UW, November 13, 2000

Modernity = Pluralism and critical knowing

1. Pluralism –

1. awareness of diverse views;
2. belief that diverse views are legitimate

1. Science – as authoritative source of objective knowledge (vs. tradition)
2. Self-appropriation – of (subjective) cognitive and deliberative process

"The man of the archaic societies tends to live as much as possible in the sacred or in close proximity to consecrated objects. The tendency is perfectly understandable, because, for primitives as for the man of all pre-modern societies, the sacred is equivalent to a power, and, in the last analysis, to reality. The sacred is saturated with being. Sacred power means reality and at the same time enduringness and efficacity. The polarity sacred-profane is often expressed as an opposition between real and unreal or pseudoreal. . . . Thus it is easy to understand that religious man deeply desires to be, to participate in reality, to be saturated with power."

"Every human society is an enterprise of world-building. Religion occupies a distinctive place in this enterprise."

"Man’s world-building activity is always a collective enterprise. Man’s internal appropriation of a world must also take place in a collectivity."

"…man is incapable of conceiving of his experience in a comprehensively meaningful way unless such a conception is transmitted to him by means of social processes."

"…the individual appropriates the world in conversation with others and…both identity and world remain real to himself only as long as he can continue the conversation."

"… the subjective reality of the world hangs on the thin thread of conversation."

Religion is "the establishment through human activity of an all-embracing sacred order, that is, of a sacred cosmos that will be capable of maintaining itself in the ever-present face of chaos."

"Every human society is, in the last resort, men banded together in the face of death."

"Man’s world-building activity is always a collective enterprise. Man’s internal appropriation of a world must also take place in a collectivity."

"…man is incapable of conceiving of his experience in a comprehensively meaningful way unless such a conception is transmitted to him by means of social processes."

"…the individual appropriates the world in conversation with others and…both identity and world remain real to himself only as long as he can continue the conversation."

"In other words, the subjective reality of the world hangs on the thin thread of conversation."

Inquisitor: "…man seeks to worship what is established beyond dispute, so that all men would agree at once to worship it…. This craving for community of worship is the chief misery of every man individually and of all humanity from the beginning of time. For the sake of common worship they’ve slain each other with the sword. They have set up gods and challenged one another: ‘Put away your gods and come and worship ours, or we will kill you and your gods!’ And so it will be to the end of the world…"

(to Christ) But what did you do? "Instead of taking men’s freedom from them, you made it greater than ever! Did you forget that man prefers peace, even death, to freedom of choice in the knowledge of good and evil?"

"The neglected subject does not know himself [i.e., is unaware of itself as a performer of cognitive operations]. The truncated subject not only does not know himself but also is unaware of his ignorance and so, in one way or another, concludes that what he does not know does not exist."

"The transition from the neglected and truncated subject to self-appropriation is not a simple matter. It is not just a matter of finding out and assenting to a number of true propositions. More basically, it is a matter of conversion, of a personal philosophic experience, of moving out of a world of sense and of arriving, dazed and disorientated for a while, into a universe of being."

"…we are subjects, as it were, by degrees. At a lowest level, when unconscious in dreamless sleep or in a coma, we are merely potentially subjects. Next, we have a minimal degree of consciousness and subjectivity when we are the helpless subjects of our dreams. Thirdly, we become experiential subjects when we awake, when we become the subjects of lucid perception, imaginative projects, emotional and conative impulses, and bodily action. Fourthly, the intelligent subject sublates the experiential, i.e., it retains, preserves, goes beyond, completes it, when we inquire about our experience, investigate, grow in understanding, express our intentions and discoveries. Fifthly the rational subject sublates the intelligent and experiential subject, when we question our own understanding, check our formulations and expressions, ask whether we have got things right, marshal the evidence pro and con, judge this to be so and that not to be so. Sixthly, finally, rational consciousness is sublated by rational self-consciousness, when we deliberate, evaluate, decide, act. Then there emerges human consciousness at its fullest. Then the existential subject exists and his character, his personal essence, is at stake."

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Epistle to the Hebrews 11:1)

[Estin de pistiV elizoumenwn upostasiV, pragmatwn elegcoV ou blepomenwn.]

Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 4, a. 1

"…an act of faith is related both to the object of the will, that is, to the good and the end [i.e., the goal], and to the object of the intellect, that is, to the true…. Now…the object of faith is the First Truth, as unseen, and whatever we hold on account of it."

"…the relation of the act of faith to its end, which is he object of the will, is indicated by the words: Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for. For we are accustomed to call by the name of substance the first beginning of a thing, especially when the whole subsequent thing is virtually contained in the first beginning."

"Accordingly if anyone would reduce the foregoing words to the form of a definition, he may say that faith is a habit of the mind, whereby eternal life is begun in us, making the intellect assent to what is non-apparent. In this way faith is distinguished from all other things pertaining to the intellect. For when we describe it as ‘evidence,’ we distinguish it from opinion, suspicion and doubt, which do not make the intellect adhere to anything firmly; when we go on to say, ‘of things that appear not,’ we distinguish it from science and understanding, the object of which is something apparent; and when we say that it is ‘the substance of things to be hoped for, we distinguish the virtue of faith from faith commonly so called, which has no reference to the Happiness we hope for."

II-II, q. 4, a. 3 Whether Charity is the Form [i.e., the vital principle] of Faith

"…charity is called the form of faith, in so far as the act of faith is perfected and formed by charity."

II-II, q. 23, a. 3, ad 1

"The Divine Essence Itself is charity, even as it is wisdom, and goodness. Therefore just as we are said to be good with the goodness which is God, and wise with the wisdom which is God… so too, the charity by which formally we love our neighbour is a participation of Divine charity."

II-II, q. 23, a. 6

Charity is more excellent than both faith and hope, because "charity attains God Himself that it may rest in Him, but not that something may accrue to us from Him."

"If a human being were a beast or an angel, he could not be in anxiety. Because he is a synthesis, he can be in anxiety; and the more profoundly he is in anxiety, the greater is the man. . ."

"Anxiety is freedom's possibility, and only such anxiety is through faith absolutely educative, because it consumes all finite ends and discovers their deceptiveness."

"Whoever is educated by anxiety is educated by possibility, and only he who is educated by possibility is educated according to his infinitude."

". . . whoever is educated by possibility remains with anxiety. . . .Then the assaults of anxiety, even though they be terrifying, will not be such that he flees from them. For him, anxiety becomes a serving spirit that against its will leads him where he wishes to go. . . Then anxiety enters into his soul and searches out everything and anxiously torments everything finite and petty out of him, and then it leads him where he wants to go."

But should you fail to keep your kingdom
And, like your father before you, come
Where thought accuses and feeling mocks,
Believe your pain: praise the scorching rocks
For their desiccation of your lust,
Thank the bitter treatment of the tide
For its dissolution of your pride,
That the whirlwind may arrange your will
And the deluge release it to find
The spring in the desert, the fruitful
Island in the sea, where flesh and mind
Are delivered from mistrust.

He is the Way.
Follow Him through the Land of Unlikeness;
You will see rare beasts, and have unique adventures.

He is the Truth.
Seek Him in the Kingdom of Anxiety;
You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.

He is the Life.
Love Him in the world of the Flesh;
And at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy.