The Defining Quality of a Christian Civilization

 Reinhold Niebuhr "suggested that a Christian civilisation was a civilisation which always knew itself to be ethically un-Christian."  Alan Jacobs, The Year of Our Lord 1943, p. 32

Prosper, O Lord, our righteous cause?

 Prayer composed by Thomas Cranmer when England and Scotland were at war in 1548:

"Most merciful God, the Granter of all peace and quietness, the Giver of all good gifts, the Defender of all nations, who has willed all men to be accounted as our neighbours, and commanded us to love them as ourself, and not to hate our enemies, but rather to wish them, yea and also to do them good if we can: . . .  Give to all us desire of peace, unity, and quietness, and a speedy wearisomeness of all war, hostility, and enmity to all them that be our enemies; that we and they may, in one heart and charitable agreement, praise thy most holy name, and reform our lives to thy godly commandments."   HT:  Alan Jacobs, The Year of Our Lord 1943, p. 11)

Brutality's prestige

 "We should not think that because we are less brutal, less violent, less inhuman than those we are confronting, we will prevail.  Brutality, violence, and inhumanity have immense prestige . . . .  The contrary virtues, so as to have an equivalent prestige, must be exercised in a constant and effective manner.  Whoever is only incapable of being as brutal, violent, and inhuman as the adversary, yet without exercising the opposite virtues, is inferior to this adversary in both inner strength and prestige; and he will not hold his own against him."  --Simone Weil, quoted in Jacobs, The Year of Our Lord 1943, p. 4

We have a right to our anxiety

". . . Walker Percy, the novelist, contended that we have a right to our anxiety; it is not a symptom to be eradicated but a sign or gateway to the truth about our purpose as human beings.  To be born, to live, according to Percy, is to be alienated, to be lost or displaced in the cosmos."

Peter Augustine Lawler, Aliens in America: The Strange Truth About our Souls xix (2002).

Augustine: God Wants Us Back

"But our very Life came down to earth and bore our death, and slew it with the very abundance of his own life. And, thundering, he called us to return to him into that secret place from which he came forth to us--coming first into the virginal womb, where the human creature, our mortal flesh, was joined to him that it might not be forever mortal--and came “as a bridegroom coming out his chamber, rejoicing as a strong man to run a race.” For he did not delay, but ran through the world, crying out by words, deeds, death, life, descent, ascension--crying aloud to us to return to him. And he departed from our sight that we might return to our hearts and find him there. For he left us, and behold, he is here. He could not be with us long, yet he did not leave us. He went back to the place that he had never left, for “the world was made by him.” In this world he was, and into this world he came, to save sinners. To him my soul confesses, and he heals it, because it had sinned against him. O sons of men, how long will you be so slow of heart? Even now after Life itself has come down to you, will you not ascend and live? But where will you climb if you are already on a pinnacle and have set your mouth against the heavens? First come down that you may climb up, climb up to God. For you have fallen by trying to climb against him. Tell this to the souls you love that they may weep in the valley of tears, and so bring them along with you to God, because it is by his spirit that you speak thus to them, if, as you speak, you burn with the fire of love."

Confessions, Book IV, ch. xii, sec. 19 (Albert C. Outler, trans. 1955).

Balthasar on Beauty

“Beauty is the word that shall be our first. Beauty is the last thing which the thinking intellect dares to approach, since only it dances as an uncontained splendor around the double constellation of the true and the good and their inseparable relation to one another. Beauty is the disinterested one, without which the ancient world refused to understand itself, a word which both imperceptibly and yet unmistakably has bid farewell to our new world, a world of interests, leaving it to its own avarice and sadness. No longer loved or fostered by religion, beauty is lifted from its face as a mask, and its absence exposes features on that face which threaten to become incomprehensible to man. We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance. We can be sure that whoever sneers at her name as if she were the ornament of a bourgeois past — whether he admits it or not — can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love.”

— Hans Urs von Balthasar, THE GLORY OF THE LORD: A THEOLOGICAL AESTHETICS, VOL. 1 – SEEING THE FORM

What is a human being?

"The concept [of the human being as representative] deals with man as he actually is, the non-autonomous and non-independent creature, unable to rely on himself alone; man, who can find and possess his riches and his glory precisely only in his dependence on and his communion with God."

-G.C. Berkouwer, Man: The Image of God (Dirk W. Jellema, trans. 1962), p. 114 (emphasis added).

The Secular Experiment

"[T]here is something unique in our modern “secular,” Western culture, in that it is the site of the only large-scale attempt in human history at living an exclusive humanism. The self-congratulatory discourse about our exceptional status on this score is right in this respect: no one else ever tried it. And by virtue of living through this experiment, we will be in a better position to understand why."

Charles Taylor, A Catholic Modernity 105-06 (1999), quoted in Brennan, A Quandary in Law?: A Qualified Catholic Denial, 44 San Diego L. Rev. 97 (2007).

The Cruciform Life

"However learned, however cosmopolitan, however politically aware and culturally engaged he or she may become,  The Christian must always register a clear and final deferral on the world's favor in view of the cross and its benefits."

 Charles Marsh, Wayward Christian Soldiers, pp. 135–136.

On Unity - From Mao's Little Red Book

One requirement of Party discipline is that the minority should submit to the majority. If the view of the minority has been rejected, it must support the decision passed by the majority. If necessary, it can bring up the matter for reconsideration at the next meeting, but apart from that it must not act against the decision in any way. “On Correcting Mistaken Ideas in the Party” (December 1929), Selected Works, Vol. I, p. 110.

Mastered by the Lust for Mastery - Augustine's account of the earthly city

"Most glorious is the City of God: whether in this passing age . . . or in the security of that eternal home which she now patiently awaits . . . . In this work I have undertaken to defend her against those who favour their own gods against her Founder. . . .

I know . . . what efforts are needed to persuade the proud how great is that virtue of humility which, not by dint of any human loftiness, but by divine grace bestowed from on high, raises us above all the earthly pinnacles which sway in this inconstant age. . . .

Thus, when the nature of the work here undertaken requres us to say something of it . . . we must not pass over in silence the earthly city also: that city which, when it seeks mastery, is itself mastered by the lust for mastery even though all the nations serve it."

The City of God, Book I, Preface (Dyson, trans.)

Augustine, City of God Book II - The "happiness" of Rome

Chapter 20.—Of the Kind of Happiness and Life Truly Delighted in by Those Who Inveigh Against the Christian Religion.

But the worshippers and admirers of these gods delight in imitating their scandalous iniquities, and are nowise concerned that the republic be less depraved and licentious.  Only let it remain undefeated, they say, only let it flourish and abound in resources; let it be glorious by its victories, or still better, secure in peace; and what matters it to us?  This is our concern, that every man be able to increase his wealth so as to supply his daily prodigalities, and so that the powerful may subject the weak for their own purposes.  Let the poor court the rich for a living, and that under their protection they may enjoy a sluggish tranquillity; and let the rich abuse the poor as their dependants, to minister to their pride.  Let the people applaud not those who protect their interests, but those who provide them with pleasure.  Let no severe duty be commanded, no impurity forbidden.  Let kings estimate their prosperity, not by the righteousness, but by the servility of their subjects.  Let the provinces stand loyal to the kings, not as moral guides, but as lords of their possessions and purveyors of their pleasures; not with a hearty reverence, but a crooked and servile fear.  Let the laws take cognizance rather of the injury done to another man’s property, than of that done to one’s own person.  If a man be a nuisance to his neighbor, or injure his property, family, or person, let him be actionable; but in his own affairs let everyone with impunity do what he will in company with his own family, and with those who willingly join him.  Let there be a plentiful supply of public prostitutes for every one who wishes to use them, but specially for those who are too poor to keep one for their private use.  Let there be erected houses of the largest and most ornate description:  in these let there be provided the most sumptuous banquets, where every one who pleases may, by day or night, play, drink, vomit,113 dissipate.  Let there be everywhere heard the rustling of dancers, the loud, immodest laughter of the theatre; let a succession of the most cruel and the most voluptuous pleasures maintain a perpetual excitement.  If such happiness is distasteful to any, let him be branded as a public enemy; and if any attempt to modify or put an end to it let him be silenced, banished, put an end to.  Let these be reckoned the true gods, who procure for the people this condition of things, and preserve it when once possessed.  Let them be worshipped as they wish; let them demand whatever games they please, from or with their own worshippers; only let them secure that such felicity be not imperilled by foe, plague, or disaster of any kind.  What sane man would compare a republic such as this, I will not say to the Roman empire, but to the palace of Sardanapalus, the ancient king who was so abandoned to pleasures, that he caused it to be inscribed on his tomb, that now that he was dead, he possessed only those things which he had swallowed and consumed by his appetites while alive?  If these men had such a king as this, who, while self-indulgent, should lay no severe restraint on them, they would more enthusiastically consecrate to him a temple and a flamen than the ancient Romans did to Romulus.

Ambition

"Ambition for artists is like life on this earth:  it's self-replicating, and there's no end to it. All of us, especially novelists, are damaged, psychologically damaged.  We have big problems, and we're not good people.  We're drug addicts, we're drunks.  So we want to even the score-- we want adulation.  If you are single-mined, as many writers are, as I am, the work is all you are.  There is nothing else.  And so if the work goes away, then it's the gun."

-T.C. Boyle
WSJ Magazine, March 2015, p. 62.

Democracy as a "Least Worst"

"[L]ogically and empirically, it cannot be the case that "Thou shalt take responsibility for governing the world" is an univocal moral obligation. . . . All civil government is oligarchy; all of it is a few people (to use the language of Jesus) 'lording it' over the rest of us. The value of democracy is the relatively greater capacity which victims and third parties nonetheless have to speak critically."

-John Howard Yoder, On Not Being in Charge

On Not Being in Charge

"Not being in charge of the civil order is sometimes a more strategic way to be important for its survival or its flourishing than to fight over or for the throne."

-John Howard Yoder, On Not Being in Charge

Thrilla!

Contentment

"The truly godly person is not interested in becoming rich. He possesses inner resources which furnish riches far beyond that which earth can offer." --William Hendricksen

Litany of Humility

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me. From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus. From the desire of being loved... From the desire of being extolled ... From the desire of being honored ... From the desire of being praised ... From the desire of being preferred to others... From the desire of being consulted ... From the desire of being approved ... From the fear of being humiliated ... From the fear of being despised... From the fear of suffering rebukes ... From the fear of being calumniated ... From the fear of being forgotten ... From the fear of being ridiculed ... From the fear of being wronged ... From the fear of being suspected ...That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be esteemed more than I ... That, in the opinion of the world, others may, increase and I may decrease ... That others may be chosen and I set aside ... That others may be praised and I unnoticed ... That others may be preferred to me in everything... That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…

Written by Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930), Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X.

HT: Justice Clarence Thomas, who referred to this in passing during remarks at UA Law School Oct. 23.

Faith and "Reason"

"Too often when [Christians] weary of . . . censorship, they rebound with the insistence that 'faith' (which may spring from and depend upon tradition and authority about the real and the good) be granted a place next to 'reason.' Nothing I say here should be understood to deny the wisdom of the hallowed alliance of faith and reason. But in the current climate, reliance on that formula risks conceding what need not and should not be conceded. Another procedure is called for. The citadel called “reason” must be attacked and shown to be false. In recommending this procedure, my aim is not to court either nonsense or nihilism. Christians must be realists--critical realists-- both as to what has been created and revealed, and as to the respective places of good and evil. What must be corrected, if the Christian believer is to return from exile on terms he or she can live by, is the Enlightenment's unrealistic fallback position, according to which in the human head--or pineal gland?--there exist two black boxes, one for faith and the other for reason, the two of them jointly exhaustive of human access to the real and the good-- with faith fit for private life and simple people, and “reason” for public life and law faculty.

What Christians must insist upon, albeit in their differing dialects and accents, is that each of us rational humans goes out from her or his interiority to embrace the real and the good, across the whole spectrum of human living and hope, through an intelligence (the term I prefer to 'reason' because it refuses to carry the Enlightenment's freight) that performatively combines and commingles elements of (what later get labeled) 'faith' and 'reason.'"

-Patrick Brennan, Book Review, 16 Journal of Law and Religion 667 (2001).

On Refusing Grace and Giving up Intelligence

"Schemes that once flourished lose their efficacy and cease to function; in an ever more rapid succession, as crises multiply and remedies have less effect, new schemes are introduced; feverish effort is followed by listlessness; the situation becomes regarded as hopeless; in a twilight of straitened but gracious living men await the catalytic trifle that will reveal to a surprised world the end of a once brilliant day."

-Bernard Lonergan, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding 210 (1978).

HT: Patrick Brennan