November 2009
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11/25/09 05:17 pm
Augustine of Hippo, the famous bishop and theologian of the late 4th and early 5th centuries, was, before he returned to his native Catholic Christianity, a Manichaean. Manichaeans (in older works they tend to be referred to as 'Manichees') were dualists who held that there were two principles: one good, the other evil. The good one they identified with spirit, the evil with matter.
Augustine became disenchanted with Manichaeanism, and it wasn't long before its claims were exposed as philosophically bankrupt. One of his major influences was what he called 'Platonism' (what we would call Neo-Platonism), particularly the writer Plotinus.
In his Confessions, Augustine (not referring to but perhaps following Plotinus) wrote that evil was not a principle independent of the Good (for Augustine, God), but that it did not have ousia; that is, (logical) essence or being. In other words, evil did not have its own ontological reality. Augustine's concern was not to show that 'there is no such thing as evil', for anyone can see that evil things happen. What he was trying to demonstrate is that evil does not have the reality which goodness has. In other words he devised a 'meontic' (from Greek, mē-ontos, 'not-being') theory of the existence of evil.
It is about this theory that I shall be writing a paper for my philosophical theology course.
Current Mood: blah
11/23/09 02:45 pm
It is surely one of the ironies of political action that any ideological faction that paints itself or is reputed to be something will sooner or later prove itself to be anything but.
The Conservative federal government has been in denial (or rather, is lying) about Canada's role in transferring prisoners to the Afghan authorities, whereupon they were tortured. Now, it says volumes about the realisation of the Western effort in Afghanistan that the authorities there are habitually torturing prisoners. But that is not what I am going to discuss.
What I want to say is that the government's denial of something which was plainly happening, and then turning on the man they appointed to be Canada's top political attaché in Afghanistan when he revealed what was going on (and worse yet, offered proof that he had shared this information with the government) is an act of blatant disregard for honesty and responsibility. I have said before that the Conservatives should fall on their swords for their failures in Afghanistan, and I stand by it. The Conservatives have liked to paint themselves as making government accountable, but it is hard to see how they are doing it by their actions on this matter. Conservative ideologues like to see conservativism as promoting personal responsibility, but I don't see anyone taking the fall for this. It is interesting that at least one conservative commentator has not reprimanded the government for its bad behaviour, but then, if an ideology is a way of looking at the world, it frequently has blind spots.
Current Mood: bemused
11/23/09 09:14 am
I'm set for the next couple of weeks while the London transit workers' union is striking. (The union, it should be noted, considers the announcements on the LTC website to be propaganda for the commission, a claim which, given that they are written by the commission for its website, probably has some merit.)
Why, you ask? I have acquired a bicycle, and spent some time yesterday readying it for use, with fender, lights, bell, lock clamp, and rear carrier rack. All I need now is the forward basket.
Once the snow flies (knock on wood), things will be worse, but for now, so far, so good (except for the having to bike part; it turns out I'm out of shape!).
Current Mood: sleepy
11/15/09 12:40 am
What d'you mean none of you have a ready-made fifteen-page paper on your theology of ordained ministry in dialogue with Resurrecting Excellence (L. Gregory Jones & Kevin R. Armstrong) and The Pastor (Gordon W. Lathrop)?
Seriously, though, if you do have such a thing, I'd love to plagiarise see it.
As you might have guessed, I have such a paper to write, as well as a presentation based on the paper. Thankfully, I have a one-page summary of a theology of ordained ministry which I wrote back in first year for my field education course. What I mostly need to correct is its deficient ecclesiology - I need to emphasise the theological and historical priority of Christian community (that is, the ekklēsia), which is into what all Christians are called and baptised, over that of the individual - and address the tasks of the ordained minister not as a specialised or additional ministry but as the means by which the ordained minister manifests his (or her) baptismal vocation (i.e., to love God and neighbour). I also need to deal with the fundamental priority of God's grace in calling people to be his people in Christ, and look at recovering the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are emphasised in the letters of Paul and the gospel and letters of the Johannine writer(s), but which (and in the case of the Spirit, who), if they are to be found in the Anglican church at all today, are to be found in a diminished form (I think).
Hey, that gives me something to work from. But then, that's pretty much what this LiveJournal thing is for.
Current Mood: sleepy
11/13/09 06:48 pm
So I stopped by a used bookstore in downtown London on my way back to my flat this evening. Unfortunately, I bought some books (so much for the ole' self-control). Fortunately, two of them were books by C. S. Lewis which are not generally found in most bookstores: A Preface to Paradise Lost (which Lewis delivered as the Ballard Matthews Lectures in 1941, albeit revised and enlarged), and The Allegory of Love, Lewis's study of the allegorical poetry of the Middle Ages in the tradition of courtly love, a tradition which, transformed, is very much alive and well with us today (it is needless to say that allegorical poetry, however, is not).
I also picked up another Lewis work, Screwtape Proposes a Toast, which contains that work and (in this edition) some of his other essays and sermons.
Current Mood: happy
11/9/09 12:45 pm
I assembled a bookshelf this morning. How well I assembled it, I don't know, but it is standing up, appears to be straight, and hasn't fallen over. More to the point, I had five boxes of books left (plus a handful on my dining table) to shelve.
Now I have one box left to shelve, and the books on my dining table, which are mostly books for school. I have five bookshelves, and they still aren't enough! Not that I'm complaining, mind. I loooooooove books.
Current Mood: content
11/5/09 12:13 am
I thought it couldn't be done, but I have devised an insight of genuine value from Who's Afraid of Postmodernism? (a book about which I have complained in another post). Although said insight could frankly have been got from somewhere else, it still follows (although not necessarily) from the subject in question (in this case, Derrida's formulation that 'everything is interpreted' and subsequent statement that normative interpretations are fixed by communities of interpreters).
In this case I am trying to determine the subject's usefulness for preaching, and what I came up with was, because Christian practice only takes place authentically in community, ideally a sermon before and after it is preached should be brought to a community for interpretation.
If I may quote Han Solo, 'sometimes I amaze even myself.'
Current Mood: happy
11/2/09 11:02 pm
I stupidly put a coffee mug half-full of hot chocolate on the lid of the water tank of the toilet, from where it slid off, fell, and broke on the floor, spilling its contents everywhere.
So I had to clean that mess up. That wasn't the worst of it, however. First, the hot chocolate got all over my bathroom mat set from Cairo, so I need to clean that, and, what's more, it was my favourite mug, a Star Trek mug with Scotty on it, that broke!
Current Mood: pissed off
10/31/09 09:48 pm
For me this year, what's frightening about Hallowe'en is that it means there's a month-and-a-half left in the term, and I still have so much to do. Dear God. Not that I deserve pity; if I'm behind, I brought it upon myself.
Among other things I intend to accomplish before I go to bed are the dishes and supper.
Current Mood: awake
10/31/09 09:08 am
I just got an e-mail today notifying me that my membership in the Chief Scout Association, which I had not renewed (mostly because I couldn't afford it), has lapsed. I'm a lapsed Scout.
Perhaps one day when I have time I'll pick up the ole' Scouting again, although it won't be as a leader: going away to camp on week-ends conflicts with what I would be expected to do as a parish priest.
Current Mood: bored
10/30/09 10:47 am
My sleep has been really messed up the past few days. I have been laying about in bed 'till eleven o'clock, which is late to be staying in bed. There aren't any consequences right now, because it's reading week, but I have to get back to getting up earlier. Going to bed early probably won't work, because of sleeping in. However, going to bed earlier than I did last night (at one point I checked the time: it was half-past one in the morning) would help.
Current Mood: exanimate
10/28/09 09:45 am
I've been home in Ottawa the past couple of days for reading week, and am returning to London by bus this afternoon. (Labour dispute update: London Transit buses are running, although not at full scheduled service.) During my time here, I have seen Fanboys, a road-trip movie in which four (and eventually five) big-time Star Wars fans head off to Skywalker ranch to try to steal a cut of The Phantom Menace (the movie is set in 1998). I also saw Astro Boy last night; that is, the 2009 computer-animated film. Yes, it has been the Eighties Glory Days reading week at the movies for me. Fanboys was funny (and funny movies are funnier when watched with our Dad), while Astro Boy was well-made and true to the concept of Astro Boy (what little I know of it).
Now I must do a bit of school work.
Current Mood: cheerful
10/27/09 12:33 pm
I wrote a 1,000-word paper yesterday on Book VII of Augustine's Confessions, which, by the way, is probably one of the most influential and most well-written 'spiritual autobiographies'. I had the good fortune to come across a 'reader's companion' to the book, with essays on each book contributed by philosophers and other scholars with an interest in Augustine.
I am going to follow up this paper, I think, on a research paper analysing Augustine's 'meontic' theory of evil - that is, that evil is a deprivation, absence, or lack of the good: in other words, that evil does not have genuine substance or essence, that, formally, it does not exist. In light of the horrors of the twentieth century, many have depreciated Augustine's meontic ('not-being') theory of evil.
Current Mood: accomplished
10/26/09 11:00 am
Quick update: I'm home for a day or two during Reading Week. Most schools don't have a fall reading week. The Faculty of Theology at Huron does. For what reason I'm not sure (I've heard some scary stuff, but I can't credit it because it didn't come from a reliable source of information), but I'm happy to have it.
I have to get to work while I'm here. I'm behind on things (as usual) and need to get caught up as much as I can.
However, glad to be home. This will probably be the last time until I go home in December at the end of term.
Current Mood: awake
10/24/09 12:35 pm
For one of my classes, I read (past tense) a book called Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard and Foucault to Church, by James K. A. Smith. Smith is a proponent of a Christian theological movement, current especially in Britian, called Radical Orthodoxy. He is also, as this book, and others which he has written, demonstrates, a proponent of postmodernity.
Leaving aside my quibble with describing the movement using the adjective 'radical', which I consider to be the most over-used and, indeed, useless word in contemporary Christian thought (it should have been left to the surfers), I find myself unable to agree with what Smith says postmodernism can do for the church.
( The body of the rant. )
Current Mood: bored
10/23/09 09:31 am
I'm in the midst of doing laundry. Once that is done, I have to get out (the buses, thank God, are still running) for a couple things.
I have to go to St. Anne's and quiz the administrative assistant about info and people to talk to for my congregational consultation (a project for one of my classes). Not that I have to take the bus, as I am a twenty minute's walk away from the church.
I have a meeting with my liturgics prof this afternoon about an assignment I submitted.
I have to pick up a book or two for a paper on Augustine and Platonism for philosophical theology.
I have some reading to do for school for which the books are at the library. I also have a book I am reading from the library for fun which is almost finished, so I might be able to return it.
And that's about it. There are other things I have to do, but not much can be done about them right now.
Current Mood: working
10/21/09 06:29 pm
I was trying to find some information about Augustine of Hippo for a priest of my acquaintaince in Ottawa, but couldn't. I did discover that he is the patron saint of brewers. Why, I'm not sure, but there you go. Brewers.
Current Mood: amused
10/20/09 10:08 pm
I just read today that the University of Ottawa, two years ago June, stopped offering diplomas in Latin. I got mine in the Roman tongue (of course I would). The article explained why, and it makes a certain amount of sense, but I still feed sad - though happy I still had the opportunity to get my diploma in the ancient language of learning.
Current Mood: interested
10/18/09 09:09 pm
I'm going to be in a real jam at the end of the month. I just saw a 'labour relations' notice on the London Transit website, which says that:
'London Transit and the Union representing drivers, inspectors, dispatchers, ticket clerks and maintenance staff received a "no board" report on October 5, 2009.'
What this means is that by October 22, London Transit union employees could be on strike. I don't think I need to tell you how this is going to affect me. Here I was laughing at the poor folks in Ottawa last year. Now it's my turn. What goes around comes around, I suppose.
The site does say that both sides will be going into mediation earlier that week. I hope the Transit employees don't view the length of the Ottawa bus strike as a model for their own. The OC Transpo strike lasted fifty-one days. For 'fun', let's suppose the London Transit union employees decide to strike. If they remained on strike for, oh, fifty days, it would last all the way to the end of term (December 10).
I will most certainly be praying that such a thing does not happen. And I'm also much more motivated to take driver's ed now.
Current Mood: anxious
10/17/09 03:42 pm
I have been playing Breath of Fire 2 quite a bit recently, which is going to have to stop. Not only because I have to focus on my studies and my placement at St. Anne's, but also because I have received a sign. Not so much from God, as from the game. My entire party got smoked by a boss and I lost an hour's effort. You can read the gory details beneath the LJ-cut.
( The gory details )
Current Mood: content
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