-Because “it might appear scandalous that she should be able to deprive her husband of children without being punished”.
-Digest 47.11
From a Roman Catholic website.
Because the thing is a bad example, lower-class people who give a drink to cause an abortion or to excite passion (although they do not do it deceitfully), are to be condemned to the mines, and more distinguished persons to be relegated to an island and deprived of a part of their wealth. If by this drink a woman or a man has died, they are condemned to capital punishment.
-Digest 48.19.38.5 Not saying that people should be punished for abortion as stated in the Justinian Code but that the Justinian Code formed the legal moral law in both eastern and western europe. I
I also recently read an article by a classicist on the Roman-Justinian law on preventing owenerhsip near the shoreline that was adopted into the common law code as well. In the 1960’s a politician from Texas adopted this law for public beaches. In the west it was adopted more than the east. This law would appeal to the liberal while the abortion law would not. If Justinian code use in the 1960’s on public beaches why not the use of it on moral law with not as severe punishement.
atristic Quotes
Hagia Sophia, built as a church and subsequently turned into a mosque, still stands only because its creators discovered the cement.
Many of the surrounding buildings have long since succumbed to the ravages of time, including earthquakes, according to a report in the New Scientist.
The structure has withstood quakes of up to 7,5 on the Richter scale, according to the team, headed by Antonia Moropoulou from Athens’ National Technical University.
‘They were very advanced scientists’ The team found that the cement contained a calcium silicate matrix similar to that found in Portland cement, although the architects, Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus, came up with their mix in 532.
Team member Ahmet Cakmak of Princeton University said volcanic ash or other silica was deliberately added to the mixture, producing a material that could absorb seismic activity.
“The Byzantians knew exactly what they were doing. They were very advanced scientists,” he said.
The group hopes the mortar can be recreated to allow faithful restoration. – Sapa-DPA
]]>What is this?
]]>Talk about doubling down on some bad ideas.
]]>Damon Linker says:
November 28, 2012 at 4:48 pm
I love the “I just can’t seem to find the energy to be angry or jealous.” Like she wants to prove she’s one of Nietzsche’s last men! And I quote:
And thus spoke Zarathustra to the people:
It is time for man to fix his goal. It is time for man to plant the seed of his highest hope.
His soil is still rich enough for it. But that soil will one day be poor and exhausted, and no lofty tree will any longer be able to grow there.
Alas! there comes the time when man will no longer launch the arrow of his longing beyond man — and the string of his bow will have unlearned to whiz!
I tell you: one must still have chaos in oneself, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: you have still chaos in yourselves.
Alas! There comes the time when man will no longer give birth to any star. Alas! There comes the time of the most despicable man, who can no longer despise himself.
Lo! I show you the Last Man.
“What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?” — so asks the Last Man, and blinks.
The earth has become small, and on it hops the Last Man, who makes everything small. His species is ineradicable as the flea; the Last Man lives longest.
“We have discovered happiness” — say the Last Men, and they blink.
They have left the regions where it is hard to live; for they need warmth. One still loves one’s neighbor and rubs against him; for one needs warmth.
Turning ill and being distrustful, they consider sinful: they walk warily. He is a fool who still stumbles over stones or men!
A little poison now and then: that makes for pleasant dreams. And much poison at the end for a pleasant death.
One still works, for work is a pastime. But one is careful lest the pastime should hurt one.
One no longer becomes poor or rich; both are too burdensome. Who still wants to rule? Who still wants to obey? Both are too burdensome.
No shepherd, and one herd! Everyone wants the same; everyone is the same: he who feels differently goes voluntarily into the madhouse.
“Formerly all the world was insane,” — say the subtlest of them, and they blink.
They are clever and know all that has happened: so there is no end to their derision. People still quarrel, but are soon reconciled — otherwise it upsets their stomachs.
They have their little pleasures for the day, and their little pleasures for the night, but they have a regard for health.
“We have discovered happiness,” — say the Last Men, and they blink.
And here ended the first discourse of Zarathustra, which is also called “The Prologue,” for at this point the shouting and mirth of the multitude interrupted him. “Give us this Last Man, O Zarathustra,” — they called out — “make us into these Last Men!
]]>The fact that totalitarian states became the ascendent ones rather than individuals would probably have bothered him.
He longed for the freedom that God created us with, he simply did not recognize how to attain it. The struggle that his Supermen must go through can quite easily describe the Christian struggle for holiness in the context of the Church.
A Christianity that diminishes or negates stuggle and spiritual warfare will not be attractive to those who would be saints. Even we Orthodox, at least here in the US, tend to paint to easy a picture of the Christian life. How else to we fall for the political ideologies and the demand to pay, pray and obey?
Only recognizing the nihlist intoxicants for what they are and engaging our hearts and minds to not partake of them will make a difference. It is a personal battle joined together with our fellow communicants. We do not stand or fall as ‘individuals’ whatever that is. As Fr. Hans points out, we are relational beings designed for communion with God. When the primary relationships are denied (God and Church and family) we look for something to fill the void. Something that we need to think about: the state is always the enemy of faith in God unless the people who constitute the state are His friends and lovers.
Fake replacements:
Consermerism
Aggressive Wars
Egalitarianism
Dualism
Relativism (moral and religious)
Et cetera, Et cetera, Et cetera……
Of course retreat into a triumphalistic ethno-centric community is not the answer. That just gives the ideolgies that ravage our souls more space.
]]>As am I.
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