uncertain dogma

aristotle on truth :: me on the self-made person

david b. clark — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 03:11:29 +0000

The investigation of the truth is in one way hard, in another way easy. An indication of this is found in the fact that no one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand, no one fails entirely, but everyone says something true about the nature of things, and while individually they contribute little or nothing to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed.

|| Aristotle, Metaphysics

The individual and ambitious process of becoming self-made is in one way hard, and in another way easy. This can be seen in the fact that no can become self-made adequately, while, on the other hand, no one fails entirely, but achieves some progress in individuation and independence, and while individually they contribute little or nothing to their own concept of their self, by the union of all a considerable amount is formed.

setting out on a long journey

david b. clark — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:00:59 +0000

A person has to be thoroughly disgusted with the way things are to find the motivation to set out on the Christian way. As long as we think that the next election might eliminate crime and establish justice or another scientific breakthrough might save the environment or another pay raise might push us over the edge of anxiety into a life of tranquility, we are not likely to risk the arduous uncertainties of the life of faith. A person has to get fed up with the ways of the world before he, before she, acquires an appetite for the world of grace.

|| Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

a hard question

david b. clark — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:53:24 +0000

When is injustice so unspeakable that it demands violent response?

http://thehardestquestion.org/yearc/ordinary16ot/#more-246

blessed are the peacemakers

david b. clark — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 01:50:28 +0000

dear god

david b. clark — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:05:45 +0000

living dangerously

david b. clark — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 17:52:05 +0000

To be a Christian is to live dangerously, honestly, freely — to step in the name of love as if you may land on nothing, yet to keep stepping because the something that sustains you no empire can give you and no empire can take away.

|| Cornel West, Democracy Matters

a miracle this way comes

david b. clark — Mon, 17 May 2010 02:27:24 +0000

looking, looking for

a hope in the real that is real

waiting, waiting for

a hope that has walked through the catechism of life

conceived in the resurrection of Christ

still enduring the labor pains of an endless night

it will come as a surprise, radiating in the complexity of joy

baffling the intelligence that I have endured

revealing a creativity that comes from beyond

the forced, listless art of the noonday

a miracle this way comes

child labor in agriculture

david b. clark — Fri, 07 May 2010 03:03:17 +0000

the life and legacy of cesar chavez

david b. clark — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 02:43:49 +0000

nietzsche and holy saturday

david b. clark — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 01:23:56 +0000

the madman

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: “I seek God! I seek God!”—As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated?—thus they yelled and laughed.

The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. “Whither is God?” he cried; “I will tell you. We have killed him—you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.

“How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us—for the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto.”

Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. “I have come too early,” he said then; “my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than the most distant stars—and yet they have done it themselves.”

It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternaum deo. Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: “What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?”

|| Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, book 3, 125