Artifacts of a Life Once Lived

"You are born mortal, you have given birth to mortal beings and have you yourself, a decaying and slack body filled with illnesses, hoped that you had borne something stable and eternal in such a weak material?... The saying inscribed at the site of the Pythian oracle, "Know Yourself", means this: what is a human being? A vessel that can be broken in pieces by any shock at all, by any blow at all. No great storm is required to make you crack; you break up whenever you bump into anything at all. What is a human being? A weak and fragile body, naked, provided by nature with no weapons, needing the help of others, exposed to all the ill-treatments of fate... Woven out of weak and flabby elements, handsome only in the external outlines of the figure; incapable of bearing cold, heat and exertions... Do we then find death something surprising, the death that is the work of one single sobbing breath? The human being considers undying and eternal things in his heart and makes plans for grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but sometimes death overcomes him while he is yet sketching his wide-reaching schemes. And what we call a 'great age' is the course of only a few years."

- Epictetus (50 - 120 AD)

In The Religious Context of Early Christianity, 362.

Popular posts from this blog

John Henry Newman sets out to defend the idea of Liberal (when I say "liberal" it is in the sense of a Liberal Arts degree)University for the training of young men. (His book is aimed at men and for the purpose of men... I dont know if the education of women at that time was still frowned upon). Within a series of nine discourses (which he initially delivered at the inaugural year of the University in Ireland)he sets out to defend his picture of what a University education should look like. Newman's arguments are logical and well defended with the arguments building, like a tower is built, upon one another. Each discourse takes up a specific thesis and is defended in the following pages. He first demonstrates that Truth is One, that is composed of one overarching, interrelated matrix. There are many systems of thought that are a play, but nonetheless, all Truth is delicately intertwined so that if you neglect one aspect of the Truth in essence you are unraveling the binds...

8/15/2016

Kevin, At this time I believe it is necessary that I inform you of what is going on internally. As a high school boys soccer coach I learned that you want team captains who are fully dedicated to the team’s success. If they aren’t, the entire team struggles to reach its goals. While I am part of the FBBC team, I believe I am lacking in this desired leadership quality myself. After seven full months in my current position, I do not believe my passions are managing money for the church. As a result I do not have internal peace about the longevity of my current position. I believe there are better people for this role. I believe FBBC would be a stronger organization if a person more suited for this role were here. I c...

Pastor Or Theologian?

I received a facebook message from a long-lost college friend and roommate the other day. In his cordial greeting he noted, and correctly, that I had just graduated with a Masters in Theology. I really appreciated the recognition and congratulations, but what bothered me was his next question. He asked if I was "going to be a Pastor or a Theologian?" I laughed, not because I thought the answer to the question was obvious, but because of the fact that he dichotomized the two disciplines as mutually exclusive. My first reaction was to respond with a smart alec remark about his ignorance and misconstrued views of Christianity and its relationship to education, but then I had to stop and remember that he graduated from the same undergraduate institution which I graduated from, and probably, like me, attended a 'fundy' church growing up. Reminding myself of this context cooled me off a bit and I kindly responded that I would hope someday to do both. Nonetheless, what his ...