In our extant Norse stories, Thor is associated with thunder and lightning only once (the duel with Hrungnir).
Norse myths treat the gods as warrior-aristocrats, not as allegories; they have certain associations, but no attempt is made to treat them in a manner wholly consistent with any kind of 'portfolio' of divine authority. Instead, they are like nobles with special skills.
the hierarchy of generous giving, converging at the limit to God, who gives not for profit but only wholly out of goodness
Every kind of inquiry posits a kind of freedom appropriate to it.
"Most people are other people." Wilde
the Ring of Gyges as a warning about pedagogy
Snorri thinks Alfheim is in Asgard; this may also be true of Vanaheim.
Niflheim and Asgard are under two of the three roots of Yggdrasill; Muspell *might* be under the third, although this is never stated.
The slavering of the bound Fenris, his mouth propped open by a sword, is called 'hope', the only thing in Norse myth associated with hope.
Odin, Honir, Lothur: Lothur is most probably another name for Loki (Odin is often called 'Loki's friend', but also 'Lothur's friend', and the Odin, Honir, Loki trio is also common).
Lopt is another name for Loki; it probably has some connection to 'praise' (as 'Loki' itself may).
All falsehood has some form of likeness to the truth.
"Inasmuch as man gives himself to the study of wisdom, so much does he have already some part of true beatitude." Aquinas
In the long run, no one can hold what he does not love.
Postmodernism is more a speculative posit than an actual thing.
The stability of promises is affected by how composite the promiser is; the simpler, the more stable the promise can be.
The end of philosophy is a way of life that is divine, eternal, and that to which all of human life is proportioned.
suspension of disbelief vs abeyance of disbelief
play as exercise in discovering and handling nonscheduled use of instruments
Rashi takes 'under the sun' in Ecc 1:3 to be toil not devoted to Torah (the Torah being associated with light, Pr 6:23). This continues through the passage.
Sighing of sighings, all is sighing.
There is no profit to toil, but one should enjoy one's lot.
Self-evident truths must be republished from time to time; it doesn't matter how self-evident something is, if people don't think about it when it is relevant for preventing or diagnosing mistakes.
Does Matthew parallel Christ's life and Israel's?
Birth : Call of Abraham :: Flight to Egypt : Exodus :: Baptism and Temptation : Wandering in the Wilderness :: Sermon on the Mount : Sinai ??
-- this is at least suggested for the Flight by 'Out of Egypt'.
In Matthew's version of the Temptation, Jesus first protects himself from temptation of need by quoting Scripture; in response, the devil tempts him again by quoting Scripture. Jesus quotes Scripture in response, but one that particularly highlights his person, so the devil responds with a temptation in terms of his person. In Luke's version, on the other hand, when Jesus quotes that man shall not live by bread alone, the devil tempts him by offering much more than bread alone. When Jesus clarifies that the true 'more' is worship of God, which is reserved for God, the devil responds by a challenge to his person and mission with respect to God, which Christ responds to with a quote referencing his person.
Matthew shows Jesus as inhabiting the world of Torah in a unique way. (Jesus as personation of Torah)
"We are hestitant about divine things, and therefore require outward symbols." Peter Martyr Vermigli
As we believe in order to understand, so we signify in order to believe.
Ephesians 2:6 -- Christ's Session is also our session by way of Christ.
By faith we recognize things, but faith does not consist in any recognition by us.
free will as from God to God
Very few communities simply emerge; usually, we either enter one that already exists or we deliberately cooperate with others to construct it.
Our belonging to a group is never wholly a matter of our own responses.
the face or countenance as deontic possibility
We relate to other people, even casual strnagers, as subsisting deontic possibilities. To enter into a community is to enter into a field of deontic possibilities.
These deontic possibilities imply freedom in those with whom we interact, a range of non-necessitated possible action. They also imply the possibility of mutually free cooperative action.
A person is something with whom you can join.
"'Tis goodness alone that can create or lay any foundation for truth." George Turnbull
In history as in everyday life, to condemn before taking pains to understand is the mark of a fool.
The Christian scholar is ultiamtely judged as scholar not on the extent of his scholarly contribution but on the purity and honesty of his scholarly intention.
Logic is the skeleton of inquiry but ethics is the living flesh.
Ancient and modern historians alike use fictional techniques, but in general ancient historians use them in in 'chunkier' ways, while modern historians are very concerned to interweave them.
Every attempt to ban harmful speech also bans harmless speech in its vicinity, whether because it shares the same topic, or because it reflects on the bad even while valuing it as bad, or because it uses the same means or venues, or because it sounds similar to the ear of the ignorant and uninformed, or because the mechanisms of enforcement lack surgical precision and are clumsy, or because errors lurk in application that have not yet been discovered, or because people with agendas abuse the system.
To be a Christian is by nature to be a student.
The Holy Spirit is the Magisterium of all magisteria, the most magisterial Magisterium. The Church participates in the Spirit's teaching in various ways, and thorugh this is itself magisterial.
The historian can't avoid fictional techniques because the historican needs to appeal to the imagination in order to give people the resources for understanding.
"that Harmony and Consistency of Affections and Manners which create Peace and Joy within, and command Respect and Love from all around" Turnbull
"Nature did nothing in vain, whether in the material or moral world: Whatever Foundations it hath laid for Art to work upon, are well intended."
On philological grounds, Thor's original name must have been something like Fjorgynn; while this name is found in extant Norse poetry, it is not anywhere associated with him, suggesting that he may have been detached from his name at some point.
"...my body is recognized by its power to give me 'double sensations'." Merleau-Ponty
"There is an erotic 'comprehension' not of the order of understanding, since understanding subsumes an experience, once perceived, under some idea, while desire comprehends blindly by linking body to body."
All genuine intellectuals are intellectual in different ways. If you are an intellectual, you are a strange bird, and one intellectual is an alien species to another.
The Norse seem to have had a measure of time, marriage-night, which was three nights long.
'Life isn't fair,' the hero said,
'but we can make it fair
with a bit of work and care,'
as he chopped off everyone's head.
People become bigots for causes they think are righteous, and that the causes are thought righteous is taken as proof that they are not bigots.
Repentance, which builds our mortality, is completed only in death.
"We are delighted with Analogy, we are exceedingly charm'd with Unity amidst variety; and hence we are determined to seek after Unity and Regularity, or, in one word, settled Analogies and general laws." Turnbull
Dignity is not struggle, but there can be dignity in struggle; the dignity, however, derives from virtues and aspirations.
Who has no force or power is impeded from aspiring.
We can only find dignity through other things to the extent we already have dignity within.
Rage is the emotion of a wounded animal; it is not the expression of an unbreakable spirit, but a broken one. It must not be confused with just indignation or the surge of thymos in the face of aggression or domination.
Anger is something that can only be used if kept within well defined bounds.
Symphonies of any kind are only possible through discipline.
The love that can be used as a resource for something else is an imperfect love. Perfect love, complete love, is not exhausted by any usefulness.
A perpetual temptation of social movements is to treat simple flowerings of life as if they did not really matter.
When people say 'system', one should often just translate it as 'a bunch of stuff together', because that is often what is meant.
It is by order that a member of a society is able tot act on the basis of that society.
"Nature may be imitated two ways, by ingenious Arts; and in Life and Manners. And Man will be found fitted for both these kinds of Imitation by teh same Powers, Faculties, and Senses that render him capable of contemplating and understanding Nature." Turnbull
"There is implanted in our Minds not only a strong desire of understanding Nature's Methods of Operation, and all its various Appearances, but also a very strong Disposition to imitate Nature, emulate it, and vie with it; and thus to become as it were Creators ourselves."
desire for knowledge : prudence :: social feeling : justice :: sense of greatness : fortitude :: sense of beauty and decorum : temperance
(1) Reason posits itself. (Reason is always an end for reason.)
(2) Reason posits a world. (It posits itself as within a rational system.)
(3) Reason posits a community. (It posits itself as with other reason, as communicative.)
Reason posits rational system because it aims for understanding.
Being, insofar is it is good, summons us to love.
Creation, by imitation, manifests procession as an aspect of God.
Through Scripture and through participation in the Church, we see our philosophical reasonings in new light.
created world as a whole, as a cosmos
Ps 8:6, Is 44:29 Jn 1:10, Rm 1:20, Acts 11:24, Col 1:16, Eph 3:9, Rv 4:11, 1 Cor 8:6, Rm 11:36
"The aim of creation is history." Karl Barth
Reid on first principles: "They require not proof, but to be placed in a proper point of view."
We have a sort of defeasible obligation to take human testimony as serious evidence.
It is easy to participate in ceremony without feeling, but some feelings find no adequate expression outside of ceremony.
"The cosmos created by God exists as such in light." Barth
"In the heart of nature light is the symbol of the revelation of grace."
"Time is the natural predicate of light, and therefore of divine self-revelation."
No one is more dangerous than the pure of heart.
manifestation, distinction, and adornment as the three aspects of covenant
Most things that are wrong are wrong not in themselves but because they are inappropriate to their circumstances.
Counterfactuals do not generate only one sphere of resembling possible worlds.
conscientious objection and the dignity of causality
"A philosopher ought, no doubt, to be above vulgar prejudices, but he cannot, with safety to his own character, set himself above the common sense of mankind. His business is not to confound the ignorant and unthinking with paradoxical opinions, but to pursue his inquiries, until he arrive at things in which men of judgment can rest." Oswald
Beattie criticizes Hume on his racism because Beattie himself is egalitarian, but also because common sense philosophy is itself egalitarian, and opposes skepticism like Hume's on egalitarian grounds, defending the right of pauper as well as of philosopher, of black as well as white, to judge, through our common humanity.
The parts of a work of art do not have to be useful to us, but they do in some way have to be useful to the work of art.
"The Artist cannot bring all Nature into his Piece; he must therefore imitate the Whole of Nature in his Work, by chusing a noble, a great, and a beautiful Plan, and by adapting and disposing every particular part of his Piece in the manner that may best suit to the main End of the Whole." Turnbull
"For if we reflect upon the End and Use of Samples or Experiments in Philosophy, it will immediately appear that Pictures are such, or that they must have the same Effect." Turnbull
A work of art is a chaos coaxed into being a cosmos.
A first principle of Catholic ecumenism is that even Peter's shadow heals.
NB that the pastoral requirements imposed on the Gentiles by the Council of Jerusalem are imposed so that Jewish Christans would not be forced to separate from them.