All our loves are, in their purest form, subcreative.
keying a painting (e.g., highlights vs broad light) // keying a bit of music
"The nature of the mind is to be free, active, with the power of withdrawing itself from its own associations." R. B. Haldane
Our victories must be over the Devil, the world, the flexh; the most obvious example of victory over the Father of lies is the crown of the doctor; over the world is the crown of the martyr; and over the flesh is the crown of the virgin.
poena damni: "Depart from me" :: poena sensus : "into eternal fire" (Mt 25:41)
Bottles and jars by their very conception include the space inside them.
Spatiotemporal regions are located & bear their locations relatively.
Artifacts often incorporate beings of reason.
All of intellectual life consists of incremental improvement building up to a point of discontinuity, at which things jump to another state.
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" can only work in societies that are relatively free of pleonexia.
When people talk about behavior being 'unchristian', they often really mean 'not safely Christian', which is not really the same.
Concepts, being means through which we think, are hidden from us except insofar as they are expressed in signs and actions; this is obviously true of other people, but is true of ourselves, as well. Reflection on our own concepts is reflection on their expression in signs and deeds. But we do have besides this a presential knowledge of our conceptualization itself.
Lk 24:49 Spirit as Promise
-- en epangelian tou Patros is also found in Acts 1:4
cf. Acts 2:33: 'the promise of the Spirit of holiness having been received from the Father'
Gal 3:14: ' so that the promise of the Spirit we might receive through faith'
perhaps also 2 Tim 1:1: 'by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus'
Acts 13:32: epangel to the Fathers, evangel to you -- this is clearly a punning parallel
2 Pt 1:5 (follows 1:4 on being partakers in divine nature): Supply in your faith, virtue; in virtue, knowledge; in knowledge, self-control; in self-control, endurance; in endurance, piety (eusebeia); in piety, brotherly love (philadelphia); in brotherly love, charity (agape).
-- it is natural to see this as a ladder.
In the epistles, 'arete' is only used in Phil 4:8, 1 Pt 2:9, 2 Pt 1:3, 5.
Nedarim 31b: circumcision is so great that it sealed 13 covenants (Gn 17); so great that it is greater than the Sabbath; so great that it is greater than Moses (Ex 4:24-26); so great that it is greater than prohibitions for leprosy; so great Abraham only called wholehearted once he received it (Gn 17:1); so great God would not have created the world except for it (Jer 33:25).
With the exception of invasion by a militarily superior power, all the threats to democracy are from democracy.
Beauty by its nature indicates both something enduring or eternal and something enjoyed; it intermediates between the two.
Reading is only completed in virtuous character, which reading alone cannot give.
moral, jural, and sacral presence of spouse to spouse even in physical separation
spouse as sign of spouse
All work is hierarchically structured according to the relations of its ends and possible means.
People try to handle real problems by substituting symbolic proxies. Everyone does this; sometimes it is even helpful, in allowing one to reposition oneself; but sometimes it is actively destructive and toxic.
In every society, our abilities in the aggregate have not been adequate to meet our needs in the aggregate. This problem can only be alleviated by improvement of our ability (whether in capability or how it is organized) and reduction of our need.
"If men fall for some vicious piece of insanity, when they have no way to make it work and no possible reason to explain their choice -- it's because they have a reason that they do not wish to tell." Ayn Rand
"All work is an act of philosophy."
"The man who lies to the world, i sthe world's slave from then on."
forgiveness as moral-jural gift
You either interpret scripture in light of precedent or you interpret it in light of hypothesis.
Business structure in firms is based on perceived problem structure; business is a structured negotiation of a terrain of problems.
reasoning as mediate truth; acts of skill as mediate good
Good intentions are dangerous in politics in the sense that a perpetual political problem is people overstepping bounds out of good intentions.
Persons overlap by reason and by love.
theology : theosis :: Christian ethics : beatitude
cradle Catholicism as training into conversion
"Sanctifying grace disposes the soul to possess the divine person." Aquinas (ST 1.43.3ad2)
the Old Testament as a story of the invisible missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit
The power of custom is in multiplication.
"Every inquiry is comparative and uses the means of comparative relation." Nicholas of Cusa
Spiritual things are investigated symbolically.
The museum or library as a quasi-mystical entity is a common story trope.
In love, giving and gift are in some way one.
The Ascension accentuates Christ's sacramental presence & Mystical Body; physical presence of physical body would distract from these.
When we trust an artifact, like a bridge or a computer, we are trusting the design and the faithfulness of its implementation to that design. These in turn may be trusted formally, in terms of its own features, or effectively, in terms of the designers or the implementers. As organizations are moral or jural artifacts, the same is true of organizations.
If you don't have hierarchies, you have demagogues.
Corporate firms have a tendency to act like psychopaths, for they have no conscience or moral feeling of themselves, and they cannot have virtues but only simulacra of them as juridical persons.
Old Testament : Christ's Circumcision :: New Testament : Christ's Baptism
Our understanding of any other person is a tangle of logos and mythos and learned ignorance.
One's own premises are often not easy to check.
Mysticism without asceticism is immensely dangerous for both soul and society.
Many cognitive biases seem to be associative biases in linguistic processing.
otium for eutrapelia as a major end of civil society
There is no method of pedagogy that can prevent cheating, although not all methods are equally cheatable.
Historically, the clergy is built up by the laity, at least for the most part, and the laity of every generation inherit the clergy built by the previous generation and add to it. Over time, the character of the clergy is what the laity have made it.
Nutrition, procreation, and education cross every common public/private line.
Lv 4:3 chatat
4:2 'anyone who sins unintentionally'
-- but also used for extended impurity (Lv 15) and inauguration of Tabernacle (Ex 29)
-- ch-t-' root can indicate sin or purgation (e.g., Ps 51:9, Lv 8). Ramban, on the basis of Jdg 20:16, takes it to mean 'mark-missing', not being up to the appropriate standard in some way.
-- Some rabbis suggest it works by substitution, otehrs by providing a context for appropriate repentance; some rabbis suggest it removes sin, others that it removes need for penalty, others that it serves as ransom.
Prayer is not complete until it is a kind of giving.
A common rabbinical problem with respect to Esther (whcih is useful for broader considerations): Esther's marriage to Achashverosh does not seem to be one that is halakhically acceptable; was she culpable? Several possible answers:
(1) Yes. Rabbis who take this usually also recognize that there were circumstances that made it understandable, even if not exculpated: e.g., Esther and Mordechai are ordinary Jews trying to be Jews in circumstances that are much less than ideal for knowing and following the law.
(2) No, because her circumstances were equivalent to being forced. This is sometimes based on a reading of Esther 2:8 & 2:16. The nature of the coercion is the tricky part.
(3) No, because it was necessary to save the Jewish people. The thing is such that it would normally be unacceptable, but in this context is like violating a Sabbath law in order to protect the Sabbath in general.
(4) No, because the prohibition in relevant form was not yet given. While there may have been broadly related prohibitions, the specific prohibition is part of the rabbinical 'fence'. Those who accept this view hold that a version of the prohibition that clearly rules out Esther's action only arose out of the necessities and insights of the return (Ezra and Nehemiah).
conservation laws as identifying ways in which things cannot begin to exist without a cause of a particular sort
"Do not be surprised that you fall every day; do not give up but stand your ground courageously. And assuredly the angel who guards you will honor your patience." John Climacus
'naturalizing' as a form of allegorical interpretation
"With love and instruction, / commingled with truth, / the intellect can grow / and becomes rich with new things, as it meditates with discernment / on the treasure store of hidden mysteries." Ephrem
"If one can give a definition of Christianity, we shall define it as follows: Christianity is a mimesis of the divine nature." Gregory of Nyssa
Much of what has been called magic in occult circles is clearly concerned with unusual objective causation.
'[main trait] but [qualification]' is an extremely common way of describing people's personalities.
The being of the Creator and the being of the creature are necessarily distinct and necessarily not in competition.
Every skill is completed in prudence.
By naming things, we place them in a context of other things.
