tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5078331897510807942.post647461918006207123..comments2023-12-28T01:11:49.188-08:00Comments on Cum Lazaro: Plato, democracy and the time in which we liveLazarushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09716412032074416331noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5078331897510807942.post-70291692427735132642016-03-22T04:27:19.885-07:002016-03-22T04:27:19.885-07:00This is true: the goods of the world, gifted to us...This is true: the goods of the world, gifted to us by the Creator, have their proper place, but prayer and the sacramental life are absolutely essential - and this is true for all of us, from contemplative religious in monasteries to priests, husbands and wives, and single laymen and women. Whatever our state of life, whatever our duties and commitments, we must remain rooted in Christ.Kennethhttp://www.wordonfire.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5078331897510807942.post-9451573054567121922016-03-18T09:30:08.899-07:002016-03-18T09:30:08.899-07:00Yes, I agree. I find it difficult enough to focus ...Yes, I agree. I find it difficult enough to focus on the permanent things amidst all the distractions of the world (particularly if I neglect prayer). But without that divine focus, I think we desperately scramble around for a simulacrum: identity, politics, sex -whatever. All good things, but liable to an unabalanced obsessiveness without God as the centre.Lazarushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09716412032074416331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5078331897510807942.post-59064275738283357502016-03-18T05:32:26.429-07:002016-03-18T05:32:26.429-07:00"[T]here are the spheres of social life which..."[T]here are the spheres of social life which lie outwith government: the associations of civil society and the family provide spaces where the whim and resentment of democratic politics can be escaped. Secondly there is religion. By providing an analysis of the end of human life as one which lies beyond this world -and certainly beyond politics- again resentment and frustration are reduced."<br /><br />This is well put.<br /><br />You know, Lazarus, I tend to think that for people who lack a genuine, living faith politics can become in a sense their transcendental horizon. That is to say that, without faith in God, an idolised ideological end can become a sort of highest good, the realisation of which demands the kind of self-sacrifice and investment that religious faith enjoyed in times past. But this is folly as we know that no ideology can bear the weight of our transcendent yearnings; and serious attempts to ‘immanantise the eschaton’ in the name of X, Y or Z can only cause harm.Kennethhttp://www.wordonfire.orgnoreply@blogger.com