architecture, having the same material and formal principles but differing only as to end; the same would have to be true.)
healthy development of liturgy: it retains the same type, the same principles, the same organization (logical structure),; its beginnings anticipate subsequent phases, and its later phenomena protect and subserve its earliest; it has a power of assimilation and revival, and a vigorous action from first to last.
preservation of type: preserving the essentials of sacraments and worship
continuity of principles: continuity of the Mysteries that unite
power of assimilation: full Christian and thereby transfigures the culture (true inculturation)
logical sequence as internal coherence
anticipation of future, of course, we only know through time -- i.e., what is not a dead end
conservative action on the past: illustrates tradition, corroborates tradition
chronic vigor: devotion, charitable work, evangelism, and ministry (note that chronic vigor is nondecay -- a corruption may yet have vigor, so it only identifies a necessary condition)
applying the principles of Rosmini's theodicy to liturgical development
liturgical development as exhibiting the internal aspects of prudence
preservation: type, principles, coherence
growth: anticipation, conservation
relation to environment: assimilation, vigor
Newman's notes of developments can be applied to particular churches themselves (in a sense this is close to what they were designed for).
ecclesial characters of particular churches arise from
(1) charisms
(2) moral causes (structure, historical situation, historical memory)
(3) physical causes (interaction with environment, geography of shrines, etc.)
Liturgy in its development must
(1) remain the same fundamental kind of thing
(2) preserve the character of Christ
(3) remain coherent
(4) draw on its heritage
(5) encourage further forms of flourishing
(6) correct and elevate the cultures in which it is found
(7) inspire devotion and mercy.
memory: type, principles, organization
intellect: anticipation, conservation
will: assimilation, vigor
forms of corruption (broadly speaking): change of kind, disruption of principles, logical inconsistency, unanticipated introduction, failure to build means to preserve, stagnant response, mere decay
Commitment to the virtues of charity and justice naturally expresses itself in rites and music.
the peculiarities of erudite life
Education is aeviternal in the sense that the proper measure of its duration is in epochs of insight.
The perfection of fortitude requires giving of self.
Diversity that benefits a society is diversity taht contributes to unifying common good.
the analogy of flavors as the foundation of a vocabulary for gustatory aesthetics (e.g., the muscatel of second flush Darjeeling)
Conspiracy-theory thinking poisons social relations.
Printing creates a challenge for liturgy because it makes possible rates of diffusion and change not governed by natural rhythms.
All measurement in physics has a biological component (physicists and their senses).
Belief, anticipation, and desire structure inquiry and are needed for discovery. Even accidental discovery requires something of these to be a discovery at all.
the literal, tropological, allegorical, and anagogical dimensions of liturgy (compare Suger on anagogy of Church architecture)
church architecture as frozen liturgy
hospitality as a natural property of true authority
fuzzy simultaneity
simultaneity as 'A and B are not distinguished by temporal measure' vs as 'A and B are distinguished from C as having the same temporal measure' (i.e., not measurably distinguishable vs having common measure)
moral arguments for God's existence should have parallels in intellectual inquiry and aesthetics; politics as well (cp Voltaire)
family of argument for God's existence || principal principle for external world
cosmological || direct causation
eutaxiological || causation of coherence
ontological || conceptual requirement
moral || practical requirement
factors contributing to the antecedent credibility of the existence of the external world
Meaningfulness of life admits of gradation.
human dignity, messianic community, higher law
