Art and Platonism #1

"Greek theologians found themselves debating the role and nature of Christ as He had appeared to men, against a backdrop of Platonic thought on the relation between God and the visible world. The ‘interweaving’ of human and divine by visible symbols, that so fascinated Iamblichus, is also the basic preoccupation of his younger contemporary, St. Athanasius, when he writes on the incarnation of Christ. The echo of divine beauty which had been rendered visible and so mysteriously potent, by the material image of a pagan god, later conveyed the same powers to the Christian icon. The paintings that cover the walls of a Byzantine church: the human saints that meet the believer at eye-level below scenes of the life of the incarnate Christ; the tall archangels who link Christ the ruler of the visible universe, whose distant face merges against the gold of the highest vault, with the pictures that stride down the walls into the crowd below: this scheme of ascending figures is a direct echo of the awesome sense of an invisible world made visible by art, to souls caught in the veils of a body, that had once stirred in the emperor Julian, as he stood before the altar of his gods." - Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity.

                                          "Different American Hood Accents and Dialects"

Conscious Catholicism

There was a brief but important time in my life when I thought that everybody would subscribe to my version of high-powered Catholicism, if only they were given the right education and means to do so. I now believe that this was an impossible dream, as my attraction to such things is – in reality – highly eccentric. The amount of people that will live up to the demands of modern Catholicism and “take their faith seriously” will always be the significant minority.  And indeed, this has always been the case, the difference now is that there seems to be little room for the “cultural Catholic” in the post-Vatican II world of active and enlightened faith.

Among traditional and conservative Catholics, there is a persistent and shrill cry against the enemy of people who only go to church (often only twice a year) out of purely human or cultural obligation. These normal people rarely think of religious questions, unconsciously follow the ways of the world, and certainly do not read the Summa for fun and edification; yet still feel compelled to enter the doors of their local Catholic church for holidays or family functions.

What the traditionalist fails to realize about this way of life is that it really is what held together the traditional societies of pre-modern times. The only difference now is that simply attending to religious duty out of familial allegiance or cultural obligation means far less than it did even 100 years ago (especially in Western Europe and North America). For nearly everyone in traditional societies, adhering to the faith simply meant doing what everyone else did, and this was living according to cycle of religious feasts and fasts, and following the norms dictated by society, which were greater in number and often harshly enforced. Those who went above and beyond this became clerics and monks. But the average man would just go with the stream of society, and his more personal devotion was performed to gain heavenly intercession through the saints in order to put food on the table and avoid a horrid death at the callous hands of nature. Just living according to these norms at their bare minimum gave one a secured place in the community and the Church.

The Unity of Vision

"The First Nature is present to all things. Present? But how? Like one single Life which is within all things. In a living being, Life does not penetrate as far as a certain point and then stop, as if it could not spread to the entire being; rather, it is present in every part of it... If you can grasp the inexhaustible infinity of Life - its tireless, unwearied, unfailing nature, as if boiling over with life - it will do you no good to fix your gaze on one spot, or concentrate your attention on any given object: you will not find it there. Rather, the exact opposite would happen to you." - Plotinus

Post-rock before Explosions in the Sky-esque tremolo picking over-kill was easily one of the most interesting genres of music.

A Poem

The world is held in a single glance

Where a thousand moments slip into one,

Where a second is an endless trance

And the memory shines as clear as the sun.

What was merely modest and mundane

Has again claimed its native mystery:

A face mingled with love and with pain,

Which revels in its obscurity.

She’s almost as she was long ago,

But no joyous meeting, a cruel reprise.

And in the glow of streetlights through the snow,

The vacuous space of cold, vacant eyes.