Berdyaev on Christology of humanity

Back when I was in seminary and writing on Dostoevsky’s theory about personality, Suzy introduced me to a biography written by Nikolai Berdyaev that she had from high school (she’s so cool). As it turns out, this is one of the best thematic biographies out there on Dostoevsky. He makes an excellent attempt to capture some of the common threads and lays them out for you in a way that makes you want to read Brothers Karamazov over and over again.

Anyway, I ran across this quote tonight and it really struck me:

Christianity has always taught of the weakness and fall of humanity, of the sinfulness and weakness of human nature. At the same time, Christian anthropology recognizes the absolute and royal significance of humanity, since it teaches the incarnation of God and the divine possibilities in humans, the mutual inter-penetration of divine and human natures. But for some deep reason, hidden in the secret of times and seasons, Christianity never revealed in its fullest what one might venture to call a Christology of humanity, that is the secret of humanity’s divine nature, a dogma of humanity, analogous to the dogma of Christ. Christianity has revealed the nature of the Holy Trinity and the nature of Christ, but very little of the nature of humanity. … And yet in Christian revelation the truth about humanity’s divine nature is really only the reverse of the medal of truth about Christ’s human nature. The Christology of humanity is inseparable from that of the Son of God: Christ’s self-consciousness is inseparable from that of humanity. The Christological revelation is also an anthropological revelation. And the task of humanity’s religious consciousness is to reveal the Christological consciousness of humanity.

Most of his books aren’t even in print anymore, but you can still get them used. Anything that mentions him these days just lumps him in with other existentialist theologians like Tillich, Buber and Maritain. I remember when I was studying to write that paper that I had about four of Berdyaev’s books and I couldn’t stop reading long enough to write my paper. That seemed to be a trend throughout my entire education. At least now I can read without have to worry about turning a paper in on time!

Why Chesterton is my hero

Back in college we spent some time studying apologetics classical style. We scoffed at the trite and superficial ravings of Josh McDowell; we dove right into G.K. Chesterton. The hard part about was that his best work wasn’t in writing an apology for the Christian faith, though his Orthodoxy is ranked among the best, it was in his fiction and his social commentary. He didn’t have to come out and say, “This is why I believe…” Chesterton studied the world around him, digested what he took in, and then proceeded to comment…on everything. He wrote just over 4,000 essays, 223 short stories and 82 books, not to mention countless letters. Let’s assume he didn’t start publishing until he was twenty and keep in mind that he was 62 when he died. That’s like writing two books, five short stories, and 100 essays each year. Granted, some of these books are small, but it’s taken me almost a year just to read a couple of them because they are so thick with meaning!

Anyway, what reminded me of Chesterton today was an umbrella stand. Strange, I know, but that’s how mind mind works. He has this one essay in What’s Wrong With the World called “The Fallacy of the Umbrella Stand.” I’ll try and put things into perspective the best I can here. He always critiqued everyone – Socialists, Anarchists and Capitalists alike. In this particular essay he is writing about how Socialists tend to blur the line between what should be public and those things that are private. They take personal liberties and creativity away by trying to force everyone into the same mold.

To illustrate just how great the Socialist’s misunderstanding of human nature is, he states that a Socialist is “a man who thinks a walking stick and an umbrella the same because they both go into an umbrella stand.” As if the two are not different enough, he continues the illustration and describes their respective qualities. The umbrella is a shield, shelter and a convenience. The walking stick is a sword, ceremonial and a pleasure. This is my favorite quote

An umbrella is a necessary evil. A walking stick is a quite unnecessary good. This, I fancy, is the real explanation of the perpetual losing of umbrellas; one does not hear of people losing their walking sticks. For a walking stick is a pleasure, a piece of real personal property; it is missed even when it is not needed. When my right hand forgets its stick, may it forget its cunning. But anybody may forget an umbrella, anybody can forget a necessary thing.

Though the two items may seem similar as you see them sticking out of the umbrella stand, their soul and function are completely opposite. I guess all of this rambling is to say that I wish I was cool enough to use a walking stick every day…

(For the record, I really don’t know where my umbrella is, but my walking stick is in the basement leaning against some shelves.)

Patristic Word of the Day

Here we were at the end of the day…a Friday at work, the end of a long work week and we were trying to be creative. Imagine trying to come up with some type of verb that will describe all of the work that we do in our health initiative. Not necessarily a big or difficult task, but we were all pretty tapped (this is partly due to the fact that we had a pot luck for lunch and everyone was probably busy digesting. For some reason one of the words from a favorite church father popped into my head, apokatastasis. I know you are probably thinking to yourself that you cannot even pronounce the word, but my problem is that I cannot stop pronouncing it! It has one of those sing-songy cadences to it that just won’t quit. It wouldn’t be that bad accept that this simple word sparks all kinds of connections in my head – Origen, Plotinus, Neoplatonism, etc. My brain is so tired that it can’t help itself, it just keeps going from one connection to the other.

To bring things back to this century, there is a show (on hiatus till fall) called Chuck. It is one of those cheesy, fun comedies that you can watch for an hour without really thinking about much other than the realization that for the last hour you had a good time. Anyway, at the beginning of the show, Chuck opens up an email and is inundated with images that imprint a supercomputer onto his brain. Later, when he sees people or words that are part of this database, he “flashes” and has total recall about subject in question.

Well, that’s what happened to me today…with a few exceptions. I didn’t really flash, my recall is a little on the hazy side, and I can’t seem to stop thinking about it. My only hope is that tonight when I am enjoying the season premier of Battlestar Galactica with my wife and friends tonight I don’t yell out “apokatastasis” instead of “so say we all.” We’ll see…

American History 101

David McCullough has an amazing ability to get people interested in history. Over the past forty years he has written about American history and fiction, usually a combination of the two. For the past few weeks, Suzy and I have been watching the HBO mini-series John Adams that is based on his biography of our second president. We have been intrigued both by how good the story is and even more by how little we remember (more accurately how little we knew) about John Adams (and his amazing wife, Abigail) and some of the details around the beginnings of the United States. I think part of our lack of knowledge must be in the way it was taught when we were in school even though I though I knew American history pretty well.

Ever since we moved to NYC, we have been all over this part of the country visiting historical sites and museums like it’s going out of style. We’ve taken trips to Boston and Cape Cod, all over New York, and Philadelphia a couple of times. Our trips to Philly probably stand out more than all of the others in terms of reliving history. They do an excellent job of putting the whole thing out on display and making it a part of the culture of the city. It’s hard to leave Philly without experiencing some piece of history that speaks to you. Thanks to McCullough and HBO I’ve been given a renewed shot of patriotism and just when I really needed it…

“Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.” – John Adams, 1765

“Humanity obliges us to be affected with the distresses and miseries of our fellow creatures. Friendship is a band yet stronger, which causes us to feel with greater tenderness the afflictions of our friends.” – Abigail Adams, 1763

Hilarious

If the economy keeps heading this direction, it’s not too far from the truth…

New phone

So, ever since I got a blackberry about a year ago I have been trying to get a replacement or upgrade. The one I inherited did not exactly work right. Many times the phone would get stuck and I wouldn’t be able to even hang up the phone. This would usually result in taking off the back cover and removing the battery. Recently, things took a turn for the worse and I lost operation of a couple of important buttons. But just as things were looking bleak, there was hope on the horizon…my new blackberry showed up in the mail. Ever since Thursday I have been spending a lot of time playing (and working) on my new phone.

Changes on the horizon…

So, I realize that I haven’t posted anything since last August, but I have good reason – I haven’t felt like it. The last time I put anything on here I was on vacation with Suzy in Philadelphia. A few things have happened since the end of last summer. At work we moved our entire warehouse in a couple of months. Even though we only moved two blocks, it was no small task. It felt like it would never end and now it seems like the “making it a home” stage just keeps dragging on.

What else has happened (as if that wasn’t enough)? My good friend Zach and his wife Viola moved back to Poland. Our other friends living abroad in South Africa moved back to the States (Prescott, AZ) with their two great danes. We took some trips to Johnson City, my in-laws in Virginia, Pennsylvania Dutch country, and Quebec City for their 400th anniversary.

And for the grand finale (drum roll please)….Suzy and I are going to have a child in September! Yeah, crazy, I know! We found out back in January, but wanted to wait a while before we made it “official” and told everyone. I figured since I’m already past the 30 milestone that it would be a good idea to go ahead and get started on the family front so I’m not in a wheelchair by the time they start driving. I’m really looking forward to it though, Suzy just finished her first trimester, so hopefully the nausea is over. We even went shopping for maternity clothes the other day, a good clue that things are about to change…

At least her name is Greek…

Maybe I should have stayed in chemical engineering…

Changing of the Guard

I knew about it for a while before it actually became official, but my boss at The Storehouse has decided to take another position with a different non-profit in NYC. He will be with us through Easter, but then we’re on our own, so to speak. It’s kind of strange that just over a year ago I was still getting my World Vision “legs”…trying to make sense of all the acronyms and processes the organization uses. Things have really been moving pretty quickly the past couple of months in our attempts to start new programs and strengthen the ones already operating, but this past week (and the next month or so, it seems) it just kicked into overdrive. My boss was the one who opened up the NYC Storehouse and developed relationships that he is trying to hand over to me. It wouldn’t be so bad, but with all the new stuff already on our plate… it’s like eating an extra couple of helpings at Thanksgiving when you are already stuffed! If you think my posts have been sparse lately, get ready for a true dry spell…