Clement on the True Gnostic

"Such patience will the Gnostic, as a Gnostic, possess. He will bless when under trial, like the noble Job; like Jonas, when swallowed up by the whale, he will pray, and faith will restore him to prophesy to the Ninevites; and though shut up with lions, he will tame the wild beasts; though cast into the fire, he will be besprinkled with dew, but not consumed. He will give his testimony by night; he will testify by day; by word, by life, by conduct, he will testify. Dwelling with the Lord, he will continue his familiar friend, sharing the same hearth according to the Spirit; pure in the flesh, pure in heart, sanctified in word. 'The world,' it is said, 'is crucified to him, and he to the world.' [Gal 6:14] He, bearing about the cross of the Savior, will follow the Lord's footsteps, as God, having become holy of holies." -- Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, II, xx

Clement uses the term "Gnostic" here in opposition to those heretical cults who thus called themselves, and who have received so much renewed attention in recent years (but with a curious absence of mention of the outright silliness of their doctrines, whose metaphysics and cosmology exceed the absurdity of the deepest secrets of Dianetics or Mormonsim). The word is from the Greek "gnosis" meaning knowledge or wisdom, specifically mystical enlightenment and insight, and his argument, as that of other Church Fathers who strove against these doctrines, is that the true Gnostic is the man whose wisdom comes from God, through the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit.

So, what he is getting at here is that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" [Gal 5:22-23]: that such character and behavior as was taught by Jesus, i.e., blessing when cursed, loving when hated, praying when despitefully used, is the result of a real, mystical, supernatural relationship with the Holy Spirit of God, in which we have died to ourselves and now live in Christ.

"Assimilation to God, then, so that as far as possible a man becomes righteous and holy with wisdom"
-- Clement, Stromata, II, xxii

"Almost the main work of life is to come out of our selves, out of the little dark prison we are all born in. The danger is that of coming to love the prison."

-- C.S. Lewis

The Big Bang Theory - Superpowers

This is the real reason I love this show. Pay attention when Sheldon tells what his superpower would be and why. This is exactly what life is like for me. Always has been. And it seems, always will be. I identify powerfully with Sheldon and his struggle to navigate life in a world he doesn't quite understand, despite his great intelligence. And I love the sweet little platonic friendship between him and Penny.

The Waters above the Heavens

I was thinking today about the first chapter of Genesis, and how there were truths buried there that would have been impossible for a bronze-age shepherd to have come up with, even though he had been given the best Egyptian education: compare Egyptian cosmology and creation accounts, which are typically crude and absurd by our standards, to that of Genesis. For example, consider the fact that plants are created and growing on the third day, yet the sun is not set in the heavens over the earth until the fourth--which would have been absolutely illogical for any human mind to have conceived as the order of creation--everyone knows plants have to have the sun to grow. So here's something in what purports to be a divinely-inspired account of  the origin of the universe, which from the time of its writing around 1500 BC seems directly opposed to all knowledge and observation--seemingly impossible. Until 1965 AD, when cosmic background radiation was discovered, proving that the universe during the ages following the big bang had been filled with what was once visible light, which through the doppler effect later faded into the infrared background radiation we can now observe only with instruments. In other words, the story in Genesis: that first God said "Let there be light" is supported by modern astrophysics--plants grew on the earth in the universal created light, and it was only as that light faded that the sun was necessary to light the earth.

What you have to bear in mind is that Paleo-Hebrew, the language which Moses spoke and in which he first recorded the scriptures, did not have words, nor did the mind of the people of that time have concepts, for the things which God revealed to him regarding the history of time before there was any man to observe it. We don't know how it was done: verbally or through visions, or even by God transporting Moses across space and time to observe the events of the Beginning first-hand, as he did with John regarding the End. But however it was, Moses was forced, when he was writing it down, to use the language and ideas which existed in his mortal brain. So for instance, if you look at Gen 1:7 where it talks about the "firmament" which has always been interpreted as "sky" and the waters above the firmament being divided from the waters below, you have to eschew simplistic, crude interpretations and allow for the fact that Moses could have been using the Hebrew word for "water" as the best approximation for what he saw, having no other word to serve. Similarly to how "day" is used to represent the incomprehensibly long periods of change and growth in which these things occurred.

So with this in the back of my mind, I came across the theory today by chance that hypothesizes that space-time is actually a superfluid. (http://phys.org/news/2014-04-liquid-spacetime-slippery-superfluid.html) And there it is: that verse which has always puzzled me makes perfect sense. Moses saw the cosmos from a vantage point other than our human one, and observed the superfluid of space-time filling the void of space, and expressed it the best way he knew how. Bronze age Hebrew didn't have words to express "zero viscosity superfluid".

Think about that. The Bible, after being ridiculed by centuries of "intellectuals" is still proving that it contains knowledge that was hidden until the most recent discoveries, and was recorded 3500 years ago, when the pinnacle of human learning was all about cosmic eggs, divine scarab beetles, and dismembered deities' genitalia.

My Secret Vice

I have a shameful habit I've never admitted to you: I love "The Big Bang Theory". I don't have television service, but I watch it online. It's the only sitcom I've watched since "Friends" ended.

There's a character in the show, Amy, who is the butt of continual mocking because she's such a nerd. She's a virgin, dresses modestly, plays the harp, loves Mediaeval literature, throws Victorian-themed Christmas dinners with traditional dishes and parlour games, and has all sorts of hobbies and interests which everyone thinks are lame. It's all supposed to be funny because she's so un-cool, but I keep thinking that she's just about perfect.

Clement on Faith

"'Except ye believe, neither shall ye understand.' [Isa 7:9] For how ever could the soul admit the transcendental contemplation of such themes, while unbelief respecting what was to be learned struggled within? But faith, which the Greeks disparage, deeming it futile and barbarous, is a voluntary preconception, the assent of piety--'the subject of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,' according to the divine apostle. [Heb 11:1] 'For hereby,' pre-eminently, 'the elders obtained a good report. But without faith it is impossible to please God.' [Heb 6:1-2, 6] Others have defined faith to be a uniting assent to an unseen object, as certainly the proof of an unknown thing is an evident assent. If then it be choice, being desirous of something, the desire is in this instance intellectual. And since choice is the beginning of action, faith is discovered to be the beginning of action, being the foundation of rational choice in the case of any one who exhibits to himself the previous demonstrations through faith. Voluntarily to follow what is useful, is the first principle of understanding. Unswerving choice, then, gives considerable momentum in the direction of knowledge. The exercise of faith directly becomes knowledge, reposing on a sure foundation. Knowledge, accordingly, is defined by the sons of the philosophers as a habit, which cannot be overthrown by reason. Is there any other true condition such as this, except piety, of which alone the Word is teacher? I think not. Theophrastus says that sensation is the root of faith. For from it the rudimentary principles extend to the reason that is in us, and the understanding. He who believeth then the divine Scriptures with sure judgment, receives in the voice of God, who bestowed the Scripture, a demonstration that cannot be impugned. Faith, then, is not established by demonstration. 'Blessed therefore those who, not having seen, yet have believed.' [John 20:29]" -- Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, book II, ch. III

"As, then, he who is fond of hunting captures the game after seeking, tracking, scenting, hunting it down with dogs; so truth, when sought and got with toil, appears a delicious thing."

-- Clement of Alexandria

Φως Ιλαρόν - Phos Hilaron

I came across the text of this hymn in my reading today. It is the oldest recorded hymn of the Christian Church (outside the Biblical text), dating to around 150 AD or perhaps even earlier, and the oldest song still in continual use--it is likely that the traditional Greek setting given in the recording above has been directly passed down from the ancient church.

Φῶς ἱλαρὸν ἁγίας δόξης ἀθανάτου Πατρός,
οὐρανίου, ἁγίου, μάκαρος, Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ,
ἐλθόντες ἐπὶ τὴν ἡλίου δύσιν, ἰδόντες φῶς ἑσπερινόν,
ὑμνοῦμεν Πατέρα, Υἱόν, καὶ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, Θεόν.
Ἄξιόν σε ἐν πᾶσι καιροῖς ὑμνεῖσθαι φωναῖς αἰσίαις,
Υἱὲ Θεοῦ, ζωὴν ὁ διδούς· διὸ ὁ κόσμος σὲ δοξάζει.

Joyful light of the Holy Glory
Of the Father Everlasting,
Jesus Christ

Having come to the setting of the sun,
And seeing the evening light,
We praise the Father and the Son,
And the Holy Spirit of God.

It behooveth to praise Thee,
At all times with holy songs,
Son of God, who hast given life;
Therefore the world glorifieth Thee

Comfortably Numb

I've gone back and forth on whether to mention this, but I guess it's become noticeable that I've stopped writing about my feelings. The reason is because I haven't got any: I've been taking antidepressants.

I tried long and hard to avoid this. But in the end, I had to. I started to say that it was a choice between this and suicide, but really this is suicide.

"It is no good talking to hobbits about dragons: they either disbelieve you, or feel uncomfortable; and in either case tend to avoid you afterwards."

-- J.R.R. Tolkien

"For strength is made perfect in weakness, rendering him a better man who by means of his infirmity becomes acquainted with the power of God."

-- Irenaeus

"The word of truth is free, and carries its own authority, disdaining to fall under any skilful argument, or to endure the logical scrutiny of its hearers."

-- Justin Martyr

My daughter's biopsy is negative: no cancer. <phew>

Another prayer answered. Thank you.

Psalm 23 (Goodall) -- Choir of Wells Cathedral

It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,—
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me—
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

-- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

...but in battalions

My daughter is being tested for cancer. This is the daughter with the twins, and the miscarriage. The problem is one of a feminine nature, and may very possibly result in a hysterectomy. She's only 24.