Who loves, seeks out relevant challenges, striving to overcome them for the sake of the beloved. Who loves, seeks to be useful to the one loved.
Human beings lead place-structured lives; we are locative animals, and our memory for places is both very strong and very fine-grained. This is why the method of topical memory works so well; this is why we can walk or drive to familiar places without much thought.
the brain as neuronic indexing system
For the most part, we remember classifications more than particulars.
Centralization often creates a sort of learned helplessness.
The precise measurement of time requries assessment of counterfactuals.
the Seventh Letter as arguing for the importance of faithful friendships to establishing rule of law
processes of traditioning
(1) imitation of known patterns
(2) abstraction and application of principles from prior experiences and events
(3) critical appropriation of external in light of what is consistent with what is received
(4) rigorous analysis and inference
(5) search for anticipatory hints relevant to current problems
(6) maintenance and protection of archive
(7) revival of interest by persuasive means
While their communion is defective, the apostolic sees do maintain a kind of transtemporal communion in that they at least intend to maintain communion with prior versions of each other -- up to Nicaea, up to Ephesus, up to Chalcedon, up to Second Nicaea, or as the case may be. (This is reflected, for instance, in their calendar of saints.)
church architecture as a memory palace for theology
All inquiries depend on things not earned in the inquiry itself.
asceticism as a two-pronged process of respecting the integrity of the soul and respecting the integrity of the body, including teh holy destinations of each
iconodoulia as an expression of love of neighbor
the Good as 'the greatest study'
the Gospel of Mark on the doxastic scandal of Jesus
baptism : letter :: confirmation : signature
'a metaphysics of light and a sociology of shadows' (Ricoeur)
"If sensation is to appear in some way intelligible, the mind must establish itself at the outset in a universe which is not a world of ideas." Marcel
"It is obvious that if I am somebody, a particular individual, I am only so at once in connection with and in opposition to an indefinite number of other somebodies."
"If a person uses religion as a means to experience peace and harmony, he will never acquire that peace and harmony." von Hildebrand
"Disrespect for truth, when not merely a theoeretical thesis, but a lived attitude, patently destroys all morality, even all reasonability and all community life."
"What, precisely, distinguishes the true philosopher from the mere schoolmaster is the consciousness that the plenitude and depth of being surpass incomparably the range of true insights he may have."
"In order to be great, an artist must have an artistic conscience."
Most of the annoyances of life, even serious ones, are just that, annoyances, and not injustices.
"In a Pope no fault is so small that the nations do not think it enormous." Pius II
The initiation of wise and noble things generally comes from coopreations.
"The transformation of the world of objects into the world of signs is founded on the ontological presupposition that it is possible to make replicas: the reflected image of a thing is cut off from its natural practical associates (space, context, intention, and so on), and can therefore be easily included in the modelling associations of the human consciousness." Lotman
Our respect for rights is modulated by honor; one upholds the rights of the dishonorable, but certainly not in the same way as the honorable.
A fact is constructed by the attempt to articulate something true.
"The historian is a prophet turned to the past." Schlegel
Scientific inquiry always begins kludgy.
indelible chracter as like a lens
the externa world as part of the teloi of our sense organs
-- sensory organs have a world-oriented and a thought-oriented (cognitive) telos
internal referentiality to another: potentiality, participation, finality
mediating referentiality to another: objectivity/intentionality, value
external referentiality to another: signfication, systematicity, design
the body as intrinsic jurisdiction (this is perhaps the grain of truth in self-ownership accounts)
We may cause by receiving a final cause from another or by positing a final cause for another.
Zikkaron in Hebrew seems to suggest perpetuation by sign.
Tribal government is always a part of human government, but tribal articulation can be in greater or lesser degree.
weddings as shared sacred experiences
"Enoch pleased God and was translated into paradise that he may give repentance to the nations." Sir. 44:16
-- Enoch's translation as a type of Christ's ascension
"The principles of faith are fear, mereit, and repentance." Asatir 7:24
People often say 'facts and logic' when they mean 'classifications and rules'.
Bereshith Rabbah 17: Dream is th eunripe fruit of prophecy.
prophethood as part of our destinate condition, but lost with original jutstice, only had since sporadically and incompletely by divine grace
Zelazny's Roadmarks as a depiction of authorial process in writing
Maimonides Guide 40: prophecy vs plagiarism
Maimonides: the bat-kol as like an echo of prophecy, which comes to those not prepared for prophecy
"It is clear that everything produced must have an immediate cause which produced it; that cause again a cause, and so on, till the First Cause, viz. the will and decree of God, is reached." Maimonides, Guide 48
The Structure of The Guide for the Perplexed
Part I: Preliminaries -- Negative Theology (the intellectual discipline required for interpreting the Mysteries of the Chariot and of Creation)
Part II: Preliminaries -- General Account of Prophecy (positive knowledge required for interpreting Chariot & Creation)
Part III: The Mysteries of the Chariot and of Creation
"Man has free will; it is therefore intelligible that the Law contains commands and prohibitions, with announcements of reward and punishment." Maimonides
-- This summarizes part of the Mu'tazilite position, but the point seems shared by the Jewish position M. describes; the difference of the two is in the ground of reward and punishment -- divine Wisdom for Mu'tazilites, divine justice and human merit for Jews.
-- Maimonides takes it to be significant that Job, while said to be righteous, is not said to be wise.
It is a natural impulse to want to harmonize the saints; done badly, it falsifies, but done well, it is the enrichment of the Church.
-- black holes can be completely specified by mass, charge, and spin
-- the analogy between thermodynamics and black hole mechanics (entropy // area of event horizon, temperature // surface gravity)
"Not every natural License, or Poewr of doing a Thing, is properly a *Right*; but such only as includes some moral Effect, with regard to others, who are Partners with me in the same Nature." Pufendorf
The major principle governing Christian response to any culture is that human nature is disordered, that the human person is out of true and errant.
the government-funded class
The Church teaches the same truths by means both fallible and infallible.
