"Attention has been drawn to similarities with the dialectical contemplation of beauty in the Symposium and the dialectical contemplation of the good in Republic. Are they the same process? According to Gerson, Harris, Robin (188-89) and White, the ideas of beauty and good in the Symposium are not identical, but are rather two distinct realities. … Continue reading Understanding (gnosis) vs. Knowledge (episteme)
John Stubbs, Janet Smith
This signature on each soul may be a product of heredity and environment, but that only means that heredity and environment are among the instruments whereby God creates a soul. I am considering not how, but why, He makes each soul unique. If He had no use for all these differences, I do not see … Continue reading John Stubbs, Janet Smith
Shall Love Alone Have no Right of Self-defence?
It would surely be even more of a contradiction to have love without hate. Love must surely, if it do no more, at least hate hatred. If there are forces poisoning and destroying love, shall love alone have no right of self-defence? The truth is that we can generally distinguish positive and passionate love from … Continue reading Shall Love Alone Have no Right of Self-defence?
Truer than Death
“A pugnacious little paper in Fleet Street made a remark which has always hovered in my memory…The writer said that any man who believes in the Resurrection is bound to believe also in the story of Aladdin in the "Arabian Nights".….But the comparison between the Gospel miracle, and the Arabian fairytale is about the most … Continue reading Truer than Death
What the Bird Said Early in the Year
I heard in Addison’s Walk a bird sing clear: This year the summer will come true. This year. This year. Winds will not strip the blossom from the apple trees This year, nor want of rain destroy the peas. This year time’s nature will no more defeat you, Nor all the promised moments in their … Continue reading What the Bird Said Early in the Year
Dante and A Moral Dimension
After an initial ascension in the first canto, Beatrice guides Dante through the nine celestial spheres of heaven These are concentric and spherical, similar to aristotelian and ptolemaic cosmology. Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is the one that his human eyes permit him to see. Thus the vision of heaven found in the … Continue reading Dante and A Moral Dimension
La Vita Nuova; A Personal Experience
It was while he was still a child that he underwent a personal experience which, trivial as it might appear at first sight, was yet to prove the most important and the most enduring influence upon his life and genius, and to provide, as it were, the mirror in which, at the height of his … Continue reading La Vita Nuova; A Personal Experience
Two Ends
“Two ends, therefore, have been laid down by the ineffable providenceof God for man to aim at: the blessedness of this life, which consistsin the exercise of his natural powers, and which is prefigured inthe earthly Paradise; and next, the blessedness of the life eternal,which consists in the fruition of the sight of God's countenance, … Continue reading Two Ends
Mr. Fisher-King
As Miss Ironwood raised her hand to knock on the door, Jane thought to herself, “Be careful. Don’t get let in for anything. All these long passages and low voices will make a fool of you if you don’t look out. You’ll become another of this man’s female adorers.” Next moment she found herself going … Continue reading Mr. Fisher-King
The Real Truth
“When the real truth - golden and shimmering in its light, comes out, it breaks the spell. And then health, goodness and truth are “catching,” as they say. Because it is the desire of all men to be whole, to speak true, and to be good. They have simply lived in the dark for so … Continue reading The Real Truth
Following A Star 