Category: Personal

what goes first

or why order matters.

Faith is the highest passion in a human being. There are perhaps many in every generation who do not even come to it, but nobody goes further. Whether there are also many in our age who do not discover it, I do not decide; I dare only refer to myself, who does not conceal that it may not happen for a long time to come for him, yet without his therefore wishing to deceive himself or the great by making it into a trifling matter, into a childhood malady one must wish to get over as soon as possible. But life has tasks enough also for the one who does not one day come to faith, and if he honestly loves them, then his life will not be wasted, even if it never becomes like those who were sensible of and grasped the highest. But the one who has come to faith (whether he is extraordinarily gifted or simple-minded does not matter) does not come to a standstill in faith. Indeed, he would be shocked if someone said this to him, just as the lover would feel indignant if one said he had come to a standstill in love, for he would answer, “I am not standing still at all since I have my life in it.” Yet he gets no further, nor to something else, for if he discovers the latter, then he has another explanation.

Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy), 108-109

“I am”

Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.

John 18:4-6 KJV

Further to Truth and Jesus …

Thought 3: The reaction (fell to the ground) is unexpected. Why? When Jesus says “I am”, He connects Himself to revelation of the Divine Name (Exodus 3:15). He is the Divine Truth revealed to Moses in the burning bush. He is Truth Incarnate.

Thought 4:

Ascetical theology makes the bold and exciting assumption that every truth flowing from the Incarnation, from the entrance of God into the human world as man, must have its practical lesson. If theology is incarnational, then it must be pastoral.

English Spirituality, 21

Truth and Jesus

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 14:6 (KJV)

I am not much of a theologian (says the fool all proud!) but these are some random thoughts on the verse above.

Thought 1: Jesus does not say, “I am going to give you the truth”. He says, “I am the truth”. It is not a truth about Jesus but Jesus Himself. Jesus does not provide a system of thought, a way of living, or a way of locating truth – He says, “I am the truth”. In Buber’s terms, truth is not an it (facts and inference) but a You (a relationship). There is no “truth” beyond Jesus.

Thought 2: Jesus does not say, “Wherever you think you find truth, there am I.” Yes, there is truth apart from Jesus. Yet finding truth and finding Jesus are not the same thing. Jesus is a person and so truth is personal. Jesus says, “I am the truth”. There is no “truth” beyond Jesus.

I am going to add to this via other posts, methinks.

east of what?

What’s a classic book that you think is overrated?

So a book I think is overrated? Let me make sure, I could not get into this book no matter how hard I tried. Well, only one: East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Online claims are that it is the “perfect book” (and I agree that it has merits) but I could not get through it. It simply did not connect with me.

Maybe I should try it again?

der garstige breite Graben

Who are some underrated people in history?

I will not say Jesus because he is a person of faith, for me, more than a person of history. But …

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) and his ditch (der garstige breite Graben) is highly underrated. Good insight into epistemology! And into faith. Only Kierkegaard, methinks, gives an answer.

In religion, St Mary of Egypt – penitence without the institution.

And maybe me!?

Ascension Eve

The 1928 BCP UK calls today Ascension Eve. The 1662 BCP calls it Rodation Wednesday.


Epistle. Eph. 4.7-13

[But] unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

Gospel. John 17. 1-11

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.