Love

St John Climacus on Love, Lust, and Marriage: Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 15, on Purity & Chastity
Ladder of Divine Ascent

St John Climacus on Love, Lust, and Marriage: Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 15, on Purity and Chastity

12/07/2024 Bruce Strom 0

Laymen often wonder: How can those who are married be chaste? In his commentary on the Ladder of Divine Ascent, Father Vassilios Papavassiliou teaches us that “people tend to think of chastity in purely sexual terms as the virtue opposed to sexual depravity.” But just as the word concupiscence has a deeper meaning for Catholics, chastity has a deeper meaning for Orthodox Christians. “In the Orthodox marriage service, we pray that the newlyweds may live in chastity. But yet in the same service, we pray numerous times that they may have honorable children. How can a couple live in” “sexual purity, and yet have children?”
The simple answer is that chastity and sexual purity are not exactly the same. He points out that “a fuller, more accurate translation of the Greek term sphrosini is whole-mindedness, or harmony between the flesh and the spirit.” Father Vassilios teaches us that in the Church “the intimate union between husband and wife is a living symbol of the union between Christ, the Bridegroom, and the Church, His Bride,” which is why intimacy should be experienced by a man and his wife. […]

Summary of Mere Christianity, WWII Ecumenical Broadcast: Morality, Not Polemics
CS Lewis

Summary of CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity, WWII Ecumenical Broadcast: Morality Not Polemics

06/14/2024 Bruce Strom 0

Many scholars speculate on whether CS Lewis was inspired by the writings of Richard Baxter, a Puritan and prolific author who first coined the phrase “Mere Christianity.” Baxter lived during the intense religious struggle in the late 1600’s, a century after Henry VIII split from the Catholic Church to form the Anglican Church. Baxter was appointed to the royal chaplaincy, but he left his post after the passage of the Act of Uniformity in 1662, which required that all pastors exclusively use the Book of Common Prayer and be ordained as Anglican ministers. Baxter was reluctant to adopt a denomination, proclaiming that “I am a Christian, a MEER CHRISTIAN, of no other religion,” and “I am against all sects and dividing parties.” He did not want to identify either with Catholics, or Anglicans, or Presbyterians. […]

Faith, Hope, Charity, and Love in CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: The Theological Virtues
CS Lewis

Faith, Hope, Charity, and Love in CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: The Theological Virtues

05/30/2024 Bruce Strom 2

CS Lewis teaches us, “Charity means Love in the Christian sense. But love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves and must learn to have about other people.”
“Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did.” Be kind to your neighbor, and often you will like and love him more. But if they do not reciprocate, or are openly hostile, love them anyway, and help them if you can. We always find it easier to love, or like, those who are courteous towards us. […]

Anders Nygren, On Christian Agape-Love and Eros-Love in Gospels and Pauline Epistles
Biblical Interpretation

Anders Nygren, On Christian Agape-Love and Eros-Love in Gospels and Pauline Epistles

03/20/2024 Bruce Strom 2

Anders Nygren emphasizes that “Old Testament piety with its devotion to the Law was by no means the external legalism it is often assumed to have been. There was an inward bond that held the godly man to the Law. The righteous felt no sense of external compulsion when confronted by the Law, but a sense of inner solidarity with it. Its observance gave him value and made him acceptable to God. His prevailing mood was expressed in Psalm 1,” the Psalm that sings of Law as Gospel. […]

Modern Stoic Philosophers: My Favorite Maxims: Viktor Frankl, Nelson Mandela, and Others
Philosophy

Modern Stoic Philosophers: My Favorite Maxims: Viktor Frankl, Nelson Mandela, and Others

02/23/2024 Bruce Strom 0

Why don’t the Roman Stoics discuss justice as much as Plato? In the direct Radical Democracy of Athens, the citizens served on the juries and passed the laws, which meant that ordinary citizens participated in rendering justice. This is why Socrates sought to educate ordinary citizens on justice. But in the Roman Empire, the totalitarian Emperors and their servants were responsible for the administration of justice, the ordinary citizens no longer directly influenced the administration of justice. But that is not the case in modern America and most democracies, many ordinary citizens serve on juries and vote for many political officials, local and national. Justice should be our concern.
You can make a strong argument that Stoicism, like Judaism and Christianity, is founded on the two-fold Love of God and neighbor, that you should Love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Plus, we have the St Maximus the Confessor corollary, that we should be eager to forgive our neighbor. […]

Major Roman Stoic Philosophers, My Favorite Maxims: Epictetus, Rufus, Seneca & Marcus Aurelius
Philosophy

Major Roman Stoic Philosophers, My Favorite Maxims: Epictetus, Rufus, Seneca & Marcus Aurelius

02/02/2024 Bruce Strom 3

Many of the writings of the Stoics sound like passages from the Pauline Epistles. Indeed, Seneca was a contemporary of St Paul. There are epistles written between them, though nearly all scholars think they are spurious. Was St Paul inspired by the Stoic writings of Seneca? Although the Jewish rabbinic tradition was the primary source of inspiration for the Epistles and the Gospels, stoicism was an important secondary influence. In particular, stoicism deeply influenced the desert monastic tradition, which in turn influenced medieval monasticism. […]

Summary Platonic Dialogues on Love and Friendship
Philosophy

Summary of Platonic Dialogues on Love, With Commentary by Copleston and Anders Nygren

11/24/2023 Bruce Strom 2

How can we benefit by reflecting on Four Platonic Dialogues on Love: Lysis, Alcibiades, Symposium, and Phaedrus? How similar are they? Was it possible for men and women, and husbands and wives, to be friends in ancient Greece and Rome? Did the Platonic dialogues on love condone or encourage homosexuality […]

Platonic Dialogue Alcibiades 1, On Friendship, :Leadership, and Love
Philosophy

Platonic Dialogue Alcibiades 1, On Friendship, Leadership, and Love

07/14/2023 Bruce Strom 1

In antiquity through the Renaissance, Alcibiades I was a highly regarded Platonic dialogue, and was often the first dialogue serious students of philosophy studied. However, many modern scholars deprecate this dialogue, arguing that it was not written by Plato. We demur, we tend to side with the ancient, medieval, and Renaissance scholars in such judgments, who tend to be inclusive, whereas modern scholars tend to be exclusive, demanding absolute certainty of proof. Our translator agrees with us, he says that the German scholar Schleiermacher first doubted its authenticity based on scholarly taste and a superficial reading. IMHO, although it does appear to differ from his other earlier dialogues, Alcibiades I was likely either written by Plato, or maybe by one of his brightest students, with his input. […]

Lysis, Platonic Dialogue on Love and Friendship, Where Old Men Ogle Boys at the Gymnasium
Philosophy

Lysis, Platonic Dialogue on Love and Friendship, Where Old Men Ogle Boys at the Gymnasium

07/12/2023 Bruce Strom 3

SOCRATES asks whether “only good men can be friends with one another? Can true friendship exist between a bad man and either a good man or another bad man?” (214d) The response of St John of the Cross would likely be that friendship with a bad man will draw you further away from the Love of God, poisoning your soul, leading you away from salvation. Friendship with a good man leads you to love and compassion, friendship with a bad men leads you to hatred and cruelty. […]

Prayer of St Franics and Brother Giles SMALL
Lives of Saints

Who Was the Author of the Prayer of St Francis? Sayings of Brother Giles

05/12/2023 Bruce Strom 1

We can say definitely that the Prayer of St Francis was not actually written by St Francis, it first appeared in the December 1912 issue of the French Catholic publication, La Clochette. Quite likely it was penned by the founding editor, Father Esther Bouquerel. Around 1918, it was printed without attribution on the back side of a holy card with a painting of St Francis. Someone then reprinted it in an English translation in 1927, innocently misattributing it to St Francis. Archbishop Francis Spellman printed millions of copies of the prayer during World War II, and it was read into the Congressional Record. […]