The scholar should enrich the experience of the reader rather than getting in the way of it.
"The whole world is the wealth of the faithful." Proverbs 17:6A (i.e., in the LXX and Vetus Latina)
mere fictions vs grounded fictions
In the way Schellenberg characterizes 'nonresistance' in the divine hiddenness argument, it is unclear if any *theists* are 'nonresistant', as opposed to merely having overcome resistance.
Terrain is half of tactics.
the tinker method (of engineering, of education, of charitable work...)
Mt 6:12 // Sir 28:2
"If a man receives the body of the Son of Man as the Bread of Life, he will have life in him." John 6:56 Vetus Latina
What we proclaim is both testimony and mystery.
By shedding error, we come to understanding; by revering truth, we come to wisdom.
The problem with the ignorance diagnosis of free will is that it requires exaggerating how ignorant we could possibly be, and (setting aside Spinoza and a few others) underestimates the kind of causes that would have to fill the gaps in order to be adequate.
People seem to forget that protesting only works if you don't come across as fringe loons.
contingent : final cause :: categorical : formal cause
unrestricted universe of discourse as logical analogue of ens ut primum cognitum
In the Church, things that are taught by infallible teaching are also taught by means that are themselves fallible.
public festivals as a mode of lay teaching
To be able to be taught by infallible means, a doctrine must be formally revealed, either in the plain letter of Scripture, or in Scritpure as understood by perpetual tradition of the Church, or it must be intimately connected with truth so revealed, either in being required for teaching it, or in being required for defending it, or in being required for living according to it.
human nature in integriity, in fall, in grace, and in glory (De Moor: instituted, destituted, restituted, constituted)
The lowest point of human degradation generally involves the attempt of the degraded to justify their degradation; this is usually more easily reached with self-imposed degradation than externally imposed degradation.
good as first willed and the limitless possibility in human action, action that can take into account the very universe itself
kinds of positive legislation
(1) customary
(2) constitutional (impositional)
(3) contractual
(4) petitionary
-- what we often think of as legislation today is a stylized version of (4) -- i.e., a bill is a stylized bill of petition, which is then deliberated over and approved or not.
Representation in government depends on the power to enforce obligations.
orders of fictional truths
(1) explicitly stated
(2) logically implied
(3) plausibly suggested
(4) scaffolding (used by author in writing; director in shooting; actor in determining motives; etc.)
(5) potentializing (what the author would /expects to assume if anything further is done)
Rage, even when understandable, is always a deterioration and often a degradation.
"All material practical principles are, without exception, of one and the same kidn and come under the general principle of self-love or one's own happiness." Kant
--> This is certainly false, for reasons noted by Butler.
Kant takes moral motivation to be self-love restricted to agreement with moral law.
correspondence with resemblance vs correspondence without resemblance
Every time Luke is mentioned in the New Testament, Mark is also mentioned.
1 Timothy 5:18 seems to call Luke 10:7 scripture
Pauls' description of the Last Supper is closest to Luke's
The Old Testament that Christians inherited was that of both Judean and Hellenistic Jews.
It takes work and cultivation of ability to seek knowledge for its own sake.
"All virtues are in our True Lord and Master; we are utterly without virtue. O Creator Lord, all are in Your Power." Sri Guru Granth Sahib 17
"The truthful are absorbed into the True Lord." 18
"The True Guru leads us to meet the Immaculate True God through the Word of His Shabad." 27
"He Himself dyes us in the Color of His Love; through the Word of His Shabad, He unites us with Himself. The True Color shall not fade away, for those who are attuned to His Love." 37
"The Word of the Gurmukh is God Himself. Throught he Shabad, we merge in Him." 39
"The True Guru, the Primal Being, is the Pool of Ambrosial Nectar. The blessed come to bathe in it." 40
"Even the ungrateful ones are cherished by God. O Nanak, He is forever the Forgiver." 47
"God Himself acts, and causes others to act; everything is in His Hands." 48
"The One Lord is the Doer, the Cause of causes, who has created the creation." 51
nadar: glance/favorable regard / favor; the glance of God's grace
"The real joy of a book lies in reading it over and over again, and always finding it different, coming upon another meaning, another level of meaning." D. H. Lawrence
For statutes to function as law, first principles of reason must already be functioning as law.
Parts of pictures of something are not necessarily pictures of parts of it (e.g., they may be symbolic abbreviations).
Our congruous merit occurs within a covenant (pactum).
predilection -> election -> predestination
Most analytic work on grounding confuses categorical relations and transcendental relations.
"Mary is holy, Mary is blessed, but the Church is something much better than the Virgin Mary. Why? Because Mary is part of the Church, a holy member, a quite exceptional member, the supremely wonderful member, but novertheless a member of the whole body." Augustine (Sermon 72a.7
miracles as tracing out aspects of divine sovereignty
Evangelium vitae 62: "direct abortion, whether intended as end or as means is always a grave moral disorder, inasmuch as it is the deliberate elimination of an innocent human being"
The Old Covenant is not shed but is fulfilled in such a way that Gentiles may participate in it through Christ.
"Signum importat aliquod notum quoad nos, quo manducimur in alterius cognitionem." Aquinas Sent 4.1.1.1q2
Perceving the world around us, we get a feeling for its invariances; having a feeling for its invariances, we reflect on them, compare and contrast them, classify them, reason about them.
Human beings cannot act without taking our bodies to be meaningul and teleological, because in humana ction we recognize this (for example) as a hand, as a means of grasping, as mine for using, as me. We are soaked in meaning and vibrant with purpose, rich in orienting and full of signifying.
The devil woos with shallow benefits.
Three elements of probable inference: possibility, appropriateness, nonimpedance. Probable inference coverge on proof as positive reasons for possibility and independent grounds of appropriateness increase, and as impediments decrease, and as the reasons in each improve in quality.
positive laws as arising from the overlaps of senses of honor, the convergence of codes of honor twoard law
Another person may be experienced as a context, an opposition, a gift, or some mix of the three.
summons, surprise, address, and fact as mode sin which the world expresses itself in inquiry
"Everything written with vitality expresses that vitality: there are no dull subjects, only dull minds." Raymond Chandler
"All language begins with speech, and the speech of common men at that, but when it develops to the point of becoming a literary medium, it only looks like speech."
"The ability to lie effectively, to appear different than one really is -- all the disguises essential in the world of power -- become, in the world of love, temptations, artful excuses to avoid the nakeness love requries, to avoid love." Josiah Thompson
'presentation' as translation of 'species' -- impressed presentation, expressed presentation, intelligible presentation, etc.
Being ut primum cognitum is being as involved in everything and thus not inquantum ens, as itself considered in itself.
A problem with social media platforms is that they train a particular kind of personality into habitual lying.
common sense as "a rough sketch of metaphysics, a vigorous and unreflective sketch" (Maritain)
Horror as a genre is about boundary violations of a certain kind; thus it must presuppose some boundaries. The usual boundaries are physical (body horror), mental (madness), and religious (transgression of sacred bound). Further, the violation must be culpable (moral horror) or piacular (tragic horror) or intrusive (alien horror). The violation may also be an incident or something that spreads (stain, contagion, or infestation). And, of course, one can combine all of these in various ways.
Being as first known jumbles together substantial being, accidental being, being in the guise of another (e.g., ficitonalized or idealized or under-an-aspect being), and being of reason.
Englert's version of Kant's Third Critique moral proof ("Kant as a Carpenter of Reason: The Highest Good and Systematic Coherence")
(1) Philosophy ought to provide a coherent account of experience as a whole. [Philosophical Demand]
(2) Judging experience as a whole leads to two necessary ideas, [a] morality and [b] nature, that ought to figure into a coherent account. [Fact of Experience & 1]
(3) A coherent account between [a] and [b] requires the highest good as a common point of reference. [Result of Ethico-Teleological Reflection & 2]
(4) The highest good can only be thought of as really possible if we postulate a further idea, namely [c] God, as "another causality." [Philosophical Postulate & 3]
(5) Therefore we must believe in God in order to do as we philosophically ought to do, namely, provide a coherent account of experience as a whole. [1 & 4]
Half of being a good author is understanding the story you are telling; this is far more difficult than it sounds, and many would-be writers fail at it, and even accomplished authors sometimes slip.
Certainties are of different kinds and are not all completely commensurable.
wrongous/wrongwise
Every theory contains realist and instrumentalist components.
"Poetry is unquestionably the language of nature; and, as such, ought to interest and impress, where it may not be able to inspire." Anna Seward
gut flora as categorically inernal vestment (habitus)
Vestment as a category concerns the fact that one substance can be as it were an accident for another substance. (It is specifically the relationality that is the vestment/cladding.)
integration of substance into substance
(1) organic part: incomplete substance into complete substance, substantially as complete part
(2) prosthetic part: incomplete substance into complete substance, substantially as incomplete part
(3) cladding/vestment: complete substance into complete substance, accidentally as actual quasi-part.
(4) separate tool: complete substance into complete substance, accidentally as a means for action and potential quasi-part
adornment : vestment as sign :: equipment : vestment as means
(manifestation and instrumentation)
Substance and relation as said transcendentally are ways of talking about one being -- being and unity both.
God as one being is imitated by creatures both substantially and relationally.
It is the civil society, not the state, that is the embodiment of all political right.
the juridical commonwealth as a symbol fo the ethical commonwealth
Kant's arguments that Judaism is a politics rather than a religion
(1) Its commands relate only to external acts. --> This is clearly not the law as interpreted by the prophets.
(2) It limits reward and punishment to this world. --> This requires to taking teh world to come as part of 'this world', and also ignores remembrance before the Lord.
(3) The concept of a chosen people shows enmity to other people. --> On the contrary, inherently the opposite: Jews as the universally mediating nation, the priestly people among all just peoples.
Albert on the eucharist
(1) body: communion
(2) blood: atonement
**
(3) soul: redemption
(4) spirit: vivification & virtue
**
(5) divinity: refreshment
**
--> as a whole: beatitude
The Eucharist has signs of both Body and Blood because the Body is the best as a symbol of fellowship and communion and the Blood as a symbol of sacrifice and atonement, both of which are essential aspects of this sacrament.
Everything becomes more stupid in committee, and Jesus never promises that committees of bishops are exceptions.
Augustine, Confessions Bk X.8.15 -- the sublimity of memory
"If we remember even the fact that we have forgotten, we have not entirely forgotten." Augustine
"The happy life, in fact, is joy in truth: and that means joy in You, who are Truth, O God my light, the health of my consequence, my God."
We form the image of the future and are formed in the image of the past.
Protestant treatment of the plain text of Scripture has an odd tendency to oscillate between reading Scripture as if one were brain-damaged (very literal, ignoring suggestive juxtapositions, bypassing the sorts of symbolisms readers generally find in even elementary human texts) and reading it as if it were a technical object of academic analysis, requiring elaborate apparatus and sophistication and expertise to read. In fact the plain text touches each of these poles and covers all in between.
Medium et Principium demonstationis est quod quid est.
We do not use 'what is' to demonstrate; instead use 'what the *what* is' (quiddity) to demonstrate.
"The object of the mind is what the what is, that is, the very being of something.... And thus a likeness of something in the mind is directly a likneess of its being, whereas a likeness of something in snesation or imagination is a likeness of its incidentals." Aquinas
