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Period Period Period Period Period Period Period 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 Room Room Room Room Room Room Room 200 201 202 203 204 205 001
Structure I. 100 Questions a. The Life of the Mind b. Becoming Who You Are c. Class discussions II. 100 Questions a. I agree b. I disagree c. I dont know / Im not sure III. Essay (Blue Book) a. What connections can you make between Platos allegory of the cave and the topics we covered this year? (33 points) i. Minimum three (3) connections b. Read a brief expert and respond/critique (66 points @ 33 points) c. Thumb Rule to get full credits i. Two (2) pages length essay ii. I agree with the author about And heres why iii. I disagree with the author about And heres why iv. Connections that you make 1. State and elaborate the connections
Bring #2 pencils and pen! You MUST use pen to do the essay.
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Preface
Characteristic of faith is stable and enduring. Does not change with passing whims, intellectual fads, or the advent of new theories Remains steady through personal trials and cultural deterioration Focuses on one object: God Thinkers are impulsively inquisitive and imaginative. Group pressure pressure to conform to the standards and expectations of the group One is overtly expected to believe what the group believes or what a leader of the group declares ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Motive for thinking and reading is to discover meaning. Self understanding solidifies moral sensitivities. Beauty and goodness cause awe and delight, perhaps even exhilaration. Tragedy and evil cause sadness, sorrow, and grief. A sense of the divine is part of discovering meaning. People who think and learn are driven by the five motives 1. A desire to know the way things are 2. A desire for coherence in their beliefs 3. A desire for self-knowledge 4. A desire to clarify public issues 5. A desire to discover meaning a. A desire to find something worth living for b. A desire to feel keenly the magnificence and tragedy of life c. A desire to sense the divine ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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One way to go wrong in life we do not act rightly, focus on having the right desires and motives, or fail to have as many goods in our lives as we could A larger life has more intrinsic good in it. Thinking and learning contribute to a larger life. The fundamental standard for a group: Respect Honesty What makes us human? Rational thought Moral system Opposable thumbs to build technology Write Abstract thinking Self-awareness Create art Free will (transcend instincts) Read story Culture and civilization Conscience Passion Clothes Religion (structure) Compassion/empathy Cooking Bipedalism Questioning (self-awareness) o What happens after death? o How did the universe begin? Why? o Why is there evil? o Why am I here? o God questions o Is this morally good? o Why does someone die? o Purpose and meaning questions o Who am I? (Philosophical questions)
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Three 1. 2. 3.
ways thinking supports faith Finding reasons for believing Discovering the need for faith Uncovering False Faith
Comprehensiveness the ability of an idea or theory to make sense of an extensive array of facts and experiences Evidential discovering why we should believe Christianity is true Paschal wrote Penses To give reasons for believing that Christianity is true but also partly to show that a Christians faith best meets basic needs Becker states that we have two fundamental fears: 1. A fear of death with insignificance 2. A fear of too much life What is crowd faith? One identifies with the faith of others that he comes to believe he has it as well In reality, it is not his faith but that of others What uncovers false faith? Honest self-reflection Timothy says we should train ourselves in godliness. Murdoch claims that the enemy to the moral life is the fat relentless ego. What happens when we listen? We set aside our own concerns for a time so that we can pay attention to the concerns of someone else What happens when we discuss? We want those with whom we are interacting to focus on our central points and not peripheral ones In order to respond to awe Physical magnificence we must attend to the complexity, intricacy, and grandness of what we observe Moral magnificence we must attend to the moral grandness that is present What are ways to engender reflection on priorities? 1. Making beliefs coherent 2. Develop the imaginativeness involved in thinking and learning What are characteristics that we can acquire through thinking and learning? Adventurous Humble Passionate Wise Imaginative Attuned to God Alert Aware of sin and guilt Gracious Appreciative of redemption
What does becoming wise mean? Obtaining insight and discernment Wise people sense what is important and what is not
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What is the depth of redemption? Intricate byways in the human psyche that Gods grace travels They comprehend the deeper emotions with which Gods love connects What is the central Christian reality? Grace ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 4 Tensions Between the Life of the Mind and Christian Faith
What are inquisitive people always doing? They are always asking question, always probing and poking around in new things What is the risk involved in this? Turning their faith into rootless exploration What are imaginative people always doing? They are constantly coming up with new ideas and creating new possibilities What is the risk of doing this? We would distance ourselves from faith How can Christian faith be picture as a work of art? The finished work is a product of both structure and imagination, steady aims and inventiveness Without imagination we would be stunted and constricted, unable to enlarge our faith. Why dont imaginative people always fit in? Those who dream are sometimes seen as unacceptably different They are blamed for threatening the established order and undermining group cohesiveness What is the sin of intellectuals? Arrogance What conflicts with humility? Exaggerated self-reliance and social superiority How can one avoid pride and autonomy? We must regard our intellectual capabilities rightly How can one evade intellectual arrogance? By keeping Gods grace in mind What is the Great Commission? Do works of compassion and justice through intellectual activities Kierkegaard and subjectivity Sren Kierkegaard 19th century Danish philosopher Faith is indeed the highest passion of subjectivity How does one combine thought and passion? By keeping both in the others service Thought clarifying and deepening devotion Devotion keeping thought from becoming sterile
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What was the central focus of Socrates life? The pursuit of virtue What did Jesus focus on? High degree of cleverness ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Truth is not objective but relative no universal truths no truths that everyone is obliged to believe ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Wendell Berry vividly portrays the temper of the explorer Mat Mat an eighty-year-old native Kentuckian Mat realizes that his unexpected experience is a little like Gods constant experience Christian intellectual explorers watch and listen and become intrigued by the events they encounter. They put themselves in positions in which they will make new discoveries. Diversity The The The The of Goods good of knowing Gods creation good of thinking coherently good of sensing profoundly the magnificence and tragedy in life good of knowing ones own inner terrain
The biblical portrayal of people as holistic feeling and acting creatures who also think The values of popular culture pull us away from Gods values Christians should value intellectual exploration
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Introduction
To be a saint means to be myself. Mertons idea of the true self Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and discovering my true self. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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His soul gradually became in harmony with itself. Trappist Tom entered the Trappists To spend the rest of his life in this community, living under the vows of obedience, stability and conversio morum, or conversion of manners.
Conversio morum an assent to the monastic ways of poverty and chastity Abbot = Father The abbot, the head of the monastery, urged Merton to begin writing his memoirs The Sign of Jonas a compendium of journal entries that recounts his growing into his monastic vocation He desired solitude as much as he craved attention and affection from his brothers. He sough intimacy with others as much as he treasured his chastity. Merton sought greater spiritual freedom. Merton became a hermit on the grounds of the monastery. 1966 Nurse Hospital Merton fell in love in 1966 with a nurse in a hospital during one of his many visits Ceylon and statue of Buddha Ceylon, where, in front of a statue of the Buddha, had a deeply prayerful and mystical experience ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Authors relationship with God revolved around: Going to church very occasionally Praying the Rosary Asking God and Saint Jude for help Where did the author go to school? The University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School of Business at Penn
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Questions he asked himself Do you like what youre doing? What do you want to do for a career? Who do you want to be? He was miserable, stressed, lonely, and feeling trapped. He couldnt see a way out. Mertons journey became the authors (Martin) journey. Being and Doing A chapter in No Man Is an Island Martin stumbled upon this chapter late one night Why do we have to spend our lives striving to be something we would never want to be, if we only knew what we wanted? Why do we waste our time doing things which, if we only stopped to think about them, are just the opposite of what we were made for?
Merton gave Martins feelings a language. Martin wasnt made for the life he was in ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our false self is who we think we are. Our mental self-image and social agreement, which most people spend their whole lives living up to or down to. Written by Richard Rohr, the Franciscan priest, in his book Adams Return Discovering myself in discovering God. Merton If I find Him I will find myself, and if I find my true self I will find Him. Spiritual phrases God desires for us to be the persons we were created to be: to be simply and purely ourselves To love God and to let ourselves be loved by God Finding God means allowing ourselves to be found by God Finding our true selves means allowing God to find and reveal our true selves to us
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Moving away from those parts of ourselves that prevents us from being closer to God: selfishness, pride, fear, and so on. Moving toward those parts of ourselves that draw us nearer to God. Our personalities are not eradicated as much as they are made fuller, more real, and finally more holy. In the quest for true self, one therefore begins to appreciate and accept ones personality and ones life as an essential way that God calls us to be ourselves. Ones personal brand of holiness becomes clearer the more the true self is revealed. What happens if the true self is a horrible, lying, mean-spirited person? Mertons answer this would not be the person God created To find his true self, the horrible, lying, mean-spirited person would have to uncover his true self the good self that God created from underneath all those layers of sinfulness The longer he had been living as a selfish person, the longer it might take for him to uncover his true self Mertons arrogance is not motivated by love. Begins to realize how much his responses to people stem from his own shortcoming The more time Merton spent with God, the more generous he became. Overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers Merton The true self can now contemplate the false self with some distance, some wisdom, and even some compassion. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One tends to compare ones own life with what one falsely perceive as the perfect life of the other. No one leads that proverbial charmed life.
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The same essential poverty the poverty of knowing our own human limitations No ones life is free of suffering. The tendency to compare is a great trap in the spiritual life. Gratitude Reflecting on the others pains, accompanying them in their suffering, and reflecting on our own blessings Frees us from the spiritual prison (tendency to compare)
The road to self acceptance can be arduous. Gay men and lesbians foundational part of their spiritual journey has been accepting themselves as gay men and women; the way that God has made them. God loves us as we are because we are as God made us. Apostolates The kind of work that an apostle would do To be with the poor in the area Agere contra to act against If there is a part of ourselves that is not free, we try to act against that part in order to free ourselves from resistance in that area. Story of Rita is about? One shouldnt lose sight of the importance of being ones true self in front of every person one meets Income-generating activities Jesuit program that offered small financial grants to groups of refugees to enable them to start their own small business, as a way of helping them support their families Mikono means hands. The story of the authors work in Nairobi is about? God can use every part of ourselves even those parts we think are useless for the good God can use every part of ourselves even those parts we think are useless for the good. I was just called to be myself, my true self. The better question is What should I do? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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He struggled all his life to find his true self. He found himself pulled in two directions: The exciting but hectic life of the public academic The peaceful but (to him) lonely life of the monk What did he write in his book In the Name of Jesus? After twenty-five years of priesthood, I found myself praying poorly, living somewhat isolated from other people, and very much preoccupied with burning issues I woke up one day with the realization that I was living in a very dark place and the term burnout was a convenient psychological translation for a spiritual death. What is burnout? A convenient psychological translation for a spiritual death Who is Jean Vanier? A Frenchman who founded LArche LArche an international organization built up of small communities that welcome people with physical and mental disabilities What did the disabled teach Nouwen? The value of experiencing God in the present moment, without worrying about the future or regretting the past What happened in Toronto? Nouwen began an intense friendship with another man, an assistant at LArche, which developed into an infatuation on Nouwens part Nouwen often felt his life was often too busy for real communion with God. What does contemplative mean? A type of joy that, though solitary, calls forth a desire to be with others Beauty does not create loneliness but unity. The silence of prayer reveals his true self. A true contemplative being utterly honest before yourself and God What four things attract readers to Merton and Nouwen? 1. The two are nearly always honest about their daily lives 2. Both Nouwen and Merton are flawed and sometimes sinful men who are not afraid to admit it 3. Both Merton and Nouwen are always seeking 4. Both Merton and Nouwen struggled with the demands of chastity The two were always seekers, seeking a way to live out their vocations.
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Detachment Merton Loved his friends, but didnt use them, he was intensely thankful for everything he received from them, but he didnt attach himself to them. More and more he learned to see his friends as signpost to God. Nouwen Merton didnt need his friends as much ad Nouwen did Quelities that make Merton and Nouwen appealing: 1. They always tried to be honest 2. They were not afraid to admit their sinfulness 3. The were open-hearted seekers 4. They tried to love The lifelong process of self-examination and self-criticism and self-revelation was not simply a narcissistic quest for self-knowledge. It was a discipline undertaken to allow them to become more loving and more centered on God. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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When he saw friends in Nazareth who were sick, he felt his heart moved with pity When he saw the religious leaders laying heavy burdens on the people, he sensed the unfairness of life and how far this was from what God wanted He started to believe that his life should be about alleviating suffering Over time he felt within himself a desire that became progressively clearer: to preach the word of God and somehow to lessen the suffering of those around him As he looked at Nazareth and the surrounding Jewish towns, he wondered whether he didnt have some great part to play in the liberation of his people
What happened in the desert? Jesus was solely tested in the desert The testing in the desert may be the easiest part of Jesus life to understand. Jesus, now thinking intently about his mission, was subject to the same temptations that all of us are: for power, for security, for easy answers. But he rejects these temptations and returns to Galilee to begin his ministry. The temptation said to him: Dont become who you were called to be. Be someone who is more in line with selfish wants, with what society demands, with what will give superficial success and pleasure. Be someone who fits in, who never poses a threat to the status quo. Be someone who craves only respect. Be your false self. The miracle at Cana is about? The miracle at Cana seems to have strengthened Jesus understanding of his mission and emboldened him to trust even more in God, to trust even more in his judgment and discernment, and to trust in his ability to do miraculous things in the name of God. It may have helped Jesus to see the value of his true self, and understand the mission that his Father had sent him for: to be the revealer and revelation of god. In the Garden, Jesus accepts this essential human truth. Part of his life and vocation includes suffering. The crucifixion is? Jesus crucifixion becomes a deeply human act, not only because dying is perhaps the most human thing he does, but because it is an outgrowth of his great yes to the totality of his true self. What is the central metaphor for the Christian life? The life of Christ. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
God calls each of us to be who we are. The saints struggled with casting off the vestiges of their false selves and becoming who God wanted them to be. Saints realized that God was calling them to be faithful in a particular way.
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What did Dorothy Day realize? Dorothy day understood that her invitation was to spend a life on the outside, working among the poor in the big cities. Everyones true self is a unique creation of Gods, and the way to sanctity is to become the unique self that God wishes us to be. Why did Jesus call fisherman? Good fishermen are: o Patient o Brave o Persevering o Know how to fit the bait to the fish o Know how to stay out of sight All good qualities for a disciple Simple fishermen of Galilee were most likely: o Straightforward men o Blunt o Practical o Unwilling to put up with any nonsense What do we bring to the table? All of us bring something unique to the table, and, through our own gifts, we each manifest a personal way of holiness that enlivens the larger community. Who is the Apostle of the poor? Francis of Assisi Grace builds on nature. Why is it sometimes difficult to accept anothers unique way of discipleship? The challenge in appreciating another persons path that is different from our own We are unsure of our own unique way of discipleship What is Koinonia and the point of the story about it? Koinonia an interracial farming cooperative The unity in the lives of the Christian saints rests on their commitment to Jesus Christ God calls people quite different from ourselves for reasons that may remain mysterious to us What keeps the communion of saints in communion? Thinking everyone is different The unity in the lives of the Christian saints rests on their commitment to Jesus Christ God calls people quite different from ourselves for reasons that may remain mysterious to us Reminder of the wisdom of the One who calls us together and sends us on mission Finding ones true self can be long, arduous, and even confusing journey. Telos Gods goal for all of us, our endpoint
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What are hidden contemplatives? Men and women who enjoys a kind of masked contemplation Their ability to do so hinges on their willingness to find God not by trying to be cloistered monks, but by discovering the divine spark in their own busy lives. What is sacramentality? The universal call to holiness --------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Allegory of the Cave The world revealed by the senses is not the real world. It is only a poor copy of it. (Buddhist philosophy) The real world can only be apprehended intellectually Knowledge cannot be transferred from teacher to student Education should direct the students mind toward what is real. Studetns should apprehend reality for themselves The universe is ultimately good Englightened people have an obligation to society --------------------------------------------------------------------------------May help with essay
Allegory and Reality Teacher cannot transferred knowledge to students o Thomas Merton in Becoming Who You Are Major themes Be who you are Enlightened people & Jesuits education Release dependency on drinking out of cave Self-awareness test o People in the cave dont see out of the cave We didnt notice things Utilitarianism & thought excersice (pushing people in front of train)
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