For, among those beings which exist, and which are not of God the Creator’s essence, those which have life are ranked above those which have none; those that have the power of generation, or even of desiring, above those which want this faculty. And, among things that have life, the sentient are higher than those which have no sensation, as animals are ranked above trees. And, among the sentient, the […]
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Augustine’s City Of God: An Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis
Day as Knowledge and Night as Ignorance And first of all, indeed, light was made by the word of God, and God, we read, separated it from the darkness, and called the light Day, and the darkness Night; … For the knowledge of the creature is, in comparison of the knowledge of the Creator, but a twilight; and so it dawns and breaks into morning when the creature is drawn […]
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Plutarch: Platonic Questions
The Nature of Time It is ignorance to think time to be a measure or number of motion according to antecedent and subsequent, as Aristotle said, or what in motion is quantitative, as Speusippus did, or extension of motion and nothing else, as did some of the Stoics, defining it by an accident and not comprehending its essence and potency, Pythagoras, when asked what time is, answered, the soul of […]
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Augustine’s City Of God: Christianity for Platonists
In his Confessions, Augustine writes that he studied Platonism before converting to Christianity. Of all philosophies, Platonism most approximates Christianity, so the former serves to prepare his mind for the latter. But perhaps more importantly, familiarity with both enables him to discern the preeminence of Christianity over philosophy. Augustine devotes the last three books of Part I of City of God, Books VIII to X, to a discussion of Platonism. […]
Read moreBeauty and the Ontological Argument: Never Labor In Vain
Not essential? I think you misunderstand the meaning of the word. No Blauschein, sir. Stand over there. Move. Next! What do you mean, “Not essential”? I teach history and literature. Since when it’s not essential? — A scene from Schindler’s List Your Labor is Not In Vain Recently another WP blog caught my attention, because the author published a series of posts on subjects (tags) I’ve been following, such as […]
Read moreAugustine’s City of God: The Mediator Between God and Man
Christ is Mediator, not because He is the Word, for as the Word He is supremely blessed and supremely immortal, and therefore far from miserable mortals; but He is Mediator as He is man, for by His humanity He shows us that, … the blessed and beatific God, having Himself become a partaker of our humanity, has afforded us ready access to the participation of His divinity. For in delivering […]
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Beauty and the Ontological Argument: The Backstory
About a month ago I posted a video with the title “Beauty and the Ontological Argument”, without an accompanying article. At the time, I was a little exhausted after a long week at work, and beauty is a very difficult, if not impossible, subject to write, not to mention I’m not good at words to begin with, but I’ll try to complete what I started. A Glimpse of the Transcendent […]
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