Platonic-Catholic Cosmology in one Photo

 

The sun and the circumradiation of its light are the three Divine Hypostasis; the tree is a symbol of the entirety of the universe.

The Soul of the World

 

“Into that heaven, all at rest, let the great soul be conceived to roll inward at every point, penetrating, permeating, from all sides pouring in its light. As the rays of the sun throwing their brilliance upon a lowering cloud make it gleam all gold, so the soul entering the material expanse of the heavens has given life, has given immortality: what was abject it has lifted up; and the heavenly system, moved now in endless motion by the soul that leads it in wisdom, has become a living and a blessed thing; the soul domiciled within, it takes worth where, before the soul, it was stark body- clay and water- or, rather, the blankness of Matter, the absence of Being, and, as an author says, "the execration of the Gods" (Plotinus, The Enneads, V.I).

So much for Plotinus hating the material world… This is quite a different thinker than the popular caricature.

One of these days I am going to write in more detail about the Plotinian view of the world and of his cosmology in general, since I have found that this is a highly misunderstood topic, but at the same time an accessible one - especially when compared to the purer metaphysical thought of the tradition. Let this then serve as an introduction.

The above passage encapsulates Plotinus’ view fairly well: matter, being so low in the hierarchy of being spirals headlong into non-being and causes souls to forget their divine nature and origin, it is in this sense that it is considered evil. But this is not the only condition that material manifestation can partake in, as what was abject has been lifted up by the Soul who mysteriously dwells even here: “it envelops the heavenly system and guides all to its purposes: for it has bestowed itself upon all that huge expanse so that every interval, small and great alike, all has been ensouled.”

The material world can only be called good because it has been rescued by Soul; the presence of God in the world doesn’t proclaim matter's goodness, but its emptiness.

Some Thoughts on Divine Simplicity

God’s simplicity as formulated by theologians and philosophers is not something that can be readily inferred from Scriptural revelation (although I wouldn’t discount the idea that it is contained in the unwritten tradition), but this does not mean that it is contrary to it, or among the topics that St. John of Damascus says that we should not pry into. I think the key idea that determines God’s simplicity is that his essence and existence are not distinct: the fact that he does not have existence, but is existence; Absolute Being is then one and unity itself without duality. This is the domain of pure metaphysics. The confusion then arises when we try to apply this view to the realm of particulars and contingency, for metaphysical statements like God’s act is singular or God has no relation to creatures don’t line up with our experience of God, but this is due to our limited point of view which is conditioned by multiplicity.

I believe these sorts of difficulties are why Orthodox apologists and polemicists so often fail to understand Catholicism. They cannot accept the place of a purely metaphysical view, and then they curiously neglect that in Catholicism God resides in the heart of man.

To compensate for this inability, the modern Orthodox will then try to qualify the simplicity of God with further distinctions, all this really does is lower the view of God from pure metaphysics down a few notches on the chain of contingency.  

This all leads me to think that God’s simplicity should probably be left as an esoteric teaching, as it is something that is nearly impossible to sufficiently grasp without proper training, and can easily lead to error and misconceptions. I certainly do not understand this doctrine (noone completely can), but I’m not going to jump to the conclusion that this renders God inert and inaccessible to man, neither will I try to qualify the Divine Essence to make it fit more easily into my rational mind. These are the faults of Orthodox apologists who try to dismantle the doctrine of simplicity, a doctrine which is regarded as a metaphysical axiom in the traditions of both East and West. In contrast, Catholicism preserves the mystery.

At the Feet

 

The feast of Candlemas: a throng of faithful gathered together before the Holy Mysteries in the unassuming confines of a simple basement. Here I had the privilege of sitting on the ground before the feet of the priest when he turned from the altar to expound upon the Holy Word.

Now despite my romantic portrayal of this rather routine event – a sermon – it did prompt some reflection on the transmission of the philosophical/religious doctrine, and why we have far the most part lost this transmission. My experience of receiving the Christian teaching at the feet of a man instilled reverence in my soul not only for the Word but for the man who was teaching it to me. I remembered the importance the Hindus place on having a real human being as a spiritual/intellectual guide. It is safe to say that in the Indian traditions you can’t get anywhere without an authentic teacher, the guru is the one who dispels the darkness in his disciples, and for this reason is given a high degree of veneration. I read recently that Ramakrishna said that a disciple would get absolutely no where if he viewed his guru as merely a man.

Why a Catholic Should Study Eastern Religion

How do I love God and not a product? This is a very important question for those of us who live in the modern West, we who are deprived of organic culture and saturated in a materialist outlook. Those who are not content with what the world gives them are unfortunately by necessity forced to ground themselves in something of their own choosing: religion, philosophy, lifestyle etc. The problem this creates in the Catholic realm is that of a devotion to certain positions (liberal, traditional), schools (Thomistic, Nouvelle Theologie), or forms of liturgical praxis. As long as one assents to certain propositions of a system they have all they need, what goes along with this is usually a strong sentimental attachment to things that accidentally go along with the system, anything else is suspect or downright anathema.

These points of view are elegantly marketed to us in the form of religious products, and it seems like we have to subscribe to one of these endlessly multiplying products in order to be a “good” Catholic. We are no longer just consumers of goods, but now ideas and lifestyles are advertised and consumed in the same manner. Every package seems to think that it’s got it all. I think this phenomenon is inevitable in our individually driven society, but it’s a view that I think can be broken out of slowly.

Chant in its Natural Environment

 

Religious chanting is an event, therefore the music only fully conveys its power in the context of the divine services they are appointed for. It is best heard by listening to those who really live within it, complete with all the mistakes, coughs, hoarseness, and movement around the choir.

Covid-19 and Advertising

Fuck that.

Billboards – and other forms of large scale intrusive advertising – are disturbing as is, but plastering the typical Covid-19 slogans and shibboleths on them makes things exponentially worse. Modern advertising is a form of psychological violence; it is no secret that the ads that populate the screens that dominate our daily lives have been meticulously designed by psychologists to have a powerful effect upon the viewer. Having lived in a digital environment my entire life there is no doubt that the images and slogans of advertising have had a profound impact on my psyche, it is only in the past few years that I’ve developed a healthy aversion to this sort of manipulation. Which brings me to the present situation of our sterilized world, I think one of the things that the Chinavirus situation can illuminate for us is the power that advertisements have over belief.

I’ve been inclined to think that the powerful nature of advertising is the most immediate cause of the Covid hysteria and resultant changes in way of life and worldview among the population. Here the slogans and advertising serve no other purpose but to implant a set of dogmatic beliefs into the masses, and it is astonishing how readily this has been assimilated. It’s like normal advertising but on the steroid of fear. And the new sterile way of viewing the world has been prioritized over what were once more fundamental concepts like family, religion, and social norms. Now our neighbours are the enemy if they profess a different creed. I suppose this is not the first time a new radical set of beliefs has been successfully implanted into the masses through media, but now it has been done so well that there is not even any real resistance to these ideas. In a detached, historical way of looking at things it is interesting to see this in action; but in reality it’s just fucking depressing. (A great analysis of the Covidian worldview is found here on Cosmos Crouched.)

Lastly, there is no doubt in my mind that slogans like “stay home” and “stay safe” do nothing but produce a pathetic society. Living in safety is no life at all. I can’t think of a lower goal for a society or an individual than simply being “safe.” A life worth living must be dangerous, nothing is more antithetical to the human spirit than sterility and confinement.  

Against Beer and Bacon Theology

What is Beer and Bacon Theology? Well it's certainly not a concise set of propositions, a coherent system, or thought of one man or specific group, it is instead based on a general inchoate mentality towards the use of base pleasures, specifically alcohol. The attitude I take issue with is one that I’ve personally encountered having been around very conscious Catholics and institutions for a few years now. The most concrete example I can think of is that of people who put a caricature of Chesterton and Belloc at the heart of their thinking; they seek to divinize the pleasures of food and especially drink, I term this view Beer and Bacon Theology, or, as a Catholic Answers article put it, Theology of the Bottle.

While I haven’t found anything these people say that is explicitly objectionable – their statements on the virtues of eating and drinking are always qualified by admonitions against drunkenness and excess – there is still something troubling to me about the way they approach alcohol, and the mentality that they are fostering amidst the Catholic culture. On the surface Beer and Bacon Theology seems to breed merely a pretentiousness surrounding drinking with its insistence on high quality and decorum, but deeper than that is something that seems to me truly disordered and corrosive to the culture.

A Thought

 A conversation doesn’t have to be about anything meaningful to be meaningful.