Doubt as an Avenue of Communication

I want to hang onto this comment of Angelico’s and the passage he quoted from Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity, because I see it as key, possibly, to the unique character of Korrektiv. I re-quote it here as a placemarker for further consideration.

No one can lay God and his Kingdom on the table before another man; even the believer cannot do it for himself. But however strongly unbelief may feel justified thereby, it cannot forget the eerie feeling induced by the words ‘Yet perhaps it is true.’ That ‘perhaps’ is the unavoidable temptation it cannot elude, the temptation in which it, too, in the very act of rejection, has to experience the unrejectability of belief. In other words, both the believer and the unbeliever share, each in his own way, doubt and belief, if they do not hide from themselves and from the truth of their being. Neither can quite escape either doubt or belief; for the one, faith is present against doubt; for the other, through doubt and in the form of doubt. It is the basic pattern of man’s destiny only to be allowed to find the finality of his existence in this unceasing rivalry between doubt and belief, temptation and certainty. Perhaps in precisely this way doubt, which saves both sides from being shut up in their own worlds, could become the avenue of communication.

Could this serve as a formative piece of that Korrektiv Press manifesto or mission statement we’ve been casting about for? The fine print at the bottom of that gravestone?

Between Heaven (?) and Mirth (?)

Surely there must be a power which always arranges things to happen in the most humiliating circumstances. When I was a boy I had faith in the Christian God. Life under His shadow was a very serious affair; I saw Him incarnated in every tragedy. He belonged to the lacrimae rerum like a gigantic figure looming through a Scottish mist. Now that I approached the end of life it was only my sense of humour that enabled me sometimes to believe in Him.

Graham Greene, The Comedians

Surfing with Mel: Getting meta for the opening scene, losing my job, etc.

The opening shot is straight out of the comments, as is the notion of making a film (thanks, Not-Ted).

The Grand Inquisitor rendered into an Onegin Stanza

Christ came, and seen by all Seville,
distracted good folk from feeding sticks
to a hot fire under an iron grill,
where lay well-done, screaming heretics.
Amidst His miracles passed the Roman
Catholic cardinal, erect gnomon
to His shadow, Grand Inquisitor,
finger pointed at the visitor.
“Is it thou? Be silent! Off to prison!
For fifteen hundred years, we ate bread
blessed by thou. Really now; the dread
spirit of dessert supplies the frisson
de plaisir
we require. Enough tricks! We
prefer fire, crackling and whistling. Dixi!”

Know Your Heresies: Sabellianism

One Liam in Three Persons (2010), digital painting by Timothy Lim

The Holy Tri-Neeson (2011), T-shirt graphic by Timothy Lim

Encyclopædia Britannica has more.

The upshot: While we don’t know many of the specifics of the Sabellian heresy, we do know it was a variant of the Modalist heresy. Modalism is, briefly, the notion that the Holy Spirit, the Son, and perhaps — depending on the kind of Modalism in question — the Father, are not essential to God’s Being. Rather (says Modalism), the one God (who may or may not be identical with the Father) is like an actor; the Persons of the Trinity (or, at least, the Holy Spirit and the Son) are like roles the one God plays.

I find that almost all attempts to explain Trinitarianism have to pass through Modalism early on.

From the YouTube Music Video Archives: Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (‘Resurrection’) – Finale

“Why have you lived? Why have you suffered? Is it all some huge, awful joke? We have to answer these questions somehow if we are to go on living – indeed, even if we are only to go on dying!” These are the questions Mahler said were posed in the first movement of his Symphony No. 2, questions that he promised would be answered in the finale.

–John Henken, Los Angeles Philharmonic, ‘About the Piece’

The full symphony is available on YouTube here, courtesy of the Netherlands’ Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Quin Finnegan has more on Mahler (and Percy!) here.

‘… Still With You.’

From the Armadio degli Argenti of Blessed John of Fiesole, OP (Fra Angelico), c. 1450

‘… I rose up and am still with you.’

Psalm 139: 18

Holy Saturday: First Draft


There’s a rumor that runs down here under the barrow -
the mound that marks the spot in all our lives
when we stopped getting chances, stopped making choices
when the loudspeaker spoke and we all lost our voices
no more succoring widows or cheating on wives.
But the rumor doesn’t really run, it flies, swift as any arrow

Flies, or rather darts, or flits, more like a sparrow
I guess, the sort of thing that needs to fly
to stay alive, one wing’s beat ahead of the whip -
the slavedriver’s friend, with despair at the tip.
And they never quite catch it, however they try
As it pierces through joint and slips into marrow

And nestles there, although the space is narrow.
You know how rumors are; it’s hard to stop the ear
No matter how outlandish is the news they sing
And this one’s so outlandish that the whip has lost its sting
For it’s the sweetest song we ever hoped to hear:
It says a lockpick’s come, and his heart is set to harrow.

‘… His Sepulchre Shall Be Glorious.’

From the Armadio degli Argenti of Blessed John of Fiesole, OP (Fra Angelico), c. 1450

In that day the root of Jesse, who stands for an ensign of the people, him the Gentiles shall beseech, and his sepulchre shall be glorious.’

Isaiah 11: 10

‘Let Him Not Lose What He So Dear Hath Bought.’

From Cell 25 of the Convent of San Marco, by Blessed John of Fiesole, OP (Fra Angelico), 15th Century

Think on the very làmentable pain,

Think on the piteous cross of woeful Christ,

Think on His blood beat out at every vein,

Think on His precious heart carvèd in twain,

Think how for thy redemption all was wrought:

Let Him not lose what He so dear hath bought.

–Pico della Mirandola (translated by St Thomas More)