Kracauer and the place of Reason in History

"In serving the breakthrough of truth, the historical process becomes a process of demythologization which affects a radical deconstruction of the positions that the natural continually reoccupied. [...] The capitalist epoch is a stage in the process of demystification."

Siegfried Kracauer, "The Mass Ornament", The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), p. 80.

Kracauer, the Process of History, and Mythology

"The process of history is a battle between weak and distant reason and the forces of nature that ruled over heaven and earth in the myths. After the twilight of the gods, the gods did not abdicate: the old nature within and outside man continues to assert itself. It gave rise to the great cultures of humanity, which must die like any creation of nature, and it serves as the ground for the superstructures of a mythological thinking which affirms nature in its omnipotence. [...] it yields to the workings of fate."

Siegfried Kracauer, "The Mass Ornament", The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), p. 79.

Kracauer an Photography as an Effigy to Alienation

"A consciousness caught up in nature is unable to see its own material base. It is the task of photography to disclose this previously unexamined foundation of nature. [...] This is how the elements crumble, since they are not held together. The photographic archive assembles in effigy the last elements of a nature alienated from meaning."

Siegfried Kracauer, "Photography", The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), pp. 61-62

Kracauer on Photography as a Capitalist Production

"No different from earlier modes of representation, photography, too is assigned to a particular developmental stage of practical and material life. It is a secretion of the capitalist mode of production."

Sigfried Kracauer, "Photography", The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), p. 61.

Kracauer on Illustrated Newspapers

"The aim of the illustrated newspapers is the complete reproduction of the world accessible to the photographic apparatus. [...] The reproductions are thus basically signs which may remind us of the original object that was supposed to be understood."

Siegfried Kracauer, "Photography", The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), p. 58.

The Parable of the Dishonest Manager

Luke 16:1-13

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. ² So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ ³ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ ⁵ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ ⁷ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ ⁸ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. ⁹ And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

¹⁰ “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. ¹¹ If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? ¹³ No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Sermon:

This morning’s parable is often considered one of the most difficult to interpret in all of the synoptic gospels. It’s a strange text because it starts off with a story about a dishonest scoundrel who uses his wit to secure his future position following the moment when his rich boss fires him. In the first half of verse 8, we hear his boss commend him for being so shrewd and crafty. Many of us have probably seen moments like this – where someone is praised for being so intelligent, even when their actions are unethical.

In the second-half of verse eight we see a transition from the parable itself to the interpretation that Jesus provides. It’s the moment where Jesus says, “for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.”[1]

          In the next three verses, Jesus goes on to talk about faithfulness with what we have at our disposal and our incapacity to serve two masters. If we try to serve both wealth and God, then we are only deceiving ourselves. As Jesus states we, “will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

          As some of you know, I have been taking two seminars this semester. The first is at Temple and it focuses on contemporary ethics, particularly the question of blame. It’s focusing on how we can think about blame and what it actually is. Is it a reactive attitude? An action constituted out of a belief-disposition pairing? Or a moral protest?

          The second seminar I am taking this term is at Villanova and it focuses on the ways affects like media, melodrama, and emotionally charged events shape our political thinking. The narratives we build alongside our political arguments are often inseparable from the arguments themselves. It’s incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for us to detach ourselves from our emotions when we’re thinking about politics, religion, or most of the other things at the heart of our human experience. We are, after all, more than brains sitting in jars digesting the information that’s fed to us.

          But in both classes, the arguments and issues always flow back to a very central question that’s at the heart of nearly everything. That question is both simple and complicated. The question is, “What is at the heart of human nature?” Every idea about the good life or how we should live flows from that very basic question. So let me ask you, “What do you think is at the heart of human nature?”

          Perhaps it’s my inclination towards the Reformed view that humanity is fatally flawed and so in need of redemption that we’re incapable of holiness outside of God’s intervention – a doctrine that’s sometimes called radical corruption or pervasive depravity.[2] But I tend to believe that it’s very difficult for us to really be driven by more than one value system at a time. If we run with the fairly similar outlook on human nature that the Early Modern English philosopher Thomas Hobbes provides, then we’re all driven by a fundamental desire for survival which informs our beliefs and values insofar as they provide a way for us to achieve what’s in our own best interest, including the passing on of our genes through children.[3] I think Jesus is saying something similar in this parable. He’s offering us an account of two worlds that we often find ourselves torn between. Yet, we with the help of Christ’s Spirit have the opportunity to participate in the second more holy endeavor.

These debts that we hear about in this parable were futures contracts – where debtors sold the creditor their wares at a particular time and must deliver an agreed quantity at a future time.[4] It’s a type of transaction that fits in better with the realm of wholesale merchandizing, rather than the world of leases, tenants, and landowners. Some of us may have even bought or sold futures at some point in our lives. My great-grandfather used to buy and sell them. On one occasion, he made a mistake with the paperwork and ended up having three train cars full of lumber delivered to his local stockyard. Needless to say, he didn’t make a profit off of that mistake!

What we have in this parable is a story about romans who are participating in the international economic system of their day. You see, merchants were, almost exclusively, roman citizens. This is a story about the corruption and shrewdness of what we could kind of translate as ‘that generic world over there.’ Yet, it’s a parable that’s also meant to indict us, through the example of other people. It’s a story that compares two kinds of social systems. As verse 8 states, “for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” Jesus is drawing a distinction between the social system of this era and the social system of the people of light. To his Jewish audience, it would have been obvious that Jesus was telling a parable that fit into a genre they called “halakha.”[5] To my knowledge, we don’t really have a genre in our culture that compares.

It’s a genre in which the narrator draws a distinction between the worlds of the non-Jewish peoples – whose way of life, from a Jewish or early Christian perspective, separates them from God – and the kind of system in which the Jews were supposed to live. Traditionally, this category of condemnation included three cardinal sin categories – sexual immorality (porneia), greed for money (pleonexia), and idolatry (eidōlolatria).[6] Luke chapter 16 is a parable on the subject of money.

Jesus praises the cheat, not because he is unrighteous, but because he – unknowingly – embodies something that can be applied to Christian communities. To clarify, the dishonest manager models the use of money in building relationships, or as this translation calls it “friendships” – both in this life and in the life to come (v. 9). Jesus is essentially telling us that we can be faithful in dealing with the corrupted and fallible sphere of halakha – the greed that can be so evident in the world’s economic systems (v. 11, which can also be translated as ‘unrighteous mammon’) – if we use it for just ends. That does not mean that Jesus is giving us a license to cheat or engage in the type of activity that the manager does here. He is, instead, telling us that we inevitably participate in the world’s corrupt economic structures. There’s very little doubt that this passage is a strong critique of this world’s monetary, trade, and economic systems. However, Jesus is telling us that even though we have to buy and sell in these corrupt systems, we can still be faithful and redeem this reality.  

If we look at verse 9, the model character of the cheat consists in the fact that he establishes friendships by forgiving debts. Unsurprisingly, this fits in well with Luke’s overall concern with the forgiveness of debts. If we look back on 6:30-38, for example, we can see that Jesus’ community were supposed to give credit to one another without expecting repayment. In Luke and Acts together, we find a strong theme accorded to the obligation Christians have to prevent hunger and extreme poverty for other members of the community (Acts 2:24-27, 4:32-35, 4:36-37, 5:1-11; Luke 18:28-30).

The people of light that Jesus is talking about here, are also a people of resurrection – faithful in small things and with unrighteous mammon (vv. 10-12), which belongs to ‘this world.’ We should avoid engaging in the type of fraud and corruption that the dishonest manager engages in, but we should emulate him insofar as he uses money to build friendships. The interpretation that Jesus provides at the end of this parable has an odd resemblance to the passage where he states that roman currency belongs to Caesar.[7] Our money belongs to this age and this world, it is in the words of Jesus “corrupt mammon” (v.11). But it is also something that we can redeem and invest wisely.

The dishonest manager is not a hero of righteousness, but an unwilling illustration – a practical example – of Christian communities regarding their practice of economic justice. We can use our money to invest in eternal things, things that truly matter in the long-game. It all boils down to what we think we can do to redeem the corruption that is within ourselves. Will you choose to make money, wealth, or material prosperity the value that drives your life and worldview? Or will you choose to invest your resources in the things that truly have eternal significance? Jesus is telling us here that we need to use our resources to invest in people – relationships that have eternal consequences. The Jesus that Luke describes for us is incredibly concerned with issues of hunger, homelessness, and despair. So he invites us to use our money to alleviate not only the situation of our fellow Christians, but also that of those who may not yet believe. The dishonest manager invested in future-oriented relationships and so should we.

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[1] Emphasis mine.

[2] It’s more commonly referred to as “Total Depravity.” However, I would prefer to steer clear of that term due to its loaded connotations. I’m inclined towards its view, but I don’t necessarily want to be associated with the system that many of its exponents articulate.

[3] See: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan.

[4] Krauss, Talmudische Archӓologie, 2:370; Ben-David, Talmudische Ökonomie, 1:193-96.

[5] Luise Schottroff, The Parables of Jesus, translated by Linda M. Maloney (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2006), p. 160.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Luke 20:25.

Kracauer on Fashion

"The new fashions also must be disseminated, or else in the summer the beautiful girls will not know who they are."

Siegfried Kracauer, "Photography", The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), p. 57.

Adorno on Kracauer

“The medium of his thought was experience, not that of the empiricist and positivist schools, which distill experience itself down to its general principles and make a method out of it. He pursued intellectual experience as something individual, determined to think only what he could fill with substance, only what had become concretized for him about people and things.”

Adorno, “The Curious Realist: On Sigfried Kracauer,” p. 162.

Unconscious Tendencies Implicit to the Character of Epochs

"The position that an epoch occupies in the historical process can be determined more strikingly from an analysis of its inconspicuous surface-level expressions than from that epoch's judgments about itself. Since these judgments are expressions of the tendencies of a particular era, they do not offer conclusive testimony about its overall constitution.  The surface-level expressions, however, by virtue of their unconscious nature, provide unmediated access to the fundamental substance of the state of things. Conversely, knowledge of this state of things depends on the interpretation of these surface-level expressions. The fundamental substance of an epoch and its unheeded impulses illuminate each other reciprocally."

~ Siegfried Kracauer, "The Mass Ornament" in The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays, translated and edited by Thomas Y. Levin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), p. 75.

Kracauer on Life and the Importance of Insignificance

"The more life deteriorates, the more it needs the work of art, which unlocks life's impenetrability and organizes its elements to such a degree that these elements, which are strewn helter-skelter, suddenly become meaningfully related." ~ Sigfried Kracauer, Der Detektiv-Roman: Ein philosophischer Traktat, p. 115.

Kracauer on the New Breed of Writers

There is a new breed of writers who, "instead of being contemplative, are political; instead of seeking the universal beyond the particular, they find it in the very workings of the particular; instead of pursuing developments, they seek ruptures."

"Today, access to truth is by way of the profane." ~ Sigmund Kracauer, "The Bible in German"

Spinoza's Agricultural Analogy

"As each man sows, so he reaps; from bad things, bad things necessarily follow, unless wisely corrected; from good things, good things necessarily follow, if allied with constancy of purpose."

~ Benedict Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 67.

Spinoza on Christianiy's Bad Testimony

"I have often been amazed to find that people who are proud to profess the Christian religion, that is [a religion of} love, joy, peace, moderation and good will to all men, opposing each other with extraordinary animosity and giving daily expression to the bitterest mutual hatred. So much so that it has become easier to recognize an individual's faith by the latter features than the former."

"Unsurprisingly, then, nothing remains of the religion of the early church except its external ritual (by which the common people seem to adulate rather than venerate God), and faith amounts to nothing more than credulity and prejudices."

~ Benedict Spinoza, "Preface", Theological-Political Treatise (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 7.

On The Sacrifice of Religious and Intellectual Minorities

"Alleged subversion for ostensibly religious reasons undoubtedly arises only because laws are enacted about doctrinal matters, and beliefs are subjected to prosecution and condemnation as if they were crimes, and those who support and subscribe to these condemned beliefs are sacrificed not for the common welfare but to the hatred and cruelty of their enemies."

~ Benedict Spinoza, "Preface", Theological-Political Treatise (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 6.

Spinoza on Superstition

"Therefore it is easy for people to be captivated by a superstition, but difficult to ensure that they remain loyal to it. It is only a new form of credulity that really pleases them, one that has not yet let them down. Such instability of mind has been the cause of many riots and ferocious wars. [...] Hence people are easily led, under pretense of religion, sometimes to adore their kings as gods and at other times to curse them and detest them as the universal scourge of mankind."

Benedict Spinoza, "Preface", Theological-Political Treatise (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 5.

Spinoza and Irrationality

"It is dread that makes men so irrational."

~Benedict Spinoza, "Preface", Theological-Political Treatise (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 4.

Judgment and Blame

"Yet the obvious fact is that we all live in neighborhoods which are at different distances from the Kingdom of Ends, and it seems merciless to give this obvious fact no weight."

~ Christine Korsgaard, Creating the Kingdom of Ends

Spinoza on Determinism

"there is in no mind absolute or free will, but the mind is determined to will this or that by a cause which is determined by another cause, and this one again by another, and so on ad infinitive." Benedict Spinoza, Ethics 2, 48.

Spinoza, Monism, and Einstein

"There is a modern equivalent of Spinoza's monism in the view that all transformations in the world are transformations of a single stuff - matter for the Newtonians, energy for the followers of Planck and Einstein. Spinoza himself is sometimes though to be nearer to Einstein, in taking 'motion and rest' as the fundamental variable, and in arguing that 'bodies are distinguished from each other in respect of the motion and rest contained in them' (E 2, 12). However, this 'motion and rest' is not, for Spinoza, an attribute of substance, but an 'infinite mode': in words, something which everywhere inheres in, but is not exhaustive of, the ultimate reality. At the same time, extension (the attribute) can be seen as a 'power to produce motion and rest' (S 120)." Roger Scruton, Spinoza: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) p. 54.

The Attributes of God in Spinoza's Philosophy

Spinoza defines God as a "substance consisting of infinite attributes, each of which expresses eternal and infinite essence" Spinoza, Ethics 1, 11.

But it's unclear if he means to say that "there are infinitely many attributes, or only that each attribute is in some sense infinite in its own nature?" Roger Scruton, Spinoza: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) p. 50.

God as the only Necessary Substance - a monistic conclusion

"Whatever is, is in God, and nothing can exist or be conceived without God." ~ Benedict Spinoza

"His theology is essentially impersonal, just as his conception of the physical world is essentially theological. All causality obeys a logical paradigm, and all explanation is really a form of proof. To understand the causality of things, therefore, is to understand a complex mental operation, undertaken by an infinite mind." Roger Scruton, Spinoza: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) p. 51.

Substance and Mode in Spinoza's Thought

"When I say that I mean by substance that which is conceived through and in itself; and that I mean by modification or accident that which is in something else, and is conceived through that wherein it is, evidently it follows that substance is by nature prior to its accidents. For without the former the latter can neither be nor be conceived. Secondly it follows that besides substances and accidents nothing exists really or externally to the intellect." Benedict Spinoza, Correspondence IV

Is Experience Necessary?

"You ask me if we have need of experience, in order to know if the definition of a given attribute is true. To this I answer that we never need experience, except in cases where the existence of the thing cannot be inferred from its definition." Benedict Spinoza, Correspondence X

Life's Journey

Ecclesiastes 9:7-12

“Go eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do. Let your garments always be white; do not let oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun, because that is your position in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.”

“Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor the bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all. For no one can anticipate the time of disaster. Like fish taken in a cruel net, and like birds caught in a snare, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly falls upon them.”

Sermon:

          15 years ago today, our nation experienced the largest loss of life by a foreign attack on American soil since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. 2,996 people were killed and another 6,000 were injured. Civilians, soldiers, and emergency responders were all killed at the Word Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Since then, conservative estimates suggest that another 1.3 million people have died in the War on Terror.[1] And that estimate doesn’t even include what has happened in Syria, something some might connect to the shift the world underwent following that fateful day 15 years ago.

          Today we take a moment to remember all the fallen: soldiers, first responders, mothers, fathers, and children. We especially remember the first responders who had to fight for healthcare after contracting a number of serious diseases following their fight to save others at the World Trade Center. We remember their sacrifices and public service. May we continue to respond to their sacrifice with equal portions of generosity.

          Earlier this week I read a story about the two fighter pilots who were attached to the Air National Guard unit near Washington, D.C. After the first two planes hit, they were scrambled and ordered to take down the third jetliner despite the fact that neither of their planes had live ammunition. One of those two fighter pilots were the first female to ever pilot an F-16 in her squadron. The other was her commander. Both scrambled that morning assuming that were embarking on a suicide – kamikaze – mission to protect our nation’s capital from United Flight 93. The commander told his subordinate that he was going to aim for the cockpit, while the second pilot stated that she would aim for the fuselage – burying her own life in an attempt to protect the capital. As most of us know, the passengers of Flight 93 took matters into their own hands, overwhelmed the hijackers, and forced the plane to crash land in a small Pennsylvania field far from its intended target. The two fighter pilots went on later that day to escort Air Force One and enforce a no-fly zone over Washington, D.C.

          These are tales of bravery, sacrifice, and public service. Their stories will long live in our national memory. But they are also messages of warning. They tell us that life is not always predictable. Sometimes, when our eyes are most attuned to the airspace that could carry ICBM’s from our traditional enemies, we get hit from places we never would have expected. Life can throw us curveballs and we never really know what fate has in store for us. So it’s with this in mind that I chose this week’s scripture.

          In this morning’s scripture reading we heard from two separate, yet related, sections of the author’s developing thoughts. In the first, we hear him tell us that we should do what we can to enjoy life while we are still able to do so.[2] In the second, we hear him tell us that time and chance hamper all of us regardless of strength, intelligence, or skill.[3] We cannot anticipate the times at which we will face hardship or death. We all share together a common fate, regardless of character, privilege, or the lack of such things.[4] Yet, we also are given an opportunity. Verse 9 tells us that our portion in this life is to enjoy life and to make the best of our work and our pleasure. Life is something that we cannot hold onto forever and so we must make the most of the present.

          When we hear this second part of this morning’s scripture, we come to hear a reality that we all know to be true. Life does not have prescribed rules that guarantee success. We don’t control time and we cannot predict the accidents that shape our existence. We are especially incapable of predicting when a tragedy will strike that may put an end to someone’s ability to enjoy life, achieve goals, or to fulfill their potential. The author of Ecclesiastes relates this experience to two common images. People are like fish and birds. Both species wander about innocently and just live their lives. Yet, both can be caught. The trap might be sprung or the net drawn in at any time. It is not only the fully mature who will be caught, but anyone whom fate provides. That’s why we, like the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, must make the most of the time we are given. We don’t know when our time will come so we need to make the most of every moment.

          This morning I want to lay out several ways that we can implement this biblical reminder to make the most of what we’ve been given.

·      Be engaged – everyday gives us many new opportunities. We don’t know when those opportunities will never be around again. We should try to make the most of them.

·      Be positive – life can throw us more than we can handle – more than our spirits can bear. But God also stands there with us during our trials and helps us through them. No matter what it is – be it mental illness, substance abuse, work troubles, or grief we should all remember the words, “I can do all things, through Christ who strengthens me.”[5] If you’re struggling it might be helpful to reflect on that verse and seek out positive communities of love that can help you. God wants us to help each other.

·      Be a servant – psychologists have long noted that being kind and empathetic to others, serving them, can benefit you. It doesn’t just release endorphins and make you feel good about yourself, although it does that too. It also helps make you more grateful for what you have and helps you focus less on the problems that are occupying your attention. “In fact, studies have found that when people with medical conditions (e.g., cancer, chronic pain) "counsel" other patients with those same conditions, the "counselors" often experience less depression, distress, and disability.”[6] Being helpful and empathetic to others has even been shown to improve physical health.

·      Be all you can be – most of us have probably heard the phrase. It’s been used a lot in Army advertisements over the years, but it expresses a wonderful element of human potential. We all have opportunity and we should do our best to make the most of it. Life is about thriving in what we have been given. So the best we can do is to try and grow into the best version of ourselves that we can be.

If we pay attention to the messages that Jesus gave his disciples it’s very clear that he didn’t want to make their lives miserable. That’s not what Christianity is about. He wanted to help them make their lives more abundant and enjoyable. Following Christ doesn’t save us from the enemy we call death, but it does enrich our lives with meaning, community, and hope. It tells us that although we may die, we will be raised again and given the opportunity to live in a better world – one where all of our species’ faults and weaknesses are gone. As Paul who wrote in a letter to the Corinthians:[7]

“What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is^[j] from heaven. ⁴⁸ As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹ Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will^[k] also bear the image of the man of heaven.”

^“50 What I am saying, brothers and sisters,^[l] is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹ Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die,^[m] but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:”

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”

We share in the fate of our Common Ancestors – Adam and Eve. We are human. But God loved us so much that he became human too; and in doing so, he offered us a way to escape the pit we call death. He offers us the opportunity to live abundantly in this life, as Ecclesiastes does, but he also offers us the opportunity to be raised from the dead too. God is in the business bringing dead things back to life. The world may be broken and diseased, but God has a plan to heal creation and wrap us back into a better plan and a more beautiful cosmos.

          But all of this goes back to a very simple lesson. In the fact of death and life’s seeming meaninglessness, we should all embrace the good life – both in our work and in our play. We need to embrace life with passion because it is God’s gift to us in this moment. We are gifted with the opportunity to make the most of our portion, if we will only rise to the opportunity. May we rise to this opportunity and sow where there is dessert. May we rise to this opportunity and reap where there is harvest. May we rise to this opportunity and pray where there is confusion. May we rise to this opportunity and embrace all people as family. May we rise to greatest opportunity we could ever have and embrace the chance to participate in God’s healing work over all of creation. Amen.

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[1] Physicians for Social Responsibility, “Body Count: Casualty Figures after 10 Years of the ‘War on Terror’” (March 2015) http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/body-count.pdf

[2] Ecclesiastes 9:7-10.

[3] Ecclesiastes 9:11-12.

[4] Ecclesiastes 9:1-6.

[5] Philippians 4:13.

[6] Sherrie Borg Carter, Helper’s High: The Benefits (and risks) of Altruism, Sept 4^th 2014: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/high-octane-women/201409/helpers-high-the-benefits-and-risks-altruism  

[7] I Corinthians 15:42-55.

Hobbes on Superstition

"From this ignorance of how to distinguish Dreams, and other strong Fancies, from Vision and Sense, did arise the greatest part of the Religion of the Gentiles in time past, that worshipped Satyres, Fawnes, Nymphs, and the like; and now adayes the opinion that rude people have of Fayries, Ghosts, and Gobblins; and of the power of witches."

"If this superstitious fear of Spirits were taken away, and with it, Prognostiques from Dreams, false Prophecies, and many other things depending thereon, by which, crafty ambitious persons abuse the simple people, men would be much more fitted than they are for civill Obedience."

 Hobbes, Leviathan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 18-19.

Nietzsche on Negatively Oriented Reactive Emotions

"According to Nietzsche, the anger and other negative emotions we feel toward wrongdoers are expressions of ressentiment - a complex attitude that includes both our fear of those who are strong and strong-willed and our envy of their success at flouting moral prohibitions that we dare not violate. On Nietzsche's account, the ultimate source of the retributive emotions is not our allegiance to morality but rather our sense of our own weakness and inadequacy."

George Sher, "What Blame Is", In Praise of Blame (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 107. Citing: Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals, trans. Walter Kaufman (New York: Vintage, 1969); and Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage, 1954).

Hume and Motivation

Hume believed that all motivation was supplied by desires or other "passions" that are independent of reason. That's why he believed that beliefs alone can never provide us with motivation. ~David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, book II, part III, section III.

Hobbes and Economic Interventionism

"Hobbes's sovereign had not only the right but also the duty to intervene in the economic system if its free workings threatened the survival of any of his citizens (pp. 128-9)."

Richard Tuck, "Introduction" to Hobbes, Leviathan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. xxxvii.

A Liberal Reading of Hobbes

"The liberal interpretation of Hobbes begins from his theory of the sovereign as the representative of the citizens. Hobbes described the relationship in Leviathan as follows: the prospective citizens in the state of nature

'appoint one Man, or Assembly of men, to beare their Person; and

every one to owne, and acknowledge himselfe to be Authour of

whatsoever he that so beareth their Person, shall Act, or cause to

be Acted, in those things, which concerne the Common Peace and

Safetie; and therein to submit their Wills, every one to his Will,

and their Judgements, to his Judgement. (p. 120)

In this passage, Hobbes deliberately used the language which was commonly used also by those theorists who wanted to limit the powers of sovereigns, or even to introduce quasi-republican government."

Richard Tuck, "Introduction" to Hobbes, Leviathan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. xxxv.

Hobbes on the Lack of Disction Between Citizenship and Slavery

"In De Cive he was even more blunt, declaring that to be a citizen is no more than to be a slave (servus) of the sovereign (Chapter VIII; see also Leviathan p. 142)." Richard Tuck, "Introduction" to Hobbes, Leviathan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. xxxiv.

Hobbes, The Right of Nature, and Renunciation

When Hobbes states that the right of nature is "the Liberty each man hath, to use his own power, as he will himselfe, for the preservation of his own Nature" he means to say that it is the "right to use one's judgment about preservation which is in fact the right of nature, not the bare right of self-preservation. The right of nature rests on the recognition of the salience for everybody of their own survival, but like any right it is renounceable, and its renunciation is at the heart of Hobbes' theory."

"The way in which we renounce individual judgment, according to Hobbes, is that we enter into a contractual relationship with our fellow man and erect a sovereign whose judgments we will henceforward count as our own."

Richard Tuck, "Introduction" Hobbes, Leviathan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. xxxii-xxxiii.

Hobbes and Reconciliation

In our calmer moments "we will see that we should deprive ourselves of the capacity to act on our independent and contentious judgment, as long as others do likewise, so that we can align our judgments with those of other men in order to form a civil society. If this is right, then the force of the 'law' of nature does arise from considerations of self-interest, or at least from those of self-preservation." Hobbes' Leviathan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. xxxii.

Might there be an Objective Principle which can override Subjective Disagreements and be properly understood as the Law of God?

Hobbes says that the laws of nature are but "theorems", "whereas Law, properly is the word of him, that by right hath command over others. But yet if we consider the same Theoremes, as delivered in the word of God, that by right commandeth all things; then are they properly called Lawes." Hobbes, Leviathan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 111.

Hobbes on the Subject's Renunciation of Judgment

"Men, on Hobbes account, were to abandon the state of nature by renouncing the right to all things - that is, in effect, renouncing their own private right of judgment about what conduced to their preservation, except in such obvious and extreme cases that there could be no disagreement about the necessary means." Richard Tuck, "Introduction" to Hobbes' Leviathan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. xxx-xxxi.

Hobbes and Grotius on the Foundation for a Moral Order

Like Grotius, Hobbes believed that the foundation for a moral order could exist in a recognition that each individual was justified in preserving himself. However, unlike Grotius, Hobbes did not think this was enough. Instead, there would have to be some overcoming of all the disagreements about everything else, particularly the actual circumstances in which people might be justified in preserving themselves. This disagreement over the implementation of that foundational right is the key issue. If it can be overcome, then Hobbes - like Grotius - would agree that there will be a secure basis for a moral consensus. ~Richard Tuck, "Introduction" to Hobbes' Leviathan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. xxix.

Hobbes and the Subjectivity of Moral Tastes

For Hobbes, "descriptions such as 'good' or 'bad' were projections of our inner sensations onto an external world, just like 'red' or 'green'. As Hobbes said, 'whatsoever is the object of any mans Appetite or Desire; that is it, which he for his parth calleth Good: And the object of his Hate, and Aversion, Evill'. If human beings could be brought to recognize the inherently subjective character of these moral descriptions, there would of course be no disagreement among them about moral matters, any more than there is disagreement about avowedly subjective questions such as the taste of foods." Richard Tuck, "Introduction" to Hobbes' Leviathan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. xxv.

Descartes on the Point of His Whole Project

"I had always had an extreme desire to learn to distinguish true from false in order to see clearly into my own actions and proceed with confidence in this life." ~Rene Descartes, The Philosophical Writings I, trans. John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff and Dugald Murdoch (Cambridge, 1985), p. 115.