[So let me go over some permutations.
Consider a god who is purely a mediator. This god belongs solely to the category of thirdness. This god mediates an actuality other than itself. Consequently, this single god must be co-eternal with a dyad of actualities, say form and matter. This God cannot be the One True God, because it is not the source of the actualities that it mediates.]
Summary of text [comment] pages 50 and 51
[According to C.S. Peirce, existence falls into three categories. The categories are thirdness, secondness and firstness. These categories may be expressed as the realms of normal context3, actuality2 and possibility1.
Our witness of God should not be otherwise.
From the point of view of Peirce’s categories:
If a god is not “God the Three”, then this god cannot be “the One True God”.]
Summary of text [comment] pages 50 and 51
[For Christians, “God Recognizing Himself” is experienced as “three persons in one God”.
Does Christian witness follow categorical logic?
Yes.
“Recognizing3” is a normal context characteristic of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Recognition3 personified. “Recognizing3” matches transcendence.
God the Father2 and God the Son2 (are actualities that) emerge from “the possibility of God Recognizing Himself1“.
“God the Father2“ is “the One who Recognizes2“. “God the Son2” is “the One who is Recognized2“. Both are experienced as persons. “Father and Son2” matches immanence, even though, from a Greek perspective, the Father appears similar to Zeus.
For Christians, “the possibility of God recognizing Himself1” is a realm of unknowing. It has no name because it cannot be a person. After all, this is the realm of possibility. In fact, this is All Potential Itself.
“All Possibility1“, in the context of “Recognizing3“, matches the term “mysterious”.]
Summary of text [comment] pages 50 and 51
[Since the Biblical God expresses the feelings of a person and since we are considering the question of whether sin affects God, perhaps this is a good time to consider the categorical structure of God.
We have already seen that the One True God cannot be described as merely transcendent and immanent.
The One True God is transcendent, immanent and mysterious.
In the next few blogs, I will explore “the categorical nature of ‘God Recognizing Himself'”.
Quotes will be used to group words together. ]
[IF “the alpha” is “the way of life before the first singularity, expressed in the innocence and gullibility of Adam and Eve”,
THEN “the omega” could be “thinkdivine as a way of truth and wisdom after the first singularity”.
Christ is the path from the gullibility of Adam to the confidence of thinkdivine.]
[Some formulate thinkdivine as dogma.
Some are convinced that dogma must be, like our transcendent God, essential and unvarying. Dogma seems remote, without feelings or emotions.
Does God judge our situation from a distance according to a long list of criteria?
Thinkdivine cannot be reduced to dogmatic formula.
Dogma is a guide.
Thinkdivine is a way.]
Summary of text [comment] pages 50 and 51
[Thinkdivine is a receptacle of God’s relational power. It is one location where God’s immanence is manifest.
“God Recognizing Himself” is transcendent, immanent, and mysterious.
Sin, in its deepest nature, is a “no” to “God Recognizing Himself”.
The historic witness of God’s jealousy and anger encourages us to thinkdivine.
Feelings (realm of possibility) and emotions (realm of actuality) are natural to us. They both cloud and clarify judgment (realm of normal context).]
Summary of text [comment] pages 50 and 51
[The mathematical notation of exponentials or powers, where the base – think – is raised to the power of divine, provides a metaphor.
God’s transcendence is essential and unvarying.
However, our expressions of thinkdivine cannot be as essential and unvarying, because they exist to make sense of our actions and thoughts. We try to put the situation into context by cobbling perspectives together.]
Summary of text [comment] pages 50 and 51
God is not one cause among others.
God’s activity coincides with the transcendent and the immanent causalities of creating.
In His salvic activity, individual persons are called into dialogue.
Sin, in its deepest nature, is a “no” to this dialogue. Here, sin affects God in his relations to humans. Sin effects the relation from Person to person.
Holy Scripture describes God’s jealousy, anger, and sorrow. These are necessary for our understanding of God’s supernatural activity in his covenant.
Summary of text [comment] pages 49 and 50
[Another beauty to the notation thinkdivine and thinkgroup is the base of the exponent: think.
Think.
What a beautiful word.
You cannot see or hear it.
You cannot touch it.
You cannot smell or taste it.
What is an object of thought?
The answer must be “an object that brings us into relation or organization”.
An object of thought attracts us.
Althusser called the attraction: “interpellation”.]
