Comments on: A Found Review of Peter O’Leary’s Benedicite (with help from Mark Johnston and Susan Sontag)

By: Henry Gould

Henry Gould — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:36:51 +0000

& no, I’m not advocating some kind of complacent know-nothingism, or one of the time-honored versions of religious mystification.

& no, I haven’t read Johnston’s book. I’m just responding to the post here. We seem to get into these recurring types of defensive put-downs & authority-citings.

I hold strongly for the relation between love & knowledge. The passion for knowledge of particulars – the scholar’s virtue, of anyone wide awake & alert – this is allied to love; the “spirit of truth” must sometimes involve demystification. I guess what struck me somewhat was the thin-lipped minatory tone of the Johnston quotes. & it made me consider that there’s a paradox involved in the relation between faith & knowledge. Faith itself is a kind of inarguable, unprovable given : a form of unshakable trust. If you don’t have that foundation of trust, then neither love nor knowledge can make much headway. Knowledge seeks reasonable understanding, proof : faith believes without proof. What I was referring to in the original comment, quoting from the parables, was the ground of this admittedly childlike attitude : the idea that God is Love above all : God is benevolent beyond any strictures of “approach” (such as I hear in Jonhston’s perhaps-necessary protest).

By: Henry Gould

Henry Gould — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:31:17 +0000

p.s. that’s O’Leary, I o’hear.

By: Henry Gould

Henry Gould — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:30:21 +0000

I have a hunch that O’Lesry & I are the Shem & Shaun of… of something. Which is Shem & which Shaun I’m not Shure.

By: Henry Gould

Henry Gould — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:30:48 +0000

(more Populism?)

By: Henry Gould

Henry Gould — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:29:17 +0000

My favorite philosopher, Nicolas of Cusa, in one of his dialogues, sends the scholars out to talk with a maker of wooden spoons (a street vendor), in order to learn about Truth & Life. A meditation on Proverbs (“Wisdom cries out in the streets…”)

By: Robert P. Baird

Robert P. Baird — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:34:32 +0000

Hi Simon,

Yes, thanks, I did recall that. I’d bet Rorty also had in mind Freud’s response to Romain Rolland: “To me mysticism is just as closed a book as music.”

But just so it’s clear: that sentence (like a third or so of the sentences here) was written by Mark Johnston; the others are by Susan Sontag and Peter O’Leary. I only supplied the stitching.

Thanks for checking in…

By: Simon Jarvis

Simon Jarvis — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:13:18 +0000

Dear Bobby, The idea of being tone-deaf to religion (as you perhaps know?) is Max Weber’s, which Rorty is either alluding to or stealing or coinciding with. All best, Simon

By: Henry Gould

Henry Gould — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:41:15 +0000

You’re thinking of YHWHiskey, Bobby. Pillar of firewater by night. God’s black sheep brother. Not benevolent, not forgiving. Malvolio.

By: Robert P. Baird

Robert P. Baird — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:37:20 +0000

God is benevolent, mysterious, surprising, just, forgiving, merciful. Maybe that’s all one needs…?

Whiskey too is benevolent, mysterious, surprising, just, forgiving, merciful, so maybe that’s not all one needs. But check it out for yourself: Mark Johnston, Saving God, BL51.J75 2009.

By: Henry Gould

Henry Gould — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:30:15 +0000

Many thanks, Robert. Most interesting.

My only question : is the hortatory, “how-to” tone actually needful for anyone? (I’m not speaking of the O’Leary parts.) Aren’t these warnings about HOW to approach God more like self-admonitions (of serious thinkers, on how to think seriously)?

What I guess I mean is, the “simple” parables of Jesus are a form of God-portraiture (there’s a theological term for this, I forget). They are pictures of God’s nature. The salient characteristics I draw from them (off the top of my head) : God is benevolent, mysterious, surprising, just, forgiving, merciful. Maybe that’s all one needs…?

But maybe that’s not helpful. Who knows.