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Dan Barnett's avatar

The Halloween post is amazingly deep. Gotta love the Saban video, the Evolution section and the Dillon video the make complicated philosophical ideas real for people like me. Great stuff as always.

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Christopher B. Barnett's avatar

Many thanks Dan. Saban may have been a stretch here (ha), but I did want to show that “process thinking” doubtless has very real (but ultimately limited) benefits. He just came to mind—rather easily, I’ll admit!

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Ole Schenk's avatar

Tour-de-Force, Chris. You could add as an accompanying Hallowe'en like image, Durer's Four Horseman, for a kind of Reformation-era image of dread. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336215

Alongside Luther and Descartes, you could add Shakespeare perhaps too in the constellation for restlessness, doubt, and individuality or the step out "alone" - Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Anthony and Cleopatra...

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Christopher B. Barnett's avatar

Hoping to use Dürer for the book cover to my novel, albeit not that particular image…

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Ole Schenk's avatar

Hmmm, for MAN OF PAIN, maybe Durer on Saint Sebastian? I like how the arrow is stuck right square in the saint's forehead:

https://www.wikiart.org/en/albrecht-durer/st-sebastian-at-the-column-1499

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Christopher B. Barnett's avatar

Actually, I found a few Dürer renderings of the “Man of Sorrows” or “Pain Man.” Some were in the public domain. We shall see…

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Ole Schenk's avatar

"The same, I would argue, could be said of Luther’s Thesenanschlag and the ultimate meaning of Reformation Day. As has been argued, protest and reform are a difficult business—and to always protest and reform (semper reformanda) even more so. The upshot is a gnawing sense of restlessness that, while treacherous, is nevertheless essential to the spiritual life." ... Yes, Chris, I think my mentor and teacher Vítor Westhelle (1952-2018) of Brazil would agree with you. For Westhelle, "faith alone" could only become realized as a practice which courted danger and risked the ending of established worlds, which in his postmodern accented theology, was the "apocalyptic" or eschatological: "Faith alone sustains us against all hope, against all love, that is, against all the flaws in our attempts of creating a better world [see your post about semper reformanda], against all lapses in bringing about understanding, discernment, and justice." (from The Scandalous God, 'A Theory of the Cross,' pg 141)

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Christopher B. Barnett's avatar

Great quote, and I can definitely see the similarities Ole. Thanks!

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