major ethical writings: Ethics, or 'Know Yourself', amp Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew amp a Christian, are presented here in a student edition including crossreferences, explanatory notes, a full table of references, bibliography amp index.
I read this book as part of a book club, The book was written in thes and talks about ethics in a context of heaven and earth, I did my best to read it in the context of the period a time when what is ethical or unethical were presumably decided not by humans but by god.
Per Abelard's thesis, sin or unethical behavior is not the act but the intent to act, Sin, according to him, is contempt toward the Law or god in his mindset, Acting out of lack of knowledge or lack of intent is not sin: for example, a man that kills another in self defense is not sinful because the intent is not there.
A woman that marries her brother who she didn't know was her brother is not sinful because of lack of knowledge,
The "law", religious or judicial, is everything that derives from loving others "All the Law is fulfilled in one word: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, "
The problem and the reason why it's so hard to decide if an act is ethical or not is that, when judging people, all we can see is the act, not the intent.
The way I see it, this book is about finding ways to judge and punish/reward human acts in a way that lets society moves toward a sustainable future,
Abelard and aquinas. A very nice translation, with useful notes about ambiguities in the original text, of two interesting pieces Abélard, It's too bad they came done to us unfinished, We get from these books a sense of what concerned medieval Christian thinkers: Questions of God's purpose, why evil exists theodicy, and more,
Abélard could state abstract principles engagingly and concisely, He needed a wod processor, thoughthese works tend to wander and be repetitive,
Abelard's Ethics is difficult to read, Not because the idea is difficult, but the convoluted, often falsestart, trainofthoughts in the beginning, This reader is frustrated by the lack of definitions in what are Sin/Fault, what are Consent/Desire/Will etc, After struggling through, with the aid of helpful summary notes from academics, it seems that the major contributions in Ethics arethe focal of "consent" After the Desire, before the Deed, as the definitive link of determining Sinfulnessthe separation of Sin in the realm of religion individual's "consent" versus Fault in Civic society on Deed itself.
The Dialogues is dynamic and often quite biting, however I was not able to go deeper than the surface disputes, I miss theological basis to appreciate it,
Maybe for future read, God As Ultimate Goodness
Peter Abelardwas a French Medieval philosopher and theologian, In this book, Abelard uses dialogue to fashion the argument that God may be defined as the “Ultimate Good”, Myths have risen historically because of the tendency of men to complicate and personify religion,
If you follow the common view, your understanding wont go far beyond the faith of those who conceive only of corporeal things, Such ones understand God only as a kind of corporeal thing that consists of bodily parts, like a head, hands, and feet, What illiterate or simple person will put up with hearing you preach that God doesnt have eyes or ears or other members that seem so necessary to us
Abelard suggests that God is better defined as the purity of goodness, which we seek to comprehend through ethics, morals, and divinity.
What renders a person best and most worthy is their participation in this goodness that is God, Delving further into the examination of what constitutes goodness, we see that Abelard defines it from the perspective of “intent”,
Intent State of Mind, Ultimate Desire
In explaining “intent” Abelard points out that both God, Jesus, and Judas all allowed the crucifixion to happen, but each manifested a different “intent” in doing so.
In this sense, it isnt what is done, but with what mind it is done, Good and evil arise out of our mindset, that is, our ultimate intent,
Because sin is first born out of intent, the physical action of sin is not even necessary for sin to occur, The state of true spirituality exists wholly within the mind, wherein one must endeavor to extinguish every thought of malevolence, Thus, the one plotting murder is guilty of murder even before he commits the act, The one who lusts after the wife of another is guilty of adultery, even if he does not perform the act,
Abelard defines a state of spirituality wherein one combats sin from the intellect, before it ever has the opportunity to corrupt the physical body, It is out of a corporeal existence that we come into a freer, spiritual existence,
This does not mean that certain corrupt thoughts will not arise in the mind, but rather that we will not consent to allow such thoughts to dwell in the mind.
Abelard contends that it is the mental consent, not the deed itself, that defeats us, This is clearly a spiritual, not a corporeal, battle,
Through this concept of “intent” Abelard reveals why the diversity of religious expression should not be contentious, writing as follows: “Surely theres no religious faith that doesnt believe it serves God and doesnt do for His sake the things it supposes to please Him.
” If diverse religions are conducted with equally pure intentions, neither is spiritually superior to the other,
As with the “intent” for sin, so the “intent” in worship is what makes it right, An example here might be Marys disbursement of the expensive perfume upon Jesus instead of selling it to give the proceeds to the poor, Actions are made righteous because of the intent under which they are conducted,
And yet, the purity of “intent” is itself a function of our state of awareness and knowledge, for greater wisdom endows our intentions with expanded responsibilities and potentials for accomplishment.
The wise and the simplistic religious practitioners may be judged equally sincere in their intentions, but very different with regard to the scope of their practice,
Consent
Consent is distinguished from a mere mental suggestion that might arise in the mind, Random thoughts and events flow freely about in our psyche and this we cannot prevent, It only becomes consent when we choose to dwell upon it, allowing it to intentionally linger in our mind, sequestering significant portions of our spiritual energy,
This is consequential because our spiritual energy constitutes our spiritual self and becomes compromised when burdened by corruption, What sort of energies is your spiritual self composed of To what is your spiritual energy most devoted To what have you consented your energies to
The Infinite Spiritual Self
Abelard paints a picture of the human spirit arising from the dust and gaining awareness, working to rid itself of the lingering aspects of physical animality.
Sin is allowing ourselves to be given over to the chaotic, animalistic characteristics that dominate our reason, combat our ability to flourish, and accelerate our demise, Abelard remarks: “let us be called spiritual rather than animal”,
Because Abelard defines God as ultimate goodness, to consent to sin is to exhibit scorn for goodness scorn for God, To be more spiritual than animal, one must relate less to temporal substances and more to the intangible things of the spirit, Learning to do this is vital for enduring beyond the confines of the physical body,
Bad Will
Abelard identifies the persistent animalistic force as our “bad will”, When we see our will turned against what makes us flourish, against ultimate goodness, we are accelerating our demise, condemning ourselves, jeopardizing our health, or instigating that which drains our emotional energies.
When we renounce that which constitutes ultimate goodness we are exhibiting scorn for God, for life, and acquiescing to damnation by resigning ourselves to an animal state,
The animal lives by instinct alone, running through life haphazardly, until it returns to dust, Ancient animal sacrifice is symbolic of the process whereby religious people seek to destroy their animalistic personas, But we cannot defeat bad will with symbolic ritualistic gestures, We can only defeat bad will when we give ourselves over to divine will ultimate goodness, God, In order to do this, we must understand what God is,
It is through the concerted growth of our spirit, through mindfulness, that we ascend beyond the state of mere animality and gain an awareness that is capable of persisting beyond physical deterioration.
The more we cling to God Ultimate Goodness through love, the more we will avoid what offends ultimate goodness, Jesus said: “I did not come to do my will but His who sent me, ”
Penitence
Because “intent” is what characterizes us as it characterized God, Jesus, amp Judas in the incident of the crucifixion, so we are defined more by what it is that we really want than what we succumb to.
What we really want what we are really about reveals itself in penitence, or the lack thereof, Penitence is the minds sorrow over consent to dwell upon anything unfitting, upon anything other than ultimate goodness, or upon any willfulness other than the divine will,
Abelard plainly distinguishes between those who are penitent out of love versus those merely reacting for personal gain because of fear:
“Indeed, every day we see many people who are about to leave this life repenting over the disgraceful deeds they have committed and wailing with grave remorse, not so much from the love of God whom they have offended, or from hatred of the sin they have committed, as from fear of the punishment.
In this respect they also continue to be immoral, since the immorality of their fault doesnt bother them as much as the penaltys just severity does, They dont regard with hatred what they have committed, because it is evil, so much as they do Gods just judgement, ” Peter Abelard
True, fruitful penitence is: sorrow and mental contrition arising from the love of goodness God, Penitence is like the soothing spray one might apply to plants to relieve them of disease or parasites so that they may thrive, God is growing us. Some crops may fail, others may thrive,
Will you be a candidate for harvesting God harvests lovely spirits from the earth but the diseased and withered crops must be removed to make way for those flourishing in the glory of the sunshine of love.
The Kingdom is composed of those who flourish in love,
Confession
Abelard associates confession with penitence, In promoting open confession to other people, Abelard asks: what reason is there to confess to a God that already knows all things Conversely, putting yourself out in the open before other human beings assists in keeping you from regressing.
Sin is curtailed by the light of openness wherein one human strengthens another by their very presence,
Let us all endeavor to live open and transparent lives such that the exposure of wrongness may serve as a deterrent, Let the world know who we are and what we are about so that we are better encouraged to be the person we most want to be, Much is hidden within us that may come out through confession and interaction with our peers,
Grace
Penitence illuminates grace for us as the situation wherein we are judged by what our mind truly wants as opposed to what our animal bodies have succumbed to.
Abelard contends that God pays attention not so much to the deeds that are done as to the mind with which they are done, It is the mind itself that is judged in its intentions,
This is the best way to understand grace, Good intention is imperative for grace to be operable, To be accepted into ”The Kingdom” one must at least want what “The Kingdom” has to offer,
Abelards theology resolves the controversy between faith and works because it all lies within the state of mind, within what it is that one truly wants, Money cannot buy a state of mind, People who donate more to charity are not more worthy because they are wealthy, The state of mind of the impoverished giver may be much more authentic than that of the wealthy donor motivated more by a tax deduction, The blue collar worker, too busy seeing after his family to have time for philanthropic endeavors, may indeed bear purer good intentions than the independently wealthy housewife who volunteers philanthropically simply for something to do.
Again, it is the state of mind, the true desires, and the intent, all known fully to God, that constitute the spirit, not any outward thing or compilation of works.
Merit
So we see that merit becomes operable as it is manifests within our intentions, Scripture supports this. We see that Enoch was allowed to avoid even the process of a physical death because of his merit and Noah was salvaged from among all the other men of the earth.
One who has trained athletically can run a greater distance with less pain than an obese, inactive, untrained person, Similarly, if we do not prepare ourselves spiritually, we will encounter much hellish torment when morphing into spirit or perhaps, we will be fully incapable of such metamorphosis,
Hell is less a place than it is simply a state of being, Humanity must come to understand that we now exist in the penultimate, within the current process of arising into spirituality, from an inanimate state, The creation is ongoing, occurring, even as we speak,
Systems of Government
Most systems of government seek meritocracy, but the corruption of men defeats them, Goodness enjoins a concern for others and a banishment of strife for superiority over others, The lack of such goodness is the reason for communisms failure and the reason capitalism is tainted with exploitation, The Biblical example of the Apostles arguing over which would be greatest in The Kingdom is exemplary of the human failure to understand this,
Justice bestows on everyone his due that which he is worthy of, but we cannot render justice unless we
have “courage” and “moderation”, We must have the “courage” to stand against our fear of others responses to us when we stand firm in goodness, We must have “moderation” to defeat the greed that arises in us to take more than our fair share of things,
We err to think that the perfect system of government lies within the setting forth of particular laws or certain economic treatises, The perfect system of government may only arise from the cultivation of goodness within the human being, Ultimate Goodness is the only sovereign that can carry us forward into the Kingdom, It is only through the revelation of Ultimate Goodness that humanity may embody enough courage and moderation to experience a truly just system of government, Humanity may grasp the Ultimate Good only in proportion to its merits that is, in proportion to the courage and moderation it is able to muster,
Conclusion
The Ultimate Good is God, Human goodness is the proportion of God that a human allows to dwell within, The ultimate human good is ultimately found by being conjoined with God, Our present penultimate transcends toward the ultimate, “We see now through a mirror and in obscurity, but then face to face, ”
We will ultimately understand that our having less goodness beforehand didnt arise from the makers inability to provide it, but because of the necessity for our transition into spirit.
This is the process by which we are made no longer animal but spiritual,
The person finds God within and humanity finds God in the expressions of the multitudes that have found God, Abelard quotes Isaiah in describing what such an ultimately purified human community will look like:
“The sun will no longer be for shining on you by day.
Neither will the moons brilliance illuminate you, Instead the Lord will be as an everlasting light, and your God as your glory, Your sun will not set any more and your moon will not wane for you, But the Lord will be as an everlasting light for you, and the days of your distress will be completed, Now your people will all be just, ” Isaiah
End,
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Pierre Abélard