Wednesday, November 4, 2015

"When he died on the cross, he did that, in the wild weather of his outlying provinces, in the torture of the body of his revelation, which he had done at home in glory and gladness."

     I was put onto this by Aidan Nichols, Chalice of God:  a systematic theology in outline (Collegeville, MN:  Liturgical Press, 2012), 49.
     Cf. the comment by Austin Farrer.

"Though God transcends all signs, he has rendered himself Sign in the Incarnate One."

     Aidan Nichols, The chalice of God:  a systematic theology in outline (Collegeville, MN:  Liturgical Press, 2012), 39.
     Thus, there is no transcending the Sign God has himself become, the Sign who is God.

"the moment of the fathers is the moment of the constitutive reception of biblical revelation, which the later Church only excogitates and applies."

     Aidan Nichols, The chalice of God:  a systematic theology in outline (Collegeville, MN:  Liturgical Press, 2012), 34, citing J. Ratzinger, "Importance of the Fathers for the structure of the faith," Principles of Catholic theology:  building stones for a fundamental theology (San Francisco:  Ignatius Press, 1987), 133-52.

From Torah to, in Christian interpretation, Christ (or "the outpouring of his Spirit on all flesh")

This is our God;
     no other can be compared to him!
He found the whole way to knowledge,
     and gave her to Jacob his servant
     and to Israel whom he loved.
Afterward she appeared on earth
     and lived among men.

οὗτος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν, οὐ λογισθήσεται ἕτερος πρὸς αὐτόν. 
ἐξεῦρεν πᾶσαν ὁδὸν ἐπιστήμης καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτὴν Ιακωβ τῷ παιδὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ Ισραηλ τῷ ἠγαπημένῳ ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ· 
μετὰ τοῦτο ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ὤφθη καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συνανεστράφη.

     Baruch 3:35-37, RSV (36-38, LXX).  "She is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endures for ever [(αὕτη ἡ βίβλος τῶν προσταγμάτων τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ὁ νόμος ὁ ὑπάρχων εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα)]" (4:1).  So the "she" (πᾶσαν ὁδὸν) comes from the context and 4:1 (αὕτη) explicitly.
     I was put onto this by Aidan Nichols, The chalice of God:  a systematic theology in outline (Collegeville, MN:  Liturgical Press, 2012), 34.

Monday, November 2, 2015

Sir Martin Rees on creatio ex nihilo and the Thomistic distinction between essence (essentia) and existence (esse)

     "Cosmologists sometimes claim that the universe can arise 'from nothing'.  But they should watch their language, especially when addressing philosophers.  We've realized ever since Einstein that empty space can have a structure such that it can be warped and distorted.  Even if shrunk to a 'point', it is latent with particles and forces  still a far richer construct than the philosopher's 'nothing'.  Theorists may, some day, be able to write down fundamental equations governing physical reality.  But physics can never explain what 'breathes fire' into the equations, and actualizes them in a real cosmos.  The fundamental question of 'Why is there something rather than nothing?' remains the province of philosophers.  And even they may be wiser to respond, with Ludwig Wittgenstein, that 'whereof one cannot speak, one must be silent'."

     Martin Rees, Just six numbers:  the deep forces that shape the universe (New York:  Basic Books, 2000 [1999]), 131.  I was put onto this by Aidan Nichols, Chalice of God:  a systematic theology in outline (Collegeville, MN:  Liturgical Press, 2012), 20-21, and have not actually read the book by Rees.