This blog begins with a confession of ignorance, ignorance of a particular concept, namely, that of the analogy of being, the analogia entis. I have a sense--from whence it comes I know not, but I trust it comes from God--that the principle of the analogy of being is fundamental, important, foundational. I have a cursory, shallow, topical understanding of it, enough to have piqued my interest, but insufficient for me to have grasped it. So this blog is dedicated to my efforts--whether the prove availing or not I do not know--to grasp, to comprehend, to embrace to the extent I am able, this doctrine and its importance to philosophical and theological thought and to the spiritual life.
The blog will have no order, no grand organizing principle. It will be a catch-as-catch-can, as disordered and unruly as a wrestling match. It will be a struggle by a feeble albeit willing mind to grasp a philosophical and theological concept that is both comprehensive and sublime. Perhaps towards the end we may expect some synthetic grasp of the whole. I sense that the analogy of being is a window that allows us to peer into created reality, and from that created reality, by the use of reason, advance to the threshold into the very life of the divine, to grasp in some manner the praeambula fidei and that God is the ground of all being, indeed self-subsisting being itself, the ipsum esse per se subsistens, God. From this jumping off place, we fall, as it were, by the revealed invitation of the unseen but intelligible God on the other side of that threshold into the very arms of God himself, handed over from the introduction of reason to embrace the gifts of Faith, of Grace, and thereby enjoy the divine Love, a Love which enraptures us into the divine maelstrom of Truth, Good, Beauty, Unity, and Being Himself. The anologia entis, then, is an introductory to the God whom I love. This is the God who gives meaning to my life, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Joseph. The God who revealed himself in Christ to be Triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I anticipate a struggle, a long one. For that reason I have named it Lucta Iacobi, "Jacob's Fight." The reference is to the 32nd Chapter of Genesis, where Jacob fights an angel. Anybody who wants to join in the fight, or offer help, I welcome.
The blog will have no order, no grand organizing principle. It will be a catch-as-catch-can, as disordered and unruly as a wrestling match. It will be a struggle by a feeble albeit willing mind to grasp a philosophical and theological concept that is both comprehensive and sublime. Perhaps towards the end we may expect some synthetic grasp of the whole. I sense that the analogy of being is a window that allows us to peer into created reality, and from that created reality, by the use of reason, advance to the threshold into the very life of the divine, to grasp in some manner the praeambula fidei and that God is the ground of all being, indeed self-subsisting being itself, the ipsum esse per se subsistens, God. From this jumping off place, we fall, as it were, by the revealed invitation of the unseen but intelligible God on the other side of that threshold into the very arms of God himself, handed over from the introduction of reason to embrace the gifts of Faith, of Grace, and thereby enjoy the divine Love, a Love which enraptures us into the divine maelstrom of Truth, Good, Beauty, Unity, and Being Himself. The anologia entis, then, is an introductory to the God whom I love. This is the God who gives meaning to my life, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Joseph. The God who revealed himself in Christ to be Triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I anticipate a struggle, a long one. For that reason I have named it Lucta Iacobi, "Jacob's Fight." The reference is to the 32nd Chapter of Genesis, where Jacob fights an angel. Anybody who wants to join in the fight, or offer help, I welcome.
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