"Faith Seeking Understanding"
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Image of the “spark” of conception, a physical reaction recently observed when sperm meets an egg. The flash you see in the upper right is actually made of zinc, and its brightness could indicate the strength of fertilization. Research done at Northwestern University.
This past Sunday we discussed the virginity (including the perpetual virginity) of Mary, mother of Jesus, and how Aristotelian philosophy shaped Greco-Roman, Jewish, and the Gospel writers and the New Testament writers in general on how they understood human conception, and how this thought contributed to the understanding of Jesus’ conception and identity.
These essays were based on an article written by Andrew Lincoln titled “How Babies Were Made in Jesus’ Time” that appeared in the Nov/Dec 2014 issue of Biblical Archeology Review.
We had a very good opening session last night to start the new semester.
We delved into Plotinus’ general philosophy and how it influenced Christian philosophy. We can see its legacy even to this day in Christian circles.
Diagram of Plotinus’s philosophy.
We will have our first meeting tomorrow on Thursday as we discuss Plotinus’ philosophy on the immortality of the soul.
Reading Plotinus is not an easy task and his philosophy takes some taking used to, but you’ll begin to see traces of him as we go through the Confessions and the topic of the immortality of the soul will come up again as we go through Augustine’s work.
It’s been a while since I last posted here, but we’re ready to kick things off with our new semester.
As stated, before heading straight into Augustine’s Confessions it is highly beneficial to understand where Augustine is coming from. Before coming to the Christian faith, he was heavily influenced by the philosophy of Plotinus and Neo-Platonism. You’ll find echoes of Plotinus and Neo-Platonism laced throughout Confessions.
Plotinus (205 – 270)
Before we delve into Confessions, we will start exploring the development of Augustine’s philosophy and theology.
For a while, Augustine had been influenced by Manichaeism, a Persian adaptation of Christianity, which added in Zoroastrianism, speculative philosophy and superstition. Augustine was a Manichee for nine years. Then during a trip to Rome in 383, due to his education in the liberal arts, he began to question Manichaeism when he saw that its understanding of the universe owed more to astrology than astronomy.
The next year, he met the formidable figure of Ambrose, bishop of Milan. His great intellect and fiery sermons left a deep impression on Augustine. In Ambrose, Augustine found someone who could communicate at his own intellectual level, further confirming his rejection of the Manichees and opening the way for his return to the Christian faith.
I know that I stated that we’d be doing Augustine’s Confessions later on this month, but I’ve decided to hold off a bit longer to see if we can recruit some more people into the group, so we will not begin until June.
In the meantime, we will spend the rest of the month getting to know Augustine and the world he lived in better.
The video above gives an overview of Augustine’s philosophy and the world he lived in, which is vital to understand what and why he wrote. Although much of the video focuses on his monumental The City of God, we still get a good general overall sense of his beliefs, especially his political philosophy, and why he is still relevant today.
“The Conversion of St. Augustine” by Fra Angelico, (circa 1395–1455)
‘You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness.
You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness.
You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you.
I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you.
You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.’
– Augustine of Hippo, Confessions (Book 10.27)
Starting in May, we will be taking an in-depth study into one of the most influential books ever written by one of the greatest and influential minds of the West, Confessions by Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis, otherwise known as Augustine of Hippo (or St. Augustine).
Perhaps you had to read Confessions as a requirement for your classics or liberal arts classes during college, but only spent a couple of sessions on it. Or maybe you read it a long time ago and now want to visit it again and ruminate on Augustine’s thoughts a bit more thoroughly now. Whatever the reason may be, we invite you to join us as we begin a new venture into the heart and mind of a man deeply and passionately committed to his faith and whose thoughts still resonate vibrantly till this day.
It has been a long time coming, but here are our essays for the last half of Chapter 22, focusing on the rise of Christian fundamentalism, biblical criticism, the “quest for the historical Jesus”, and the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.
It was good to get back in the swing of things after a little over a month and a half, and hopefully we’ll get the momentum back till we finish the book.
Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)
We’re still alive! Trust me.
We were on hiatus because everyone’s schedule seemed quite packed last month, but we’re itching to come back.
Next Wednesday, we’ll finish up with the last three sections of Chapter 22: British Protestantism and the Oxford Movement, Orthodoxy: Russia and Ottoman Decay, Masters of Suspicion: Geology, Biblical Criticism and Atheism.
Please write a one page summary of one of the following questions:
Hope to see everyone next Wednesday.
This past Wednesday we had a rather lively discussion on the notion of visions in Christianity – visions of Mary for Catholics and just general visions by Pentecostals or other generally charismatic sects. It’s quite interesting that the Mother Mary almost never (to my knowledge) appears to Protestants – visions of Mary almost always occur to poor girls in small villages that are going through war or political strife. For Protestants, claims of visions or other prophetic utterances seem to be hit or miss according to the limited experiences we discuss from our own personal encounters.
There was also some discussion on whether or not missions (in general throughout history) isn’t a form of Western imperialization in some respects. We tend to go there and not only want to preach the gospel to them, but also hope and pray that they’ll receive the same benefits and even the comforts of an affluent Western lifestyle. Has the Western mindset of the gospel been diluted and mixed with the gospel of Western standard of living and materialism? There was also some thoughts as to whether or not Marcion was right in stating that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are NOT one and the same. Christianity has moved so far away from Judaism and its understanding of God that when you compare the two, they seem worlds apart. It is arguable, but it’s an interesting thought nonetheless.
Here are our submissions from our meeting this Wednesday.
Project Augustine 