Dry January is easy when you see it in this context. If you look Christ in the eye (at Eucharistic Adoration, say) and make the pledge, it's a LOT harder to cave in than it is if you only make a promise to yourself.
Just curious, does the use of the word pagan here apply to Plato? Aristotle? Pythagoras? Plotinus? Proclus? Or are you just using it as a shorthand for materialists and atheists? Christians sure get their milage out of the word pagan but this doesn't describe ancient paganism at all but rather modern materialism and nihilism.
The word Pagan applies to ancient cultures and peoples before Christianity, since the philosophical system of antiquity was not oriented to a higher metaphysical end as our system is today. Do to Christianity. Although the ancients certainly believed in something otherwordly, it wasn't as supernatural as we Christians percieve it today. It was quite deterministic and mostly materialistic.
@@ivanprskalo9415 Glad I asked Because that is not true at all. If you think Plato, plotinus and proclus were not oriented toward a higher metaphysical end then I have to assume you have never read them. You could make this claim about Norse heathenry but it does not at all apply to Roman and Greek paganism which wrote about metaphysics extensively. In fact, emperor Julian had to ban early christians from the philosophical schools because they kept stealing ideas from people like Proclus and christianizing them. Don't take my word for it. Go buy the Enneads or Proclus' elements of theology and see for yourself.
@@ericclaussen4278 Well they did. I am not denying that. What I am saying is that it was radically more different then what we have after Judaism and Christianity. For most of antiquity there wasn't a concept of free will. The afterlife was the Underworld but never the mount Olympus. Changes came during Helenism, but without a faith to freshen up the philosophy, it all decayed into either atheistic philosphies (think stoicism or epicureanism) or synchretism (the cult.of Mithra for example)
@@ivanprskalo9415 Again, this is just false. The Ancients did believe in free will, they also believed in fate and divine Providence. Not unlike christians who believe that they have free will but God has a plan. The story of Oedipus is largely about the interplay between fate and free will. The afterlife was the underworld but also reincarnation and also apotheosis. Even as far back as Plato, he talks about rebirth and the ability of humans to transcend the cycle of death and rebirth. Later pagans wrote about this extensively and the purpose of philosophy and theology was to achieve henosis, union with God. Also, the heroic myths are all stories of virtuous men who sometimes gain access to Olympus. Stoics we're not atheists, epicureanism was a joke even in Cicero's time and syncretism allowed for peace amongst different religions. The sad truth is paganism died out because Christians murdered their intellectual opponents like when St. Cyril murdered Hypatia and burned down pagan temples in Alexandria. Or when Theodosius closed the philosophical schools and burned their books. Or the many other Christian emperor's that made pagan worship and visiting temples a capital offense. Christianity won because of violence and oppression, not because their ideas were amazing. If your ideas are really better, you don't have to murder and suppress your opponents.
@@ericclaussen4278 It seems that you lack the understanding of both Oedipus and the ancient worldview. I recommend to you Berdyaev's The Meaning of History, where this concepts are better explained. The ancient world was deterministic, everyone was guided by a certain destiny. The tale of Oedipus is a tale which just highlights the point that destiny is something unavoidable. As I have said, while some contemplated the higher metaphysical realms, it didn't go as far in terms of clarification as after Judaism in Hellenism and Christianity at the end of antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. And soticism was atheistic, with virtue being the end point of everything. They did believe in the gods, yes, but not in the sense Christans believe in their God. For them, the gods were just higher beings who lived as they accorded.
This is a fantastic idea for a series. Well done.
Fantastic! Thank you Mr. Ahlquist!
EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wonderful!
wow this is marvelous, Mr. Ahlquist.
Excellent message-live the animation of Chesterton’s hat tip
Marvellous!..
Dry January is easy when you see it in this context. If you look Christ in the eye (at Eucharistic Adoration, say) and make the pledge, it's a LOT harder to cave in than it is if you only make a promise to yourself.
Just curious, does the use of the word pagan here apply to Plato? Aristotle? Pythagoras? Plotinus? Proclus? Or are you just using it as a shorthand for materialists and atheists?
Christians sure get their milage out of the word pagan but this doesn't describe ancient paganism at all but rather modern materialism and nihilism.
The word Pagan applies to ancient cultures and peoples before Christianity, since the philosophical system of antiquity was not oriented to a higher metaphysical end as our system is today. Do to Christianity. Although the ancients certainly believed in something otherwordly, it wasn't as supernatural as we Christians percieve it today. It was quite deterministic and mostly materialistic.
@@ivanprskalo9415 Glad I asked Because that is not true at all.
If you think Plato, plotinus and proclus were not oriented toward a higher metaphysical end then I have to assume you have never read them.
You could make this claim about Norse heathenry but it does not at all apply to Roman and Greek paganism which wrote about metaphysics extensively. In fact, emperor Julian had to ban early christians from the philosophical schools because they kept stealing ideas from people like Proclus and christianizing them.
Don't take my word for it. Go buy the Enneads or Proclus' elements of theology and see for yourself.
@@ericclaussen4278 Well they did. I am not denying that. What I am saying is that it was radically more different then what we have after Judaism and Christianity. For most of antiquity there wasn't a concept of free will. The afterlife was the Underworld but never the mount Olympus. Changes came during Helenism, but without a faith to freshen up the philosophy, it all decayed into either atheistic philosphies (think stoicism or epicureanism) or synchretism (the cult.of Mithra for example)
@@ivanprskalo9415 Again, this is just false.
The Ancients did believe in free will, they also believed in fate and divine Providence. Not unlike christians who believe that they have free will but God has a plan.
The story of Oedipus is largely about the interplay between fate and free will.
The afterlife was the underworld but also reincarnation and also apotheosis. Even as far back as Plato, he talks about rebirth and the ability of humans to transcend the cycle of death and rebirth.
Later pagans wrote about this extensively and the purpose of philosophy and theology was to achieve henosis, union with God.
Also, the heroic myths are all stories of virtuous men who sometimes gain access to Olympus.
Stoics we're not atheists, epicureanism was a joke even in Cicero's time and syncretism allowed for peace amongst different religions.
The sad truth is paganism died out because Christians murdered their intellectual opponents like when St. Cyril murdered Hypatia and burned down pagan temples in Alexandria. Or when Theodosius closed the philosophical schools and burned their books. Or the many other Christian emperor's that made pagan worship and visiting temples a capital offense.
Christianity won because of violence and oppression, not because their ideas were amazing. If your ideas are really better, you don't have to murder and suppress your opponents.
@@ericclaussen4278 It seems that you lack the understanding of both Oedipus and the ancient worldview. I recommend to you Berdyaev's The Meaning of History, where this concepts are better explained. The ancient world was deterministic, everyone was guided by a certain destiny. The tale of Oedipus is a tale which just highlights the point that destiny is something unavoidable. As I have said, while some contemplated the higher metaphysical realms, it didn't go as far in terms of clarification as after Judaism in Hellenism and Christianity at the end of antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. And soticism was atheistic, with virtue being the end point of everything. They did believe in the gods, yes, but not in the sense Christans believe in their God. For them, the gods were just higher beings who lived as they accorded.