Order And Trial

September 20, 2018

Year 3, Day 263 | No Comments

Section of The Infant Jesus and St. John the Baptist, Guido Reni, n.d.

Some persons tend to practice experimentation for much of what they do. We may commend the procedure if it is understood in the light of the nature of the person adopting it, and the contexts of the areas in which it is practiced. It is not usually effective in religion. One of several reasons it does not serve well in faith matters is that most religions enhance the better sides and dimensions of mankind, rising above common levels of decency and values sufficiently well to attract and hold adherents. Finding balance and peace in the elevations, accepting logical problems related to the context, and noting emptiness of humanism left to itself – settle on what they find available to ideals… Read more

Values And Perceptions

September 19, 2018

Year 3, Day 262 | No Comments

Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

It is my purpose to discuss with understanding some of the compound problem identified here as decline in life as it moves more and more into the technological age. I tend to accent American because that context is best known to me, but the problems exist in other advanced nations, at variant degrees. With the turn of the new century, often referred to as the beginning of a new millennium, American life has effected some distortion in the conduct of the generations entering professional life during the years after the turn to a new millennium. According to several analysts the current graduates of higher education are not entering professional life with a professional performance that merits their expectations. The issues… Read more

Family Order

September 18, 2018

Year 3, Day 261 | No Comments

Section of Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger

A presupposition that needs careful attention by Christians relative to marriage and the family (and much else) is the belief that human life is an analogy for earth of the order for life in heaven. We learn from it – how to live in love, peace, and meaning to fulfillment as individuals and society. For those giving attention to the matter nearly every turn they make observes another of the context of heaven and earth that provides insight so to give to faith an intellectual perception about spiritual reality, and in the understanding to discover who we are as individuals and society. For example, every individual is taken by God in a primary relationship that is treated as so personal… Read more

Order

September 17, 2018

Year 3, Day 260 | No Comments

The ancient Greeks believed in order. This is fairly often referred to by historians and philosophers. One can induce/deduce from the Greek preoccupation with order in nearly everything they did. For example, even the architecture followed a prescribed order. If the columns were a particular length one could deduce what the size of the windows would be, or the doors, or the cross beams. Buildings were constructed to last, partly because the order would last. Deduction prevailed. This is addressed by Murray Jardine in his: The Making and Unmaking of Technological Society. (Page 184 ff.) He accented the differences between induction and deduction known so well to scientists and logicians. Deduction moves from an observation (statement) back through factors to… Read more

Self-Esteem

September 16, 2018

Year 3, Day 259 | No Comments

Section of The Taking of Christ, Caravaggio, 1602

An excellent article appeared in The Atlantic magazine related to the theme of self-esteem. Though excellent, the title, as for so many articles, wounds the meaning of great concepts as in this instance on self-esteem. The cover title is How the Cult of Self-esteem Is Ruining Our Kids, authored by Lori Gottlieb. I too have been detoured by editorial choices for titles of books and articles I have written, so I do not lay my blame at the author’s paper or computer. The title in location of the article may be ascribed to its author, and it is different and improved over the cover title: How To Land Your Kid in Therapy. This title does not refer to self-esteem, preferring… Read more

Prayer Logic

September 15, 2018

Year 3, Day 258 | No Comments

We are almost always at our best in the way we feel about ourselves when we contribute to the context of mature life and experience. Persons who provide for themselves in this or that factor feel better about circumstances and the matter at hand than those who learn to work a system in which their only contribution is to wangle a privilege, or a product, or a position. My son and his wife owned a four-unit building in which I lived. The negative in the ownership was that, from time to time, a renter did not pay the rent, at first late, then dropping back a month, then two months. Ultimately they were asked to move. The cost of their… Read more

Future Assumptions

September 14, 2018

Year 3, Day 257 | No Comments

Section of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, Benedetto Luti, 1715-20

For years I have given considerable time to analyzing substantive newspapers, magazines, and other communications for faith meaning. For this page I will limit notes from mostly one day’s source, but concepts might be easily traced in current materials published by respected authors/publishers/analysts. On Monday, December 9, 2013, I went through the Sunday paper of the day before – then repeated the venture. It would be impossible to cover everything on one Page, but I launch. Article #1: Singing the Sunday Blues. Once the day of rest, Sunday has devolved into a day of stress. Article #2: Mental Illness: Want to talk about it? The anti-stigma movement has married itself to a drug-industry script that mental illnesses are diseases like… Read more

Speed Of Change

September 13, 2018

Year 3, Day 256 | No Comments

We have already noted in these Pages that change is a constant for life in the generations. We can be sure that whatever may be current and important to us today may have changed tomorrow. If it is change in our thought and conduct, and the change is serviceable to mankind, that change is counted as progress. If the change is regressive there may be a stall period in society, or even what may be called social backsliding so that future experience is seen as falling back, losing ground perhaps causing tragedy for masses of the population. It is common belief that the Greeks and the Romans in the West moved forward from about 500 BC to the period just… Read more

Gifted

September 12, 2018

Year 3, Day 255 | No Comments

All persons of mental and physical balance have gifts that may or may not be utilized up to the level of which the gifted person is able. Many do poorly, and in the course of events either lose the primary and neglected gift or function at acceptable levels so to be honored of God for discipleship. The theme is large, but not really cultivated in child nurture or formal education. Part of this omission is likely due to an feeling that the more gifted persons in the human mix will find their way, by dint of their elevation above general norms. Not all of the super-gifted persons have the energy, the self-administration, the opportunity, or even awareness of their gifted… Read more

Cynical Religion

September 11, 2018

Year 3, Day 254 | No Comments

Section of Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michaelangelo, 1508-1512

There are many genuine skeptics in the world. A healthy dimension of skepticism is good in a wise person. Skeptic, like so many words in language, has so many nuances of meaning that we tend to believe that connotation and denotation that fit our preset contextual meaning for it. The matter of interpretation may be helped or hindered by our constructions of various ephemeral factors in our experience. Prejudice, which is unsupported belief, without adequate reason, plays a part. The matter of context, when it is badly formed in us, can become ugly. The stronger we feel about our ideas the greater is the danger of attaching pride to them, rather than humility, so to distort truth. Students, even scholars,… Read more

Monthly Archives: September 2018