The Secular Frontier

“[T]he closed essence of the universe contains no force which could withstand the courage of cognition; it must open up before it, and afford it the spectacle and enjoyment of its riches and its depths. (Hegel 1818).”  Heidegger comments: “[The] fundamental experience of Hegelian metaphysics – namely that the universe cannot withstand the courage of cognition and must open itself to the will for unconditioned certain knowledge (i.e., the will for absolute certainty) – is entirely and utterly non-Greek … The obscurity attended to in the way of thinking is essentially divorced from every ‘mysticism’ and mere sinking into the darkness of obscurity for its own sake (H, 26).” (1) Greek: Gods/thinkers (athanatizein - deathlessness) – the individual- apart from man (2) German: Gods fled, thinkers demi-gods, bring the word to man and fatherland. Hölderlin comments: Habit is such a powerful goddess that no one, presumably, can rebel against her without being punished. The ... Read Article

I would like here to conclude my thoughts on Hölderlin’s poem Germania. It is not the case, as is popularly thought, that Parmenides taught the One while Heraclitus taught the many, since Heraclitus too taught the One.  So, for example, we gave the example previously that Life is understood in the context of death, specifically that we live “as though” the next moment won’t be denied in death (though it could be), and so we live on a spectrum from (i) assertive carpe diem to (ii) the restraint of memento mori: The wisdom of Heraclitus was condensed in an almost formulaic manner into the words of Fragment 50: ἓν πάντα εἶναι—One is all. But “One” does not mean uniformity, empty sameness, and “all” does not mean the countless multitude of arbitrary things: rather, ἕν, “One” = harmony, is all—that which arises in each case essentially constitutes beings as a whole as diverse and in conflict with one another.  (Heidegger, Martin. Hölderlin's Hymns: "Germania ... Read Article

THREE OBJECTIONS TO THE SWOON THEORY FROM WILLIAM CRAIG In his book The Son Rises (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1981; hereafter: TSR), the Christian apologist William Craig raises three objections against the Swoon Theory: Craig’s Objection #1: Jesus’ Physical InjuriesCraig’s Objection #2: The Deceptive Jesus ObjectionCraig’s Objection #3: The Sickly Jesus Objection Craig's Objection #3 is the same objection as Objection #5 by the Christian apologists Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli in their Handbook of Christian Apologetics, which I have previously shown was a FAILURE: https://thinkingcriticallyabout.podbean.com/e/chapter-3-objections-to-the-swoon-theory-based-on-john Craig's Objection #1 (Jesus' Physical Injuries) is probably the most important objection that has been raised by Christian apologists against the Swoon Theory, but I have recently shown that this objection also FAILS: https://thinkingcriticallyabout.podbean.com/e/chapter-6-three-objections-to-the-swoon-theory-by-william- ... Read Article

Husserl noted we never leave the present.  The past was a past present and the future will be a future present.  This moves forward as clock time.  On the other hand, as I observed in my master’s thesis on Heidegger and the Greeks (2002, pg 10), there is another experience of time moving in the opposite direction of, say, Christmas is coming / is here / has gone into the past.  For Hölderlin, there is an abandonment of the gods.  If we are talking about the abandonment of the gods and waiting on new gods, what are “gods” for Hölderlin?  Heidegger comments “For Hölderlin the gods are ‘nothing other than time’ (92).”  There are two kinds of time: Which time is long? It is “the time” of the everyday and the time on the peaks, yet each in a different way. Everyday time is “long” [lang] in boredom [Langeweile], where time holds us in limbo and in so doing leaves us empty, where we hurriedly and indiscriminately reach for whatever makes the long time pass or makes for diversio ... Read Article

I have completed a DRAFT (10 chapters) of my upcoming book:  Thinking Critically about the Resurrection of JesusVolume 1: The Resuscitation of the Swoon Theory I am making DRAFT versions of the first six chapters of my book available to you. The primary focus of this book is on the case for the resurrection of Jesus made by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli in their Handbook of Christian Apologetics (HCA). Their case can be summarized in just three claims: IF Kreeft and Tacelli refuted the four alternative (skeptical) theories, THEN Kreeft and Tacelli have proved that the Christian Theory of the resurrection of Jesus is true. Kreeft and Tacelli refuted (in Chapter 8 of HCA) the four alternative (skeptical) theories. THEREFORE: Kreeft and Tacelli have proved that the Christian Theory of the resurrection of Jesus is true. They raise objections to each of four skeptical theories.  In my book, I focus on their nine objections against the Swoo ... Read Article

*NOTE:  If I update a post I put a note in the comment section, so just hit refresh! Last series I looked at Heidegger’s interpretation of Holderlin’s poem Germania in terms of re-thinking Greek Philosophy.  Specifically, we looked at Heidegger’s Preparatory Reflections: Poetry and Language.  In this new series I’m going to further explore Hölderlin’s "Germania" and also his poem “The Rhine” to look at the question of “The People.”  What does it mean to be a “People.”  Certainly, the Germans are a proud and historic people, though the question of German pride came to a forefront in the previous century with the horror of Nazism.  In previous times, Germans as a people were synonymous with high art and culture.  But what is a people?  We noted previously humans are different from animals like dogs because of the richness of our contexts.  We live according to the human condition of Death, for instance   A dog no more lives out of an understanding of the “dog ... Read Article

(Hölderlin by Franz Carl Hiemer, 1792) Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (20 March 1770 – 7 June 1843) was a German poet and philosopher. Described by Norbert von Hellingrath as "the most German of Germans", Hölderlin was a key figure of German Romanticism. Particularly due to his early association with and philosophical influence on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, he was also an important thinker in the development of German Idealism. This is Heidegger's reading of his poem Germania. (1) GERMANIA: I Not those, the blessed ones who once appeared, Divine images in the land of old, Those, indeed, I may call no longer, yet if You waters of the homeland! now with you The heart’s love has plaint, what else does it want, The holy mourning one? For full of expectation lies The land, and as in sultry days Bowed down, a heaven casts today You longing ones! its shadows full of intimation round about us. 10 Full of promises it is, and seems Threatening to m ... Read Article

“The name of the bow is life [βίος], its work, however, death” [the most extreme opposites of beyng together in one]. Heraclitus, fragment 48 Hegel, on page 26 of the Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit, his first major work, and at the same time his greatest work, which appeared in 1807, writes the following: “Death, if that is what we wish to call that non-actuality, is what is most terrifying, and to hold fast to what is dead requires the greatest strength. Beauty, lacking strength, hates the understanding for asking of her something she is unable to do. But the life of Spirit is not the life that shrinks from death and preserves itself untouched by devastation, but rather the life that endures death and maintains itself within it. Spirit wins its truth only when, within absolute dismemberment, it finds itself. It is this power, not as something positive that closes its eyes to the negative, as when we say of something that it is nothing or is false, and then, having done with it, t ... Read Article

Much have humans experienced. Named many of the heavenly, Since we are a dialogue And can hear from one another. (Holderlin) We noted last time that we operate in and out of contexts, e.g., the spirit of the age or the human condition, noting that the dog, for all its cleverness, knows nothing of a doggy zeitgeist.  The example we gave last time is death, and so we live “as though” we won’t be denied the next moment in death, though this is a dark possibility.  Similarly, we encounter the world "as though" my friend experiences the world as I do, though this is only known through analogy. The question is how are we a dialogue?  From all that has been cited thus far, it must become clear that language is not something that the human being has among other faculties and tools. Rather, language is that which has the human being, that which configures and determines his Dasein as such in this way or that, and from the ground up… Poetizing is itself only that distinctive occurrence w ... Read Article

(1) “Nothing is certain but death and taxes. (Benjamin Franklin)” (2) Carpe Diem! (“Seize the day:” Horace Odes [Book 1, Poem 11], where he writes, "Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero," which means "Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow.") Holderlin calls language “that most dangerous of goods (Fragment 13, IV, 246) that is proper to humans.  Heidegger comments that: Only where there is world—that is, where there is language—is there supreme danger: altogether the danger, which is the threatening of being as such by non-being. Language is dangerous not only because it brings the human being into a particular danger, but is what is most dangerous—dangerous—the danger of dangers—because it first creates, and alone keeps open, the possibility of a threatening of beyng in general. Because the human being is in language, he creates this danger and brings the destruction that lurks within it. As what is most dangerous, language is what is most double-edged and most am ... Read Article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNaKCkorw5M Have you ever asked yourself who you really are, with all your distractions stripped away, sitting in the corner facing the wall in a Time-Out? Last time we looked at restlessness with Sophocles, Holderlin, Nietzsche, and Heidegger.  We can see this horror loci demon winding its way through the history of Western thought.  Heidegger says in Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics "Man is that inability to remain and is yet unable to leave his place (cited in McNeil, Scarcely, 169).” McNeil suggests "Heidegger's translation of to deinon, 'the decisive word,' as das Unheimliche - intends this word to be understood in the sense of das Unheimische, that which is 'unhomely,' something 'not at home' that nevertheless belongs, in an ever equivocal manner, to the worldly dwelling of human beings (Scarcely, 183)." In precise note, McNeill adds that for Heidegger "to deinon is "the fundamental word ... of Greek tragedy in general, and thereby the fundamental ... Read Article

In his book The Son Rises, the Christian apologist William Craig raises three objections against the Swoon Theory: Craig’s Objection #1: Jesus’ Physical InjuriesCraig’s Objection #2: The Deceptive Jesus ObjectionCraig’s Objection #3: The Sickly Jesus Objection Craig makes dozens of historical claims in support of Objection #1, but fails to provide historical evidence in support of those claims. This is sufficient reason to reject Objection #1 and to conclude that this objection fails. However, there are good reasons to doubt the historicity or historical reliability of most, if not all, of the dozens of historical claims asserted by Craig. For example, the ten historical claims made by Craig concerning an alleged trial of Jesus before Pilate. Here are ten historical claims about the alleged trial of Jesus before Pilate: HC9. Jesus was taken Friday morning to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.HC10. Pilate sent Jesus to the Jewish king, Herod.HC11. Herod interrogated Jesus and then sent h ... Read Article

In his book The Son Rises, the Christian apologist William Craig raises three objections against the Swoon Theory: Craig’s Objection #1: Jesus’ Physical InjuriesCraig’s Objection #2: The Deceptive Jesus ObjectionCraig’s Objection #3: The Sickly Jesus Objection Craig makes dozens of historical claims in support of Objection #1, but fails to provide historical evidence in suppor of those claims. This is sufficient reason to reject Objection #1 and to conclude that this objection fails. However, there are good reasons to doubt the historicity or historical reliability of most, if not all, of the dozens of historical claims asserted by Craig. For example, the first eight historical claims made by Craig concern an alleged Jewish trial of Jesus: HC1. Jesus was arrested on a Thursday night (by ?).HC2. Jesus was tried illegally by a night session of the Jewish court.HC3. During the Jewish night trial, “they” (?) spit on Jesus.HC4. During the Jewish night trial, “they” (?) blindfolded Jesu ... Read Article

Thus the blessed ones feel it not themselves, But their joy is The saying and the talk of humans. Born restlessly, these soothe Their hearts, intimating afar, by the happiness of those on high. This the gods love; yet their ordinance . . . Hölderlin, Draft of Patmos (Heidegger, Martin. Hölderlin's Hymns: "Germania" and "The Rhine" (Studies in Continental Thought) (p. 355). Indiana University Press. Kindle Edition.) The concept of restlessness is explored in Hölderlin's poem "Homecoming." The poem reflects on the contrast between the vibrant, almost restless experience of returning and the contentment found in the familiar surroundings, suggesting a transformation from restlessness to peace. Here's a relevant line from "Homecoming":  "Having returned, he is no longer restless, feeling trapped in the familiar; now, home "holds me, a captive content."  We can see, for instance, Odysseus longing for his homeland or Heraclitus warming himself at the simple stove saying, “even here, gods co ... Read Article

Given the 3 previous background posts, I'll now go ahead with Hölderlin as the main focus, particularly here in Part 1 with his "Germania." We are looking at Hölderlin’s poetry as a clue to understanding the ancient Greeks in a new way.  Hölderlin spoke of the departure of the gods.  As I noted previously, Roberto Calasso says: Yet there was a time when the gods were not just a literary clich?, but an event, a sudden apparition, an encounter with bandits perhaps, or the sighting of a ship. And it didn't even have to be a vision of the whole. Ajax Oileus recognized Poseidon disguised as Calchas from his gait. He saw him walking from behind and knew it was Poseidon "from his feet, his legs."  Since for us everything begins with Homer, we can ask ourselves: which words did he use for such events? By the time the Trojan War broke out, the gods were already coming to earth less frequently than in an earlier age. Only a generation before, Zeus had fathered Sarpedon on a mortal woman. All the gods ha ... Read Article