Today is the 15th anniversary of the “Regensburg Address” by Pope Benedict XVI.
One of the most important post-conciliar documents, it explains (1) Christ as Logos (2) the providential harmony of Greek wisdom & Hebrew faith and (3) the “dehellenization” of the West.
Quotes:
On the Logos, the Eternal Word, and “the intrinsic necessity of a rapprochement between Biblical faith and Greek inquiry.”
The coupling of Greek reason and Hebrew faith is an act of Providence.
“A profound encounter of faith and reason is taking place here, an encounter between genuine enlightenment and religion… Not to act ‘with logos’ is contrary to God's nature.
I’ve always thought “genuine” here is a shot fired.
God as Logos meant mankind must act and worship with logos and we built Christendom upon this truth.
Voluntarism was the forerunner to modernity, and modernity a rejection of God as Logos.
Yet, persons sought to “dehellenize” Christianity, to extricate Christianity from Greek influence.
The “Reformers” are the first stage, who create a historical fiction that a “pure” Hebrew faith exists - setting aside all historical fact for “sola scriptura.”
Bible > the Word
The second stage of “dehellenization” is liberal theology of the 19th and 20th century that rejected the Logos and subjected Christianity to modern, empirical reason.
Christianity and reason are reduced and true religion (and truth) becomes a personal interpretation.
The third stage of dehellenization is those who seek to play the role of Providence and re-inculturate the Gospel to synthesize it with a “new, modern” culture.
We seek to supply our own Logos, one in our own image.
Finally, he shows that in man’s pursuit of “reason,” man rejected Christ the Logos, the reason of all things, and in doing so both man and his reason are reduced.
"Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God.”
How did Aquinas and Dante read the Bible?
How, as moderns, are we reading it incorrectly?
Let's read the Bible like our forefathers.
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In the 1300s, Dante wrote a letter to his patron saying you read his epic poem, the Divine Comedy, the same way the early Church read Scripture.
There are four senses: literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical.
The LITERAL is the historic sense, the intention of the author.
Per Dante, the verse "When Israel went out of Egypt" would mean the historic deliverance by Moses.
The literal is foundational to all the other three senses, like the foundation of a home, if skewed, skews the rest.
The ALLEGORICAL means one thing may serve as a "type" for another, e.g., like mana being a "type" of Holy Eucharist, foreshadowing it (John 6).
Dante notes that Israel being delivered from Egypt by Moses is like us being delivered from sin by Christ.
Allegory is at the heart of Holy Scripture.
As the Church teaches:
The Old Testament foreshadows the New, and the New Testament perfects the Old.
The MORAL sense answers the question: how should I act? How does this apply to my life?
Per Dante, Israel leaving Egypt is “the conversion of the soul from the struggle and misery of sin to the status of grace.”
We take the lessons from the literal and allegorical and say, as Aquinas notes, "what ought I do?"
Last, the ANAGOGICAL sense is what does this teach me about my final end, i.e., eternal happiness with God in heaven?
For example, Dante: Israel leaving Egypt is the final salvation of “the blessed soul from the slavery of this corruption to the freedom of eternal glory.”
As moderns, we spend almost all our time debating the literal and some time in the moral (how does this apply to me?).
But the allegorical, which is at the heart of Scripture, has become lost to us. It is alien and strange to us - what was once the primary way to pull moral lessons out of the Bible.
We need to recapture the four senses to allow the Holy Spirit to make Scripture come alive to us once more.
Sources and deeper drives ⬇️🧵
St. Jerome states, “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ” (CCC 112). In other words, we come to know the reality of Jesus Christ by reading Holy Scripture.
Many know that the Church tells us to interpret Scripture through four senses: literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical.
But…
Aquinas and Dante also interpreted *reality* this way.
How? ⬇️🧵
The medieval mind understood that the world was like a painting.
Like a Painter who has an idea of a tree and then creates a painting of a tree, so too do our trees image the idea of a tree in the mind of the Creator, God.
Our world is a sign or symbol of the spiritual. ⬇️🧵
Let’s look at some examples:
#1
The most real thing is not found in material things but in the spiritual Idea.
For example, if all that was green was destroyed in the cosmos, green would still exist as an Idea in the Divine Mind—the perfect idea of green.
How can we read the Bible like St. Thomas Aquinas & Dante?
In the 1300s, Dante wrote a letter to his patron saying you read the Divine Comedy, his epic poem, the same way the early Church read Scripture -- in four senses: literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical. 1/6 🧵🧵
The LITERAL is the historic sense, the intention of the author.
For Dante, the verse "When Israel went out of Egypt" would mean the historic deliverance by Moses. The literal is foundational to all the other three senses, like the foundation of a home, if skewed, skews the rest.
The ALLEGORICAL means one thing may serve as a "type" for another, e.g., like mana being a "type" of Holy Eucharist, foreshadowing it (John 6).
Dante notes that Israel being delivered from Egypt by Moses is like us being delivered from sin by Christ. 3/6 🧵 (photo: @frobrien)
Why did Jesus choose fisherman as disciples? Why not carpenters? Ever wonder?
Christ’s choice of fishermen recalls the primordial waters of Genesis and reveals an ancient pattern of water representing chaos and death that flows throughout all of Scripture.
In Genesis… 1/
After God made the heavens and the earth, the earth is formless, void, and covered in water - the Spirit of God flutters over the deep.
From that chaos, God draws forth the beauty of Creation. Order from disorder. This opening provides a template for other stories, like Noah 2/
In Noah, the primordial waters of Creation are recalled by God to retake the earth in chaos and death.
Yet, God again in His mercy drew forth salvation from the watery depths and humanity was made anew with Noah and his family. 3/
Yesterday, I took my family to a diner in small town Oklahoma.
We were a family of six in a small diner, but the kids behaved well. Next to us was an ancient looking man, alone, wearing a “Vietnam Combat Vet” hat.
As we packed up to leave, the elderly man waved me over… 1/4🧵
With my infant in tow, I had to get quite close to be able to hear him.
With teary eyes, he pointed to my family and said, “this is what I fought in the war for.”
The immediate solemnity of the moment was staggering, palpable.
I grasped his arm, looked him in eyes… 2/4 🧵
And said “thank you, thank you.”
My words paled in comparison to the gravity of the moment, but he could tell his statement had an immediate effect upon me - one I tried to return as intentional gratitude.
My eldest could tell something happened, I tried to explain… 3/4 🧵
Today is the feast of St. Teresa of Avila, famous for her "Transverberation."
"The sweetness caused by this intense pain is so extreme that one cannot possibly wish it to cease."
Let's talk about eros (erotic love) in Christianity without being puritanical or bourgeois: 1/9 🧵
Eros, erotic love, is a need-love, a self-love, an appetite for affirmation, fulfillment, and rest by satiating in beauty.
While the beauty of the lover and sex is often introductory, erotic love is actually a call to ascend toward greater beauties. 2/9
When eros is satisfied we are happy, we delight in beauty.
But we want to be happy all of the time, not just some of the time, and our finite beloved, a person, cannot satisfy our infinite erotic thirst. It is impossible.