It is now summer.

Let the mindless work begin! Let the mind take a break.

And then, after that, I will begin to read the Summa Theologica.. Shall I try to finish it? All blog readers: you can read along with me.

To join in the fray, I guess I'll do a top-ten book list, too. The criterion on Dr. Reynold's blog was: "To make the top ten list (or the close 20) is to have read the book more than five times, carefully, and not for work. The top ten list must have influenced my life for more than five of my forty years. Books in the top ten list should still be meaningful, thus giving some slight preference to the grown up me."

That's a little tough for a 21 year old, and eliminates all the books that I have read in Torrey. So I'll tweak it a little, since eliminating all of the books in Torrey neuters my reading depth severely. My criteria is this: that it has shaped my paradigm or aided my process of sanctification significantly.

Top Ten:

1. The Bible. My whole life has been shaped by this singular literary masterpiece. The thoughts and concepts in it make up the sum of my thoughts, taught to me regularily from a very young age. I believe that most of my aptitude for learning came not from public school, but from Sunday School.

2. The Dawn Treader. Lewis was a staple of what my mother read to me at night before I went to bed, but for some reason this book's romantic tale resonated the most powerfully with me. The vision of the noble Reepicheep sailing into the end of the world over liquid light has been a model of manhood for me my entire life.

3. The Lord of the Rings. I've read this epic at least every other year since second grade. I love the vision of courage in the face of evil, and the battle for a waning civilization ennobles my mind to facing the task before us today.

4. The Divine Comedy. I read this the first time only two years ago, but it is the kind of book you fall in love with not because it's easy reading, but because it's hard reading, and it takes discussion and thought to milk the rich concepts out of it. The impression I receive from it is that same impression I receive from the last chapters of the Dawn Treader, a poet sailing through a sea of liquid light. Its beauty is astounding.

5. Le Morte d'Arthur. Hic Iacet Arthurus, Rex Quondom Rexque futurus. My heart is the resting place of this great king, and the Senegral is the most beautiful part of the book. Galahad beats his father at being a knight because he beats his father at being a man: he is perfectly virtuous.

6. Winnie the Pooh. I imagine this betrays the lack of depth in my reading, youth and shallowness of soul, but this, along with Peter Pan, has had a profound impact on my concept of the imagination and its role in my life while growing up. I still return from time to time to that magical place at the top of the Hundred Acre Woods.

7. The Opuscula of Saint Francis. Anything by Francis I love. I love books written about Francis. I find him the most delightful of all the saints, and his spirituality the most impactful on my own. I would be have joined the Franciscan order if he were alive today, so that I could serve God under him in simple holy love, and his theology of nature allows my own great love to thrive.

8. That Hideous Strength. When I read this book in high school, I learned to love things for what they really are. When it spoke of Logres, I understood the Ideal Britain, and yearned to understand the true America (Columbia, perhaps?).

9. The Aeolian Harp. Coleridge's poem's vision of beauty captured me. I love many of his poems, but this one and Kublai Khan especially. They've helped me to refine my imagination to see beauty. I don't know if this one will stay on here for my whole life, for I hope to find better and holier poets.

10. Hamlet. It's a toss up between The Life of King Henry V and this play, but no English speaking person should deny a Shakespearean influence on their life. Shakespeare taught me politics and the duty of the individual to the state.

Alexander the Great the movie is coming out, by Oliver Stone. I don't know if it will be any good, but it will be worth seeing, anyway. Another big Grecian epic! Only this time the Greeks get wiped by someone from their northern boondocks: Macedonia.

The trailer is out, too: you can find it at The trailer at quicktime.com

Colin Farrel never struck me as the sort of refined princed, educated by Aristotle himself, to take over the entire world.

"What a mystery is this, that Christianity should have done so little good in the world! Can any account of this be given? Can any reasons be assigned for it?"

You are John Wesley! When things don't sit well with you, you make a big production and argue your way through everything. You complain a lot, but, at least you are a thinker and not afraid to show it. You are also pretty liked by people, and pretty methodological about your life and goals. You know where you're going. Some people find you irritating, so watch out for people leaving you out of things they do.

What theologian are you?

A creation of Henderson


Yeah, this is sorta accurate. I like Wesley, though, so that's ok. REPENT! Almost Christians have no place in the kingdom, Christ's death has real power!

I really need to work on a lot of problems in my life, it's pretty easy for me to see that any truly meaningful accomplishments in my life will come only through the power of the Holy Spirit. Pray that God will be merciful to me.

Gasparo Contarini and Dante would have gotten along really well.

Belated happy Feast of the Ascension. Tonight (er, a few hours ago during Thursday night), I went to the first service I have ever gone to that focused on the Ascension. This, I learned, is one of the most important feast days of the Church year. The Ascension ushered in a new era in our relationship to Jesus Christ, and was the culmination of his time on earth. Not many people were at the service, unfortunately.

The way Fr. David, the priest at Blessed Sacrament, described the event's significance was that Christ's relationship to man went from particular to cosmic. While on earth Christ was more evidently present than he is now, he was also only available to those few hundred people who actually saw and talked to him. Now, outside of our realm, he is available to all mankind. Much of the rest of the sermon Fr. David talked about the means God has provided for us to reach Christ now that he is available for us, but less evident. Ultimately this is through faith, but involves the reading of scripture, the sacraments, and other Christians' love.

An interesting Biblical thought that I came away with, as well, was from the Old Testament reading from the cyclical. It was the ascension of Elijah. Elijah's ascension in the fiery chariot was more dramatic than Christ. But Christ will come again in martial glory. I thought that Elisha might be reckoned as the Church, and that Elijah might be reckoned as Christ in an allegorical interpretation with edifying results.

Holy crap! This is so pathetic it's beyond the scale of comprehensible patheticness.

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There can be no greater desire for a man than to see the face of God. In Him the end of all our loves is met, for He is the only infinite end of love. All other objects will be exhausted by love, we can come to the end of them. But God is the origin of all things, and never changes.

I think we can all benefit from asking ourselves a simple question: Is there anything in my life that I desire more than seeing the face of God?

There are two approaches to remedying such a misguided problem, it seems. First, that we might grow in love with God. This must be done by increasing our faith. And second, that we can eliminate our false loves. We'll find them again after we lose ourselves in God.

This is a picture that Luke Shackleford, my friend on the Doulos (a two year trip on a library boat ministering the cause of Christ around the world), sent to me this week. It's taken from the bridge, I'm assuming, and you can see Luke's head at the bottom. Forgive the amateurish compression, it was a big file.



In the letter he talks about standing at the front in choppy water and jumping, timing his leaps with the movement of the ship to get higher. This is a very Luke-like thing to do, for those of us who know and love him. He can also grab you with his shoulder blades.

Luke Shackleford is a remarkable man!

Troy

I really enjoy the Iliad. It's a great story, and great poetry (in the translations I read, anyway) crafted by an obvious genius.

Because of this I really wanted to go to the movie, and I was curious not only to see if it was entertaining, but to see their interpretation of the book. It was entertaining. It's almost 3 hours long, so buckle your seat belts. Some kids in my theater thought it was boring. Brad Pitt was pretty good as Achilles, most everyone I talked to before the movie thought he was perfect for the role (including myself), but I was a little irritated by his flatness in this movie. His voice just doesn't go up and down the way voices ought. Eric Bana suffered from a similar problem. O'Toole, of course, did excellently, as did Sean Bean in his limited role as Odysseus.

The tricky thing with the Iliad is making it enjoyable for an American audience used to redemptive stories. It's just not hopeful. The end of the book comes before Achille's death, but after Hectors: there's really no hope in it at all. The war has been going on for 10 years, and the end is not in sight.

In the movie, so far as the director was able, there was loads of hope and a somewhat happy ending. Homer moans from beyond Styx at that.

Silly quibbles that I have with the movie:
What was up with all that iron in a bronze age society?
What was up with all those people riding horses to battle?
No Diomedes? Bummer.
Aeneas' role is too small, and he won't be king anyway.

So.. I guess I'd recommend it if you like the Iliad or war movies. It's worth the student price.

Gaspar Contarini is an interesting person from the Reformation. He was a Roman Catholic whose view of Justification was more in line with the Reformers than with the Roman Catholic church's, however, he was very active as a cardinal in seeking reform from inside the church, and not from the outside. This weekend I start work in earnest on a paper that will seek the answer to why Contarini stayed in the Roman Church despite his reading of Romans.

Another interesting hisotrical study that I've been flirting with is the Colloquy of Regensburg, which was attended by Contarini, Gropper, Eck, and Pighius from the Roman Catholic side; and Melancthon and Bucer (the successors respectively to Luther and Calvin) on the other. These are big names! The agreement they came to was that there were two justifications: one forensic, and one internal. The agreement was rejected by both the Pope and by Luther, so it came to naught.

Some ecumenical movements today are based upon this colloquy, and unity minded Christians seek to exploit it. I doubt it would work, though Anglicans and Lutherans seem to find it helpful, but I don't think the Church will ever be unified again until the coming of Christ. This is unfortunate, for Paul calls us to be Christ's spotless bride. How can a bride be spotless if she is disunified?

This article is worth reading, I found the link on Dr. Reynold's blog. It's good to put the administration and our country in perspective.

Chesterton's works on-line!

This site is attempting to collect the complete works of G.K. Chesterton in one wonderful web-site of wisdom and wit. Worth some time perusing works that otherwise might not be found.

There's also a blog on-line called G.K. Chesterton's blog. It is not updated very regularily.

And here's a self-portrait of Chesterton:

6 months of bliss with this wonderous lady today:

Last night I finished my semester long class on Virgil/Dante and the Divine Comedy. At the end of it I felt compelled once more to abandon all vain pursuits for my proper end: to see the face of God and exist in communion with Him forever.

What more is there to life than this simple goal? What felicity is there on earth that compare to the felicity of divine love?

And yet, I am continually reminded of my weakness, my unworthiness to complete the cause I was created to complete. Certainly unable to climb the steps on my own, God will provide the light that shows the way to the Empyrium, and the point about which the entire cosmos revolves. He has provided the wings, and gives the breath that fills them. Only by recognizing our complete dependence on Him, assured by His own desire for us to see Him, and succored by the blood of our Lord on the cross, may we come to eternity prepared.

Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

The semester's winding down, and I've been gone most of this weekend, so the posting is going slow.

So here's a post. Blogger's set up a new format. It's quite nice.

My 17 year old cat is being put to sleep tomorrow. I'm losing a less-than-human friend that's been part of myhome for most of mylife. I can still remember picking her up from the breeder when I was four, and now she can hardly move because of heart failure.

Pippin was a remarkable Siamese cat who comforted me through the vast majority of my life through her subtle, gentle, and consistent presence. Her watching eyes, prideful bearing, mischevious spirit and constant loyalty will be remembered by every one of my family as long as our memory's last.

I took some pictures of her tonight with Phil's digital camera to remember her by. Once I download them I might post one here. Cats are good pets, I highly recommend having one.

CNN Report on the Prisoner Scandal

The government's response to the prisoner abuse scandal seems appropriate. In an Arab world that already hates America, images of Americans dehumanizing Arabs will be humiliating and infuriating. It's about the worst thing that could happen public opinon wise in this conflict. When we claimed the moral high ground in deposing a corrupt dictatorship that commited crimes like this regularily, we can't go and do the same thing.

The American soldiers involved in these horrific acts, therefore, sinned not only against the people that they were abusing, but against the very country that they were serving. And that should be sobering to their consciouses. May God have mercy on them, as He does on us, and may America excersise His Judgement upon them.

Happy Monday!

Bah humbug.