The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter III: Three Doctors of the Church
There are four Doctors of the Western Church: St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Augustine and Pope Gregory the Great. The first three were contemporaries while Pope Gregory belonged to a later date.
Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome flourished during the brief interval between the Catholic domination of the Roman Empire and the barbarian invasion of the West. These three men shaped the mold into which the Church was built for the Middle Ages more than anybody. "Speaking broadly, Saint
Ambrose determined the ecclesiastical conception of the relation of Church and State; Saint
Jerome gave the Western Church its Latin Bible and a great part of the impetus to monasticism;
while Saint Augustine fixed the theology of the Church until the Reformation, and, later, a great
part of the doctrines of Luther and Calvin" (Russell, 335).
Ambrose rose to power inside the Church by becoming somewhat of a surprise victor in the election to bishop at Milan, then the capital of the West. He acted as equal, sometimes superior to the Emperor, setting a precedent.
Ambrose wrote a letter to the young Emperor Valentinian II in A.D. 384 denouncing the idea of returning a pagan statue to the Roman Senate building. In the letter he showed that the religious considerations supersede the temporal ones.
Again Ambrose battled with the State this time refusing to give one of the churches of Milan to the Arians for use. Backed by the people, Ambrose emerged victorious. "Ambrose had demonstrated that there were matters in which the State must yield to the Church, and had thereby established a new principle which retains its importance to the present day" (Russell, 339).
Ambrose famously battled with Theodosius and won out. Again showing the power of the Emperor to be subservient to the power of the Church.
Jerome is most famous for producing the Latin Vulgate which though eventually accepted as authoritative had to initially fight against reluctance because of the work of Rabbis on the text.
Jerome was born in Stridon, near Aquileia and lived in Rome, lived as a hermit in the Syrian wilderness, traveled to Constantinople and returned to Rome where he began to work on his translation of the Bible.
Jerome found himself in quarrels often and left Rome in 386 to live in Bethlehem until his death in 420. Despite his exile away from Rome, he mourned the dying of the Roman world at the hands of the barbarians.
Augustine was born in 354 to a Christian mother and pagan father in Africa.
We know more about Augustine's early life than most others because of his Confessions. The book has had famous imitators, especially Rousseau and Tolstoy.
"Saint Augustine is in some ways similar to Tolstoy, to whom, however, he is superior in intellect. He was a passionate man, in youth very far from a pattern of virtue, but driven by an inner impulse to search for truth and righteousness. Like Tolstoy, he was obsessed, in his later years, by a sense of sin, which made his life stern and his philosophy inhuman. He combated heresies vigorously, but some of his own views, when repeated by Jansenius in the seventeenth century, were pronounced heretical. Until the Protestants took up his opinions, however, the Catholic Church had never impugned their
orthodoxy" (Russell, 345).
Augustine's obsession with sin seems morbid in modern readings, but was in line with what was seen as holiness in his age. Besides that he held that righteousness, the greatest of goods, was achieved through tribulation now that sin was in the world.
"It thus came about that Christian theology had two parts, one concerned with the Church, and one with the individual soul. In later times, the first of these was most emphasized by Catholics, and the second by Protestants, but in Saint Augustine both exist equally, without his having any sense of
disharmony. Those who are saved are those whom God has predestined to salvation; this is a
direct relation of the soul to God. But no one will be saved unless he has been baptized, and
thereby become a member of the Church; this makes the Church an intermediary between the soul
and God" (Russell, 346).
Augustine became a teacher of Rhetoric in Carthage then moved to Rome. With his move he became less convinced of the Manichean faith he had been originally attracted to. He became somewhat infatuated with the Skepticism of the Academy before meeting Ambrose in his move to Milan. It was at Milan with the confluence of his mother, a devout Catholic, Ambrose, the discovery of St. Paul and seeing the not-quite-there totality in Platonism that Augustine finally converts.
Showing posts with label Calvin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Calvin. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Friday, February 29, 2008
Notes on Tolstoy, What is Art? Ch. 6
Originally Written Feb. 29, 2008 in the Journal
What is Art?
Chapter 6
The estimation of the value of art depends on the man's perception of the meaning of life. It depends on what they find good and what they find evil. What is good and evil is determined by religion.
There have been men that understood the meaning of life more lucidly and more generally than others. Their expression of the meaning of life, together with superstitions, traditions and ceremonies that surround the memory of these men is what is called religion.
"Religions are the highest exponents of the highest comprehension of life" (Maude, 127). It is for this reason that religions have and always will serve as the basis for the valuation of all human sentiments.
If art coincides with the laws, feelings and tradition of the prevailing religion then it is good art. If not, then it is bad art.
In the beginning of Christianity followers of Christ followed a true version. Subsequently a Church-Christianity arose which paganized and perverted the true religion. The art that arose from Church-Christianity, veneration of saints, paintings of the blessed Virgin and the like were perversions of Christ's teachings but high art nonetheless as it corresponded to the prevailing religion.
When the upper classes saw the contradiction between Church-Christianity and the teachings of Christ they stopped believing the dogma of the Church, but encouraged the lower classes to still follow it blindly as suited their needs. But having wealth and leisure they produced art that was inconsistent with Church-Christianity.
Men like Hus, Luther, Calvin and Wycliffe stripped Christianity of non-Christ teachings.
Those that doubted in the Middle Ages had to seek out an entirely new religion because there was no way to revamp the old mythology. They needed to rid themselves of the perversions of Church-Christianity and follow true Christianity.
But, the upper classes could not or would not do this because it would mean universal brotherhood, and they could not stand for this. These men had no religion. They believed in nothing. But, as they were in possession of the wealth and power, the controlled leisure and thus, art. Under their rule art was borne, not of men's religious feeling, but of the beauty or in other words, the pleasure they received of it.
These men had detected the falsehood of the Church but were unwilling to accept the true Christianity. They returned to the pleasure seeking, to paganism. Then the Renaissance happened: a denial of every religion and the denial of the necessity of religion.
"As soon as doubt arose with the regard to the infallibility of the Pope (and this doubt was then in the minds of all educated people), doubt inevitably followed as to the truth of tradition. But doubt as to the truth of tradition is fatal not only to popery and Catholicism but also to the whole Church creed with all its dogmas; the divinity of Christ, the resurrection, and the Trinity; and it destroys the authority of the Scriptures, since they were considered to be inspired only because the tradition of the Church so decided" (Maude, 134).
These people had no religion and no means of which to decide what was good or bad art except by their own pleasure receptors. Thus, the failing of their aesthetic theories.
What is Art?
Chapter 6
The estimation of the value of art depends on the man's perception of the meaning of life. It depends on what they find good and what they find evil. What is good and evil is determined by religion.
There have been men that understood the meaning of life more lucidly and more generally than others. Their expression of the meaning of life, together with superstitions, traditions and ceremonies that surround the memory of these men is what is called religion.
"Religions are the highest exponents of the highest comprehension of life" (Maude, 127). It is for this reason that religions have and always will serve as the basis for the valuation of all human sentiments.
If art coincides with the laws, feelings and tradition of the prevailing religion then it is good art. If not, then it is bad art.
In the beginning of Christianity followers of Christ followed a true version. Subsequently a Church-Christianity arose which paganized and perverted the true religion. The art that arose from Church-Christianity, veneration of saints, paintings of the blessed Virgin and the like were perversions of Christ's teachings but high art nonetheless as it corresponded to the prevailing religion.
When the upper classes saw the contradiction between Church-Christianity and the teachings of Christ they stopped believing the dogma of the Church, but encouraged the lower classes to still follow it blindly as suited their needs. But having wealth and leisure they produced art that was inconsistent with Church-Christianity.
Men like Hus, Luther, Calvin and Wycliffe stripped Christianity of non-Christ teachings.
Those that doubted in the Middle Ages had to seek out an entirely new religion because there was no way to revamp the old mythology. They needed to rid themselves of the perversions of Church-Christianity and follow true Christianity.
But, the upper classes could not or would not do this because it would mean universal brotherhood, and they could not stand for this. These men had no religion. They believed in nothing. But, as they were in possession of the wealth and power, the controlled leisure and thus, art. Under their rule art was borne, not of men's religious feeling, but of the beauty or in other words, the pleasure they received of it.
These men had detected the falsehood of the Church but were unwilling to accept the true Christianity. They returned to the pleasure seeking, to paganism. Then the Renaissance happened: a denial of every religion and the denial of the necessity of religion.
"As soon as doubt arose with the regard to the infallibility of the Pope (and this doubt was then in the minds of all educated people), doubt inevitably followed as to the truth of tradition. But doubt as to the truth of tradition is fatal not only to popery and Catholicism but also to the whole Church creed with all its dogmas; the divinity of Christ, the resurrection, and the Trinity; and it destroys the authority of the Scriptures, since they were considered to be inspired only because the tradition of the Church so decided" (Maude, 134).
These people had no religion and no means of which to decide what was good or bad art except by their own pleasure receptors. Thus, the failing of their aesthetic theories.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Geisler/Corduan - Problem of Evil
(Originally written March 13, 2007 in Book 25)
Part 4: God & Evil
14: The nature of the problem of Evil
Nearly every religion attempts to deal with the reality and causes of evil in the world.
The problem of evil arises out of the nature of theism.
There are a number of dimensions to the problem of evil: metaphysical, physical and moral
An inconsistency differs from a contradiction. In a contradiction there are two statements in which one is true and one is false. In an inconsistency one or both statements could be false, but on the surface both cannot be true.
The inconsistency version of the problem of Evil
1) God is an omnipotent and omnibenevolent Being, in accordance with His nature He would abolish all evil
2) Evil exists
Either 1 or 2 could be false, both could be false but both cannot be true.
A way to solve an inconsistency is to show that it is a paradox. Thus, the inconsistency of 1 & 2 can be made into a paradox like this:
1) God is an omnipotent and omnibenevolent being, in accordance with His nature He would abolish all evil
2) Evil exists
3) God expressed his omnipotent and omnibenevolent nature by creating free beings who are solely responsible for evil.
But this solution may not satisfy men. Someone might still want to know why God created free beings. This way of dealing with the problem of evil is the problem of theodicy (the justification of God).
Non theistic solutions to the Problem of Evil
Illusionism's Answer to Evil
A theist cannot deny the reality of evil. A pantheist can claim that nothing is really evil, but only appears evil, but a theist may not.
Evil is everything that frustrates human aspirations and expectations.
Many people influenced by Eastern thought deny the reality of evil.
Frederic Spiegelburg follows the Indian sage Aurobindo in claiming that pain is not a matter of fact, but a perspective. Once one comes to the truth there is no longer a problem of evil because there is no evil.
Alan Watts accuses Westerners of being unwilling to recognize individual finitude and subsequently looking for a solution in the acts of free individual. He sees good and evil as relative distinctions that do not obtain with ultimate reality.
Problems with illusionism
1) Illusionism does not account for the origin of the illusion
2) It does not explain the apparent reality of the illusion
3) Denying the reality of evil does not remove the presence of reality
4) Illusionism is a theory that is ruined by a brutal gang of facts
"It is more likely that the illusionist is being deceived about evil than that all persons are being deceived by evil" (298).
Sadism's answer to evil
Elie Wiesel postulated that God is sadistic and created the world to watch suffering.
Harold S. Kushner in "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" states we ought to forgive God for not making a better world.
Objections to Sadism
1) God is all-good in theism
2) God as a term seems inappropriate for a sadistic being
3) The universe cannot be ultimately evil because evil presupposes good
4) It seems absurd that there is a being responsible for creating and destroying what he creates (Charles Hartshorne)
Finitism's Answer to Evil
David Hume and subsequent thinkers have proposed that God is finite in power or love (or both).
Finitism is represented by process thinkers today. Charles Hartshorne believes that the worst falsehood known is the traditional concept of omnipotence.
Others claim that God is not essentially limited, but instead limits Himself.
Bruce R. Reichenbach claims that God is sovereign in authority and power, but willingly limits Himself.
Objections to Finitism
1) Only an infinite cause explains the existence of things. A finite God could not be the cause of all existence
2) A finite God is not worthy of worship
3) A finite God cannot guarantee an outcome in the struggle of good and evil.
"A finite god is metaphysically impossible, religiously unworthy and ethically demoralizing for people in their struggle against evil" (300).
If there is no infinite God there can be no final solution to the problem of evil.
Determinism's answer to evil
God was forced to create the world as it is.
This view is normally pantheistic, but some theists who hold creation flows necessarily, not willingly from God also hold it.
Benedict Spinoza believed that the world as we have it is the necessary and most perfect product possible of the necessary and most perfect Being possible.
Objection to Determinism:
1) Creation flows from God's will freely, not necessarily (Revelation 4:11, Ephesians 1:11) That is, He was free not to create
2) God has no need to create
3) The necessary Being does not necessarily need to do anything other than exist
4) Even if God had to create it does not follow he had to create an imperfect world
Finitude does not necessitate evil, it only makes it possible
Impossibilism's Answer to evil
It may be impossible for even an infinite God to foreknow future free events. God could have created free beings not knowing they would bring evil into the world with their freedom.
God cannot control free beings without negating their freedom. Even an infinite God cannot do what is contradictory.
Objection to impossibilism
1) A Calvinist might draw a different conclusion that God foreknows and beings are still free
2) There can be no such thing as truly free (unforeseeable) acts by human beings because that limits God
3) Foreknowledge does not imply fore-determination
4) God is timeless, he does not foresee anything. He sees everything eternally now.
5) Just because an event is determined does not mean that it cannot be freely chosen
6) It makes no sense to speak of something in the future being true
7) God knows the choices and the eventually chosen act
Solutions to the Problem of Evil open to Theism
There are two sets of alternatives to the solution of the problem of evil open to theists:
1) Hypothetical
2) Actual
The hypothetical alternatives for theism
1) God could have decided not to create anything at all
- A God who knew that creation would become corrupt should not have created at all
- No solution to the problem of evil will be satisfactory without addressing this possibility that was open to God
2) God could have created only beings who are not free
- Could God have made an amoral world?
- The nature of God only necessitates that if he does, he must do it best, not that he do
3) God could have created beings who are free to sin, but do not actually sin
- Many have argued that freedom without sin is a contradiction
Objections to this:
1) There is no logical connection between freedom and sin
2) Freedom without sin is not a contradiction in Heaven
4) God could have created beings who are free but must sin
- God pronounces that sin is inevitable, but each sin is not
- Forced freedom though is completely incoherent
5) God could have created beings who were free and who would sin
- This alternative is what theists claim God chose to create
The Actual Alternatives for Theism
Theists must defend the way God chose to create (That he chose to create beings who were free not to sin but inevitably would choose to do so)
1) A theist need not prove three things to answer the problem of evil
He does not have to show that this is the best of all possible worlds, but only that there could be no better world or non-world
He does not have to show how God can achieve the highest perfection out of a world with evil in it.
He does not need to definitively prove that this world is the best of all possible solutions.
2) A theistic solution to evil must meet three conditions:
1) It must be at least possible
2) Offer evidence that it is capable of achievement
3) Present a way that is verifiable/falsifiable
The apparent dilemma facing theism
It seems that the proportions: What God does must be his best and the world is not best eliminates any theistic solution to the problem of evil
God must do his best. It is axiomatic that anything less than doing his best would be evil for GOd.
The theist must show that what God produces is the best possible.
Heaven is actually an argument against this world being the best of all possible worlds.
The way out of this dilemma is to claim that this is not the best of all possible worlds, but the best possible way to get to the best of all possible worlds (heaven)
Only an infinitely wise and good God can guarantee heaven as an outcome
The Dimensions of the Problem of Evil
Three aspects to the problem of evil:
1) Metaphysical
2) Moral
3) Physical
The Metaphysical Aspect of Evil
1) God is the author of everything in the world
2) Evil is something in the world
3) Therefore, God is the author of evil
Theists would not want to reject either of the premises. Denying the first would lead to dualism. Denying the second just seems contrary to experience
Theistic reply:
1) God is the author of everything
2) Evil is not a thing (substance)
3) Therefore, God is not necessarily the author of evil
To deny evil is not a real entity is not to deny the reality of evil. Evil is real. It is a real privation in things.
The Moral Aspect of the Problem of Evil
Pierre Bayle postulated the moral problem of evil in the 17th century.
1) Evil exists
2) An omnipotent God could destroy evil
3) A benevolent God would destroy evil
4) Therefore, since evil is not destroyed either:
a) God is omnipotent and malevolent
b) God is benevolent and impotent
c) God is both malevolent and impotent
d) There is no God
Another way of stating it:
1) God is responsible for making everyone, including human freedom
2) Human freedom brought about moral evil
3) Therefore, God is responsible for what brought about moral evil
The Physical Aspect of the Problem of Evil
Not all evil is clearly a result of human freedom
Albert Camus offered the physical problem of evil
1) Either one must join the doc and fight the plague or else join the priest and not fight the plague
2) Not to fight the plague is anti-humanitarian
3) To fight the plague is to fight against God who sent it
4) Therefore if humanitarianism is right, theism is wrong
Theists would deny premise 3
Part 4: God & Evil
14: The nature of the problem of Evil
Nearly every religion attempts to deal with the reality and causes of evil in the world.
The problem of evil arises out of the nature of theism.
There are a number of dimensions to the problem of evil: metaphysical, physical and moral
An inconsistency differs from a contradiction. In a contradiction there are two statements in which one is true and one is false. In an inconsistency one or both statements could be false, but on the surface both cannot be true.
The inconsistency version of the problem of Evil
1) God is an omnipotent and omnibenevolent Being, in accordance with His nature He would abolish all evil
2) Evil exists
Either 1 or 2 could be false, both could be false but both cannot be true.
A way to solve an inconsistency is to show that it is a paradox. Thus, the inconsistency of 1 & 2 can be made into a paradox like this:
1) God is an omnipotent and omnibenevolent being, in accordance with His nature He would abolish all evil
2) Evil exists
3) God expressed his omnipotent and omnibenevolent nature by creating free beings who are solely responsible for evil.
But this solution may not satisfy men. Someone might still want to know why God created free beings. This way of dealing with the problem of evil is the problem of theodicy (the justification of God).
Non theistic solutions to the Problem of Evil
Illusionism's Answer to Evil
A theist cannot deny the reality of evil. A pantheist can claim that nothing is really evil, but only appears evil, but a theist may not.
Evil is everything that frustrates human aspirations and expectations.
Many people influenced by Eastern thought deny the reality of evil.
Frederic Spiegelburg follows the Indian sage Aurobindo in claiming that pain is not a matter of fact, but a perspective. Once one comes to the truth there is no longer a problem of evil because there is no evil.
Alan Watts accuses Westerners of being unwilling to recognize individual finitude and subsequently looking for a solution in the acts of free individual. He sees good and evil as relative distinctions that do not obtain with ultimate reality.
Problems with illusionism
1) Illusionism does not account for the origin of the illusion
2) It does not explain the apparent reality of the illusion
3) Denying the reality of evil does not remove the presence of reality
4) Illusionism is a theory that is ruined by a brutal gang of facts
"It is more likely that the illusionist is being deceived about evil than that all persons are being deceived by evil" (298).
Sadism's answer to evil
Elie Wiesel postulated that God is sadistic and created the world to watch suffering.
Harold S. Kushner in "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" states we ought to forgive God for not making a better world.
Objections to Sadism
1) God is all-good in theism
2) God as a term seems inappropriate for a sadistic being
3) The universe cannot be ultimately evil because evil presupposes good
4) It seems absurd that there is a being responsible for creating and destroying what he creates (Charles Hartshorne)
Finitism's Answer to Evil
David Hume and subsequent thinkers have proposed that God is finite in power or love (or both).
Finitism is represented by process thinkers today. Charles Hartshorne believes that the worst falsehood known is the traditional concept of omnipotence.
Others claim that God is not essentially limited, but instead limits Himself.
Bruce R. Reichenbach claims that God is sovereign in authority and power, but willingly limits Himself.
Objections to Finitism
1) Only an infinite cause explains the existence of things. A finite God could not be the cause of all existence
2) A finite God is not worthy of worship
3) A finite God cannot guarantee an outcome in the struggle of good and evil.
"A finite god is metaphysically impossible, religiously unworthy and ethically demoralizing for people in their struggle against evil" (300).
If there is no infinite God there can be no final solution to the problem of evil.
Determinism's answer to evil
God was forced to create the world as it is.
This view is normally pantheistic, but some theists who hold creation flows necessarily, not willingly from God also hold it.
Benedict Spinoza believed that the world as we have it is the necessary and most perfect product possible of the necessary and most perfect Being possible.
Objection to Determinism:
1) Creation flows from God's will freely, not necessarily (Revelation 4:11, Ephesians 1:11) That is, He was free not to create
2) God has no need to create
3) The necessary Being does not necessarily need to do anything other than exist
4) Even if God had to create it does not follow he had to create an imperfect world
Finitude does not necessitate evil, it only makes it possible
Impossibilism's Answer to evil
It may be impossible for even an infinite God to foreknow future free events. God could have created free beings not knowing they would bring evil into the world with their freedom.
God cannot control free beings without negating their freedom. Even an infinite God cannot do what is contradictory.
Objection to impossibilism
1) A Calvinist might draw a different conclusion that God foreknows and beings are still free
2) There can be no such thing as truly free (unforeseeable) acts by human beings because that limits God
3) Foreknowledge does not imply fore-determination
4) God is timeless, he does not foresee anything. He sees everything eternally now.
5) Just because an event is determined does not mean that it cannot be freely chosen
6) It makes no sense to speak of something in the future being true
7) God knows the choices and the eventually chosen act
Solutions to the Problem of Evil open to Theism
There are two sets of alternatives to the solution of the problem of evil open to theists:
1) Hypothetical
2) Actual
The hypothetical alternatives for theism
1) God could have decided not to create anything at all
- A God who knew that creation would become corrupt should not have created at all
- No solution to the problem of evil will be satisfactory without addressing this possibility that was open to God
2) God could have created only beings who are not free
- Could God have made an amoral world?
- The nature of God only necessitates that if he does, he must do it best, not that he do
3) God could have created beings who are free to sin, but do not actually sin
- Many have argued that freedom without sin is a contradiction
Objections to this:
1) There is no logical connection between freedom and sin
2) Freedom without sin is not a contradiction in Heaven
4) God could have created beings who are free but must sin
- God pronounces that sin is inevitable, but each sin is not
- Forced freedom though is completely incoherent
5) God could have created beings who were free and who would sin
- This alternative is what theists claim God chose to create
The Actual Alternatives for Theism
Theists must defend the way God chose to create (That he chose to create beings who were free not to sin but inevitably would choose to do so)
1) A theist need not prove three things to answer the problem of evil
He does not have to show that this is the best of all possible worlds, but only that there could be no better world or non-world
He does not have to show how God can achieve the highest perfection out of a world with evil in it.
He does not need to definitively prove that this world is the best of all possible solutions.
2) A theistic solution to evil must meet three conditions:
1) It must be at least possible
2) Offer evidence that it is capable of achievement
3) Present a way that is verifiable/falsifiable
The apparent dilemma facing theism
It seems that the proportions: What God does must be his best and the world is not best eliminates any theistic solution to the problem of evil
God must do his best. It is axiomatic that anything less than doing his best would be evil for GOd.
The theist must show that what God produces is the best possible.
Heaven is actually an argument against this world being the best of all possible worlds.
The way out of this dilemma is to claim that this is not the best of all possible worlds, but the best possible way to get to the best of all possible worlds (heaven)
Only an infinitely wise and good God can guarantee heaven as an outcome
The Dimensions of the Problem of Evil
Three aspects to the problem of evil:
1) Metaphysical
2) Moral
3) Physical
The Metaphysical Aspect of Evil
1) God is the author of everything in the world
2) Evil is something in the world
3) Therefore, God is the author of evil
Theists would not want to reject either of the premises. Denying the first would lead to dualism. Denying the second just seems contrary to experience
Theistic reply:
1) God is the author of everything
2) Evil is not a thing (substance)
3) Therefore, God is not necessarily the author of evil
To deny evil is not a real entity is not to deny the reality of evil. Evil is real. It is a real privation in things.
The Moral Aspect of the Problem of Evil
Pierre Bayle postulated the moral problem of evil in the 17th century.
1) Evil exists
2) An omnipotent God could destroy evil
3) A benevolent God would destroy evil
4) Therefore, since evil is not destroyed either:
a) God is omnipotent and malevolent
b) God is benevolent and impotent
c) God is both malevolent and impotent
d) There is no God
Another way of stating it:
1) God is responsible for making everyone, including human freedom
2) Human freedom brought about moral evil
3) Therefore, God is responsible for what brought about moral evil
The Physical Aspect of the Problem of Evil
Not all evil is clearly a result of human freedom
Albert Camus offered the physical problem of evil
1) Either one must join the doc and fight the plague or else join the priest and not fight the plague
2) Not to fight the plague is anti-humanitarian
3) To fight the plague is to fight against God who sent it
4) Therefore if humanitarianism is right, theism is wrong
Theists would deny premise 3
Saturday, July 22, 2006
St. Augustine's Philosophy and Theology
(Originally written July 22, 2006 in Book 5)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter IV - St. Augustine's Philosophy and Theology
To escape the madness of metaphysics and thoroughly infuriate myself by reading an attack on one of the greatest men in human history. Russell will only focus on what he considers important in Augustine:
1. Augustine's pure philosophy, especially his theory of time
2. Augustine's philosophy of history (developed in City of God)
3. Augustine's theory of salvation, against Pelagius
Pure Philosophy
Augustine is not preoccupied with pure philosophy, mostly he concerns himself with theology. But he shows immense talent in philosophy when he does.
Augustine was the first philosopher (of many) to speculate with a necessity of matching speculation and Scriptures.
Origen (an earlier Christian philosopher) differed from Augustine in that Origen kept Christianity and Platonism separate while Augustine grated Platonism into Christianity.
The most purely philosophical book is the 11th book of Confessions. Most contemporary Confessions end at Book 10 because that is where the biographical part ends.
Augustine remarks that the Genesis of account of creation (ex nihilo, out of nothing) was completely foreign to Greek thought. Greeks believed God formed preexisting matter. Christianity and Judaism holds God created matter, then simultaneously formed it. The Greek view of creation has reappeared since the dawn of Christianity and has led to pantheism.
Augustine asks if God created the world ex nihilo then why didn't he do it sooner? Augustine states that there was no sooner before creation because time was created at the same point as all creation.
God is eternal; He is timeless. In God there is no past or future, only eternal present.
"God's eternity is exempt from the relation of time; all time is present to Him at once" (Russell, 353).
When Augustine refers to time he has an intriguing relativistic theory. Time can only be measured as it is passing. The past and future is not really 'is', only the present really is. But there really is a past and future.
Augustine says that the past or future is considered at the present through memory or expectation.
He states that there are three times:
1. A present of things past (memory)
2. A present of things present (sight)
3. A present of things future (expectation)
He confesses to God that he is perplexed by time and asks for enlightenment. Without fully understanding time, see does believe that is subjective.
Time is in the human mind and time exists only because created beings exist.
Augustine's theory of time seems to anticipate at least three things;
1) Kant's theory of subjective time
2) Descartes' cogito
3) Descartes' reply to Gassendi's ambulo ergo sum.
"As a philosopher, therefore, Augustine deserves a high place" (Russell, 355).
The City of God
When Rome was sacked by the Goths in 410 the Roman pagans attributed the defeat to the abandonment of the ancient religions. The City of God was an answer to this accusation.
"Like some other very great books, it composes itself in the memory of those who have read it, into something better than at first appears in rereading" (Russell, 355).
Russell holds that the book contains "a great deal that hardly anyone at present day can accept" (Russell, 355).
Russell does hold that it remains inspirational today and can be restated in non-theological terms.
Linehan - Thus destroying the meaning and value of the book.
In the book Augustine states that worse things then the sacking of Rome occurred prior to the Christian age. He also said that Christianity kept the sacking from being as brutal as it could have been (the Goths were Christians).
He says that not all sins are punished on earth, thus the Last Judgment.
All that Christians endured virtuously would lead to their edification eventually.
Temporal losses for Christians does not cause loss of anything of value for them.
Nothing can interfere with the resurrection of the body.
Virginity lost through rape doesn't diminish chastity. Chastity is a virtue of the mind. Virginity and chastity can be lost even without the physical act. It can be lost in the mind.
Suicide is condemned by Augustine. Even if one commits suicide to avoid the loss of virginity it is still a sin. Apparently Lucretia (a woman in Rome) committed suicide for this reason.
He says that rape, if enjoyed, becomes sinful for the woman.
He condemns the pagan gods. He claims that it would be better to worship a virtuous man than a heathen god.
Christians have a constant sanctuary in the pilgrim City of God.
In this world, the city of earth and the city of heaven are intermingled.
Augustine holds Greek philosophers as partially right.
He holds that the philosophers could not overthrow the pagan gods because their moral instructions were weak due to the wickedness of their gods.
Augustine believed the heathen gods existed, but were devils.
He held astrology as to be both wicked and false. He proves this through the fortunes of twins who have the identical zodiac sign.
God has foreknowledge of man's sins, but God's foreknowledge does not cause man's sins.
Virtuosity does not bring unhappiness; even if Christians are unfortunate, they still can be happy.
Augustine holds Plato in higher regards than any other philosopher. Augustine credits Plato with a number of things:
1) Plato's belief that God was Spirit, not material.
2) Plato's belief that perception is not the source of truth.
3) Platonic logic and ethics are closest to Christianity
Augustine aslo credits Plotinus as being the best comprehender of Plato. Plotinus lived slightly before Augustine.
Augustine considered Aristotle lower than Plato, but better than all the others.
He condemned both Plato and Aristotle for believing that all the gods were good. He condemned the Stoics for condemning all passions because Christian passions can lead to virtue.
He held that Plutonists were right about God, wrong about gods and wrong in denying the Incarnation.
Augustine holds the Platonic view that the sensible world is inferior to the super-sensible world.
He believed that Knowledge of God comes only through Christ. Certain things can be learned through reason, but religious knowledge must come through Scriptures.
Time and space prior to creation should not be considered because it is pointless.
Everything blessed is eternal, but everything eternal is not blessed (hell and satan).
He denounces Origen's view of souls being put into bodies as punishment.
He believed the world was created in 6 days because 6 is a perfect number (i.e. equal to the sum of its factors).
He believed that there are good and bad angels, but bad angels do not have an essence contrary to God.
"God's enemies are not so by nature, but by will. The vicious will has no efficient cause, but only a deficient one; it is not an effect, but a defect" (Russell, 359).
He held the the world was less than 6,000 years old and history is not cyclical.
Sin caused death. If there were no sin there would be no death. Sin caused both physical and eternal death. Eternal death is damnation.
Bodies in heaven will be spiritual, but not spirits. They will be weightless. Men will have male bodies; women will have female ones. People who die in infancy will have adult bodies.
Adam's sin brought eternal death to all mankind; God's grace freed them from it.
Augustine contributes sin to the mind, contrary to flesh as Platonism and Manichaeism holds.
Sex in marriage is not sinful, provided procreation is the reason for it. Married men are virtuous if they love without lust. Sex, even in marriage is associated with shame because of Adam's sin. Lust is shameful because it is independent from the will. Sexual intercourse can occur without lust. "The need of lust in sexual intercourse is a punishment for Adam's sin, but for which sex might have been divorced from pleasure" (Russell, 360).
Asceticism dislikes sex because of its independence of the will. Virtue demands a complete control of the will over the body. This control does not suffice to make sex possible.
He denounced skepticism.
He held that virtue is inextricably connected with Christianity. Pagan virtue is too marred by the heathen gods to be true virtue.
He believes in predestination. All men deserve damnation, so any receiving salvation is merciful. The rest perish justly.
The influential part of the book is that the State can only be part of the City of God if it submits to the Church in all religious matters. The theocratic implications of Augustine's theory lasted until the Reformation.
Russell states that Marx used Augustine in socialism:
YHWH = Dialectical Materialism
The Messiah = Marx
The Elect = The Proletariat
The Church = The Communist Party
The Second Coming = The Revolution
Hell = Punishment of the Capitalists
The Millennium = The Communist Commonwealth
The Pelagian Controversy
Pelagius was a Welshman and less fanatical than most of his contemporaries. He believed in free-will and questioned the doctrine of Original Sin. He believed that virtue occurs through man's own moral effort.
Augustine convinced Catholic Christianity to hold Pelagius as a heretic.
Augustine argued men were incapable of free-will after the Fall and that virtue was only acquired through God's grace. Augustine held that damnation proved God's justice and salvation proved His mercy. Both proved God's goodness.
Augustine's views were adopted by Calvin and had their root in Paul (especially in Romans).
"A great deal of what is most ferocious in the medieval Church is traceable to his sense of universal guilt" (Russell, 365).
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter IV - St. Augustine's Philosophy and Theology
To escape the madness of metaphysics and thoroughly infuriate myself by reading an attack on one of the greatest men in human history. Russell will only focus on what he considers important in Augustine:
1. Augustine's pure philosophy, especially his theory of time
2. Augustine's philosophy of history (developed in City of God)
3. Augustine's theory of salvation, against Pelagius
Pure Philosophy
Augustine is not preoccupied with pure philosophy, mostly he concerns himself with theology. But he shows immense talent in philosophy when he does.
Augustine was the first philosopher (of many) to speculate with a necessity of matching speculation and Scriptures.
Origen (an earlier Christian philosopher) differed from Augustine in that Origen kept Christianity and Platonism separate while Augustine grated Platonism into Christianity.
The most purely philosophical book is the 11th book of Confessions. Most contemporary Confessions end at Book 10 because that is where the biographical part ends.
Augustine remarks that the Genesis of account of creation (ex nihilo, out of nothing) was completely foreign to Greek thought. Greeks believed God formed preexisting matter. Christianity and Judaism holds God created matter, then simultaneously formed it. The Greek view of creation has reappeared since the dawn of Christianity and has led to pantheism.
Augustine asks if God created the world ex nihilo then why didn't he do it sooner? Augustine states that there was no sooner before creation because time was created at the same point as all creation.
God is eternal; He is timeless. In God there is no past or future, only eternal present.
"God's eternity is exempt from the relation of time; all time is present to Him at once" (Russell, 353).
When Augustine refers to time he has an intriguing relativistic theory. Time can only be measured as it is passing. The past and future is not really 'is', only the present really is. But there really is a past and future.
Augustine says that the past or future is considered at the present through memory or expectation.
He states that there are three times:
1. A present of things past (memory)
2. A present of things present (sight)
3. A present of things future (expectation)
He confesses to God that he is perplexed by time and asks for enlightenment. Without fully understanding time, see does believe that is subjective.
Time is in the human mind and time exists only because created beings exist.
Augustine's theory of time seems to anticipate at least three things;
1) Kant's theory of subjective time
2) Descartes' cogito
3) Descartes' reply to Gassendi's ambulo ergo sum.
"As a philosopher, therefore, Augustine deserves a high place" (Russell, 355).
The City of God
When Rome was sacked by the Goths in 410 the Roman pagans attributed the defeat to the abandonment of the ancient religions. The City of God was an answer to this accusation.
"Like some other very great books, it composes itself in the memory of those who have read it, into something better than at first appears in rereading" (Russell, 355).
Russell holds that the book contains "a great deal that hardly anyone at present day can accept" (Russell, 355).
Russell does hold that it remains inspirational today and can be restated in non-theological terms.
Linehan - Thus destroying the meaning and value of the book.
In the book Augustine states that worse things then the sacking of Rome occurred prior to the Christian age. He also said that Christianity kept the sacking from being as brutal as it could have been (the Goths were Christians).
He says that not all sins are punished on earth, thus the Last Judgment.
All that Christians endured virtuously would lead to their edification eventually.
Temporal losses for Christians does not cause loss of anything of value for them.
Nothing can interfere with the resurrection of the body.
Virginity lost through rape doesn't diminish chastity. Chastity is a virtue of the mind. Virginity and chastity can be lost even without the physical act. It can be lost in the mind.
Suicide is condemned by Augustine. Even if one commits suicide to avoid the loss of virginity it is still a sin. Apparently Lucretia (a woman in Rome) committed suicide for this reason.
He says that rape, if enjoyed, becomes sinful for the woman.
He condemns the pagan gods. He claims that it would be better to worship a virtuous man than a heathen god.
Christians have a constant sanctuary in the pilgrim City of God.
In this world, the city of earth and the city of heaven are intermingled.
Augustine holds Greek philosophers as partially right.
He holds that the philosophers could not overthrow the pagan gods because their moral instructions were weak due to the wickedness of their gods.
Augustine believed the heathen gods existed, but were devils.
He held astrology as to be both wicked and false. He proves this through the fortunes of twins who have the identical zodiac sign.
God has foreknowledge of man's sins, but God's foreknowledge does not cause man's sins.
Virtuosity does not bring unhappiness; even if Christians are unfortunate, they still can be happy.
Augustine holds Plato in higher regards than any other philosopher. Augustine credits Plato with a number of things:
1) Plato's belief that God was Spirit, not material.
2) Plato's belief that perception is not the source of truth.
3) Platonic logic and ethics are closest to Christianity
Augustine aslo credits Plotinus as being the best comprehender of Plato. Plotinus lived slightly before Augustine.
Augustine considered Aristotle lower than Plato, but better than all the others.
He condemned both Plato and Aristotle for believing that all the gods were good. He condemned the Stoics for condemning all passions because Christian passions can lead to virtue.
He held that Plutonists were right about God, wrong about gods and wrong in denying the Incarnation.
Augustine holds the Platonic view that the sensible world is inferior to the super-sensible world.
He believed that Knowledge of God comes only through Christ. Certain things can be learned through reason, but religious knowledge must come through Scriptures.
Time and space prior to creation should not be considered because it is pointless.
Everything blessed is eternal, but everything eternal is not blessed (hell and satan).
He denounces Origen's view of souls being put into bodies as punishment.
He believed the world was created in 6 days because 6 is a perfect number (i.e. equal to the sum of its factors).
He believed that there are good and bad angels, but bad angels do not have an essence contrary to God.
"God's enemies are not so by nature, but by will. The vicious will has no efficient cause, but only a deficient one; it is not an effect, but a defect" (Russell, 359).
He held the the world was less than 6,000 years old and history is not cyclical.
Sin caused death. If there were no sin there would be no death. Sin caused both physical and eternal death. Eternal death is damnation.
Bodies in heaven will be spiritual, but not spirits. They will be weightless. Men will have male bodies; women will have female ones. People who die in infancy will have adult bodies.
Adam's sin brought eternal death to all mankind; God's grace freed them from it.
Augustine contributes sin to the mind, contrary to flesh as Platonism and Manichaeism holds.
Sex in marriage is not sinful, provided procreation is the reason for it. Married men are virtuous if they love without lust. Sex, even in marriage is associated with shame because of Adam's sin. Lust is shameful because it is independent from the will. Sexual intercourse can occur without lust. "The need of lust in sexual intercourse is a punishment for Adam's sin, but for which sex might have been divorced from pleasure" (Russell, 360).
Asceticism dislikes sex because of its independence of the will. Virtue demands a complete control of the will over the body. This control does not suffice to make sex possible.
He denounced skepticism.
He held that virtue is inextricably connected with Christianity. Pagan virtue is too marred by the heathen gods to be true virtue.
He believes in predestination. All men deserve damnation, so any receiving salvation is merciful. The rest perish justly.
The influential part of the book is that the State can only be part of the City of God if it submits to the Church in all religious matters. The theocratic implications of Augustine's theory lasted until the Reformation.
Russell states that Marx used Augustine in socialism:
YHWH = Dialectical Materialism
The Messiah = Marx
The Elect = The Proletariat
The Church = The Communist Party
The Second Coming = The Revolution
Hell = Punishment of the Capitalists
The Millennium = The Communist Commonwealth
The Pelagian Controversy
Pelagius was a Welshman and less fanatical than most of his contemporaries. He believed in free-will and questioned the doctrine of Original Sin. He believed that virtue occurs through man's own moral effort.
Augustine convinced Catholic Christianity to hold Pelagius as a heretic.
Augustine argued men were incapable of free-will after the Fall and that virtue was only acquired through God's grace. Augustine held that damnation proved God's justice and salvation proved His mercy. Both proved God's goodness.
Augustine's views were adopted by Calvin and had their root in Paul (especially in Romans).
"A great deal of what is most ferocious in the medieval Church is traceable to his sense of universal guilt" (Russell, 365).
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Three Doctors of the Church
(Originally Written July 16, 2006 in Book 5)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter III - Three Doctors of the Church
By the way I am watching "Take Home Defensive Driving". Rest of all it cost $40 bucks. Ridiculous. Secondly, it is four hours long. Absurd. Thirdly, it is immensely boring. Irritating.
There are four men regarded as Doctors of the Western Church. (I believe there are a number who have been added since Russell wrote this).
1) St. Ambrose
2) St. Jerome
3) St. Augustine
4) Pope Gregory the Great
"Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine all flourished during the brief period between the victory of the Catholic Church in the Roman Empire and the barbarian invasion" (Russell, 334).
The Barbarian invasions stunted intellectual growth and men of this caliber were not produced for another thousand years.
They, more than any other men molded the Church in how it would be shaped.
Ambrose determined the Church as being dominant to the State. Jerome produced the Latin Vulgate and made great strides in monasticism. Augustine laid the foundation of theology until the reformation and was widely used by both Luther and Calvin.
Ambrose's establishment as the Church being independent of the State was not challenged (philosophically) until Hobbes. It was revolutionary. The capital of the Western Empire at the end of the fourth century was Milan. Ambrose was the bishop of Milan.
His duties brought him into contact with the emperors frequently. He always treated them at least as equals, sometimes as subordinates.
At his time the State was "feeble, incompetent, governed by unprincipled self-seekers, and totally without any policy beyond that of momentary expedients. Contrarily, the Church was vigorous, able, guided by men prepared to sacrifice everything personal in its interests, and with a policy so far-sighted that it brought victory for the next thousand years" (Russell, 335).
Ambrose had every opportunity to become a powerful political figure.
Ambrose was born at Augusta Treverorum to a prefect of the Guals. At thirteen he went to Rome, was educated and learned a strong grounding in Greek. The young adult Ambrose took to law and was successful.
At 30 he became the governor of Liguria and Æmilia. At 34 he turned away from the secular government and became bishop of Milan. He gave all his wealth to the poor and served the Church the rest of his life, sometimes in the face of peril.
All three Doctors of this period, Jerome, Augustine and Ambrose wrote innumerable letters, many of which have survived. For this reason we know them better than any pagan philosopher or ecclesiastics of the Middle Ages.
Jerome wrote mostly to women, instructing them on how to maintain their virginity. Augustine wrote letters to everyone, mostly on doctrine or Church discipline. Ambrose wrote most interesting letters to emperors, chastising them when they failed in their duties and praising them when they fulfilled them.
The first public matter Ambrose dealt with was the altar and stature to Victory in Rome. It was a pagan icon removed by Constantinius (son of Constantine) reinstated by Julian the Apostate and then removed again by Emperor Gratian. Paganism lasted longer in the Senate than elsewhere in Rome. After Gratian's death a senator named Symmachus (a pagan) fought to bring it back. In 384 he became the prefect of Rome. When Symmachus sought to have the new Emperor Valentian II put it back, Ambrose wrote the boy king. He wrote "Let no one take advantage of your youth" and put for the thesis that "as all Romans owed military service to their sovereign, so he (the Emperor) owed service to the Almighty God" (Russell, 337). In addition to flattery, Ambrose threatened the young emperor with not being able to see a priest in Church or receiving a hostile greeting from a priest. Ambrose won the argument. But a usurper of Valentian II, Eugenics (a pagan) restored the idol. In 394 Emperor Theodosius defeated Eugenics and removed the altar.
Initially Ambrose had favor in the imperial court. But when the mother of Valentian II, Empress Justina (an Arian) asked for an Arian church in Milan, the Catholic Ambrose refused. The Empress sent troops to a church in Milan demanding it as it belonged to the Emperor. Ambrose assured the Empress that she may take anything that belonged to the emperor but since the wealth of the church belonged to the poor and the church to God, he had nothing to give her. The soldiers refused to take the church by force because the citizens backed Ambrose. The empress gave in. This established the precedent of the Church having authority over the State in some matters.
Ambrose's next conflict came with the Emperor Theodosius. A synagogue was burned at a bishop's instigation. Theodosius demanded that those responsible be punished and the synagogue be rebuilt at the bishop's expense. Ambrose was furious. He demanded that no such action be taken because it would cause only trouble. If the punishment is carried out the bishop will be martyred for standing up for his faith in Christ or acquiesce and become apostate. Also, money of the Church should not be used to support unbelief (as occurs in a synagogue). Theodosius backed down.
The next conflict between these two occurred when a mob in Thessolonica murdered a Roman captain. Theodosius orchestrated the slaughter of 7,000 Thessalonians in revenge. Ambrose withheld the sacraments from Theodosius until the emperor rented. Theodosius repented, without his purple kingly robes and paid public penance.
Ambrose was a remarkable statesman, but inferior to Augustine in philosophy and inferior to Jerome as a scholar.
Jerome is most notable for producing the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible. The Vulgate was translated from original Hebrew texts, not the more erroneous Septuagint. Because Jerome illicit help from Jews in the translation it was initially met with harsh responses. Augustine's endorsement helped it to become the accepted version of the Catholic Church.
Jerome was born in 345 AD near Aquileia to a well-to-do, but not rich family. He studied rhetoric in Rome but he sinned there. He traveled through Gaul, retiring to Aquileia and became ascetic. He became a hermit in the Syrian desert and performed penance for his sinfulness in Rome. He then went back to Rome and befriended Pope Damasus, who encouraged him to create the Vulgate.
Jerome was quarrelsome to say the least. He fought with Augustine over the behavior of St. Peter. He fought with his friend Rufinius over Origen. He opposed Pelagius so avidly that his monastery was attacked by a Pelagian mob. He also fought with the Pope after the death of Damasus.
He left Rome for Bethlehem in 386 and lived there until his death in 420.
He converted and convinced many noble women to become nuns, pissing off people all over.
A young girl he convinced to become a nun was Eustochium. He wrote letters to her on how to maintain her virginity, exact meanings of Old Testament euphemisms, erotic mystical praise of covenantal life, stated that a nun is the Bride of Christ and the the Song of Solomon praises this type of relationship.
Linehan - I believe that this is a very bad misrepresentation of this book.
In a vision Jerome heard Christ tell him that he was a follower of Cicero, not Christ. Upon waking from this vision he denounced his love of Greek and Roman learning.
In his letters he embodies the Christian otherworldly hope of redemption outside of the collapsing world of the temporal Roman Empire.
It is strange (Russell contends) that Jerome, Augustine, and Ambrose all devoted themselves to Church issues, but no practical measures to save their collapsing state.
Linehan - The emphasis on virginity by the early church to me seems harmful. It is true that some men and women may be called to a life of abstinence, but I do not think that this is a very likely occurrence. I know from a personal standpoint that living an abstinent life makes it hard to focus on anything other than virginity or how to lose it. I remained a virgin because of fear (partially) and because of failure (mostly). This was a source of enormous tension, self-turmoil, disappointment, frustration, agony, desperation, depression, guilt and countless hours of wasted time and effort. Virginity or abstinence as an end is not a virtue. What makes it virtuous is the reasoning behind it. If one declares perpetual virginity in accordance to God's plan then it is virtuous, but if it (or anything) is done as a way to impress God it is boastful and not a virtue at all. Also I find the practice of father's giving their daughters over to virginity reprehensible. It's a shame that things like this happened within Christianity because it gives ammo to those who are seeking to attack Christianity.
Augustine was born in 354 in Africa to a Christian mother and Pagan father. He spent time as a Manichaean, then became a Christian. He then became the bishop of Hippo, near Carthage, where he remained until he died in 430.
We know much of Augustine's life because of his autobiographical work Confessions.
Augustine was a passionate youth, unconcerned with virtue and impulsive. He searched for truth and righteousness relentlessly.
His youthful sins caused him to have a strong sense of sin later in life, "which made his life stern and his philosophy inhuman" (Russell, 345).
Linehan - I'm sure Russell meant this as a stab, but Augustine may very well have modestly accepted it as a compliment. I must admit that there are a few philosophers, theologians, or men that matter, with whom I identify with or respect more than Augustine.
Augustine opens Confessions with the story of stealing a pear for mischief's sake alone. He condemns himself for loving the act of sinning so much. Russell mocks this and calls it morbid to the modern mind. While this may be true it is a blight on the modern mind, not on Augustine.
Christian theology had two parts:
1) that concerned with the Church
2) that concerned with the individual.
The Catholics emphasized the first. The Protestants emphasized the second. Augustine created a harmonious synthesis that focused on both without any inconsistencies.
Augustine believed individual soul wee predestined to salvation, but had to be baptized and become a member of the Church. Predestination marks a direct connection between God and man, the Church was an intermediate between.
Sin was essential to the direct relation for two reasons:
1) Shows how God can cause man to suffer
2) Shows how souls are the most important member of the created order.
Russell calls Augustine's sense of sin 'abnormal'. Russell's indifference to sin however, is much more abnormal than any developed sense of it.
Augustine grabbed Latin easily, but hated Greek.
Lust overcame him at the age of sixteen.
Augustine's father did not pay any attention to his sins but kept him focused on school. His mother, in vain, tried to keep him chaste. He went to Carthage at 16 and fell in love with love. He also took a mistress because he was not ready for a wife, but was faithful to her and had a son he loved by her.
His mother then encouraged him to marry a girl worthy of his social status (which his mistress was not). In breaking up with his mistress to be married he broke his heart. He then took another mistress while waiting for his bride-to-be to come of age. At this time he prayed, "give me chastity and continence, only not yet" (Russell, 348).
By the time his marriage was to occur he had devoted himself to religion and chastity.
Augustine was excellent in rhetoric and introduced to philosophy by Cicero. He then became a Manichaean and taught rhetoric. He was fond of astrology at this time, but later despised it.
He read as much philosophy as was translated into Latin and mentions Aristotle's 'Ten Categories'. He grasped these works without a teacher, but decried his understanding because it profited him none.
Initially he began to reject Manichaeism because of scientific reasons, citing astronomy and Mani's (the founder of Manichaeism) blatant errors on astronomical matters. After doubting Manichaeism he went to teach in Rome.
He began to feel at odds with the Manichaeans more and more in Rome and began to slide in to skepticism, but still believed that something in men, some nature caused them to sin.
He believed evil to be a substance.
From Rome he went to Milan to teach rhetoric. He began to love Ambrose and admire the Catholic faith, but his newfound skepticism held him back.
His mother joined him in Milan and hastened his conversion.
In Milan he became acquainted with Platonism and fused the Platonic metaphysical doctrine of Logos with Christianity.
He then completely rejected Manichaeism and the notion of Evil as a substance, instead believing evil to come from the perverseness of the will.
Augustine found comfort in the writings of St. Paul (one reason I identify with him so well).
He gave up his new mistress and his wife-to-be and devoted himself to the Church. He moved back to Africa in 388 and spent the remainder of his life fighting heresies like the Donates, Manichaeism and Pelagianism.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter III - Three Doctors of the Church
By the way I am watching "Take Home Defensive Driving". Rest of all it cost $40 bucks. Ridiculous. Secondly, it is four hours long. Absurd. Thirdly, it is immensely boring. Irritating.
There are four men regarded as Doctors of the Western Church. (I believe there are a number who have been added since Russell wrote this).
1) St. Ambrose
2) St. Jerome
3) St. Augustine
4) Pope Gregory the Great
"Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine all flourished during the brief period between the victory of the Catholic Church in the Roman Empire and the barbarian invasion" (Russell, 334).
The Barbarian invasions stunted intellectual growth and men of this caliber were not produced for another thousand years.
They, more than any other men molded the Church in how it would be shaped.
Ambrose determined the Church as being dominant to the State. Jerome produced the Latin Vulgate and made great strides in monasticism. Augustine laid the foundation of theology until the reformation and was widely used by both Luther and Calvin.
Ambrose's establishment as the Church being independent of the State was not challenged (philosophically) until Hobbes. It was revolutionary. The capital of the Western Empire at the end of the fourth century was Milan. Ambrose was the bishop of Milan.
His duties brought him into contact with the emperors frequently. He always treated them at least as equals, sometimes as subordinates.
At his time the State was "feeble, incompetent, governed by unprincipled self-seekers, and totally without any policy beyond that of momentary expedients. Contrarily, the Church was vigorous, able, guided by men prepared to sacrifice everything personal in its interests, and with a policy so far-sighted that it brought victory for the next thousand years" (Russell, 335).
Ambrose had every opportunity to become a powerful political figure.
Ambrose was born at Augusta Treverorum to a prefect of the Guals. At thirteen he went to Rome, was educated and learned a strong grounding in Greek. The young adult Ambrose took to law and was successful.
At 30 he became the governor of Liguria and Æmilia. At 34 he turned away from the secular government and became bishop of Milan. He gave all his wealth to the poor and served the Church the rest of his life, sometimes in the face of peril.
All three Doctors of this period, Jerome, Augustine and Ambrose wrote innumerable letters, many of which have survived. For this reason we know them better than any pagan philosopher or ecclesiastics of the Middle Ages.
Jerome wrote mostly to women, instructing them on how to maintain their virginity. Augustine wrote letters to everyone, mostly on doctrine or Church discipline. Ambrose wrote most interesting letters to emperors, chastising them when they failed in their duties and praising them when they fulfilled them.
The first public matter Ambrose dealt with was the altar and stature to Victory in Rome. It was a pagan icon removed by Constantinius (son of Constantine) reinstated by Julian the Apostate and then removed again by Emperor Gratian. Paganism lasted longer in the Senate than elsewhere in Rome. After Gratian's death a senator named Symmachus (a pagan) fought to bring it back. In 384 he became the prefect of Rome. When Symmachus sought to have the new Emperor Valentian II put it back, Ambrose wrote the boy king. He wrote "Let no one take advantage of your youth" and put for the thesis that "as all Romans owed military service to their sovereign, so he (the Emperor) owed service to the Almighty God" (Russell, 337). In addition to flattery, Ambrose threatened the young emperor with not being able to see a priest in Church or receiving a hostile greeting from a priest. Ambrose won the argument. But a usurper of Valentian II, Eugenics (a pagan) restored the idol. In 394 Emperor Theodosius defeated Eugenics and removed the altar.
Initially Ambrose had favor in the imperial court. But when the mother of Valentian II, Empress Justina (an Arian) asked for an Arian church in Milan, the Catholic Ambrose refused. The Empress sent troops to a church in Milan demanding it as it belonged to the Emperor. Ambrose assured the Empress that she may take anything that belonged to the emperor but since the wealth of the church belonged to the poor and the church to God, he had nothing to give her. The soldiers refused to take the church by force because the citizens backed Ambrose. The empress gave in. This established the precedent of the Church having authority over the State in some matters.
Ambrose's next conflict came with the Emperor Theodosius. A synagogue was burned at a bishop's instigation. Theodosius demanded that those responsible be punished and the synagogue be rebuilt at the bishop's expense. Ambrose was furious. He demanded that no such action be taken because it would cause only trouble. If the punishment is carried out the bishop will be martyred for standing up for his faith in Christ or acquiesce and become apostate. Also, money of the Church should not be used to support unbelief (as occurs in a synagogue). Theodosius backed down.
The next conflict between these two occurred when a mob in Thessolonica murdered a Roman captain. Theodosius orchestrated the slaughter of 7,000 Thessalonians in revenge. Ambrose withheld the sacraments from Theodosius until the emperor rented. Theodosius repented, without his purple kingly robes and paid public penance.
Ambrose was a remarkable statesman, but inferior to Augustine in philosophy and inferior to Jerome as a scholar.
Jerome is most notable for producing the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible. The Vulgate was translated from original Hebrew texts, not the more erroneous Septuagint. Because Jerome illicit help from Jews in the translation it was initially met with harsh responses. Augustine's endorsement helped it to become the accepted version of the Catholic Church.
Jerome was born in 345 AD near Aquileia to a well-to-do, but not rich family. He studied rhetoric in Rome but he sinned there. He traveled through Gaul, retiring to Aquileia and became ascetic. He became a hermit in the Syrian desert and performed penance for his sinfulness in Rome. He then went back to Rome and befriended Pope Damasus, who encouraged him to create the Vulgate.
Jerome was quarrelsome to say the least. He fought with Augustine over the behavior of St. Peter. He fought with his friend Rufinius over Origen. He opposed Pelagius so avidly that his monastery was attacked by a Pelagian mob. He also fought with the Pope after the death of Damasus.
He left Rome for Bethlehem in 386 and lived there until his death in 420.
He converted and convinced many noble women to become nuns, pissing off people all over.
A young girl he convinced to become a nun was Eustochium. He wrote letters to her on how to maintain her virginity, exact meanings of Old Testament euphemisms, erotic mystical praise of covenantal life, stated that a nun is the Bride of Christ and the the Song of Solomon praises this type of relationship.
Linehan - I believe that this is a very bad misrepresentation of this book.
In a vision Jerome heard Christ tell him that he was a follower of Cicero, not Christ. Upon waking from this vision he denounced his love of Greek and Roman learning.
In his letters he embodies the Christian otherworldly hope of redemption outside of the collapsing world of the temporal Roman Empire.
It is strange (Russell contends) that Jerome, Augustine, and Ambrose all devoted themselves to Church issues, but no practical measures to save their collapsing state.
Linehan - The emphasis on virginity by the early church to me seems harmful. It is true that some men and women may be called to a life of abstinence, but I do not think that this is a very likely occurrence. I know from a personal standpoint that living an abstinent life makes it hard to focus on anything other than virginity or how to lose it. I remained a virgin because of fear (partially) and because of failure (mostly). This was a source of enormous tension, self-turmoil, disappointment, frustration, agony, desperation, depression, guilt and countless hours of wasted time and effort. Virginity or abstinence as an end is not a virtue. What makes it virtuous is the reasoning behind it. If one declares perpetual virginity in accordance to God's plan then it is virtuous, but if it (or anything) is done as a way to impress God it is boastful and not a virtue at all. Also I find the practice of father's giving their daughters over to virginity reprehensible. It's a shame that things like this happened within Christianity because it gives ammo to those who are seeking to attack Christianity.
Augustine was born in 354 in Africa to a Christian mother and Pagan father. He spent time as a Manichaean, then became a Christian. He then became the bishop of Hippo, near Carthage, where he remained until he died in 430.
We know much of Augustine's life because of his autobiographical work Confessions.
Augustine was a passionate youth, unconcerned with virtue and impulsive. He searched for truth and righteousness relentlessly.
His youthful sins caused him to have a strong sense of sin later in life, "which made his life stern and his philosophy inhuman" (Russell, 345).
Linehan - I'm sure Russell meant this as a stab, but Augustine may very well have modestly accepted it as a compliment. I must admit that there are a few philosophers, theologians, or men that matter, with whom I identify with or respect more than Augustine.
Augustine opens Confessions with the story of stealing a pear for mischief's sake alone. He condemns himself for loving the act of sinning so much. Russell mocks this and calls it morbid to the modern mind. While this may be true it is a blight on the modern mind, not on Augustine.
Christian theology had two parts:
1) that concerned with the Church
2) that concerned with the individual.
The Catholics emphasized the first. The Protestants emphasized the second. Augustine created a harmonious synthesis that focused on both without any inconsistencies.
Augustine believed individual soul wee predestined to salvation, but had to be baptized and become a member of the Church. Predestination marks a direct connection between God and man, the Church was an intermediate between.
Sin was essential to the direct relation for two reasons:
1) Shows how God can cause man to suffer
2) Shows how souls are the most important member of the created order.
Russell calls Augustine's sense of sin 'abnormal'. Russell's indifference to sin however, is much more abnormal than any developed sense of it.
Augustine grabbed Latin easily, but hated Greek.
Lust overcame him at the age of sixteen.
Augustine's father did not pay any attention to his sins but kept him focused on school. His mother, in vain, tried to keep him chaste. He went to Carthage at 16 and fell in love with love. He also took a mistress because he was not ready for a wife, but was faithful to her and had a son he loved by her.
His mother then encouraged him to marry a girl worthy of his social status (which his mistress was not). In breaking up with his mistress to be married he broke his heart. He then took another mistress while waiting for his bride-to-be to come of age. At this time he prayed, "give me chastity and continence, only not yet" (Russell, 348).
By the time his marriage was to occur he had devoted himself to religion and chastity.
Augustine was excellent in rhetoric and introduced to philosophy by Cicero. He then became a Manichaean and taught rhetoric. He was fond of astrology at this time, but later despised it.
He read as much philosophy as was translated into Latin and mentions Aristotle's 'Ten Categories'. He grasped these works without a teacher, but decried his understanding because it profited him none.
Initially he began to reject Manichaeism because of scientific reasons, citing astronomy and Mani's (the founder of Manichaeism) blatant errors on astronomical matters. After doubting Manichaeism he went to teach in Rome.
He began to feel at odds with the Manichaeans more and more in Rome and began to slide in to skepticism, but still believed that something in men, some nature caused them to sin.
He believed evil to be a substance.
From Rome he went to Milan to teach rhetoric. He began to love Ambrose and admire the Catholic faith, but his newfound skepticism held him back.
His mother joined him in Milan and hastened his conversion.
In Milan he became acquainted with Platonism and fused the Platonic metaphysical doctrine of Logos with Christianity.
He then completely rejected Manichaeism and the notion of Evil as a substance, instead believing evil to come from the perverseness of the will.
Augustine found comfort in the writings of St. Paul (one reason I identify with him so well).
He gave up his new mistress and his wife-to-be and devoted himself to the Church. He moved back to Africa in 388 and spent the remainder of his life fighting heresies like the Donates, Manichaeism and Pelagianism.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Image of God, Salvation & Predestination
(Originally written April 21, 2006 in 3 Subject)
Historic Christian Belief
Theosis - the way of the East
The Eastern Orthodox makes a distinction between the image of God and in the likeness of God.
The image of God - the capacity to relate to God
The likeness of God - an unbroken union with God
The Fall resulted in the damage of the image of God in humanity, but is still retained. The Fall however resulted in a complete loss of the likeness of God. The likeness of God can be restored to those in Christ to a significant degree however.
Three Categories of Divine Election
1. General Election
2. Corporate Election
3. Particular Election
General Election
-Election in History
-God chooses nations and individuals to play a particular role in history: to glorify God
Romans 9:6-13 (Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob over Esau in the blessing), Romans 9:16 (Pharaoh)
Corporate Election
-God foresees who will believe in Christ
-Ephesians 1:3 - chosen in Him from before the creation of the world
-Those chosen = a corporate entity, the believers in Christ
-Christ is God's 'chosen [elect] one, all others are chosen in Christ (John 3:16, 1 Timothy 2:5, Romans 8:29, 1 Peter 3:9)
Particular Election
-Augustine, Calvin
-Monergism - salvation brought about through spiritual regeneration without willingness from the saved (irresistible grace)
-God has chosen individuals out of the whole of fallen humanity
-Election is one aspect of predestination, Election (salvation & glory), Reprobation (judgment)
-Predestination: Election & Reprobation (John 6:44, Acts 13:48, Ephesians 1:5 and Romans 8:29)
-Romans 8:29 is actually used by Calvinism & Arminianism
Historic Christian Belief
Theosis - the way of the East
The Eastern Orthodox makes a distinction between the image of God and in the likeness of God.
The image of God - the capacity to relate to God
The likeness of God - an unbroken union with God
The Fall resulted in the damage of the image of God in humanity, but is still retained. The Fall however resulted in a complete loss of the likeness of God. The likeness of God can be restored to those in Christ to a significant degree however.
Three Categories of Divine Election
1. General Election
2. Corporate Election
3. Particular Election
General Election
-Election in History
-God chooses nations and individuals to play a particular role in history: to glorify God
Romans 9:6-13 (Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob over Esau in the blessing), Romans 9:16 (Pharaoh)
Corporate Election
-God foresees who will believe in Christ
-Ephesians 1:3 - chosen in Him from before the creation of the world
-Those chosen = a corporate entity, the believers in Christ
-Christ is God's 'chosen [elect] one, all others are chosen in Christ (John 3:16, 1 Timothy 2:5, Romans 8:29, 1 Peter 3:9)
Particular Election
-Augustine, Calvin
-Monergism - salvation brought about through spiritual regeneration without willingness from the saved (irresistible grace)
-God has chosen individuals out of the whole of fallen humanity
-Election is one aspect of predestination, Election (salvation & glory), Reprobation (judgment)
-Predestination: Election & Reprobation (John 6:44, Acts 13:48, Ephesians 1:5 and Romans 8:29)
-Romans 8:29 is actually used by Calvinism & Arminianism
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.
Wednesday, February 8, 2006
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
Monday, February 6, 2006
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
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
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Christianity & Philosophy, Proofs and nature of faith
(Originally written February 1, 2006)
The Christian Theology Reader
Clement of Alexandria on Philosophy and Theology
Clement argues that God gave the Greeks philosophy in order to prepare them for the coming of the Lord. He parallel this with God giving the Jews the law.
Philosophy was necessary to the Greeks for righteousness before the incarnation.
Post-incarnation philosophy assists people who come to faith by way of demonstration. It is a preparation for true religion.
Clement states all good things come from God. Some come directly (like Jews receiving the law from God through Moses) and some come indirectly (the Greek's philosophy).
"Philosophy, acted as a custodian to bring Greeks to Christ, just as the law brought the Hebrews" (6).
Philosophy is not antiquated or made obsolete by Christ's coming. It is a way for some people (lovers of truth) to come to the Lord.
Clement views Christ as both the perfection and fulfillment of the Old Testament and of philosophy.
Biblical parallels Galatians 3:23-24. The Greek word Paul uses for "custodian" is the same word Clement uses to describe philosophy for the Greeks.
Tertullian on the Relation of Philosophy and Heresy
Tertullian was avidly opposed to the fusion of philosophy and theology.
He held that philosophy had a pagan outlook on life.
He contacted the differences between Athens and Jerusalem, symbolic of the differences between pagan philosophy and God's revelation of the Christian faith.
He held that Christian minds were completely on a different wave length than their pagan counterparts.
Philosophy provides worldly wisdom by "boldly asserting itself to be the interpreter of the divine nature and dispensation" (7)
Heretics and philosophers often accept or deny similar viewpoints, i.e. Marcion came from the Stoics.
Tertullian holds that it is necessary to seek God in the simplicity of the heart. Philosophy completes it too much.
There is no need for curiosity after discovering Jesus Christ.
After believing in Christ "there is nothing else which we are obliged to believe"
Tertullian uses historical evidence to connect heresies and philosophy. He felt this was enough to justify the exclusion of philosophy from theology.
Since Philosophy has, at its core, values which are contrary to Christian principles, the fusion of the two would lead to the erosion of Christian integrity.
Augustine on Philosophy and Theology
Augustine advocates using all of the good philosophy in theology and disregarding the bad. He parallels this with the Hebrews casting of the burdens of the Egypt, but taking its treasures with them.
What the Plutonists have said which is true should be claimed by Christians for their own use because the Plutonists posses it illegally.
"Pagan learning is not entirely made up of sales teaching and superstitions. It contains also some excellent teachings, well suited to be used by truth, and excellent moral values"
Philosophy can neither be totally rejected or uncritically accepted.
Augustine points to person who were raised pagans, converted, then brought some of their values (now spun through truth) into the church and made a great impact.
Anselm of Canterbury's proof for the existence of God
God is "that than which no greater thing can be thought". Knowing this definition of God, Anselm states that without God the idea of God would still exist. Then (since God does not exist) the greatest thing that can be thought of is the idea of God. This contradicts the definition of God, therefore, it cannot be true. Since it is not true, the only option we have left is that God exists.
This argument is often referred to as the "ontological argument". (Ontological philosophy refers to the branch of philosophy dealing with being)
This is not a purely logical argument, nor was it intended to be. It is more of a statement of how obvious it was to himself that God exists and the implications that that entails.
The important part of this theory to remember is that the idea of something is inferior to the reality of that something.
Thomas Aquinas on Proofs for the existence of God
Aquinas postulated 5 "proofs" for the existence of God.
The term "proofs" cannot be taken in the strictest sense of the word here. It instead demonstrates the consistency of Christian theology with what is known of the world.
Aquinas' work "the Totality of Theology is" widely regarded as the greatest work of medieval theology (17)
The first argument for the existence of God, is the argument from change.
"Everything that is in the process of being changed is changed by something else" (18).
It is impossible for something to be the cause of change and be changing itself.
There must be a first cause to effect change. The first cause of change must be God.
The second argument for the existence of God is based on the nature of an efficient cause.
There is a sequence of efficient causes in the observable world, but nothing is the cause of itself. This would require something to exist prior to itself, which is impossible.
If there were no first cause there would be no effect. We can see that then are causes and effects, therefore there must have been an initial cause. This initial cause is God.
The third argument for the existence of God is the nature of possibility and necessity.
"If nothing ever existed, it would have been impossible for anything to begin to exist" (19).
Since we exist and we see other things that exist, there could never have been a point in time that nothing existed because then nothing would have begun to exist.
All things that exist must, by necessity, have been brought into existence by something. Therefore something must exist free of necessity to begin the existence of all other things (directly or indirectly). This existence free of necessity of being brought into existence is God.
The fourth argument for the existence of God is from the gradation that occurs in things.
Things are known to be more or less because they approximate in varying degrees to that which is greatest.
There must be something that is greatest, truest, best and noblest. This is God.
The fifth argument for the existence of God is based on the governance of things.
Because things, like natural bodies, work towards a goal without any knowledge of that goal with amazing precision and accuracy makes it obvious that they achieve this goal by design and not chance.
There is no way things without knowledge can reach goals consistently without a designer. Therefore, there is an intelligent being who designed all natural things to reach their goals. This being is God.
God's existence is proven 5 ways:
1) The world is in motion. Something had to start that motion: God
2) The world is full of causes and effects. There must have been a first cause: God
3) Things exist in this world that we are not necessary (humans are one of them). The fact that humans exist means something exist that is necessary to bring what is our necessary into existence: God
4) Values, truth, and morals must come from an ultimate source of values, truth and morality: God.
5) The world shows obvious traits of intelligent design. There must have been an intelligent designer: God.
Martin Luther on the theology of the Cross
Luther draws a distinction between theologians of glory who seek God apart from Jesus Christ and theologians of the cross who know that God is revealed through Jesus Christ.
John Calvin on the Nature of faith
Calvin establishes a direct relation between faith and the merciful promises of God.
Faith is a steady and certain knowledge of the divine benevolence towards us, which is founded upon the truth of the gracious promise of God in Christ.
Faith should be certain and secure but doubt and anxiety are natural.
Calvin states believers have a "perpetual struggle with their own lack of faith, and are far from possessing a peaceful conscience, never interrupted by any disturbance" (26).
Faith is not believing God exists, it is trusting in the promise of a benevolent God.
Blaise Pascal on Proofs for the Existence of God
Pascal places an emphasis on the heart, rather than reason, in the knowledge of God. He also stresses the limitations of reason.
Knowledge of God comes through the heart. Reason vainly attempts to discredit that knowledge. The inability to prove this knowledge of God does not affirm the uncertainty of this knowledge; it demonstrates the weakness of our reason.
Reason must recognize there are many things which it cannot comprehend.
The metaphysical proofs for God have little impact on men because their reason is incapable comprehending them.
Knowledge of God must be accompanied by the acknowledgement of our depravity and of acceptance of Christ as the redeemer to be effective.
John Calvin on the Natural knowledge of God
A full knowledge of God can only be achieved through Scripture, but a partial knowledge of God is possible apart from scripture which makes it impossible for humans to plead ignorance at the judgment.
God's existence can be recognized by all mankind. They are condemned by not worshipping God to light of their awareness.
A sense of divinity is "inscribed in the hearts of all people" (98).
A faith for all seasons
Ch. 1 our knowledge of God
Faith and Knowledge
If faith has nothing to do with knowledge, then theology (study of interactions between man and God) is reduced to anthropology (a study of man's interaction with man).
A lot of modern Christian theology is based on the assumption that faith has nothing to do with knowledge. This makes God impossible to know. We can only know about our experiences with God.
This theologies based on the Enlightenment which states that man is the ultimate measure of everything.
The rationalists came out of the Enlightenment. They believed that knowledge could only come from empirical or scientific evidence. However, God is above any empiricism or scientific method.
"Faith finds its basis in non rational elements of human experience" (2). This is a modern view of faith. A historic view of faith believes it is a part of knowledge.
Augustine says that you first have to believe in God, then knowledge of God will follow.
Faith also looks to the future. Hebrews 11:1 states, "faith is the assurance of things hoped for; the conviction of things not seen"
While knowledge of God comes directly through Scripture, it can also come indirectly through creation.
General revelation is what God has revealed to all humanity through creation.
Special revelation is what God has revealed to a limited number of people through redemptive history: Scripture and Jesus Christ.
Knowledge of God through General Revelation
All men in all times know God to some extent even if they don't have access to the Bible.
There are two types of General revelation
1) Outward general revelation is reality around that points us to God
2) Inward general revelation is reality within our moral and spirituality that points us to God
Creation reveals the power of God and His divine nature
Conscience dictates our morality. It is included in inward general revelation.
The Christian Theology Reader
Clement of Alexandria on Philosophy and Theology
Clement argues that God gave the Greeks philosophy in order to prepare them for the coming of the Lord. He parallel this with God giving the Jews the law.
Philosophy was necessary to the Greeks for righteousness before the incarnation.
Post-incarnation philosophy assists people who come to faith by way of demonstration. It is a preparation for true religion.
Clement states all good things come from God. Some come directly (like Jews receiving the law from God through Moses) and some come indirectly (the Greek's philosophy).
"Philosophy, acted as a custodian to bring Greeks to Christ, just as the law brought the Hebrews" (6).
Philosophy is not antiquated or made obsolete by Christ's coming. It is a way for some people (lovers of truth) to come to the Lord.
Clement views Christ as both the perfection and fulfillment of the Old Testament and of philosophy.
Biblical parallels Galatians 3:23-24. The Greek word Paul uses for "custodian" is the same word Clement uses to describe philosophy for the Greeks.
Tertullian on the Relation of Philosophy and Heresy
Tertullian was avidly opposed to the fusion of philosophy and theology.
He held that philosophy had a pagan outlook on life.
He contacted the differences between Athens and Jerusalem, symbolic of the differences between pagan philosophy and God's revelation of the Christian faith.
He held that Christian minds were completely on a different wave length than their pagan counterparts.
Philosophy provides worldly wisdom by "boldly asserting itself to be the interpreter of the divine nature and dispensation" (7)
Heretics and philosophers often accept or deny similar viewpoints, i.e. Marcion came from the Stoics.
Tertullian holds that it is necessary to seek God in the simplicity of the heart. Philosophy completes it too much.
There is no need for curiosity after discovering Jesus Christ.
After believing in Christ "there is nothing else which we are obliged to believe"
Tertullian uses historical evidence to connect heresies and philosophy. He felt this was enough to justify the exclusion of philosophy from theology.
Since Philosophy has, at its core, values which are contrary to Christian principles, the fusion of the two would lead to the erosion of Christian integrity.
Augustine on Philosophy and Theology
Augustine advocates using all of the good philosophy in theology and disregarding the bad. He parallels this with the Hebrews casting of the burdens of the Egypt, but taking its treasures with them.
What the Plutonists have said which is true should be claimed by Christians for their own use because the Plutonists posses it illegally.
"Pagan learning is not entirely made up of sales teaching and superstitions. It contains also some excellent teachings, well suited to be used by truth, and excellent moral values"
Philosophy can neither be totally rejected or uncritically accepted.
Augustine points to person who were raised pagans, converted, then brought some of their values (now spun through truth) into the church and made a great impact.
Anselm of Canterbury's proof for the existence of God
God is "that than which no greater thing can be thought". Knowing this definition of God, Anselm states that without God the idea of God would still exist. Then (since God does not exist) the greatest thing that can be thought of is the idea of God. This contradicts the definition of God, therefore, it cannot be true. Since it is not true, the only option we have left is that God exists.
This argument is often referred to as the "ontological argument". (Ontological philosophy refers to the branch of philosophy dealing with being)
This is not a purely logical argument, nor was it intended to be. It is more of a statement of how obvious it was to himself that God exists and the implications that that entails.
The important part of this theory to remember is that the idea of something is inferior to the reality of that something.
Thomas Aquinas on Proofs for the existence of God
Aquinas postulated 5 "proofs" for the existence of God.
The term "proofs" cannot be taken in the strictest sense of the word here. It instead demonstrates the consistency of Christian theology with what is known of the world.
Aquinas' work "the Totality of Theology is" widely regarded as the greatest work of medieval theology (17)
The first argument for the existence of God, is the argument from change.
"Everything that is in the process of being changed is changed by something else" (18).
It is impossible for something to be the cause of change and be changing itself.
There must be a first cause to effect change. The first cause of change must be God.
The second argument for the existence of God is based on the nature of an efficient cause.
There is a sequence of efficient causes in the observable world, but nothing is the cause of itself. This would require something to exist prior to itself, which is impossible.
If there were no first cause there would be no effect. We can see that then are causes and effects, therefore there must have been an initial cause. This initial cause is God.
The third argument for the existence of God is the nature of possibility and necessity.
"If nothing ever existed, it would have been impossible for anything to begin to exist" (19).
Since we exist and we see other things that exist, there could never have been a point in time that nothing existed because then nothing would have begun to exist.
All things that exist must, by necessity, have been brought into existence by something. Therefore something must exist free of necessity to begin the existence of all other things (directly or indirectly). This existence free of necessity of being brought into existence is God.
The fourth argument for the existence of God is from the gradation that occurs in things.
Things are known to be more or less because they approximate in varying degrees to that which is greatest.
There must be something that is greatest, truest, best and noblest. This is God.
The fifth argument for the existence of God is based on the governance of things.
Because things, like natural bodies, work towards a goal without any knowledge of that goal with amazing precision and accuracy makes it obvious that they achieve this goal by design and not chance.
There is no way things without knowledge can reach goals consistently without a designer. Therefore, there is an intelligent being who designed all natural things to reach their goals. This being is God.
God's existence is proven 5 ways:
1) The world is in motion. Something had to start that motion: God
2) The world is full of causes and effects. There must have been a first cause: God
3) Things exist in this world that we are not necessary (humans are one of them). The fact that humans exist means something exist that is necessary to bring what is our necessary into existence: God
4) Values, truth, and morals must come from an ultimate source of values, truth and morality: God.
5) The world shows obvious traits of intelligent design. There must have been an intelligent designer: God.
Martin Luther on the theology of the Cross
Luther draws a distinction between theologians of glory who seek God apart from Jesus Christ and theologians of the cross who know that God is revealed through Jesus Christ.
John Calvin on the Nature of faith
Calvin establishes a direct relation between faith and the merciful promises of God.
Faith is a steady and certain knowledge of the divine benevolence towards us, which is founded upon the truth of the gracious promise of God in Christ.
Faith should be certain and secure but doubt and anxiety are natural.
Calvin states believers have a "perpetual struggle with their own lack of faith, and are far from possessing a peaceful conscience, never interrupted by any disturbance" (26).
Faith is not believing God exists, it is trusting in the promise of a benevolent God.
Blaise Pascal on Proofs for the Existence of God
Pascal places an emphasis on the heart, rather than reason, in the knowledge of God. He also stresses the limitations of reason.
Knowledge of God comes through the heart. Reason vainly attempts to discredit that knowledge. The inability to prove this knowledge of God does not affirm the uncertainty of this knowledge; it demonstrates the weakness of our reason.
Reason must recognize there are many things which it cannot comprehend.
The metaphysical proofs for God have little impact on men because their reason is incapable comprehending them.
Knowledge of God must be accompanied by the acknowledgement of our depravity and of acceptance of Christ as the redeemer to be effective.
John Calvin on the Natural knowledge of God
A full knowledge of God can only be achieved through Scripture, but a partial knowledge of God is possible apart from scripture which makes it impossible for humans to plead ignorance at the judgment.
God's existence can be recognized by all mankind. They are condemned by not worshipping God to light of their awareness.
A sense of divinity is "inscribed in the hearts of all people" (98).
A faith for all seasons
Ch. 1 our knowledge of God
Faith and Knowledge
If faith has nothing to do with knowledge, then theology (study of interactions between man and God) is reduced to anthropology (a study of man's interaction with man).
A lot of modern Christian theology is based on the assumption that faith has nothing to do with knowledge. This makes God impossible to know. We can only know about our experiences with God.
This theologies based on the Enlightenment which states that man is the ultimate measure of everything.
The rationalists came out of the Enlightenment. They believed that knowledge could only come from empirical or scientific evidence. However, God is above any empiricism or scientific method.
"Faith finds its basis in non rational elements of human experience" (2). This is a modern view of faith. A historic view of faith believes it is a part of knowledge.
Augustine says that you first have to believe in God, then knowledge of God will follow.
Faith also looks to the future. Hebrews 11:1 states, "faith is the assurance of things hoped for; the conviction of things not seen"
While knowledge of God comes directly through Scripture, it can also come indirectly through creation.
General revelation is what God has revealed to all humanity through creation.
Special revelation is what God has revealed to a limited number of people through redemptive history: Scripture and Jesus Christ.
Knowledge of God through General Revelation
All men in all times know God to some extent even if they don't have access to the Bible.
There are two types of General revelation
1) Outward general revelation is reality around that points us to God
2) Inward general revelation is reality within our moral and spirituality that points us to God
Creation reveals the power of God and His divine nature
Conscience dictates our morality. It is included in inward general revelation.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Highlights of Acts, James, Calvinism vs. Arminianism & Galatians
(Originally written on January 17, 2006 in Book 20)
Highlights in the Book of Acts
Acts 2 - Birth of the Church
Church = New Testament People of God
Israel = Old Testament People of God
Acts 6 - Prototypes of Deacons/Elders
The 12 - Prototypes of elders/bishops
Functions of the Elders/Bishops
1) Teaching the word
2) Prayer
The Seven = The prototypes of deacons/deaconesses
Acts 8 - Persecuted church scatters
Acts 9 - Paul's conversion
Acts 10 - Gospel to the Gentiles
Acts 12 - James is Martyred
Acts 14 - 1st Missionary Journey
Acts 15 - The Jerusalem Council
-Must Gentile Christians keep the Law in order to be saved as the Judaizers insist?
Acts 15:39-18:22 - 2nd Missionary Journey
Acts 18:23-21:27 - 3rd Missionary Journey
Acts 21:27-23:32 - Imprisoned in Jerusalem
Acts 23:33-26:32 - Imprisoned in Caesera
Acts 27-28 - Voyage to Rome
Acts 28:16-30 - Roman imprisonment
The Book of James:
Author: James, brother of Jesus (oldest)
- Did not believe in Jesus
- Jesus appeared to him post resurrection
- Very religious Jew
Galatians 2:12/Acts 21:17-26
Recipients:
-Jewish believers who scattered after Stephen's death
-Only epistle strictly written to a Jewish audience
Date:
- Earliest Christian document
- Josephus records James' martyrdom in AD 62
- Makes no reference to Judaizing controversy (AD 49)
- Approximately written AD 46-47
Focus of James: The practical outworking of Christianity in a righteous lifestyle
Emphases
1) Patience in the face of suffering
2) How the rich treat the poor
3) Judgment and judging
James & Paul on role of works in salvation:
- Both James & Paul affirm good deeds and are against bad deeds
- Both use the Greek word "erga" (works) but use it differently
James 2:14-26 has a particular kind of works in view
- Good deeds like acts of charity, generosity, impartiality, control of tongue, etc
- His opponents were claiming orthodoxy without action
Paul opposes "works" as in works of the Law
- Stops people from attempting to obtain salvation through the Law, which is impossible
Calvinism vs. Arminianism
Total Depravity vs. Free will/human ability
Unconditional Election vs. Conditional election
Limited Atonement vs. Unlimited Atonement
Irresistible Grace vs. Resistible grace
Perseverance of the Saints vs. Can fall from grace
Calvinism justifies Unconditional Depravity by Romans 3:10, Jeremiah 17:9, Ephesians 4:18 and Ecclesiastes 7:20. We are unable to save ourselves and will never choose Christ on our own.
Arminianism justifies free will/human ability by John 1:9 and Titus 2:11
Calvinism justifies unconditional election by Romans 8:29-30, Romans 9:11-18, Acts 13:48. Foreknew = Forechosen. God chooses man, man does not choose God.
Arminianism justifies conditional election via Romans 8:29. Foreknew = Foresaw. God foresaw who would choose Him.
Calvinism justifies limited atonement with John 10:10, John 10:15, John 17:2, John 17:6, John 17:9. Christ only died for the elect.
Arminianism justifies unlimited atonement with 1 John 2:2, 1 Timothy 4:10, 2 Peter 2:1 and 2 Corinthians 5:19. Christ died for all men.
Calvinism justifies irresistible grace with Romans 9:19-21. Nobody can resist God's will.
Arminianism justifies resistible grace with 1 John 2:2, 1 Timothy 4:10, 2 Peter 2:1, 2 Corinthians 5:19. God can be resisted.
Calvinism justifies Perseverance of the saints with Philippians 2:12-13, John 10:27-30, Romans 8:38-39. Salvation is secure.
Arminianism justifies can fall from grace with Hebrews 6:4-6, Hebrews 10:26-31, 1 Corinthians 9:27, Romans 8:38-39, Romans 11:22. Salvation can be lost.
Introduction to Galatians
Dualism: Body doesn't matter, do whatever. Soul is what counts.
Two Extremes of dualism:
Antinomianism - over indulgence
Asceticism - no pleasure at all, minimalism
If Paul was concerned about distortions of the gospel, we should too.
Problem behind letter to Galatians.
Jewish Christian teachers infiltrated the Galatian churches with a message that endangered the Gospel message. They were Judaizers.
Judaizers sought to complete Paul's gospel in two ways.
1) by requiring circumcision
2) by enforcing Jewish food laws
Highlights in the Book of Acts
Acts 2 - Birth of the Church
Church = New Testament People of God
Israel = Old Testament People of God
Acts 6 - Prototypes of Deacons/Elders
The 12 - Prototypes of elders/bishops
Functions of the Elders/Bishops
1) Teaching the word
2) Prayer
The Seven = The prototypes of deacons/deaconesses
Acts 8 - Persecuted church scatters
Acts 9 - Paul's conversion
Acts 10 - Gospel to the Gentiles
Acts 12 - James is Martyred
Acts 14 - 1st Missionary Journey
Acts 15 - The Jerusalem Council
-Must Gentile Christians keep the Law in order to be saved as the Judaizers insist?
Acts 15:39-18:22 - 2nd Missionary Journey
Acts 18:23-21:27 - 3rd Missionary Journey
Acts 21:27-23:32 - Imprisoned in Jerusalem
Acts 23:33-26:32 - Imprisoned in Caesera
Acts 27-28 - Voyage to Rome
Acts 28:16-30 - Roman imprisonment
The Book of James:
Author: James, brother of Jesus (oldest)
- Did not believe in Jesus
- Jesus appeared to him post resurrection
- Very religious Jew
Galatians 2:12/Acts 21:17-26
Recipients:
-Jewish believers who scattered after Stephen's death
-Only epistle strictly written to a Jewish audience
Date:
- Earliest Christian document
- Josephus records James' martyrdom in AD 62
- Makes no reference to Judaizing controversy (AD 49)
- Approximately written AD 46-47
Focus of James: The practical outworking of Christianity in a righteous lifestyle
Emphases
1) Patience in the face of suffering
2) How the rich treat the poor
3) Judgment and judging
James & Paul on role of works in salvation:
- Both James & Paul affirm good deeds and are against bad deeds
- Both use the Greek word "erga" (works) but use it differently
James 2:14-26 has a particular kind of works in view
- Good deeds like acts of charity, generosity, impartiality, control of tongue, etc
- His opponents were claiming orthodoxy without action
Paul opposes "works" as in works of the Law
- Stops people from attempting to obtain salvation through the Law, which is impossible
Calvinism vs. Arminianism
Total Depravity vs. Free will/human ability
Unconditional Election vs. Conditional election
Limited Atonement vs. Unlimited Atonement
Irresistible Grace vs. Resistible grace
Perseverance of the Saints vs. Can fall from grace
Calvinism justifies Unconditional Depravity by Romans 3:10, Jeremiah 17:9, Ephesians 4:18 and Ecclesiastes 7:20. We are unable to save ourselves and will never choose Christ on our own.
Arminianism justifies free will/human ability by John 1:9 and Titus 2:11
Calvinism justifies unconditional election by Romans 8:29-30, Romans 9:11-18, Acts 13:48. Foreknew = Forechosen. God chooses man, man does not choose God.
Arminianism justifies conditional election via Romans 8:29. Foreknew = Foresaw. God foresaw who would choose Him.
Calvinism justifies limited atonement with John 10:10, John 10:15, John 17:2, John 17:6, John 17:9. Christ only died for the elect.
Arminianism justifies unlimited atonement with 1 John 2:2, 1 Timothy 4:10, 2 Peter 2:1 and 2 Corinthians 5:19. Christ died for all men.
Calvinism justifies irresistible grace with Romans 9:19-21. Nobody can resist God's will.
Arminianism justifies resistible grace with 1 John 2:2, 1 Timothy 4:10, 2 Peter 2:1, 2 Corinthians 5:19. God can be resisted.
Calvinism justifies Perseverance of the saints with Philippians 2:12-13, John 10:27-30, Romans 8:38-39. Salvation is secure.
Arminianism justifies can fall from grace with Hebrews 6:4-6, Hebrews 10:26-31, 1 Corinthians 9:27, Romans 8:38-39, Romans 11:22. Salvation can be lost.
Introduction to Galatians
Dualism: Body doesn't matter, do whatever. Soul is what counts.
Two Extremes of dualism:
Antinomianism - over indulgence
Asceticism - no pleasure at all, minimalism
If Paul was concerned about distortions of the gospel, we should too.
Problem behind letter to Galatians.
Jewish Christian teachers infiltrated the Galatian churches with a message that endangered the Gospel message. They were Judaizers.
Judaizers sought to complete Paul's gospel in two ways.
1) by requiring circumcision
2) by enforcing Jewish food laws
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