“If I thank God for the good I can discern to be a good, I am making a fool of God, because then my relationship with God means I am transforming God in likeness to me instead of my being transformed in likeness to Him. I thank Him for the good that I know is a good, but what I know is the finite, and consequently, I go ahead and […]
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“Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments” by Søren Kierkegaard
Faith, History and Scripture Suppose one can prove that the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life are historically accurate, the Holy Scripture authentic, and the Church’s Doctrine infallible, is it then sufficient for an individual to have Faith? Johannes Climacus’ (Kierkegaard’s pseudonym) answer is no. He goes further and posits that even if all the above were proven to be unreliable, it would not affect the Faith of a genuine disciple. […]
Read more“The Peloponnesian War” by Thucydides
The National Characters of Athens and Sparta The Athenians are addicted to innovation, and their designs are characterized by swiftness alike in conception and execution; you have a genius for keeping what you have got, accompanied by a total want of invention, and when forced to act you never go far enough. Again, they are adventurous beyond their power, and daring beyond their judgment, and in danger they are sanguine; […]
Read more“Philippics” by Cicero
[Volume XV of Loeb Classical Library’s 28-volume series] Peace, Slavery and War The name of peace is sweet, and the thing itself wholesome, but between peace and servitude the difference is great. Peace is tranquil liberty, servitude the last of all evils, one to be repelled, not only by war but even by death. Although all decent men desire peace, especially peace between fellow countrymen, I have desired more than […]
Read moreOn the World as a Stage
“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances;” — Shakespeare “As You Like It” “There are such curtains which drop down in life. God is passing to the next act.” — Victor Hugo “Les Misérables” The notion that the world is a stage didn’t originate with Shakespeare. Many ancient Greeks and Romans recognized their roles and played them […]
Read more“On Ends” by Cicero
[Original Latin Title: De Finibus Bonorum Et Malorum; Volume XVII of Loeb Classical Library’s 28-volume series] An Epicurean’s Criticism of Education “[Epicurus] refused to consider any education worth the name that did not help to school us in happiness. Was he to spend his time in perusing poets, who give us nothing solid and useful, but merely childish amusement? Was he to occupy himself like Plato with music and geometry, […]
Read more“Philosophical Fragments” by Søren Kierkegaard
How Far Can We Know the Truth? In Plato’s Meno, an argument is raised that there is no such thing as a “truth seeker”, because if a man knows the truth already, there is no need to seek, and if he doesn’t, he can’t seek, since he wouldn’t recognize it even if he stumbles upon it. Socrates’ solution to Meno’s paradox is Recollection, i.e., the soul, which is immortal, already […]
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