Wednesday, June 11
Re:Will and Time, Book 5 still
Well, not sure how much I can expand my thoughts on God out of time, us locked in time. I brought it up because I wanted to emphasize I don't think the paths of our lives must follow one single path. We do have choices, and if we follow God, the road is indeed straight and narrow. But let me give you an analogy that has come up about 3 times in the past week during discussions at Christian Fellowship and outside of it, etc. (Neat how God brings something up over and over again to teach me!) God's will is one line. A straight and narrow road, if you will. And you must walk this narrow road and not fall off to either side. Yet imagine that this narrow road is like a plane slicing through a medium. The plane's edge is a single line, it cuts the medium with one cut, one slice, this one narrow road of God's will. Yet being a plane, there are an infinite many ways to go from point A to point B- straight lines, wavy lines, jagged lines, etc. I use this analogy to illustrate our freedom of choice even when we are abiding in God's will. I hope this doesn't complicate the discussion.
But to be more specific to the issue, I guess I think God is not one who will "force" us to do anything simply because it is "fated" or what-have-you. We don't "interact" with God's foreknowledge in that way. Rather, He knows the future, we don't know the future, but we go and do and be in each moment as we choose and He knows it all because He is God. Not sure I can take it much further at the moment, maybe someone else can reflect on God and time.
Re:Ambition Book 5
Thanks for your thoughts MJ! I found the quotes good/helpful as well.
Book 6 Thoughts
Not sure if we want to keep going, since it seems we're a bit behind, seeing as how it is Wednesday and technically were supposed to go on to Book 6 on Monday, but I'll throw something out there. Please give feedback on whether we should slow down, wait for Ryan and ourselves (ha!) to catch up, keep on trucking, ... ?
Eternal Life
Augustine mentions toward the end of this section that "none of these gods is the giver of happiness, who are worshipped with such shame... Moreover, how can he give eternal life who cannot give happiness? For we mean by eternal life that life where there is endless happiness," (12). Is this a good definition or description of eternal life- endless happiness? For some reason it struck me as an interesting way of "summing up" eternal life. Also, is it not possible that the Romans felt happy even in their shameful worship? Sin as sin wants to seem good and fun and enjoyable. Turning from sin seems to be one of the hardest things for Christians because it is tempting and tempting to enjoy sin, etc. How would the Romans- or anyone- then know they were experiencing "true felicity" from God?
Madness
another interesting comment: Augustine says in section 10 after describing the shameful practice of worship of the gods, etc, that "no one would doubt that they are mad, had they been mad with the minority; but now the multitude of the insane is the defence of their sanity." What do we think about this? Don't Christians sometimes give the same impression- that we are mad- i.e. Pentecost, drunk on the Spirit, etc...? is the difference that our "madness" is "moral" since it is from God and recognizably different from the "immoral madness" of the Romans?
