From Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Writings in Time of War

“Then, it is really true, Lord? By helping the spread of science and freedom, I can increase the density of the divine atmosphere in which it is always my one desire to be immersed. By laying hold to the Earth I enable myself to cling closely to you…”.

“Since first, Lord, you said, ‘This is my body,” not only the bread of the altar but (to some degree) everything in the universe that nourishes the soul for the life of Spirit and Grace has become yours and has become divine- it is divinized, divinizing, and divinizable. Every presence makes me feel that you are near me; every touch is the touch of your hand; every necessity transmits to me a pulsation of your will.”

Review Items for Test "Problem of Evil"

“Both classical (Plato & Aristotle) and Christian (Augustine) political thought held rulers accountable for the wellbeing of their peoples. Machiavelli, in ‘The Prince’, focused entirely on what rulers had to do to get and keep power, which meant exploiting the fears and desires of their subjects…”  

“…[Hobbes] started by dismissing all Aristotelian questions about the ultimate goal of politics. There is no greater good for human beings, but there is, he thinks, a universally agreed-upon greatest evil, ‘sudden and violent death.’ The problem is we all have the power to inflict that evil on one another… so we are forced to treat one another as standing threats…As a result, life in the state of nature is ‘solitary, poor, nasty, and short.’ Thus it is in everyone’s interest to establish a single, superior authority, which will stop us from killing one another. This is the origin of the state…”

Quoted from “We, The Polity: A New History of Political Thought” by Adam Kirsch in the New Yorker.

“IT IS NOT GOOD FOR THE PEOPLE TO BE SCATTERED OUT ACROSS THE PRAIRIE. I WILL TEACH THEM TO MAKE THEIR CAMPS TOGETHER IN A CIRCLE, LIKE THE GREAT CIRCLE OF THE EARTH, AND TO LIVE IN HARMONY AND PEACE WITH EACH OTHER AND THE EARTH. I KNOW THE PEOPLE DON’T LISTEN SO GOOD, SO I MAY HAVE TO TRICK THEM INTO ACCEPTING THIS TEACHING.  Hyemoyhost Storm in Seven Arrows

“Facing our messiness is the stuff of a calling… and is surely the linchpin of our salvation…”

“”…whether we continue to bear our spiritually and emotionally challenging work or not, the world’s suffering continues. Even were we to step out of the trenches, none of us can adequately shield ourselves from …these inevitable injustices and sufferings… in fact, it is our very attempts to protect ourselves from such painful realities that we actually injure ourselves spiritually.”

Eugene V. Debs

“I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.”
― Eugene Victor Debs

 “I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth; I am a citizen of the world. ”
― Eugene Victor Debs

“In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People."

(Canton, OH, Anti-War Speech, June 16, 1918)”

“Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”
― Eugene Victor Debs

 “Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization.”
― Eugene Victor Debs

A philosophical discussion with Teagan

Philosophy Family Tree

The Nicene Creed a Parable? continued...

THE NICENE CREED A PARABLE? It was intended, I think, to set a boundary, and provide a criterion of exclusion. But what if we were to perceive it as a “parable”? Conference Leader Rob Voyle told the clergy of the Diocese of Michigan this past week that Jesus’ teaching in the gospels was calculated to “create confusion” in people’s minds, to introduce a “new map” for understanding reality. He said nothing about the Nicene Creed… that is a rambling of my own creation. Rob Voyle did say that the interpretation/application of parables varies greatly from one context to another. In contrast, creeds are supposed to always mean the same thing. But do they?  

The Nicene fathers did not, I assume, think of themselves as tellers of destabilizing anecdotes. But is it possible God regards them as such? Is it possible God looks upon them the same way God looks upon us, as bumbling but loveable co-conspirators on a mission to reinvent the world?

Who says God looks upon us as such? Who says God “looks upon” anything in any which way? After all, the Nicene Creed says nothing about God’s having “eyes”. It does say, however, that God “enanthropesanta”, that is, “became truly human.” I guess that imputes a version of “eyesight” to God, and would constitute, in my eyes, the last word in parables, except that, when it comes to parables, there is no such thing as a “last word”.