Phenomena have to be made into objects of inquiry by language, classification, argument, method, and the like.
"Is the Christian inspired? Yes, he is indeed. Just as inspired as he is Christian, and just as Christian as he is inspired." Farrer
"Prayer and dogma are inseparable. They alone can explain each other. Either without the other is meaningless and dead."
"Every true prayer is a prayer of the Churh, every true prayer has repercussions in the Church, and every true prayer is, ultimately, prayed by the Church, since it is the Church's indwelling Holy Spirit that prays within each individual 'with sighs too deep for words' (Rm 8:26)."
"Holiness is a form of the soul that has to emerge from the inmost core, from a level inaccessible both to external influences and to the efforts of the will."
"The evidence of light is that it illuminates; and if by the light of faith we do not see more colours in the world, more exactly in their proper being and truth, than eyes can perceive which lack supernatural illumination, then surely we stand self-condemned."
Hardware does not implement software simpliciter; it implements it approximately and under conditions determined by physical constraints.
"Justice is strenuous, except for those who love." Bede
Farming is a matter of continually improvising adjustments to plans.
Translation requires a commonality, or at least an analogy, o fexperience between author and translator, to coordinate meanings.
The author creates a text by final causes, and as a final cause.
John Wild, "An Introduction to the Phenomenology of Signs"
"A sign is not something *physically* present, exercising efficient causation. It is something *noetically* present, leading the interpreter *noetically* to take account of something other than itself."
"The natural sign, which leads the mind to an *individual* designation is *not* the linguistic sign of a *universal* signification."
-- Behavioralism for signs confuses 'similarity of response' and 'sameness of signification'.
"A sign is something to be understood, not merely responded to."
"No sign as such exercises any kind of *efficient* causation. But a sign is that which leads the knowing faculty to apprehend something other than itself, in virute of a real relation between the two."
"The reminder functions only by acting on us to make us think of something else. It either reminds us in functioning this way, or it does not. But a sign really signifies its signatum irrespective of its effect on us. Hence we can *misconstrue* or *misinterpret* signs. But ther eis no such thing as being *misreminded* by a reminder. It either reminds us or it does not."
"A sign is anything capable of noetically specifying (not causing, except in the sense of an *extrinsic formal cause*) the noetic faculty to apprehend something other than itself, in virtue of some real relation to this signatum."
"Anything that leads the knowing faculty to something other than itself is a sign. The more inconspicuously and vicariously a thing is, the more it is a sign. The most perfect sign is a concept which is literally *nothing but* a sign and which almost entirely vanishes in exercising its signifying function."
An inertial reference frame is a system of zeros for measuring locomotion, such that the locomotions measured are described by Newton's First Law.
The 'world' in 'world-building' is a system of classifications with a system of accounting.
A church history is an implicit ecclesiology.
What Scripture suggests in prayer is essential to its overall interpretation.
Fear is underestimated as a poetical passion, but joy is more poetical and sorrow more poetical still.
In ordinary times, men fear most the powers they themselves make.
Much of poetry consists in using images to do concept-work.
Anamnesis is not what the Eucharist is but how it is to be done. Christ tells us what it is: the Body, given for us, and the new covenant in Blood, poured out for us.
It is insufficiently considered what meaning 'do this in remembrance of me' would have for the disciples then while they were with him physically; it is always assumed tha tit is a command for the future, but nothing in the text strictly requires this -- in fact, teh association of anamnesis and diatheke, memorial and convenant, which go together theologically and in the history of Israel, suggests that the primary point is present, not future (although, of course, this doens't rule out the imperative also covering future actions when they become present).
the importance of practices that are not directly concerned with human persons but structured to express the value of teh human person
Many of the fundamental problems of physics are related to the question of how to reconcile the impartiality of the mathematics used in physical theory with the partiality found in the experiments that anchor the theory.
Quantum mechanical 'interpretations' are in fact predictions of the ultimate fate, the ultimate classification, of the wave equation.
moral sentiments as bailiffs of the tribunal of conscience
Many actions in which we engage are actions we do in a role, and disregard for the requirements of the role introduces rational incoherence into the action.
"For this reason has God established the rich and mighty over the poorer folk, that they should provide not for their own private ends, but rather for the common good." Antonino
"The gravitational equations could only be found by a purely formal principle (general covariance), that is, by trusting in the largest imaginable logical simplicity of the natural laws." Einstein (to de Broglie)
The outer ministers to the inner, the lower to the higher, and is thereby transfigured.
The saints on the calendar exhibit what might be called moral powers, and it is these moral powers mroe than their particular actions that we are to imitate. For instance, saints like Rose of Lima who did extraordinary mortifications exhibit in doing these things a spiritual nonattachment to worldly things and capacity for self-discipline, which we also should have, although in our case we should generally exercise these moral powers in ways other than extraordinary mortifications.
All humans slowly become more like what they revere.
Love creates the world, and Love will end it.
Greco-Roman culture as Peter's mother-in-law
On Farrer's account of Mark, the miracles of Jesus fall primarily into three groups:
(1) exorcism
(2) catharsis (e.g., lepers)
(3) apocatastasis (e.g., raising from dead)
-- (2) can be seen as 'miracles of water' and (3) as 'miracles of spirit'.
-- It is perhaps worth noting that the Church's interpretation of baptism reflects all three of these, baptism being a repudiation of evil in being cleased of sin and raised to new life. (Farrer takes it to be more immediately the Corss and Easter; the Resurrection is the fourteenth and culminating healing.)
the country neighborliness of Tom Bombadil (he treats even corrupt trees and barrow-wights more as bad neighbors than enemies)
Castles and fortresses work offensively primarily as logistics-disrupters.
feeding of the five thousand : Jews :: feeding of the four thousand : Gentiles -- (Farrer)
charters and contracts as social entities for constructing social entities
the tradition of the external world
If I am eaten by lions, the lions impose upon me the function of feeding and nourishing lions.
elemental properties (Llull)
(1) ignis: dispersivus et dispersibilis
(2) aqua: restrictiva et restringibilis
(3) aer: impetivus ideo repletivus
(4) terra: evacuabilis
"Nearly everything well done looks easy to do, especially if you have never tried it yourself." CS Lewis
formal wave as local travel of disposition to change things in a specific measurable way
sacramentals of first degree: directly represent Christ in liturgical contexts, e.g., the Gospels, the Cross, the Church Edifice, icons, relics, altar
sacramentals of second degree: means of reverential prayer in liturgical contexts, e.g., paten and chalice, candles, etc.
sacramentals of third degree: means of reverential prayer in contexts outside public liturgy
the Ark of the Covenant as a type of the sacraments
condign vs congruous value of gift
The faith of the one who receives the sacraments is a seal, title-deed, and pledge of grace.
Irenaeus's association of the gospels and the living creatures make them into a sort of symbolic throne for Christ.
Wit, like gemstones, gets tis value from not being common.
The true theology is a divine science of divine things.
What belongs to one is imputed to another based on something they share.
the transradication of humanity
Hell is no doubt filled with people who think God is guilty.
Study is more than attention, even attention aimed at learning.
"Languages do not have terms which are specific enough to distinguish neighbouring notions." Leibniz
"We often reason in words, with the object itself virtually absent from our mind. But this sort of knowledge cannot influence us -- something livelier is needed if we are to be moved."
each sacrament as a sign of an aspect of heaven -- e.g., baptism of immersion in Spirit, confirmation of strengthening in holiness, ordination of participation in heavenly liturgy, penance of divine imputation and acclamation of righteousness, unction of overflow of grace, matrimony of the Bride of the Lamb and holy union; eucharist of the Body of Christ (covenant and incorporation)
"If someone acquired a taste for poisons which would kill him or make him wrteched, it would be absurd to say that we ought not to argue with him about his tastes." Leibniz
Skepticism is often an excuse for selective dogmatism.
Memory preservation plays a large role in the building of personal relationships.
The world is more like magic than the magicless imagination conceives, and less like magic than the magicful imagination assumes.
The moral life is one of managing risks, but it is not one of eliminating risks; those who try to live without any moral risk act against both prudence and charity.
There is always a simplicity that cuts through every cleverness.
the Church as salvific engine
'Speed of thought' is often speed of stupidity.
In every society, politics and religion are the primary vehicle for diffusion of philosophy.
Every self-evident, evident, and proven principle is normative for at least a certain domain of thought, and every genuinely normative principle is true in at least a certain respect.
descriptive : normative :: form : end
A unified people over time creates an aesthetic world suitable to its cultural life.
the 'synaesthesia' of cultural development: making intelligible sensible form, matching and mixing arts of different modalities, expressing emotions in different artistic ways
