(July 21, 2020 at 4:50 pm)Grandizer Wrote: Doesn't have to be classical stuff really.
That's true. I think the best stuff is the classical -- it's classical because it's great, not because it's old -- but we also need prerequisites to understand most of it. So reading moderns like Feser or David Bentley Hart goes a long way toward gaining access.
Quote:Doesn't have to be perfect understanding obviosly, just this allows for a clearer understanding of what others believe even though there will still remain some misunderstandings. Feser himself is said, by some other types of Thomists, to have misunderstood some aspects of what Aquinas said in his writings. So the expectation certainly isn't that we will do better than him at understanding this stuff.
Yep, the debates continue. It's been helpful to me to read some of the arguments, particularly between the two I named above, to see what the issues are. All religions continue to hash things out and evolve.
I guess the application of the old stuff (e.g. Neoplatonism) by moderns like William Blake or Simone Weil is the most interesting to me. It's relevant to modern issues, cognizant of modern philosophers, and challenging. It's also way way beyond what most people talk about, either pro or con, when they talk about Christianity. Yet it is unthinkable without Christian tradition behind it.
The various debates, modern versions, and disagreements remind me: One of the stupidest things that Dawkins ever said is that Christians can't tolerate uncertainty. He has the idea that all Christians believe in something they hold without doubt or unknowns, while science is comfortable saying "we don't know." He's casually erasing about half of Christian theology -- the apophatic, the cloud of unknowing, the inherent doubt that is a part of faith. The idea intrinsic to Christian thought that God is something that can't be known.
And he seems unaware that while science-only people are comfortable saying "we don't know that particular thing yet," many of them have absolute certainty about their metaphysical commitments. That science is the Truth and in time will Reveal All.
