This quote, and the first sentence of Place of Theology, are beautiful and clarifying: "The Spirit who breathes where he will is not the mild, diffused, timeless beacon of the Enlightenment always present IN THE SAME FASHION. Rather, he is the Spirit of missions and special functions,...who continues his historical course, in which ever new, unforeseeable tasks sent by God erupt." It reminds me of a book I read long ago describing Self as a "standing WAVE" that interacts with the world, and yet another book by a ex-physicist theologian that believes that God keeps the world on the side of good, so that it doesn't destroy itself.
I have a hearing problem (part of life at 87 years old), so that I relistened to your lecture of last Saturday just now on my home computer, at 12 inches distance from my face, and appreciate better now your analysis of Balthasar. But--it should not take several years of a seminarian's study time, and your reorganization of his ideas into meaningful communication, for a reader to try to understand what this author of a theological subject is trying to say. In your lecture you did organize the writings we read to something more meaningful, so that we could understand the message that the author Balthasar was trying to convey.
Balthasar disparages organization of thought as putting God in a box, then sometimes organizes, and then just has looseness of associations, writing a word salad describing his joy in contemplating God's creation. The word salad, with free looseness of associations, is like a good artist putting too much paint on his canvas so that you cannot see the object of what a beautiful painting could otherwise be.
I tend to try to understand concepts when I can see the science associated. I redefined, to myself, "existence", as the quality of life that lives and procreates, which can be anything living from viruses, amoebas, animals, plants, to humans. I exist in a biologic living body. I redefined to myself "essence" as a person of the human species, me as a distinct person. As human beings though, we are distinct from all other living matter. We can contemplate God, have a capacity to love, obey, and sacrifice for another. We have a moral potential, inside us, as per Augustine, as you said.
By your definition, my science description is mechanics theology, not adoration. To me adoration is easier if you have a mental picture of one's idea of God, however impoverished that is relative to Who God Is.
Your lecture was far clearer than Balthasar's writings that we read. I doubt the translations are the problem. He is no longer living. If he were living, he could use help in editing.
This quote, and the first sentence of Place of Theology, are beautiful and clarifying: "The Spirit who breathes where he will is not the mild, diffused, timeless beacon of the Enlightenment always present IN THE SAME FASHION. Rather, he is the Spirit of missions and special functions,...who continues his historical course, in which ever new, unforeseeable tasks sent by God erupt." It reminds me of a book I read long ago describing Self as a "standing WAVE" that interacts with the world, and yet another book by a ex-physicist theologian that believes that God keeps the world on the side of good, so that it doesn't destroy itself.
Hi Father Brendan:
I have a hearing problem (part of life at 87 years old), so that I relistened to your lecture of last Saturday just now on my home computer, at 12 inches distance from my face, and appreciate better now your analysis of Balthasar. But--it should not take several years of a seminarian's study time, and your reorganization of his ideas into meaningful communication, for a reader to try to understand what this author of a theological subject is trying to say. In your lecture you did organize the writings we read to something more meaningful, so that we could understand the message that the author Balthasar was trying to convey.
Balthasar disparages organization of thought as putting God in a box, then sometimes organizes, and then just has looseness of associations, writing a word salad describing his joy in contemplating God's creation. The word salad, with free looseness of associations, is like a good artist putting too much paint on his canvas so that you cannot see the object of what a beautiful painting could otherwise be.
I tend to try to understand concepts when I can see the science associated. I redefined, to myself, "existence", as the quality of life that lives and procreates, which can be anything living from viruses, amoebas, animals, plants, to humans. I exist in a biologic living body. I redefined to myself "essence" as a person of the human species, me as a distinct person. As human beings though, we are distinct from all other living matter. We can contemplate God, have a capacity to love, obey, and sacrifice for another. We have a moral potential, inside us, as per Augustine, as you said.
By your definition, my science description is mechanics theology, not adoration. To me adoration is easier if you have a mental picture of one's idea of God, however impoverished that is relative to Who God Is.
Your lecture was far clearer than Balthasar's writings that we read. I doubt the translations are the problem. He is no longer living. If he were living, he could use help in editing.
Dora