some preliminary roughings out of my thesis


since the very dawn of philosophy, man has looked to mathematics to describe the world accurately. we rely on math for certainty. 


in chimes the frenchman. 
"we are not merely skeptics, nor only mathematicians. we are Christians. we can not only doubt, we may not only affirm. we must, somewhere, submit." - pascal, in a rough paraphrase of pensée 201.

 in the Christian cosmos, then, what abides? where can we stand? what abides? 


the jew. 
"So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." - st. paul, 1 cor. 13:13
              
faith                 hope                          love                          -- normative aspect: philosophy of math
   |                       |                                 |
knowledge      truth                         wisdom                      -- situational aspect: physics (math applied)
   |                       |                                 |
grammar         logic                         rhetoric                     -- existential aspect: teaching math
   |                       |                                 |
   |                       |                                 |
   |                       |                                 |
arithmetic     algebra              quantum theory                   -- the kinds of mathematics we learn
                     calculus      non-euclidean geometries


math, at its foundation, is faith
               we have faith in God as the Creator, as the Constant One, the Righteous one. math is trustworthy not because it is self-evident, it is trustworthy because God is; because He loves us and does not lie to us. 2+2=4 because He is forever 1 which is always 3. 

math next is hope
               we hope to one day have dominion over creation. the Creator has hidden glories everywhere for us to search out. this means that when we do a calculus problem involving a decreasing mass, increasing acceleration, highly variable friction, and decreasing gravitational force, we simply hope that our rocket will actually escape the atmosphere. we have faith in the numbers working out, but there is only hope that it will actually describe the world. we hope in the righteousness, the trustworthiness of our God. 


and the greatest of these is love. 
               mathematics is the meter of creation, which was sung by God. and He is love. mathematics, then, is the meter chosen by love. and so, to choose the right meter, we must be loving. i declare to you a mystery. force is nothing more or less than the mass of a thing times its acceleration. always. most of the time. unless you're not on earth. then, at least you can be sure that the energy is equal to the mass of the thing counted as many times as light is fast squared. except, that's not really how it works all the time. because turns out there's something faster than light on the universe. truly, a great mystery, yet i give you a greater. my mother's forehead wrinkled between her eyebrows. it was a wednesday. my father says, "come on, let's grab lunch quick. you're getting a headache from not eating, aren't you?" my mother's forehead wrinkled between her eyebrows. this time it was a thursday. my father says, "hey let's get out of here. you're worried about eating too much. so let's go." 
               here is the riddle's heart, here the knot of the mystery: for the creation is our bride, and we are her husband. we must know her parts well enough to know which language we use to speak to her. we should love creation enough to know that the language of newton's calculus is wonderful, but creation doesn't like that language when we're speaking about black holes and electrons. what will happen on the day that we actually love the handiwork of our Creator? i daresay we'll fly faster than light, fall upwards, and burn things without them being consumed. i dare, even, to say that we shall be creators ourselves. that we shall give life at last, and not death. then, death, thou too shall die. 

                 but he, my inbred enemy,

Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart 

Made to destroy. I fled and cried out 'Death!'

Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed

From all her caves, and back resounded 'Death!'

john milton, paradise lost, II.785-789

Pallida mors equo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,

Regumque turres.

horace, quoted by cervantes in prologue to don quixote

It was a confusion of ideas between him and one of the lions he was hunting in Kenya that had caused A. B. Spottsworth to make the obituary column. He thought the lion was dead, and the lion thought it wasn't.

the return of jeeves, p. g. wodehouse.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.

1 john 4:18-19

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

st. john's Gospel, 1:1-18

the Light has shone in the darkness, and we have seen His glory where we are. we have seen Him coming afar off, and now through the mirror of faith dimly, yet soon face to face. for like He did this day, we too shall rise unto Life eternal. today is the day that puts all may days and earth days and arbor days to shame, for today is the day of Life. today is the day that death lost and earth, the earth, was given Life. Happy Easter.

With fainting soul athirst for Grace,

I wandered in a desert place,

And at the crossing of the ways

I saw a sixfold Seraph blaze;

He touched mine eyes with fingers light

As sleep that cometh in the night:

And like a frightened eagle's eyes,

They opened wide with prophecies.

He touched mine ears, and they were drowned

With tumult and a roaring sound:

I heard convulsion in the sky,

And flight of angel hosts on high,

And beasts that move beneath the sea,

And the sap creeping in the tree.

And bending to my mouth he wrung

From out of it my sinful tongue,

And all its lies and idle rust,

And 'twixt my lips a-perishing

A subtle serpent's forkd sting

With right hand wet with blood he thrust.

And with his sword my breast he cleft,

My quaking heart thereout he reft,

And in the yawning of my breast

A coal of living fire he pressed.

Then in the desert I lay dead,

And God called unto me and said:

"Arise, and let My voice be heard,

Charged with My will go forth and span

The land and sea, and let My word

Lay waste with fire the heart of man."

the prophet

by alexander pushkin

props to xian

Last Thursday night, our dear friend and brother, Jim Kirtley, went to be with the Lord and joined the saints who rest from their labors and await the resurrection. In 2 Corinthians 3-4, Paul describes the glory of the new covenant in the gospel of Jesus. Whereas the glory of the Old Covenant was veiled and fading, Paul says that the glory of the New Covenant does not fade and it is unveiled as we all behold the face of Jesus in the preaching of the gospel. But Paul says that we have this treasure in earthen vessels, in jars of clay. This means that we are hard pressed, persecuted, struck down, always carrying around in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus. But this also means that pain and dying and death are not reasons for despair but rather reasons for great hope. Paul says that he does not lose heart in beatings or imprisonment or sleeplessness or fastings, but in all of these things he expects the glory of God to shine forth. This is because the glory of the new covenant is that it is even brighter and it does not fade and it is unveiled. But since we have this treasure, this glory in earthen vessels in our bodies, that means that God’s glory shines forth not in spite of our suffering but actually because of our suffering. When our bodies are struck, when we suffer, when we die, those earthen vessels are struck and cracked and broken until the light of the glory of Christ bursts forth. And I cannot help but think of Gideon and his small band of 300 men attacking the vast armies of the Midianites by night. Gideon’s men carried torches in their earthen vessels and then shattered them as the trumpets were blown, lighting up the hills with the blaze, and when the Midianites saw the torches they fled in terror. Paul says that we should think of our lives, our bodies as earthen vessels with the torch of the Spirit inside, and when we are struck, when we are hard pressed, and when faithful saints suffer and die, we should see the glory of Easter bursting through. When Jim died this week, another torch burst out in the darkness, and we should expect to see Midianites on the run.

via toby sumpter

A Meeting in A Part

In a dream I meet 


my dead friend. He has, 


I know, gone long and far, 


and yet he is the same 


for the dead are changeless. 


They grow no older. 


It is I who have changed, 


grown strange to what I was. 


Yet I, the changed one, 


ask: "How you been?" 


He grins and looks at me. 


"I been eating peaches 


off some mighty fine trees."

wendell berry

When we see the world as an end in itself, everything becomes itself a value and consequently loses all value, because only in God is found the meaning (value) of everything, and the world is meaningful only when it is the 'sacrament' of God's presence. Things treated merely as things in themselves destroy themselves because only in God have they an life. The world of nature, cut off from the source of life, is a dying world. For one who thinks food in itself is the source of life, eating is communion with the dying world, it is communion with death. Food itself is dead, it is life that has died and it must be kept in refrigerators like a corpse.

alexander schmemann, for the life of the world, ch.1.3, p.17

Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971) and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (1973).

He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories. He is known also for his unrepentant lifelong use of alcohol, LSD, mescaline, and cocaine (among other substances); his love offirearms; his long-standing hatred of Richard Nixon; and his iconoclastic contempt for authoritarianism. While suffering a bout of health problems, he committed suicide in 2005, at the age of 67.

On August 20, 2005, in a private ceremony, Thompson's ashes were fired from a cannon atop a 153-foot (47 m) tower of his own design (in the shape of a double-thumbed fist clutching a peyote button) to the tune of Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."Red, white, blue, and green fireworks were launched along with his ashes. As the city of Aspen would not allow the cannon to remain for more than a month, the cannon has been dismantled and put into storage until a suitable permanent location can be found. According to his widow Anita, Thompson's funeral was financed by actor Johnny Depp, a close friend of Thompson. Depp told the Associated Press, "All I'm doing is trying to make sure his last wish comes true. I just want to send my pal out the way he wants to go out."

Other famous attendees at the funeral included U.S. Senator John Kerry and former U.S. Senator George McGovern; 60 Minutes correspondents Ed Bradley and Charlie Rose; actors Jack Nicholson, Bill Murray, Johnny Depp, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, and Josh Hartnett; singers Lyle Lovett, John Oates and numerous other friends. An estimated 280 people attended the funeral.

wow. just wow. all i can say about that. if you had read that in a book, you'd say there's no way, there's nobody quite that strange in the world. and you'd be wrong.

via wiki

Men who give up the common goal of all things that exist, thereby cease to exist themselves. Some may perhaps think it strange that we say that wicked men, who form the majority of men, do not exist; but that is how it is. I am not trying to deny the wickedness of the wicked; what I do deny is that their existence is absolute and complete existence. Just as you might call a corpse a dead man, but couldn't simply call it a man ... A thing exists when it keeps its proper place and preserves its own nature. Anything which departs from this ceases to exist, because its existence depends on the preservation of its nature.

boethius, consolation of philosophy, IV.ii, p.91

It was engraved all over

and showed how war first came into the world

and the flood destroyed the tribe of giants.

They suffered a terrible severance from the Lord;

the Almighty made the waters rise,

drowned them in the deluge for retribution.

beowulf, 1688-1693

it's pretty amazing that grendel's mother is slain by the sword of a giant-killer, but also that they had this idea of giants being the cause of the flood. just interesting.

For every one of us, living in this world

means waiting for our end. Let whoever can

win glory before death.

beowulf, 1386-1388

After the assassination of Salman Taseer, Governor of Punjab Province in Pakistan, there has been a surge in Islamic orthodoxy, threatening the civilian Government in Islamabad. In the Soviet era, communist states would view dissent as deviation from ideology. In the 21st century, dissidence is being equated increasingly with blasphemy in Islamic countries. For instance, in Pakistan, at least 30 people are reported to be on the death row for alleged violations of the tough anti-blasphemy laws of that country.

via the pioneer, a daily in new delhi, india

in other words, 30 christians are about to die because the one man who stood up to the fundamentalist muslims is dead. they're just waiting until we stop looking. i give them two weeks.

Over at First Things, George Weigel reports on the latest findings of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research.

Some of the statistics are provocative, particularly those related to the number of martyrs:


"The provocation in the 2011 report involves martyrdom. For purposes of research, the report defines “martyrs” as “believers in Christ who have lost their lives, prematurely, in situations of witness, as a result of human hostility.” The report estimates that there were, on average, 270 new Christian martyrs every 24 hours over the past decade, such that “the number of martyrs [in the period 2000-2010] was approximately 1 million.” Compare this to an estimated 34,000 Christian martyrs in 1900."

This is stunning and seems unbelievable, and one wonders how well we (western Christians) really are mourning with those who mourn. Are we really bearing the burdens of our brothers and sisters suffering for the sake of the gospel? How can we stand with them?

Meanwhile, we continue to splinter: Weigel writes, "As for the quest for Christian unity: There were 1,600 Christian denominations in 1900; there were 18,800 in 1970; and there are 42,000 today."

But as God frequently does, for all the dividing there is growth. The report suggests an overall, worldwide growth in Christianity, but the growth of Christianity in Africa is the most astonishing:

"Africa has been the most stunning area of Christian growth over the past century. There were 8.7 million African Christians in 1900 (primarily in Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa); there are 475 million African Christians today and their numbers are projected to reach 670 million by 2025."

from Pastor Sumpter's blog

crushing and beautiful. truth and mercy are meeting more every day, righteousness and peace are forming a more perfect union as we watch.

In my judgment (if my view is not mistaken) it is a more serious thing to be stripped of resources than to be killed. That is true at least if death entirely removes our perception of evil, while a life of poverty produces endless misfortune - claims which, as you know, are frequently found in literature. It is a more serious matter to live a life full of evils than to put an end to those evils by dying.

nectarius, letter 103 to augustine, p.9

telling that this is how the roman world thought. nectarius, a pagan, lives in a culture of death. death is less evil than an impoverished life. we say that death is a shadow and to bow to it a crime. perhaps, like chesterton would say, nectarius is just bored with the world.

He who for us is life itself descended here and endured our death and slew it by the abundance of his life. In a thunderous voice he called us to return to him, at that secret place where he came forth to us.

confessions, iv.19

My infancy is long dead and I am alive. But you, Lord, live and in you nothing dies.

confessions, i.9

[monica is begging bishop ambrose for help with augustine, her prodigal son]

When he had said this to her, she was still unwilling to take No for an answer. She pressed him with more begging and with floods of tears, asking him to see me and debate with me. He was now irritated and a little vexed and said: 'Go away from me: as you live, it cannot be that the son of these tears should perish.' In her conversations with me she often used to recall that she had taken these words as if they had sounded from heaven.

confessions, iii.21

this quotation has haunted my memory since i read it for the first time. must have been close to 7 years ago. anyhow, i finally got it tonight. she is hannah, bereaved of children and shamed before the other women. her husband is dead, just as elkanah is a dead man as far as hannah (and the fruit of her womb) is concerned. ambrose is eli, who, in wanting to get rid of the persistent widow, judges rightly and promises redemption. and augustine will, like samuel, prophesy and lead his people out of the dark days of a dying dynasty. when the rest of the world seems to shatter (when the ark is taken), samuel is the unifying force behind israel, bringing justice beneath the terebinth trees. so as rome crumbles will augustine fight heresy from hippo.