Clipmarks | enbar's Primary texts collection

Montaigne's skepticism: Apologie of Sebond, 1580

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:08:22 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Montaigne's famous defense of Raymond Sebond, the proponent of natural theology, in which he lays out a profoundly, even shockingly skeptical view of human knowledge.

Clip Source: www.uoregon.edu

Montaigne's Essays: Book II.

CHAPTER XII: AN APOLOGIE OF RAYMOND SEBOND

Thus can nothing be certainely established, nor of the one nor of the other; both the judgeing and the judged being in continuall alteration and motion. We have no communication with being; for every humane nature is ever in the middle betwee ne being borne and dying; giving nothing of it selfe but an obscure apparence and shadow, and an uncertaine and weake opinion. And if perhaps you fix your thought to take its being, it would be even as if one should go about to graspe the water: for, how much the more he shal close and presse that which by its owne nature is ever gliding, so much the more he shall loose what he would hold and fasten. Thus, seeing all things are subject to passe from one change to another, reason, which therein seeketh a reall subsistence, findes her selfe deceived as unable to apprehend any thing subsistent and permanent:

Tags: religion, history, christianity, philosophy, primary_source, reformation, france, post:facebook(clip)

Illustrations of the "Harrowing of Hell"

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:57:17 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Happy Good Friday, everybody. Here are a few interesting historical images of the "harrowing of Hell" tradition drawn from various Christian iconographic sources.

Clip Source: www.patzinakia.ro

ILLUSTRATIONS

Anastasis

Tags: religion, christianity, image, history, primary_source, rels333, post:facebook(clip), post:tumblr(source)

David Hume's epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, 1734

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 22:27:05 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: In his early 20s, the great Scottish philosopher, David Hume, wrote this "letter to a physician" (unidentified, but probably Arbuthnot) giving an account of his melancholic symptoms and his efforts at self-treatment.

Clip Source: serendip.brynmawr.edu

David Hume: A Letter to a Physician

A Coldness and Desertion of the Spirit

"I was continually fortifying myself with reflections against death, and poverty, and shame, and pain, and all the other calamities of life. These no doubt are exceeding useful, when joined with an active life...in solitude they serve to little other purpose, than to waste the spirits, the force of the mind meeting with no resistance, but wasting itself in the air, like our arm when it misses its aim"

"I found, that as there are two things very bad for this distemper, study and idleness, so there are two things very good, business and diversion"

Tags: history, philosophy, psychology, primary_source, religion

Abraham Lincoln on religion

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:46:16 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Two lesser-known pieces of writing from Lincoln that give some hints about his religious beliefs. Lincoln was notoriously cagey about his religious commitments -- he never attended church regluarly, nor did he ever make a public proclamation of faith.

Clip Source: showcase.netins.net

Handbill Replying to Charges of Infidelity

To the Voters of the Seventh Congressional District.

Clip Source: showcase.netins.net

Meditation on the Divine Will

Washington, D.C.
September, 1862

The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party -- and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably true -- that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By his mere great power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.

Tags: religion, christianity, history, america, primary_source, post:facebook(clip)

Marsilius of Padua (c.1275-1342): a few links

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:19:38 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I've been meaning for some time to read up on this guy, sort of the intellectual godfather of medieval constitutionalism.

Clip Source: www.jeteye.com

Marsilius of Padua

~ by nbr

created 2008-01-02

last modified 2008-01-02

A Jetpak created on Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:10:49 GMT

Marsilius of Padua (Answers.com)

Link: http://www.answers.com/marsilius+of+padua

Defensor pacis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensor_pacis

Medieval Sourcebook: Marsiligio of Padua: Conclusions from Defensor Pacis, 1324

Link: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/marsiglio1.html

Medieval Sourcebook: Marsiligio of Padua: Condemnation by John XII, 1327

Link: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/marsiglio2.html

Medieval Sourcebook: Marsilius of Padua: Defensor Pacis, 1324

Link: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/marsiglio4.html

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Marsilius of Padua

Link: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09719c.htm

Medieval Sourcebook: Marsilius of Padua: Defensor Pacis, 1324

Link: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/marsiglio4.html

Tags: religion, christianity, politics, history, primary_source, links, jetpak

Elihu's speech to Job (Job 32.17-21)

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 04:48:17 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Source of the line, "I must speak, so that I may find relief."

Clip Source: bible.oremus.org

job 32.17-21

¹⁷I also will give my answer;
   I also will declare my opinion.
¹⁸For I am full of words;
   the spirit within me constrains me.
¹⁹My heart is indeed like wine that has no vent;
   like new wineskins, it is ready to burst.
²⁰I must speak, so that I may find relief;
   I must open my lips and answer.
²¹I will not show partiality to any person
   or use flattery towards anyone.

Tags: bible, religion, judaism, primary_source, psychology

Martin Luther's Christmas sermon, 1522

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 03:27:59 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: The great Reformer on the meaning of Christmas. This is only a tiny snippet; the original is very wide-ranging and covers a lot of ground. The source is worth reading.

Clip Source: homepage.mac.com

The Birth of Jesus

Christmas Day; Luke 2:1-14

A sermon by Martin Luther, from his Wartburg Church Postil, 1521-1522

58. Now let every one examine himself in the light of the Gospel and see how far he is from Christ, what is the character of his faith and love. There are many who are enkindled with dreamy devotion, when they hear of such poverty of Christ, are almost angry with the citizens of Bethlehem, denounce their blindness and ingratitude, and think, if they had been there, they would have shown the Lord and his mother a more becoming service, and would not have permitted them to be treated so miserably. But they do not look by their side to see how many of their fellow men need their help, and which they let go on in their misery unaided. Who is there upon earth that has no poor, miserable, sick, erring ones, or sinful people around him? Why does he not exercise his love to those? Why does he not do to them as Christ has done to him?

Tags: religion, christianity, history, primary_source, sermon, christmas, luther, reformation, rels365, assign_this

Splendor Solis: illuminated alchemical manuscript

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 05:43:54 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Illustrations from the sixteenth-century manuscript Splendor solis, a German text on alchemy. Very surreal and bizarre images.

Clip Source: www.levity.com

Splendor Solis images

Clip Source: www.levity.com

Tags: primary_source, rare_books, history, image, cool

The way of the Cross - Thomas à Kempis

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 01:00:15 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Thomas à Kempis, a 14th-century devotional writer, on what it means to "take up the Cross." My favorite line:

The Cross always stands ready, and everywhere awaits you. You cannot escape it, wherever you flee; for wherever you go, you bear yourself, and always find yourself.

Shows that the medievals were as astute in their psychology as many modern psychodynamic thinkers.

Clip Source: www.worldinvisible.com

On the Royal Road of the Holy Cross

See how in the Cross all things consist, and in dying on it all things depend. There is no other way to life and to true inner peace, than the way of the Cross and of daily self-denial. Go where you will, seek what you will; you will find no higher way above or safer way below than the road of the Holy Cross. Arrange and order all things to your own ideas and wishes, yet you will still find suffering to endure, whether you will or not; so you will always find the Cross. For you will either endure bodily pain, or suffer anguish of mind and spirit.

At times, God will withdraw from you; at times you will be troubled by your neighbor, and, what is more, you will often be a burden to yourself. Neither can any remedy or comfort bring you relief, but you must bear it as long as God wills. For God desires that you learn to bear trials without comfort, that you may yield yourself wholly to Him, and grow more humble through tribulation. No man feels so deeply in his heart the Passion of Christ as he who has to suffer in like manner. The Cross always stands ready, and everywhere awaits you. You cannot escape it, wherever you flee; for wherever you go, you bear yourself, and always find yourself. Look up or down, without you or within, and everywhere you will find the Cross. And everywhere you must have patience, if you wish to attain inner peace, and win an eternal crown.

When you have arrived at that state when trouble seems sweet and acceptable to you for Christ's sake, then all is well with you, for you have hound paradise upon earth. But so long as suffering is grievous to you and you seek to escape it, so long will it go ill with you, for the trouble you try to escape will pursue you everywhere.

Chapter 36

Table of Contents

Chapter 38

Tags: christianity, psychology, religion, primary_source

Christ and peace: Bonhoeffer

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 19:08:00 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's famous 1934 sermon at Fanø, Denmark. Bonhoeffer was later hanged for conspiring to assassinate Hitler. "There is no way to peace along the way of safety.... Peace is the opposite of security."

Clip Source: www.cfba.info

T h e C h u r c h a n d t h e P e o p l e o f t h e W o r l d

D i e t r i c h B o n h o e f f e r

A u g u s t 2 8 , 1 9 3 4

TEXT: "Let me hear what God the Lord will speak: for God will speak peace to God's people, and to God's faithful." (Ps. 85:8)

How does peace come about? Through a system of political treaties? Through the investment of international capital in different countries? Through the big banks, through money? Or through universal peaceful rearmament in order to guarantee peace? Through none of these, for the single reason that in all of them peace is confused with safety. There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared. It is the great venture. It can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to mistrust, and this mistrust in turn brings forth war. To look for guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means to give oneself altogether to the law of God, wanting no security, but in faith and obedience laying the destiny of the nations in the hand of Almighty God, not trying to direct it for selfish purposes. Battles are won, not with weapons, but with God. They are won where the way leads to the cross. Which of us can say he or she knows what it might mean for the world if one nation should meet the aggressor, not with weapons in hand, but praying, defenseless, and for that very reason protected by "a bulwark never failing"?

We want to give the world a whole word, not a half word-a courageous word, a Christian word. We want to pray that this word may be given us today. Who knows if we shall see each other again another year?

Tags: religion, christianity, war, violence, peace, primary_source

The "get-rich gospel" around 1900

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 03:40:56 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: This is the famous "Acres of Diamonds" sermon preached by Russell Conwell around the turn of the 20th century. Shows that the "prosperity gospel" wing of American evangelical Protestantism didn't start with Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar.

Clip Source: www.materialreligion.org

"Acres of Diamonds"

Delivered over six thousand times, Russell Conwell's lecture "Acres of Diamonds" reflects the tight connection between religious and material yearnings in American culture. Conwell, a Civil War veteran and lawyer, became a Baptist preacher in the 1870s; he built a struggling Philadelphia congregation into the Philadelphia Temple, which spawned what became Temple University. Firmly rooted in the "gospel of wealth" common around the end of the nineteenth century, Conwell's lecture proudly tells listeners that it is their opportunity—their Christian duty—to become rich. (Note that he also justifies his own salary and success.) The back cover of a 1978 paperback edition proclaims: "This is the beloved, all-time bestseller that has helped more Amerians find more happiness than any other book besides the Bible!"

I say that you ought to get rich, and it is your duty to get rich. How many of my pious brethren say to me, "Do you, a Christian minister, spend your time going up and down the country advising young people to get rich, to get money?" "Yes, of course I do. They say, "Isn't that awful! Why don't you preach the gospel instead of preaching about man's making money?" "Because to make money honestly is to preach the gospel." That is the reason. The men who get rich may be the most honest men you find in the community.

I say, then, you ought to have money. If you can honestly attain unto riches in Philadelphia, it is your Christian and godly duty to do so. It is an awful mistake of these pious people to think you must be awfully poor in order to be pious.

Tags: christianity, evangelicalism, religion, economics, primary_source