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.

Σίμων ὁ μάγος

 

The fisherman-wizard spit-sprayed a bit
When he growled, ‘Grace is free, if you pray for it.
Damn your dough!’ Not too nice!
But there must be a price,
And as hell is my witness, I’ll pay for it.

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.