Antichrist is a very heavy topic and in my tradition is a major point which separates the two main groups of Old Believers. Its remarkable that you point out the beginnings in the 16th century. I have posted recently about the same and share your view that the root of all our religious and social ills originated in that century (with the rise of "humanism", IMO another way of saying what you so eloquently described as the swapping of good and evil)
Can you point to a particular event or person who you can blame for allowing the great reversal (reset?!) to infect the piety of the people or the practices of the hierarchy? Or who, in the Catholic faith, were the resistors who suffered to keep the ship on a straight path?
i think the root problem, if I must name one, is usury and its proliferation and then subsequent justification in northern italy austria and germany. in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. as well as the patterns of thinking developed to justify it. This is the first form of privationism I have found in catholic theolgy. as I said i take a materialist read of intellectual history. Luther has ties to this actually at Tübingen, a pro-usury catholic faculty, and the connection deeper but not for the comments. its a little more complex than this but broad strokes i think its right. i also think sola scriptura fits the bill for a sort of first instance of commodity fetishism, in the beginning was the Word. ha. I am pleased with the Council of Trent as a response to these developments. It didn´t attack luther or the reformers from the metaphysical angle I have been working on, but it defended the faith well. The story of how this form of thought came to dominate the catholic church is again not for this setting. causistry could be read as a proto form, but for me, whatever problems were before, its 1965 when the dam broke.
If we believe we’re fallen and in need of salvation; then the root problem predates usury. Christ became incarnate long before the 15th and 16th centuries, which means that things were going wrong even back then.
Of course, you are right, we are all sinners and the root of the problem is thus Adam´s fall. But I am talking specifically about this pattern of thinking being adopted in christan moral philosophy. The problem of privationist goods, the root of which I personally locate in the 15th and 16th century. As you yourself admit, the ancient pagan philosophy or the best of it, understood this dynamic well. Grace perfecfs nature, Christian Revelation perfected this philosophy. But I tend to think this thought form came to dominate with the beginning of capitalism and the end of what Ferdinand Braudel called "the Biological Regime," i.e. a world where cult, culture, family, labor were intimately bound with the cycles of nature, to a world that was increasingly alienated from this basis.
Excellent read. I see the Antichrist as a metaphor for a separate identity willing what it wants over any other. Ego is another word to describe it. If I could create a coin, one side would say: not my will, but thine, be done. and the other; You will know them by their fruits. May we produce only the fruit Christ wills.
Thats very insightful. I do think it fits with this picture as privational goods are marked by indetermination, lack of form, so the clearing of space for selfwill.
It is important to remember to that the Christian understanding of good and evil is indeed that good is essentially real and evil is not. Evil is parasitic upon good and does not have an essential existence. The analogy of the golf instructor was excellent. We teach with examples of ideals, not with examples of all the ways to go wrong. I would agree that a lot of contemporary ethical discourse depends upon a reification an evil, with is a disastrous starting point.
What I didn’t like:
That weird stuff about Google. And the bizarre lines about the pandemic. You pretty much lost me there.
What’s important to remember is that the understanding that good is essentially real and evil only a perversion of the good, is a concept that owes much to Neoplatonism. Plotinus expresses it in the Enneads, and St. Augustine insists that he abandoned the Manichaean heresy after reading the Enneads. Seeing that the Manichees taught that good and evil are two equal forces, a view they most likely inherited from the Zoroastrians. Origen, a contemporary of Plotinus, is the first Christian writer to articulate this understanding of evil in his commentary of St. John’s gospel.
Thanks for carefully reading and commenting. I´m glad at least some of this was tracking with you.
I think Google´s maxim is a perfect case of the sort of typical lebenswelt of our time, we know evil, as you said we reify it, and the moral project is trying to avoid it. It was meant to be an attention grabber, but its good to know it didn´t fulfill that purpose with you and perhaps other readers.
The Covid remarks I think are a little more important because it did exemplify one aspect of the ideology, that it forbids the consideration of substantive goods. In germany at least, media and public figures in charge of the covid policy seemed almost unable to weigh substantive goods, like freedom of speech, religion, association, the education of children, and the economic costs of sutting down society, all because they could only see evil and its absence. Everything was weighed only in terms of what it could do to eradicate the evil disease. It turned out that many good things were sacrificed because they could not be considered. That an entire society submitted to this without question for me proves the fact that this, what I call privationist, thought form is deeply engrained in peoples moral thinking. Why did you think this was bizarre? Thanks for your imput anyway. Perhaps I didn´t communicate its relevance well.
In British Columbia, Canada, where I live, upwards of 80% of the population got vaccinated. Including me. Why? We wanted the pandemic to end and getting a majority of people getting their shots was the way to do it.
Meanwhile a group of cranks occupied the nation’s capital in Ottawa over the issue. I say cranks because they did their protest over restrictions precisely when they were getting lifted in most provinces. Think of how ridiculous that it is. That’s like trying protest segregation after it gets dismantled. The icing on the cake: the restrictions were entirely mandated by provincial governments. Yet these clowns went to the federal capital even though the federal government has no jurisdiction over this. The only province that still had restrictions during the occupation of Ottawa was Quebec but the protesters never went there. If you want a privation of good, there it was in an angry, senseless mob.
right. forgive me as I dont know much about the covid policy in canada but Ill take you at your word. I think many forms of conservative red pill, or trad reactionary, keep the same spirit that´s perhpas more easy to identify on the left, but have a new evil object. the hallmark of this spirit is to oppose evil badly, so this seems to fit the bill for what you describe.
i am on the more covid skeptic side of things and do not think vaccination was a net positive or helpful for ending the pandemic. I think this bears out empirically at this point, but this does of course color my apprehension of the crisis and particularly the response being void of substantive goods.
So insightful as usual. A great lens through which to see the (sometimes exaggerated) neuroses into which traditional/conservative Catholics can fall, too.
Antichrist is a very heavy topic and in my tradition is a major point which separates the two main groups of Old Believers. Its remarkable that you point out the beginnings in the 16th century. I have posted recently about the same and share your view that the root of all our religious and social ills originated in that century (with the rise of "humanism", IMO another way of saying what you so eloquently described as the swapping of good and evil)
Can you point to a particular event or person who you can blame for allowing the great reversal (reset?!) to infect the piety of the people or the practices of the hierarchy? Or who, in the Catholic faith, were the resistors who suffered to keep the ship on a straight path?
i think the root problem, if I must name one, is usury and its proliferation and then subsequent justification in northern italy austria and germany. in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. as well as the patterns of thinking developed to justify it. This is the first form of privationism I have found in catholic theolgy. as I said i take a materialist read of intellectual history. Luther has ties to this actually at Tübingen, a pro-usury catholic faculty, and the connection deeper but not for the comments. its a little more complex than this but broad strokes i think its right. i also think sola scriptura fits the bill for a sort of first instance of commodity fetishism, in the beginning was the Word. ha. I am pleased with the Council of Trent as a response to these developments. It didn´t attack luther or the reformers from the metaphysical angle I have been working on, but it defended the faith well. The story of how this form of thought came to dominate the catholic church is again not for this setting. causistry could be read as a proto form, but for me, whatever problems were before, its 1965 when the dam broke.
If we believe we’re fallen and in need of salvation; then the root problem predates usury. Christ became incarnate long before the 15th and 16th centuries, which means that things were going wrong even back then.
Of course, you are right, we are all sinners and the root of the problem is thus Adam´s fall. But I am talking specifically about this pattern of thinking being adopted in christan moral philosophy. The problem of privationist goods, the root of which I personally locate in the 15th and 16th century. As you yourself admit, the ancient pagan philosophy or the best of it, understood this dynamic well. Grace perfecfs nature, Christian Revelation perfected this philosophy. But I tend to think this thought form came to dominate with the beginning of capitalism and the end of what Ferdinand Braudel called "the Biological Regime," i.e. a world where cult, culture, family, labor were intimately bound with the cycles of nature, to a world that was increasingly alienated from this basis.
The Babylonian money system comes to my mind.
I dont know anything about that! Can you give me a link to something about this system.
Thank you,Stephen, there is much wisdom in this essay. Evil is the absence of God.
Thanks for the positive feedback. It means alot!
Excellent read. I see the Antichrist as a metaphor for a separate identity willing what it wants over any other. Ego is another word to describe it. If I could create a coin, one side would say: not my will, but thine, be done. and the other; You will know them by their fruits. May we produce only the fruit Christ wills.
Thats very insightful. I do think it fits with this picture as privational goods are marked by indetermination, lack of form, so the clearing of space for selfwill.
An interesting observation, thoughtfully and meticulously presented. I look forward to the forthcoming installments.
Yes. This is true.
What I like about this essay:
It is important to remember to that the Christian understanding of good and evil is indeed that good is essentially real and evil is not. Evil is parasitic upon good and does not have an essential existence. The analogy of the golf instructor was excellent. We teach with examples of ideals, not with examples of all the ways to go wrong. I would agree that a lot of contemporary ethical discourse depends upon a reification an evil, with is a disastrous starting point.
What I didn’t like:
That weird stuff about Google. And the bizarre lines about the pandemic. You pretty much lost me there.
What’s important to remember is that the understanding that good is essentially real and evil only a perversion of the good, is a concept that owes much to Neoplatonism. Plotinus expresses it in the Enneads, and St. Augustine insists that he abandoned the Manichaean heresy after reading the Enneads. Seeing that the Manichees taught that good and evil are two equal forces, a view they most likely inherited from the Zoroastrians. Origen, a contemporary of Plotinus, is the first Christian writer to articulate this understanding of evil in his commentary of St. John’s gospel.
Thanks for carefully reading and commenting. I´m glad at least some of this was tracking with you.
I think Google´s maxim is a perfect case of the sort of typical lebenswelt of our time, we know evil, as you said we reify it, and the moral project is trying to avoid it. It was meant to be an attention grabber, but its good to know it didn´t fulfill that purpose with you and perhaps other readers.
The Covid remarks I think are a little more important because it did exemplify one aspect of the ideology, that it forbids the consideration of substantive goods. In germany at least, media and public figures in charge of the covid policy seemed almost unable to weigh substantive goods, like freedom of speech, religion, association, the education of children, and the economic costs of sutting down society, all because they could only see evil and its absence. Everything was weighed only in terms of what it could do to eradicate the evil disease. It turned out that many good things were sacrificed because they could not be considered. That an entire society submitted to this without question for me proves the fact that this, what I call privationist, thought form is deeply engrained in peoples moral thinking. Why did you think this was bizarre? Thanks for your imput anyway. Perhaps I didn´t communicate its relevance well.
In British Columbia, Canada, where I live, upwards of 80% of the population got vaccinated. Including me. Why? We wanted the pandemic to end and getting a majority of people getting their shots was the way to do it.
Meanwhile a group of cranks occupied the nation’s capital in Ottawa over the issue. I say cranks because they did their protest over restrictions precisely when they were getting lifted in most provinces. Think of how ridiculous that it is. That’s like trying protest segregation after it gets dismantled. The icing on the cake: the restrictions were entirely mandated by provincial governments. Yet these clowns went to the federal capital even though the federal government has no jurisdiction over this. The only province that still had restrictions during the occupation of Ottawa was Quebec but the protesters never went there. If you want a privation of good, there it was in an angry, senseless mob.
right. forgive me as I dont know much about the covid policy in canada but Ill take you at your word. I think many forms of conservative red pill, or trad reactionary, keep the same spirit that´s perhpas more easy to identify on the left, but have a new evil object. the hallmark of this spirit is to oppose evil badly, so this seems to fit the bill for what you describe.
i am on the more covid skeptic side of things and do not think vaccination was a net positive or helpful for ending the pandemic. I think this bears out empirically at this point, but this does of course color my apprehension of the crisis and particularly the response being void of substantive goods.
So insightful as usual. A great lens through which to see the (sometimes exaggerated) neuroses into which traditional/conservative Catholics can fall, too.