Hold On, It's a Bumpy Ride

5/29/15

Biblical Heritage (Luke 1-24)
Luke's Gospel is unique in many regards to the other accounts of Jesus' life, and many of these differences are the biggest challenges and as well as points of commonality for Antipas in the Letters of Pergamum. In the beginning of his gospel, Luke stresses the importance of the sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, in their faith to God by believing in his miraculous conceptions within them. While this and many other references to the importance of women in the gospel such as Martha and Mary are of interest to me, these do not impress Antipas as much as Jesus' extensive family name. The lineage of Jesus goes all the way back to Adam, showing Jesus' common humanity. Antipas finds honor in knowing one's own history, even if he is a stranger to the descendants of Abraham and the kingship of David. Antipas initially finds issue with Jesus' character, however, with his promise to lift the poor and needy, shunning the rich in chapter 6, verses 20-26. Jesus finds more enemies in the Pharissees as he preaches these words on the sabbath, prompting him to ensure his listeners that he is fulfilling the scripture not breaking it. Jesus expects this opposition as in 4:24 he states that no prophet is acceptable in his own country. The pious conservatism of the Pharisees will prevent them from accepting his new revelation. Antipas notices how Luke frames Jesus' humble birth in the less than extravagant town of Nazareth in the world sphere with reference to great emperors such as Caesar Augustus, royal kings like Herod, and stately governors like Quirinius. Luke manages to propel the perception of Jesus' character further by showing the maturity of Christ as he instructs the teachers of the temple in Jerusalem and his obvious divinity even at birth as Simeon and Anna express their faith in Jesus as Savior, Christ, and universal Lord.

Social World (Finish Republic)
There are three questions we must face as we read the Republic in regards to justice: 1. What is it nature? 2. Is it valuable because of its consequences as a means to an end? Or is it valuable for its own sake? 3. It is superior, not only more profitable, to be unjust? As an aside, what happens if you are perceived as unjust when in reality you are just? We can look to two example of this- Jesus and Socrates. While Chrisians think he is just by nature because he is of God, he denounces laws the previous Jewish bylaws. And like a criminal, he was humiliated on the cross. He appeared more than only unjust to the Jews at that time and the Romans. The similarities between Jesus and Socrates are striking: both asked the questions that no one wanted to answer, both held the pursuance of righteousness and justice above all, both had devoted followers, both disrupted and threatened the social order, and because of these reasons both were executed by the state unjustly. They differ in that not only is Socrates not divine but also, as we see when Paul proclaimed the Gospel to the Stoics and Epicureans in Athens, philosophers are more concerned with the finite material of this life rather than the infinite everlasting life that follows this one. In Book 7, the importance of being ruled by a philosopher king is initiated, one that is not necessarily a professional philosopher but has disciplines to make the most of his or her intellectual and physical capacities. By being governed by the best, by reason and order and not by spiritedness and appetites, we must ask what type of city puts the best in power. Do democracies necessarily reward this position to the best? While everyone votes, not everyone is moved by intellect but rather most are moved by appetites. Reason above all should order the other two by seeking the forms, prioritizing our own lives and the city in light of that. In Book 8, we ask the questions: What kind of persons and cities are possible and how do they evolve and why? It is understood that we all want to live well and happy and good, but what does that look like? Most likely to accomplish this is through justice. Setting forth 5 different types of governments- aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, an tranny- Socrates claims that the first is the best, where we are freely using reason to rule, then they degrade and evolve into the next line until you reach the most unjust, where we are enslaved to our passions. Cities are not only victim to these organizational structures but Plato's real point is that these parallel the organization of a man's soul. In Book 10, Socrates comes to the conclusion that truth in its highest form must be preserved in order to successfully use reason and therefore eliminates poetry. Since it promotes indulging the appetites (morally), emphasizes only physical falacies like images and objects rather than non physical truths like forms and mathematics (metaphysical), poetry is removed twice from what's real. As a picture is removed from an object, which is removed from a form, embracing a picture rather than a form misleads you from truth. Having your tripartite soul rightly ordered and exercising willpower is the beginning for understanding how to perhaps not define justice but live a fulfilling life. For example, reason tells me to lose weight, spiritedness will get me to work out, controlling my desires will get me to eat better. Is justice merely the well ordered person or the well ordered city with everyone minding their own business? What if we believe we should order our souls differently? There is only one way to do it the best way according to Socrates, despite that our culture suggests our own subjective goods, and it is to hold intellect above all.