It's My Birthday!

"Who me? But I'm Seven and Twenty!"

"A woman of seven and twenty," said Marianne, after pausing a moment, "can never hope to feel or inspire affection again."
 

"Sense and Sensibility" - by Jane Austen

 

 

Relax, the above is intended as a dry, witty and sarcastic joke about my age. Times and society have changed to such a pitch that even though Jane Austen frequently proclaims 27 to be the year where nothing exciting can ever happen to you again, there is still hope. After all, there is really nothing to be done about getting older, one must accept it and hope only to age well.

 

I am convinced that Jane Austen, herself, did not believe in hopeless situations. I've been rereading her work lately, or for the most part experiencing it for the first time. There are always several agonizing chapters near the end where I am perfectly convinced that there is no hope for the hero and heroine to be together. Circumstances are always against them. Yet somehow through a long night's journey into day they find their way to be together! It's amazing.

 

It is in these hopeless chapters that the main character comes to truly know themselves. The more dramatic example is that of Elizabeth Bennet in "Pride and Prejudice" who, with a suddenness born on gradual understanding, comes to find that she has been blind to the merit of Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy, whom every woman who has ever read or watched "Pride and Prejudice" is madly in love with. Shall wonders never cease? Yet, Jane Austen somehow finds a way to fool all of us for 3/4 of the book into agreeing with Elizabeth. Artful indeed.

 

So, what is the point here? You thought I was going to be writing about my birthday. After all, I as much assured you that this would be a birthday post from the title. Here is what re-reading Jane Austen has taught me leading into my birthday: to be thankful. To be thankful that my mother is not silly (Pride and Prejudice), that my father is not vain (Persuasion), that my sisters are not foolish (Pride and Prejudice), and that my brothers are generous (Sense and Sensibility). Thankful for the accomplishments that are to my credit and for the defects that I am always striving to correct. I am thankful for all of the women, whom I call best in my life, those friends who comfort me in every situation of my life. Among those women I am most thankful for my roommate, who by laughing at my follies helps me to step past them. As most of last year was spent recovering from whip-lash I am also extremely grateful that I have turned a corner and once again enjoy excellent health.

 

The greatest light of my life is that God has given me the grace to be faithful. I learn so much every day in how giving and generous He is in all things. He is the greatest reason that there is hope for this seemingly hopeless twenty-seven year old.

 

 

 



Essay Three - Chapter Two: Christianity and the Crisis of Culture

Essay Three: What does it mean to believe?

Chapter Two: Can Agnosticism be a Solution?

There are two basic structural analogies of the perspectives on religious faith: friendship and revelation.

Friendship:

• It may be true that it is impossible for each individual to know everything within the network of human relationships.
• So they participate by faith in the knowledge of others.
• Nevertheless, we remain in the sphere of human knowledge that is accessible.

Revelation:

• Faith in revelation passes the boundaries of knowledge, typical to human life experience.
• Revelation remains an object of faith.
• This surpasses realities that are accessible to the knowledge of our experience.
• There is no one in this field in whom we can put our trust. AS no one could have direct knowledge of religious faith.

The questions of our society include: Is this faith compatible with modern knowledge? Would it be more prudent for man to wait to pass judgement on religious faith until science can have definitive knowledge? Atheism claims to know too much and has a dogmatic element of its own. At most one can take his nonexistence as a hypothesis, on the basis of which to explain the universe. It is never possible (scientifically) to go beyond the sphere of the hypothetical in this question, because you can never scientifically be certain that God does not exist.

This reality points to the unsurpassed limits of the human condition.That man has a capacity to know man as being. (Again this is metaphysics, the study of being). As the scientific atheism is impossible to prove, it becomes urgent to know whether the question of God indeed surpasses the human condition. This is where the limits of science must not be confused with the limits of existence.

Ratzinger encourages us to  not be hasty in a "rational" response to agnosticism, rather patiently examine it as a plausible answer, to discover whether it can apply to humanity and science. Can it answer the question of existence? The humility of a philosopher, they begin by discovering what is first. Can man be content to live under the hypothetical formula 'as if God doesn't exist.' The question of God is a practical problem that touches every part of our lives. So we are faced with two alternatives. 

Either we live as if God existed or we lives as if God did exist. Man cannot remain neutral on the question of God. It is not to be avoided, changed or resisted. 

"Where everything and the foundation of everything, are involved, the one who endeavors to comprehend is inevitably challenged to get involved with the totality of his being, with all the faculties of perception he has been given. And his search for knowledge must aim not only to collect a large number of individual details, but as far as possible to grasp the totality as such." (p90)

Essay Three - Introduction: Christianity and the Crisis of Culture

Essay Three: What Does it Mean to Believe?

Introduction

A mode of natural 'faith' is indispensable in our daily life. So when answering the questions of faith's necessity or whether or not it is merely a juvenile transitory fancy. We must look to what is first. In our daily life we make use of technologies, which for the most part, we do not have the expertise to say how or why the thing works. While our experiences verify that such technologies do exist and do work based on basic principals. We are relying on those credible knowledgeable persons who do have the knowledge to say how a thing works. We are filled with knowledge of common experiences (a-priori) and rely by a natural faith on the wisdom of others. 

Nevertheless it is not a pure faith bereft of any confirmation, hence it is a lesser faith, yet it is the basis which all men might understand. (p82)

Essay Two - Chapter Three: Christianity and the Crisis of Culture

Essay Two: The Right to Life

Chapter Three: "We Must use Our Eyes"

If you don't read any other part of this book, read this chapter. This chapter changed my life! So here's a summary of its goodness, which is not nearly rich enough.

The decision of abortion begins with the choice not to look at the baby. Hence the world hides its existence with words like fetus of zygote. They choose not to see the other because if they were to look at him, the unique and  unrepeatable life would make demands on their liberty.

In their suffering they turn away from humanity. When it is in our suffering that we may truly answer the question "Who am I?" For example it was after Christ had been scourged that pilot cried "Ecce Homo" or "Behold the man." (John 19:5) As discovered in metaphysics: man is, the baby is (exists), necessarily his dignity also exists. (Metaphysics: the philosophical study that is concerned with the basic causes and nature of things)

 

Affirming this dignity begins when we affirm our own dignity. In the security of this knowledge we can truly look at the other in a way that affirms them and allows them to be free. When I see man as a thing, I forget my dignity and his.

The context for this respect for life comes from faith in creation. That each man is created in the image of God. In this way Christianity is a remembrance of that look of love from the Father upon humanity. Therefore the task of announcing the dignity of man falls on those who see man in his dignity. The Christian is among the world the life which animates it, as the soul with the body. In affirming the dignity of others, while at the same time loving those who hate you and rising above the flesh, the Christian can purify the world and its dignity.

Essay Two - Chapter Two: Christianity and the Crisis of Culture

Essay Two: The Right to Life

Chapter Two: The Law of the Jungle, the Rule of the Law

Without the ability to come to a basic moral understanding, the foundations of a healthy society cannot stand. The current mode, which society bases its political and social decisions puts the freedom of expression above the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

Through this gaze the right to an abortion is invoked through the liberty of the woman, man and society. The woman has her right to her professional work, the safeguarding of her reputation and a standard of life. The man has the right to his lifestyle, pursuit of his career and the enjoyment of the fruits of his labor. And for society, it has the right to control numerical population, guarantee the prosperity of its citizens and the management of resources. 

Nevertheless exercising these rights leads to the detriment of a life. The rights of some are affirmed at the cost of the rights of another. This leads to the proof that to exercise the right to an abortion is in support of the mindset that laws are related to power and that laws protect the most powerful. This implication poses a threat to authentic democracy. 

So in saying abortion is a right negates that all men are created equal and that it is a profound iniquity when the rights of some prevail over the rights of others. In fact, it negates that human rights belong to man by nature: fundamentally, the right to life. 

"A state that claims the prerogative of defining who is and who is not the subject of rights consequently accepts that some persons have the right to violate the fundamental right to life of other persons, which contradicts the democratic ideal. When it accepts that the rights of the weakest may be violated, it also accepts that the law of the jungle prevails over the rule of the law." (p64) 

Essay Two - Chapter One: Christianity and the Crisis of Culture

Essay Two: The Right to Life

Chapter One: Why we must not Give up the Fight

"What is man that you should be mindful of him? Mortal man, that you keep him in mind?" (Psalm 8:4)

The question of the right to life for life that has been conceived and not yet born is a decisive question. To present all the seemingly logical reasons why the problem of abortion ought not be taken so seriously, or even fought over is to neglect the fundamental element that builds our societies: man. If you are not beginning an argument by first going to its source, then all philosophies and ideals founded on that argument are vain-glory. 

There are those who despair of a solution and remain on a superficial level. Siting responses such as:

• The legal approval of abortion has not changed much of our private lives or the life of society. 
• Each can act in accordance with his conscience. 
• A woman who doesn't want an abortion isn't compelled to have one. 
• Women who have abortions would have had them even if it were illegal, and this way they at least have medical attention.

Man's very existence is a gift. So if a man exists he ought to be mindful of his own frail mortality. To have a society ordered by justice would begin with this concrete truth. Man is mortal. So to deal deathly blows upon those conceived in the womb, is not only filled with the basest form of injustice, but is the weapon by which "man loses his own identity." (p60) 

There are many passages where God stakes his claim on man as made in His image. Giving each man his worth and dignity. This inalienable dignity of man made in the image of God sets us apart from the rest of creation. The attack on the right to life is also an attack on the dignity of man.

All Things New

And he who sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new."

Revelation 21:5

 

It isn't a coincidence that the Second Reding this Sunday, from Revelation, ended with these words.

 

Personally, I would rather write up another chapter from "Christianity and the Crisis of Culture" right now than try to reflect on the merits of change. As it is, this is all I have to offer at the moment.

 

I moved into a new apartment this weekend. I find that moving is a humbling experience no matter how prepared you are for it in advance. I find that I'm always  a little more susceptible to home sickness when I move. Signing the lease is what triggers it, I think. I am literally signing up to be away from home and family for another year. My melancholic side eats that up, and assuring myself that it is for the best does not make much difference.

 

There are several things that make this move different, and better all at once. I am moving into the biggest apartment I've had since moving to Peoria for one. I set up my bedroom this weekend and realized that the square feet of my bedroom alone probably equalled the suare footage of my first place in its entirety. That's a great change! There is a dishwasher and garbage disposal with the sink! Perhaps the best material improvement though is that there is a washer and dryer inside the unit! No more quarters for clean clothes!

 

The true cause for joy is that I will have a roommate in this new place. One of my best friends, Shirley! Shirley's friendship is one that has blessed me since I moved to Peoria. She and I went to college together, but our friendship didn't really form until I moved here and I am so grateful for it! I know that with Shirls around I will have the accountability that I need at this point in my life to live for Christ.

 

Yesterday she and I did a little Lectio Divina when our paths crossed and the above verse changed my life! We had both just been commiserating about how we need each other for spiritual accountability and then we came to this glorious verse. Christ makes all things new by the Cross, his suffereing and death provides new life to his people. So it is not without suffering that we find that God is able to make all things new. I pray that my future in this new apartment might be blessed with many more insights like this little morsel.

Essay One - Chapter Three: Christianity and the Crisis of Culture

Essay One: The Crisis of Culture

Chapter Three: Permanent Significance of the Christian Faith

Cardinal Ratzinger began this look on Christianity and Culture with the question of Rationalism. This crux of the crisis of culture lies in whether or not man can acknowledge and search the truth. In that line, he first examined the moral norms of our society. Then on a the heels of highlighting how our culture's advances in science and technology are not growing in tandem with its morality, he examines whether rationalism is a universally valid and logical mind-set. As the views and philosophy of rationalism is strictly anti-metaphysical, rather it doesn't affirm the dignity of man. 

In this chapter, Ratzinger examines Christianity as an intelligent religion, or a religion of logos (logic.) The philosophy of the enlightenment cleared the road toward higher truth. It reignited an appreciation for the good, true and beautiful. The roots of the enlightenment were searching for God, which is why in his treatise on the rationalistic world-view Ratzinger encourages it to return to its roots. In religion the search for the true, good and beautiful leads you to God as the ultimate source. Therefore, the gaze of the Christian brings harmony to the philosophies of the enlightenment.

God is the ultimate answer to the definition of man. As created in the image of God they are equal in dignity, regardless of their place in the social order. The bridge between Christianity and rationalism is openness to self-reflection. Self-reflection gives a person a readiness to accept correction, and continue to grow. This in turn allows him to return to the source, the Creator, from whom every real thing comes.

The question the world is asking is whether the world comes from a rational source or an irrational source. If the world comes from an irrational source then reason is merely a a bi-product of the world's development. In that lame line, if the world comes from an irrational source, then its reason would itself be irrational. However if the world comes from reason, then the world's end is reason, as it returns to the source. As such reason that proceeds from reason is open to all that is truly rational. 

The enlightenment set out to define morality as if God did not exist, trying to keep it essentials in order to guarantee the basis of life in society. In the beginning, this worked as society already had fundamental Christian convictions. Immanuel Kant, a philosopher of the late 1700's, put God outside of reason. He saw no coherent possibility of acting in light of morality, for what are morals without God? Any way you look at it, shaping human affairs without God leads to the annihilation of man. Even if man doesn't find the path to God's existence, he ought to live as if God existed. This doesn't limit freedom, rather it supports all our human affairs.