I thought I needed some more Josef Pieper in my life, and I was right. 😉 I picked up his Faith, Hope, Love as a sort of birthday gift to myself, and it is satisfyingly mind-stretching. I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says, but I’m definitely pondering the concepts of belief and faith in a deep way, making connections to Scripture and modern culture (I think Pieper would have something to say about those “We believe” signs so popular right now!). Here are a couple of favorite passages that I’ve underlined so far:
For what the act of belief truly aims at is reality and not a message or a report; “it [the act of belief] does not stop at something that is said but at something that is.” [quoting Aquinas] The believer partakes truly of this reality; he touches it, and it becomes present to him – all the more so the more he is capable, by loving identification with the witness, of seeing with the latter’s eyes and from his position.
The reason for that transcendent certainty does not lie in the fact that certainty of belief is involved but rather that the believer has to do with a witness whose insight and truthfulness infinitely exceed all human measures. Belief is more certain than any imaginable human insight – not insofar as it is belief, but insofar as it properly rests upon divine speech.
Also read/listened to recently:
- Hubby: I think he is still working his way through The Gulag Archipelago.
- Me: I finished listening to Mother to Son: Letters to a Black Boy on Identity and Hope by Jasmine Holmes the other day, and it was excellent.
- Miss A: As I type this, her boyfriend is reading her another section of The Fellowship of the Ring in the other room. ♥
- Mr. D: He’s listening to Sissy Spacek’s wonderful narration of To Kill a Mockingbird this term.
- Mr. E: He seems to be enjoying Gulliver’s Travels so far. 🙂
- Mr. L: He’s been rereading some Harry Potter books – The Prisoner of Azkaban is currently by his favorite chair.
- Mr. R: He is reading one of his school books, American Tall Tales, aloud to me this term – we chuckle together at the absurdness. 😉
