Introduction to Religion Humanities 215.02 February 22, 2013 Review of Wednesday Allen: Pascal, S.K., Simone Weil

Is Atheism A Religion?

Creed? Ethical Code? Community? Ultimate Concern?

The very fact of its being, and of our own, is a mystery absolute, and the only miracle worthy of the name. --Sam Harris

The Order of the Body What Bible Calls “The Flesh” Desires... Wishes... Acquisition of Power External Appearances

The Order of the Mind Reason, Intellect & Genius... How & What The Way of Objectivity May Show Us That We Are Incomprehensible to Ourselves

The Order of the Heart Greatness (of this Level) Not Accessible to the Body or the Mind The Way of Subjectivity Sensitivity to the Supernatural, Beyond the Sensual, Beyond the Empirical Divine Wisdom

Soren Kierkegaard Born May 5, 1813 to Michael & Ane (The Maid, Michael’s 2nd Wife) Michael cursed God; felt “cursed” -- depressed Engagement to Regine Olson; Broken Off Writes Fear & Trembling in 1843 This Present Age in 1846

Christianity... Moves Us Beyond the Aesthetic & Ethical Lives... But We Have To Start There... Concerns God’s Love (Decision) For The World and Our Love (Decision) for God Admits The Hiddenness of God (Because God’s Not Empirical), And Wants Us To Seek That Essential Hidden Essence

Is Becoming A Genuine (Christian) Person of Faith Easy Is Becoming A Genuine (Christian) Person of Faith Easy? And if Not, What’s Necessary? Caveat: We’re Not Trying to Endorse Christianity. We’re Trying to Track With Kierkegaard’s Thinking @ Religion.

What Gets In The Way The Culture That’s Antagonistic The Culture That Seems Helpful & Friendly The Person and/or Church That Imagines “God” Can Be Domesticated...

Stages (Not Seasons) Aesthetic = whatever looks, feels good Ethical = choices must be made Religious = the choices which are made involve us in suffering, but the suffering may mean we’re authentically alive

Religious A Leap Ethical Aesthetic Religious B

Self Doubt... Ethical Aesthetic Discerning Right & Wrong Good & Evil Soren Kiekegaard’s book Either/Or

Small Groups Find Quotes from Pages 61-68, Which Describe The Ethical Life How might the Ethical Life be the “Threshold” to Authentic Faith and Not Its Main Living Room?

The Content of Christian Life... Love, But What Manner, Mode or Kind of Love?

Simone Weil 1909 1943

Absent? How Might God Be Absent?

Implicit? What’s wrong with loving God Explicity?

Quotable... The Absence of God First Form of Implicit Love Second Form of Implicit Love Third Form of Implicit Love

Creation’s Indifference

How May Nature’s Indifference Become Spiritually Significant?

For Weil... God Creates By Self-Renunciation God is Concealed (Hidden) God’s Absence From Creation Makes Us Desire God All The More

Loving God By Loving Other Things/People, but How? By Loving The Order & Beauty that May Crush Us By Loving Religious Practices

“The love of neighbor prepares us for an explicit love of God “The love of neighbor prepares us for an explicit love of God. For as we increase our ability to see ourselves and others quite apart from the identity given to us by earthly circumstances, we are progressively made free to love without any hope of earthly reward...” (p. 113).

“Each man imagines he is situated in the center of the world “Each man imagines he is situated in the center of the world. The illusion of perspective places him at the center of space; an illusion of the same kind falsifies his idea of time; and yet another kindred illusion arranges the whole hierarchy of values around him...” (p. 116).

Things Idea of God Self Work Others

Self Things Work Idea of God Others “How could we search for God, since he is above, in a dimension not open to us? We can only advance horizontally...” (Weil, p. 121) Things Work Idea of God Self Others It is only because God is present here below in our neighbors, in nature and in religious ceremonies that awe can reach him (Allen, p. 121)

Three Outsiders? Blaise Pascal: 3 Orders... Soren Kierkegaard: 3 Stages... Simone Weil: 3 Forms of Implicit Love...

For Monday Targeted Question #1 Sikhism & Jainism Small Group Research