Friday Pensées
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash
Pensées are a collection of thoughts as I look back on the previous week of posts and think forward to new topics I would like to cover. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), the French Christian mathematician, recorded fragments of ideas he intended to incorporate into a book on apologetics. Pascal died before incorporating these fragments into a book, but his method inspired me. Occasionally, I wish to share my random thoughts in a post, hoping to expand each idea into an essay. I want to do this every Friday as a regular feature. Still, I have learned it isn't good to make promises until I have developed the discipline of a steady rhythm.
The following are this week's thoughts in no particular order.
I am reading Steven J. Keillor's Providence Forms a Nation in the Womb of Time. The book is Keillor's first volume in the three-part, A Providential History of the United States. I intend to produce a review of these books when I have finished reading them. So far, two quotes have stayed with me.
The first quote is from John Winthrop (1587-1649), the Puritan attorney and critical figure in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He said, "A family is a little commonwealth, and a commonwealth is a great family."
The second is from John Cotton (1585-1652), the Cambridge-trained Puritan theologian. He encouraged parents to bring their children into the "adult" church services: "Bring them to church and help them to remember something, and tell them the meaning of it...and encourage them, and that will make them delight in it." Church services are to be delightful.
I envision a book of contemplative essays. I have in mind here a particular genre. I can describe contemplative literature but must compose a definition and taxis. Swiss physician and philosopher Max Picard (1888-1965) wrote two books that have been influential in my thinking: The Flight From God and The World of Silence.
The first essay could be "Why I don't give advice." So far, my reasons for not giving advice are a) you won't take my advice, or b) you will take my advice. Both possibilities are frightening.
We need to ask ourselves why we want the approval of certain people who make a living on iconoclasm. Being a sucker for the "knowing look" can blind us to our faith, family, and values. There is much to unpack here, and it will prove worthwhile.
Having a guide to identifying and appreciating contemplative literature would be valuable. I wish I had one.
Have politicians made you feel stupid yet? But don't worry, it isn't you. The elites have many weapons, and one of them is exaggeration, and I know I am prone to exaggerate myself. Thus, I would like to write an essay on the sin of exaggeration. Why am I so prone to it?
Looking back on the fun I had writing about G. K. Chesterton last week, I would like to explore something he put in the mouth of Father Brown and ask a question. What did Chesterton mean when he wrote it is bad theology to attack reason?
Considering the improbability of human life, what if billions of people are actually "few." Why are Malthusians so unimaginative that they cannot see that there is enough for everyone everywhere all the time? Life is precious, and it is a miracle.
The movie Men in Black inspired me to think outside the box. Influencers have indoctrinated us to believe that the expanding universe is so enormous that it makes us insignificant. Some are so awed by the size of the cosmos that they have begun to replace trusting God with "trusting the universe” and other such nonsense. The universe does nothing for me. It certainly cannot direct me in any path but that which is dangerous (think rogue asteroids, comets run amok, and supernovas). But what if we are small relative to the universe, but what we call the universe is small itself? What if it is "portable" as a dimension? Sound insane? Stay tuned.
