On Hiatus...

Hello Friend-Readers!

I'll be resuming blogging until after the holidays! Until then, have a blessed Christmas season (savor each of the 12 days...don't let secularism cheat you! Christmas is NOT over on Dec. 26) and Happy New Year 2009!

Simone

Being Good for Goodness' Sake...

The American Humanist Association has ads out in D.C. that say "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake."

Here's more information from the Pew Forum on this:

http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=373

I find it fascinating that these people supposedly don't believe in God and yet they form a group to "not believe in God" together.

Hmmm...I also find it humorous that atheists keeping saying they don't believe in God and yet...keep bringing Him up!

A person who really, truly does not at all believe in God does not care to identify himself by his "non-belief."

I don't exactly know how to judge this absurdity on behalf of the AHA. Should I be outraged because they are offensive and intellectually dishonest? Or should I be delighted that such an extreme measure shows how much they really want to believe in Him?

The First Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Church

All Christians should be aware of the ancient councils that provided clarification on doctrine according to Sacred Tradition. It is important to know what heresies the Church has dealt with in the past. (Heresies tend to "reincarnate" later in society in various shapes and forms.)

Here's a brief outline of the first seven councils:

(1) The Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.
Heresy: Arianism (Denied the divinity of Christ)
The Council declared that Jesus is true God and true Man.

(2) The Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D.
Heresy: Arianism
The Council reaffirmed the previous Council of Nicea and also combated Macedonianism which denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit and believed He was a creation of the Son. The work of these two first councils is where the Church wrote the Nicene Creed. (Officially the Nicea-Constantinople Creed.)

(3) The Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D.
Heresy: Nestorianism
Nestorius believed that Christ was two persons. Mary was not the Mother of Christ as God but Christ as Man. She was therefore not the "Theotokos" (God-bearer in Greek, Mother of God) but the "Christokos:" only the Mother of Christ as Man. The Council affirmed that Christ is ONE DIVINE PERSON with no division. Thus, Mary is the Mother of God.*

*As the Word made flesh, not the Mother of God the Father, Creator of the Universe. (I lament the fact that this asterisk is even necessary for Christians.)

(4) The Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D.
Heresy: Monophysitism
Monophysitism taught that Christ has one nature, a divine nature, that swallowed up the human nature. The Council affirmed that Christ has two natures: one human and one divine. This is also known as the Hypostatic Union in Christ. He is one person with two united natures: human and divine.

(5) The 2nd Council of Constantinople in 553 A.D.
Heresy: Three Chapters (Nestorianism)
The "Three Chapters" were theological writings which were tainted by the Nestorian heresy. The Council reaffirmed the teachings of the Council of Ephesus and Chalcedon.

(6) The 3rd Council of Constantinople in 680 A.D.
Heresy: Monothelitism
Monothelitism taught that Christ only had one will; that the human will was absorbed by the divine will. The Council affirmed that Christ has two wills, human and divine, in accordance with His two natures.

(7) The 2nd Council of Nicea in 787 A.D.
Heresy: Iconoclasm, Adoptionism
Iconoclasm taught that sacred images were idolatrous. Adoptionism taught that Christ was not the Son of God by nature, but only through adoption. The Council affirmed that images in sacred art are not idolatrous. It also reaffirmed the hypostatic union in Christ.

The martyrs DIED to preserve orthodoxy in theology. The least we can do is KNOW it. The current notion that theology doesn't matter must be abandoned.

Saint John of Damascus

Today the Church celebrates the feast of one of my favorite saints-St. John of Damascus. (c. 676-754/787 A.D.)

St. John lived between the 7th and 8th centuries and fought against the heresy of Iconoclasm. "Iconoclasts" viewed religious images of any kind as idolatrous. Against them were the orthodox "Iconodules" who regarded images as helpful in the aid of worship.

St. John brilliantly defended the veneration of images. He clarified the distinction between worshipping God and venerating His image. One prays to God himself, not a piece of wood or a mosaic. The picture is there to help focus one's prayer--very much like the Gospel accounts do. St. John's argument consisted in comparing images to the Gospel. His brilliant insight is simply this: the Gospels are verbal accounts of the Lord's words and actions, while icons are pictorial accounts. If you reject the latter, you are in danger of rejecting the former, because the content is the same.

There a lot of history behind this particular controversy. It is interesting to note that Islam may have influenced the iconoclast heretics since Mohammud taught that images were sacreligious and banned the production of them.

The 2nd Council of Nicea (787 A.D.) which was the 7th Ecumenical Council declared that the use of images in sacred art is not idolatrous. Images are used to help contemplate the divine mystery.

St. John is considered the last of the Church Fathers.

St. John of Damascus, pray for us.

David Foster Wallace on Life and Work

An acquaintance of mine sent me this article by Mr. Wallace. It's a very timely piece considering I dedicated a good majority of my posts relating to this topic on life and work.

Read on, interestingly enough, and tragically, Mr. Wallace committed suicide this past September.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178211966454607.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

"Everybody worships."

.

The Philosophical Act: Part IV (The Final Post)

"In the philosophical act, the human being's related-ness to the totality of being is realized; philosophy is oriented toward the world as a whole." A pre-condition to the philosophical act (which the Greek philosophers took for granted) is an "already given" view of the world. Plato wrote, "The ancients knew the truth; if we could only find it, why would we have to investigate the opinions of men?" Pieper explains it like this, "that a previously handed-down interpretation of the world stands before all philsophizing from which philosophy gets a spark."

Plato went further and said that this wisdom from the ancients is of divine origin, it is a "gift of the gods!"

We have come to the point now where philosophy comes into contact with theology. This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from John Paul II, "Faith and Reason (Theology and Philosophy) are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth--in a word, to know himself--so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves."

According to the Ancient Philsophers, theology precedes philosophy. "No philsophy is in existence which does not receive its first impulse and impetus from some previously existing, uncritically accepted interpretation of the world," writes Pieper.

In simplistic terms, before one can search, there must be first something for which to search. Before we can inquire into the meaning of human life, we must first believe...there is meaning to life.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Here's a brief backwards nutshell (depending on the way you look at it):

1. Doing philosophy presupposes theology. ("study of God")
2. Philosophizing is a uniquely human act, only humans can do it.
3. The "disturbances" of the philsophical act is what removes us from "environment" into "world."
4. To exist solely in the "environment" or world of work is to live in a partial-world similar to that of animals and plants.
5. Humans who worship "work" are slaves, confined to the "here-and-now" world.
6. The Cultus (or "worship" in the religious sense) is the highest form of leisure.
7. Leisure is the basis of culture.

The Philosophical Act: Part III

It should be noted that it is not by ignoring man's "environment" that he enters into the totality of being or "world." It is the visible world "the one before our very eyes which we touch with our hands" that the philosopher gazes upon. The philosopher is concerned with the ultimate, what things are in the last analysis.

The philosopher does not ask, "Am I happy?," but "What is happiness?"

Philosophy can not be "done" without the things of the everyday world. (This is what distinguishes a philosopher from say, a madman...who Chesterton once quipped, "has lost everything BUT his reason.") This, for the Christian, makes sense in the analogy that Christ does not save us despite our humanity, but through it.

To philosophize then is not to remove oneself from the things of the world but to to transcend it, to see things in a new light. Not with the agenda to "change" things (this would transform philosophy into a servile art...to "serve" a purpose) but to see the deeper reality.

Philosophy begins then, in an experience of wonder. "The ability to experience wonder is one of the highest possibilities of human nature." Thomas Aquinas believed that wonder is the first step on the path that leads to the beatific vision. Wonder is not just the first phase of philosophy but its ever abiding principle. In the way that a person you are getting to know becomes more and more wonderful...you don't lose that sense of wonder about the person, but even as you get to know more about them, the more there is to learn. As the old saying goes, "The more you know, the more you don't know." It's a paradox and it is connected to the sense of mystery. Aristotle went further and said that along with wonder is joy and as we often say in my Communion and Liberation circles, "the only joy is to begin again." Pieper says, "the joy of one who is astounded is the joy of a soul that is beginning something, of a soul that is always ready and alert for something new, for something unheard of."

Also, there is a hopefulness in wonder. Philosophers are never done with their work (unless they are dead in Heaven enjoying the beatific vision) as Pascal wrote, "we are not, but we hope to be." The structure of hope built into wonder shows how much it is a part of our human nature. Only humans can hope, wonder, philosophize. Neither God nor the animals, but only humans experience wonder.

The word philosopher means "lover of wisdom." According to Plato, only God is wise. The best a man can do is be a lover of wisdom. This is what makes philosophy so noble and so free. The knowledge to which philosophy aspires is never attainable.

Pieper says that "philsophy is shown to be something completely human and indeed, in a certain sense, as the fulfillment of human existence itself."