Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Define

12.29

Alison Brie

Define
Portion
定义部分
Dìngyì bùfèn
部分を定義
Bubun o teigi
ps119.49
Define pars

Remember your word to the child in your service.
You had given me hope in the production of surplus.

The public's ownership of private property is for the public.
Even a celestial scarecrow can dance with the muppets.

The push to make private property public
reduces the capacity to care for one's own uplift.

The defense of person or property
is a right for those who choose to see
natural design providentially. 

This is my comfort in the time of hardship.
Your love gives my life of faith promise. 

I have not turned from your law
though belief in cruelty has defined me as a flaw.

I take comfort in the memory of your judgment.
The influx of your uncreated energy has helped with adjustment.

I remember your Name for what you have done.
Your deliverance from darkness has been won
for life in the light of the sun.

Your statutes have been like songs
whenever I have learned to right my wrongs.

I have learned how to see what your law meant
because I dedicated my soul to your commandments.

Your word leads me to my portion of your providence
with confidence in the consciousness of consonance 
with the owner's provenance.

I have promised to keep your words
to overcome hardship, adversity and the absurd.

I entreat you with my heart
to grant mercy on your part.

I have considered ideals 
for pragmatic deals
and the practice of policy
that doesn't abolish me.

I do not tarry 
when it comes time to carry
my weight for your love
to wait for the Spirit as a dove.

I define my purpose with logic for function
to complete my role in the conjunction
of induction with deduction. 

Though the cords of insecurity seek to entangle my memory,
I won't concede conceptually to treachery
by the false perception of the sensory.



Deception is the art of magicians.
It teaches a lesson in testing the positions
of politicians for provision by the vision 
of the mission.



The appearance of an event doesn't always show an agent as the cause.
Even the roll of the dice was supposed to be an accidental element to what the outcome was. 

I am filled with indignant station 
for the generation of invalid vexation.

How much does this cost?
Is time all that has been lost?  

I will rise to give thanks at night
for righteous judgment with insight.

I am a companion to those who have the faith
to keep your commandments at length for what's great.

The earth is full of the love of creation.
Matter expresses the substance of design for elation.

You have done well in instruction for service
with the definition of purpose to be purchased. 

Teach me the discernment of knowledge for wisdom
in the business of showing vision with rhythm for a system.

I had gone astray when I was afflicted
with an addiction that was predicted 
as restrictive and constricted
in a way that had been depicted.

I have learned that it has been your word
that helped me infer behavior that is preferred.

You are the good that brings forth goodness
with instruction from the hoodless
in how to avoid hoodiness.

Liars have smeared me with lies
but I will keep my faith despite their tries
to force me to do otherwise.

Their heart is engrossed with flaw
but my delight is in your law.

I incurred a lesson in how not to be
from those who have afflicted me.

The words of your law are more dear 
than thousands of words filled with false cheer.

Jerusalem is a jewel in the land of promise.
The bride is adorned with the sparkle of solace.

The nations see glory in the vindication of your existence.
Exculpation exonerates the confirmation of faithful persistence. 

Christ came that we might be justified by faith.
The Son was born of woman under the law as great.

The Spirit of the Son has been sent into our hearts
because we are children who cry to the Father for our part. 

You are no longer a slave but a child.
As a child you are an heir both reconciled and mild.

---------------------

Zayin
7th letter
Memor esto verbi tui
Remember the word you

49 Remember your word to your servant,
because you have given me hope.
50 This is my comfort in my trouble,
that your promise gives me life.
51 The proud have derided me cruelly,
but I have not turned from your law.
52 When I remember your judgments of old,
O Lord, I take great comfort.
53 I am filled with a burning rage,
because of the wicked who forsake your law.
54 Your statutes have been like songs to me
wherever I have lived as a stranger.
55 I remember your Name in the night, O Lord,
and dwell upon your law.
56 This is how it has been with me,
because I have kept your commandments.

Heth
8th letter
Portio mea, Domine
My portion, Dominated

57 You only are my portion, O Lord;
I have promised to keep your words.
58 I entreat you with all my heart,
be merciful to me according to your promise.
59 I have considered my ways
and turned my feet toward your decrees.
60 I hasten and do not tarry
to keep your commandments.
61 Though the cords of the wicked entangle me,
I do not forget your law.
62 At midnight I will rise to give you thanks,
because of your righteous judgments.
63 I am a companion of all who fear you
and of those who keep your commandments.
64 The earth, O Lord, is full of your love;
instruct me in your statutes.

Teth
9th letter
Bonitatem fecisti
You have done well

65 O Lord, you have dealt graciously with your servant,
according to your word.
66 Teach me discernment and knowledge,
for I have believed in your commandments.
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray,
but now I keep your word.
68 You are good and you bring forth good;
instruct me in your statutes.
69 The proud have smeared me with lies,
but I will keep your commandments with my whole heart.
70 Their heart is gross and fat,
but my delight is in your law.
71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
that I might learn your statutes.
72 The law of your mouth is dearer to me
than thousands in gold and silver.

-----------------------
=================
-----------------------

Zayin- sword; weapon (Phoenician rt.)
Heth- portion; court (Egyptian rt.)
Teth- wheel (Phoenician rt.); good

How much does this cost?
Chn.  这个多少钱?
            Zhège duōshǎo qián?
Jpn.  この費用はいくらですか?
           Kono hiyō wa ikuradesu ka?
Krn.  이 얼마예요?
           i eolmayeyo?
Ltn.  Quanti hoc cost?
Itln. Quanto costa questo?
Grk. Πόσο κοστίζει αυτό?
          Póso kostízei aftó?
Spn. ¿Cuánto cuesta este?
Frn.  Combien ça coûte?
Gmn. Wieviel kostet das?
Hgn.   Mennyibe kerül?
Trk.    Ne kadar ediyor?
Rsn.   Сколько это стоит?

-----------------------

Psalm 119


Psalm 119 is a hymn about the perfection that is found with the law. A hymn is a song of praise that celebrates the work of the divine energy in history.

This hymn has 176 verses. The number makes it the longest psalm. It is also the chapter with the most verses in the bible.

It is a prayer of one who delights in and lives by the moral code of the Torah as the sacred law.

The psalm is arranged in an acrostic pattern. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The  hymn contains 22 units of 8 verses each.

Each of the 22 sections is given to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each line in that section begins with that letter.

The closest parallel to this pattern in Scripture is found in Lamentations 3. This chapter is also divided into 22 sections. There are a few other passages in the Hebrew Scriptures which use an acrostic pattern.

The author is unnamed. The celebration of perfection as the aim for the law gives the style a post-exilic characteristic. Scripture is mentioned in at least 171 of the 176 verses.

Here are 8 basic words used to describe the Scriptures as the written revelation. Law or torah is used 25 times. Word or dabar is used 24 times. Judgments or mispatim is used 23 times.

Testimonies or edot is used 23 times. Commandments is used 22 times. Statutes is used 21 times. Precepts is used 21 times. Word or imrah is used 19 times.

Piety is defined as a love of God that is not desiccated by study but refreshed, informed and nourished by it.

The 57th verse uses the Hebrew letter heth. Heth is derived from the Egyptian letter for court yard. The Hebrew word for “portion” translates into “inheritance or part.”

---------------------

Zion


Third Isaiah was composed after the return from Exile. This section included chapters 56-66.
Isaiah 44:6 contains the first clear statement of monotheism: "I am the first and I am the last; beside me there is no God".

This concept was developed in contrast to the god of gods as a theological justification for the king of kings in the Middle Eastern political hierarchy.

It is worth noting that the Achaemanid, Greek and Roman empires had a single emperor that appointed governors to govern the provinces. The Achaemanids selected Nehemiah to govern.

The Greeks appointed a foreigner. The Romans allowed a Idumean to act as a client king until the monarchy was dissolved with the destruction of Jerusalem.

The model for monotheism became the defining characteristic of post-Exilic Judaism. It eventually became the basis for Christianity and Islam.

The four so-called Songs of the Suffering Servant from Isaiah 42, 49, 50 and 52 call upon the servant to lead the nations. The servant was horribly abused, sacrificed himself in accepting the punishment due others and was finally rewarded.

Some Second Temple texts including the Wisdom of Solomon and the Book of Daniel identified the Servant as a group. The "wise" would "will lead many to righteousness" (Daniel 12:3). The Similitudes of Enoch understood the oracle in messianic terms.

The earliest Christians built on this second tradition. Isaiah 52:13–53:12 presented the fourth of the songs. It was interpreted as a prophecy of the death and exaltation of Jesus. This role was accepted by Jesus according to Luke 4:17–21.

Promises made to the Jews for the return out of captivity are viewed as indicators that Trito-Isaiah wrote after the exile. Clothing in the garments of salvation was testimony that the promise would be extended to the ends of the earth.

The promises have been interpreted as from Christ to the Church. There must have been a hope that monotheism would result in one official state religion for the realm. Problems for the state did not arise until the official faith was treated as the only legal religion.

The amendment against law by Congress for the establishment of religion or against the free exercise of it was the product of the Spirit of the bible as inferred in opposition to the Inquisition, Crusades, Witch Hunts, indulgences, slavery or religious persecution by the state.

The practice of putting down protest based on disagreement may have been believed to have been directed against the spirit of rebellion, but any legislation that supported the action was viewed as sectarian insofar as it had violated the promotion of respect for the law by other legal religions. 

This was not in the Spirit of the promise of salvation as offered by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The sacrifice was made once for all time. Scripture states that the Messiah came to set the captives free. He was to help the blind to see, the lame to walk and the poor to rejoice in the promise as a liberation in the pursuit of happiness in the struggle against hardship.

The restoration of Jerusalem in the state of Israel is seen as a sanctification of legal religion by law.

Isa. 61:10-62:3

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD,
my whole being shall exult in my God.
He has clothed me with the garments of salvation.
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For Zion's sake I will not keep silent.
For Jerusalem's sake I will not rest
until her vindication shines out like the dawn
and her salvation like a burning torch.

The nations shall see your vindication
and all the kings your glory
and you shall be called by a new name
that the mouth of the LORD will give.
You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD
and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

----------------------------

Jerusalem is a jewel in the land of promise.
The bride is adorned with the sparkle of solace.

The nations see glory in the vindication of your existence.
Exculpation exonerates the confirmation of faithful persistence.

=================

Justified by Faith


Galatia was located in Asia Minor or present day Turkey. A number of Celtic Gauls had migrated to the area.

The Galatians were a Gallic (Celtic) people of the Hellenistic period that dwelt mainly in the north central regions of Asia Minor or Anatolia in what was known as Galatia. They were a part of the great migration led by Brennus.

Brennus invaded Greece in 281 BC with a huge war band and was turned back before he could plunder the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Another group had split off from Brennus. They had migrated into Thrace under their leaders Leonnorius and Lutarius. These invaders appeared in Asia Minor in 278–277 BC

Leonnorios led the invasion into the area. The invaders had been invaded by Nicomedes I of Bithynia to help in a dynastic struggle against his brother. Three tribes crossed over from Thrace to Asia Minor.

Their skin was fair. Their hair was red. They spoke a different language. They were eventually defeated by the Seleucid King Antiochus I in a battle where the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Celts. While the momentum of the invasion was broken, the Galatians were by no means exterminated.

The migration led to the establishment of a long-lived Galatian territory in central Anatolia, which included the eastern part of ancient Phrygia that became known as Galatia.

They stayed through the Greek and Roman occupations.

The constitution of the Galatian state is described by Strabo. Each tribe was divided into cantons conformably to custom.

Each was governed by a tetrarch with a judge under him whose powers were unlimited except in cases of murder. Murders were tried before a council of 300 drawn from the twelve cantons who met at a holy place 20 miles south-west of Ancyra.

 It is likely it was a sacred oak grove since the name means 'sanctuary of the oaks' in Gaulish.
The local population of Cappadocians were left in control of the towns and most of the land. They paid tithes to their new overlords who formed a military aristocracy. These nobles kept aloof in fortified farmsteads surrounded by their bands.

These Galatians were warriors. They were respected by Greeks and Romans. They were often hired as mercenaries. Sometimes they fought on both sides in the great battles of the times.

Rome sent Gnaeus Manlius Vulso on an expedition against the Galatians in 189 BCE. The Romans won the Galatian War. Galatia was dominated by Rome until it became a client state in 64.

The old constitution disappeared. Three chiefs were appointed as tetrarchs. One led each tribe. This arrangement soon gave way before the ambition of one of these tetrarchs, Deiotarus. He was the contemporary of Cicero and Julius Caesar. He made himself master of the other two tetrarchies and was finally recognized by the Romans as 'king' of Galatia.

A number of Galatians of the Roman Empire were evangelized by Paul the Apostle's missionary activities in the first century CE.  The Acts of the Apostles recorded that Paul traveled to the "region of Galatia and Phrygia." Phrygia was immediately west of Galatia.

Judaizers were Christians who taught that it was necessary to adopt Jewish customs and practices found in the Law of Moses to be saved. This meant that Gentile converts had to be circumcized even as adults.

The epistle to the Galatians presents the argument against the Judaizers.

Paul's letter is addressed "to the churches of Galatia" (Gal. 1:2). The New Testament says that the churches of Galatia (Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe) were founded by Paul himself (Acts 16:6; Gal.1:6;4:13;4:19). They seem to have been composed mainly of gentile converts (Gal. 4:8).

The churches were led astray from Paul's faith centered teaching after his departure by individuals proposing "another gospel." The different instruction was centered on salvation through the Mosaic law. It was called legalism.

The Galatians appear to have been receptive to the teaching of these newcomers. The epistle is Paul's response to what he sees as their willingness to turn from his doctrine.

There is a political implication that the status of the emperor and the imperial succession by family inheritance or adoption represented a liberation from the law by Christ. Cyrus, an Achaemenid ruler, had been identified as the 'Messiah' by the Hebrew scriptures.

This foreign ruler was considered to be the political extension of the promise of royal succession to the house of David. Circumcision was not a religious rite that was practiced by the Greeks or the Romans.

Paul argued against circumcision as an unnecessary external rite of the religion that wasn't warranted by the promise in the vision revealed to Abraham that he would be the father of nations.

Abraham would become the father by virtue of his faith, not his observance of religious custom. Circumcision was compared to animal sacrifice as something that might have been on the way to obscurity.

Galatians 3:24-25, 4:4-7

We were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. The law was our disciplinarian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of woman, born under law in order to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive adoption as children.

God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts because we are children, crying, 'Abba! Father!' You are no longer a slave but a child. If a child then an heir through God.'

-----------------------

Christ came that we might be justified by faith.
The Son was born of woman under the law as great.

The Spirit of the Son has been sent into our hearts
because we are children who cry to the Father for our part.

You are no longer a slave but a child.
As a child you are an heir reconciled.

=================

Expectation

Heraclitus of Ephesus
b. 535 BCE  Ephesus, Ionia, Persian Empire
d. 475 BCE  Ephesus, Ionia, Delian League

Heraclitus was a Pre-Socratic philosopher from Ionia. He was a native of Ephesus when it was in the Persian Empire.  Kusadasi,Turkey is located where Ephesus had been.

He is known for his doctrine of universal flux. He taught that things are in a constant state of change. Opposites are joined in unity when the abstract definition of concepts doesn't agree with physical reality. Certainty in expectation can be destroyed in the face of disaster or unexpected fortune.

Fire is the essential material element for the world. The universal flux existed in the Word or the Logos, the Reason for change.

Ephesus was a prominent city in Ionia, the Greek-inhabited coast of Asia Minor. He inherited the honorific title for the office of “king” of the Ionians according to one account. He resigned this to his brother. He is generally considered to have favored aristocratic government over democracy based on his political observations.

Ephesus was close to Miletus. This was the city where the first thinkers recognized in later tradition as philosophers lived. There is no record of his having made the acquaintance of any of the Milesian thinkers, Thales, Anaximander or Anaximenes. It is not known that he was taught by them. There is no testimony that he had traveled.

He is said to have written a single papyrus roll). The scroll was reputed to have been deposited in the great temple of Artemis at Ephesus. The story is plausible. Temples often served as depositories for money and other valuables. No libraries are known from the time of Heraclitus in the city.

The fragments that still exist indicate that his book looked more like a collection of proverbs such as were ascribed to the seven sages than like a cosmological treatise of the Milesians.

Theophrastus said that it seemed only half-finished. It was a kind of hodgepodge he attributed to the author’s melancholy.  Diogenes Laertius reported that the work was divided into three sections, one on cosmology, one on politics (and ethics) and one on theology (9.5–6).

All these topics are treated in the extant fragments but it is often difficult to see what boundaries the work might have drawn between them since Heraclitus seems to have seen deep interconnections between science, human affairs and theology.

His logic denied the law of non-contradiction.

His work was structured in contrast to the Greek tradition of philosophy as influenced by the epic poets Homer and Hesiod, the poet and philosopher Xenophanes, the historian and antiquarian Hecataeus, the religious mathematician Pythagoras, the sage Bias of Priene, the poet Archilochus and the Milesian philosophers.

Heraclitus’ most fundamental departure from previous philosophy can be seen in his emphasis on human affairs. While he continued many of the physical and cosmological theories of his predecessors, he shifted his focus from the cosmic to the human realm.

Heraclitus stressed that the message of the Word was not his own invention. It was a timeless truth available to any who attended to the way the world itself is.

Blindness in comprehension was one of his main themes. While all things occurred according to Reason, humans were inexperienced in the experience of events with words. He promised to describe each thing according to its nature to show how it is, but he couldn't guarantee that the description would be understood.

He described the nature of the Word as eternal. It exists. It always existed. It will last forever, but the comprehension of it exceeds the general ability to recognize it.

Opposites are necessary for life, but they are unified in a system of balanced exchange. The world itself consists of a law-like interchange of elements symbolized by fire. The world is not to be identified with any particular substance, but rather with an ongoing process governed by a law of change.

John is the 4th of the canonical gospels. The book was completed around 90-110 CE. It is anonymous, but it is ascribed to the disciple whom Jesus loved. It shares style and content with the 3 Johannine epistles. It is included with the book of Revelations as Johannine, but not from the same author.

The discourses contained in this gospel seem to be concerned with issues of the church–synagogue debate at the time of composition. The community appears to define itself primarily in contrast to Judaism, rather than as part of a wider Christian society. It presents a perspective that is 'in the world' but not fully of it.

Religion was presented as a forum for the monotheistic form rather than for a particular body of people. It managed to suggest the capacity for the integration of the Greek, Roman, Judaic and Persian worlds.

The author knew some version of Mark and possibly Luke. He shared with them some items of vocabulary and clusters of incidents arranged in the same order.

Key terms from the synoptics are absent or nearly so. The author felt free to write independently of the synoptic texts. The wedding in Cana, the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well and the raising of Lazarus, are not paralleled in the other gospels.

The author drew these from an independent source called the "signs gospel". The speeches of Jesus came from a second "discourse" source. The prologue was drawn from an early hymn.

The phrase "the Word" refers to Jesus as indicated in other verses later in the same chapter. This verse and others throughout Johannine literature connect the Christian understanding of Jesus to the philosophical idea of the Logos and the Hebrew Wisdom literature.

John 1:1-6

The Word was with God in the beginning and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him. Not one thing came into being without him. What has come into being in him was life. The life was the light for all people. The light shines in the darkness. The darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light so all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to that which was coming into the world which enlightens everyone.

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The Word was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being by reason with odds.

Life has come into being through chance in the law.
Action against the law is wrong
unless the expression is fatally flawed.

The light shines in darkness.
The darkness did not overcome the harness.

There was a man sent to baptize with water.
John was sent to cleanse and testify against slaughter.

He was not the life of the Light for the world
but he testified for the Word as a flag unfurled.

The Word came as Jesus to baptize with fire
to reconcile worlds as the controversial pacifier.

Logic with metaphor is a powerful tool
for the communication of ideas in the rule
of the schools for trade based on fuel and the jewel.

=================

Private Property


Plato was against an economy based on private property.

"....no one will posses any private property, except for what's entirely necessary." (Republic,416d)

This statement in Plato's Republic was a precursor to more modern ideas such as communism and socialism. "Utopian" ideas like Plato's are suspicious because they point to a totalitarian society as inevitable. What's the difference  between a utopian society like the one in Plato's Republic and the dystopian model presented in, Brave New World or 1984?

Aristotle argued for the private ownership of property as the basis for economics.
Aristotle on private-property and money

Aristotle delivered a cogent attack on the communal ownership of property by the ruling class called for by Plato. Plato's goal of the perfect unity of the state through communism was denounced by pointing out that such extreme unity runs against the diversity of mankind.

It's against the reciprocal advantage that everyone reaps through market exchange.

Aristotle delivered a point-by-point contrast of private as against communal property. Private property is more productive. It will lead to progress.

Goods owned in common by a large number of people will receive little attention. People will mainly consult their own self-interest and will neglect duty when they can leave it to others. People devote the greatest interest and care to their own property by contrast.

One of Plato's arguments for communism is that it is conducive to social peace. No one will be envious. They will not try to grab the property that belongs to all.

Aristotle retorted that communal property leads to continual and intense conflict. Each will complain that he has worked harder and obtained less than others who have done little and taken more from the common store.

They took more because they didn't spend as much time working for what was held in common. They took the time to take as much as they could for as little work as possible.

Not all crimes or revolutions are powered by economic motives. Men do not become tyrants to suffer coldness and deprivation. .

------------------------

Martyrdom


Thomas Beckett
b.  12.21.1119  Cheapside, London, England
d.  12.29.1170  Canterbury Cathedral, Kent, England

Thomas Becket was the son of a merchant who rose to power during the reign of Henry II. The two became friends before Henry was crowned king.

King Henry I had  sent his son to live in Becket's household. It was the custom for noble children to be fostered out to other noble houses.

Thomas and Henry grew up in the same house. They hunted and played chess together.  The two men grew to share one heart and mind.

Thomas didn't pursue higher education, so he was resigned to work as a lower order cleric. He worked for Theobald, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as a liason to Rome. He recommended that Anselm of Canterbury be canonized as a saint.

Theobald  sent him to Bologna and Auxerre to study canon law. He named Becket Archdeacon of Canterbury in 1154.

Other ecclesiastical offices included a number of benefices, prebends at Lincoln Cathedral and St Paul's Cathedral and the office of Provost of Beverley.

His efficiency in those posts led Theobald to recommend him to King Henry II for the vacant post of Lord Chancellor. Becket was appointed in January 1155.

When Theobald died in 1161 Henry selected Becket to replace him as the Archbishop. He was hoping to draw a line for authority in the investiture controversy.

The argument concerned who should invest a new bishop with his staff and ring. This had been carried out by the King in a symbolic demonstration of royal power, but Pope Urban II had changed the practice in 1099. He argued that only the papacy had the authority for the task. Clergy should not pay homage to their local temporal rulers.

This judgment caused friction between Archbishop Anselm and King William when Anselm agreed with the pope. Anselm went into exile.

Henry I succeeded William. He gave up his right to invest his clergy, but retained the custom of requiring them to do homage for the temporalities, the landed properties they held in England.

Henry II held that the English custom was to allow secular courts to try lower order clerics accused of crimes. Becket took the position that all clergy, whether only in minor orders or not, were not to be dealt with by secular powers. Only the ecclesiastical hierarchy could judge the accusation of crime.

Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He engaged in the controversy with King Henry II from 1163 to 1170. The report of his murder tabled the decision regarding royal authority.

BBC History: Thomas Becket
wiki Thomas Becket

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The Bible

John Jay wrote only 7 of the Federalist Papers, but he developed the case for international relations with foreign powers for national security.

The third paper was the second of four essays by Jay on the utility of the Union in protecting Americans against foreign aggression. He had earlier acted as ambassador to Spain and Secretary for Foreign Affairs. This experience contributed to his focus on international relations.

Jay was a member of the Church of England prior to the American Revolution. He joined the Protestant Episcopal Church in America after independence. He had been a warden of Trinity Church, New York since 1785.

Jay served as vice-president (1816-21) and president (1821-27) of the American Bible Society. He believed that the most effective way of ensuring world peace was through propagation of the Christian gospel.

He argued that real Christians will abstain from violating the rights of others in a letter addressed to Pennsylvania House of Representatives member John Murray dated October 12, 1816.  Those who abstain from such a thing will not provoke war.

Most nations had peace or war at the will of rulers whom they did not elect.  Monarchs were not always wise or virtuous. Catholics lacked respect for national security. Republic had to be defined in a way that was strong enough for the life of the nation.

Providence gave people the choice of their rulers. It is the duty, privilege and interest of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. The moral precepts of Christianity were necessary for good government.

No human society had ever been able to maintain both order and freedom with cohesiveness and liberty without moral precepts. Should our Republic ever forget that the fundamental principles for law in our society were drawn from the Bible, the results would be harmful.

Federalist Papers #3
Text

Jay argued that the people of America had entertained the importance of one government vested with sufficient power for all general purposes for a long time in the third Federalist Paper.

Unity for royal sovereignty was a part of western history from the inception of the Christian religion in the holy Roman empire.

The pope blessed each king to select his political and religious officials until Urban II changed the policy in 1099. The change in policy adversely affected the national part of security in each kingdom.

The safety of the nation affords great significance to those who wish to define it precisely and comprehensively to meet the needs of defense from threat caused by a variety of circumstances and considerations.

Security is for the preservation of peace and tranquility against dangers from foreign arms and influence as well as from instability of like kind arising from domestic causes. A cordial union under an efficient national government affords the best security that can be devised against hostility from abroad.

The number of wars which had happened will be found to be in proportion to the number and weight of the causes which provoked or invited them whether real or pretended. What would be the number of causes for war for a united America? Would there not be more for a disunited nation?

Should it turn out that the United America will give the fewest, then it will follow that the union tends most to preserve the people in a state of peace with other nations.

The cause of war arose either from the violation of treaties or from direct violence. America had already formed treaties with no less than six foreign nations.

All of them were maritime except for the agreement with Prussia. The maritime nations were able to cause injury and harassment.

The confederation had also had extensive commerce with Portugal, Spain and Britain. The two latter kingdoms had the circumstance of neighborhood to attend as well.

Once an efficient national government was established, the best people in the country would not only consent to serve, but would also be appointed to manage it.

Although town, country or other contracted influence may have placed officials in assemblies, senates, courts of justice or executive departments, yet more general and extensive reputation for talents and other qualifications are necessary to recommend the qualified to offices in the national government.

This level has the widest field for choice and an overview with respect for law. It would not experience that want of proper persons which was evident in some of the states.

The administration, the political counsel and the judicial decisions will be more systematic and judicious than those of individual states.

Relations with other nations will be more satisfactory and safe.

Treaties, the articles for treaties and the laws of nations will be expounded in one sense and executed in the same manner.

Adjudications on the same points and questions in different states or in more than one confederation would not always be in accord or be consistent.

The wisdom of the convention in committing such questions to the jurisdiction and judgment of courts appointed by and responsible to one national government was to be commended.

The prospect of loss or advantage may tempt the governing party in one or two States to swerve from good faith and justice.

Those temptations will have little or no influence on the national government. That which swayed some states will be fruitless on the greater part of the union. Good faith and justice will be preserved. The treaty of peace with Britain added weight to this reason.

The national government would not be affected by the local circumstance even if there were to be those who should fall to such temptations that result from circumstances peculiar to the state despite the disposition to oppose the fall by the governing party.

They will neither be induced to commit the wrong themselves nor want for power or inclination to prevent or punish its commission by others.

So far as either designed or accidental violations of treaties or the laws of nations afford the  cause of war, they are less to be apprehended under one general government than under several lesser ones. The larger union favors the safety of the people most.

One good government affords more security against dangers from war caused by direct and unlawful violence.

Not a single Indian war had been occasioned by aggression from the federal government. There were instances of Indian hostilities having been provoked by the improper conduct of individual states.

Spanish and British territories bordered on some states and not on others. The cause of quarrel was more immediately confined to the border states. The impulse of sudden irritation induced by a quick sense of apparent interest or injury was most likely to excite war with these nations by direct violence.

A national government is more effective in the mediation of settlement or the amicable resolution of disputes. The pride of states disposed them to justify all their actions and to oppose the acknowledgement, correction or repair of error or offense.

The national view of such cases is not affected by this pride. Moderation and candor consider the means most proper for extrication from difficulties.

The state of Genoa endeavored to appease Louis XIV in 1685. He demanded that they should send their chief magistrate with four of their senators to France to ask his pardon and receive his terms.

They were obliged to submit to his demands for the sake of peace. Would he on any occasion either have demanded or have received like humiliation from Spain, Britain or any other powerful nation?

A strong united nation is not asked to submit to the condition of humiliation.

The condition of the world has changed since the time that Jay offered his argument, but the benefit of national security is still a primary concern for the union. The borders still define the greatest area of concern for the safety of the country.

International relations are best handled at the national level. Trade can be negotiated with respect for the protection of transportation for people and products.

----------------------

Induction


Plato had described the Athenian model for democratic monarchy as insufficient for Greek security. He felt that the Spartan form was more beneficial for the perpetuation of the culture.

His description of love in the Phaedrus conveyed the impression that sexual relations for love were homosexual. The agreement in sexual congress was viewed as a political component that was added to marriage. Whether the relations were for passionate (Bacchanalian) or dispassionate (Apollonian) love the purpose was to establish dominance for dictatorship.

The military emphasis in the dual kingship of the Spartans was seen as adequate for defense against the Persian threat. The idealism of the ideal forms would allow for the development of a confederation of kingdoms for the variable consideration of custom and practice with the Greek language.

Aristotle presented a metaphysical view that was competitive with the Persian empire. His dialectical method allowed for the formation of opinion based on the consideration of various views. His unmoved Mover suggested a level of dispassion in judgment that could rule an empire.

The imperial story line regarding the solicitation of alliance with the threat of genocide or slavery presented a real world dilemma with respect for detachment from the world.

While slavery might conceivably have been used to work slaves into the status of serfs or freedmen, it might also have been used to perpetuate cruelty in punishment or violence in aggression for the sake of private property.

Alexander established a pattern of leadership that insisted on libraries for the collection of documentation of written material and administrators who would organize a system of election for political officials. His acceptance of status as a deity after he defeated the Persians may have been a concession to slavery as a part of imperial government.

If he knew about the Jewish ascription of the title of Messiah to Cyrus as the liberator of the captives, he left the decision regarding the practice open to question with the ambiguity of the definition of what was 'best.'

The Romans adapted the Greek model to an idea of republic that organized public sentiment with religious festival and a system of election. They didn't have gymnasiums for public education, but they used gladiatorial contests and enslavement as the means to reduce the savage threat from barbarian tribes.

The Greek phalanx was adopted as the standard form for military conflicts with the military force from other kingdoms or empires. The emperor was seen as a necessary evil to fight other empires. This said, a line of succession that included adoption as an option was instituted for the perpetuation of the culture.

Octavian countered the notion of homosexuality as necessary for love in political relations with the recognition of the importance of the family as the dominant social influence for political and religious organization.

Justin Martyr countered the notion that the monotheism of Christians was detrimental to the Roman empire with the proposal that homosexuality was unnatural. It encouraged an artificial consensus of women with women and men with men. Either consensus wasn't as good for the public as something that was for the benefit of both.

Monasticism was developed as a social form in religion for those who didn't feel that marriage would work. Productivity with the organized independence of the unmarried was established as beneficial for the public. The education that had been limited to the aristocracy was made available to more people of both sexes.

Monasticism was not supported by the Protestant Reformation. Marriage came to be viewed as the only acceptable order for the management of private property.

The unmarried came to be labeled as homosexual by the common judgment advocated by those with less educational requirement in government. Those who were unmarried and no longer had the option of monasticism as a social form would accept the label if they didn't feel that marriage would work for them.

C.D. Broad was unmarried. He exercised his option to get higher education. He elected to study the work of Aristotle. He chose to evaluate the problem of selection in relation to precedent. His proposal was that a precedent should be allowed to stand unless it could be replaced by something as good or better.

This presented a difficulty to the the consideration of heterosexual and homosexual relations in marriage. The issue was complicated by another degree for those who didn't find a partner who could cooperate for the successful management of the household as an element in the private ownership of property.

It would be senseless to argue that homosexual marriage has to be the dominant form for the public. Such a society would be doomed to failure by attrition. The life and work of C.D. Broad helped to develop an alternative argument.   

C.D. Broad
b. 12.30.1887 Harlesdon, London, United Kingdom
d. 3.11.1971 Cambridge, United Kingdom

Unmarried

Homosexuality was declared a mental illness in the NY Times article in 1963.

NY Times Article on the growth of homosexuality in the city in 1963
NY Times Article: Homosexuality

Another article from 2018 expresses the ABC's about the Lesbian Gay Alliance.

ABC's
NY Times Article: Gender Language

"Take, for example, the addition of “Q” that became increasingly popular as the 20th century turned into the 21st. Some insisted this stood for “questioning,” representing people who were uncertain of their sexual orientations or gender identities. Others declared it was for “queer,” a catchall term that has shed its derogatory origins and is gaining acceptance."

Family organization is regarded as important in monarchy and republic. Marriage is treated as a political tool for growth in status or as a defense against attack for being unmarried.

Monasteries used to act as a haven for the unmarried. The Roman Catholic Church adopted a celibate priesthood, because the monastic community had become so powerful that they felt that more could be accomplished by a single than a married person.

The Buddhist religion has never had a married priesthood. The monks are unmarried or they cease to be monks.

The Roman Empire adopted a stance against homosexuality over a century after Octavian had sought to make marriage and family values the pillar for society.

The Republic had made politics a subordinate order to the development of business organization as a family interest. This didn't stop or decrease war, but there is always that thought that business could exist or even thrive without military conquest if the world were to value free and fair trade as the international practice.

Justin the Martyr had something to do with making homosexuality an immoral offense against society. He wrote an argument to the emperor that recommended that he persecute homosexuals instead of Christians.

C.D. Broad

Charlie Dunbar Broad was an English historian of philosophy and philosopher of moral science.

Broad's essay on "Determinism, Indeterminism, and Libertarianism" in Ethics and the History of Philosophy (1952) introduced the philosophical terms "occurrent causation" and "non-occurrent causation". These terms became the basis for the contemporary distinction between "agent-causal" and "event-causal" in debates on libertarian free will.

He was born in London in the latter part of the 19th century.

Harlesden, Middlesex

Harlesden is an area in northwest London. Its main focal point is the Jubilee Clock which commemorates Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

It was  a rural village in the 19th century. It began to develop some of its urban appearance with the arrival of the railways. Willesden Junction, Kensal Green and Harlesden stations all had an effect on the developing village. Cottages for railway and industrial workers were built. Housing for the local middle class was developed as well.

Harlesden lost it s rural nature as factories replaced  farms and woodland.

London grew to be a global city of immense importance as the capital for the British Empire. The growth was fed by immigrants from the colonies and refugees from conflicts and famines.

It was the largest city in the world from about 1825, the world's largest port and the heart of international finance and trade.

Railways connecting London to the rest of Britain, as well as the London Underground was built. Roads, a modern sewer system and many famous sites were constructed.

CD Broad

Charlie Dunbar Broad was born in Harlesden on 30 December 1887.

He was educated at Dulwich College from 1900 until 1906. He gained a scholarship to study at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1906. He graduated with First-Class Honours in 1910.

Broad’s early interests were in science and mathematics. He came to believe that he would never be a first-rate scientist despite being successful in these. He turned to philosophy.

Broad’s interests were exceptionally wide in range. He devoted his philosophical acuity to the mind-body problem, the nature of perception, memory, introspection, the unconscious and to the nature of space, time and causation. He also wrote extensively on the philosophy of probability and induction, ethics, the history of philosophy and the philosophy of religion.

He became a Fellow of Trinity College in 1911. This was a non-residential position. The position enabled him to also accept an opening he had applied for as an assistant lecturer at St Andrews University.

He was later made a lecturer at St Andrews University. He remained there until 1920. He was appointed professor at Bristol University in 1920. He worked there until 1923 when he returned to Trinity College as a College lecturer.

He was a lecturer in 'moral science' in the Faculty of philosophy at Cambridge University from 1926 until 1931. He was appointed 'Sidgwick Lecturer' at Cambridge University in 1931. He kept this role until 1933 when he was appointed Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge University. He held the position until 1953.

He became known for his thorough and dispassionate examinations of arguments in such works as Scientific Thought (1923), The Mind and Its Place in Nature (1925) and Examination of McTaggart's Philosophy (2 vols., 1933-1938).

----------------------

Charlie Dunbar Broad was an unmarried academic during a time when homosexual acts were designated as illegal by legislated law. He has been described as "openly gay", but this could be because he authored a letter to The Times that requested that the law against homosexual acts be rescinded.

The letter was co-signed by A.J. Ayer, Bertrand Russell and 28 others. It cited the Wolfenden's Report as a reference that recommended that homosexuality no longer be regarded as a criminal offense.

I couldn't find a quote by Broad wherein he declared himself homosexual. I recalled reading a statement by Russell that a bachelor is an unmarried man however.

Whether he was gay or not, there was the distinct possibility that an unmarried person might be accused and convicted for homosexual acts due to the false conviction that being unmarried must mean that the person is homosexual.

Gay marriage has a value to society insofar as it doesn't reproduce offspring. It is reasonable to assume that many heterosexual marriages stop reproductive action after some offspring have been produced.

The married couple then precedes to act as parents who have interdependent or independent agendas with regard to providing a service or product for the market.

There are grounds to argue that a homosexual partnership should be blessed rather than sanctified as a marriage. A blessed union wouldn't have the lifelong obligation that a marriage has.

If the partners find that they can't cooperate productively in a lifelong contract, they can seek an alternative arrangement. They don't have the responsibility to provide for offspring.

This said, divorce is an option for those who feel that marriage isn't productive. Homosexual marriage has been deemed legal by the US Supreme Court. Many states legalized the marriage immediately thanks in no small part to the LGBT alliance as a political lobby.

I have found that being single has allowed for productivity in my written work. I don't have to struggle with the obligation of making sure that my marital partner is happy before I attempt to produce a product of my own.

I have to take care of my responsibilities without the help of a marital partner, but I didn't want to make an issue out of making my partner make be happy before she or he got to do independent activities.

I don't agree that the Anglican Communion should have favored opposition to gay marriage. I know that they are a world wide organization, but Great Britain has blessed unions for homosexual couples. The Episcopal Church of America was suspended for 3 years from the AC.

They seem to be showing favor for the Ugandan contingency that wanted to legislate the death penalty as a punishment for homosexuality. Concession to legislation of that sort strikes me as church compliance with government overreach in the extension of the claim to power over people.

I am hopeful that the radical opposition to homosexuality will be regarded as that which should result in suspension. Let the matter drop otherwise. The legality of marriage is a political issue. The sanctification or blessing of the union is a religious matter. Any support for the death penalty or treating the action as criminal should be regarded as extreme.

It is not the business of the state or the church to require heterosexual marriage as the only choice for legal adults.

Charlie Broad
S. 查尔斯·布罗德
T. 查爾斯·布羅德

查 Cha   to examine               查           no kanji        Cha   ちゃ-  チャ-         Chal 찰  the             
尔  er      you                          爾  ji       you                ri        り-        リ-          li      리  lee
斯  si       this                          斯  shi    this                Bu     ぶ          ブ           Beu  브  bro     
布  Bu     to announce            布   fu     cloth              ro      ろ-        ロ-           lo     로  in                   
罗  luo    to catch                    羅   ra      gauze           do     ど           ド           deu   드  de       
德  de      morality                  德   toku  ethics                                         

------------------------

The appearance of an event doesn't always show an agent as the cause.
Even the roll of the dice was supposed to be an accidental element to what the outcome was.

=================
-----------------------

Border Security


Immigrants are expected to cross into the country at established checkpoints so security personnel can check documentation regarding the citizen's records.

Those who have a criminal record are considered to be a greater security risk. Migrant workers and those with temporary visas are expected to report the address to their residency while in the country.

Liberal Dems want to allow those who didn't cross at checkpoints to be granted the rights of citizens without the path to citizenship. There is no educational requirement for that 'plan.'

The undocumented immigrant doesn't have to understand the language to vote. They don't have to understand the language find employment. They just need someone who will translate for them. They don't have to understand the language to receive services when appointed a translator.

They don't have to work to get paid in the liberal system, because the liberal politician is going to have the American taxpayer do the work and pay for the undocumented immigrant. The liberals are using this system to establish democratic dictatorship.

It's not constitutional. It's not republican. It's rule by demand from the ignorant and belligerent that weakens the constituent rights for the citizens of the country.

Do liberals blame the socialism in the US on China? Education makes the difference in the meritocracy of employment. When people with less education are hired over those with education and experience because it was unfair that the educated learned from 'books', the meritocracy is replaced with a system that meets worker demands from employees who didn't bother to get an education.

The Chinese have a civil service test that most people pass only with education. Articles about Chinese government however define the economy as socialist and the democracy as a dictatorship. Is their law too well defined? Are they too busy using the expertise of the uneducated for the authority of the government official?

Core Interests
NY Times Article: China's Core Interests

Note how the NY Times article defines the concept of "core interests."

"With the national security law, it has become even clearer that the term refers to what Chinese leaders see as three sacrosanct rights of the nation: maintaining the political system, with unquestioned rule by the Communist Party; defending sovereignty claims and territorial integrity; and economic development."

The national security law passed in 2015 had been a cause of controversy in Hong Kong and Macau. It is conceivable that Hong Kong and Macau have more democratic dictatorship than Beijing. What does that do to the NY Times definition of the problem?

Security


Look at the different translations of the national security law for China (2015).

China's National Defense
Text

" It is the aspiration of the Chinese government and people to lead a peaceful, stable and prosperous world into the new century...

Article 2

"The Chinese government firmly pursues a national defense policy that is defensive in nature. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China (PRC) clearly specifies the tasks of the armed forces of the PRC as being to consolidate national defense, resist aggression, defend the motherland, safeguard the people's peaceful labor, participate in national construction and strive to serve the people. China's state interests, social system, foreign policy and historical and cultural traditions postulate that China will inevitably adopt such a national defense policy."

National Security Law
Text

"Article 1 To maintain national security, safeguard the regime of people's democratic dictatorship and the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, protect the fundamental interest of the people, ensure the smooth advancement of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, and achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, this Law is developed in accordance with the Constitution."

The second translation is rife with catch phrases that make the western reader think that 'those Chinese are still communists.' It skipped the first article and translated the second with the terms "regime", "dictatorship" and "socialist."

The first demonstrates a concern for international relations that is consistent with the current president's proposal for international cooperation. The national law is an expression of respect for international relations.

--------------------

When the draft was removed as the justification for service in the US military, enlistment became voluntary. Recruiters used incentive to attract enlistees.

This made the use of the military for national security a matter of choice.

This has considerable impact regarding the investment in the budget for national security with respect for the military. A small increase in expenditure was warranted for college loans.

Material support for electronics, equipment and barracks improvements was added.

Legislation for the existence of the military for national security will decrease the amount of fake news used to justify the existence of the armed forces as a legal entity.

Budgetary modifications could be adjusted for real world events and conditions. The importance of fictional stories would be decreased with respect for the defense of the country. 

Military leadership has a strong tradition in the quality of education established at West Point, Annapolis and Colorado Springs.

The military support for constitutional law makes the service honorable. It is not there to enforce dictatorship.

Against Torture


C.S. Lewis
Finding Shakespeare Video

Communism was a primitive economic form for republic. The concept of private property allows each a portion of providence. Unity in agreement with the objectivity of goodness provides elasticity to the portion that results from the provision of a service.

C.S. Lewis provided a modern view for the value of theism in the search for truth in God with the classical perspective. Truth is most relevant in context. The argument for monotheism moves the cultural context for the value of religion forward from that which is too restrictive about polytheism.

This produces a value when civilization doesn't act as the larger savage.  Cruelty in punishment and violence in aggression cost the public too much to warrant savage policy in practice.

The state of the nation needs a well trained military for defense against hostile threats, real or pretended. Pretend threats serve a purpose when used to prepare for defense against anything real.

Those cultivated fictions which journalism has presented to the public have produced a benefit for national security with respect for the defense of trade. International trade has taken the scope for military protection outside of the designated boundaries for the country.

There is that which is right for the military acting as a police force against actions like terrorism provided that there is instruction given in the customs and language for the theater for operations.

Such instruction helps the people in the military act in a way that is well informed, so they don't create larger problems than those they help to solve.
 

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Find

11.24.19


Mariel Hemingway
Idaho Valley


Find
Refuge 
寻找避难所
Xúnzhǎo bìnàn suo
避難所を探す
Hinansho o sagasu
ps46
Find confugerunt

My house is my home. 
Respect protects me when i roam.

Security is dependent upon defense.
The space between things is something sensed.

A thrust can be blocked, dodged or countered.
Standing your ground isn't locked, lodged or outwardly powered.

Light is my refuge when darkness is unsafe.
Darkness is better when being seen is a mistake.

Though the earth be moved to shake the tree,
we will hold faith in divine existence as our reason to be.

Though the mountains lose rocks that roll to the depths of the sea,
we will believe that God has a plan to work with that which can be seen.



Though the water rages while the land trembles with tumult,
we will rejoice in the One who helps us rebuild as a result. 

The unity for existence holds diversity in unitary forms
Affordable production with quality as the norm
builds the economy to reconstruct that which was damaged by the storm.  

There is an elevation whose streams make the river glad.
The flow of water is a reminder of the experience humanity had.

The water flows downward by the pull of gravity.
The city was built for the security of shelter's sanity.

The habitation of the Most High lies in the heart.
Adoration is the ardor that harbors the craft in any art.

God is in the midst of her.
The lonely heart hears the stir.

She will not be overthrown.
The break of day will renew the light as known.

We are not alone
though each is allowed his own.

Nations have made much ado
but they have been happy too.

Kingdoms have been shaken to the core.
Republic has to mind conservative reform.

When God had spoken, the earth seemed to melt away
to leave faith as the power to rebuild that which fell to the fray.

The fire of divine desire is with us.
Redemption with truth trusts in what's just.

Free will is the greatest gift
but it has to be managed with thrift.

Those who took payment for a service, but didn't provide one in return
are liable for the broken contract as the cause of the dispersion that burned. 

The liberal claim to power over executive authority
has been used as a support for prejudice against the majority.

The accusation of corruption invoked the charge of tyranny
to punish the larger body as the cause of criminal conspiracy.

Look upon the works that are best
to see the awesome things that passed the test.

The divinity of deity has made war to cease.
It was this that let the falsely convicted captives free. 

One criminal on the cross asked 'Are you not the Messiah?
Why do you hang there like a pariah?

'Save yourself and us!
Is this something we need to discuss?'

The other rebuked him and said,
'Do you not fear judgment from the living and dead?

'You are under the same sentence of condemnation
but you will be seen as guilty for generations.'

The thief who defended Jesus as Christ
was told that he would reside in paradise.

That the Son would hang on the cross is theology
that has been known to invoke controversial apology.

That One with the divine nature would die for our sins
was viewed as absurd monotheistic din.

The self sacrifice of the body of the divine person
was offered once for the cleansing from human incursion.

It was an expression of love for our conversion
that offered the promise of salvation with baptismal immersion.  

May you be made strong with the glorious power
that prepares you to endue anything with patience beyond the trifling hours.

Give thanks to the Father who enabled you to share in the inheritance of the light.
He rescued us for redemption by faith from the darkness of power for sight.

His Son is the firstborn of all creation for our faith.
The Christ of Jesus is the image of the invisible God portrayed.

We have been advised to view Christ as the center of reality
to invest in a faith that promotes freedom in tactically factual actuality.

Religion was not meant to impose ascetic law on all people.
Devotion is an emotion to cultivate goodness for redemption from error or evil.

Be free and know the stillness of divinity.
The spirit of love will exalt the peace of infinity.

The fire of divine desire is with us.
Redemption in truth trusts in what's just.

---------------------

46 Deus noster refugium
Light is our refuge

1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved,
and though the mountains be toppled into the depths of the sea;
3 Though its waters rage and foam,
and though the mountains tremble at its tumult.
4 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
5 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
6 God is in the midst of her;
she shall not be overthrown;
God shall help her at the break of day.
7 The nations make much ado, and the kingdoms are shaken;
God has spoken, and the earth shall melt away.
8 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
9 Come now and look upon the works of the Lord,
what awesome things he has done on earth.
10 It is he who makes war to cease in all the world;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear,
and burns the shields with fire.
11 "Be still, then, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations;
I will be exalted in the earth."
12 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our stronghold.


Psalm 46

The 46th psalm is addressed to the chief Musician for the Sons of Korah according to alamoth.

The note for alamoth is unique to this psalm. It may refer to a high pitched instrument. It could be a reference to the soprano voices of young girls who went out to dance in celebration of David's victory over the Philistines.

The Midrash Tehillim comments on the psalms. It parses the word alamot (Hebrew: עלמות‎) as referring to the "hidden things" that God does for his people.

The office for the chief Musician was established by David. He appointed a man named Heman as the main musician or singer.

Asaph was made Heman’s right hand assistant and the Merarites were at his left hand (1 Chron.6:39). The Asaphites were one of the guilds of musicians in the First Temple.

The Korahites were the sons of Moses' cousin. Korah had led a revolt against Moses. He died after a fire was sent from heaven to consume the entire force. It was reported that the children of Korah did not die. (Num. 26:11)

The Korahites were counted with the Kohathites among the Levites. Both groups are documented as having offered praise with volume. (2 Chron. 20:19)

The Kohathites cared for the vessels and objects within the sanctuary - the Ark of the Covenant, Menorah, Table of Showbread, etc.

Several psalms are described in their opening verses as being by the Sons of Korah. The numbers for these psalms are 42, 44–49, 84, 85, 87 and 88.

Some of the Korahites were also "porters" of the temple (1 Chron. 9:17–19). One of them was over "things that were made in the pans" (v31), i.e. the baking in pans for the meat-offering (Lev. 2:5).

There is a tradition that the prophet Samuel was descended from Korah.

Martin Luther wrote and composed a hymn which paraphrases Psalm 46. "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" translates as "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." Johann Sebastian Bach based his chorale cantata Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80, on Luther's hymn.

=================

Eng.  My house is my home.
Ch.    我的房子是我的家。
           Wǒ de fángzi shì wǒ de jiā.
Jpn.   私の家は私の家です。
            Watashinoie wa watashinoiedesu.
Krn.    내 집은 내 집이야
             nae jib-eun nae jib-iya
Ltn.     Mea domus mea est in domum suam.
Itln.    La mia casa è la mia casa.
Spn.    Mi casa es mi hoga
Frn.     Ma maison est ma maison.
Grk.     Το σπίτι μου είναι το σπίτι μου.
              To spíti mou eínai to spíti mou.
Rsn.      Мой дом мой дом.
              Moy dom moy dom.
Gmn.   Mein Haus ist mein Zuhause.
Trk.      Benim evim benim evim.

------------------------

Pastors

Jeremiah (650-570 BCE)


Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, a kohen from the Benjamite village of Anathoth.

Kohen is the Hebrew word for "priest". It is used in reference to the Aaronic priesthood. Levitical priests or kohanim were in direct patrilineal descent from the biblical Aaron, brother of Moses.

Kohanim performed the daily and holiday (Yom Tov) duties of sacrificial offerings during the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem.

The sacrifices were not limited to the offering of animals.

Hygenic kosher practice in the preparation of food products for market still fall under the province of kohanim.

Anathoth  is the name of one of the Levitical cities given to "the children of Aaron" in the tribe of Benjamin (Josh. 21:13–18; 1 Chron. 6:54–60).

The Israelites often did not change the names of the towns they found in Canaan, the name of this town may be derived from a Canaanite goddess, `Anat.

Anathoth seems to be a plural form of the name. It could be the shortened form for bêt ‘anātôt 'House of the ‘Anats'. This was either a reference to many shrines of the goddess or a plural of intensification.

‘Anat is a war-goddess in the Ugaritic Baal cycle. She is the maiden sister to Ba'al Hadad, the maker of storms. Ba‘al is usually called the son of Dagan, the father of fertility. Ba'al is also named as the son of El at times.

The name El is a general form that indicated the highest rank. It is a Northwest Semitic word meaning "god". It was attached to a proper name as a title that indicated the supreme status for a deity.

Ugarit map


Ugarit is a city of ruins located near Ras Shamra, Syria. Ugaritic is the western form for the extinct Amorite language. It is the only Amorite dialect known to be preserved as written. The Ugaritic texts discovered by French archaeologists in 1929.

The Book of Jeremiah is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the second of the Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. His book is intended as a message to the Jews in exile in Babylon. It explains the disaster of exile as God's response to Israel's pagan worship.

The people are described as an unfaithful wife and rebellious children. Their infidelity and rebelliousness made judgement inevitable. Restoration and a new covenant are foreshadowed to perpetuate the promise of reward for fidelity. 

Judgment had been pronounced against a number of the kings of Judah in the previous chapter. Other leaders were included in the judgment with the use of the term 'shepherds.'

There was the distinct implication of argument against what had been done to Israel and what was threatened against Judah. Priests were implicated in the perpetuation of harmful primitive practice as associated with polytheism.

Jeremiah 23:1

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD.

-------------------------

Those who take payment for a service, but don't provide one
are liable for the broken contract as the cause of dispersion.

The liberal claim to power over executive authority
has been used as a support for prejudice against the majority.

==================

Colossians 1:15


The epistle to the Colossians was addressed to the Christians in Colossae.

Colossae map

Colossae was one of the most celebrated cities of southern Anatolia (modern Turkey). It was located in Phyrgia in Asia Minor.

It was an ancient city about 161 km (100 mi.) east of the cosmopolitan capital city of Ephesus, located in the Roman province of Asia.

It was 15 km (9.3 mi.) southeast of Laodicea on the road through the valley near the Lycus River at the foot of Mt. Cadmus, the highest mountain in Turkey's western Aegean Region.

It was between the cities Sardeis and Celaenae southeast of the ancient city of Hierapolis.

The 5th Century geographer Herodotus first mentioned Colossae by name and as a "great city in Phrygia" which accommodated the Persian King Xerxes I en route to wage war against the Greeks.

The city had already reached a certain level of wealth and size by this time. Xenophon refered to Colossae as a populous and wealthy city of considerable magnitude in the 5th century (Anabasis).

Strabo (63 BCE-24 CE) was a historian who lived in Asia Minor during the period of transition from the Roman republic to the empire. He noted that the city drew revenue from the flocks in the wool trade. The wool of Colossae gave its name to the color colossinus.

The location had importance as a mercantile center in the Hellenistic period, but it had diminished in size by the 1st century CE. It was known for its fusion of religious influences (syncretism). It included Jewish and Gnostic groups.

There was also an angel-cult in the pagan tradition. The unorthodox cult venerated the archangel Michael who is said to have caused a curative spring to gush from a fissure in the Earth.

Epaphras seems to have been a person of some importance in the Christian community in Colossae (Col. 1:7; 4:12). Tradition presents him as its first bishop.

The epistle speaks of Paul as having "heard" of the Colossians' faith (Col. 1:4). The letter to Philemon speaks of Paul's hope to visit Colossae upon being freed from prison (Philemon 1:22). Philemon was the second bishop of the see according to tradition.

The Colossians were encouraged to see Jesus as the center of reality in order to avoid the pressures from other religions. The problems of the Church were described. Believers were encouraged to remain devoted to Jesus as Christ.

Colossians 1:11-15

May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience while joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

-------------------------

May you be made strong with the glorious power
that prepares you to endue anything with patience beyond the trifling hours.

Give thanks to the Father who enabled you to share in the inheritance of the light.
He rescued us for redemption by faith from the darkness of power for sight.

His Son is the firstborn of all creation for our faith.
The Christ of Jesus is the image of the invisible God portrayed.

==================

The Criminal on the Cross


The priests and teachers of the law had been made the council of the elders for the people of Judah with the approval of the Roman government.

Jesus was questioned by this body about his instruction about the Messiah. His testimony was used to send him to Pontius Pilate.

He was questioned by Pilate as the Roman governor. When the governor found that he was a Galilean, he was sent to Herod as the tetrarch of Galilee. The tetrarch returned Jesus to the governor.

Pilate convened an assembly of the chief priests, the rulers and people to release Jesus from conviction for the death penalty. He said that he would chastise and release him as the prisoner to satisfy the offering at the time of the feast for the Passover.

The governor was confronted with angry cries when the outspoken yelled for crucifixion. They insisted that Barabbas be released instead. Pilate said that he would chastise Jesus two more times. The angry voices that threatened riot would not relent.

He released Barabbas who had been imprisoned for sedition and murder, but delivered Jesus to their will. He was nailed to the cross with two others who had been convicted of crime.

Luke 23:35

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, 'Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us! The other rebuked him, saying, 'Do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?'

-------------------------

The criminal asked 'Are you not the Messiah?
Why do you hang there like a pariah?

'Save yourself and us!
Is this something we need to discuss?'

The other rebuked him and said,
'Do you not fear judgment from the living and dead?

'You are under the same sentence of condemnation
but you will be seen as guilty by following generations.'

The thief who defended Jesus as Christ
was told that he would reside in paradise.

That the Son would hang on the cross is theology
that has been known to invoke great controversy.

That One with the divine nature would die for our sins
was viewed as absurd monotheistic din.

The self sacrifice of the body of the divine person
was offered once for the cleansing from human incursion.

It was an expression of love for our conversion
that offered the promise of salvation with baptismal immersion.

==================

Cicero (106-43 BCE)


Rebellion

Legend has it that in the city-state's earliest days, Romulus, the founder and first king of Rome, picked the 100 best men, or patricians, in the city to be members of his Senate for as long as they lived.

While the seven kings of the monarchy ruled, the Roman Senate made the laws and elected the kings. The last king was an Etruscan who had a reputation for severity.

His son, Sextus Tarquinius, reportedly raped the wives and daughters of powerful Roman nobles. A group of nobles led by Lucius Junius Brutus, with the support of the Roman Army, expelled Tarquinius and his family from Rome in 509 BCE.

When the Roman Kingdom, which lasted from 759-509 BC, came to an end, Rome transitioned into a republic with executive offices who served as generals and judges and built public works.

The Roman constitution was not a single written document. It was the system of government that had evolved from the kingdom and a senate of patricians without term limits into a republic.

The Romans referred to Greek culture with respect for written expression on matters of importance.

Constitutional Traditions in the Republic

Two consuls always served together at any one time after Rome became a republic. They were the chairmen of the Senate.

Both had to agree to enact a proposed action. Each was able to overrule the other. They had to request any money from the Senate for their office.

They commanded the Roman army. Both had two legions. They came to exercise the highest juridical power. The two consuls had to belong to the Patriciate, the Roman aristocracy. The office was opened for plebeians in the 360's.

The Lex Licinia Sextia provided that at least one consul each year should be plebeian in 367 BCE. Lucius Sextius was elected as the first plebian consul the following year.

Only fifteen novi homines, "new men" with no consular background, were elected to the consulship until the election of Cicero in 63 BCE.

The Comitia centuriata was an assembly of the richest Romans. The comitia elected the consuls. The term was 1 year in length.

Once elected, they took orders from the Roman Senate. When their terms were up, both consuls were given governorships of provinces outside of Italy.

The comitia became more powerful after the Conflict of the Orders. This conflict was a class struggle between the wealthy patricians and the poor plebeians that lasted from 494-287 BCE.

The Plebians forced the patricians to accept a new office that was independent of the consuls and the Senate during the dispute. The office was named the Tribune of the People. The comitia acquired the power to make laws, ratify treaties and declare war as a result of a series of laws.

Cicero argued that the constitution was a law that was written on our hearts. The unwritten law alluded to the state of the social contract as a development beyond tribal organization with respect for primitive concepts of freedom in nature. There was a question regarding the benefit of the state of society as preferable to local council alone.

Cicero's contribution to Rome as a consul was to override due process of law in order to put down a 'rebellion.' It was reported to the public that the rebels who threatened the peace of Rome were executed without a trial.

The idea that the majority should not rule has been used to undermine the legal authority of the social contract. Consider the 'protection' proposed for undocumented immigrants by liberals.

Liberals want to subsidize living expense for the undocumented. They want to give them the right to vote. These two proposals give those who refuse to register favor over citizens and documented immigrants.

J.S. Mill also expressed a warning about the tyranny of the majority. Too much of this type of concern promotes the tyranny of the undocumented.

Not Majority Rule


I have investigated the civil rights movement with particular interest for the claim of majority prejudice in the south.

I found that Rawls' argument against the Utilitarian principle of the greatest happiness for the greatest number was an endorsement for partial judgment as the veil of ignorance.

He had argued that limited participation in organized politics would induce objectivity as the necessary standard for judgement regarding observable events.

The Clintons have used ignorance to promote decisions against the majority interest with the endorsement of socialism and radical feminism.

If you didn't directly perceive a case of sexual assault, how are you to form a judgment on a claim to the same that was reported to have happened over a decade ago? Do you rely on the testimony of the accuser or the accused?

Their media reports supported the testimony of the accuser with the defamation of character against the accused. LBJ did a similar sort of thing with Dr. King.

Mohammad Ali was loud in his endless self-promotion. He explicitly complained about the racism of white people. He stated that he would not fight in a war against people who had not done anything to him. He had the right to refuse the draft, but it was reported that he served time for it.

Dr. King was more aggressive in the promotion that white people were prejudiced against the employment of black people in industry. Civil rights were reduced to the state of affairs for black people in his negotiation with the US government.

Ali used religion for his success in sport. King used socialism for his success in political intervention. King's argument was dependent upon the reports of prejudice against blacks in the South.

Rawls wasn't the only Harvard professor who helped to promote the belief that majority prejudice was the only real social problem in institutional form. Cavell was a participant as well.

Roman Constitution

Freedom

Baruch Spinoza
b. 11.24.1632 Amsterdam, Netherlands
d. 2.21.1677  The Hague, Netherlands

Independence has to be guided by responsibility or it is not being led to productive value.

Nature is the expression of the universe. The universe is the product of the Creator.

Causality regulates change. Chance is irregularity in causality.

Spinoza

Philosophy
Ethics
wiki Baruch Spinoza philosophy

Spinoza's philosophy held an attraction for late 18th-century Europeans. It provided an alternative to materialism, atheism and deism.  He provided a conceptual frame for the Enlightenment philosophy as it related to the government of law.

Three of Spinoza's ideas held a strong appeal.

The unity of all exists.

Regularity is a function of the unity.

The energy of nature expresses the spirit for the identity of the unity.

Both Descartes and Spinoza lived in the Dutch Republic (1581-1795). Descartes (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) preceded Spinoza (24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677).

Kingdom of the Netherlands
wiki

The current Kingdom of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. Spinoza had proposed this form of government as best with his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus.

Constitutional monarchy has the potential to exceed a constitutional republic in democracy by virtue of the conservatism in the dynastic succession.

The resurrection of republic as a form of government required the application of reason to define the purpose of government, commerce and society.

Rosseau's ideas of education are limited according to contemporary standards, but his social contract provided the essential factor for the determination of law. The government is obliged to serve the people who pay for functional operations.

If the US does not limit commerce to a legal free market, it has lost ground in terms of using reason to reflect on the history of the republic.

The people have risen up repeatedly to define republic as a democratic institution, but socialists have used their advantage in influencing government with knowledge about campaign finance, lobbying and media expression to institute policy that claimed to be for the people, but was for liberal officials in fact.

Law is being defined as an exercise in using the state to act as a criminal force that regulates the existence of threat from outside the sphere of influence for the accumulation of wealth by state officials.

This doesn't mean that law has to be rejected as though that leaves only grace. It means that grace provides sanction for amending the law.

Dutch Republic
17th Century

The Dutch rebelled against Philip II of Spain and his successors in the 16th century. The main reasons for the uprising were the imposition of new taxes, the tenth penny and the religious persecution of Protestants by the newly introduced Inquisition.

The revolt escalated into the Eighty Years' War. The protracted conflict ultimately led to Dutch independence.

The Dutch Republic was officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was a a confederal republic formally established by the formal creation of a confederacy in 1581 by several Dutch provinces that seceded from Spanish rule. The republic lasted until the Batavian Revolution of 1795.

The small republic of around 1.5 million inhabitants distinguished itself by world trade through the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Dutch West India Company (WIC). The state sustained military success against larger and presumably stronger nations such as Spain and England.

The naval fleet of 2,000 ships was larger than that of England and France combined. The fleet was assembled with the shipping industry with respect for the knowledge of the size of the competitive nations.

The organization of production for the culture was managed in the arts and sciences. Painters such as Rembrandt (1606-1669), Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) and others achieved widespread recognition.

Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) built the conceptual frame for political science with the foundations for international relations based on natural law.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) used the relatively new development of the microscope to study biological microbes. This made him the first recognized micro-biologist.

Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680) used the microscope to study insects. He made important discoveries regarding the life of bees.

He demonstrated that there are various phases in the life of an insect. The egg, larva, pupa and adult stages are different forms of the same animal.

He also carried out experiments on muscle contraction as part of his anatomical research.  He used dissections for examination. He observed and described red blood cells.

The relatively tolerant atmosphere towards different religions and ideas contributed to the success of free thought in establishing republic as a competitive form to monarchy in Europe.

The Union of Utrecht in 1579 is regarded as the foundation of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, which was not recognized by the Spanish Empire until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.

Holland and Zeeland were granted the right to accept Calvinism as the one religion in practice. Every other province had the freedom to regulate the religious question as it wished.

The Republic dominated world trade, conquered a vast colonial empire and operated the largest fleet of merchantmen of any nation during the late 16th and 17th centuries.

Slavery was included in the competition for global expansion, but Spinoza would question whether a state that allowed slavery could be regarded as free.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League from the 14th century.
The 17th century is considered Amsterdam's Golden Age.

It became the wealthiest city in the western world. Ships sailed from the port to the Baltic Sea, North America, Africa, present-day Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Brazil.

It was the central hub for a worldwide trading network. Amsterdam's merchants had the largest share in both the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company. These companies acquired overseas possessions that later became Dutch colonies.

Amsterdam was Europe's most important point for the shipment of goods. It was the leading Financial center of the western world.

The Amsterdam office of the international trading Dutch East India Company became the world's first stock exchange by trading in its own shares in 1602.

The Bank of Amsterdam started operations in 1609. It acted as a full service bank for Dutch merchant bankers and as a reserve bank.

Peace is a virtue

Jewish Philosophy

When the Romans conquered the Jewish nation in 70 CE, much of the Jewish population was sent into exile throughout the Roman Empire. Many were sent to the Iberian Peninsula.

The approximately 750,000 Jews living in Spain in the year 1492 were banished from the country by royal decree of Ferdinand and Isabella. The Jews of Portugal, were banished several years later.

Spinoza's ancestors were of Sephardic Jewish descent. They were a part of the community of Portuguese Jews that had settled in the city of Amsterdam in the wake of the Portuguese Inquisition (1536). The Inquisition had resulted in forced conversions and expulsions from the Iberian Peninsula

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) argued that people would not be superstitious if they could govern their circumstances with set rules or if they were always favored by fortune.

Humans are driven into circumstances where rules are useless. The fluctuation between hope and fear is driven by the uncertainty of fortune. The variability of chance leaves them with the consideration of credulity.

He wrote, "The human mind is readily swayed this way or that in times of doubt, especially when hope and fear are struggling for the mastery, though usually it is boastful, over-confident, and vain." (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus)

The chief victims of superstition are those who covet temporal advantage too aggressively. Superstition is engendered, preserved and fostered by fear. 

The essential mystery of despotic statecraft is to hoodwink the citizens into subservience to the credulity of cause that men may fight as bravely for slavery as for safety and count it not as shame but the highest honor to risk their blood and their lives for the vainglory of tyranny.

No such expedient could be planned or attempted in a free state.

The habits of mind differ. Some more readily embrace one form of faith, some another. What moves one to pray may move another to scoff,

Everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of his creed. Faith should be judged only by its fruits. Each would then obey God freely with his whole heart. Nothing would be publicly honored save justice and charity.

The ultimate aim of government is not to rule by fear nor to exact obedience. The purpose is to free each from fear for all possible security. Law is to be legislated to strengthen the natural right to exist and work without injury to self or others.

Tractatus Theologica-Politicus

Spinoza put forth his most systematic critique of religion in the treatise Tractatus Theologica-Politicus. He argued that reason should not be subordinated to scripture. Reason should reflect upon scripture for the consideration of Constitutional law.

When reason has been made subservient to scripture, then, Spinoza argued, "the prejudices of a common people of long ago... will gain a hold on his understanding and darken it."

He reinterpreted the belief that there were occurrences of objective miracles or supernatural events. He argued that God acts solely by the law of "his own nature". He rejected the view that the divine nature has a predetermined course of events.

Spinoza was not only the real father of modern metaphysics and moral philosophy for politics, but also of the higher criticism of the Bible.

His Tractatus Theologico-Politicus undertook to show that Scripture gave no authority for those who sought to impose the rule of law with cruelty in punishment or violent aggression.

Spinoza had to show what was meant by a proper understanding of the Bible to achieve this object. This gave him occasion to apply criticism to interpretation.

There have been cases where the scientific use of DNA evidence has exonerated someone convicted of the charge of murder. It was demonstrated that the rape associated with the murder was not done by the one who had been convicted for the crime.

This type of exoneration justifies the application of a life sentence in cases where the evidence was strong, but not conclusive. The convict could be released from his sentence prior to his death.

It is reasonable to assume that if some were released from the death sentence, there were others who have been wrongly put to death. This is another form of murder.

The state isn't put to death for the error, but it suffers a loss of credibility among the taxpayers who pay for the legal system to form judgments for justice.

When the story of Jesus with the woman accused of adultery is considered, it can be seen that the legal system has been right to shift standards of punishment to decrease the incidence of cruelty due to false conviction. The death penalty used to be applied to those convicted of a number of crimes lesser in severity than murder.

The act of adultery is not in itself life threatening. There have been adulterers who have sought to kill their spouses.

There have also been those who were seeking sexual gratification outside of the marriage without homicidal intent. The punishment for adultery then should not include the death penalty unless the spouse was murdered by the adulterer.

Jesus told those who asked him about what to do with respect for the woman to examine their conscience. He said, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."

Justice in the legal system was not regarded as something that was open to debate for those who were not in line to become a magistrate in the kingdom or Roman republic. The Romans didn't have a public system for education.

Spinoza saw the importance of introducing his metaphysics for ethics in order to raise the thought of the common citizen to reasonable application in the new republic. This included the tract on the theology associated with politics.

Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
wiki quotes

Spinoza was a sephardic Jew. His family moved to the Dutch Republic to escape persecution from the Inquisition in Spain. He was a rational philosopher. He was one of the most important and radical thinkers of the early modern period.

His thought combines a commitment to a number of Cartesian metaphysical and epistemological principles with elements from Euclidean geometry, ancient Stoicism, Hobbes and medieval Jewish rationalism. The respective principles are grafted into an original system.

His naturalistic view on God, the world, human being and knowledge served to ground a moral philosophy centered on the control of the passions. Self-control was the leading virtue in the pursuit of happiness.

These principles also lay the foundations for democratic political thought. Pretensions regarding the dogmatic interpretation of Scripture and sectarian religion were criticized.

Spinoza was issued the harshest writ of herem or excommunication ever pronounced by the Sephardic community of Amsterdam on July 27, 1656.

It was never rescinded. We do not know for certain what Spinoza’s “monstrous deeds” and “abominable heresies” were alleged to have been. An educated guess comes quite easily.

He was expressing those ideas that would soon appear in his philosophical treatises. He denies the immortality of the soul; rejects the notion of deity as having an existence completely distinct from creation and claims that the Law was not specifically given to the Jews nor was it binding in every aspect of the ancient expression.

It has since been shown that the Hebrew texts contain elements from the ancient codes of law in the Middle East. The law against murder as expressed in the second commandment was in the code of Ur Nammu.

The law that punished killing with a lesser penalty than death was expressed in the story of Cain and Abel. The code of Hammurabi punished killing with a fine if the killer said that he killed without malice.

Spinoza was banished from his community. He was content to have an excuse to depart. His community and religious commitment were gone by this point.

He was interested in writing something modern. He wanted it to have an impact on the European world. He left Amsterdam altogether within a few years.

He began writing in 1661. He was living in Rijnsburg, not far from Leiden. He worked on the “Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect,” an essay on philosophical method.

He also wrote the “Short Treatise on God, Man and His Well-Being.” This was an initial but aborted effort to lay out his metaphysical, epistemological and moral views.

His critical exposition of Descartes’s “Principles of Philosophy” was the only work he published under his own name in his lifetime. It was completed in 1663 after he had moved to Voorburg outside the Hague.

He was also working on what would eventually be called “The Ethics” by this time. This was his philosophical masterpiece.

When he saw the principles of toleration in Holland being threatened by reactionary forces however, he put it aside to complete his scandalous “Theological-Political Treatise.”

This was published anonymously and to great alarm in 1670. One overwrought critic called it “a book forged in hell by the devil himself”.

When Spinoza died in 1677, he was still at work on his “Political Treatise’” This was soon published by his friends along with his other unpublished writing which included a “Compendium to Hebrew Grammar.”

“The Ethics” was written in the form of a geometric proof. It was modeled on Euclid’s “Elements.” The basic definition for a point is a location. It has no length or extension.

It is used as a metaphor for the “self” as the “essence of existence” in “The Ethics.” A line is a continuity of points. It has length. It extends in space. It is comparable to what Descartes identifies as thought.

The proof is written to prove the existence of goodness as the cause for ethics. God is posited as the absolute infinite. Divine existence is the essence of substance. This substance permeates existence. Infinity is used to contrast the finite.

The finite contains the substance of matter. Substance has attributes. The extension of substance however does not pertain to the essence of deity. This denies the notion of Platonic ideals with respect for destructiveness as an extension of the divine will through the elements.

Will is a particular mode of thought. It is a necessary cause. It is the search to draw function from purpose. Knowledge is the awareness of the cause of change.

Freedom is the image. Creativity is the likeness. Each person is the agent of personal will. Ethics is the discovery of functional benefit. It does not conflict with the law of causation.

Free Will
The Likeness of Accomplishment
American Philosophy in the 20th Century

Spinoza's influence found its way to the US through the French philosophy that agreed with his proposal for Constitutional law.

The Constitution was largely composed by James Madison. He borrowed from Locke, but he had to re-write a considerable amount of the material to make it apply to the whole public. It was an anticipation of a future republic in important respects.

The Bill of Rights was added to show the ability to amend law for the people.

Education in the country was not necessarily aimed toward this purpose. Institutions for higher education were organized to promote interest among the general population.

Only a few seminaries like Andover or Union offered post-graduate education before 1860. Yale awarded the first Ph.D. degree in 1861. Pennsylvania (1870); Harvard (1872); Johns Hopkins (1878); Princeton (1879) and Cornell (1880) followed.

Johns Hopkins was founded for graduate students in 1876. The first true professors of philosophy holding an American PhD were G. Stanley Hall (Harvard 1878) and Josiah Royce (Johns Hopkins 1878). Both of them had German educations.

Philosophers were scattered across the landscape during the Reconstruction era and the beginnings of the Gilded age. They were found only at the best colleges. Most of those granted the title of Professor of Philosophy were presidents of their colleges.

Not all of them had doctorates. Some held a bachelors of divinity degree. They taught the senior classes in denominational theology and religious ethics.

G. Stanley Hall reported that perhaps 40 of these professors actually had serious philosophical training in "Philosophy in the United States" in 1879.

Much of the important philosophical creativity was still generated by theologians. Those who responded to the issues of workers' rights or to the challenge of evolution were especially instrumental in shifting the focus from theology to political and social policy.

Social Science provided another fertile source for philosophical thinking. Thought was valued in the identification of social problems for cure.

Hundreds of scholars attended German universities during 1870-1900 for their higher prestige and lower cost. That trend would reverse by 1900. American universities would come to swell with graduate students.

The Calvinist tradition continued at Princeton, Yale, Union and innumerable smaller colleges. There was special attention to the history of religion in the US. Unitarian Harvard, Liberal Andover, Humanist Chicago and Personalist Boston had strong counter-balancing theological movements. Historicism, biblical hermeneutics and evolution became acceptable.

American theology was also re-energized by the new holiness churches. The Third Great Awakening would seek to make an impact on the 1880’s and 90’s.

Everyone was called to take notice of the Social Gospel and Christian Progressive movements that demanded new religious activism.

The focus for the awakening was on the consequences of unrestrained capitalism, industrialism and immigration. The religious movement had a strong association with socialist doctrine.

Evolution was accepted before Darwin even by clergy, but only as a theory of divine providence aiming at the eventual productivity of mankind.

Only a few daring thinkers embraced the theory of natural selection by random mutation after the publication of Darwin's Origin of the Species, (1859). Some applied evolution to metaphysics and cosmology. Others applied evolution to the human mind.

The philosophical category of "mental science" popularized by the Scottish realists was the original home to those who called themselves psychologists. Experiments for nerve and brain physiology trained subjects to track mental processes.

Some were eager to apply the new biological theories of evolution. The Scottish realist James McCosh, pragmatists Charles Peirce and William James belong to the early evolutionary philosophers.

The contrast between evolution and fundamentalism could not have been sharper than at Princeton in the 1860’s and 70’s. McCosh taught an evolutionary philosophy and Charles Hodge taught anti-Darwinian fundamentalism.

Many universities harbored such conflict during this period. The relations between philosophy and psychology were similarly contentious. Physiological and experimental methods challenged traditional introspection into the mind's operations.

Transcendentalism was evolving into Pragmatism's commitment to the notion that an idea is true if it a makes a practical difference in the life of the person who thinks it. Truth is not some abstract certainty that exists outside of human experience. It is a manifestation of practical reason.

The Cambridge Metaphysical club had its origins in James's 1868 proposal to Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935). He proposed that they establish 'a philosophical society to have regular meetings and discuss none but the very tallest and broadest questions' (Kuklick 1974: 47).

The club was underway by 1871. It centered around six men with Harvard degrees: James, Holmes, Charles Peirce (1839-1914), Chauncey Wright (1830-75), Nicholas St. John Green and Joseph Bangs Warner.

Green, a Boston attorney, introduced the thought of the British psychologist and philosopher Alexander Bain (1818-1903) to the group. Bain’s definition of belief as 'that upon which a man is prepared to act' was highlighted.

Wright was a mathematician employed by the Nautical Almanac as a 'calculator.' He was also an occasional lecturer in psychology and physics at Harvard.

He applied Darwin's evolutionary theory to the development of consciousness in such publications as the “Evolution of Consciousness” (1873).

He maintained that consciousness comes about not from anything new but from the use of an old capacity. The forming of images in a new way shapes the structure of thought.

Josiah Royce
b. 11.20.1855  Grass Valley, CA
d. 9.14.1916 Cambridge, MA

Josiah Royce (1855-1916) was raised in the California gold rush town of Grass Mountain. He studied English at the University of California at Berkeley. He explored philosophy in Germany.

He studied with George Sylvester Morris at Johns Hopkins from 1876-8. Morris was a scholar of German philosophy and a proponent T. H. Green. Royce received his Ph. D. in 1878.

Royce taught English at Berkeley. Then he moved to Harvard to teach philosophy. He became a mainstay of the department. Royce introduced formal logic into the curriculum. He was a respected idealist opponent of James's more naturalistic, open-ended pragmatism.

Royce's early philosophical writing is in accord with his lifelong interests both in the history of philosophy and in developing his own version of metaphysical idealism.

His first book,”The Religious Aspect of Philosophy” (1885) argued for an Absolute Mind that contains all thoughts and their objects.

He traced 'the rediscovery of the inner life' from Spinoza to Kant in “The Spirit of Modern Philosophy: An Essay in the Form of Lectures” (1892). Special emphasis was given to Fichte for his 'beautiful waywardness,'

He revisited the Romantic School including Goethe, Novalis, Schelling and Hegel. Royce argued, however, that the inner life is essentially public. We live in the coherence of our relationships with other people.

Dewey's educational philosophy took shape in the 1890’s. He was a professor not only of philosophy, but of psychology and pedagogy. He also learned from German idealism.

He worked with high school faculty in Michigan and with the Laboratory School at Chicago. He argued that interest is a complex of felt worth and incipient action in 'Interest in Relation to the Training of the Will.'

When we are genuinely interested in something, we don't have to will to do it. It becomes automated in action. Only genuine interest 'marks the annihilation of the distance between the person and the materials and results of his action.'

The will is effectively trained by interest. (Dewey 1896: 122). He maintained that education is 'a process of living and not a preparation for future living,' in 'My Pedagogic Creed' (1897). Therefore inquiry must seek 'forms of life that are worth living for their own sake' (Dewey 1897: 87).

Materialism
American Materialism

The threats of scientific evolution and materialistic psychology had encouraged many scholars to study Kant and Hegel after the Civil War. Many took refuge in some form of idealism.

Idealism ranged from personal to the absolute. The comfortable alliance with Christianity put many idealists in charge of philosophy.

College presidents were fearful of evolution and materialism.

Idealism had dominated American philosophy and its professionalization from 1880 to 1920. The Hegelian and personalist themes for idealism were nearly extinguished during the second half of the 20th Century. The themes have been continued by some pragmatists, phenomenologists and pantheists.

Psychology departments had mostly split off from philosophy by 1920. Dewey's social behaviorism and Watson's reductionist behaviorism ensured evolution's dominance in philosophy.

Mid to late Victorian-age philosophy had its wild side also. It supplied many members for the American Society for Psychical Research.

Philosophers had been trained almost exclusively as ministers and theologians until 1880. Theological seminaries and their journals were still the center of philosophical energy.

The influence of denominational colleges and theological seminaries declined in prominence. The next generation of academic philosophers like Dewey, Baldwin, Royce, Santayana found their positions in the 1880's and 90's without a theological degree.

Their degrees were from German universities or from a handful of American universities like Harvard, Princeton, Cornell (founded 1865) and Johns Hopkins (founded 1876). These offered the new Ph.D.

The professionalization of philosophy was swiftly achieved in the 1890’s and early 1900’s. Enlarged universities separated the various social sciences and psychology from philosophy.

The philosophy departments were inflated by hiring the new graduates from Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Columbia and Johns Hopkins.

Royce had formulated an American form of idealism. While continental Europeans were anti-capitalists, he was for industry broadly understood as the willful expression of community.

He wasn't as limited in terms of organization as the Calvinists. He had agreement with the pragmatists, but didn't identify himself as such. His philosophy expressed favor for practical idealism.

Dewey was the lone giant of pragmatism by 1920. He was supported in the next decades by second and third generation thinkers across the social sciences. The philosophy provided a forum for reconciliation in the conflict between ideals.

Pragmatism would not be eclipsed until the 1950’s. Philosophy departments would come to be consumed by reductive materialism and language analysis.

Theory of Justice


The moral philosophy of John Rawls looks inspired at first, but it results in a socialist form of materialism.

His philosophy was that which spoke most highly of the American experience during the Clinton presidency.

There was something about the experience of democracy in action that spoke volumes about potential. His looked like a true integration of moral and political philosophy.

The summation of the different ideas in his work however represents the monstrosity of the neo-liberalism that is being inflicted upon the world and the nation.

The two elements that contribute to the deviant abstraction are the doctrines of destruction and total depravity.

It is a mixture of the deviant elements from Locke and Calvin that we are given the basis for a foreign policy that uses the claim of human rights abuse as the justification for the greater abuse of human rights.

This is where the philosophy of Spinoza comes into play in the modern world. Here we find criticism of the deviant norms that have plagued the development of civilization since the inception.

Rawls is the optimist that requires the pessimism of the others. It is the abuse of great potential that inhibits our development more than the criticism of societal failure.

Spinoza may look like the father of neo-liberalism, but his philosophy promotes a conservatism for government intervention. Government is limited by the rights that are extended to the people by the social contract.

Look at all the amendments to the US except for the term limits for the president. Authority in the organization of political power is defined by representation for civil rights.

Conservatism in spending tax money is that which allows business and social organization to develop in relation to the free market. The free market is defined as legal commerce that isn't directed toward the continual increase in benefit for government officials.

SEP John Rawls
IEP Rawls