God is still incarnate, but "wishes us to press on" beyond all that nonetheless

according to the Farrow indictment of St. Augustine, whom Farrow accuses of falling unacceptably short of St. Irenaeus:

"the Lord himself 'wishes us rather to press on; and, instead of weakly clinging to temporal things, even though these have been put on and worn by Him for our salvation, to pass over them quickly, and to struggle to attain to himself, who has freed our nature from the bondage of temporal things, and has set it down at the right hand of the Father'" (De doctrina Christiana I.xxxiv/38; cf. Ascension and ecclesia, 117-121, but esp. 119-121, where other problematic passages are cited).

Augustine's "firm confession of resurrection, ascension and parousia in the flesh rules out any retraction of the incarnation on an ontological level" (121), but there is this dangerous retraction "on the subjective level" (120).

Note, however, that even here (the most problematic of the passages cited by Farrow at this point), the ground of our freedom "from the bondage of temporal things" is precisely the session of human nature "at the right hand of the Father".

Still, Farrow may be on to something.  Note how this same passage appears in the Library of liberal arts translation by D. W. Robertson, Jr. (p. 30):

"the Lord Himself, although He saw fit to become our road [(via, as in Jn 14:6)], did not wish to hold us upon it, but wishes that we pass on, lest we cling in infirmity to temporal things, even though He took them up and wore them for our salvation.  Rather, let us run through them quickly that we may be worthy to approach and to reach Him who freed our nature from temporal things and made a place for it on the right hand of the Father."

From PL 34, cols. 33-34 (the edition ready-to-hand, but far from the best):

“nec ipse Dominus, in quantum via nostra esse dignatus est, tenere nos voluerit, sed transire; ne rebus temporalibus, quamvis ab illo pro salute nostra susceptis et gestis, hæreamus infirmiter, sed per eas potius curramus alacriter, ut ad eum ipsum, qui nostram naturam a temporalibus liberavit, et collocavit ad dexteram Patris, provehi atque pervehi mereamur.”

I would have said "the Lord himself, although He saw fit to become our Way, did not want us to occupy [(tenere)], but to pass quickly along [(transire) it]", etc.  (So I should probably look more closely at the whole of the Latin (in a properly critical edition).)

In any case, Ascension and ecclesia pp. 119-121 does raise some questions about St. Augustine.

"Among the things I hope to have explained to me, on the Day of Judgement, is why I became a Catholic."

     David Warren, "Why Catholic?," Canadian converts:  the path to Rome (Ottawa, ON:  Justin Press, 2009), 259 (259-286).

The Splendor of Truth (Veritatis Splendor)

Geertgen tot Sint Jans,
The nativity at night, c. 1490.
The National Gallery, London.

O God, who through the grace of adoption chose us to be children of light, grant, we pray, that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth.  Through, etc.

Deus, qui, per adoptionem gratiæ, lucis nos esse filios voluisti, præsta, quæsumus, ut errorum non involvamur tenebris, sed in splendore veritatis semper maneamus conspicui.  Per, etc.

     Collect for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, new translation.  The CTS new daily missal, people's edition (London:  Catholic Truth Society, 2012), p. 825; Missale Romanum, 3rd (2002) ed., p. 463.  According to Corpus orationum at no. 6821, this is no. 725 in the late-9th-century Sacramentarium Bergomense (no. 725), which originated in northern Italy and possibly Milan.  Thus, it is not surprising that, before checking Corpus orationum, I found it in an 11th-century codex containing the Ambrosian (i.e. Milanese) rite (Manuale Ambrosianum pt. 2, Officia totius anni et alii ordines =Monumenta veteris liturgiae Ambrosianae 3, ed. Magistretti (Milan:  Ulricum Hoepli, 1905), 252; cf. the critical edition, also ed. Magistretti:  Monumenta sacra et profana, ex codicibus praesertim Bibliothecae Ambrosianae 4 (1913).  My translation:

O God, who through the adoption of grace, have willed that we be sons of the light, grant, we pray, that we may not be rolled/wrapped up into (enveloped/involved/entangled in) the darkness/obscurity of error but remain/continue (pass the night!) always conspicuous[ly] in (or adhere always conspicuous[ly] to) the splendor of truth.  Through, etc.

     Were it correct to read this as "grant, we pray, that we may not be enveloped in the darkness of error but pass the night always conspicuously in the splendor of truth", I would think of Ex 14:19-20, on the undoubtedly erroneous assumption that, unlike the Egyptian, the Israelite camp would have been illuminated by the pillar of fire (13:21-22)).  I would thus envision the Israelites enveloped by the darkness of the Egyptian night, but separated from the advancing enemy by the cloud while yet lit up by the pillar.  I would think also (so long as I hadn't checked the Latin?) of Luke 24:29 and the evening prayer, "Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand, and the day is past" (1979 BCP 124, 139; ).  As for the reading "pass the night", see Lewis & Short, s.v. maneo I.B.
     And Who is the Splendor of Truth?

O God, whose eternal Word adorns the face of the heavens yet accepted from the Virgin Mary the frailty of our flesh, grant, we pray, that he who appeared among us as the splendour of truth may go forth in the fullness of power for the redemption of the world. Who, etc.

Deus, cuius Verbi æternitas cæli faciem decoravit, et ex Maria Virgine carnis nostræ fragilitatem suscepit, quæsumus, ut qui splendor veritatis in nobis apparuit, pro mundi redemptione in plenitudine potestatis procedat.  Qui, etc.

     Collect for the Monday after the Solemnity of the Epiphany, new translation.  The CTS new daily missal, people's edition (London:  Catholic Truth Society, 2012), p. 1291; Missale Romanum, 3rd (2002) ed., p. 178.

Aquinas on the historicity of the natural law

"According to the Philosopher (Ethic. vii) 'human nature is not unchangeable as the Divine nature is.' Hence things that are of natural law vary according to the various states and conditions of men; although those which naturally pertain to things Divine nowise vary."

     Thomas Aquinas, IV Sent. 26.1.ad 3 =Summa Theologiae III Suppl. 41.1.ad 3, trans. FEDP.

"secundum philosophum, in 6 Ethicor., natura humana non est immobilis sicut divina; et ideo diversificantur ea quae sunt de jure naturali, secundum diversos status et conditiones hominum; quamvis ea quae sunt in rebus divinis naturaliter nullo modo varientur."

     I was put on to this by Jean-Pierre Torrell, "Saint Thomas et l'histoire:  état de la question et pistes de recherches," Nouvelles recherches thomasiennes, Bibliotheque thomiste 61, ed. L.-J. Bataillon, O.P, and A. Oliva, O.P. (Paris:  Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 2008), 149 (131-175) =Revue thomiste 105 (2005):  355-409.

"The beauty of inflexibility"

Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge

"these sometimes murderous divisions were not the symptoms of a movement without coherent identity, but just the opposite.  Controversy arose precisely because 'unlike the religion of the Greeks and the Romans,' Christianity was more than a set of rituals:  'Christians affirmed that certain things were true' (and others, therefore, false).  Such a religion 'does not lend itself to every possible opinion; it imposes limits that cannot be formulated in advance, but become evident over time.'
     "This evolution and hardening of Christianity's doctrinal core, into what the Victorian Cardinal Manning liked to call the beauty of inflexibility, involved both the acceptance of martyrdom and the proclamation of creeds.  But it was also what gave the movement its staying power, and enabled it to prevail over the more yielding polytheism of the society in which it first found itself.  Paradoxically, the existence of self-imposed limits on the adaptability of Christian belief was the key to the movement's ability to thrive in dramatically different cultural settings."

     Eamon Duffy, reviewing Robert Louis Wilken's The first thousand years:  a global history of Christianity (New Haven:  Yale University Press, 2012), in "The staying power of Christianity," New York review of books 60, no. 11 (June 20, 2013):  70.  Cf. this.

"Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it."

"Well, toward morning the conversation turned on the Eucharist, which I, being the Catholic, was obviously supposed to defend.  Mrs. Broadwater said when she was a child and received the Host, she thought of it as the Holy Ghost, He being the 'most portable' person of the Trinity; now she thought of it as a symbol and implied that it was a pretty good one.  I then said, in a very shaky voice, 'Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it.'  That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of a story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable."

     Flannery O'Connor, letter to "A." dated 16 December 1955.  The habit of being:  letters edited and with an introduction by Sally Fitzgerald (New York:  Random House, 1979), 125; Flannery O'Connor:  collected works (New York:  The Library of America, 1988), 977.

"'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.