Joshua L. Roberts

elexquisito.com/to-athos-the-h… Mt Athos, the Holy Mountain. Days of somnolent landscape, and a whirlwind of veneration, pilgrimage, and special moments by the sea... A special feature for @ElExquisito_EXQ's Summer issue. This is my look back in time to August 2024.

On "salvation from the rising tide of triviality"

What an enormously enlightening and encouraging story. Echoes of the films Homeward Bound.

@Anglican_Gonzo What an old earthy suppleness & vitality was the consummate Englishman. Untapped by crude Puritanisms, and yet sprung with the flowering of virtues. Flawed and not flawed. Cultured in their sin, knowing life and movement and forward vitality matter most.

'...I believe an Englishman may justly call every Thing a Pleasure that pleases him...'

Landshark was so real for this one

Echoes of St Bernard of Clairvaux's teaching on learning to love God. On the path to doing so is learning to love oneself in God.

Trinitarian ontology offers Chinese legacy a 3rd path between Confucianism and Daoism. Former: there’s only ultimate Yin and Yang etc in process. Latter: there is an ultimate Dao ‘originating’ both. Trin Ont: Yin and Yang integrated by Dao are all at Origin process derives from.

A powerful read. The European aristocracy used to house clergy on their estates — I know one family that still does. The American oligarchs purchase monasteries and convert them into dens of iniquity. Reminds me also of Katy Perry’s disgusting legal battle to purchase a convent (the stress of which led to the death of one of the elderly sisters).

"Hercules was a wise man; but his wisdom extended itself to every land and every sea. This is he who purified the earth from wild beasts, who chastised tyrants, procured liberty to those in slavery, was the legislator of freedom, gave stability to justice, was the inventor of laws, and an observer of truth in words, and rectitude in actions. But if Hercules had been willing to pass his life in quiet and leisure, and to pursue an indolent wisdom, he would have been a sophist instead of Hercules, and no one would have dared to call him the son of Jupiter. For neither does Jupiter lead a life of leisure; since if he did heaven would cease to revolve, the earth to nourish, rivers to flow, the sea to be spread abroad, and seasons to change. The Fates would no longer distribute destiny, nor the Muses sing. The virtues of men would cease, together with the safety of animals and the fecundity of fruits; and this universe, again wandering about itself, would be confounded and disturbed. But the administration of Jupiter being unwearied, unceasing, and ever vigilant, and never withdrawing from its proper employment, imparts perpetual safety to all things." - Maximus of Tyre, Dissertation V, translated by Thomas Taylor "Since life is twofold, Contemplative and Active, of the former the chief point lies in the knowledge of truth; but of the latter, in doing what is suggested by reason. The Contemplative life then is the one held in honour, but the Active that which follows and is necessary." - Alcinous, Introduction to the Doctrines of Plato, translated by George Burges (Art: "Hercules" by John Singer Sargent, 1921)

Yogananda's commentary on the Bhagavad Gita refers far more frequently than other commentaries to Christ, who he views and a unique being in the universe, the very heart of the world itself. This is unusual for someone from India... @falsemirror/note/c-231088464?r=binqh" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">substack.com/@falsemirror/n…

In 1916, seemingly on a whim, C.S. Lewis picked up Phantastes at a book stall in Leatherhead. This is the book that Lewis says baptized his imagination and set him on a very different path than his espoused materialism would have allowed. Without this stroke of providence, we might not have the Lewis we read today. It is also very possible that we would not have the Tolkien we read today.

"Most myths were made in prehistoric times, and, I suppose, not consciously made by individuals at all. But every now and then there occurs in the modern world a genius—a Kafka or a Novalis—who can make such a story. Macdonald is the greatest genius of this kind whom I know." - C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald

Happy Name Day from one Joe to another. Some of my favourite lore: - the original Hebrew means ‘God adds’ (colloquially, God provides). - St. Joseph of Nazareth was a direct descendant of David via Solomon (Matthew 1), and a royal crown prince, holding the legal, albeit inactive, right to the throne in a kingdom occupied by Rome. Under Jewish law, the adoption of Jesus by Joseph granted Jesus the right to inherit the Davidic lineage and, therefore, the legal right to the title ‘Rex Iudaeorum.’ - Despite his nobility, Joseph lived in poverty and obscurity as a labourer. - the traditional Catholic devotion to St. Joseph ‘Terror of Demons’ comes from the story of his circumcision of Jesus on the eighth day, where he was the first to literally touch the salvific blood of Christ. - St. Joseph was first chosen as the patron saint of New France (Canada) in 1624 by Fr. Joseph Le Caron, a Recollet missionary. - In 1834, Pope Gregory XVI officially recognized St. Joseph as the Patron Saint of Canada.

Historiography, after more than 1000 years of being Christian, has taken an anti-Christian turn. Where before evils were explained by impiety and unbelief, now it is about blaming all the evils of history on Christianity. Almost all the statements are half-truths, truths that are totally nuanced, or decontextualized. The best text regarding this, is this book by Rodney Stark

We are Sleeping Beauty!

@KeenanMiller7 @pwhhjr Lewis was a hopeful universalist only.

@pwhhjr The great divorce and the pilgrims regress , both by Lewis . Give two models of Hell that both preserve eternal conscious torment… and the unending love of God

Rowan Williams' critique of David Bentley Hart's That All Shall be Saved:

@simonbarrow @pwhhjr Rowan understands Hart accepts it is a process. He is using automatic as short hand for "in the end".

@pwhhjr Disappointing. Rowan addresses his idea of what the book is saying, but not what it actually says — which is not his caricature of it (“automatic”, e.g.)

@CatholicTheist @pwhhjr Rowan understands this.

@pwhhjr It has been awhile, but I am sure DBH was arguing people go to hell, but God's infinite patience and love will eventually win over even the most hardened soul in hell.

@Fundiestan @pwhhjr Lewis was a hopeful universalist, so admits this possibility, he is just not sure that it is so.

@pwhhjr Contra Lewis, God is in fact capable of saving the entire world with everyone’s free will intact.

@leslieginlewes @pwhhjr I think Rowan understands that, but he means "in the end". Lewis by contrast is a hopeful universalist. He hopes for it, but admits the possibility some souls may continue to reject or be incapable of moving towards heaven.

@pwhhjr Salvation an 'automatic process'? But DBH and his sources believe in purgation, don't they?