This evening I found myself laughing at the Summa Theologiae. I think I may actually be going mad.
Aquinas is discussing transubstantiation, specifically why the change in substance has to happen instantly:
If this were to begin to happen before the instant of consecration, there would be some time during which under a part of the host you would have neither the substance of bread nor the body of Christ. This would be a most undesirable situation (quod est inconveniens).
At which point, I'm afraid, I found myself actually giggling. Not at the theology, I hasten to add. It's just the deadpan quod est inconveniens. Bits of reality suddenly ceasing to exist, even though it looks like they're still there? Sounds like the premise for Lovecraftian horrors. Quod est inconveniens, all right.
Tuesday 19 October 2010
Monday 18 October 2010
Time is flying, and I keep meaning to update the blog - for much has been happening - but so much has, in fact, been happening that I've no time to blog. The usual problem (I recall having had a similar problem during my attempts to keep a diary as a kid).
I had my first supervision today, on Augustine's Confessions and the question, "Is thinking about oneself a good place to start thinking about God?" My essay was, I think, solidly meh, but the ensuing discussion was helpful in more ways than one. Primarily, it was useful in clarifying what sort of God Augustine is thinking about, and how this relates to his understanding of the church as a community of believers, but it did contain a rather wonderful moment:
We had been talking about Augustine's concept of 'seeing with the eyes of the flesh' compared to his idea of spiritual vision, which comes closer to seeing one's self and the world as God perceives it (subject to human limitations, which are pretty great).
Supervisor: So, when Augustine say he's "become to himself a vast problem", what do we make of this?
Self: Er, he's alienated from God and therefore can't make any sense of his life.
Supervisor: In what sense?
Self:....
Supervisor: It's pretty egoistical, isn't it? "A vast problem"? To whom? A vast problem to God? Try seeing him from God's perspective. Loved, yes, absolutely. But a vast problem? Come on, Augustine, get over yourself!
A lesson for everyone there, I feel. Particularly clergy, or those in training, taking yourself too seriously being one of the occupational hazards (and an absolutely fatal one).
I had my first supervision today, on Augustine's Confessions and the question, "Is thinking about oneself a good place to start thinking about God?" My essay was, I think, solidly meh, but the ensuing discussion was helpful in more ways than one. Primarily, it was useful in clarifying what sort of God Augustine is thinking about, and how this relates to his understanding of the church as a community of believers, but it did contain a rather wonderful moment:
We had been talking about Augustine's concept of 'seeing with the eyes of the flesh' compared to his idea of spiritual vision, which comes closer to seeing one's self and the world as God perceives it (subject to human limitations, which are pretty great).
Supervisor: So, when Augustine say he's "become to himself a vast problem", what do we make of this?
Self: Er, he's alienated from God and therefore can't make any sense of his life.
Supervisor: In what sense?
Self:....
Supervisor: It's pretty egoistical, isn't it? "A vast problem"? To whom? A vast problem to God? Try seeing him from God's perspective. Loved, yes, absolutely. But a vast problem? Come on, Augustine, get over yourself!
A lesson for everyone there, I feel. Particularly clergy, or those in training, taking yourself too seriously being one of the occupational hazards (and an absolutely fatal one).
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