Saturday, November 3, 2018

"Let each man take care how he builds upon it."

"in the history of the mind as in that of towns, the ruins [of a civilization] expose the bedrock [(les fondations)] that, in the case of man, is a matter not of what he constructed, but of what is innate."

"dans l'histoire de l'esprit comme dans celle des villes, les ruines mettent toujours à nu les fondations qui, dans le cas de l'homme, relèvent non du construit mais de l'inné."

     Gustave Martelet, S.J., "Information du monde et résurrection du Christ," in Penser la foi:  recherches en théologie aujourd'hui:  mélanges offerts à Joseph Moingt, ed. Joseph Doré and Christoph Theobald (Paris:  Éditions du Cerf/Assas Éditions, 1993), 1056 (1053-1061). relèver (but without de) can also mean to raise, even erect.  Unfortunately, relèvent du/de is, in any case, in the present.

Friday, November 2, 2018

Play the man (aner), act manfully (viriliter)

Ps 26:14:

LXX:  ὑπόμεινον τὸν κύριον· ἀνδρίζου, καὶ κραταιούσθω ἡ καρδία σου, καὶ ὑπόμεινον τὸν κύριον.  NETS:  Wait for the Lord; take courage, and let your heart be strong, and wait for the Lord!
Vulgate iuxta LXX:  exspecta Dominum viriliter age et confortetur cor tuum et sustine Dominum.  Douay-Rheims:  Expect the Lord, do manfully, and let thy heart take courage, and wait thou for the Lord.


BH:  קַוֵּ֗ה אֶל־יְה֫וָ֥ה חֲ֭זַק וְיַאֲמֵ֣ץ לִבֶּ֑ךָ וְ֝קַוֵּ֗ה אֶל־יְהוָֽה׃
Vulgate iuxta Hebr.:  expecta Dominum confortare et roboretur cor tuum et sustine Dominum.

     ἀνδρίζομαι:  conduct oneself in a resolute manner; be a man; act in a manner typical of men (Muraoka, A Greek-English lexicon of the Septuagint (2009)).  חזק doesn't seem to have the sense that is clearly there in Greek and the Vulgate according to the Septuagint.

Monday, October 29, 2018

Mirror images


"the dismissal of 'God' by modern evolutionary naturalists, and the rejection of evolution by creationists and 'intelligent design' devotees, is often a result of their shared observation that the Darwinian world fails to conform to simplistic notions of design and order.  There is no need here to enter into a thorough discussion of creationism and intelligent design.  It is well known that their antipathy to evolution is rooted in the assumption that a world filled with accidents or contingencies is too noisy to be rendered compatible with their idea of a designing deity.  But it is also worth noting that the atheistic ideas of the renowned evolutionist Richard Dawkins and many other evolutionists are also based on the same assumption:  namely, that any God deserving of the name would also have to be a designer in the same sense as 'intelligent design' proponents understand the ultimate cause of living complexity.  In his obsession with the deadhorse of design, Dawkins insists that any reasonable affirmation of God’s existence would require that living organisms exhibit perfect engineering.  So Dawkins' implicit theological assumptions are essentially identical to those of his 'intelligent design' opponents."

     John F. Haught, "Information, theology, and the universe," in Information and the nature of reality:  from physics to metaphysics, ed. Paul Davies and Niels Henrik Gregerson (Cambridge, England:  Cambridge University Press, 2010), 308 (301-318).  Haught goes on to cite Newman on Paley (his "lecture in the School of Medicine" on "Christianity and physical science" in The idea of a university) against his fellow Christians, though I would have to re-read that more closely to be convinced that he does so in all fairness to the current representatives of "intelligent design."