Monday 20 December 2010

In the city that made suicide an art

In the city [Vienna] that made suicide an art, [Otto] Weininger's was a masterpiece, and it made a posthumous bestseller of his doctoral thesis, a bizarre tract entitled Sex and Character

A. Ross, The rest is noise (2008), 41

Thursday 9 December 2010

Nature is what makes one human or not

Nature is what makes one human or not. Christ has a completely human nature. Therefore Christ is completely human. One indication of the misunderstanding is reference to person, hypostasis, as something we have: 'Did Christ have a human hypostasis? We do. Then, if he did not, how can we claim he is fully human?' But hypostasis is not something someone has. The hypostasis is the someone who has whatever is had. If the divine hypostasis, the Word, has all the qualities that constitute someone as human - a human nature - then the Word, a divine hypostasis, is a human being, and fully so.

D.Helminiak, The same Jesus: a contemporary christology (1986), 292
Quoted in G. O'Collins, Christology (2009), 256

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Pour avoir des enfants, il faut être mariée

– Mais, Gertrude, pour avoir des enfants, il faut être mariée.

– Ne me dites pas cela, pasteur. Je sais que cela n’est pas vrai.

– Je t’ai dit ce qu’il était décent de te dire, protestai-je. Mais en effet les lois de la nature permettent ce qu’interdisent les lois des hommes et de Dieu.

A. Gide, la symphonie pastorale (1925), 88