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The danger of an all-out war is growing
07
Oct
Iran’s response to the death of Hezbollah’s leader
with attacks of almost 200 missiles last Tuesday (01/10) could escalate the confrontation between the two Middle Eastern powers, amid attacks during the week on the terrorist group’s bases in southern Lebanon.
France has taken a tough stance against Israel’s response, which it is speculated could even attack Iran’s nuclear bases, which don’t have the bomb (it is believed) but do have a plant and laboratories where they could be preparing the bomb.
Unlike the other powers, which announce that they have the bomb to intimidate their enemies, Israel and Iran prefer to hide it, and Iran has suffered numerous sanctions by and visits from the UN so that it doesn’t have the bomb, but its allies, including China and Russia, may have helped it to do so, and an attack by Israel would be aimed at these targets, it is speculated.
In Ukraine, some of its “strongholds” in the east of the country (near Kharkiv) have fallen into Russian hands, and Russia’s threatening tone has already gone beyond the borders of the war, with open threats to Poland and other countries that could help Poland.
There, too, the tone of threats and diplomatic crises is growing with alignments and world powers positioning themselves. On the economic front, the expansion of the BRICS (initially Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa, expanded to include Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Ethiopia) could favor dangerous alliances for NATO and Israel.
That’s why there’s no shortage of dialogues to force Israel not to strike back at Iran, its traditional allies, such as France, which is radically against it, and the United States, which although involved in protecting Israel, also doesn’t want this dangerous escalation that threatens world peace.
It is to be hoped that there will be a greater commitment to peace due to the seriousness of these threats, and that there will be a difficult reversal of the escalation that is heading towards an absurd civilizational crisis in which everyone will suffer.
Sloterdijk’s theopoetry
03
Sep
One of the greatest contemporary philosophers,
of enormous influence on Byung-Chul Han, Sloterdijk is far from being a Christian or any type of religious person, but he is wise enough to know the enormous influence of religion on culture throughout the centuries and in our time.
What sky is he talking about then, he clarifies: “The sky we are talking about is not an object capable of visual perception. However, since time immemorial, when looking up, representations in the form of images accompanied by vocal phenomena were imposed: the tent, the cave, the vault; in the tent the voices of everyday life resound, the walls of the caves echo ancient songs of magic, in the dome chants in honor of the Lord in the heights reverberate” (p. 11), explains the author in your preliminary observation.
Mythological gods, the author based on the Greenfield papyrus (10th century BC), where we see: “Detail from the Greenfield papyrus (10th century BC)”: “The goddess of the sky, Nut, bows over the god of the earth, Geb (lying down), and of the god of the air, Shu (kneeling). Egyptian representation of heaven and earth” (p. 12, photo, Wikipedia Commons).
However, it is not a mythological essay either, he writes: “What we intend, in what follows, is to speak of communicative, luminous skies that invite raptures, because, corresponding to the task of poetological enlightenment, they constitute zones of common origin of gods, verses and pleasures” (p. 13).
It makes a curious metaphor with Mt 13:34, a passage so dear to Christians that says: “All this Jesus spoke in parables to the crowds. He spoke nothing to them without using parables, to fulfill what was said by the prophet: ‘I will open my mouth to speak in parables; I will proclaim things hidden since the creation of the world'” (Mt 13,34-35), it was necessary because it spoke of “communicative, luminous” heavens.
In his metaphor Sloterdijk says: “Deus ex machina, deus ex cathedra and without parables he told them nothing” (p. 13, about divine reality), and here the philosopher questions the contemporary world, which idolizes these contemporary gods ex machina and ex cathedra.
It will remind you of the theopoetry in the mouth of Homer, who had “speaking gods”, but it will also remind you of the passage in which Zeus rebukes “the willful manifestations of his daughter Athena”, and says to her: “My daughter, what word has escaped you from the barrier teeth?” (p. 15)
Of course, as Christians we do not talk about mythological gods, it reminds us of Christian semiotics where signs are important: “the zone of signs grows parallel to the art of interpretation. The fact that it is not accessible to everyone is explained by its semi-esoteric nature: Jesus already reproached his disciples for not understanding the “signs of the time” (semaîa tòn kairòn).” (pg. 25).
It is not about delusion or gross falsehoods about eschatological events, if they exist they are only bearers of these “signs” true oracles and prophets, or to use Sloterdijk’s term: theopoets who say things from heaven, such as poetry and clarity, even if use parables due to the difficulty of expressing them in everyday language and reality.
The signs of the times, dark as wars and alive as those who resist with the spirit of hope and peace, do not make tragedy like the Greeks a sign of revenge or intolerance, but of seeing beyond what the raw and naked reality seems to show.
Sloterdijk, P. Making the sky speak: on theopoetry, Trans. Nélio Schneider, Liberdade Station, 2024.
Serenity and peace
05
Mar
Heidegger’s book “Serenity” divides contemporary
thought between what calculates and what meditates, about what calculates he states:
“The thought that calculates (das rechnende Denken) makes calculations. It makes calculations with continually new possibilities, always with greater perspectives and simultaneously more economical. The thought that calculates goes from opportunity to opportunity. Thought that calculates never stops, never comes to meditate.” (p. 13).
The text reflects that there is no “elevated” meditation, every man thinks and thought can lead to meditation, but calculation does not threaten this innermost being:
Heidegger reminds us that to truly think we must all think about our roots, in a more contemporary way, not to deny our origins and their influence on our worldview, even if limited, he states: “the rootedness (die Bodentändigkeit) of modern Man is threatened in its most intimate essence. Furthermore: the loss of rooting is not caused only by external circumstances and fatalities of destiny, nor is it the effect of negligence and the superficial way of Men. The loss of rootedness comes from the spirit of the times into which we were all born” (p. 17).
The most surprising thing about this text, which is from 1995, is that the “most tormenting characteristic is the atomic bomb”, we cannot forget that we have 440 atomic plants plus 23 under construction (in the photo the Fukushima accident), he realizes that the thought that he calculates only sees the industrial possibilities and the need for the energies of nature, but he meditates on what this domain of nature actually means.
“The power hidden in contemporary technology determines Man’s relationship with that which exists. It dominates the entire Earth. Man is already beginning to leave Earth towards cosmic space…” (p. 19), which in addition to being incredibly current also had a foreboding about the future.
But he did not fail to see the danger of these “great atomic energies”, and thus: “he assures humanity that such colossal energies, suddenly, anywhere – even without warlike actions – do not escape our control, and “take the brakes on teeth” and annihilate everything?” (p.20).
In addition to Fukushima, there is the fateful Chernobyl accident, precisely in Ukraine and carried out with Russian collaboration, and the current war there are battles very close to the largest atomic plant in Zaporizhzhia, built between 1984 and 1995, it is the largest nuclear plant in Europe and the ninth largest in the world.
Russia’s threats must be taken seriously, a nuclear war puts the entire civilization process and perhaps humanity itself at risk, serenity and peace are needed.
Western thought has submitted to the cold and calculating mathematical and physical thought, which even it is in check.
Heidegger, M. (no date) Serenidade (Serenity). Transl. de Maria Madalena Andrade e Olga Santos. Lisboa: Instituto Piaget, s/d. (portuguese)
Matrix in gremio
19
Dec
It is curious that an atheist philosopher
(Peter Sloterdijk wrote Post-God) made a reference to Mary as the mother of Jesus in his book in his digression 10, where he analyzes the text De humanitae conditionis in miséria by Lothair of Segni (1160 -1216) who would become Pope Innocent III, who states that the interruption of Mary’s menstruation during the pregnancy of the divine child caused a different diet.
The text, which ignores the dogma of maintaining Mary’s virginity, says Soterdijk “there is no doubt that Jesus, even in gremio (meaning in his mother’s womb) must have been provided with a different dietary plan” (Sloterdijk, 2016, p 557) and uses Question 31 of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, where this noogenesis also implies the connection of two hearts.
Thomas Aquinas says: “… therefore, by the action of the Holy Spirit, this blood is collected from the Virgin’s lap and formed into a fetus. And that is why it is said that the body of Christ was formed by the most chaste and pure blood of the virgin” (Aquino, Summa Theologica III, 31, 5, 3, SP: Loyola, 2001-2002), remember that in Christian dogma the Holy Spirit conceives the child and not Joseph her husband, at the time only promised by Mary’s family.
In the biblical text, Mary, promised in marriage to Joseph, who had not yet married her, receives the news from the angel and asks: “How will this happen if I don’t know any man?” (Luke 1:34), and receives the answer that will be through the action of the spirit, under the shadow of the power of the Most High.
Now this connection between the two hearts, the sacred heart of Jesus and the divine heart of Mary also has a secondary connection, in the visit to Elizabeth, her cousin, who had also conceived in a miraculous way, since she was old and not fertile, This relationship between the two hearts will also result in the connection to the heart of the child in the womb of Elizabeth, John the Baptist, which is related to fetuses and infects Mary.
This second “matris in grêmio”, not cited by Sloterdijk, already reveals an initial action of the sacred heart of the boy and another heart in the womb of another mother Isabel, foreshadowing the relationship of the divine heart with men and all humanity, curiously an atheist corroborates the idea of the “Sacred Heart of Jesus”, a popular devotion.
The author says, even without being a believer, when commenting on a sculpture (from the Cluny Museum in Paris, dating from the end of the 14th century, in the photo above), that “it is the very matrix of God who miraculously offered the sculptor the material of his sculpture, and to God the material to become man…” (Damasceno apud Sloterdijk, 2016, p. 558), a curious exegesis for a non-believer author.
SLOTERDIJK, P. (2016) Esperas I: bolhas (Spheres I: bubbles). São Paulo: Ed. Estação Liberdade, Brazilian Edition.
Blessed Duns Scotus
08
Dec
The wisdom and depth of the teachings of this 13th
century Franciscan friar, however, took 9 centuries to be recognized and venerated by the Catholic Church. It was only during the Pontificate of John Paul II that he was beatified and recognized as a saint.
Pope Francis in a recent homily extolled the qualities of Scotus, stating: “There are great scholars, great specialists, great theologians, teachers of the faith, who have taught us many things. They penetrated the details of Sacred Scripture (…), but they could not see the mystery itself, the true core (…). The essentials remained hidden! (…)”.
Gifted with a brilliant intelligence and driven to speculation, this intelligence for which he earned the title of Doctor subtilis “Subtle Doctor”, Duns Scotus was directed to study philosophy and theology at the famous universities of Oxford and Paris and his work
Endowed with a brilliant intelligence and driven to speculation – this intelligence for which he earned the title of Doctor subtilis, “subtle Doctor” from tradition -, Duns Scotus was directed to the studies of philosophy and theology at the famous universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Paris , and thus his works received the titles of Opus Oxoniense (Oxford), Reportatio Cambrigensis (Cambridge), Reportata Parisiensia (Paris).
Among his mystical works are studies on the incarnation, in Reportata Parisiense he wrote: “To think that God would have renounced this work if Adam had not sinned would be totally irrational. I say, therefore, that the fall was not the cause of Christ’s predestination, and that, even if no one had fallen, neither angel nor man, in this hypothesis Christ would still have been predestined in the same way” (in III Sent, d 7.4).
Duns Scotus, still aware that, in reality, because of original sin, Christ redeemed us with his Passion, Death and Resurrection, reaffirms that the Incarnation is the greatest and most beautiful work in the entire history of salvation and that this is not conditioned by no contingent fact, but is God’s original idea of finally uniting all created things with Himself in the person and flesh of the Son.
Pope Paul VI also declared this vision of the incarnation affirmed in Scotus: “strongly “Christocentric”, it opens us to contemplation, stupor and gratitude: Christ is the center of history and the cosmos, he is the One who gives meaning, dignity and value to our lives.” (homily of November 19, 1970).
Not only the role of Christ in the history of salvation, but also that of Mary is the object of reflection in Doctor subtilis. At the time of Duns Scotus, most theologians opposed an objection, which seemed insurmountable, to the doctrine according to which Mary Most Holy was exempt from original sin from the first moment of her conception: the dogma of the Immaculate conception of Mary, defended by Scotus centuries before the Catholic Church declared it.
Scotus was so convinced of this dogma that he was buried in the church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary (photo), in Cologne, Germany, where he died on November 8, 1308.
Ukraine’s counter-offensive and peace
01
May
On Wednesday Roast Ukraine’s Volodymir Zelenksy spoke with China’s President
Xi Jinping and some peace talks appear to have moved forward.
On his twitter Zelensky said: “I believe that this phone call, as well as the appointment of Ukraine’s ambassador to China, will give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relations.”
The narrative of a peaceful country contradicts the controversial statements of its ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, also the left-wing forces abroad are beginning to show a pro-Putin position, like a motorcycle made in Germany in this sense.
On the other hand, on the battlefield, the counteroffensive promised by Ukraine began, several Russian positions were hit, in conquered territories, in Crimea and even some Russian villages, Russia expected an offensive in Crimea or in Donbass where its troops faced bloody battles in recent weeks, such as that of Soledar and Bakhmut . (see on the map in blue the reconquer Ukrainians in red the Russian invasion).
In September of last year, while Ukraine was threatening attacks to the south, making Russia move forces there, it ended up attacking to the north, where the Russian army had huge losses.
Russia withdrew most of its military arsenal from the Crimea, yet a fuel supply base was hit in this new Ukrainian counter-offensive.
The stalemate of forces in the Donbass region may indicate the real source of conflict at this moment, and the place where Ukraine intends to concentrate its counter-offensive, this time Russia seems to be waiting because it has already moved troops from Crimea, even with the explosion of the depot of drone fuels over the weekend.
The serious thing about this situation is that it postpones any possibility of peace, both sides hope to have guaranteed territories before any round of negotiations.
War in Ukraine and pandemic
19
Dec
Due to visual difficulties, today’s post will be short and without references,
due to the difficulty of reading, however the news of the war between Russia and Ukraine increases the concerns of those who are really in favor of peace, because there is no peace possible if the speeches and positions do not lead to agreements.
Russia continues its strategy of obstructing Ukraine’s energy sources, which are strategic during the cold European winter, on the other hand Ukraine resists in the fights in the east of the country and threatens the Crimea already annexed to Russia in the previous war, with the Russia’s strategy of dominating the Sea of Azor and the Black Sea region.
Ukraine’s strategy is to reach possible targets in Russian territory, which in addition to military bases can operate strategic nuclear weapons, the greatest fear of this war is an imminent and possible atomic war, which would be a scourge.
Christmas, which is a celebration of Light and peace, has the deepest strategic struggle on this side of the planet and with consequences that are still not very predictable, but in the short term, there will be more Russian bases affected in its territory and Ukraine is already experiencing a serious energy crisis , the allied countries react with measures of sanctions against Russia and attempts to help the Ukrainian people.
Regarding Covid 19, there is a concern that cases will increase again in 2023, just as health organizations are already anticipating a possible new pandemic, as we wrote, due to visual difficulties, we were unable to list the sources of this information due to the difficulty of reading.
Crisis, hypocrisy and clearing
14
Oct
Today, what you really are is worth very little, what matters more
is personal marketing, the makeup that hides the defects of what the man really is, this is a consequence of the hiddenness of the Being.
So the concealment of the truth is the result of this concealment of the Being, not its cause, the thought goes in this direction because within each Being there is room for falsification, lying and hypocrisy.
So it is not the case of those who lie the most, it is the absence of a clearing where the conscience of each Being presents itself, and the leaven of the liars grew, as the biblical passage of Lk 12,1=2 “take care with the leaven of the liars”. Pharisees which is hypocrisy, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing hidden that will not be known.”
It is true that Heidegger’s category of “clearing” has a more general meaning, it involves the whole that is hidden within a Being, but for those who believe this whole is hidden in God, what we are in the divine heart, and even not believing this seems proper to modernity that does not see the whole.
The fragmentation of knowledge, the social division, the absence of transdisciplinary thinking led to a new type of occultism, one that specialized only sees the part and does not see the whole, even though quantum physics, the search for the infinite or finite universe ( looking for its edge) seen by James Webb, it is nature and within the Being that this whole inhabits and where the truth is hidden.
How it was hidden was the social fragmentation, the absence of communion, where the Whole is complete, the absence of transcendent Love (not that of idealistic subjectivity), where we are able to see the other.
We thus form a generation (in the sense of several since the last century) that became evil, selfish and individualistic, autophagic and exclusionary and unable to see the whole clearly.
It is true that divine justice is superior to human justice, but it does not ignore it, Jesus told a parable of a widow who goes to an unjust judge who then bothers him so much, he decides to stop having her bothering him anymore and “ don’t come and attack me”.
And Jesus explains the parable to the disciples (Lk 18:6-7): “And the Lord added: “Listen to what this unjust judge says. And will God not do justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will it make them wait?” so we can also hope for earthly justice.
