It should be obvious that we must think of infinity here as other than an infinite succession or series. We must think of qualitative inexhaustibility rather than quantitative accumulation and summation. In a sense, such qualitative inexhaustibility is more than humans can think. And yet we can truthfully point to manifestations or images of such inexhaustibility in our human habitation of the middle. We divine it in the greatness of an unsurpassable artist, in the incalculable nobility of ethical heroism, in the measureless profundity of religious holiness. We praise its creative power when we celebrate being itself as agapeic.
Here is the second installment of my paper on a mutually enriching conversation between Maximus Confessor’s theological vision and the Christian tradition of hospitality; a scaled down version of which I recently presented at the Pappas Conference on the Church Fathers at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary. The section of the paper below follows upon my previous post and an exploration of Maximus’ Christology (which I am not posting on TLOU). Thank you for your attention and any thoughts you may have… Continue reading ‘St. Maximus Confessor and Christian Hospitality II’
This poem came out of studying The Cappadocians, three men and one woman who were 4th centery Eastern, Greek speaking xtians who had a huge part in the formation of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. They were affirming the goodness of Creation in the midst of all the muck and dung that we seem to endlessly make out of our lives and world. This has often been a great struggle for me. So there are Hebrew and Greek words referring to various human, social realities. Nietzsche has breathed in my ear in times of agnostic, nihilistic struggle in the past so he shows up dueling with Macrina. I wrote it during a rain storm outside the GF Java Cafe in my hometown of Jamestown, TN. Continue reading ‘Like Mercy’
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