14.9.19
– Movies:
High Life
The final affirmative – AMEN!
– Dreams:
Swimming pool. Large snake emerges, curls around my foot, then slithers away. I freeze!
Paul Siromoni explodes in a tirade against a formal forum where academic presentations are made. Danny is awaiting his turn to present his cardiology thesis. I leave the hall and start following Paul……
16.9.19
– Let’s start a new project, Joe!
– SUGGESTION (for your serious consideration):
Salome Divya, Psychology teacher – vision statement:
1. Passion to become an expert/authority in a specific field (?Educational Psychology), thereby transforming myself in the process, and contributing to the progress of scientific knowledge & ethical practice, for human welfare.
2. Career growth and maximal impact at personal, relational & systemic levels.
3. Ideal working conditions (job) – pay, load, prospects, benefits, etc.
(In that order! ☝🏽)
– Post-Christian Ministers Network:
Criteria for invitation/inclusion:
1. Christian background
2. Involvement in pastoral work/theological training/spiritual care/counseling/education/healthcare – full-time ministers or lay leaders – independent or organizational.
3. Discontentment with current local church & theology, and desire for something new/different.
4. Need for connecting with other like-minded people.
Sharing experiences & problems for peer support, mutual education, collaborative ministry projects
– Prophetic/poetic/graphic utterance
Autobiographical video essay
Friendly obscenities
Wait – इंतज़ार
– Fun games for adult parties:
Why-Because (Zen Koans), who am I? (statements about oneself that others need to identify as true or false), Sublimewe, dumb charades, win lose or draw, etc.
17.9.19
– tribadism
quinoa
18.9.19
– Social horror
– Can something come out of nothing?
Can anything become nothing?
19.9.19
– Your internal discipline and capacity must (almost always, except in severe crises), far exceed the external demands!
That is the (only) way to stay on top of life……
– The Cross ~ Christ crucified ~ Gospel ~ Kingdom
Exaltation/elevation of the Cross
– From good to great, to worst… and back!
– I think the words spoken when someone is upset/triggered, do have truth in them!
20.9.19
– “The new New Testament – An original translation” by David Bentley Hart
Pitilessly literal!
Syngrammatic Vs. Phrastic style
Abrupt, incoherent, broken, terse language(s)
A flavor of the pristine raw message!
Immediacy/urgency of voice
The neatly packaged streamlined versions
From writing-reading to dictating-listening!
Gripped/passionate/consumed
Problematizing Christian history & theology by reclaiming the ground level inarticulate expression of the apostles!
How does the genial Protestant get Paul so wrong?!
Original sin and inherited guilt
What were the central personal concerns that tormented Paul?
Why have we not recognized the burning heart of the message?!
Salvation as cosmic conquest
Eastern Vs. Western Christianity
World –> cosmos; Word –> logos; Blessed –> blissful
Where is the apocalyptic and eschatological cosmology in (your version of) the Gospel?!
An alien picture of reality!
How does the ancient Gospel survive the modern shift in worldview??
Distinguish titles & names – was “Jesus” a name or a title?
Making the connotation audible!
Satan –> accuser/slanderer; Christ –> anointed one
Inter-testamental literature
Fatigue –> complacent disbelief
– Friendship as truth,
And truth as friendship!
– payload
lirl
pwned
smh
tbh
ftw
gat
byob
Button-pushers
– Who is Sam Esmail?!
– What happens when you mix David Bentley Hart, Mr. Robot & Charles Baudelaire?! 🤪
21.9.19
– Distinguish:
Consciousness (biospiritual)
&
Mind (psychosocial)
– From subjective objectivity (Man) to objective subjectivity (GOD)!
– I think I can add Abel Raj to the few influencers in my life, along with K. O. John, Saraswathi G. C., etc.
– Waking up from a vivid dream is a shattering experience!
– Huntertiana
– UGK is JC’s savior!
Life – the fire that burns out all (other) passions……
22.9.19
– Movies:
Climax
Acidic blood!
– disvalues
Distinguish:
Dirt/undesirable
&
Evil/harmful
Guilty by association
Spiritual passion & the social virtues
The censor as pornographer!
Ethical control
Moral paternalism
Fact-value distinction
Private autonomy & social goals
Moral luck
Valid(ating) personal styles & life-plans
23.9.19
– Christianity was always meant to be a marginal movement or extremist cult, never a popular mainstream religion!
The difference between a Christian & other folks is the same between a soldier & a civilian or a professional athlete and other people……
How has this plain fact become so obscured?!
– Compare Devin Townsend’s “Why?” music video and the movie “High Life”
– Beyond understanding:
Subjective subjectivity & objective objectivity
– Do you respect, appreciate & admire yourself?
– Brain development is fully complete by 25 years of age – adulthood!
1 sleep cycle ~ 1.5 – 2 hours.
4 sleep cycles at night
Total sleep (including afternoon nap) per 24 hours ~ 8 hours.
24.9.19
– Sade & UGK – the bliss of the poor in spirit!
What about Jesus then??
The first 2 go through the looking glass, the latter disappears when standing in front of the mirror (Timo Airaksinen)…… Right?
But Sade & UGK are also very very different from each other! How?
Where do I stand in all of this?!
– Sam Esmail (producer/director) ~ Ecorp
Mr. Robot (the series) ~ Capitalism
Me (viewer) ~ the common man
Reality/sanity/society/systems/survival/past
Vs.
Dream/psychosis/inwardness/hacking/revolution/future
– Is it courageous to go against the value of that virtue?
An orgy of apathy
The novelist as anti-moral reformer
Post-hibernation explosion
– Sam Siddharth, Abel Raj, Saraswathi G. C., Shanthuru Premkumar, Solan Chelliah, Philip Pattabiram, etc.
Vs.
Immanuel Joseph
SS
Vs.
Abel
Vs.
Saras
Vs.
Shanthuru
Vs.
Solan
Vs.
Philip
The different kinds of difference!
(Quantitative Vs. Qualitative)
25.9.19
– Movies:
“Mishima – A Life in Four Chapters”
sepukku (self-disembowelment) – distinguish from harakiri.
Bushido ~ Samurai ~ soul of Japan ~ military virtue – the exact opposite of nihilism!
The harmony of pen/spirit/art & sword/body/life
Beauty >> art >> action >> glory!
There are only 2 kinds of people: Those who live to survive and those who fight for faith. And in the final analysis, there is NO middle ground!
26.9.19
– plebiscite
comitia
subcontinent
Gratitude meditation
Self-compassion
Building raw intelligence
Deepwater Horizon
– Whatever lies before birth & after death, to what extent does/should it affect what comes in between?
– Christ – distinguish mediator & intermediary
– Worldly wealth
&
True riches
Cleverness
Vs.
Righteousness
– Fabulous (app)
“No moment is too insignificant!”
3 things I’m grateful for:
1. Supportive spouse
2. Enough space, time & energy for a contemplative lifestyle
3. Spiritual resources for growth
27.9.19
– Heavy metal queens of Botswana on DW TV channel
Poverty & style – economics, aesthetics & ethics
– Monastic community
Bonhoeffer:
“To learn not merely to tolerate, but to delight in, the freedom of the other.”
“Civil courage depends on a God who demands responsible action in a bold venture of faith, and who promises forgiveness & consolation to the person who becomes a sinner in that venture.”
Co-conspirators
Thinly veiled autobiographical fictions
Middle-class Christian families
The later theological letters
Vicarious representative action
– Wrenching turn
The ground of being & the power of meaning
– 28.9.19
– My activities:
1. Reading & reflecting
2. Walking & conversation
3. Small group dynamics
– Ask yourself periodically:
3. Are you connected with some others around you (based on the first two)?
2. Are you pursuing personal perfection?
1. Are you saving the world?
(Transforming the future includes maintaining a few old basics.
Perfection includes balance & health.
Relationships include enjoyment & confrontation. )
3.10.19
– CHRISTIANITY:
What if –
There was one worship service each year, when all those who would not be willing to confess Christ/Gospel/Kingdom as their central & supreme concern, over & above survival/happiness/success (includes family, job, money, health, etc.), could abandon their Christian identity and church membership??
What exactly does “I have sinned” mean in the confession & absolution part of the Sunday liturgy??
What if, clergy were trained as equippers of battle-ready soldiers & professional athletes, instead of group therapists for civilians or club entertainers for hobbyists?
What if, the original radical ecclesiology of “church” as alternative community of resident aliens was repeated & reinforced by the character & lifestyle of the clergy, and the form & content of the Sunday liturgy?
5.10.19
– Philosophical probity
– “Thinking has interests which do not coincide with those of life”
‘Philosophy should be more than a sop to the pathetic twinge of human self-esteem’
– Ray Brassier
8.10.19
– ersatz – pursuit of truth Vs. Social utility
10.10.19
– Sophiology
Social psychiatry
cathexis
suasive
– “Does it matter that we know that nothing matters?”
Nihilism as adventure
Vs.
Nihilism as paralysis
Enlightenment & extinction
Conceptual rigor and the limits of knowledge
Distinguish nihilism & scepticism
Temporal, spatial & psychic individuation
Being-in-the-world & being-as-such
Being-out-of, being-with & being-toward
Essential, existential & empirical being
Being & time ~ matter & memory ~ difference & repetition
– Suicide – egoistic, altruistic & anomic
Death-affirmation as a form of life-orientation
11.10.19
– smock
awning
waggish
idee fixe
egress
Sasquatch
brassiere
12.10.19
– stochastic
virago
Phrygian cap
manumission
Cloacal vocabulary; scatological flair
champ (v.)
parasol
sward
dawdle
vagabondage
moulder
foolscap
watermark
hostler
schooner
Oglings & joslings
The amiable usage of time-honored abominations
Lutes & censers
Steamroller
tawny
Gay devilry
furze; gorse
bivouac
Town watch
– Metaphysical sensuality
Reality/being, thought/mind & nothingness/negation
Sensation, intuition & conception; Knowledge & experience
Distinguish philosopher & sophist
Self-alteration
The intelligible nothing
Empirical, objective & formal reality
Mystical dogmatism
Cultural & cognitive elements of perception
The myth of the given
The manifest image
Immediate apprehension of reality
Foundationalists Vs. Coherentists
The dialectic of immediacy & mediation
Proto-theoretical scaffolding
What is ~ essence
What seems to be ~ appearance
Inter-subjective verification
Self-conscious > sentient
A critical objectivation of subjective phenomena
The rationality of materialism and the materialism of rationality
Absolute processes
Reintegrating sentience into an expanded physicalist perspective/scientific image
13.10.19
– jobsworth
14.10.19
– Raw (movie):
Mother ~ superego
Sister ~ Id
Self ~ ego
(Father ~ God?!)
– incels
Cultural gatekeepers
Shared loneliness ~ solidarity of loathing
Online community
Art shock
Body-horror
Female body-politic
Dirty bomb
hazing
Stress-gnoshing
Cinema of repulsion
Passion & perversity
Dead ringer
Worryingly brilliant & wildly assured feature debut
Saturnalia
exoteric
suborn
sang-froid
Mordant fun
Forced hedonism
toothsome
Domestic terror
Extremist fantasies
A misogynistic feminist
Self-astonishment
– Critiquing the reviews
– “Everything must go” – Joker
– It’s medical insurance, NOT health insurance.
– Christian Gospel = universal unconditional salvation + radical discipleship!
– Hebrew – Pilgrimage Festivals – Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Weeks/Pentecost), Sukkot (Tabernacles/Tents)
15.10.19
– The Symposium
Diotima
Love as the worship & science of beauty
ruse
duenna
Franc-tireur
Questionable literary personages
aesthetes
sensation(al)ist
bas-relief
garret
coteries
appanage
monocled
Parnassians
cupola
– Baseliology (as different from ecclesiology) – theology of the Kingdom
16.10.19
– Still life
arrant
– Christian – the 2 pitfalls of mysticism and legalism
– Maintain a minimal structure/discipline in your lifestyle. Rhythm – put ‘listening to the body’ above ‘stretching/pushing yourself’ – but do both (in the right order)!
When it comes to the higher level of “ought” (long-term purpose & impacting society), you can leave it behind…… 👣
Immanuel Joseph's Blog 