Thomas, I want to offer a quick thanks for your work on Life Sentences. I stumbled into this Substack from Conflicted with Protestant curiosity but did not expect to stick around as I knew little to nothing about the Church Fathers. Since then, I have listened to each podcast episode twice (honestly, I appreciate the break after episode 6 as it gave me time to listen again and actually understand these concepts), each time feeling more reinvigorated in the beauty and mystery of faith.
As one such modern evangelical who saw right through "Use your brain. Think. See how obvious it is?" To the more accurate "Use my brain. Listen. See how obvious it is?" I appreciate the space here to actually use my brain (as I, like a child, try to understand and connect to this "nous") in faith rather than blindly follow those not in a "rational exercise" but a power struggle of convincing.
I'm looking forward to your explanation of how the Church Fathers' separation of mind & body differs from Cartesian mind-body dualism. Thank you again!
A multi-part response! Many thanks, Thomas. I can’t quite pin if down, but some of the points in Ep. 5 helped to begin to resolve this. My Spidey-sense is definitely tingling less. I think when you start with God as preeminent and predating materiality (Genesis + Pauline epistles), it just makes sense that mind is greater than matter. The tough thing is rejigging my conception of mind to not be about discursive reasoning. It’s interesting that my job is about getting matter to behave logically, which implies it’s actually perhaps more of a material concern than a mindful one.
Another thing I’m coming to understand is the drawing of contrasts (mind-body) does not imply opposition (thesis-antithesis). It’s more like an ordering. I was reading some commentary on Chryostom recently where the author makes that St C emphasises the Nicaean consubtantiality of the Father & the Son, whilst always presenting the Trinity as Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Not to say our mind and body are of the same substance, but the unity-amidst-diversity is a common theme in Christian doctrine (and I suppose platonism).
Also strong pun game and always to have some shared apologetics-related trauma. Thanks for all you do in putting these together!
A charade. Hmm. Any belief system can be considered a propaganda-driven formation of the intellect. But to your acknowledgment of incorporating the other elements of our existence, specifically emotions, fill out our being.
Most humans move into truth-based mode, no longer reforming their suppositions. If truth is relative, then yes, suppositions crumble. Truth, however, is relative only in the sense of God’s working with us in our errors. He allows us to awaken to truth by experiencing the consequences of error.
The He in the formation of truth in us, though, is neither random or distant.
Thomas, I want to offer a quick thanks for your work on Life Sentences. I stumbled into this Substack from Conflicted with Protestant curiosity but did not expect to stick around as I knew little to nothing about the Church Fathers. Since then, I have listened to each podcast episode twice (honestly, I appreciate the break after episode 6 as it gave me time to listen again and actually understand these concepts), each time feeling more reinvigorated in the beauty and mystery of faith.
As one such modern evangelical who saw right through "Use your brain. Think. See how obvious it is?" To the more accurate "Use my brain. Listen. See how obvious it is?" I appreciate the space here to actually use my brain (as I, like a child, try to understand and connect to this "nous") in faith rather than blindly follow those not in a "rational exercise" but a power struggle of convincing.
I'm looking forward to your explanation of how the Church Fathers' separation of mind & body differs from Cartesian mind-body dualism. Thank you again!
A multi-part response! Many thanks, Thomas. I can’t quite pin if down, but some of the points in Ep. 5 helped to begin to resolve this. My Spidey-sense is definitely tingling less. I think when you start with God as preeminent and predating materiality (Genesis + Pauline epistles), it just makes sense that mind is greater than matter. The tough thing is rejigging my conception of mind to not be about discursive reasoning. It’s interesting that my job is about getting matter to behave logically, which implies it’s actually perhaps more of a material concern than a mindful one.
Another thing I’m coming to understand is the drawing of contrasts (mind-body) does not imply opposition (thesis-antithesis). It’s more like an ordering. I was reading some commentary on Chryostom recently where the author makes that St C emphasises the Nicaean consubtantiality of the Father & the Son, whilst always presenting the Trinity as Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Not to say our mind and body are of the same substance, but the unity-amidst-diversity is a common theme in Christian doctrine (and I suppose platonism).
Also strong pun game and always to have some shared apologetics-related trauma. Thanks for all you do in putting these together!
A charade. Hmm. Any belief system can be considered a propaganda-driven formation of the intellect. But to your acknowledgment of incorporating the other elements of our existence, specifically emotions, fill out our being.
Most humans move into truth-based mode, no longer reforming their suppositions. If truth is relative, then yes, suppositions crumble. Truth, however, is relative only in the sense of God’s working with us in our errors. He allows us to awaken to truth by experiencing the consequences of error.
The He in the formation of truth in us, though, is neither random or distant.