On Polemical Contretemps
It has come to my attention that a number of people are using this blog to fuel there own sense of emotional and doctrinal superiority. I have no problem with it, as long as it is backed up by rational theological arguments. Look, I know I am confused and messed up, I don't need any of you to tell me about it. Maybe I should give up on blogging until I find all of the answers, then I can share them all with you. Maybe I should stop airing out my dirty laundry here....
The whole point of this blog, however, is the opposite. If you think you have the answer, boast in it and feel you can rhetorically pummel me for refusing to see it, maybe you should think again.
In antiquity, there were only two types of intellectuals: the sages and everyone else. The sage was always in the state of intellectual and emotional bliss. He was married to wisdom and had become one flesh with her. But these were very rare and extraordinary people. The rest, including those called "philosophers" or lovers of wisdom, had to settle for seeking her wherever they could find her, but never quite catching her. Even the great Socrates considered himself the latter; he indeed knew that he knew nothing, while everyone else thought the contrary. For him, however, at least it was a start.
I spend a lot of time on many of these posts, especially the more theological and philosophical ones. I am sometimes disappointed that there is not more input on them. If you want to say, "Arturo, you are off your rocker because St. Basil the Great said....." you will get my attention and I will think about it. If you say, "Arturo, you are a disturbed young man who is going to burn in hell," all you are going to get me to do is pray for you and have pity on you that that is the best you can do to move your suffering brother toward the truth.
So if you are coming on this blog to vent, you are wasting your time. Indeed, this blog has become an occasion of sin for you and you would do better to visit the nastiest porn site instead of this humble attempt to search for truth and beauty in Christ.
For those who I have offended, I am sorry. Please pray for me.
posted by Arturo Vasquez @ 10:44 AM
5 Comments:
The trouble, Arturo, is that you're about fifty times cleverer than most of the rest of us. We look on with admiration, tempered with a certain amount of fear. The Anglican thing appals me, but I'm certainly not equipped to produce devastating rebuttals of the 39 Articles from St Basil the Great; anything I can produce will inevitably savour of spirit-sapping politics and label-mongering. I think your blog is one of the most interesting, quotable and often amusing places on the net. So I watch - admiringly, as I say, but with white knuckles, hoping we all manage to stay in the trolley till the end of the ride.
Prayers - that goes without saying.
Your going to burn in hell soon my friend, shame on you for posting a Marxist web-site; you know that Marx was a atheistic heathen who ran all over Europe doing the devil's work. Didn't you read that pamphlet given to you by that preacher dude on Sproul? I need to get going on that blog so you can comment on my rants. Don't pray for me I am lost soul.
Hear, hear!
Dear anonymous,
Eddie, cut it out already!
All the rest of you,
Thanks. Maybe you can send some person my way who can really give me a doctrinal beat-down. Maybe one of those fire-breathing neo-Catholic apologists or those Orthodox converts with four-hundred knot prayer ropes who spend their spare time studying Old Slavonic. Then maybe they can give me an argument I have not already heard.
So serious! I will behave myself on this stage.
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