Friday, June 6
Re: Dwight's Ambition in Religion
I' not sure it is the same thing to think about God in the facets of your life as it would be to create separate gods for those facets. However, I suppose what you mention does make it conceivable how the Romans would do such a thing, i.e. creating a multitude of gods. Creating gods for those facets implies a discontinuity in life- that other gods can' "help out" with more than one thing, and the human experience is only connected in our eyes but then the gods don't know us as the Lord does. They would only know us in one specific manner. Thus, a multitude of gods allows the Romans to think that different gods act differently, i.e. they change. There is no one divine nature- more than one nature could be divine. Thus, divinity is relative. And that is not how the Lord is. In addition, the Romans must assume gods have limited power, which is also not how God is. So I think creating gods for every facet of life starts with a deception/blindness/misunderstanding of who God is, what He is, how He is, etc. Whereas, for your experience, you know His nature, and thus every facet of your life is governed by this same nature when you think on Him, etc. (man, I'm long-winded. I'll work on that...)
I like your comment about the saints, too. I'm not sure what Augustine would say about them...
Re:Dwight's Felicity
I wondered what you thought about the evil that exists in the world- when we as Christians suffer, and evil/sin are the causes, is this still "good" for the Christian? Or is it more that God works through the evil in this world to give His children good? (an ultimate good if not a temporal good?) What do you think? Again, as to what felicity is, I think it's another one of those things like justice and love that only has true meaning when based upon Christianity. (referring back to a previous blog post)
Re:MJ's Felicity
I like the distinction you make about happiness and joy. However, I've always thought the non-Christian tries to attain true felicity apart from God, ends up empty, then can begin to understand God as the true giver of felicity... however, you suggested (based on my quote from 33) that a non-Christian would only be able to understand true felicity at all from being accustomed to felicity from good fortune. In my quote from 33, Augustine says a person would be "spiritual" yet not "openly declaring"- so perhaps they have a glimmer of true felicity that is in/from God, and experience of that, but still holding back? anyway, it's interesting to think about the two different perspectives.
Re:Dwight's Deception
Based on what you say, it doesn't sound like you are deceived if you know that your thinking is off. So I would say, because your thinking is off, then that is sinful, because it is not how God would have you think. So I don't know if there is another form of deception besides sin (or something derived/resulted from sin) or demons.
