09/8/16

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 2.2 BP

[Yet, these blogs have not explored the implications of this insight.

Consider how the contrast between the actualities of grace and self-destruction are reflected in familiar questions about grace:]

Is grace necessary?

If so, how is it distributed?

Are some destined to receive grace?

Are some destined to never receive grace?

Schoonenberg answered that nobody is excluded a priori from grace. Even pagans receive grace.

[Does that also imply that nobody is a priori excluded from self-destruction?

In fact, one can substitute the term ‘self-destruction’ for ‘grace’ in the preceding questions.]

09/7/16

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 2.2 BO

Summary of text [comment] pages 72 and 73

In contrast to the concept that every virtue becomes impossible for man living in sin, Schoonenberg located the notion of grace. In Love, the Holy Spirit, all things are possible …

[… including God Recognizing Himself.

Grace is entangled in this relation. Up to this point, I have argued that ‘the state of grace’ belongs to the realm of actuality.

In this model, ‘grace’ differs from ‘self-destruction’.

‘Grace’ and ‘self-destruction’ are labels for the single actuality in the intersection of recognition and participation.]

09/6/16

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 2.2 BN

[Oh, and speaking of Much to Do about Nothing.

Slavoj Zizek recently published a book entitled Less Than Nothing.

So far, I have barely made a dent in it.

The book starts with the ancient Greek philosopher’s views on nothing.

Zizek aims to elucidate a positive nothingness.

A void fills to the brim, even overflows, with nothing.

Oops, that sounds like American mainstream television.

Zizek is more than fun.]

09/2/16

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 2.2 BL

[Schoonenberg did not explicitly engage the specter of modern nothingness.

Does anybody?

I suspect that the Shiites (the Party of Ali) do. Iranian mystics look at modern Western Progressives and see their Secular Society as less than nothing.

Western Progressive Society is ‘a nothing so negative’ that it appears ‘a positive something’.

Secular Society resembles branches growing without the tree. There are no roots. There is no trunk. There are only branches.

This is the ‘nothing’ that we have created without God.]

09/1/16

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 2.2 BK

[Similarly, the vast nothingness that we see in contemporary American television is supported by the dynamics of ‘I recognize myself according to some … nothingness’.

This ‘nothingness’ consists of characters, such as ‘a helpless victim terrorized by a bad one’. The televised helpless victim inspires sympathy, because the viewer is also a victim (a disempowered person who cannot talk back to the television producers).]

08/31/16

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 2.2 BJ

[Take a look at the intelligent, apparently well-educated, modern Progressives.

They imagine that they know something, but ‘their something’ is ‘the nothing that has been done without Christ’.

Are they experts in anti-knowledge?

Consider the tax expert who knows which forms are required in order to qualify for a particular tax break. Every facet of “his” knowledge has been created ‘out of nothing, without Christ’, including the denial of unintended consequences.

Progressive experts go about their business in asserting their moral superiority and specialness. After all, they are certified.  They hold university degrees. They are steeped in anti-knowledge.

Perhaps, deep down, they recognize the truth that they participate in.

‘Nothing’ keeps them in business.]

08/26/16

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 2.2 BG

[Is this a pattern?

We (humans) turn away from God’s love.

Then, we turn toward God’s love.

Our symbolic orders part ways with God’s Self-Revealing and then return, over and over again, as the civilizational situation deteriorates.

This is precisely what we would expect if our symbolic orders are not anchored in referentiality.]