09.30.08
More “On the Soul and the Resurrection”
Continuing the discussion between the Saintly brother and sister,
I rejoined, Nay, it may be very possible to infer a wisdom transcending the universe from the skilful and artistic designs observable in this harmonized fabric of physical nature; but, as regards the soul, what knowledge is possible to those who would trace, from any indications the body has to give, the unknown through the known?
Most certainly, the Virgin replied, the soul herself, to those who wish to follow the wise proverb and know themselves, is a competent1758 instructress; of the fact, I mean, that she is an immaterial and spiritual thing, working and moving in a way corresponding to her peculiar nature, and evincing these peculiar emotions through the organs of the body. For this bodily organization exists the same even in those who have just been reduced by death to the state of corpses, but it remains without motion or action because the force of the soul is no longer in it. It moves only when there is sensation in the organs, and not only that, but the mental force by means of that sensation penetrates with its own impulses and moves whither it will all those organs of sensation.
Interesting distinction between the presence of the soul and it’s force.
The soul is an essence created, and living, and intellectual, transmitting from itself to an organized and sentient body the power of living and of grasping objects of sense, as long as a natural constitution capable of this holds together.
Following an interesting explanation of the apophatic approach to the invisible, which Devil’s Advocate St. Gregory replies may mean that the invisible does not exist, St. Macrina describes how the mind (not sure if she is distinguishing this from the soul) is like the invisible aspects of God,
Shame on such absurdity! said she, indignantly interrupting. A fine conclusion this narrow-minded, grovelling view of the world brings us to! If all that is not cognizable by sense is to be wiped out of existence, the all-embracing Power that presides over things is admitted by this same assertion not to be; once a man has been told about the non-material and invisible nature of the Deity, he must perforce with such a premise reckon it as absolutely non-existent. If, on the other hand, the absence of such characteristics in His case does not constitute any limitation of His existence, how can the Mind of man be squeezed out of existence along with this withdrawal one by one of each property of matter?
Well, then, I retorted, we only exchange one paradox for another by arguing in this way; for our reason will be reduced to the conclusion that the Deity and the Mind of man are identical, if it be true that neither can be thought of, except by the withdrawal of all the data of sense.
Say not so, she replied; to talk so also is blasphemous. Rather, as the Scripture tells you, say that the one is like the other. For that which is “made in the image” of the Deity necessarily possesses a likeness to its prototype in every respect; it resembles it in being intellectual, immaterial, unconnected 96with any notion of weight1771 and in eluding any measurement of its dimensions1772; yet as regards its own peculiar nature it is something different from that other. Indeed, it would be no longer an “image,” if it were altogether identical with that other; but1773 where we have A in that uncreate prototype we have a in the image;
[...] Just, then, as we have no doubts, owing to the display of a Divine mysterious wisdom in the universe, about a Divine Being and a Divine Power existing in it all which secures its continuance (though if you required a definition of that Being you would therein find the Deity completely sundered from every object in creation, whether of sense or thought, while in these last, too, natural distinctions are admitted), so, too, there is nothing strange in the soul’s separate existence as a substance (whatever we may think that substance to be) being no hindrance to her actual existence, in spite of the elemental atoms of the world not harmonizing with her in the definition of her being. In the case of our living bodies, composed as they are from the blending of these atoms, there is no sort of communion, as has been just said, on the score of substance, between the simplicity and invisibility of the soul, and the grossness of those bodies; but, notwithstanding that, there is not a doubt that there is in them the soul’s vivifying influence exerted by a law which it is beyond the human understanding to comprehend.
I was waiting for the explanation! Yet I want to know more about the unvivifying presence of the soul in the perished body that I think she alluded to earlier.
[...] so, when that framework is dissolved, and has returned to its kindred elements, there is nothing against probability that that simple and incomposite essence which has once for all by some inexplicable law grown with the growth of the bodily framework should continually remain beside the atoms with which it has been blended, and should in no way be sundered from a union once formed. For it does not follow that because the composite is dissolved the incomposite must be dissolved with it.
[St. Gregory logically follows,...] but once these atoms are separated from each other, and have gone whither their nature impels them, what is to become of the soul when her vessel is thus scattered in many directions? As a sailor, when his ship has been wrecked and gone to pieces, cannot float upon all the pieces at once which have been scattered this way and that over the surface of the sea (for he seizes any bit that comes to hand, and lets all the rest drift away), in the same way the soul, being by nature incapable of dissolution along with the atoms, will, if she finds it hard to be parted from the body altogether, cling to some one of them; and if we take this view, consistency will no more allow us to regard her as immortal for living in one atom than as mortal for not living in a number of them.
[To which she replies,...] In locality, in peculiar qualities, these elemental atoms are held to be far removed from each other; but an undimensional nature finds it no labour to cling to what is locally divided, seeing that even now it is possible for the mind at once to contemplate the heavens above us and to extend its busy scrutiny beyond the horizon, nor is its contemplative power at all distracted by these excursions into distances so great. There is nothing, then, to hinder the soul’s presence in the body’s atoms, whether fused in union or decomposed in dissolution. [...] Therefore the soul exists in the actual atoms which she has once animated, and there is no force to tear her away from her cohesion with them. What cause for melancholy, then, is there herein, that the visible is exchanged for the invisible; and wherefore is it that your mind has conceived such a hatred of death?
So the properties of union still exist even if the parts are separated, and this is of sufficient nature (apparently for St. Macrina) to maintain the presence of the individual, including his body, among us.
Since the discussion turns to the emotions, I assume of those still living, I will continue, Lord willing and me cooperating, in another post.
09.29.08
St. Gregory of Nyssa: On the Soul and the Resurrection
I really like the language in this dialogue between St. Gregory and his sister St. Macrina after the death of their brother, St. Basil. I’m only to the middle of section 90 so far, and The Teacher, St. Macrina, has not yet addressed to my satisfaction this question,
By what device, then, can we bring ourselves to regard as nothing a departure from life even in the case of a stranger, not to mention that of relations, when so be they cease to live? We see before us the whole course of human life aiming at this one thing, viz. how we may continue in this life; indeed it is for this that houses have been invented by us to live in; in order that our bodies may not be prostrated in their environment1749 by cold or heat. Agriculture, again, what is it but the providing of our sustenance? In fact all thought about how we are to go on living is occasioned by the fear of dying. Why is medicine so honoured amongst men? Because it is thought to carry on the combat with death to a certain extent by its methods. Why do we have corslets, and long shields, and greaves, and helmets, and all the defensive armour, and inclosures of fortifications, and iron-barred gates, except that we fear to die? Death then being naturally so terrible to us, how can it be easy for a survivor to obey this command to remain unmoved over friends departed?
Why, what is the especial pain you feel, asked the Teacher, in the mere necessity itself of dying? This common talk of unthinking persons is no sufficient accusation.
St. Gregory admits that he is too overcome by grief to think straight, and maybe I am too because I’m not quite getting the segue into atheism that the discussion turns into. I don’t think that grief over being bodily parted from loved ones amounts to disbelief in the soul’s continuance. But maybe it does. For me, I think I believe that Isaac’s soul is still alive, but maybe my disbelief comes as a result in believing in a distant Second Storey (Father Stephen Freeman’s famous blog and podcast expoundings on the ‘up there’ instead of ‘everywhere present’ impressions of heaven) where the invisible dwells.
When I think of Isaac, it is of his still, lifeless body, which I regret I had autopsied because when I next held him, it was stiff in some weird body cast. I was horrified all during the funeral after I experienced him that way. I wished I only had the memory of his warmed body right after he was born instead. But mercifully, the icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos gives me a better association with the state of his body upon burial. The swaddled bundle in Christ’s arms looks exactly as Isaac’s body did in the little casket, so I can picture him in that environment instead.
A few other notes about St. Gregory’s treatise so far: Macrina’s prostratedness in grief has not yet been explained; and the style of the dialogue reminds me a lot of Plato’s Republic, but St. Gregory is more relatable and deals with the issues in more of a heart-felt rather than coldly rationalistic manner.
Why We Wait
Deb’s agreement about how hard it is for us on this side to await the resurrection of our loved ones prompts me to copy what I read last night on Monachos about perseverance. I’m still looking for the quote, but it made me think that perhaps Christ went through all of our stages, including death, faster because He was without sin. We who have a habit of sin must prove our virtues, including patient endurance, through consistency over time.
Here it is,
What toil we must endure, what fatigue, while we are attempting to climb hills and the summits of mountains! What, that we may ascend to heaven! If you consider the promised reward, what you endure is less. Immortality is given to the one who perseveres; everlasting life is offered; the Lord promises His Kingdom.
- St Clement of Rome
09.25.08
Plato 12, “No matter where you go, there you are.” – Buckaroo Bonzai or maybe Confucius
Book IV, 2
Rules, sometimes they’re helpful, sometimes they’re too self-conscious.
Education is inevitable.
I am becoming more and more convinced that we need to focus on being inner-driven. I guess this is a libertarian point of view. I could argue with myself and say, “but you enjoy the advantages of a militarily protected and somewhat policed and peaceful state and a still somewhat morally (I’ve also been thinking about Christianity as too narrowly defined in moral terms) driven society”. Yes I do, but I’m tired of trying to make rules and judge rules for everyone to live by. I just want this to be granted:
Adversaries are more in my heart than circumstantial. But still children must be protected and guided, and I am thankful that there are abundant resources and opportunity for that.
Funny, that’s what Plato addresses next,
What, then, he said, is still remaining to us of the work of legislation?
Nothing to us, I replied; but to Apollo, the God of Delphi, there remains the ordering of the greatest and noblest and chiefest things of all.
Which are they? he said.
The institution of temples and sacrifices, and the entire service of gods, demigods, and heroes; also the ordering of the repositories of the dead, and the rites which have to be observed by him who would propitiate the inhabitants of the world below. These are matters of which we are ignorant ourselves, and as founders of a city we should be unwise in trusting them to any interpreter but our ancestral deity. He is the god who sits in the center, on the navel of the earth, and he is the interpreter of religion to all mankind.
09.23.08
Plato 11; Trying to get back into it, so baby steps.
‘The enemies of art are wealth and poverty.’ Only to reactionaries, I say. It may be harder for a rich man to work hard at his craft, but some rich people have done it. And some poor people have become good artists too by being creative and resourceful with what they had. And middle class people can become complacent with mediocrity. Perhaps the answer is in if the person was spoiled or not. A poor person can be spoiled by pity and by being told they are a victim of other people’s actions. Some poor people feel that they can make things better, and so they do. Hardship does seem the better teacher, however. Let’s not spoil it.
09.17.08
I may have to recategorize my blogroll
because the forest may be hiding the many lovely trees. Especially since I’m adding a couple of blogs where I’ve recently made comments.
The Well of Questions provides analysis and insight into things philosophical and theological from four very smart people. I recently tried to talk about time in What Is Past Has Passed, and duty in Supererogatory Actions.
Everyone probably already knows about Arturo Vasquez’s Reditus: A Chronicle of Aesthetic Christianity, which I’ll put in Reconciliation Conversations. I commented on his post about the movie, Luther, on the second page at present, which contains a very interesting conversation contrasting the Catholic and Protestant response.
I’ve already added Diakrisis Logismon’s valuable Patristic resources, but will call attention to it here as well.
Oh, and I’ve also made a couple of comments concerning the painful subject of the OCA scandal on Gabriel’s Going Along, where he has two recent posts obviously enough titled.
09.15.08
It Feels Like Autumn
We have received an unusual amount of rain for late summer. As a result, I have not had to refill the swimming pool, our grass is greener than it was in spring, the Crepe Myrtles are blooming more lavender flowers than I have ever seen them do, and I’ve not had to water my garden which is producing its fourth through eighth tomatoes as we speak. For this I am very thankful.
Last Tuesday night we went to hear Terry Brooks speak in Fort Worth. Pro – he is a testament to avid reading, enduring enthusiasm and hard work. Con – His favorite writer is atheist Phillip Pullman. Brooks’ Shannara books were lent to us a few years ago and enjoyed by my older children. I am not an avid reader, so I did not preview them beforehand, nor have we discussed them afterward. I don’t know if it would have made much difference if I had, except for my warnings about fantasy. But if I stick to my ideals, then my kids would not be allowed to read anything. Austen indulges too much in romantic fantasy and elevates suffering for suffering’s sake too much, Shakespeare’s characters are too passionate, Cyrano and Quixote are battling impossible figments of their imagination, Lewis is too speculative and trying to please everyone – as long as they’re traditional, Plato is too rational, etc. Spiritual writings even need to be read under advisement. I’ve come to the point of believing there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, except in Church. We must stay alert and vigilant with everything. Sit back and relax? With X-files maybe, but that show isn’t relaxing.
At lunch I lectured my children, one of whom was reading a Terry Brooks story while eating, about being addicted to fantasy, action and adventure. I speak from experience as I’ve recounted elsewhere about romantic literature. People don’t know how to be quiet and peaceful with themselves especially nowadays where instant excitement and stimulation is only a button click away, or a turn of the page, or in the refrigerator. (I’m starting a low-carb diet today, btw, Lord have mercy – I love chips!) Terry Brooks says that one reason he keeps writing book after book, besides always wanting to improve in his craft, is because he gets grumpy when he’s not. Sign of addiction, if you asked me. The only thing we’re supposed to be addicted to is prayer and the Sacraments. Everything else can pass away without eternal consequences.
So why read? Because the Church recommends it mainly. It also unites us to other humans, and we are a people of language. Using language is a skill that I and my kids definitely need to improve in. A skill all of the above authors excel at, among others whom most people are acquainted with better than me. I’m also sure that there are legitimate things to learn and be amused by in everyone, as I don’t believe in Total Depravity. So I’ll not forbid them to read Terry Brooks until I hear of something that I believe will damage them like too graphic violence or sex. I was encouraged to get lost in books while I was growing up, and even though we sometimes can be transported by a well-crafted tale, we still need to know what to guard against like unrealistic expectations. So I hope that having critical conversations with my children will be enough to protect them from getting lost in these fantastic other worlds.
Meanwhile, I’ve barely begun C.S. Lewis’ third in his Space Trilogy, That Hideous Strength, which hasn’t offended me yet. After that I may read some Chesterton. I don’t know when I’ll get back to Plato. And for Spiritual reading, I feel drawn to The Prayers, some of which are linked in my previous posts, as a way to try to get my mind, which is too far ahead of my heart and thus crippled, into the latter.
A couple of preliminary thoughts on THS, I think Lewis brings up a good point about the collegiate discussion regarding the repair of the wall around the well. He laments that the discussion in days past would have concerned the preservation of beauty. While that is a loftier goal than utility and economy, beauty on its own can be too subjective and one’s appreciation too subject to the passions. By stating that Bracton College “was founded in 1300 for the support of ten learned men whose duties were to pray for the soul of Henry de Bracton and to study the laws of England”, Lewis highlights for me both the common lineage of orthodoxy in early England and where they started to go astray. But even the common part in the Church of England has faded into the background with the Protestant Reformation. He also brings up Cromwell’s purges and how Merlin’s well was saved from it by a martyr. I am not sure of Lewis’ sentiments regarding the “popery” of praying for the dead and keeping holy places consecrated, but at least he notes how tradition is being threatened.
Back to the weather, we are experiencing unseasonably cooler temperatures, a perfect 72 degrees at present, so I have sent the kids out of doors before they do their homework. Hopefully they are clearing the path in the woods of fallen trees and branches and will play Hide and Seek with Rebecca and Pippin (our Corgi). We have still not gotten to Lively Latin or History Portfolio as their Abeka takes up most of their day, and 9th grade, without the Bible video, hasn’t been too disagreeable so far. I’m not having Rebecca read their depressing readers, though, and since she read The Magician’s Nephew over the summer, I’ve not pressed her on extra reading yet. Jeremy and Rachel are both reading, from Sonlight recommendations for their book reports, The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which I have not read but have seen the movie. They usually write thoughtful reports, so I will wait for that.
Current Scripture
2 Corinthians 12:10-19 (Epistle)
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing. Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. For what is it in which you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong! Now for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be burdensome to you; for I do not seek yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. But be that as it may, I did not burden you. Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you by cunning! Did I take advantage of you by any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus, and sent our brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit? Did we not walk in the same steps? Again, do you think that we excuse ourselves to you? We speak before God in Christ. But we do all things, beloved, for your edification.
(any typos mine)
Mark 4:10-23 (Gospel)
But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables,so that ‘Seeing they may see and not perceive, And hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, And their sins be forgiven them.’ ” And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. Also He said to them, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.
(from oca.org)
09.13.08
Current Service
We worship Thine immaculate icon, O Good One, asking the forgiveness of our failings, O Christ our God; for of Thine own will Thou wast well-pleased to ascend the Cross in the flesh, that Thou mightest deliver from slavery to the enemy those whom Thou hadst fashioned. Wherefore, we cry to Thee thankfully: Thou didst fill all things with joy, O our Saviour, when Thou camest to save the world.
Both now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
As first-fruits of our nature to the Planter of created things, the world presenteth the God-bearing martyred Saints in off’ring unto Thee, O Lord. Through their entreaties, keep Thy Church in deep peace and divine tranquillity, through the pure Theotokos, O Thou Who art greatly merciful.
Lord, have mercy. (Forty times).
Thou Who at all times and at every hour, in Heaven and on earth, art worshipped and glorified, O Christ God, Who art long-suffering, plenteous in mercy, most compassionate, Who lovest the righteous and hast mercy on sinners, Who callest all to salvation through the promise of good things to come: receive, O Lord, our prayers at this hour, and guide our life toward Thy commandments. Sanctify our souls, make chaste our bodies, correct our thoughts, purify our intentions, and deliver us from every sorrow, evil, and pain. Compass us about with Thy holy Angels, that, guided and guarded by their array, we may attain to the unity of faith, and the knowledge of Thine unapproachable glory; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Lord, have mercy. (Three times).
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, Both now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
More honourable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, thee who without corruption gavest birth to God the Word, the very Theotokos, thee do we magnify.
In the Name of the Lord, bless. Amen.
O God and Lord of Hosts, and Maker of all Creation, Who in the tender compassion of Thy mercy which transcendeth comprehension, didst send down Thine only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, for the salvation of our race, and by His precious Cross didst tear asunder the handwriting of our sins, and thereby didst triumph over the principalities and powers of darkness: Do Thou Thyself, O Master, Lover of mankind, accept also from us sinners these prayers of thanksgiving and entreaty, and deliver us from every destructive and dark transgression, and from all enemies, both visible and invisible, that seek to do us evil. Nail down our flesh with the fear of Thee, and incline not our hearts unto words or thoughts of evil, but pierce our souls with longing for Thee, so that ever looking to Thee, and being guided by Thy Light as we behold Thee, the unapproachable and everlasting Light, we may send up unceasing praise and thanksgiving unto Thee, the Unoriginate Father, with Thine Only-begotten Son, and Thine All-holy and good and life-creating Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, Both now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. Lord, have mercy. (Three times). Lord, bless.
Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.
This and the previous post are from The Dynamic Horologion and Psalter.
Cross from goarch.org.
