CONTRA FATUM

“According to the Gospel, God is not confined to the sanctuaries of the Church. He is not enshrined in any altar. The reason Christians gather now and then in their sanctuaries is not because God is there but rather to celebrate and proclaim God’s presence and action outside the sanctuaries in the common life of the world. Worship which has integrity in the Gospel is always an intercession by God’s people for the cares and needs of the world, and always a thanksgiving - a eucharist - for God’s love for the world. Worship at the altar is thus authenticated by the constant involvment of the people of the Church in the world’s life and by the public witness of the Church in the world.” (William Stringfellow) It might seem strange to want to base an ecumenical argument upon the views of ‘sectarians’. But by formulating an ecumenical view on the eucharist with reference to anabaptists such as Menno Simons, this is, to some degree, what the following proposes. There can be no dou...

Do not however suppose that the Existent which truly exists is apprehended by any man; for we have in us no organ by which we can envisage it, neither in sense, for it is imperceptible by sense, nor yet in mind…And why should we wonder that the Existent cannot be apprehended by men when even the mind in each of us is unknown to us? For who knows the essential nature of the soul? ( Mut. 7, 10) quoted in Louth 2007

"no matter what acts of great holiness man performs, they are not fulfilling and pleasing the Will of God if they do not spring from the truth of Christ's words. For there is not one man in all mankind who has an insight into God's counsel, there is not one (in the position) to ask about good deeds and to show to people a better way than the one which God has found in Himself, and which He has chosen; and that way He has published in the words of His commandments which are known to all who want to do His will and to find His grace." (Chelcicky)

HE says to me, “You know that you who are the servants of God dwell in a strange land; for your city is far away from this one. If, then,” he continues, “you know your city in which you are to dwell, why do ye here provide lands, and make expensive preparations, and accumulate dwellings and useless buildings? He who makes such preparations for this city cannot return again to his own. Oh foolish, and unstable, and miserable man! Dost thou not understand that all these things belong to another, and are under the power of another? for the lord of this city will say, ‘I do not wish thee to dwell in my city; but depart from this city, because thou obeyest not my laws.’ Thou, therefore, although having fields and houses, and many other things, when cast out by him, what wilt thou do with thy land, and house, and other possessions which thou hast gathered to thyself? For the lord of this country justly says to thee, ‘Either obey my laws or depart from my dominion.’ What, then, dost thou inte...

“They stay no longer within the bounds of human nature, but assume divine power and authority. They believe they have sovereignty over life and death because to some of those who are judged by them they give sentence of acquital, while others they condemn to death; and they do not even consider who is truly the sovereign of human life and determines both the beginning of existence and its end. Nevertheless this alone should have been enough to restrain vain conceit, the sight of many rulers even during the performance of their reign snatched from their very thrones and carried out to their graves, and for them lamentation has replaced the cries of the heralds. How then can he be sovereign over life which does not belong to him, when his own does not belong to him? Even that person, therefore, if he becomes poor in spirit, looking to the one who willingly became poor because of us, and observing the equal respect we owe to members of our race, will not inflict injury on those who share ...

"Our warfare does not make the living dead, but rather makes the dead to live, because it is conducted in the spirit of meekness and humility. I persecute by word, not by acts. I persecute heresy, not heretics. I would rather be persecuted, than persecute, just as Christ was victorious as Crucified, and not as crucifier."

"human governments experience such quickly-repeated revolutions for this very reason, that it is impracticable that those to whom nature has given equal rights should be excluded from power, but her impulse is instinct in all to make themselves equal with the dominant party, when all are of the same blood. αἱ δὲ ἀνθρώπιναι δυναστεῖαι τούτου χάριν ἀγχιστρόφους ἔχουσι τὰς μεταβολάς, ὅτι οὐ δέχεται τὸ κατὰ τὴν φύσιν ὁμότιμον μὴ ἰσομοιρεῖν [ἐν] τῷ κρείττονι, ἀλλά τις ἔγκειται φυσικὴ πᾶσιν ἐπιθυμία πρὸς τὸ ἐπικρατοῦν ἐξισάζεσθαι, ὅταν ὁμόφυλον ᾖ" (Against Eunomius, p. 84, 1.1.527-528)

”I en vis forstand (læser de) det samme; dog er der en uendelig forskel, da den sidste ikke aner det overførte ords hemmelighed, medens han dog bruger det samme ord, men ikke overført. Som ånden er usynlig, så er også dens sprog en hemmelighed, og hemmeligheden stikker just deri, at den bruger de samme ord som barnet og den enfoldige, men bruger dem overført ... Åndens væsen er det overførtes stille hviskende hemmelighed – for den der har øren at høre med”.

"But to the Father of all, who is unbegotten there is no name given. For by whatever name He be called, He has as His elder the person who gives Him the name. But these words Father, and God, and Creator, and Lord, and Master, are not names, but appellations derived from His good deeds and functions. And His Son, who alone is properly called Son, the Word who also was with Him and was begotten before the works, when at first He created and arranged all things by Him, is called Christ, in reference to His being anointed and God’s ordering all things through Him; this name itself also containing an unknown significance; as also the appellation “God” is not a name, but an opinion implanted in the nature of men of a thing that can hardly be explained. But “Jesus,” His name as man and Saviour, has also significance. For He was made man also, as we before said, having been conceived according to the will of God the Father, for the sake of believing men, and for the destruction of the de...

"Attack the silence of Pythagoras, or the Orphic beans, or the extraordinary pretentiousness of "Thus spake the Master." Attack Plato's Ideas, and the Re-embodiments and Cycles of our souls, and their Recollections, and those distasteful love-affairs where the soul was the object, but the beautiful body the route. Then there is Epicurus' atheism, or his atoms, or his ideal of Pleasure, unworthy of a philosopher; or Aristotle's mean conception of Providence, his artificial system, his mortal view of the soul, and the human-centered nature of his teaching. Or what about the superciliousness of the Stoics, the greed and vulgarity of the Cynics? Attack "the Void" - which is full of nonsense, or all the mumbojumbo of gods and sacrifices, idols, demons beneficent or malignant, of soothsaying, summoning the gods or the spirits of the dead, and of the influences of the stars." (Gregory Nazianzus, or. 28??)

That God, the creative and sustaining cause of all, exists, sight and instinctive law inform us - sight, which lights upon things seen as nobly fixed in their course, borne along in, so to speak, motionless movement; instinctive law, which infers their author through the things seen in their orderliness. How could this universe have had a foundation or constitution, unless God gave all things being and sustains them?

"Every slightest objection bars, hinders, the course of the argument, and checks its progress. It is like applying the reins suddenly to galloping horses, making them veer round with the surprise of the shock. So it was with Solomon, the superior of his predecessors and contemporaries in education, gifted by God with breadth of heart and an expanse of vision ampler than the sand. The more he entered into profundities, the more his mind reeled. He made it a goal of his wisdom to discover just how far off it was. (Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 28,21)

All truth, all philosophy, to be sure, is obscure, hard to trace out. It is like employing a small tool on big constructions, if we use human wisdom in the hunt for knowledge of reality. We do not abandon the senses, they go with us, when we look at supra-sensible realities. But by these same senses we are perplexed and led astray. We cannot get nearer the truth by meeting things in their naked reality with naked intellect. (Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 28,21)

Still working on The Epistle to Diognetus , which keeps making associations to modern theology pop up. This time it's Karl Barth's debate with Emil Brunner. Consider the epistle's claim that, “[...]being convicted in the past time by our own deeds as unworthy of life, we might now be made deserving by the goodness of God, and having made clear our inability to enter into the kingdom of God of ourselves, might be enabled by the ability of God.” (9.1, Lightfoot) and “Having then in the former time demonstrated the inability of our nature to obtain life, and having now revealed a Saviour able to save even creatures which have no ability, He willed that for both reasons we should believe in His goodness[...]” (9.6, Lightfoot) If by 'dialectical theology' we mean that God's 'yes' and 'no' are inseparable (Tillich), this is certainly a specimen of such. The two elements, negative and positive, come together in faith (in an Aufhebung! ), or? A...

"After we had thus freely sold ourselves to the deceiver, He who of His goodness sought to restore us to liberty could not, because He was just too, for this end have recourse to measures of arbitrary violence. It was necessary therefore that a ransom should be paid, which should exceed in value that which was to be ransomed; and hence it was necessary that the Son of God should surrender Himself to the power of death. God's justice then impelled Him to choose a method of exchange, as His wisdom was seen in executing it.” (Great Catechism)

"But to whom did He give His soul as a ransom for many? Surely not to God. Could it, then, be to the Evil One? For he had us in his power, until the ransom for us should be given to him, even the life (or soul) of Jesus, since he (the Evil One) had been deceived, and led to suppose that he was capable of mastering that soul, and he did not see that to hold Him involved a trial of strength ( thasanon ) greater than he was equal to. Therefore also death, though he thought he had prevailed against Him, no longer lords over Him, He (Christ) having become free among the dead and stronger than the power of death, and so much stronger than death that all who will amongst those who are mastered by death may also follow Him ( i.e. out of Hades, out of death's domain), death no longer prevailing against them. For every one who is with Jesus is unassailable by death." ( Commentary on Matthew XVI, 8; Aulen, op. cit. , p. 49. In footnote 13, Aulen says, "Translat...

Sophocles, the son of Sophilus, says: “One, in truth, one is God, Who made both heaven and the far-stretching earth, And ocean’s blue wave, and the mighty winds; But many of us mortals, deceived in heart, Have set up for ourselves, as a consolation in our afflictions, Images of the gods of stone, or wood, or brass, Or gold, or ivory; And, appointing to those sacrifices and vain festal assemblages, Are accustomed thus to practice religion.” For if, at the most, the Greeks, having received certain scintillations of the divine word, have given forth some utterances of truth, they bear indeed witness that the force of truth is not hidden, and at the same time expose their own weakness in not having arrived at the end. For I think it has now become evident to all, that those who do or speak aught without the word of truth are like people compelled to walk without feet. Let the strictures on your gods, which the poets, impelled by the force of truth, introduce in their comedies, shame you in...

Our thought cannot grasp the One as long as any other image remains active in the soul . . To this end, you must set free your soul from all outward things and turn wholly within yourself, with no more leaning to what lies outside, and lay your mind bare of ideal forms, as before of the objects of sense, and forget even yourself, and so come within sight of that One. [6.9.7]

"Withdrawal from the world is a willing hatred of all that is materially prized, a denial of nature for the sake of what is above nature. All this is done by those who willingly turn from the things of this life, either for the sake of the coming kingdom, or because of the number of their sins, or on account of their love of God. Without such objectives the denial of the world would make no sense." (Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent p. 74) "Nothing equals the mercy of God or surpasses it. To despair is therefore to inflict death on oneself." (Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent p. 130) "A man who has heard himself sentenced to death will not worry about the way theaters are run. Similarly, a man who is truly in mourning will never go back to high living, glory, anger, or irritability." (Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent p. 144) "Only when we are completely free of the urge to lie may we resort to it, and then only in fear and out of necessity. A baby d...

In his pivotal work 'The Meaning of the City' ( Sans feu ni lieu: Signification biblique de la Grande Ville ) French professor of law, theologian and author Jacques Ellul identifies 'the city' as the spiritual, though concrete, phenomena in which humankind's rebellion against God gets its actual expression in such things as power, money and technology. For this reason the city is also the concrete locus of God's work in Christ. The liberation from sin and death is in practice a liberation from the spiritual and material powers dwelling in the city. The dialectics of salvation (the Kierkegaardian double-movement?) becomes concrete as a movement between city and desert: "No longer does man belong to the city, exactly as he no longer belongs to the crowd, because his individuality has been affirmed by his encounter with Jesus Christ. He was made separate, set aside when he left the city to go out into the desert. And this is accomplished in a d...