Intellectual History, Weekly Assignment 12
Start date: 12/05/2006

(My apologies for the lateness of this posting. — Mr. Rose)

Tuesday, 12/05
Discuss in class Athanasius’ On the Incarnation of the Word of God. Here are questions you should be able to answer after our discussion: What is the “first fact” he wants us to understand? Why does he start with the doctrines of creation before discussing sin, salvation, or incarnation? How does he contrast the Christian view with that of Epicureans, Platonists, and Gnostics?

What does he (as a writer in Greek) mean by “word” and “reasonable” or “rational”? What does he say is the specific nature of the “image of God” in man? (p. 28, ch. 3) How did the Fall of Man happen? Why is it irreversible? What is man’s mortal nature? How is it overcome (both before and after the Fall)?

Note the types of arguments he makes about the reasonability of the Incarnation: To the Jews, from the Old Testament (the prophets), to the Greeks, from a rational standard of reasonability (answering accusations against the doctrine’s “fitness`”), and again to the Greeks, from an empirical standard of recent history.

More Thought Questions: What is the “first fact” that Athanasius wishes us to learn (p. 26)? What chapter of the Bible teaches us this fact most clearly? According to Athanasius, what is the relationship between the “Mind behind the universe” and the human mind? Apart from our reasonable nature, what does he say is the natural tendency of our animal nature? In his account, how did man become mortal?

□ Writing Assignment: “Knowledge of God.” (Given verbally in class.) From chapter 12 (pp. 39-40), find at least four different ways Athanasius states that mankind can know God, apart from the Incarnation. Also list the four ways he says mankind seeks God through the senses, and how the Incarnate Christ fulfulls those longings, as described in chapter 15 (pp. 43-44).

□ Extra Credit Writing Assignment: “Athanasian Apologetic.” Imagine a non-Christian friend has become curious about the Faith, and has asked what sort of person was Jesus. Basing your account on the first three chapters of Athanasius, write a few paragraphs clearly (and boldly!) describing who Jesus is and how and why he was born. In describing Jesus, you will also need to describe what human nature is, and compare and contrast His human nature with ours.

Wednesday, 12/06
□ Study all the “proverbs” given so far on the assignment pages. Be sure you can identify them, especially their meaning in context. There will be an at-home midterm on this. It will also include a series of multiple-choice questions on our reading so far.

Be sure you know who the following characters are, and what are their interrelationships: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle; the Sophists and Thrasymachus; Alexander, Caesar, Marcus Aurelius; Moses, Daniel, and the “prophets”; the “apostles”, and the Didache writers; Justin, Athanasius, Augustine. Know the Four Metaphysical Causes, the Four Cardinal Virtues, and the Three Theological Virtues.

I will post your midterm by midnight Sunday night (12/10). You will have until Thursday (12/14) at the start of class (1:00). I will accept absolutely no late midterms.

The test is open book and open note. (Note that future tests of this sort may not be so permissive.) The test should take 1-2 hours, but you may take any reasonable amount of time.

The test has the following limitations: No computers. If you have online notes, please print them out before taking the test. The test must be taken in one sitting, so allocate a time when you will not be interrupted. Please write the date and time of your test taking at the top of the test.

Thursday, 12/07
Mr. DePangher will introduce Augustine’s Confessions.

Friday & Monday, 12/08 – 12/11
□ Reading Assignment: Start Augustine’s Confessions. For Tuesday, read Books I and II. Mr. DePangher has a study question for Books I and II: “What’s the pear tree episode about?”

□ Study all the “Proverbs” assignments given so far this year. Any of them could be given to you to explain at “identifications” on your midterm.

Here are the remaining proverbs you need to know for the midterm. Many (but not all) have been pointed out verbally in class.

More Chesterton proverbs to know:

Human civilization is older than human records. (p. 43)
Natural religion [may be divided] under such headings as these: God; the Gods; the Demons; the Philosophers. (p. 87)
Mythology is a lost art. (p. 102)
[Myths] are not and never were a religion, in the sense that Christianity or even Islam is a religion. (p. 109)
...a mystical hatred of the idea of childhood. (p. 122)
There is a short cut to the secret of all success. (p. 123)
He despised the myths, but he also despised the mob; and thought they suited each other. (p. 128)
The temptation of the philosophers is simplicity. (p. 135)
He does not want his house burnt down, because he can hardly count all the things he would miss. (p. 141)
Only men to whom the family is sacred will ever have a standard to a status by which to criticize the state. (p. 143)
War must be a little wicked because it costs money. (p. 148)
Stupidity is practical and genius is futile. (p. 148)
Death is stronger than life, and therefore dead things must be stronger than living things. (p. 148)
The struggle which established Christendom would have been very different if there had been an empire of Carthage. (p. 150)
It was a legend of the almost divine dignity that belongs to the defeated. (p. 156, concerning Virgil!)
It is no more inevitable to connect God with an infant than to connect gravitation with a kitten. (p. 170)
Aquinas could understand the most logical parts of Aristotle; it is doubtful if Aristotle could have understood the most mystical parts of Aquinas. (p. 178)
The statement that the meek shall inherit the earth is very far from being a meek statement. (p. 191)
Christ was indeed human; but more human than a human being was then likely to be. (p. 200)
The greater a man is, the less likely he is to make the very greatest claim. (p. 202)
The Early Christian was very precisely a person carrying about a key. (p. 214)

Some Athanasian proverbs to know:

The renewal of Creation has been wrought by the self-same Word who made it in the beginning. (p. 26, ch. 1)
Had it been a case of a trespass only, and not of a subsequent corruption, repentance would have been enough. (p. 33, ch. 7)
By the sacrifice of His own body He did two things… Two opposite marvels took place at once. (p. 37, ch. 10; and p. 49, ch. 20)
How could men be reasonable beings if they had no knowledge of the Word? (p. 38, ch. 11)
The Word of God came in His own Person … the Image of the Father [to] recreate man after the Image. (p. 41, ch. 13)
You cannot put straight in others what is warped in yourself. (p. 42, ch. 14)
There should be no excuse hereafter for those who would divide the Church. (p. 54, ch. 24)
All the disciples of Christ despise death. (p. 57, ch 27)
A dead person can do nothing, yet the Saviour works mightily every day. (p. 61, ch. 31)
The Lord did not come to make a display. He came to heal and to teach suffering men. (p. 78, ch. 43)
He put on a body, so that in the body He might find death and blot it out. (p. 81, ch. 44)
By the sign of the cross, if a man will but use it, he drives out their deceits. (pp. 84-86, ch. 47-48)
The Greeks failed to convince even a few from their own neighbourhood in regard to immortality and the virtuous ordering of life. (p. 85, ch. 47)
He assumed humanity that we might become God. (p. 93, ch. 54)
One cannot possibly understand the teaching of the saints unless one has a pure mind and is trying to imitate their life. (p. 96, ch. 57)

More miscellaneous proverbs to know:

We are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids. (Marcus, Meditation 2)
Even in a palace life could be lived well. (Marcus, Meditation 5, quoted in Everlasting 130)
The wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together. (Justin, Apology ch. 67)
Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. (Paul on Mars Hill, Acts 17)
In him we live and move and have our being. (Paul on Mars Hill, Acts 17)
The great man … is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. (Lewis, “Reading of Old Books”, p. 3)
Keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds. (Lewis, “Reading of Old Books”, p. 5)
That unity any of us can find by going out of his own age. (Lewis “Reading of Old Books” , p. 7)
The entire structure of good works is built on four virtues. (Aquinas, Summa Th. I IIae 61.2)