(Originally written February 28, 2006)
Matthew 18:19-20: "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in Heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them"
Ethics in America: Do unto others
Two methodological principles:
1) Degrees (or levels of ethical responsibility)
2) Severity of Human need
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Friday, February 24, 2006
Recovery in England & Germany
(Originally written February 24, 2006 in Book 24)
Class Notes
Recovery and Revival
Western Europe AD 1000 - 1200
Early Middle Ages (AD 500 - 1000)
-Decentralized Government
-Spain: Visigoths
-Gaul: Franks: The highpoint of Frankish kings is Charlemagne; A.D. 800
-Feudalistic government
-Feudalism is threatened by the Scandinavian tribes at the end of the reign of Charlemagne
-Scandinavian tribes convert similarly to the Germanic tribes
-Germanic kings worked hard to consolidate large "kingdoms" through feudalism. After generations of consolidating the Scandinavian invasion causes everyone to break ties to their lords and defend their lords and defend their own land. This causes further political instability and more decentralized of government.
-The Danes (Scandinavian) caused serious problems in Anglo-Saxon Britain. The Norsemen set up a strong kingdom in Normandy (Northern France). Britain suffers constant invasion from the Danes and Normans.
-The Scandinavians completely destroy the stability that Charlemagne created.
Political Recovery of England
End to invasion
-Norse/Viking
Alfred the Great of Wessex
- consolidating rule and fighting vikings 879-896
- brings scholars from the Carolingians
Edgar (959-975)
-Unified Anglo-Saxon monarchy
- Centralization of government, reestablishes stability by conquering the Vikings
Harold Bluetooth
Swein Forkbeard conquered England in 1014, son Cnut followed him in 1016
Last Anglo-Saxon king: Edward the Confessor
-William the Conquerer, a Norman conquered Britain in 1066
Political Recovery of Germany
Political recovery stems from an economic revival (which coincides with the miniature ice age lifting and important technological advancement)
End of Invasions
-Magnus (Hungarian)
Otto I
- Battle of Zechfeld, 955
- Supported missions to Scandinavia and Slavs
- Anskar, bishop of Bremen and Hamburg
- Strong alliance with bishops and abbots
- New bishoprics (diocese) along eastern border: gave bishops authority to collect revenues and call men to arms.
- Bishops in this area answered to the German king.
In 962 the Pope crowns Otto I as the first Holy Roman Emperor since Charlemagne.
Charlemagne's Empire Post-Death
Divided between Charles (France), Lothar, and Louis (Germany)
France expands westward, Germany eastward and squeeze out the Lothar Kingdom.
Class Notes
Recovery and Revival
Western Europe AD 1000 - 1200
Early Middle Ages (AD 500 - 1000)
-Decentralized Government
-Spain: Visigoths
-Gaul: Franks: The highpoint of Frankish kings is Charlemagne; A.D. 800
-Feudalistic government
-Feudalism is threatened by the Scandinavian tribes at the end of the reign of Charlemagne
-Scandinavian tribes convert similarly to the Germanic tribes
-Germanic kings worked hard to consolidate large "kingdoms" through feudalism. After generations of consolidating the Scandinavian invasion causes everyone to break ties to their lords and defend their lords and defend their own land. This causes further political instability and more decentralized of government.
-The Danes (Scandinavian) caused serious problems in Anglo-Saxon Britain. The Norsemen set up a strong kingdom in Normandy (Northern France). Britain suffers constant invasion from the Danes and Normans.
-The Scandinavians completely destroy the stability that Charlemagne created.
Political Recovery of England
End to invasion
-Norse/Viking
Alfred the Great of Wessex
- consolidating rule and fighting vikings 879-896
- brings scholars from the Carolingians
Edgar (959-975)
-Unified Anglo-Saxon monarchy
- Centralization of government, reestablishes stability by conquering the Vikings
Harold Bluetooth
Swein Forkbeard conquered England in 1014, son Cnut followed him in 1016
Last Anglo-Saxon king: Edward the Confessor
-William the Conquerer, a Norman conquered Britain in 1066
Political Recovery of Germany
Political recovery stems from an economic revival (which coincides with the miniature ice age lifting and important technological advancement)
End of Invasions
-Magnus (Hungarian)
Otto I
- Battle of Zechfeld, 955
- Supported missions to Scandinavia and Slavs
- Anskar, bishop of Bremen and Hamburg
- Strong alliance with bishops and abbots
- New bishoprics (diocese) along eastern border: gave bishops authority to collect revenues and call men to arms.
- Bishops in this area answered to the German king.
In 962 the Pope crowns Otto I as the first Holy Roman Emperor since Charlemagne.
Charlemagne's Empire Post-Death
Divided between Charles (France), Lothar, and Louis (Germany)
France expands westward, Germany eastward and squeeze out the Lothar Kingdom.
Providence and Trinity
(Originally written February 24, 2006)
Quiz
1) What does Rabbi Harold Kushner deny?
- God is all powerful
2) Who said, 'whatever is, is right'?
- Alexander Pope
3) The story of Oedipus Rex reflects what worldview?
- Fatalism
4) According to William of Ockham since the creation God acts according to his ordained power.
5) True/False: According to Aquinas God's omnipotence makes him free to do anything:
-False
Special Providence
God sustains everything/everyone
1. Nothing happens by chance in "decrees, not bare permission" (Calvin)
2. Providence is not fate (Oedipus Rex)
a. Fate is impersonal; providence is personal
b. Fate deals solely with destiny; providence deals with the journey as well
Alternatives to Providence
Deism - natural law; dualistic
Pantheism - all is God's will, monistic
"Spiritual" Providence (Harold Kushner) "God can't do everything"
Augustine laid the groundwork for the social Trinity: "God is love, since love requires multiple people God must be more than a single person"
Richard of St. Victor (died 1173) defined God as three person bound together by love
This view as viewed by some as a form of tritheism, which is the view of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirt as three different (but equal) gods.
Aquinas corrected and expounded on Richard's doctrine and stated God was one substance (essence) but that each person of the Trinity was "relationally" distinct.
Quiz
1) What does Rabbi Harold Kushner deny?
- God is all powerful
2) Who said, 'whatever is, is right'?
- Alexander Pope
3) The story of Oedipus Rex reflects what worldview?
- Fatalism
4) According to William of Ockham since the creation God acts according to his ordained power.
5) True/False: According to Aquinas God's omnipotence makes him free to do anything:
-False
Special Providence
God sustains everything/everyone
1. Nothing happens by chance in "decrees, not bare permission" (Calvin)
2. Providence is not fate (Oedipus Rex)
a. Fate is impersonal; providence is personal
b. Fate deals solely with destiny; providence deals with the journey as well
Alternatives to Providence
Deism - natural law; dualistic
Pantheism - all is God's will, monistic
"Spiritual" Providence (Harold Kushner) "God can't do everything"
Augustine laid the groundwork for the social Trinity: "God is love, since love requires multiple people God must be more than a single person"
Richard of St. Victor (died 1173) defined God as three person bound together by love
This view as viewed by some as a form of tritheism, which is the view of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirt as three different (but equal) gods.
Aquinas corrected and expounded on Richard's doctrine and stated God was one substance (essence) but that each person of the Trinity was "relationally" distinct.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Morality and the Law
(Originally written February 23, 2006)
Topic 5: Morality and the Law
Conclusion: Who is correct, and on what basis?
On the basis of both principle (duty) and Utility
A. Liberty - valuable, but not absolute
B. Wisdom - a little inconvenience for a lot of good
C. Conscience - the need to intervene
D. Community - the domino effect.
Topic 5: Morality and the Law
Conclusion: Who is correct, and on what basis?
On the basis of both principle (duty) and Utility
A. Liberty - valuable, but not absolute
B. Wisdom - a little inconvenience for a lot of good
C. Conscience - the need to intervene
D. Community - the domino effect.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Class notes on Providence
(Originally written on February 22, 2006 in Book 23)
Class Notes
Providence - pro vidre ('foresight'; 'provide')
God not only created, but also sustains the world
Doctrine of Providence
- Contrary to Enlightenment Deism (Paley's clock)
- Carnal mind - often stops at Creation, less apt to call God sustainer (Calvin)
General providence
- God upholds the universe as a whole
1. Laws of nature (impersonal)
2. Moral laws programmed into creation
Special Providence
God sustains everything/everyone
1. Nothing happens by chance
"decrees, not bare permission" (Calvin)
2. Providence is not fate
Class Notes
Providence - pro vidre ('foresight'; 'provide')
God not only created, but also sustains the world
Doctrine of Providence
- Contrary to Enlightenment Deism (Paley's clock)
- Carnal mind - often stops at Creation, less apt to call God sustainer (Calvin)
General providence
- God upholds the universe as a whole
1. Laws of nature (impersonal)
2. Moral laws programmed into creation
Special Providence
God sustains everything/everyone
1. Nothing happens by chance
"decrees, not bare permission" (Calvin)
2. Providence is not fate
Monday, February 20, 2006
More views on Creation
(Originally written on February 20, 2006)
Quiz
1) The notion that God created the world in six twenty-four hour days is connected with?
- Direct Creationism
2) In Genesis 1:27 how many times does the Hebrew word "barah" meaning "create" appear?
- Three
3) In the heavenly realm Satan's alter ego is?
- Michael
4) Who wrote the book Darwin's Black Box?
- Michael Behe
The cosmos is result of either impersonal + time + chance or Divine Creation
Divine Creation
- evidences in microsphere:
- "anthropic principle" - universe made in such a way that it is made to be conducive to human life
- evidences in microsphere:
"irreducible complexity" - the complexity of certain aspects of humanity makes it impossible for a gradual evolutionary process
Genesis & Evolution
Bible - Special creation of humanity as humanity
Theistic evolution?
Genesis 1-3 is not allegory or parable
3 Differentiations
Genesis 1:1 (ex nihilo) nothing becomes something
- Barah #1
Genesis 1:21 unconsciousness becomes conscious life
- Barah #2
Genesis 1:27 Conscious life becomes imago dei
- Barah #3
barah is used three times in verse 27, signifying that humanity is the pinnacle or apex of creation
Caveat: scientific theory is not equal to fact
The Bible states that:
1) God created, thus there is a time, a specific starting point for creation
2) The universe is not necessary, it is contingent upon something or someone. It is not independent, it is dependent on something
3) God of creation and God of redemption are the same (contrary to Marcion's heresy)
Angels
-Created beings, and self-existent spirits
-Spirits, not bodily (Matthew 22:30, Genesis 18:1)
Hierarchy of Angels
- Michael (Daniel 12:1, Jude 9, Revelation 12:7)
- Gabriel (Daniel 8:16, 9:21, Luke 1:19, 31-33)
Monad agents with the capacity to rebel
-Satan is a fallen angel (Revelation 12:7). Satan is not a self-existent spirit
A Faith for all Season Ch. 4
The starting point for answering these questions is comprehending the Bible. It is a foundational point, but experience and science should be used in addition to form a Christian worldview.
God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth
God created the world out of nothing (ex nihilo) simply by calling them into being
The universe is not eternal; only God is eternal.
A modern school of thought (process theology) believes that both God and the universe are eternally in developmental mode. This view ignores "in the beginning" and blurs the line between the creator and the created order.
The God of creation is the God of redemption. This is a belief that has been held by even the earliest Christians. The Nicene Creed and the Apostolic creed focus on the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, but begin by affirming that God created all things. These creeds affirmed that the God of creation is the God of redemption and combated the gnostic view of a lesser god (usually the god of the Old Testament) creating the world, but a supreme God redeeming us.
Why God Created the World
This question is really two separate questions. The first is for what purpose did God create the world? The second is what caused God to create the world as it is? To answer the first question, creation has been called a theatrum gloriae dei (theater of the glory of God). Humanity is the centerpiece of this theater. We were created for the purpose of demonstration of the glory of God and for enjoying God forever. Man's highest purpose, according to John Piper, is to "glorify God by enjoying him forever" (Dorman, 67).
All creation glorifies God, but only man can enjoy God because man is the only creation capable of worshipping God.
The second question is considered improper to ask by some. They state simply that God created the world because he wanted to. During the Reformation Martin Luther said that before God created the world he was "cutting the switches to punish those who ask such impertinent questions" (Dorman, 68). Calvin said that before God created the world he was "building a hell for the curious" (Institutes 1.14.1)
Jonathan Edwards believed that God was delighting in himself before creating the world and was therefore motivated to create something glorious. He contended that God has both necessary work and free work. It is necessary for God to fully delight in Himself, but creation isn't essential to God's happiness. Creation is a free act that is done through motivation of God's glory.
According to Edwards, benevolence motivated God to create. He defined benevolence as a joy that is found in meeting the needs of others, rather than having one's own needs met. This motivating benevolence can also be described as a love that condescends to meet the needs of unworthy beings (mercy). God is so secure in Himself that He can condescend to us and love what is unloveable. Mercy is God's greatest act of glory because mercy is a free act. Free acts of will are much more glorious than necessary acts.
Alternatives to the Biblical View of Creation
Greek Philosophy
Biblical view - ex nihilo
Plato's view - ex nihilo nihil fit
- Two self evident things: God and matter
- God formed matter to reflect his eternal ideas in creation
Aristotle
- Believed the same thing other than the universe had a beginning: when God formed the matter to like it
Ancient greek philosophy had a tendency to view this self-existent matter as intrinsically evil.
Quiz
1) The notion that God created the world in six twenty-four hour days is connected with?
- Direct Creationism
2) In Genesis 1:27 how many times does the Hebrew word "barah" meaning "create" appear?
- Three
3) In the heavenly realm Satan's alter ego is?
- Michael
4) Who wrote the book Darwin's Black Box?
- Michael Behe
The cosmos is result of either impersonal + time + chance or Divine Creation
Divine Creation
- evidences in microsphere:
- "anthropic principle" - universe made in such a way that it is made to be conducive to human life
- evidences in microsphere:
"irreducible complexity" - the complexity of certain aspects of humanity makes it impossible for a gradual evolutionary process
Genesis & Evolution
Bible - Special creation of humanity as humanity
Theistic evolution?
Genesis 1-3 is not allegory or parable
3 Differentiations
Genesis 1:1 (ex nihilo) nothing becomes something
- Barah #1
Genesis 1:21 unconsciousness becomes conscious life
- Barah #2
Genesis 1:27 Conscious life becomes imago dei
- Barah #3
barah is used three times in verse 27, signifying that humanity is the pinnacle or apex of creation
Caveat: scientific theory is not equal to fact
The Bible states that:
1) God created, thus there is a time, a specific starting point for creation
2) The universe is not necessary, it is contingent upon something or someone. It is not independent, it is dependent on something
3) God of creation and God of redemption are the same (contrary to Marcion's heresy)
Angels
-Created beings, and self-existent spirits
-Spirits, not bodily (Matthew 22:30, Genesis 18:1)
Hierarchy of Angels
- Michael (Daniel 12:1, Jude 9, Revelation 12:7)
- Gabriel (Daniel 8:16, 9:21, Luke 1:19, 31-33)
Monad agents with the capacity to rebel
-Satan is a fallen angel (Revelation 12:7). Satan is not a self-existent spirit
A Faith for all Season Ch. 4
The starting point for answering these questions is comprehending the Bible. It is a foundational point, but experience and science should be used in addition to form a Christian worldview.
God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth
God created the world out of nothing (ex nihilo) simply by calling them into being
The universe is not eternal; only God is eternal.
A modern school of thought (process theology) believes that both God and the universe are eternally in developmental mode. This view ignores "in the beginning" and blurs the line between the creator and the created order.
The God of creation is the God of redemption. This is a belief that has been held by even the earliest Christians. The Nicene Creed and the Apostolic creed focus on the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, but begin by affirming that God created all things. These creeds affirmed that the God of creation is the God of redemption and combated the gnostic view of a lesser god (usually the god of the Old Testament) creating the world, but a supreme God redeeming us.
Why God Created the World
This question is really two separate questions. The first is for what purpose did God create the world? The second is what caused God to create the world as it is? To answer the first question, creation has been called a theatrum gloriae dei (theater of the glory of God). Humanity is the centerpiece of this theater. We were created for the purpose of demonstration of the glory of God and for enjoying God forever. Man's highest purpose, according to John Piper, is to "glorify God by enjoying him forever" (Dorman, 67).
All creation glorifies God, but only man can enjoy God because man is the only creation capable of worshipping God.
The second question is considered improper to ask by some. They state simply that God created the world because he wanted to. During the Reformation Martin Luther said that before God created the world he was "cutting the switches to punish those who ask such impertinent questions" (Dorman, 68). Calvin said that before God created the world he was "building a hell for the curious" (Institutes 1.14.1)
Jonathan Edwards believed that God was delighting in himself before creating the world and was therefore motivated to create something glorious. He contended that God has both necessary work and free work. It is necessary for God to fully delight in Himself, but creation isn't essential to God's happiness. Creation is a free act that is done through motivation of God's glory.
According to Edwards, benevolence motivated God to create. He defined benevolence as a joy that is found in meeting the needs of others, rather than having one's own needs met. This motivating benevolence can also be described as a love that condescends to meet the needs of unworthy beings (mercy). God is so secure in Himself that He can condescend to us and love what is unloveable. Mercy is God's greatest act of glory because mercy is a free act. Free acts of will are much more glorious than necessary acts.
Alternatives to the Biblical View of Creation
Greek Philosophy
Biblical view - ex nihilo
Plato's view - ex nihilo nihil fit
- Two self evident things: God and matter
- God formed matter to reflect his eternal ideas in creation
Aristotle
- Believed the same thing other than the universe had a beginning: when God formed the matter to like it
Ancient greek philosophy had a tendency to view this self-existent matter as intrinsically evil.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Brief notes on Ethics
(Originally written February 16, 2006)
Ethics
Essence of modernism: scientific reasoning provides all truth
Thomas Hobbes
Egoism: enlightened self-interest is the ultimate moral absolute
Held all people are ethical egoists
How do I react with other human beings as an ethical egoist?
-Social contracts
David Hume
One of the few philosophers to promote ethical relativism; moral relativism is usually promoted by social scientists, not philosophers.
Empiricist
Immanuel Kant
Secular deontology (duty-based ethics)
Kant's ultimate moral principle is the categorical imperative
The categorical imperative is if you can do it and it is good or moral for everyone then it is a moral act
Kant stated that it is immoral to use a person for a means. Humanity must always be treated as an end.
John Stuart Mill
Utilitarian
Teleological systems: emphasis on consequences of actions
-Consequentialists
-Non-consequentialists
-Utilitarianism/Egoism
Deontological systems: duty and principles
All deontology begins with the value of human life. Protects our human integrity.
Moral Choices: Chapter 3 "Major Figures in the History of Ethics"
Ethics was dominated historically by Christian ethics: Augustine in the early dark ages, Aquinas in the Middle Ages. Christian ethics' influence declined as the influence of religion declined during the Renaissance and Enlightenment.
Secular ethics are not totally bad. Aquinas fused Aristotle and Augustine to develop Medieval Roman Catholic Morality. Jewish and Muslim contemporaries of Aquinas attempted to blend their religion with Aristotelian ethics as well.
Ethics
Essence of modernism: scientific reasoning provides all truth
Thomas Hobbes
Egoism: enlightened self-interest is the ultimate moral absolute
Held all people are ethical egoists
How do I react with other human beings as an ethical egoist?
-Social contracts
David Hume
One of the few philosophers to promote ethical relativism; moral relativism is usually promoted by social scientists, not philosophers.
Empiricist
Immanuel Kant
Secular deontology (duty-based ethics)
Kant's ultimate moral principle is the categorical imperative
The categorical imperative is if you can do it and it is good or moral for everyone then it is a moral act
Kant stated that it is immoral to use a person for a means. Humanity must always be treated as an end.
John Stuart Mill
Utilitarian
Teleological systems: emphasis on consequences of actions
-Consequentialists
-Non-consequentialists
-Utilitarianism/Egoism
Deontological systems: duty and principles
All deontology begins with the value of human life. Protects our human integrity.
Moral Choices: Chapter 3 "Major Figures in the History of Ethics"
Ethics was dominated historically by Christian ethics: Augustine in the early dark ages, Aquinas in the Middle Ages. Christian ethics' influence declined as the influence of religion declined during the Renaissance and Enlightenment.
Secular ethics are not totally bad. Aquinas fused Aristotle and Augustine to develop Medieval Roman Catholic Morality. Jewish and Muslim contemporaries of Aquinas attempted to blend their religion with Aristotelian ethics as well.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
How Ambrose became bishop
(Originally written February 15, 2006 in Book 25)
The Story of Christianity
Volume I: 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31 32, 33
21: Ambrose of Milan
373 A.D. Auxentius (the bishop of Milan) dies. Auxentius was an Arian bishop appointed by an Arian emperor. At his death the Arian and Orthodox Christians were on the verge of civil war over the next appointee.
Ambrose was Governor of Milan and had ambitions of rising higher in government positions so he had to defuse this potentially disastrous situation. He attended the election meeting and calmed the crowds. Then the crowd insisted he become bishop. Ambrose refused and attempted to escape the city. When the emperor ruled that Ambrose should be bishop he recanted and took the position. Ambrose was a catechumen at the time so he was baptized then made a priest. He rose from the position of priest to bishop in 8 days because to be a bishop one had to go through the Church hierarchy.
The Story of Christianity
Volume I: 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31 32, 33
21: Ambrose of Milan
373 A.D. Auxentius (the bishop of Milan) dies. Auxentius was an Arian bishop appointed by an Arian emperor. At his death the Arian and Orthodox Christians were on the verge of civil war over the next appointee.
Ambrose was Governor of Milan and had ambitions of rising higher in government positions so he had to defuse this potentially disastrous situation. He attended the election meeting and calmed the crowds. Then the crowd insisted he become bishop. Ambrose refused and attempted to escape the city. When the emperor ruled that Ambrose should be bishop he recanted and took the position. Ambrose was a catechumen at the time so he was baptized then made a priest. He rose from the position of priest to bishop in 8 days because to be a bishop one had to go through the Church hierarchy.
Clovis & Charlemagne
(Originally written February 15, 2006 in Book 24)
Test: Birth of Christianity to AD 1000
Conversion of the Franks
Baptism of Clovis
Under the Roman Empire the Church developed a hierarchy and a powerful influence in the West.
When the Germanic invaders came the Church was severely damaged.
Early Church spreads through conversions of individuals and families. During the Germanic period the Church is faced with tribal and ethnic groups who make tribal decisions. The Church must convert the whole tribe or ethnic group.
Clovis cannot, even being leader, convert his tribe by converting. The tribe must convert as a decision of the whole tribe.
In order to convert whole tribes the Bishops have to change tactics. They are forced to choose their theological battles.
To rebuild the destroyed Church in the West the Bishops are placed in charge of a certain territory and charged with converting the people of their territory.
Church Hierarchy
Bishop - bishopric/diocese
Head Priest - Parish
Individual Priest - Church
Numerous churches pop up all over during the "dark ages" as the Church tried to Christianize the population of the fallen part of the West. Bishops can't afford it so local Barons begin to plant churches and place priests in them. This is good but unfortunately some of the priests put into power are illiterate peasants.
The Church gains converts by the chieftains and kings. The chieftains and kings gain stability of the Catholic population when they convert and learn literacy, administration techniques and access to Roman Law (Justinian Code).
Charlemagne, a Carolingian
Charlemagne and the Carolingians came to power in December 25, 800.
Gained much territory
Waged a long and brutal war against the Angles and Saxons
First Germanic king to establish a centralized palace at Aachen
Charlemagne struggles with being an independent leader and Constantinople thinking they are in control.
This struggle is one of the causes of the West/East split of the Church
Claims to be the Roman Emperor of the West
Charlemagne's bones are near the altar in Aachen. They are a relic.
A relic is a part of a holy person's body that has been preserved for pilgrimage purposes.
Charlemagne is one of the important people in Church History for spreading Christianity in Frankia.
Spreads literate priests throughout Frankia.
Establishes a learning center to spread a more uniform version of Christianity (Carolingian Renaissance)
Germanic kings feel that a single religion was needed for stability
Charlemagne encourages growth of monasteries
Monks in these monasteries are charged with copying manuscripts (by hand). They are why we have classical works: i.e. Cicero, Plato, etc.
Test: Birth of Christianity to AD 1000
Conversion of the Franks
Baptism of Clovis
Under the Roman Empire the Church developed a hierarchy and a powerful influence in the West.
When the Germanic invaders came the Church was severely damaged.
Early Church spreads through conversions of individuals and families. During the Germanic period the Church is faced with tribal and ethnic groups who make tribal decisions. The Church must convert the whole tribe or ethnic group.
Clovis cannot, even being leader, convert his tribe by converting. The tribe must convert as a decision of the whole tribe.
In order to convert whole tribes the Bishops have to change tactics. They are forced to choose their theological battles.
To rebuild the destroyed Church in the West the Bishops are placed in charge of a certain territory and charged with converting the people of their territory.
Church Hierarchy
Bishop - bishopric/diocese
Head Priest - Parish
Individual Priest - Church
Numerous churches pop up all over during the "dark ages" as the Church tried to Christianize the population of the fallen part of the West. Bishops can't afford it so local Barons begin to plant churches and place priests in them. This is good but unfortunately some of the priests put into power are illiterate peasants.
The Church gains converts by the chieftains and kings. The chieftains and kings gain stability of the Catholic population when they convert and learn literacy, administration techniques and access to Roman Law (Justinian Code).
Charlemagne, a Carolingian
Charlemagne and the Carolingians came to power in December 25, 800.
Gained much territory
Waged a long and brutal war against the Angles and Saxons
First Germanic king to establish a centralized palace at Aachen
Charlemagne struggles with being an independent leader and Constantinople thinking they are in control.
This struggle is one of the causes of the West/East split of the Church
Claims to be the Roman Emperor of the West
Charlemagne's bones are near the altar in Aachen. They are a relic.
A relic is a part of a holy person's body that has been preserved for pilgrimage purposes.
Charlemagne is one of the important people in Church History for spreading Christianity in Frankia.
Spreads literate priests throughout Frankia.
Establishes a learning center to spread a more uniform version of Christianity (Carolingian Renaissance)
Germanic kings feel that a single religion was needed for stability
Charlemagne encourages growth of monasteries
Monks in these monasteries are charged with copying manuscripts (by hand). They are why we have classical works: i.e. Cicero, Plato, etc.
Notes on Creation
(Originally written February 15, 2006)
1) What famous 4th century theologian likened the Trinity to "the lover, the loved and love"?
- Augustine
2) The notion that creation consisted of God's giving form to pre-existent matter was taught by the great third century theologian?
- Origen
3) Which Catholic saint of the Middle Ages wrote the hymn that included "Brother sun" and "Sister moon"?
- Francis of Assisi
4) True or False: The Bible teaches that "virtue is its own reward"
The Doctrine of Creation
Biblical view of creation
creation "ex nihilo" (out of nothing)
First article of Apostles and Nicene creeds
(counters Marcion's notion of two gods: Jewish (Old Testament) and Christian (New Testament)
God of Creation is the God of redemption
Ancient views of creation
Greek Philosophy - ex nihilo, nihil fit (out of nothing cometh nothing)
Creation: god gave form to eternal matter
Dualism - Spirit & Matter
Bible - only God is eternal
Pantheism (Hinduism, etc.)
All is God - monism
Monism - only spirit truly exists
god is to the world as the soul is to the body
Bible: God transcends the world
Dialectical materialism (Marx) vs. Bible
Universe: no beginning; material ends
Bible: Matter created for spiritual ends
1) What famous 4th century theologian likened the Trinity to "the lover, the loved and love"?
- Augustine
2) The notion that creation consisted of God's giving form to pre-existent matter was taught by the great third century theologian?
- Origen
3) Which Catholic saint of the Middle Ages wrote the hymn that included "Brother sun" and "Sister moon"?
- Francis of Assisi
4) True or False: The Bible teaches that "virtue is its own reward"
The Doctrine of Creation
Biblical view of creation
creation "ex nihilo" (out of nothing)
First article of Apostles and Nicene creeds
(counters Marcion's notion of two gods: Jewish (Old Testament) and Christian (New Testament)
God of Creation is the God of redemption
Ancient views of creation
Greek Philosophy - ex nihilo, nihil fit (out of nothing cometh nothing)
Creation: god gave form to eternal matter
Dualism - Spirit & Matter
Bible - only God is eternal
Pantheism (Hinduism, etc.)
All is God - monism
Monism - only spirit truly exists
god is to the world as the soul is to the body
Bible: God transcends the world
Dialectical materialism (Marx) vs. Bible
Universe: no beginning; material ends
Bible: Matter created for spiritual ends
Monday, February 13, 2006
Christianity in Feudalism
(Originally written on February 13, 2006 in Book 24)
Western Empire's Barbarian Rulers
Britain controlled by Angles & Saxons
Gaul controlled by the Franks
Italy controlled by the Ostrogoths
Spain controlled by the Visigoths
North Africa controlled by Vandals
The conversion of Clovis (Frankish King) of the Merovingians to Catholicism allies the Roman Emperor (in Constantinople) to the bishops and Merovingians.
The Merovingians defeat the Arian Germanic tribes in Southern Gaul. The Visigoths (Spain) convert to Catholicism out of their best interest.
The Roman Emperor recognizes Clovis as the ruler of Gaul.
The Ostrogoths are defeated by Justinian and are driven out of Italy.
Between 500-1000 in Continental Europe we see an increasingly decentralized government and a move to a rural society.
Political stability in the west is obtained by forming a small clan around a great warrior.
500-1000
The political system was feudalism (which is debatable, but serves to identify it).
The political center is no longer the big city, but the castle.
Feudalism - king controls all the land in his territory, wars are fought on horses with your own horse and weaponry.
Only form of wealth is land.
The Economic collapse at the fall of Rome.
Knights are given a plot of land to fight for the king, which is farmed by serfs.
Barons are given large grants of land to the king. The Barons give land to the lower nobility.
Process of Feudalism
The Kings give Barons the land
The Barons give Kings knights
The Barons give lower nobility land
The lower nobility serve as knights under the Baron and fight for the king
A good king can control the powerful lords under them.
500-1000: decentralization, collapse and the rise of feudalism
A miniature ice age occurs in this time, causing lower agricultural output and thus, famine.
Peasants farm for the nobles. The nobility is the knights. The military is a military-aristocracy.
The king has homage paid to him by the high nobility.
The high nobility (Dukes & Barons) are obligated to provide the king with a certain number of mounted knights. They have to dish out some of some of their land granted to secure the said number of fuckin knights.
Wars occur on every level. King vs King, Barons vs Barons, Nobility vs. Nobility.
The knights under are obligated to serve their higher ups.
Economic Feudalism
Manorialism
The knights, the lower nobility, the nobility, the barons and dukes all have land. This land is worked by the peasants. The peasants do not fight in war or own land. They owe their lord their labor, a certain percentage of their crops and their tithe to the Church.
Traders facilitated by bartering goods.
The peasant class grows between 500-1000 in order to finance the nobility and warring aristocracy.
The late 800's see the Norsemen and Hungarian tribes wreak havoc upon the feudalistic system. The local lords have to fight and take back power from the king to survive.
These lords in turn become more powerful and the kings cannot reel them back in. It takes generations for the kings to reign in power.
Feudalism is not a caste system. Knights can rise higher and obtain land or more land. Noblemen can become Barons.
When missionaries come into these feudal territories they face the sever political instability, dealt with poor people and sometimes a lord may be pagan and kill the missionary.
Ireland
410 Romans leave Britain
430? Patrick (British missionary to Ireland) converts Ireland. Britain reverts to paganism out of the political instability.
563 Columba (Irish missionary to Britain)
Western Empire's Barbarian Rulers
Britain controlled by Angles & Saxons
Gaul controlled by the Franks
Italy controlled by the Ostrogoths
Spain controlled by the Visigoths
North Africa controlled by Vandals
The conversion of Clovis (Frankish King) of the Merovingians to Catholicism allies the Roman Emperor (in Constantinople) to the bishops and Merovingians.
The Merovingians defeat the Arian Germanic tribes in Southern Gaul. The Visigoths (Spain) convert to Catholicism out of their best interest.
The Roman Emperor recognizes Clovis as the ruler of Gaul.
The Ostrogoths are defeated by Justinian and are driven out of Italy.
Between 500-1000 in Continental Europe we see an increasingly decentralized government and a move to a rural society.
Political stability in the west is obtained by forming a small clan around a great warrior.
500-1000
The political system was feudalism (which is debatable, but serves to identify it).
The political center is no longer the big city, but the castle.
Feudalism - king controls all the land in his territory, wars are fought on horses with your own horse and weaponry.
Only form of wealth is land.
The Economic collapse at the fall of Rome.
Knights are given a plot of land to fight for the king, which is farmed by serfs.
Barons are given large grants of land to the king. The Barons give land to the lower nobility.
Process of Feudalism
The Kings give Barons the land
The Barons give Kings knights
The Barons give lower nobility land
The lower nobility serve as knights under the Baron and fight for the king
A good king can control the powerful lords under them.
500-1000: decentralization, collapse and the rise of feudalism
A miniature ice age occurs in this time, causing lower agricultural output and thus, famine.
Peasants farm for the nobles. The nobility is the knights. The military is a military-aristocracy.
The king has homage paid to him by the high nobility.
The high nobility (Dukes & Barons) are obligated to provide the king with a certain number of mounted knights. They have to dish out some of some of their land granted to secure the said number of fuckin knights.
Wars occur on every level. King vs King, Barons vs Barons, Nobility vs. Nobility.
The knights under are obligated to serve their higher ups.
Economic Feudalism
Manorialism
The knights, the lower nobility, the nobility, the barons and dukes all have land. This land is worked by the peasants. The peasants do not fight in war or own land. They owe their lord their labor, a certain percentage of their crops and their tithe to the Church.
Traders facilitated by bartering goods.
The peasant class grows between 500-1000 in order to finance the nobility and warring aristocracy.
The late 800's see the Norsemen and Hungarian tribes wreak havoc upon the feudalistic system. The local lords have to fight and take back power from the king to survive.
These lords in turn become more powerful and the kings cannot reel them back in. It takes generations for the kings to reign in power.
Feudalism is not a caste system. Knights can rise higher and obtain land or more land. Noblemen can become Barons.
When missionaries come into these feudal territories they face the sever political instability, dealt with poor people and sometimes a lord may be pagan and kill the missionary.
Ireland
410 Romans leave Britain
430? Patrick (British missionary to Ireland) converts Ireland. Britain reverts to paganism out of the political instability.
563 Columba (Irish missionary to Britain)
Notes on Spinoza's Ethics
(Originally written February 13, 2006 in Book 22)
Hobbes to Hume pp. 206-209
Ideas an their objects
Spinoza contends that all ideas are always true in a sense. Ideas are always about their objects because the object of an idea simply another attribute of the cognitive situation. Error occurs when the object of an idea does not match with the real object. i.e. A person can believe that there is a polk-a-dot elephant outside. This is an obvious error because there is no such thing as a polk-a-dot elephant. That doesn't mean that the idea of a polk-a-dot elephant doesn't have an object, the object of this idea is the amount of alcohol in this person's bloodstream or what ever mental defect that is causing their belief in polk-a-dot elephants.
Most people today would state that alcohol is not the object of that idea, it is the cause. Spinoza would counter that by stating that to formulate it that way is to confuse language and mix it around in an odd way. Spinoza may actually have been correct in his counter. Many profound metaphysical truths are the result of linguistic trickery.
Spinoza states that perception is always inadequate without exception. For him, the object of an idea is never what is out there, but is how my mind is being effected by what is out there. Adequate ideas are those that are used to form some deductive system. The object of perception must be replaced by either the science of the perceiver's body or the science of the object's body in the idea for it to become .
Thus, an adequate idea, according to Spinoza, is an idea of reality. Adequate ideas occur when the mind traces out the implicative relations, which the total of those relations in the universe. And, since reality is one whole, there is only one wholly adequate idea. Since ideas and objects of ideas are just different modes of the some substance they are, in reality, identical.
Physics
Spinoza believed that psychology was the science of the attribute of thought, whereas physics was the science of the attribute of extension. Spinoza took the laws of physics as a set of theorems whose relations reflect the necessary properties of reality. They are reality because they are rational and all rational things are real.
Classics of Philosophy pp. 580-596
Spinoza's Ethics
Proposition 18 states: God is the immanent, and not the transitive cause of all things. His proof for this is that all things that are must be in god and conceived through god and that outside god nothing can exist. God (god) is therefore the immanent and not transitive cause of all things.
Proposition 19 states: god is eternal, or, in other words all his attributes are eternal. His proof for this is that god is substance and substance necessarily exists. Substance must exist eternally, thus god exists eternally.
Proposition 20 states: the existence of god and his essence are one and the same thing. Since god and all his attributes exist eternally and god's essence is the same as his existence both must be eternal.
Proposition 21 states: all things which follow from the absolute nature of any attribute of god must forever exist and must be infinite; that is to say through that same attribute they are eternal and infinite.
Proposition 22 states: Whatever follows from any attribute of god in so far as it is modified by a modification which through the same attribute exists necessarily and infinitely.
Proposition 23 states: every mode which exists necessarily and infinitely must necessarily follow either from the absolute. Nature of some attributes of god, or from some attribute modified by a modification which exist necessarily and infinitely.
Proposition 24 states "the essence of things produced by god does not involve existence.
Proposition 25 states "god is not only the efficient cause of existence of things, but also of their essence.
Proposition 26 states "a thing which has been determined to any action was necessarily so determined by god, and that which has not been thus determined by god cannot determine itself to action.
Proposition 27 states "a thing which has been determined by god to any action cannot render itself indeterminate"
Proposition 28 states that an individual thing or a thing which is finite and which as a determinate existence, cannot exist nor be determined to existence and action by another cause which is also finite and has a determinate existence; and again, this cause cannot exist nor be determined to action unless by another cause which is also infinite and determined to existence and action, and so on ad infinitum
Proposition 29 states "in nature there is nothing contingent, but all things are determined from the necessity of the divine nature to exist and act in a certain manner"
Proposition 30 states "the actual intellect, whether finite or infinite, must comprehend the attributes of god and the affections of god, and nothing else.
Proposition 31 stes "the actual intellect, whether it be finite or infinite, together with the will, desire, love, etc. must be referred to the natura natura and not to the natura naturons
Proposition 32 states "the will cannot be called a free cause, but can only be called necessary"
Proposition 33 states "things could have been produced by god in no other manner and in no other order than that in which they have been produced
Proposition 34 states "the power of god is his essence itself"
Proposition 35 states "whatever we conceive to be in god's power necessarily exists
Proposition 36 states "nothing exists from whose nature or effect does not follow
Hobbes to Hume pp. 206-209
Ideas an their objects
Spinoza contends that all ideas are always true in a sense. Ideas are always about their objects because the object of an idea simply another attribute of the cognitive situation. Error occurs when the object of an idea does not match with the real object. i.e. A person can believe that there is a polk-a-dot elephant outside. This is an obvious error because there is no such thing as a polk-a-dot elephant. That doesn't mean that the idea of a polk-a-dot elephant doesn't have an object, the object of this idea is the amount of alcohol in this person's bloodstream or what ever mental defect that is causing their belief in polk-a-dot elephants.
Most people today would state that alcohol is not the object of that idea, it is the cause. Spinoza would counter that by stating that to formulate it that way is to confuse language and mix it around in an odd way. Spinoza may actually have been correct in his counter. Many profound metaphysical truths are the result of linguistic trickery.
Spinoza states that perception is always inadequate without exception. For him, the object of an idea is never what is out there, but is how my mind is being effected by what is out there. Adequate ideas are those that are used to form some deductive system. The object of perception must be replaced by either the science of the perceiver's body or the science of the object's body in the idea for it to become .
Thus, an adequate idea, according to Spinoza, is an idea of reality. Adequate ideas occur when the mind traces out the implicative relations, which the total of those relations in the universe. And, since reality is one whole, there is only one wholly adequate idea. Since ideas and objects of ideas are just different modes of the some substance they are, in reality, identical.
Physics
Spinoza believed that psychology was the science of the attribute of thought, whereas physics was the science of the attribute of extension. Spinoza took the laws of physics as a set of theorems whose relations reflect the necessary properties of reality. They are reality because they are rational and all rational things are real.
Classics of Philosophy pp. 580-596
Spinoza's Ethics
Proposition 18 states: God is the immanent, and not the transitive cause of all things. His proof for this is that all things that are must be in god and conceived through god and that outside god nothing can exist. God (god) is therefore the immanent and not transitive cause of all things.
Proposition 19 states: god is eternal, or, in other words all his attributes are eternal. His proof for this is that god is substance and substance necessarily exists. Substance must exist eternally, thus god exists eternally.
Proposition 20 states: the existence of god and his essence are one and the same thing. Since god and all his attributes exist eternally and god's essence is the same as his existence both must be eternal.
Proposition 21 states: all things which follow from the absolute nature of any attribute of god must forever exist and must be infinite; that is to say through that same attribute they are eternal and infinite.
Proposition 22 states: Whatever follows from any attribute of god in so far as it is modified by a modification which through the same attribute exists necessarily and infinitely.
Proposition 23 states: every mode which exists necessarily and infinitely must necessarily follow either from the absolute. Nature of some attributes of god, or from some attribute modified by a modification which exist necessarily and infinitely.
Proposition 24 states "the essence of things produced by god does not involve existence.
Proposition 25 states "god is not only the efficient cause of existence of things, but also of their essence.
Proposition 26 states "a thing which has been determined to any action was necessarily so determined by god, and that which has not been thus determined by god cannot determine itself to action.
Proposition 27 states "a thing which has been determined by god to any action cannot render itself indeterminate"
Proposition 28 states that an individual thing or a thing which is finite and which as a determinate existence, cannot exist nor be determined to existence and action by another cause which is also finite and has a determinate existence; and again, this cause cannot exist nor be determined to action unless by another cause which is also infinite and determined to existence and action, and so on ad infinitum
Proposition 29 states "in nature there is nothing contingent, but all things are determined from the necessity of the divine nature to exist and act in a certain manner"
Proposition 30 states "the actual intellect, whether finite or infinite, must comprehend the attributes of god and the affections of god, and nothing else.
Proposition 31 stes "the actual intellect, whether it be finite or infinite, together with the will, desire, love, etc. must be referred to the natura natura and not to the natura naturons
Proposition 32 states "the will cannot be called a free cause, but can only be called necessary"
Proposition 33 states "things could have been produced by god in no other manner and in no other order than that in which they have been produced
Proposition 34 states "the power of god is his essence itself"
Proposition 35 states "whatever we conceive to be in god's power necessarily exists
Proposition 36 states "nothing exists from whose nature or effect does not follow
Notes on the 4th-6th Meditations
(Originally written February 13, 2006 in Book 21)
Soul: Res Cogitons (thinking thing)
Body: Res Extensa (extending thing)
Three kinds of ideas:
1) Innate (ideas born within)
2) Alien (ideas that come from without)
3) Manufactured (made up by me)
How do I know that my alien ideas resemble actual objects?
"Nature teaches me so", but the problem is my inclinations sometimes deceive me
"Ideas are independent of my will", but this is also true in my dreams
Solipsism: only me and my thoughts are real (metaphysical version)
Solipsism: I can only know my own self and thoughts (epistemological version)
Solipsism is Descartes' best argument he can offer as what I can know. Thus, he must prove a God exists to show us that other things exist outside of our mind.
Descartes 4th Meditation: Truth and Falsity
All truth rests on the most certain knowledge that God exists.
God can never deceive me because then God would become imperfect and thus, not God.
I have the ability to judge which comes from God and since God does not deceive me. He would not give me a way of deceiving myself.
I am somewhere between God (Supreme Being) and nothingness (non-Being) God's creation of me makes me infallible but since I am in contact and of the realm of non-being and not supreme myself it is no wonder I make mistakes.
Error is a lack of some knowledge which should be in me.
It should be no surprise that men do not fully understand God's actions. Man's nature is weak and limited while God's nature is immense and unlimited.
It is futile to investigate the purposes of God.
When contemplating the perfection of God's creation, we must look at the universe in whole. An isolated creature may deem imperfect, but when it is part of a perfectly working universe it's perfection is apparent.
First knowledge: I exist
Second knowledge: God exists because I had to be created (caused)
Third knowledge: Other things exist because God has immense power and I cannot deny that many other things have been made by Him
Errors depend on two things
1) The faculty of knowledge which is in me
2) The faculty of choice on freedom of the will
Errors depend on both the intellect and the will simultaneously
The source of my errors is not any knowledge (intellect) or my power of understanding because these are perfect (that is they come from God). The source of my mistakes is "wider than that of the intellect; but instead of restarting it within the same limits, I extend its use to matters which I do not understand" (Pojman, 512). The will is indifferent of the lack of intellect in these cases and can easily turn away from what is true or good and thus, it is the source of my error and sin.
The intellect is incomplete and thus in cases when I am wholly ignorant or in cases when I am not intellectually clear of something at the time when the will asserts itself I am prone to error and sin.
If I choose (make a judgment) without sufficient knowledge the erroneous conclusion I obviously sin or err, but if I choose the correct conclusion I only come to it by chance. I am still erroneous in choosing the correct conclusion because the intellect should always priced the determination of the will.
I can't complain that my power to know is not great enough because it is the nature of a created being to be finite and therefore not supremely powerful to know all things.
Rather than complaining I should give thanks to Him who never owed me anything but still chose to give me the gift of intellect.
I also cannot complain that my will extends wider than my intellect because the wider my will is the more freedom of choice I have, and the more reason I have to give thanks.
I cannot state my errors are a result of God depriving me of knowledge. The very fact that I can make judgments (true or false) gives me a greater sense of perfection than I would have if I had not been granted these gifts.
If God had made me more capable of knowing, I would totally be closer to perfection, but the universe would not be affected. And since the universe as a whole is a sign of God's perfection in creation, I cannot complain about my ability.
Even as imperfect as I am, I can still avoid error by withholding judgment in cases in which I am not intellectually sufficient to comprehend.
When I limit the will to the confines and restraints of my intellect I cannot go wrong.
Descartes 5th Meditation
"The Essence of material things, and the existence of God considered a second time"
Whatever is true is something and cannot be nothing.
Existence and essence in God can be separated in my mind, but on closer attention this proves impossible.
My thinking something does not institute a necessity for that something's existence.
The existence of God causes me to think of the existence of God. If God did not exist I would not think of his existence.
The idea of God is innate in me.
After establishing God's existence by knowing innately the idea of a perfect, Supreme being it follows that apart from God there is nothing else of which I am capable of thinking such that existence belongs to its essence. I cannot understand how there can be two or more Supreme beings because there can be only one eternal God and while I can perceive the attributes of God, I cannot alter or remove them from Him.
Even if the knowledge of God's existence was not innate, it is so self-evident I would arrive at this knowledge prior to any other knowledge.
Without the knowledge of God, all other knowledge is prone to doubt and knowledge becomes shiftable and restless.
Descartes' Sixth Meditation
The existence of material things, and the real distinction between mind and body"
Material things have the capability to exist insofar as they are subject-matter in pure mathematics and anything I can perceive God is capable of creating.
Imagination requires an effort not needed in understanding.
When the mind understands it turns towards itself and inspects of the ideas within it. When the mind imagines it turns towards the body and looks at something in the body which conforms to an idea understood in the mind or perceived by the senses.
Soul: Res Cogitons (thinking thing)
Body: Res Extensa (extending thing)
Three kinds of ideas:
1) Innate (ideas born within)
2) Alien (ideas that come from without)
3) Manufactured (made up by me)
How do I know that my alien ideas resemble actual objects?
"Nature teaches me so", but the problem is my inclinations sometimes deceive me
"Ideas are independent of my will", but this is also true in my dreams
Solipsism: only me and my thoughts are real (metaphysical version)
Solipsism: I can only know my own self and thoughts (epistemological version)
Solipsism is Descartes' best argument he can offer as what I can know. Thus, he must prove a God exists to show us that other things exist outside of our mind.
Descartes 4th Meditation: Truth and Falsity
All truth rests on the most certain knowledge that God exists.
God can never deceive me because then God would become imperfect and thus, not God.
I have the ability to judge which comes from God and since God does not deceive me. He would not give me a way of deceiving myself.
I am somewhere between God (Supreme Being) and nothingness (non-Being) God's creation of me makes me infallible but since I am in contact and of the realm of non-being and not supreme myself it is no wonder I make mistakes.
Error is a lack of some knowledge which should be in me.
It should be no surprise that men do not fully understand God's actions. Man's nature is weak and limited while God's nature is immense and unlimited.
It is futile to investigate the purposes of God.
When contemplating the perfection of God's creation, we must look at the universe in whole. An isolated creature may deem imperfect, but when it is part of a perfectly working universe it's perfection is apparent.
First knowledge: I exist
Second knowledge: God exists because I had to be created (caused)
Third knowledge: Other things exist because God has immense power and I cannot deny that many other things have been made by Him
Errors depend on two things
1) The faculty of knowledge which is in me
2) The faculty of choice on freedom of the will
Errors depend on both the intellect and the will simultaneously
The source of my errors is not any knowledge (intellect) or my power of understanding because these are perfect (that is they come from God). The source of my mistakes is "wider than that of the intellect; but instead of restarting it within the same limits, I extend its use to matters which I do not understand" (Pojman, 512). The will is indifferent of the lack of intellect in these cases and can easily turn away from what is true or good and thus, it is the source of my error and sin.
The intellect is incomplete and thus in cases when I am wholly ignorant or in cases when I am not intellectually clear of something at the time when the will asserts itself I am prone to error and sin.
If I choose (make a judgment) without sufficient knowledge the erroneous conclusion I obviously sin or err, but if I choose the correct conclusion I only come to it by chance. I am still erroneous in choosing the correct conclusion because the intellect should always priced the determination of the will.
I can't complain that my power to know is not great enough because it is the nature of a created being to be finite and therefore not supremely powerful to know all things.
Rather than complaining I should give thanks to Him who never owed me anything but still chose to give me the gift of intellect.
I also cannot complain that my will extends wider than my intellect because the wider my will is the more freedom of choice I have, and the more reason I have to give thanks.
I cannot state my errors are a result of God depriving me of knowledge. The very fact that I can make judgments (true or false) gives me a greater sense of perfection than I would have if I had not been granted these gifts.
If God had made me more capable of knowing, I would totally be closer to perfection, but the universe would not be affected. And since the universe as a whole is a sign of God's perfection in creation, I cannot complain about my ability.
Even as imperfect as I am, I can still avoid error by withholding judgment in cases in which I am not intellectually sufficient to comprehend.
When I limit the will to the confines and restraints of my intellect I cannot go wrong.
Descartes 5th Meditation
"The Essence of material things, and the existence of God considered a second time"
Whatever is true is something and cannot be nothing.
Existence and essence in God can be separated in my mind, but on closer attention this proves impossible.
My thinking something does not institute a necessity for that something's existence.
The existence of God causes me to think of the existence of God. If God did not exist I would not think of his existence.
The idea of God is innate in me.
After establishing God's existence by knowing innately the idea of a perfect, Supreme being it follows that apart from God there is nothing else of which I am capable of thinking such that existence belongs to its essence. I cannot understand how there can be two or more Supreme beings because there can be only one eternal God and while I can perceive the attributes of God, I cannot alter or remove them from Him.
Even if the knowledge of God's existence was not innate, it is so self-evident I would arrive at this knowledge prior to any other knowledge.
Without the knowledge of God, all other knowledge is prone to doubt and knowledge becomes shiftable and restless.
Descartes' Sixth Meditation
The existence of material things, and the real distinction between mind and body"
Material things have the capability to exist insofar as they are subject-matter in pure mathematics and anything I can perceive God is capable of creating.
Imagination requires an effort not needed in understanding.
When the mind understands it turns towards itself and inspects of the ideas within it. When the mind imagines it turns towards the body and looks at something in the body which conforms to an idea understood in the mind or perceived by the senses.
Notes on the Trinity
(Originally written February 13, 2006 in book 23)
1) "The son has a beginning but, but God has no beginning" Who said this?
-Arius
2) The Hebrew name of God (YHWH) is a form of what verb?
-To be
3) Which of the following is a communicable attribute of God?
-Justice
God is an infinite, personal God
That which is infinite is incommunicable
That which is person is communicable
There is a religious/philosophical tendency to base system on one of these traits. Christianity, Judaism and Islam fit a personal-infinite god.
Eastern traditions tend to stress the infiniteness of god, but not the personableness of god. i.e. Buddhism, Hinduism
Western Traditions tend to stress the personality of god, not the personality. i.e. North American and South American Indian religions
Hebrew word Abba is a diminutive word "Ab" Father Ba
God chose to condescend to become our father
Why God must be a Trinity
In order for God to be the God of the New Testament he must be perfect he must be love, he must be merciful.
God must be Triune to be perfect
- Perfect delight in himself
- Exact image in view for God to be able see himself as perfectly there must be at least two person in God
- This image is the Son (Hebrews 1:3)
- Less than perfect self delight is an unrighteous God
To be love:
-Love relationship requires persons
- From the Father and the Son proceeds the Holy Spirit of love
- God is love, love is not God
- God: Diversity within unity
(Lewis' view)
To be merciful:
- Perfect self-delight means there are no need of other things which means:
- God does not need us
- Therefore God is free to love us unconditionally
A Faith for all Season, Chapter 3 continued
The council of Constantinople of 381 declared Jesus as "begotten, not made; being of one substance with the Father" (Dorman, 55).
Prior to the incarnation of Jesus God the son was coequal and coeternal with God the Father (Orthodoxy and Athanasius' view)
Arius taught that the son was the first and most glorious thing that God the Father created. Son was created by Father and not the same substance.
Augustine's On the Trinity is the framework for Western theology on the Trinity. In it he stressed both the diversity and the unity of the trinity.
Western Christianity used Augustine's stress on the unity of the Godhead whereas the Eastern tradition followed Origen's emphasis on diversity.
The most significant part of Augustine's work on the Trinity is that it emphasizes the relationship between God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to each other as coequals.
1) "The son has a beginning but, but God has no beginning" Who said this?
-Arius
2) The Hebrew name of God (YHWH) is a form of what verb?
-To be
3) Which of the following is a communicable attribute of God?
-Justice
God is an infinite, personal God
That which is infinite is incommunicable
That which is person is communicable
There is a religious/philosophical tendency to base system on one of these traits. Christianity, Judaism and Islam fit a personal-infinite god.
Eastern traditions tend to stress the infiniteness of god, but not the personableness of god. i.e. Buddhism, Hinduism
Western Traditions tend to stress the personality of god, not the personality. i.e. North American and South American Indian religions
Hebrew word Abba is a diminutive word "Ab" Father Ba
God chose to condescend to become our father
Why God must be a Trinity
In order for God to be the God of the New Testament he must be perfect he must be love, he must be merciful.
God must be Triune to be perfect
- Perfect delight in himself
- Exact image in view for God to be able see himself as perfectly there must be at least two person in God
- This image is the Son (Hebrews 1:3)
- Less than perfect self delight is an unrighteous God
To be love:
-Love relationship requires persons
- From the Father and the Son proceeds the Holy Spirit of love
- God is love, love is not God
- God: Diversity within unity
(Lewis' view)
To be merciful:
- Perfect self-delight means there are no need of other things which means:
- God does not need us
- Therefore God is free to love us unconditionally
A Faith for all Season, Chapter 3 continued
The council of Constantinople of 381 declared Jesus as "begotten, not made; being of one substance with the Father" (Dorman, 55).
Prior to the incarnation of Jesus God the son was coequal and coeternal with God the Father (Orthodoxy and Athanasius' view)
Arius taught that the son was the first and most glorious thing that God the Father created. Son was created by Father and not the same substance.
Augustine's On the Trinity is the framework for Western theology on the Trinity. In it he stressed both the diversity and the unity of the trinity.
Western Christianity used Augustine's stress on the unity of the Godhead whereas the Eastern tradition followed Origen's emphasis on diversity.
The most significant part of Augustine's work on the Trinity is that it emphasizes the relationship between God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to each other as coequals.
Friday, February 10, 2006
Broad strokes of the Church from 300-600 AD
(Originally written in February 10, 2006 in Book 24)
Early Church (Christianized by 300 AD)
Church Growth (Christianized 300 - 600)
Late Growth (Christianized 600 - 800)
Early Church: Southern Spain, Northeast Africa (Carthage), Southern Gaul (Marseilles), Northern Gaul (Paris), Rome, Western Turkey (Constantinople), Parts of Egypt, Jerusalem to Damascus
Church Growth: Most of Europe, Most of North Africa, Turkey
Late Growth: Germany & Britain
300's - Century of the Church Fathers
313 - Edict of Milan
325 - Council of Nicaea
350 - St. Ulfilas goes to the Goths (Missionary from Constantinople)
381 - Nicene Creed enforced
First Germanic peoples were converted to Arian Christianity
400's
410 - Sack of Rome, Roman troops pull out of Britain (Britain reverts to Celtic paganism)
430 - St. Patrick is a missionary to Ireland. Ireland's Christianity develops outside of the collapse of Rome, therefore it has a differing character. Cities are important to the church on the continent due to thee Roman influence. Rural Ireland's church centers were the monasteries. The abbot (head of the monastery) is the most important Christian in Ireland, the bishop in continental Europe.
476 - Odoacer, Germanic Ruler, sits on the Roman throne
500's
Visigoths (Spain) and other Germanic Christians were Arian.
500 - The Baptism of the Frankish King Clovis. He was converted directly from Paganism to Roman or Orthodox Christianity. Clovis consolidated tribes and gained more control of Gaul. Clovis attempted to gain the favor of the bishops in Gaul. Clovis marries a Roman Catholic princess. About 7,000 Germanic Warriors decided as a group (with Clovis) to convert and were baptized as Catholic Christians.
527 - 65 - Justinian, the Roman Emperor attempts to reconquer parts of the Western part of the Empire. He pushes the Vandals out of North Africa and pushes the Germanic tribes out of Italy. He codifies the Roman law. He built the great Church in Constantinople. Really starts enforcing Orthodoxy.
550 - Benedict of Nursia (Italian Monk) set up the rhythm and pattern for monastic life in the west. Most clerics at this time come from the nobility.
131 Christians:
Bernard of Clairvaux
- Born into low Nobility
- He joined the Cistercians and lived an ascetic life which caused severe health problems
- Founded 60 Cistercian monasteries
- Wrote the rule for the Knights Templar
- Led the rally for the 2nd Crusade
Dominic
- Noble from Spain
- Devoted his life to poverty
- Preached to the Albigensians (heretics)
- Formed the Dominican Order of priests
- Aquinas was a Dominican
Innocent III
- First Pope to declare himself, "Vicar of Christ"
- Real name - Lotario Scotti
- Born into the Italian nobility
- One of the youngest Popes ever
- Purged the Church of disloyal officials, unneeded extravagance and replaced nobles with monks
- Saw the position of the Pope as ruler over all: "less than God but more than man, judging all other men, but himself judged by none
- Slaughtered the Albigensians
Catherine of Siena
- Devoted herself to a religious life at age 7 after seeing a vision
- Catherina Benincasa was born into middle class life, she was the 23rd of 25 kids
- Born the same year as the plague came to Europe
- Claimed to have an invisible stigmata
- Refused to marry
- Joined the Dominican Order of Penance (Dominican 3rd order) in 1363. This order was of lay persons who lived in their own home and were known by their dress and deeds for the poor
- By age 19 she attracted a following by her superb sanctity and fiesta personality
- She had a vision in which Jesus put a ring on her finger, signifying a marriage (spiritual marriage) to Christ
- She cared for plague victims
- Wrote letters to sinners, and to reform the church
- She convinced the Pope to return to Rome from France
- Died at age 33
- Declared a "Doctor of the Church" in 1970 (1 of 32 Doctors and 1 of 2 women Doctors)
John Wycliffe
- his bones were dug up 43 years after his death and burned and thrown into the River Swift
- English priest
- told Parliament not to pay Rome as they were saving for an incoming invasion from France because Christians were to be poor and the Church was rich enough
- Stated that the pope and the Church were second to the authority of Scriptures
- Wrote against Church doctrines of transubstantiation, indulgences and repudiated confession
- Began to translate the Bible into English for all to read
Francis of Assisi
Devotional Classics
7. Strive always to Praise God
- His message to the birds was for them to be grateful to God because God takes care of them
8. They sang a wonderful song
At the end of his message to the birds he blessed them and they all at once got up and left. They all sang to the Lord
Early Church (Christianized by 300 AD)
Church Growth (Christianized 300 - 600)
Late Growth (Christianized 600 - 800)
Early Church: Southern Spain, Northeast Africa (Carthage), Southern Gaul (Marseilles), Northern Gaul (Paris), Rome, Western Turkey (Constantinople), Parts of Egypt, Jerusalem to Damascus
Church Growth: Most of Europe, Most of North Africa, Turkey
Late Growth: Germany & Britain
300's - Century of the Church Fathers
313 - Edict of Milan
325 - Council of Nicaea
350 - St. Ulfilas goes to the Goths (Missionary from Constantinople)
381 - Nicene Creed enforced
First Germanic peoples were converted to Arian Christianity
400's
410 - Sack of Rome, Roman troops pull out of Britain (Britain reverts to Celtic paganism)
430 - St. Patrick is a missionary to Ireland. Ireland's Christianity develops outside of the collapse of Rome, therefore it has a differing character. Cities are important to the church on the continent due to thee Roman influence. Rural Ireland's church centers were the monasteries. The abbot (head of the monastery) is the most important Christian in Ireland, the bishop in continental Europe.
476 - Odoacer, Germanic Ruler, sits on the Roman throne
500's
Visigoths (Spain) and other Germanic Christians were Arian.
500 - The Baptism of the Frankish King Clovis. He was converted directly from Paganism to Roman or Orthodox Christianity. Clovis consolidated tribes and gained more control of Gaul. Clovis attempted to gain the favor of the bishops in Gaul. Clovis marries a Roman Catholic princess. About 7,000 Germanic Warriors decided as a group (with Clovis) to convert and were baptized as Catholic Christians.
527 - 65 - Justinian, the Roman Emperor attempts to reconquer parts of the Western part of the Empire. He pushes the Vandals out of North Africa and pushes the Germanic tribes out of Italy. He codifies the Roman law. He built the great Church in Constantinople. Really starts enforcing Orthodoxy.
550 - Benedict of Nursia (Italian Monk) set up the rhythm and pattern for monastic life in the west. Most clerics at this time come from the nobility.
131 Christians:
Bernard of Clairvaux
- Born into low Nobility
- He joined the Cistercians and lived an ascetic life which caused severe health problems
- Founded 60 Cistercian monasteries
- Wrote the rule for the Knights Templar
- Led the rally for the 2nd Crusade
Dominic
- Noble from Spain
- Devoted his life to poverty
- Preached to the Albigensians (heretics)
- Formed the Dominican Order of priests
- Aquinas was a Dominican
Innocent III
- First Pope to declare himself, "Vicar of Christ"
- Real name - Lotario Scotti
- Born into the Italian nobility
- One of the youngest Popes ever
- Purged the Church of disloyal officials, unneeded extravagance and replaced nobles with monks
- Saw the position of the Pope as ruler over all: "less than God but more than man, judging all other men, but himself judged by none
- Slaughtered the Albigensians
Catherine of Siena
- Devoted herself to a religious life at age 7 after seeing a vision
- Catherina Benincasa was born into middle class life, she was the 23rd of 25 kids
- Born the same year as the plague came to Europe
- Claimed to have an invisible stigmata
- Refused to marry
- Joined the Dominican Order of Penance (Dominican 3rd order) in 1363. This order was of lay persons who lived in their own home and were known by their dress and deeds for the poor
- By age 19 she attracted a following by her superb sanctity and fiesta personality
- She had a vision in which Jesus put a ring on her finger, signifying a marriage (spiritual marriage) to Christ
- She cared for plague victims
- Wrote letters to sinners, and to reform the church
- She convinced the Pope to return to Rome from France
- Died at age 33
- Declared a "Doctor of the Church" in 1970 (1 of 32 Doctors and 1 of 2 women Doctors)
John Wycliffe
- his bones were dug up 43 years after his death and burned and thrown into the River Swift
- English priest
- told Parliament not to pay Rome as they were saving for an incoming invasion from France because Christians were to be poor and the Church was rich enough
- Stated that the pope and the Church were second to the authority of Scriptures
- Wrote against Church doctrines of transubstantiation, indulgences and repudiated confession
- Began to translate the Bible into English for all to read
Francis of Assisi
Devotional Classics
7. Strive always to Praise God
- His message to the birds was for them to be grateful to God because God takes care of them
8. They sang a wonderful song
At the end of his message to the birds he blessed them and they all at once got up and left. They all sang to the Lord
Class notes on Descartes
(Originally written February 10, 2006)
Class Notes: Descartes: "I think, therefore I am"
Context for Descartes:
1) Rising Skepticism was taking over France
2) Rise of Science
1st Meditation
The Method of Doubt (a sort of vaccination)
Method of doubt: criterion of knowledge: indubitably
-This criteria doomed Descartes' theory from the beginning
Three phases of doubt:
1) The senses are untrustworthy
2) Dreaming vs. Waking
3) Evil Genius
- A being that attempts to fool me throughout my life
Uses the method of doubt to find a secure foundation for knowledge: Archimedean Point
2nd Meditation
Descartes' Archimedean Point: I exist
Gassendi's criticism - Descartes doesn't follow his own rules
External World
God guarantees the senses
God exists
Human Nature
Cogito - The indubitable belief (foundation)
What is the cogito?
- an inference?
- a syllogism?
- an intuition?
Criticisms of the cogito?
1) Russell's criticism
- How do we know the "I" has a referent
2) Begs the question:
- If the "I" does move a referent then Descartes approach is circular: I (who exist), think, therefore I am
Class Notes: Descartes: "I think, therefore I am"
Context for Descartes:
1) Rising Skepticism was taking over France
2) Rise of Science
1st Meditation
The Method of Doubt (a sort of vaccination)
Method of doubt: criterion of knowledge: indubitably
-This criteria doomed Descartes' theory from the beginning
Three phases of doubt:
1) The senses are untrustworthy
2) Dreaming vs. Waking
3) Evil Genius
- A being that attempts to fool me throughout my life
Uses the method of doubt to find a secure foundation for knowledge: Archimedean Point
2nd Meditation
Descartes' Archimedean Point: I exist
Gassendi's criticism - Descartes doesn't follow his own rules
External World
God guarantees the senses
God exists
Human Nature
Cogito - The indubitable belief (foundation)
What is the cogito?
- an inference?
- a syllogism?
- an intuition?
Criticisms of the cogito?
1) Russell's criticism
- How do we know the "I" has a referent
2) Begs the question:
- If the "I" does move a referent then Descartes approach is circular: I (who exist), think, therefore I am
Views of Biblical inspiration & Interpretation
(Originally written on February 10, 2006 in book 23)
Modern views of Biblical Inspiration
Revelation - Acts of God in History are divine, but the interpretation are human
Partial-Inspiration theories:
- Bible is true on matters of faith (spiritual)
- Bible may incorrect on historical matters
example (virgin birth is a spiritual interpretation, not a historical event)
This statement is neither true nor false. It is a meaningless statement. There is no way to validate or falsify it.
The Interpretation of Scripture
Origen -
Allegory: historical events are images or shadows of divine realities (Plato)
Origen held that the truth are found above the text
Luther
Literal - "grammatical-historical" approach (evangelical interpretation)
Truth is found within the text
Historical-Critical - seeks to reconstruct a historical, non supernatural Jesus
Truth found behind the text
Theological Liberalism
Authority of Scripture
1) Presuppositional - circular reasoning
2) Ecclesiastical - Catholic
3) Spiritual - From the Holy Spirit
4) Evidentialist - reasoning and evidence
Modern views of Biblical Inspiration
Revelation - Acts of God in History are divine, but the interpretation are human
Partial-Inspiration theories:
- Bible is true on matters of faith (spiritual)
- Bible may incorrect on historical matters
example (virgin birth is a spiritual interpretation, not a historical event)
This statement is neither true nor false. It is a meaningless statement. There is no way to validate or falsify it.
The Interpretation of Scripture
Origen -
Allegory: historical events are images or shadows of divine realities (Plato)
Origen held that the truth are found above the text
Luther
Literal - "grammatical-historical" approach (evangelical interpretation)
Truth is found within the text
Historical-Critical - seeks to reconstruct a historical, non supernatural Jesus
Truth found behind the text
Theological Liberalism
Authority of Scripture
1) Presuppositional - circular reasoning
2) Ecclesiastical - Catholic
3) Spiritual - From the Holy Spirit
4) Evidentialist - reasoning and evidence
Thursday, February 9, 2006
Structure of Christian Morality & Utilitarian Ethics
(Originally written February 9, 2006 in Book 21)
Class notes
The Structure of Christian Morality
The Hierarchy:
The Glory of God (The social weight that God carries) ->
The image of God in Humanity ->
The principle of the common Good (love your neighbor/do unto others) ->
Moral principles (justice, mercy, etc.) ->
Specific commands
The higher up in the hierarchy the more absolute it becomes. The lower in the hierarchy the more subjective possibilities arise.
Since there is a hierarchy of morality are there levels of evil?
Yes, Moses had different punishments in his law.
Jesus speaks of the "weightier matters" in Matthew 23:27
Some contest this view based on the fact that God is infinitely holy and all sin offends him equally.
Topic 3
I. Plato (early 4th century B.C.)
Virtue = performing 'function' well
A. Internally a virtuous person is one whose internal parts are working well (harmoniously). Reason controlling physical and emotional desires
B. Externally: one's role (function) in society
II. Aristotle (late 4th century BC)
-Student of Plato
-teacher of Alexander the Great
III. Augustine (late 4th/early 5th century AD)
IV. Thomas Aquinas (13th century)
V. Thomas Hobbes (17th century)
VI. David Hume (18th century)
VII. Immanuel Kant (18th century)
VIII. John Stuart Mill (19th century)
S&P Ethics
Can non-consequentialists satisfactorily handle conflicting rights and principles
1) Deliverances of moral common sense still have to be examined critically
2) Non-consequentialists shouldn't rest contently until they figure out the differences in their prima facie principles
Utilitarianism Once More
Act Utilitarianism - only moral obligation is the maximization action of happiness for everyone concerned and every action is judged by how well it lives up to the standard
Rule Utilitarianism - utilitarian code should be applied to moral codes as a whole but not to an individual's actions
The optimal moral code must take into account what rules can reasonably be taught and obeyed, as well as the costs of calculating those rules in people
What will the optimal code look like?
Pluralistic, prima facie
Criticism of rule Utilitarianism
1) Act utilitarians maintain that a utilitarian who cares about happiness should be willing to violate rules in order to maximize happiness
2) Non-consequentialists still balk at seeing morality determined by their consequences
Class notes
The Structure of Christian Morality
The Hierarchy:
The Glory of God (The social weight that God carries) ->
The image of God in Humanity ->
The principle of the common Good (love your neighbor/do unto others) ->
Moral principles (justice, mercy, etc.) ->
Specific commands
The higher up in the hierarchy the more absolute it becomes. The lower in the hierarchy the more subjective possibilities arise.
Since there is a hierarchy of morality are there levels of evil?
Yes, Moses had different punishments in his law.
Jesus speaks of the "weightier matters" in Matthew 23:27
Some contest this view based on the fact that God is infinitely holy and all sin offends him equally.
Topic 3
I. Plato (early 4th century B.C.)
Virtue = performing 'function' well
A. Internally a virtuous person is one whose internal parts are working well (harmoniously). Reason controlling physical and emotional desires
B. Externally: one's role (function) in society
II. Aristotle (late 4th century BC)
-Student of Plato
-teacher of Alexander the Great
III. Augustine (late 4th/early 5th century AD)
IV. Thomas Aquinas (13th century)
V. Thomas Hobbes (17th century)
VI. David Hume (18th century)
VII. Immanuel Kant (18th century)
VIII. John Stuart Mill (19th century)
S&P Ethics
Can non-consequentialists satisfactorily handle conflicting rights and principles
1) Deliverances of moral common sense still have to be examined critically
2) Non-consequentialists shouldn't rest contently until they figure out the differences in their prima facie principles
Utilitarianism Once More
Act Utilitarianism - only moral obligation is the maximization action of happiness for everyone concerned and every action is judged by how well it lives up to the standard
Rule Utilitarianism - utilitarian code should be applied to moral codes as a whole but not to an individual's actions
The optimal moral code must take into account what rules can reasonably be taught and obeyed, as well as the costs of calculating those rules in people
What will the optimal code look like?
Pluralistic, prima facie
Criticism of rule Utilitarianism
1) Act utilitarians maintain that a utilitarian who cares about happiness should be willing to violate rules in order to maximize happiness
2) Non-consequentialists still balk at seeing morality determined by their consequences
Wednesday, February 8, 2006
The Church in the Late Empire and Antiquity
(Originally written February 8, 2006 in Book 24)
The Church in the Late Empire and Antiquity
Constantine (306-337)
-Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312)
-Edict of Milan (313)
-Sole Emperor (323)
-Called ecumenical councils Nicaea
Constantine legalized Christianity. He used Christianity to stabilize the empire.
Edict of Milan
Donatis was one of the priests who did not cave in to the Roman persecution of 303.
Donatis (Donatus?) contended that the priests who caved into the Roman persecution and sacrificed to the pagan gods should not be reinstated to the priesthood. These priests should not be giving the Holy sacraments because they would taint it and diminish their power.
This sets up the argument of whether the sacraments are holy or whether the priest administering the sacraments make them holy.
Heresy of Arianism
- God is the father
- The son has a different essence than the father, the son is not God. The son has the properties of God because God gave him the properties out of Grace
- The son is not immortal, he was created by God and then was the co-creator with God
- Jesus was sinless by practice, not by nature
Theodosius (379-395)
- Theodosius (and Ambrose)
- Orthodox Christian State circa A.D. 391
- ban on sacrifices
- divination outlawed as treason
- ordered polytheistic temples closed, these were gradually converted into churches in the 5th and 6th centuries
- made Christianity the only legal religion. Plato's academy in Athens survived another 140 years.
In the late empire the church is creating a hierarchy of leadership.
The bishops became powerful and a social status symbol, especially in the west.
A separate hierarchy
- Ambrose, bishop of Milan (AD 340 -397)
- Born into power, educated in law
- Governor of Milan at age 30
- A catechumen (still in training to be a member of the church)
- Appointed as bishop after 4 years of governing, while he still was a catechumen and not even baptized.
- Ambrose taught and converted Augustine
- Wrote on how ministry should be carried out and how a pastor should live.
Theodosius was an emperor while Ambrose was bishop of Milan
- Theodosius puts Christianity as the only legal religion, thus the persecuted becomes the persecutors
- In 388 a group of Christians burned a synagogue. Theodosius states that the bishop of the Church that burned down the synagogue has to pay for the synagogue. Ambrose rebukes him for promoting Judaism and Theodosius backed down.
- In 390 Theodosius slaughtered 3000 Thessalonians for rioting. Ambrose forced Theodosius to publicly confess of his sins. Thus the Church proved more powerful than the state.
God has two swords of power:
1) Temporal sword - government the wielder's responsibility was to create a government conducive to Christ
2) Spiritual sword: Pope/bishop the spiritual sword trumpeted the temporal sword
From the adoption of Christianity as the only legal religion, Jews find themselves losing more and more liberties like being barred from government positions
From the 6th century on Jews were barred from making wills and prohibited from testifying in court
Monasticism
Types of Monks:
- Ascetic (denial of physical comforts or pleasure, anti-materialistic)
- Eremitical (withdrawn) Monasticism: hermits, Anthony
- Cenobitic Monasticism (community): Cuenobium (common meal). Held ideals like community (strength, safety, health), obedience, abbot (father), manual labor
Very important in medieval society and continues today
Early Western Civilization (800 BC - 1650 AD)
800 BC - 265 BC: Greek
265 BC - AD 700: Roman
AD 700 - 1650: Western Europe
AD 324/476-1453 Byzantine Reign
AD 600 - 1258 Islamic World
The Church in the Late Empire and Antiquity
Constantine (306-337)
-Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312)
-Edict of Milan (313)
-Sole Emperor (323)
-Called ecumenical councils Nicaea
Constantine legalized Christianity. He used Christianity to stabilize the empire.
Edict of Milan
Donatis was one of the priests who did not cave in to the Roman persecution of 303.
Donatis (Donatus?) contended that the priests who caved into the Roman persecution and sacrificed to the pagan gods should not be reinstated to the priesthood. These priests should not be giving the Holy sacraments because they would taint it and diminish their power.
This sets up the argument of whether the sacraments are holy or whether the priest administering the sacraments make them holy.
Heresy of Arianism
- God is the father
- The son has a different essence than the father, the son is not God. The son has the properties of God because God gave him the properties out of Grace
- The son is not immortal, he was created by God and then was the co-creator with God
- Jesus was sinless by practice, not by nature
Theodosius (379-395)
- Theodosius (and Ambrose)
- Orthodox Christian State circa A.D. 391
- ban on sacrifices
- divination outlawed as treason
- ordered polytheistic temples closed, these were gradually converted into churches in the 5th and 6th centuries
- made Christianity the only legal religion. Plato's academy in Athens survived another 140 years.
In the late empire the church is creating a hierarchy of leadership.
The bishops became powerful and a social status symbol, especially in the west.
A separate hierarchy
- Ambrose, bishop of Milan (AD 340 -397)
- Born into power, educated in law
- Governor of Milan at age 30
- A catechumen (still in training to be a member of the church)
- Appointed as bishop after 4 years of governing, while he still was a catechumen and not even baptized.
- Ambrose taught and converted Augustine
- Wrote on how ministry should be carried out and how a pastor should live.
Theodosius was an emperor while Ambrose was bishop of Milan
- Theodosius puts Christianity as the only legal religion, thus the persecuted becomes the persecutors
- In 388 a group of Christians burned a synagogue. Theodosius states that the bishop of the Church that burned down the synagogue has to pay for the synagogue. Ambrose rebukes him for promoting Judaism and Theodosius backed down.
- In 390 Theodosius slaughtered 3000 Thessalonians for rioting. Ambrose forced Theodosius to publicly confess of his sins. Thus the Church proved more powerful than the state.
God has two swords of power:
1) Temporal sword - government the wielder's responsibility was to create a government conducive to Christ
2) Spiritual sword: Pope/bishop the spiritual sword trumpeted the temporal sword
From the adoption of Christianity as the only legal religion, Jews find themselves losing more and more liberties like being barred from government positions
From the 6th century on Jews were barred from making wills and prohibited from testifying in court
Monasticism
Types of Monks:
- Ascetic (denial of physical comforts or pleasure, anti-materialistic)
- Eremitical (withdrawn) Monasticism: hermits, Anthony
- Cenobitic Monasticism (community): Cuenobium (common meal). Held ideals like community (strength, safety, health), obedience, abbot (father), manual labor
Very important in medieval society and continues today
Early Western Civilization (800 BC - 1650 AD)
800 BC - 265 BC: Greek
265 BC - AD 700: Roman
AD 700 - 1650: Western Europe
AD 324/476-1453 Byzantine Reign
AD 600 - 1258 Islamic World
Quiz & Quick notes on Scripture
(Originally written February 8, 2006 in book 23)
Quiz
1) Is there a distinction between general and special revelation before the fall?
-No
2) What four things are Scripture profitable for?
a. Teaching
b. Rebuking
c. Correction
d. Training in righteousness
3) Allegorical interpretation from what philosopher?
-Plato
4) Calvin's approach to confirming the authority of the Bible for a Christian is what approach?
-Spiritual
The need for Scripture
-General revelation was never designed to be complete
- general and full communication was present for Adam
- sin cuts man/God communication and causes static
-Bible gives a new wave length
Inspiration of Scripture
-God breathed
Profitable for:
1. Teaching
2. Rebuking
3. Correction
4. Training in righteousness
Quiz
1) Is there a distinction between general and special revelation before the fall?
-No
2) What four things are Scripture profitable for?
a. Teaching
b. Rebuking
c. Correction
d. Training in righteousness
3) Allegorical interpretation from what philosopher?
-Plato
4) Calvin's approach to confirming the authority of the Bible for a Christian is what approach?
-Spiritual
The need for Scripture
-General revelation was never designed to be complete
- general and full communication was present for Adam
- sin cuts man/God communication and causes static
-Bible gives a new wave length
Inspiration of Scripture
-God breathed
Profitable for:
1. Teaching
2. Rebuking
3. Correction
4. Training in righteousness
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
Normative Theories of Ethics
(Originally written February 7, 2006)
Topic 2: Christian Ethics
3 Types of Mosaic Law
1) Moral - continued and emphasized in New Testament
2) Ritual/Ceremonial - Made obsolete by the resurrection
3) Judicial - ??/Debated
Divine Command Theory
Human morality is ultimately based on the character of God.
Problems with Divine Command Ethics:
1) Competing commands
- Differing moral duties conflict with each other so you choose the lesser evil and ask God to forgive you for your sin
-Some state there is no conflict
-Some believe in a hierarchy of God's laws
Are the following Biblical commands absolute or relative?
- Do not murder
- Do not slander
- Do not rape
- Do not steal
- Kill all the Amalekites
- Greet one another with a holy kiss
- Do not lie
Christian revelation: God is absolute. Jesus' most important commandment is absolute. All other of God's laws are subject to the situation. Case in point: Corrie ten Boom
S&P Ethics: Chapter 1: Normative Theory of Ethics
2 Kinds of normative systems:
1) Consequentialist
2) Non-Consequentialist
Consequentialists decided what is right by the good effects outdoing the bad effects
Non-consequentialists decide what is right by the consequences and other factors. The nature of the action is taken into consideration as well as the consequences of the action (deontological).
Egoism
Egoism believes that an act is only morally right if it is in the best interest of that individual's long-term interests.
2 Types of Egoism:
1) Personal Egoists believe for themselves but are indifferent to others
2) Impersonal Egoists believe everyone should do what is in their best interests.
Misconception haunt both versions of egoism:
1) Egoism is not "eat, drink and be merry" it is concerned with long-term best interest
2) All egoists do not endorse hedonism (belief that only happiness is of intrinsic value)
3) Egoism is not always agains tower's needs or wants. Egoism requires those who are egoists to act in the best interest of others, if it will produce the best long-term outlook for us.
Egoism states that we have no moral obligation to others.
Psychological egoism states that people are inherently selfish. Truly unselfish acts are impossible.
There are strong (and obvious) objections to egoism:
1) Psychological egoism is not a sound theory. Self-interest is not the only thing that governs us.
2) Ethical egoism is not really a moral theory at all
3) Ethical egoism ignores blatant wrongs
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism states we should always act to produce the greatest possibility of good for everyone affected by our actions.
Utilitarianism promotes the happiness of the society above all else.
Bentham held that pleasures and pain are merely sensations.
Utilitarianism's basic form (act utilitarianism) states that we are compelled to ask ourselves what the particular consequence of a particular act in a particular situation will be for all those affected. The morally right act is the one that will produce the most happiness in all who are affected.
Acts should be decided based on their being the one which produces the most quantitative happiness.
The rightness of the act is determined by the ratio of happiness to unhappiness in all parties affected through quantitative measure (which is based on the qualitative feeling of happiness/unhappiness)
Utilitarianism is a case by case ethical standard (no absolute)
Utilitarianism is focused on long-term happiness.
Utilitarianism must forecast to come at a decision of what is going to happen: happiness vs. unhappiness.
An utilitarian has a moral duty to maximize happiness.
Personal happiness is a part of utilitarianism but is an equal part of all parties (no special favor).
Utilitarianism isn't really workable.
"Some critics of act utilitarianism have contended that... to follow the basic utilitarian principle would not promote happiness because of the difficulties in applying utilitarianism accurately" (20).
Utilitarianism is not just and does not always distribute happiness to everyone.
Kant's ethics
Non-consequentialist
Moral rules can be known as a result of reason alone, no observation is needed.
Morality is an a priori knowledge to Kant.
Nothin is good in and of itself, save good will.
Moral acts spring from acting upon our duty to be moral.
Duty is determined by the categorical imperative.
The categorical imperative states that we should always act in such a way that we can will the maxim of our action to become a universal law.
Kant defines maxim as a subjective principle of an action that people formulate in determining their conduct.
A categorical imperative is universally binding.
Universal acceptability
The categorical imperative can be stated also as each person, through their own acts of will, legislate moral law.
Moral beings give themselves moral laws through the use of reason. All rational beings will give themselves the same moral law because they too use reason.
To check if an act is moral we simply ask if other rational beings would do the same. It is important to look at the act both from the actor's point of view and who the act is done to. If you are comfortable with doing the act and having it done to you then it is moral.
Humanity as an End, Never as a Means
According to Kant's categorical imperative rational beings should always treat other rational beings as ends, never solely as means.
Kant maintained that an act can only be deemed moral if we can will it to be a universal law.
Critical inquiries of Kant's ethics
What has moral worth?
Kant believed that only an act done out of a sense of duty is moral. If the act is done in self-interest it is not moral (which seems plausible). But Kant also maintained that if an act is done out of habit, instinct or sympathy it is not moral (this is where many ethicists believe Kant was too harsh and severe with his interpretation of moral acts).
Is the categorical imperative an adequate test of right?
Kant leaves no room for exceptions. A qualified rule such as "never steal unless you are starving" seems as universal as "never steal" but Kant would probably have rejected it because the implications could have spread to justifying rule breaking.
What does it mean to treat people as means?
It is difficult to discern when people are being used solely as means and not the end. Presumably all employers use workers as a mean to accomplish an end, but are the employers acting immorally?
Other Non-Consequentialists Perspectives
Prima facie Principles (W.D. Ross 1877-1971)
This is where we have moral obligations that stem from relationships. We have differing moral obligations to all the differing people we encounter.
Obligations can conflict, overtly, or just through a time-space issue. Obligations must be weighed to their importance and then acted upon.
A prima facie obligation is an obligation that can be overridden by a more important obligation.
Prima facie obligations can be divided into seven categories
1) Duties of fidelity
2) duties of reparation
3) duties of gratitude
4) duties of justice
5) duties of beneficence
6) duties of self-improvement
7) duties not to injure others
Assisting others
Utilitarianism makes us slaves to the betterment of others. Non-consequentialists hold a principle that states that actions would be good to do, but not immoral not to do them, these are called supererogatory action.
-The entitlement to do something is the right
-Legal right is the entitlement to do something under the law
-Moral rights are human rights.
-Human rights are universal; they re equal rights, not transferable or relinquish able, they are natural rights
Human rights can be divided into two categories
1) Negative Rights - rights to be free of interference
2) Positive Rights - rights to receive benefits
Once moral rights have been established they are in individual's hands, not society's
Critical inquires of Non-Consequentialism
How well justified are these non-consequentialist principles and moral rights?
They seem self-evident in context of culture or history
Topic 2: Christian Ethics
3 Types of Mosaic Law
1) Moral - continued and emphasized in New Testament
2) Ritual/Ceremonial - Made obsolete by the resurrection
3) Judicial - ??/Debated
Divine Command Theory
Human morality is ultimately based on the character of God.
Problems with Divine Command Ethics:
1) Competing commands
- Differing moral duties conflict with each other so you choose the lesser evil and ask God to forgive you for your sin
-Some state there is no conflict
-Some believe in a hierarchy of God's laws
Are the following Biblical commands absolute or relative?
- Do not murder
- Do not slander
- Do not rape
- Do not steal
- Kill all the Amalekites
- Greet one another with a holy kiss
- Do not lie
Christian revelation: God is absolute. Jesus' most important commandment is absolute. All other of God's laws are subject to the situation. Case in point: Corrie ten Boom
S&P Ethics: Chapter 1: Normative Theory of Ethics
2 Kinds of normative systems:
1) Consequentialist
2) Non-Consequentialist
Consequentialists decided what is right by the good effects outdoing the bad effects
Non-consequentialists decide what is right by the consequences and other factors. The nature of the action is taken into consideration as well as the consequences of the action (deontological).
Egoism
Egoism believes that an act is only morally right if it is in the best interest of that individual's long-term interests.
2 Types of Egoism:
1) Personal Egoists believe for themselves but are indifferent to others
2) Impersonal Egoists believe everyone should do what is in their best interests.
Misconception haunt both versions of egoism:
1) Egoism is not "eat, drink and be merry" it is concerned with long-term best interest
2) All egoists do not endorse hedonism (belief that only happiness is of intrinsic value)
3) Egoism is not always agains tower's needs or wants. Egoism requires those who are egoists to act in the best interest of others, if it will produce the best long-term outlook for us.
Egoism states that we have no moral obligation to others.
Psychological egoism states that people are inherently selfish. Truly unselfish acts are impossible.
There are strong (and obvious) objections to egoism:
1) Psychological egoism is not a sound theory. Self-interest is not the only thing that governs us.
2) Ethical egoism is not really a moral theory at all
3) Ethical egoism ignores blatant wrongs
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism states we should always act to produce the greatest possibility of good for everyone affected by our actions.
Utilitarianism promotes the happiness of the society above all else.
Bentham held that pleasures and pain are merely sensations.
Utilitarianism's basic form (act utilitarianism) states that we are compelled to ask ourselves what the particular consequence of a particular act in a particular situation will be for all those affected. The morally right act is the one that will produce the most happiness in all who are affected.
Acts should be decided based on their being the one which produces the most quantitative happiness.
The rightness of the act is determined by the ratio of happiness to unhappiness in all parties affected through quantitative measure (which is based on the qualitative feeling of happiness/unhappiness)
Utilitarianism is a case by case ethical standard (no absolute)
Utilitarianism is focused on long-term happiness.
Utilitarianism must forecast to come at a decision of what is going to happen: happiness vs. unhappiness.
An utilitarian has a moral duty to maximize happiness.
Personal happiness is a part of utilitarianism but is an equal part of all parties (no special favor).
Utilitarianism isn't really workable.
"Some critics of act utilitarianism have contended that... to follow the basic utilitarian principle would not promote happiness because of the difficulties in applying utilitarianism accurately" (20).
Utilitarianism is not just and does not always distribute happiness to everyone.
Kant's ethics
Non-consequentialist
Moral rules can be known as a result of reason alone, no observation is needed.
Morality is an a priori knowledge to Kant.
Nothin is good in and of itself, save good will.
Moral acts spring from acting upon our duty to be moral.
Duty is determined by the categorical imperative.
The categorical imperative states that we should always act in such a way that we can will the maxim of our action to become a universal law.
Kant defines maxim as a subjective principle of an action that people formulate in determining their conduct.
A categorical imperative is universally binding.
Universal acceptability
The categorical imperative can be stated also as each person, through their own acts of will, legislate moral law.
Moral beings give themselves moral laws through the use of reason. All rational beings will give themselves the same moral law because they too use reason.
To check if an act is moral we simply ask if other rational beings would do the same. It is important to look at the act both from the actor's point of view and who the act is done to. If you are comfortable with doing the act and having it done to you then it is moral.
Humanity as an End, Never as a Means
According to Kant's categorical imperative rational beings should always treat other rational beings as ends, never solely as means.
Kant maintained that an act can only be deemed moral if we can will it to be a universal law.
Critical inquiries of Kant's ethics
What has moral worth?
Kant believed that only an act done out of a sense of duty is moral. If the act is done in self-interest it is not moral (which seems plausible). But Kant also maintained that if an act is done out of habit, instinct or sympathy it is not moral (this is where many ethicists believe Kant was too harsh and severe with his interpretation of moral acts).
Is the categorical imperative an adequate test of right?
Kant leaves no room for exceptions. A qualified rule such as "never steal unless you are starving" seems as universal as "never steal" but Kant would probably have rejected it because the implications could have spread to justifying rule breaking.
What does it mean to treat people as means?
It is difficult to discern when people are being used solely as means and not the end. Presumably all employers use workers as a mean to accomplish an end, but are the employers acting immorally?
Other Non-Consequentialists Perspectives
Prima facie Principles (W.D. Ross 1877-1971)
This is where we have moral obligations that stem from relationships. We have differing moral obligations to all the differing people we encounter.
Obligations can conflict, overtly, or just through a time-space issue. Obligations must be weighed to their importance and then acted upon.
A prima facie obligation is an obligation that can be overridden by a more important obligation.
Prima facie obligations can be divided into seven categories
1) Duties of fidelity
2) duties of reparation
3) duties of gratitude
4) duties of justice
5) duties of beneficence
6) duties of self-improvement
7) duties not to injure others
Assisting others
Utilitarianism makes us slaves to the betterment of others. Non-consequentialists hold a principle that states that actions would be good to do, but not immoral not to do them, these are called supererogatory action.
-The entitlement to do something is the right
-Legal right is the entitlement to do something under the law
-Moral rights are human rights.
-Human rights are universal; they re equal rights, not transferable or relinquish able, they are natural rights
Human rights can be divided into two categories
1) Negative Rights - rights to be free of interference
2) Positive Rights - rights to receive benefits
Once moral rights have been established they are in individual's hands, not society's
Critical inquires of Non-Consequentialism
How well justified are these non-consequentialist principles and moral rights?
They seem self-evident in context of culture or history
Monday, February 6, 2006
Notes on W.T. Jones - Hobbes
(Originally Written February 6, 2006 in Book 4)
A History of Western Philosophy, Vol. 3
W.T. Jones
Chapter 4 - Hobbes
-Hobbes believed that the inhumanity of man warranted an all-powerful government.
-Hobbes stated that the task of philosophy was to work out social, political and ethical theories consistent with the nature of reality.
-Hobbes called matter (which was reality) an independent thing from mind; matter was in perpetual motion.
-Perfect, eternal reality was nonsense to Hobbes.
Hobbes' Philosophy has 3 divisions:
1) Body
2) Man
3) State
Body contains:
1) 'First philosophy'
2) Causality
3) Identity
4) Motion
5) The Special Sciences
Man contains:
1) Cogitating Motions
2) Sensation
3) Association of Ideas
4) Thought distinguished from sensation
5) Scientific knowledge
6) Voluntary motions
7) Relation between Physics and Psychology
8) Religion
The State contains:
1) Laws of nature
2) Necessity for a sovereign
3) Contrast between descriptive and normative theories
Body: First Philosophy
-entails the nature of ultimate reality
-Hobbes did not believe that ultimate reality was perfect in nature; it was 'determinate'
-it was simply the exposition of the most general properties of bodies
-All other philosophers' first philosophy which predated him was useless due to their insistence on the perfect nature of the ultimate reality
Body: Causality
-Hobbes defined a cause as the "aggregate of all the accidents of both of the agents how many soever they be, and of the patient, put together; which when they are all supposed to be present, it cannot be understood but that the effect is produce at the same instant; and if anyone of them be wanting, it cannot be understood but that the effect is not produced" (Jones, 124).
Body: Identity
-no two bodies are the same
-once the principle of individuation is realized to be a matter of defining the name 'same' is, the metaphysical question which vexed us become merely the task of getting others to believe our definition of same
Body: Motion
-Motion is made in less space and time than can be given
-quickness of motion is the swiftness or velocity in which a body moves
-resistance is the endeavor of one moved body in contrary to another body
-force is the quickness of motion multiplied into itself
-motion occurs when two bodies come into contact
Body: The Special sciences
-Physics, Astronomy and the sciences that deal with bodies of determinate magnitude moving at determinate velocity
-we know of changes in these determinate bodies because of the change they put on us
-Hobbes' version of the special sciences was actually a projection of physiology
Man
-Man is nothing but body (matter)
-What distinguishes man from all other matter is motion, of which there are two:
1) Motion involved in knowing
2) Motion involved in willing
Cogitating motions
-phantasms - the knowers of motion
-phantasms are sensations, motions occurring outside the mind, but only the mind knows of the motion (through sensations)
-What we know is only what are body (matter) senses and what we mind infers from these senses. We know only perception of motions and we see those motions as real things, when in fact they are merely motions.
-The problem with this knowledge, which is perception, actually delivers us into thinking there is something in reality
Sensation
-Historically the mind has been thought to have the power of perception, thought, imagination, memory, etc. Hobbes states that these are merely motions in our bodies. According to him, the most primary motion is perception and all other motion is a derivative.
Association of ideas
-There is a pattern in which various phantasms succeed one another; they tend to succeed or come through imagination
-Hobbes' association of ideas was the forerunner of empirical psychology
-He intended to study thought behavior as men study physical objects' behavior and to attribute scientific laws to them
-Hobbes' method failed, but he did point to an important fact: patterns do exist in minds.
Thought distinguished from sensation
- What distinguishes man from animals is not "some spiritual power that reaches into things and collects their intelligible species; still less an immortal soul made in God's image" (Jones, 132). The ability to name things by the law of association is man's distinguishing trait, according to Hobbes.
Names have a twofold use:
1) They help our memory
2) They enable us to communicate with others
By names, a phantasm we can recall it four our own personal use (memory) or to let another understand what were stating about a sensation (communication)
Scientific Knowledge
For Hobbes reasoning is "nothing but reckoning, that is adding and subtracting, of the consequences of general names" (Jones, 134).
Science is the knowledge which results from reasoning.
Scientific knowledge is certain, yet conditional. What we know through science is true of what we perceive that a motion is.
Through his own definition, Hobbes used his philosophy to place man in a place of immense power over nature.
Hobbes lived in a time when men were searching for certainty because they had been convinced that God was no longer certain. A vacuum ensued and men tried to fill the void of certainty with science.
Hobbes rejected that science could fill this void. Experience could give us knowledge, but only of particulars. Reason is certain but it gives us only truths of the "if x is true, then y is true/false" variety.
Hobbes believed that the faith in God, which formerly produced certainty, could only be replaced by the power of the state.
Voluntary Motions
-Voluntary motions are motions caused by phantasms
-phantasms are not merely changes in the cortex. he believed they were the way this change is experienced.
Relation between Physics and Psychology
Psychology can be based on physics because men move toward what they think is good.
Hobbes believed men had 3 basic drives:
1) Competition
2) Diffidence
3) Glory
If Hobbes were correct on this assumption, Hobbes would be correct in believing men are unfit to live in a community
Religion
-Religion is not a primary drive like sex, sleep and elimination. It is a powerful drive though. Its roots can be traced to a combination of fear and egoism.
-Hobbes maintained that religion was a fear
-In order to prevent a reformer's causation of a civil war, anarch and general misery, the sovereign must regulate and control ideals. Reform is bad because it causes terror; terror causes war.
-Hobbes believed that reformers were merely attempting to further their own personal ends.
-Religion is different from other fears because it is completely irrational.
-Men choose their religion based on personal preferences. If man were free to choose their religion they would attempt to subject everyone else to it and cause chaos and war. Thus, the sovereign must choose the religion of the people.
-There is no such thing as a religious truth
The State
-The State is a natural phenomena like body and man, just more complex
-If men followed the laws of nature then he would not need a sovereignty to govern him. Man does not follow these laws; therefore, there is a need for the sovereignty.
-Hobbes begins his theory of State on the premise of the dark nature of man and their incapability of being at peace with one another
The Laws of Nature
-Hobbes bases the laws of nature on the first natural law: the right man has to preserve his own life. All other natural laws are based on this one.
-Aquinas believed that the laws of nature were God's decrees for the universe, in so much as they were simultaneously the way the universe acted and the way it ought to act. For Hobbes, these laws were a number of recommendations based on observed facts and causal relationships.
-Hobbes holds that in the state a sovereign is never unjust because he decides what is just.
-Hobbes believes the theory of moral justification to be a pointless debate. The only thing that matters in the State's sovereign is his power.
Necessity for a Sovereign
-The enlightened egoists could live together without a sovereign because they would be able to see the long-range good of following the natural laws. All men are egoists, just not enlightened. Thus, there is a need for a sovereign to make us follow these laws.
Hobbes theory of State in a nutshell: "All men want peace and security. By doing such-and-such things they could attain in this end. Unfortunately, they are not rational enough to do these things on their own initiative. If, however, they contract together to appoint an all-powerful sovereign he will be in a position to compel them to do these things. Therefore it is sensible to appoint such a sovereign" (Jones, 150).
Contrast between descriptive and normative theories
-Hobbes, unsuccessfully, attempted to fuse descriptive and normative theories
Hobbes' place in the History of Philosophy
Hobbes' antagonism of the norms of society produced a more negative impact on society than positive.
His extreme conclusions made other great minds of the time shy away from his theories.
Hobbes' views are important to Western Civilization in that they form what philosophical synthesis should avoid being.
Hobbes attempts to find a place for value in a world of only pure facts.
Hobbes' contemporaries wanted to adopt his premise for the 'first philosophy' because they were purely scientific. They didn't because they were not willing to come to his conclusion and produce an amoral society.
If medieval philosophy is one extreme (emphasis on values, ignoring of science), Hobbism is its opposite (emphasis on science, ignoring of values).
All philosophy post-Hobbes is to find a medium between the two extremes.
Hobbes was a turning point.
A History of Western Philosophy, Vol. 3
W.T. Jones
Chapter 4 - Hobbes
-Hobbes believed that the inhumanity of man warranted an all-powerful government.
-Hobbes stated that the task of philosophy was to work out social, political and ethical theories consistent with the nature of reality.
-Hobbes called matter (which was reality) an independent thing from mind; matter was in perpetual motion.
-Perfect, eternal reality was nonsense to Hobbes.
Hobbes' Philosophy has 3 divisions:
1) Body
2) Man
3) State
Body contains:
1) 'First philosophy'
2) Causality
3) Identity
4) Motion
5) The Special Sciences
Man contains:
1) Cogitating Motions
2) Sensation
3) Association of Ideas
4) Thought distinguished from sensation
5) Scientific knowledge
6) Voluntary motions
7) Relation between Physics and Psychology
8) Religion
The State contains:
1) Laws of nature
2) Necessity for a sovereign
3) Contrast between descriptive and normative theories
Body: First Philosophy
-entails the nature of ultimate reality
-Hobbes did not believe that ultimate reality was perfect in nature; it was 'determinate'
-it was simply the exposition of the most general properties of bodies
-All other philosophers' first philosophy which predated him was useless due to their insistence on the perfect nature of the ultimate reality
Body: Causality
-Hobbes defined a cause as the "aggregate of all the accidents of both of the agents how many soever they be, and of the patient, put together; which when they are all supposed to be present, it cannot be understood but that the effect is produce at the same instant; and if anyone of them be wanting, it cannot be understood but that the effect is not produced" (Jones, 124).
Body: Identity
-no two bodies are the same
-once the principle of individuation is realized to be a matter of defining the name 'same' is, the metaphysical question which vexed us become merely the task of getting others to believe our definition of same
Body: Motion
-Motion is made in less space and time than can be given
-quickness of motion is the swiftness or velocity in which a body moves
-resistance is the endeavor of one moved body in contrary to another body
-force is the quickness of motion multiplied into itself
-motion occurs when two bodies come into contact
Body: The Special sciences
-Physics, Astronomy and the sciences that deal with bodies of determinate magnitude moving at determinate velocity
-we know of changes in these determinate bodies because of the change they put on us
-Hobbes' version of the special sciences was actually a projection of physiology
Man
-Man is nothing but body (matter)
-What distinguishes man from all other matter is motion, of which there are two:
1) Motion involved in knowing
2) Motion involved in willing
Cogitating motions
-phantasms - the knowers of motion
-phantasms are sensations, motions occurring outside the mind, but only the mind knows of the motion (through sensations)
-What we know is only what are body (matter) senses and what we mind infers from these senses. We know only perception of motions and we see those motions as real things, when in fact they are merely motions.
-The problem with this knowledge, which is perception, actually delivers us into thinking there is something in reality
Sensation
-Historically the mind has been thought to have the power of perception, thought, imagination, memory, etc. Hobbes states that these are merely motions in our bodies. According to him, the most primary motion is perception and all other motion is a derivative.
Association of ideas
-There is a pattern in which various phantasms succeed one another; they tend to succeed or come through imagination
-Hobbes' association of ideas was the forerunner of empirical psychology
-He intended to study thought behavior as men study physical objects' behavior and to attribute scientific laws to them
-Hobbes' method failed, but he did point to an important fact: patterns do exist in minds.
Thought distinguished from sensation
- What distinguishes man from animals is not "some spiritual power that reaches into things and collects their intelligible species; still less an immortal soul made in God's image" (Jones, 132). The ability to name things by the law of association is man's distinguishing trait, according to Hobbes.
Names have a twofold use:
1) They help our memory
2) They enable us to communicate with others
By names, a phantasm we can recall it four our own personal use (memory) or to let another understand what were stating about a sensation (communication)
Scientific Knowledge
For Hobbes reasoning is "nothing but reckoning, that is adding and subtracting, of the consequences of general names" (Jones, 134).
Science is the knowledge which results from reasoning.
Scientific knowledge is certain, yet conditional. What we know through science is true of what we perceive that a motion is.
Through his own definition, Hobbes used his philosophy to place man in a place of immense power over nature.
Hobbes lived in a time when men were searching for certainty because they had been convinced that God was no longer certain. A vacuum ensued and men tried to fill the void of certainty with science.
Hobbes rejected that science could fill this void. Experience could give us knowledge, but only of particulars. Reason is certain but it gives us only truths of the "if x is true, then y is true/false" variety.
Hobbes believed that the faith in God, which formerly produced certainty, could only be replaced by the power of the state.
Voluntary Motions
-Voluntary motions are motions caused by phantasms
-phantasms are not merely changes in the cortex. he believed they were the way this change is experienced.
Relation between Physics and Psychology
Psychology can be based on physics because men move toward what they think is good.
Hobbes believed men had 3 basic drives:
1) Competition
2) Diffidence
3) Glory
If Hobbes were correct on this assumption, Hobbes would be correct in believing men are unfit to live in a community
Religion
-Religion is not a primary drive like sex, sleep and elimination. It is a powerful drive though. Its roots can be traced to a combination of fear and egoism.
-Hobbes maintained that religion was a fear
-In order to prevent a reformer's causation of a civil war, anarch and general misery, the sovereign must regulate and control ideals. Reform is bad because it causes terror; terror causes war.
-Hobbes believed that reformers were merely attempting to further their own personal ends.
-Religion is different from other fears because it is completely irrational.
-Men choose their religion based on personal preferences. If man were free to choose their religion they would attempt to subject everyone else to it and cause chaos and war. Thus, the sovereign must choose the religion of the people.
-There is no such thing as a religious truth
The State
-The State is a natural phenomena like body and man, just more complex
-If men followed the laws of nature then he would not need a sovereignty to govern him. Man does not follow these laws; therefore, there is a need for the sovereignty.
-Hobbes begins his theory of State on the premise of the dark nature of man and their incapability of being at peace with one another
The Laws of Nature
-Hobbes bases the laws of nature on the first natural law: the right man has to preserve his own life. All other natural laws are based on this one.
-Aquinas believed that the laws of nature were God's decrees for the universe, in so much as they were simultaneously the way the universe acted and the way it ought to act. For Hobbes, these laws were a number of recommendations based on observed facts and causal relationships.
-Hobbes holds that in the state a sovereign is never unjust because he decides what is just.
-Hobbes believes the theory of moral justification to be a pointless debate. The only thing that matters in the State's sovereign is his power.
Necessity for a Sovereign
-The enlightened egoists could live together without a sovereign because they would be able to see the long-range good of following the natural laws. All men are egoists, just not enlightened. Thus, there is a need for a sovereign to make us follow these laws.
Hobbes theory of State in a nutshell: "All men want peace and security. By doing such-and-such things they could attain in this end. Unfortunately, they are not rational enough to do these things on their own initiative. If, however, they contract together to appoint an all-powerful sovereign he will be in a position to compel them to do these things. Therefore it is sensible to appoint such a sovereign" (Jones, 150).
Contrast between descriptive and normative theories
-Hobbes, unsuccessfully, attempted to fuse descriptive and normative theories
Hobbes' place in the History of Philosophy
Hobbes' antagonism of the norms of society produced a more negative impact on society than positive.
His extreme conclusions made other great minds of the time shy away from his theories.
Hobbes' views are important to Western Civilization in that they form what philosophical synthesis should avoid being.
Hobbes attempts to find a place for value in a world of only pure facts.
Hobbes' contemporaries wanted to adopt his premise for the 'first philosophy' because they were purely scientific. They didn't because they were not willing to come to his conclusion and produce an amoral society.
If medieval philosophy is one extreme (emphasis on values, ignoring of science), Hobbism is its opposite (emphasis on science, ignoring of values).
All philosophy post-Hobbes is to find a medium between the two extremes.
Hobbes was a turning point.
Leviathan Ch. 17, 18, 21
(Originally written February 6, 2006 in Book 21)
Human liberation (Bruno) or alienation (Pascal) in the face of an infinite and indifferent universe.
Pascal gave a, "oh my God, please save me" existentialist point of view on being alienated in the universe.
New demand for metaphysical inquiry came out of the Scientific Revolution. "Were all our religious beliefs just mere vain attempts of explaining particulars of the universe we were not capable of scientifically comprehending?"
Hobbes: British Philosopher (1583-1679) who branched into every field of philosophy.
Key features of his philosophy:
1) Systematic
2) Materialistic or naturalistic with a lip service to God
3) Determinist
4) Atomist (universe made of atoms)
5) Empiricist
6) Moral subjectivist
7) Social Contract Theorist
Leviathan (Hobbes' greatest work)
- Serves as an apologetic for monarchy
- Accused of pandering to the powers that be
Leviathan is political philosophy without purpose to:
- Rationally defend political authority
- Representative theory of Government
- Social Contract
- Bourgeois political theory
Ch. 13
- All people are equal
- Equality brings diffidence (timidity, shyness)
- Equal ability leads to equality of hope in attaining our ends. Since we desire the same things we become enemies
- Enmity results in a condition of war
Man's state of nature is:
1) Equality of man
2) Equality brings diffidence
3) Condition of War
Hobbes: Leviathan Ch. 17
The laws of nature generally entail justice, equity, modesty, mercy and doing uno others as we want done to us.
These laws are contrary to our natural passions and would be consistently broken if there was no terror inspiring institution to punish those who break these laws and those who break their covenants.
Without a government man is right to disregard the laws of nature in view of his self preservation.
Without this government families lived by honor alone and this was honor in stealing from other families as long as the thieves left the other men their lives and their "instruments of husbandry". Cities are large families and will war with one another to serve themselves.
Man cannot work as bases for the betterment of the society for a number of reasons:
1. Men are continually in competition for honor and dignity which causes envy, hatred and finally war.
2) Man's joy consist with comparing himself to another and his interests of the common good differ from that of his own personal ones
3) Men think themselves wiser than all others and therefore best to govern the public and causes civil war
4) Men are capable of words which leads to the diminishing of the apparent greatness of good and evil which troubles the peace
5) Man, when he is at ease, attempts to spread his version of wisdom and causes a clash with other men at ease, which leads to war
6) Man's agreement with each other is not natural; it comes by covenant.
The way to erect an institution to keep man from being in perpetual war is to confer all their power on one man or on a body of men that reduces all of men's will into will.
The commonwealth is this forgoing of one's will to the common will.
By way of terror of punishment, the commonwealth can enforce the will of men to be in peace.
The commonwealth is sovereign and all the people are subject to that commonwealth.
Sovereignty is gained three ways:
1) Naturally by passing it along through generations
2) Through subduing of war
3) The election of man to be, or the men to be the governing class of the commonwealth.
Chapter 18: Of the rights of sovereigns by institution
The people institute the sovereignty of this type of commonwealth they are subjected by their voting (whether or not they voted for the winner is of no consequence)
Rebellion is unjust because the sovereign has the right to impose will.
The sovereign does not make covenants, men make covenants with other men to make him sovereign. Rebellion is breaking covenant with those other subject to the sovereign.
Rebels have to deal with those loyal to the sovereign. When one rebels against the sovereign he is no longer protected and any man who is not rebellious is just in destroying the rebel.
The sovereign cannot be accused of injustice by the subject because he has the authority of sovereignty and therefore acts on behalf of the subjects. (Sovereigns can sin though).
The sovereign cannot be punished.
The goal of the sovereign is peace and defense of the subjects, therefore the sovereign has the right to any man's necessary to reach this goal.
The sovereign must govern opinions because opinions precede actions. Warlike opinions must be squashed before they become warlike actions.
The sovereign must institute laws to stop men from having the right to possess all things, which causes war.
The sovereign is the judge of all controversies or law to ensure peace.
The sovereign has the right to make war and peace with other sovereignties, in light of the peace and defense of his subjects.
The sovereign is to appoint who he chooses as counselors, ministers, magistrates, generals and other officials (also to depose them).
The sovereign bestows rights and honor on whose he sees fit and punishes whom he deems necessary.
Chapter 21 Of liberty of subjects
Liberty is the absence of opposition
A freeman is someone who is free to do his will
Fear does not impose liberty, a man choose to do something out of fear because he has the liberty to do it.
All man's will is derived from God's will. Anything a man does on his own will comes from the liberty of God for man to do it.
Laws cannot protect liberty, only "swords in the hands" of those who make laws can protect liberty.
"Every subject is the author of every act the sovereign doth" (Pojman, 562). The sovereign cannot do any injustice to the subject because then the subject would be doing it to himself, which would break a natural law.
Every commonwealth has an absolute liberty to do as it pleases
A subject has the liberty to disobey a sovereign when:
1) The Sovereign commands the subject to harm himself
2) To abstain from confessing a crime whoosh would cause himself harm
Avoidance of battle is not injustice, it is cowardice.
No subject has the liberty to defend another subject from the sovereign.
A man has the librety attempt to escape from imprisonment.
Human liberation (Bruno) or alienation (Pascal) in the face of an infinite and indifferent universe.
Pascal gave a, "oh my God, please save me" existentialist point of view on being alienated in the universe.
New demand for metaphysical inquiry came out of the Scientific Revolution. "Were all our religious beliefs just mere vain attempts of explaining particulars of the universe we were not capable of scientifically comprehending?"
Hobbes: British Philosopher (1583-1679) who branched into every field of philosophy.
Key features of his philosophy:
1) Systematic
2) Materialistic or naturalistic with a lip service to God
3) Determinist
4) Atomist (universe made of atoms)
5) Empiricist
6) Moral subjectivist
7) Social Contract Theorist
Leviathan (Hobbes' greatest work)
- Serves as an apologetic for monarchy
- Accused of pandering to the powers that be
Leviathan is political philosophy without purpose to:
- Rationally defend political authority
- Representative theory of Government
- Social Contract
- Bourgeois political theory
Ch. 13
- All people are equal
- Equality brings diffidence (timidity, shyness)
- Equal ability leads to equality of hope in attaining our ends. Since we desire the same things we become enemies
- Enmity results in a condition of war
Man's state of nature is:
1) Equality of man
2) Equality brings diffidence
3) Condition of War
Hobbes: Leviathan Ch. 17
The laws of nature generally entail justice, equity, modesty, mercy and doing uno others as we want done to us.
These laws are contrary to our natural passions and would be consistently broken if there was no terror inspiring institution to punish those who break these laws and those who break their covenants.
Without a government man is right to disregard the laws of nature in view of his self preservation.
Without this government families lived by honor alone and this was honor in stealing from other families as long as the thieves left the other men their lives and their "instruments of husbandry". Cities are large families and will war with one another to serve themselves.
Man cannot work as bases for the betterment of the society for a number of reasons:
1. Men are continually in competition for honor and dignity which causes envy, hatred and finally war.
2) Man's joy consist with comparing himself to another and his interests of the common good differ from that of his own personal ones
3) Men think themselves wiser than all others and therefore best to govern the public and causes civil war
4) Men are capable of words which leads to the diminishing of the apparent greatness of good and evil which troubles the peace
5) Man, when he is at ease, attempts to spread his version of wisdom and causes a clash with other men at ease, which leads to war
6) Man's agreement with each other is not natural; it comes by covenant.
The way to erect an institution to keep man from being in perpetual war is to confer all their power on one man or on a body of men that reduces all of men's will into will.
The commonwealth is this forgoing of one's will to the common will.
By way of terror of punishment, the commonwealth can enforce the will of men to be in peace.
The commonwealth is sovereign and all the people are subject to that commonwealth.
Sovereignty is gained three ways:
1) Naturally by passing it along through generations
2) Through subduing of war
3) The election of man to be, or the men to be the governing class of the commonwealth.
Chapter 18: Of the rights of sovereigns by institution
The people institute the sovereignty of this type of commonwealth they are subjected by their voting (whether or not they voted for the winner is of no consequence)
Rebellion is unjust because the sovereign has the right to impose will.
The sovereign does not make covenants, men make covenants with other men to make him sovereign. Rebellion is breaking covenant with those other subject to the sovereign.
Rebels have to deal with those loyal to the sovereign. When one rebels against the sovereign he is no longer protected and any man who is not rebellious is just in destroying the rebel.
The sovereign cannot be accused of injustice by the subject because he has the authority of sovereignty and therefore acts on behalf of the subjects. (Sovereigns can sin though).
The sovereign cannot be punished.
The goal of the sovereign is peace and defense of the subjects, therefore the sovereign has the right to any man's necessary to reach this goal.
The sovereign must govern opinions because opinions precede actions. Warlike opinions must be squashed before they become warlike actions.
The sovereign must institute laws to stop men from having the right to possess all things, which causes war.
The sovereign is the judge of all controversies or law to ensure peace.
The sovereign has the right to make war and peace with other sovereignties, in light of the peace and defense of his subjects.
The sovereign is to appoint who he chooses as counselors, ministers, magistrates, generals and other officials (also to depose them).
The sovereign bestows rights and honor on whose he sees fit and punishes whom he deems necessary.
Chapter 21 Of liberty of subjects
Liberty is the absence of opposition
A freeman is someone who is free to do his will
Fear does not impose liberty, a man choose to do something out of fear because he has the liberty to do it.
All man's will is derived from God's will. Anything a man does on his own will comes from the liberty of God for man to do it.
Laws cannot protect liberty, only "swords in the hands" of those who make laws can protect liberty.
"Every subject is the author of every act the sovereign doth" (Pojman, 562). The sovereign cannot do any injustice to the subject because then the subject would be doing it to himself, which would break a natural law.
Every commonwealth has an absolute liberty to do as it pleases
A subject has the liberty to disobey a sovereign when:
1) The Sovereign commands the subject to harm himself
2) To abstain from confessing a crime whoosh would cause himself harm
Avoidance of battle is not injustice, it is cowardice.
No subject has the liberty to defend another subject from the sovereign.
A man has the librety attempt to escape from imprisonment.
A quiz & some notes on General/Special Revelation
(Originally written February 6, 2006 in Book 23)
Quiz Questions: True or False
Faith and Knowledge are mutually exclusive
-False
The moral sense that tells us when others have wronged us is
-Judicial sentiment
A posteriori arguments argue for the existence of God on what basis?
-Facts observed by the human senses
Thomas Aquinas' version of the argument from designs is called the
-Teleological argument
JFK and C.S. Lewis died on the same day.
Quiz 2
What has Athens to do with Jerusalem is an anti-philosophical polemic by
-Tertullian
Calvin believed that faith in Christ
-included doubt but never results in the ultimate falling away from faith
Who believed the 'first principles' of all truth not through reason, but through the heart?
-Blaise Pascal
Implication of General Revelation
Accountability before God
Romans 2:14-16 (conscience)
Romans 2:1 (judicial sentiment)
Holy Scripture
One aspect of Special revelation
Special revealing: God's self disclosure. "Truth as encounter"
Such encounter does not exclude information (propositional truth)
Quiz Questions: True or False
Faith and Knowledge are mutually exclusive
-False
The moral sense that tells us when others have wronged us is
-Judicial sentiment
A posteriori arguments argue for the existence of God on what basis?
-Facts observed by the human senses
Thomas Aquinas' version of the argument from designs is called the
-Teleological argument
JFK and C.S. Lewis died on the same day.
Quiz 2
What has Athens to do with Jerusalem is an anti-philosophical polemic by
-Tertullian
Calvin believed that faith in Christ
-included doubt but never results in the ultimate falling away from faith
Who believed the 'first principles' of all truth not through reason, but through the heart?
-Blaise Pascal
Implication of General Revelation
Accountability before God
Romans 2:14-16 (conscience)
Romans 2:1 (judicial sentiment)
Holy Scripture
One aspect of Special revelation
Special revealing: God's self disclosure. "Truth as encounter"
Such encounter does not exclude information (propositional truth)
Friday, February 3, 2006
Ways of interpreting Scripture
(Originally written February 3, 2006 in Book 23)
Clement of Alexandria in the fourfold interpretation of Scriptures
- Clement states there are four ways to interpret Scriptures
1) The literal sense
2) The allegorical sense, which conveys something to be believed
3) The moral (tropological) sense, which conveys something which is to be done
4) The analogical sense, which conveys something which is to be hoped for
(The four-fold interpretation is called the Quadriga)
Origen on the Three Ways of Reading Scripture
- Origen believes there is a correlation between a Christian's maturity level and what he/she can get out of certain passages of the Bible. He classifies them in 3 sets:
1) The "body": this is what the simplest Christians obtain. It is the mere immediate acceptance of the text as divine in nature
2) The "soul": is what Christians, who have matured by the "body" way of reading scripture are able to extract from the text
3) The "spiritual" is the complete perfect understanding of the text only mature Christians are capable of obtaining.
There are some passages that contain messages for all three of these, while some only contain messages for those who read at the "soul" or "spiritual" levels.
Augustine on the Literal and Allegorical senses of Scripture
Augustine writes on this topic to refute held by the Manichaeans
The Manichaeans hold a view that the New Testament makes the Old Testament obsolete, The New Covenant in Christ removes completely the old.
Augustine states that rather than rendering the Old Testament obsolete, the New Testament removes a "veil" that was over it, making it possible for us to understand the spiritual meaning of the Old Testament. He states there is "no tension" between the two. The New Testament removes the veil of the Old Testament allowing us to see the connection and relationship between the two.
Vincent of Lépins on the role of Tradition
He wrote in an attempt to find a way to be secure in deciding what was true teaching and what was heresy. His findings were rooted in two key principles of accepting any specific doctrine:
1) by authority of the divine law
2) by the tradition of the Catholic Church
The need for the use of the tradition of the Catholic Church is that many people interpret the Scriptures in many different ways. The Church was to govern which interpretations were true and which were false.
Vincent assures us that the Church will have all the sound doctrines by ensuring three things:
1) The ecumenicity of the doctrine and that it is believed everywhere
2) The antiquity of the doctrine: it has always been believed, especially by the original leaders of the Church
3) The consent of the doctrine: it is believed by all people
"That which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all people" (The Vincentian Canon)
Martin Luther on the fourfold sense of Scriptures
Luther maintains the Quadriga, but states there are two subsets of the literal approach.
1) Literal-historical views an Old Testament passage as directly involving Israel
2) Literal-prophetic views Old Testament passage in relation to the Incarnation of Christ
He states there are two ways of living and each has a distinct way of interpreting Scripture:
1) Spirit (Literal-Prophetic)
2) Flesh (Literal-Historical)
Luther warns that the Scriptures will become ludicrous if Scripture is taken allegorically or tropologically without it being explicitly stated in a historical manner somewhere else.
Emil Brunner on the Personal Nature of Revelation
Brunner believes that God reveals Himself to the individual, not just the information of Himself, but His essence
The relationship with man and God is personal. If God were only relaying information to man it would be an impersonal relationship.
James Packer on the Nature of Revelation
Packer defines revelation as two things:
1) God's act: a personal self-disclosure whereby he brings us actively to know him as our God and savior
2) God's gift: the revelation of knowledge about Himself
"God reveals Himself by telling us about Himself, and what He is doing in His world"
Packer believes God speaks to us in a verbal way. Either through angels, dreams, visions or through the Holy Spirit directing us to do a certain thing; in any case it is a form of verbal communication that God uses to reveal himself to us.
Clement of Alexandria in the fourfold interpretation of Scriptures
- Clement states there are four ways to interpret Scriptures
1) The literal sense
2) The allegorical sense, which conveys something to be believed
3) The moral (tropological) sense, which conveys something which is to be done
4) The analogical sense, which conveys something which is to be hoped for
(The four-fold interpretation is called the Quadriga)
Origen on the Three Ways of Reading Scripture
- Origen believes there is a correlation between a Christian's maturity level and what he/she can get out of certain passages of the Bible. He classifies them in 3 sets:
1) The "body": this is what the simplest Christians obtain. It is the mere immediate acceptance of the text as divine in nature
2) The "soul": is what Christians, who have matured by the "body" way of reading scripture are able to extract from the text
3) The "spiritual" is the complete perfect understanding of the text only mature Christians are capable of obtaining.
There are some passages that contain messages for all three of these, while some only contain messages for those who read at the "soul" or "spiritual" levels.
Augustine on the Literal and Allegorical senses of Scripture
Augustine writes on this topic to refute held by the Manichaeans
The Manichaeans hold a view that the New Testament makes the Old Testament obsolete, The New Covenant in Christ removes completely the old.
Augustine states that rather than rendering the Old Testament obsolete, the New Testament removes a "veil" that was over it, making it possible for us to understand the spiritual meaning of the Old Testament. He states there is "no tension" between the two. The New Testament removes the veil of the Old Testament allowing us to see the connection and relationship between the two.
Vincent of Lépins on the role of Tradition
He wrote in an attempt to find a way to be secure in deciding what was true teaching and what was heresy. His findings were rooted in two key principles of accepting any specific doctrine:
1) by authority of the divine law
2) by the tradition of the Catholic Church
The need for the use of the tradition of the Catholic Church is that many people interpret the Scriptures in many different ways. The Church was to govern which interpretations were true and which were false.
Vincent assures us that the Church will have all the sound doctrines by ensuring three things:
1) The ecumenicity of the doctrine and that it is believed everywhere
2) The antiquity of the doctrine: it has always been believed, especially by the original leaders of the Church
3) The consent of the doctrine: it is believed by all people
"That which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all people" (The Vincentian Canon)
Martin Luther on the fourfold sense of Scriptures
Luther maintains the Quadriga, but states there are two subsets of the literal approach.
1) Literal-historical views an Old Testament passage as directly involving Israel
2) Literal-prophetic views Old Testament passage in relation to the Incarnation of Christ
He states there are two ways of living and each has a distinct way of interpreting Scripture:
1) Spirit (Literal-Prophetic)
2) Flesh (Literal-Historical)
Luther warns that the Scriptures will become ludicrous if Scripture is taken allegorically or tropologically without it being explicitly stated in a historical manner somewhere else.
Emil Brunner on the Personal Nature of Revelation
Brunner believes that God reveals Himself to the individual, not just the information of Himself, but His essence
The relationship with man and God is personal. If God were only relaying information to man it would be an impersonal relationship.
James Packer on the Nature of Revelation
Packer defines revelation as two things:
1) God's act: a personal self-disclosure whereby he brings us actively to know him as our God and savior
2) God's gift: the revelation of knowledge about Himself
"God reveals Himself by telling us about Himself, and what He is doing in His world"
Packer believes God speaks to us in a verbal way. Either through angels, dreams, visions or through the Holy Spirit directing us to do a certain thing; in any case it is a form of verbal communication that God uses to reveal himself to us.
Modern faith vs. Hebrews Faith
(Originally written February 3, 2006 in Book 23)
Class Notes
Faith and Knowledge
Modern faith is believing something you know isn't true.
Hebrews 11:1 "Faith is assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen"
Knowledge of God & Self
Calvin: Wisdom consists of (almost entirely) of two things
1) Knowledge of God
2) Knowledge of self
Wisdom & Knowledge
Wisdom: discernment, truth, righteousness, experience, action
Knowledge:
1) Understanding of a fact or skill
2) Being intimately familiar with someone
Knowledge of God
1) outward general revelation
2) Inward general revelation
-conscience
-judicial sentiment
-sensus divinitatis (sense of God)
conscience - dictates how a person treats others
judicial sentiment - judges others on how they treat us
Class Notes
Faith and Knowledge
Modern faith is believing something you know isn't true.
Hebrews 11:1 "Faith is assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen"
Knowledge of God & Self
Calvin: Wisdom consists of (almost entirely) of two things
1) Knowledge of God
2) Knowledge of self
Wisdom & Knowledge
Wisdom: discernment, truth, righteousness, experience, action
Knowledge:
1) Understanding of a fact or skill
2) Being intimately familiar with someone
Knowledge of God
1) outward general revelation
2) Inward general revelation
-conscience
-judicial sentiment
-sensus divinitatis (sense of God)
conscience - dictates how a person treats others
judicial sentiment - judges others on how they treat us
Leviathan Ch. 13-15
(Originally written February 3, 2006)
Continental Rationalism
-Descartes
-Spinoza
-Leibniz
British Empiricism
-Locke
-Berkeley
-Hume
Rationalism (early Modern)
1) Built a system by using math and geometry as a model
2) Believed in innate ideas (certain inborn ideas, conceptions, knowledge we have at the time of birth)
3) The explainability thesis: everything is susceptible to some rational explanation
Empiricism (early modern)
1) The source of ideas come from sense data (experience)
2) Justification of their beliefs must produce evidence of that belief
The Scientific Revolution
- Preceded and concurrent with the births of rationalism and empiricism
The pre-scientific revolution cosmology included:
1) geocentricism
2) the heavenly vault
3) the heterogeneity of the universe (terrestrial and celestial bodies moved differently)
4) Aristotelian doctrine of change/motion (demands a cause for motion, that cause also has to have a purpose)
-Efficient Cause - Mechanical
-Telic cause - giver of purpose
Galileo's science did not defeat the Church or Church theology. Galileo's sound theory deposed a bad influence of Aristotelianism on an uncritical theology.
Keys in Scientific Revolution
-Copernican Revolution (heliocentric)
-Kepler's law of planetary motion
-Bruno's infinite cosmos
-Galileo's kinetics
What are the implications of these on philosophy?
1) Universe is rational
2) The world is comprehensible
3) The cosmos is homogenous
4) Fruitfulness of systematic inquiry
5) Teleological (purpose oriented) explanation is no longer necessary
Classics of Philosophy
Ch. 13 of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan
Ch. 13 "of the natural condition of mankind as concerning their felicity, and misery"
Men are made equal. No one can claim to be greater by birth alone. "The weakest has the strength to kill the strongest" (Pojman, 542)
All men believe they are smarter than other men
From the fact that all men are equal in ability, all men have equal hope to achieve a goal. When these goals become conflicting then the men become enemies and both are capable in one way or another of destroying their enemy.
All men want to have their value assessed by their companions (equal, which is all men) assessed at what they have assessed it as.
In the nature of man we find three principles to quarrels
1) Competition
2) Diffidence
3) Glory
Competition makes men invade for gain, use violence for that gain
Diffidence makes men defend their position for safety
Glory makes men fight for glorify and trifles
Without a power to stop them, man is constantly at war with all other men.
The war exists in the act of fighting and in the knowledge that tensions are there that could ignite and inspire fighting. When there is no fighting and no intention of fighting there is peace.
When man is at war, there is no time for life, art, wealth, knowledge or worst of all, society. In times of war there is "continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" (Pojman, 543).
Hobbes condemns men with words, other men condemn them with acts of locking doors and securing themselves.
Sin is not found in man's nature, passions or desires. It is not found even in his actions until he breaks the law.
Where there is no power to fear there is no law. Where there is no law there is no justice.
Justice and injustice do not lie in man or his nature; they lie in society.
The passions or desires that make men want peace are:
1) Fear of death
2) Desire for commodious living
3) The hope for the means to secure the commodious living
Chapter 14: Of the first and second natural law of contracts
The right of nature is the liberty of man to preserve his own life through any means necessary
Liberty is the absence of anything that would stop him from using his power.
A law of nature is a general rule that forbids man to destroy himself.
Right is the liberty to do something.
Law is what forbids them to do something
The first law of nature is to seek peace because it is good for him.
The second law of nature is to defend ourselves by any means necessary when the first law cannot be achieved.
This law is from the Gospel: "do whatever you wish done unto yourself"
If man insists on keeping the right to do whatever he wishes he is constantly at war; but, if he renounces that right and others renounce theirs they are at peace with each other. But not only one man can renounce his right and all others retain theirs for the man who renounced his right in the face of the others retaining theirs breaks the second law of nature by not employing all means to defend himself.
The bonds by which men transfer or renounce their rights to pursue peace are strengthened by the fear of some evil consequence upon the rupture of this agreement. They are not strengthened by the word of men because nothing is so easily broken as the word of man.
The renunciation or transfer of rights by a man is done so for a right being renounced by another or transferred to him by another or in the hopes of good that will come to him.
The mutual transferring of a right is a contract.
If a contract is made when one man's right is immediately transferred for the future transfer of another's right it is called a pact or a covenant.
When one transfers his right in hope of some future good to come to him it is called a gift, free gift or grace and is not a contract.
When a contract is made for both parties to transfer at a future date upon a power over them is needed to quash their constant tendency to return to state of war.
To make a covenant with God is impossible because we cannot know whether or not our covenants have been accepted.
Men are freed of their covenant in 2 ways:
1) by preforming: natural end of an obligation
2) by being forgive: restoration of a liberty
Chapter 15 "of other laws of nature"
The third natural law is that men perform the covenants that they make, otherwise their covenants are in vain and we are still in the condition of war.
Without any covenants there can be no covenants broken and if no covenant is broken than no injustice has been done.
The definition of justice is simply performing no unjust acts (not breaking any covenants)
To be justice their must be no war, because in a state of war there are no unjust acts. To be no war there must be a coercive power to force men to perform their covenants and thus be justice.
To enforce covenants (justice) the punishment of breaking covenants (injustice) must be greater than the anticipated gain of breaking the covenant.
The foolish man states that there is no justice and that there is no God.
The just man is the man who has taken all reasonable care to keep his covenants, the unjust man is the man who has neglected this reasonable care.
A just man does not by one or a few mistakes or unjust acts caused by sudden passion become unjust.
Injury is done to the man who breaks a covenant. Damage is done to the man whose covenant is broken by the other man.
No man gives without the intention of good to himself.
Compliance is a law of nature that states every man must strive to accommodate himself to the rest.
If a man retains what is superfluous to himself, yet necessary to others he should be cast out of society because he has become cumbersome to that society.
Forgiveness is another law of nature. A man should grant forgiveness for offenses past to another man that desires it.
Pardon is a granting of peace.
Another law of nature is that revenge should be forgone for the greatness of good that will follow a lack of revenge.
Avoidance of hatred is a natural law because hatred breeds war.
Another natural law is that all men must acknowledge one another as equal.
Equity is the distributive justice
There can be no unequal share given to different then, for that is contrary to equity.
Where there can be no equal distribution it is determined first by agreement, second by first seizure or first possession
An arbitrator should decide any dispute of covenant.
Continental Rationalism
-Descartes
-Spinoza
-Leibniz
British Empiricism
-Locke
-Berkeley
-Hume
Rationalism (early Modern)
1) Built a system by using math and geometry as a model
2) Believed in innate ideas (certain inborn ideas, conceptions, knowledge we have at the time of birth)
3) The explainability thesis: everything is susceptible to some rational explanation
Empiricism (early modern)
1) The source of ideas come from sense data (experience)
2) Justification of their beliefs must produce evidence of that belief
The Scientific Revolution
- Preceded and concurrent with the births of rationalism and empiricism
The pre-scientific revolution cosmology included:
1) geocentricism
2) the heavenly vault
3) the heterogeneity of the universe (terrestrial and celestial bodies moved differently)
4) Aristotelian doctrine of change/motion (demands a cause for motion, that cause also has to have a purpose)
-Efficient Cause - Mechanical
-Telic cause - giver of purpose
Galileo's science did not defeat the Church or Church theology. Galileo's sound theory deposed a bad influence of Aristotelianism on an uncritical theology.
Keys in Scientific Revolution
-Copernican Revolution (heliocentric)
-Kepler's law of planetary motion
-Bruno's infinite cosmos
-Galileo's kinetics
What are the implications of these on philosophy?
1) Universe is rational
2) The world is comprehensible
3) The cosmos is homogenous
4) Fruitfulness of systematic inquiry
5) Teleological (purpose oriented) explanation is no longer necessary
Classics of Philosophy
Ch. 13 of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan
Ch. 13 "of the natural condition of mankind as concerning their felicity, and misery"
Men are made equal. No one can claim to be greater by birth alone. "The weakest has the strength to kill the strongest" (Pojman, 542)
All men believe they are smarter than other men
From the fact that all men are equal in ability, all men have equal hope to achieve a goal. When these goals become conflicting then the men become enemies and both are capable in one way or another of destroying their enemy.
All men want to have their value assessed by their companions (equal, which is all men) assessed at what they have assessed it as.
In the nature of man we find three principles to quarrels
1) Competition
2) Diffidence
3) Glory
Competition makes men invade for gain, use violence for that gain
Diffidence makes men defend their position for safety
Glory makes men fight for glorify and trifles
Without a power to stop them, man is constantly at war with all other men.
The war exists in the act of fighting and in the knowledge that tensions are there that could ignite and inspire fighting. When there is no fighting and no intention of fighting there is peace.
When man is at war, there is no time for life, art, wealth, knowledge or worst of all, society. In times of war there is "continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" (Pojman, 543).
Hobbes condemns men with words, other men condemn them with acts of locking doors and securing themselves.
Sin is not found in man's nature, passions or desires. It is not found even in his actions until he breaks the law.
Where there is no power to fear there is no law. Where there is no law there is no justice.
Justice and injustice do not lie in man or his nature; they lie in society.
The passions or desires that make men want peace are:
1) Fear of death
2) Desire for commodious living
3) The hope for the means to secure the commodious living
Chapter 14: Of the first and second natural law of contracts
The right of nature is the liberty of man to preserve his own life through any means necessary
Liberty is the absence of anything that would stop him from using his power.
A law of nature is a general rule that forbids man to destroy himself.
Right is the liberty to do something.
Law is what forbids them to do something
The first law of nature is to seek peace because it is good for him.
The second law of nature is to defend ourselves by any means necessary when the first law cannot be achieved.
This law is from the Gospel: "do whatever you wish done unto yourself"
If man insists on keeping the right to do whatever he wishes he is constantly at war; but, if he renounces that right and others renounce theirs they are at peace with each other. But not only one man can renounce his right and all others retain theirs for the man who renounced his right in the face of the others retaining theirs breaks the second law of nature by not employing all means to defend himself.
The bonds by which men transfer or renounce their rights to pursue peace are strengthened by the fear of some evil consequence upon the rupture of this agreement. They are not strengthened by the word of men because nothing is so easily broken as the word of man.
The renunciation or transfer of rights by a man is done so for a right being renounced by another or transferred to him by another or in the hopes of good that will come to him.
The mutual transferring of a right is a contract.
If a contract is made when one man's right is immediately transferred for the future transfer of another's right it is called a pact or a covenant.
When one transfers his right in hope of some future good to come to him it is called a gift, free gift or grace and is not a contract.
When a contract is made for both parties to transfer at a future date upon a power over them is needed to quash their constant tendency to return to state of war.
To make a covenant with God is impossible because we cannot know whether or not our covenants have been accepted.
Men are freed of their covenant in 2 ways:
1) by preforming: natural end of an obligation
2) by being forgive: restoration of a liberty
Chapter 15 "of other laws of nature"
The third natural law is that men perform the covenants that they make, otherwise their covenants are in vain and we are still in the condition of war.
Without any covenants there can be no covenants broken and if no covenant is broken than no injustice has been done.
The definition of justice is simply performing no unjust acts (not breaking any covenants)
To be justice their must be no war, because in a state of war there are no unjust acts. To be no war there must be a coercive power to force men to perform their covenants and thus be justice.
To enforce covenants (justice) the punishment of breaking covenants (injustice) must be greater than the anticipated gain of breaking the covenant.
The foolish man states that there is no justice and that there is no God.
The just man is the man who has taken all reasonable care to keep his covenants, the unjust man is the man who has neglected this reasonable care.
A just man does not by one or a few mistakes or unjust acts caused by sudden passion become unjust.
Injury is done to the man who breaks a covenant. Damage is done to the man whose covenant is broken by the other man.
No man gives without the intention of good to himself.
Compliance is a law of nature that states every man must strive to accommodate himself to the rest.
If a man retains what is superfluous to himself, yet necessary to others he should be cast out of society because he has become cumbersome to that society.
Forgiveness is another law of nature. A man should grant forgiveness for offenses past to another man that desires it.
Pardon is a granting of peace.
Another law of nature is that revenge should be forgone for the greatness of good that will follow a lack of revenge.
Avoidance of hatred is a natural law because hatred breeds war.
Another natural law is that all men must acknowledge one another as equal.
Equity is the distributive justice
There can be no unequal share given to different then, for that is contrary to equity.
Where there can be no equal distribution it is determined first by agreement, second by first seizure or first possession
An arbitrator should decide any dispute of covenant.
Christianity in the late Roman Empire
(Originally written February 3, 2006)
Pax Romana reached its highest point in the second century A.D.
The Romans respected Judaism and began to see Christianity as a separate religion from Judaism.
Persecution of Christians was localized and sporadic. 1st century persecution (Nero 62-64).
Second century AD is very prosperous so not much attention is paid to this new, illegal, underground religion called Christianity.
Romans were very tolerable of other religions, especially during prosperity.
Third century AD had tons of problems in the Roman Empire. It's beginning to collapse. The gods must not be happy with the Romans. The sacrifices to the emperor and to the protective gods must be made. Christianity is to blame for the catastrophes in Rome. Decius is the first Roman Emperor to attempt empire-wide persecution. He doesn't have the means to enforce his policy.
Diocletian (late 3rd century) recognized that the Roman Empire was split into two halves. The east was Hellenized and wealthy. The west was less sophisticated, rural and poor. So Diocletian splits the empire into two halves, four prefectures, thirteen dioceses, 100 provinces.
Because of this tighter administration Diocletian is able to effectively crush and persecute Christians throughout the entire empire.
As the church develops underground a need arises for overseers to lead and oversee the churches in regions.
Part of the reason the church grows so rapidly during the time of this great persecution and recession/political turmoil is that the Christian church was known for distributing welfare.
Out of Diocletian's system of rule, Constantine emerges as a sole emperor.
The western half of the empire was rural, Latin and less sophisticated. The eastern half was urban, Greek and sophisticated.
Even in the fourth century there was a noticeable difference between Western Christians and Eastern Christians.
The head of the Western Church is the Bishop of Rome (Pope). The head of the Eastern Church is the patriarch of Constantinople.
Early organization of the church:
The bishops were over the local churches
The local churches were run by elders and deacons
Most powerful churches and traditional apostolic founders: Alexandria, Antioch, Mark, Paul, Jerusalem, the 12, Rome, Peter
The bishops of these churches jockeyed for power
The church and bishop of Jerusalem lost power at the fall of Jerusalem
Bishops
Constantine promotes Christianity as a legal religion Constantine uses Christianity to stabilize the region. Constantine does not like the fact that the bishops have disagreements because it causes instability. The reversal of Christianity's position in such a short time was dramatic.
Constantine calls the first ecumenical council in AD 325. He calls all of the bishops together. The Council of Nicene was intended to settle all theological disputes.
Pax Romana reached its highest point in the second century A.D.
The Romans respected Judaism and began to see Christianity as a separate religion from Judaism.
Persecution of Christians was localized and sporadic. 1st century persecution (Nero 62-64).
Second century AD is very prosperous so not much attention is paid to this new, illegal, underground religion called Christianity.
Romans were very tolerable of other religions, especially during prosperity.
Third century AD had tons of problems in the Roman Empire. It's beginning to collapse. The gods must not be happy with the Romans. The sacrifices to the emperor and to the protective gods must be made. Christianity is to blame for the catastrophes in Rome. Decius is the first Roman Emperor to attempt empire-wide persecution. He doesn't have the means to enforce his policy.
Diocletian (late 3rd century) recognized that the Roman Empire was split into two halves. The east was Hellenized and wealthy. The west was less sophisticated, rural and poor. So Diocletian splits the empire into two halves, four prefectures, thirteen dioceses, 100 provinces.
Because of this tighter administration Diocletian is able to effectively crush and persecute Christians throughout the entire empire.
As the church develops underground a need arises for overseers to lead and oversee the churches in regions.
Part of the reason the church grows so rapidly during the time of this great persecution and recession/political turmoil is that the Christian church was known for distributing welfare.
Out of Diocletian's system of rule, Constantine emerges as a sole emperor.
The western half of the empire was rural, Latin and less sophisticated. The eastern half was urban, Greek and sophisticated.
Even in the fourth century there was a noticeable difference between Western Christians and Eastern Christians.
The head of the Western Church is the Bishop of Rome (Pope). The head of the Eastern Church is the patriarch of Constantinople.
Early organization of the church:
The bishops were over the local churches
The local churches were run by elders and deacons
Most powerful churches and traditional apostolic founders: Alexandria, Antioch, Mark, Paul, Jerusalem, the 12, Rome, Peter
The bishops of these churches jockeyed for power
The church and bishop of Jerusalem lost power at the fall of Jerusalem
Bishops
Constantine promotes Christianity as a legal religion Constantine uses Christianity to stabilize the region. Constantine does not like the fact that the bishops have disagreements because it causes instability. The reversal of Christianity's position in such a short time was dramatic.
Constantine calls the first ecumenical council in AD 325. He calls all of the bishops together. The Council of Nicene was intended to settle all theological disputes.
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