[I want to loop back to the image of recognition developed in the past few blogs.

This loop connects to these two ideas:

“I am the one who recognizes” parallels the Father.

“Myself is the one who is recognized” parallels the Son.

These two persons (“the one who recognizes” and “the one who is recognized”) are dyadic. They belong to Secondness. They both emerge from the monadic realm of potential. They are both brought into relation with potential by a normal context, the third element of a triadic relation.

Who is the normal context, if not the Holy Spirit? Is the animating principle a person (Me? I? You? Them? Nobody?) or an institution (Family? Tribe? Nation? Society? Television? A god among gods?)₃?

The list of candidates in the parenthesis is not exhaustive, but it is suggestive.

As one moves further and further away from God, one evokes lesser and lesser powers as the normal context.]

Summary of text [comment] page 67

Schoonenberg wrote that “with mortal sin, the sinner ‘himself’ refuses grace. ‘He’ throws off the life of grace. Or, the sinner may usurp it, pretending that it is ‘his’ to own. Then, it slips from ‘his’ grasp.

This loss of sanctifying grace is represented as punishment. Sin itself punishes the sinner by robbing ‘him’ of the life of grace.

[Schoonenberg’s scenario sounds circular. The sinner deprives ‘himself’ of the life of grace by sinning. The sin itself robs him of the life of grace.]

Summary of text [comment] page 67

[This thought experiment brings us back to Schoonenberg’s text.]

He asserted that sin is first and foremost not self-destruction, but the breaking of a covenant.

[The sinful condition raises a question:

What do I (a sinner)₂ recognize as myself₂?

My own self-recognition cannot occur without a normal context.

But, will this normal context allow me to recognize myself, as “I am who I am”?

Or will I recognize myself in “the mirror of the world”?

Then I become “I am who the mirror says I am”.

Such is the nature of self-destruction.]

[“Recognizing God” puts “me in a situation where I can be myself”.

This is the condition for virtue.

Not recognizing God’s creativity and omnipotence puts my actuality in a position where I (the one who recognizes) cannot be myself (the one who is recognized).

This is the condition for sin.]

Summary of text [comment] page 67

[What is a covenant?

A covenant is a deal: If you do this, I will do that.

So far, for “the human created in the image of God”, the covenant is:

IF I₂ recognize “God₃ as the one₁ who created me₂ in His own image₁“,

THEN “I₂ can recognize myself₂ as who I am₁”.]

[“The Holy Spirit₃” brings “I (the one who recognizes myself) and myself (as the one who I recognize)₂” into relation with “the Omnipotence of God₁“.

This relation constitutes a covenant.]

Summary of text [comment] page 67

[Is there some advantage to admitting that God brought me out of His own pure potential?

The advantage is that I am free to be myself.

IF God brought me forth according to His Omnipotence,

THEN I emerge from the realm of possibility without qualification.

Thus, I can see, in myself, the likenesses of both the Father and the Son.

At the same time, I am obligated to acknowledge “the context (of His Creation)₃” as well as “the image of the Omnipotence of God₁“, in which I find myself.]