Wednesday, February 8, 2017

"we should hope from Him for nothing less than Himself"

". . . non . . . minus aliquid ab eo sperandum est quam sit ipse. . . ."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, ST II-II.17.2.Resp.  Literally, "we should hope from him nothing less than he is" (i.e. the "I AM" of Ex 3:14?).


     Cf. Simone Weil:

"He pays only one type of wage because he possesses only one type of wage.  He hasn't any change."

"Il ne paie qu’un seul salaire parce qu’il ne possède qu’un seul salaire.  Il n’a pas de monnaie."

     The need for roots:  prelude to a declaration of duties toward mankind, trans. Arthur Wills (New York:  G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1952), 265; L’enracinement:  prelude à une declaration des devoirs envers l’être humain, Collection espoir, ed. Albert Camus (Paris:  Gallimard, 1949), 224, on the parable of the laborers in the vineyard.  "monnaie" can mean "change".
     I was put onto this originally, by Diogenes Allen, who words this differently in different books.  E.g. the above in Christian belief in a postmodern world (116, citing the standard English translation), but "the landowner does not have any small change" in Theology for a troubled believer (70, where he is not quoting).  And undoubtedly elsewhere, too, given how much he tended to make of this.

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