Sunday, June 2, 2013

"'in the name of Christ is implied he that anoints, he that is anointed, and the unction itself with which he is anointed'—i.e., the threefold God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit".

     Douglas Farrow, Ascension and ecclesia:  on the significance of the doctrine of the ascension for ecclesiology and Christian cosmology (Grand Rapids, MI:  William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999), 61n74, quoting Irenaeus, Adversus haereses 3.18.3, which appears as follows in ANF 1 (trans., I believe, by Roberts and Rambaut):
For in the name of Christ is implied, He that anoints, He that is anointed, and the unction itself with which He is anointed.  And it is the Father who anoints, but the Son who is anointed by the Spirit, who is the unction, as the Word declares by Isaiah, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me,'—pointing out both the anointing Father, the anointed Son, and the unction, which is the Spirit.
Cf. Sources chrétiennes 34, ed. F. Sagnard, O.P. (1952), p. 316, ll. 23-30, where it reads as follows:
in Christi enim nomine subauditur «qui unxit» et ipse «qui unctus est» et «ipsa unctio» in qua unctus est; et unxit quidem Pater, unctus est uero Filius, in Spiritu qui est unctio; quemadmodum per Esaiam ait Sermo:
Spiritus Dei super me: 
propter quod unxit me,
significans et ungentem Patrem et unctum Filium et unctionem qui est Spiritus.
This is 3.19.3 in the 1857 edition of the Adversus haereses ed. W. H. Harvey (vol. 2, p. 97):
In Christi enim nomine subauditur qui unxit, et ipse qui unctus est, et ipsa unctio in qua unctus est.  Et unxit quidem Pater, unctus est vero Filius, in Spiritu, qui est unctio; quemadmodum per Esaiam ait sermo:  Spiritus Dei super me, propter quod unxit me; significans et unguentem Patrem, et unctum Filium, et unctionem, qui est Spiritus.
ungentem is the reading in Claramontanus =Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin MS Phill[ipps] 1669 (9th cent.) and Vossianus =Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden VLF 33 (14th-15th cent.); unguentem, in Arundelianus =British Museum Arundel MS 87 (13th cent.) and Salmanticensis (15th cent.).  According to Lewis and Short, both (ungo, unguo) are attested.  If I understand the SC apparatus, "et «ipsa unctio» in qua unctus est; et unxit quidem Pater, unctus est uero Filius" is repeated ("iter.") in Vossianus.

Love, the greatest of the theological virtues, is the subject of them as well. It is love that believes, love that hopes.

Ἡ ἀγάπη. . . . πάντα πιστεύει, πάντα ἐλπίζει. . . . Νυνὶ δὲ μένει πίστις, ἐλπίς, ἀγάπη, τὰ τρία ταῦτα· μείζων δὲ τούτων ἡ ἀγάπη.

     1 Cor 13:7, 13.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

The "Adoro te devote" should really be called the "Te devote laudo". So not "Hidden God, devoutly I adore thee," but rather (to but modify the one translation) "Hidden God, devoutly I do praise thee".

     According to Robert Wielockx, in "Adoro te deuote:  zur Lösung einer alten Crux," Annales theologici:  revista internazionale di teologia 21 (2007):  101-138.

Te deuote laudo, latens ueritas,
     Te que sub his formis uere latitas.

Tibi se cor meum totum subicit,
     Quia te contemplans totum deficit.
Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur,
     Sed auditu solo tute creditur.
Credo quicquid dixit dei filius,
     Nichil ueritatis uerbo uerius.

In cruce latebat sola deitas,
     Sed hic latet simul et humanitas.

Ambo uere credens atque confitens,
     Peto quod petiuit latro penitens.
Plagas sicut Thomas non intueor,
     Deum tamen meum te confiteor.

Fac me tibi semper magis credere,
     In te spem habere, te diligere.

O memoriale mortis domini,
     Panis uiuus uitam prestans homini.

Presta michi semper de te uiuere,
     Et te michi semper dulce sapere.

Pie pellicane, Ihesu domine,
     Me immundum munda tuo sanguine.

Cuius una stilla saluum facere,
     Totum mundum posset omni scelere.

Ihesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio,
     Quando fiet illud quod tam sicio?
Vt te reuelata cernens facie,
     Visu sim beatus tue glorie.

This is identical to the critical edition Wielockx gives at "Poetry and theology in the Adoro te deuote:  Thomas Aquinas on the Eucharist and Christ's uniqueness," in Christ among the medieval Dominicans:  representations of Christ in the texts and images of the Order of Preachers, ed. Kent Emery, Jr. and Joseph Wawrykow, Notre Dame conferences in medieval studies 7 (Notre Dame, IN:  University of Notre Dame Press, 1998):  172 (157-174), except that Wielockx now (in 2007) replaces the incipit "Adoro te deuote" with the incipit "Te deuote laudo".  In 1998 he spoke of a "crux" that "cannot be resolved defin[i]tely" (172); in 2007 he provides what he considers to be the "Lösung einer alten Crux", namely the restoration of "Te deuote laudo" to the position usurped after the death of Aquinas by "Adoro te deuote".  The latter (or so Wielockx argues) derives not (like "Te deuote laudo") from Aquinas himself, but from the early-13th-century-and-later incipit common to the "prayers for the adoration of the Holy Cross" that arose originally in the Carolingian period.

Translations to add at some point, however deficient the underlying Latin:
English:
German:
  • "Dich bet ich an in Treuen, Gott der heimlich wirkt", by R. A. Schröder, Gesammelte Werke 1 (Berlin & Frankfurt, 1952), pp. 852 ff.

Monday, May 27, 2013

"It is therefore the worship of God alone that renders them superior [to the beasts], through which alone one is assisted to immortality."

"[It] is therefore the worship of God alone that renders them superior, through which alone one is assisted [(i.e. aspired)] to immortality" (Calvin, Institutes I.iii.3, trans. Perisho).

"the only thing, therefore, which makes them superior is the worship of God, through which alone they aspire to immortality" (Calvin, Institutes I.iii.3, trans. Beveridge).

"Therefore, it is worship of God alone that renders men higher than the brutes, and through it alone they aspire to immortality" (Calvin, Institutes I.iii.3, trans. Battles).

"Unum ergo esse Dei cultum, qui superiores ipsos reddat, per quem solum ad immortalitatem aspiratur."  Or, from 1539-1554,  "Unum ergo esse Dei cultum, qui superiores ipsos faciat, per quem solum ad immortalitatem aspiratur" (Calvin, Institutes I.iii.3; COS 3, 40, ll. 27-28).

     Contra Beveridge and Battles both, aspiratur is surely (?) a passive (not a deponent) singular.  Cf. Lewis & Short, s.v. aspiro I.A.2, "to be favorable toto favorassist (the figure taken from a fair breeze)".  So "through which alone one is aspired to [(ad-spir-ed)] immortality."  The McNeill edition trans. Battles notes that elsewhere in the Institutes it is said to be reason that distinguishes men from the beasts (vol. 1, p. 47n14).  But here it is worship (the cultus).
     Yet don't the beasts render God a cultus?

     Lexicon latinitatis medii aevi:  "1. tr., exciter (qqn.)2. intr., conspirer."
     Mediae Latinitatis lexicon minus =Medieval Latin dictionary =Lexique latin médiéval =Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch, 2nd (2002) ed., ed. Niermeyer et al.:  "exciterto incite—anstacheln."
     Oxford Latin dictionary:  "7 (intr.) "to give assistance (to), favour, aid."

Sunday, May 26, 2013

"To be an atheist in the best modern sense, . . . and so to be a truly intellectually and emotionally fulfilled naturalist in philosophy, one must genuinely succeed in not believing in God...."

"To be an atheist in the best modern sense, . . . and so to be a truly intellectually and emotionally fulfilled naturalist in philosophy, one must genuinely succeed in not believing in God, with all the logical consequences such disbelief entails."

     David Bentley Hart, The experience of God:  being, consciousness, bliss (New Haven, CT:  Yale University Press, 2013), 32.  See also "The back page:  God, gods, and fairies," First things no. 234 (June/July 2013):  71 (72-71).  "The philosophical naturalist's view of reality is not one that merely fails to find some particular object within the world that the theist imagines can be descried there; it is a very particular representation of the nature of things, entailing a vast range of purely metaphysical commitments."

Sunday, May 19, 2013

"Nature is so exact, it hurts exactly as much as it is worth".

"'Nature is so exact, it hurts exactly as much as it is worth, so in a way one relishes the pain. . . . If it didn’t matter, it wouldn’t matter'".

     Remark of bereaved friend to Julian Barnes, as quoted in Levels of life (London:  Jonathan Cape, 2013), as quoted by Joyce Carol Oates in "When we soar, we can also crash" (on the Web "Julian Barnes and the work of grief"), Times literary supplement no. 5744 (May 8, 2013):  5 (5-6).
     And because sacramental, even more.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

"without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."



The 1) existence and 2) providence of God are the first two things in which faith, to be saving, must believe.

"l’existence de Dieu et celle de sa providence constituent les deux premiers credibilia auxquels se ramène la nécessite de la foi salutaire."

     Jean-Pierre Torrell, “«Dieu conduit toutes choses vers leur fin»:  providence et gouvernement divin chez Thomas d’Aquin,” Nouvelles recherches thomasiennes, Bibliotheque thomiste 61, ed. L.-J. Bataillon, O.P, and A. Oliva, O.P. (Paris:  Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 2008), 75n2, citing Serge Thomas Bonino, O.P., Introduction to Thomas d’Aquin, De la vérité Question 2:  (La science en Dieu) (Fribourg, Suisse:  Editions Universitaires; Paris:  Editions du Cerf, 1996), 132-135 (43-134), who says that for St. Thomas, "all the articles of faith are implicitly contained in two major credibilia that every believer, no matter the theological age to which he belongs, is held to believe explicitly.  These two fundamental truths, which constitute therefore the heart of the Christian message, are those enunciated by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, in a verse cited repeatedly by Saint Thomas", i.e. Heb 11:6.  "The entire Christian faith is thus as it were recapitulated in the belief in God and in a provident God.  These two credibilia are moreover inseparable, for, in the biblical perspective, a improvident God would not be truly God; and Saint Thomas himself stresses that the idea of God is intrinsically tied to that of a providence.  Thus, for Saint Thomas, all later developments of the object of faith are contained in germ in the faith in providence.  In particular, faith in providence includes 'everything that God dispenses in time for the salvation of men and which are the ways towards beatitude", for example, "faith in the redemptive Incarnation of the Word and in the entire supernatural order that flows therefrom.  The act of faith in divine providence embraces therefore all of the particular modalities that, in the course of time, 'the benevolent plan of God' (Eph 1:9, τὴν εὐδοκίαν αὐτοῦ), the history of salvation, assumes" (Bonino, 132-133, with many references).
     The passage above in a somewhat more literal translation:  "the existence of God and that of his providence constitute the two first credibilia to which the necessity of the faith [that is] salutary is led back."