Speaking again of Zoroastrianism. I've been told the three wise men were stolen from that religion, do you know if there is any truth to that accusation Professor?
I'm guessing you are not a huge fan of Josef Pieper's _End of Time_, in wh he theorizes abt something called the "transposition" from this aiôn the ... to what? I think he'd say a new kind of time (kairos? the aevum? angelic time?). But I suspect that all of that is a bit too metaphysically ambitious, given your take on eschatology (wh I appreciate). Of course, it's possible that you are both partly right, each containing large grains of truth. (I love Pieper, BTW.)
I think your on to something in suggesting much of the attraction people feel in collapse narratives is the return to simplicity, the freedom from many of the shackles of modern existence. There's also a type of person, usually (always?) male, that finds the prospect of violent, post-apocalyptic survival extremely appealing, especially in comparison to the mundanity of wherever they happen to work. Fight Club seems a good study of this kind of psychology, and I think it's quite widespread, unfortunately. On the other hand, I think it's born of a genuine (if misdirected) spiritual yearning, something along the lines of Dostoevsky's "I am not a piano key!" or what have you.
We have several hundred magnetic words on our fridge, the kind you’re supposed to encourage your kids to write poetry with. A year or so ago, my husband arranged some of them into this: “it’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel” and he and I then took turns adding a last word. Giggly, funny, sad, bright, sleepy, nothing, everything. In the end we just removed the last word and left it as he first arranged it. People are feeling so much about so many different things, we’re always getting pulled in so many different directions all at once, and life has become almost too confusing and overwhelming for many of us to bear it. I frequently do wish the apocalypse would just hurry up and happen (finish happening?) already so we can get on with whatever comes next.
Our kids, on the other hand, who are growing up with this overwhelming, confusing state of the world as completely normal to them, have turned the zombie apocalypse into a meme. Should I be pleased or worried?
I think something of this stands behind the renewed popularity of Marvel: behind CGI spectacles, there’s something psychologically important about imagining a future and a cosmos more obviously enchanted than our own period. That’s what good myth—be it of origins or ends—does, after all.
Dr. Hart. In consideration of your grand 'finale' on Eschatology, I came across this blog by a Historian by the name of Tim O'Neil and it just so happens he holds your scholarly work in high regard. (Comparing you to Raymond Brown, James Dunn and Dale Allison) It should also be noted he's an atheist, but isn't an anti-theist, he actually holds much contempt towards them. IE. Hitchen's 'How religion poisons everything'
But I digress, he wrote a post concerning the historical Jesus and I figured maybe you could sponge any useful information you might have overlooked. Just a friendly suggestion.
Your writing inspired this poem. You are helping us lay folk, as well as academics.
Don’t you know you are gods?
Each time we straighten up the kitchen
or steam the wrinkles from a shirt,
or put a finish coat on a handmade table;
each time Vincent picks up a brush or
Michelangelo a chisel or Mozart a pen—
even when one of us mows our lawn,
we reach away from chaos and toward beauty calling;
away from the Fall and into a more ancient and future realm.
Each time we use a straightedge, we proclaim our hope for truth.
And when the dough has risen, ready for the oven,
hell is a little less frightening.
David Newton Baker
"The only way to prove that Ancient Aliens didn't exist, that is the Aliens themselves come to us and tell us they didn't exist." Giorgio A. Tsoukalos
Your piece and thread inspired me to write...
All gods of star times turn, gyrate, the tip toe dance
Do you not know?
Wild winds run, come for our TV to burn
Moms are in kitchen, saucepans ready
Too late for us to be dreamy as such, oh if such
Wonder into spiral, talk cosmos in lizard's eyes
What you want more, lonely souls lost, wander?
Sûrement? Elan? Assez vital?
We should be happy with no eschatology tonight
Juliette Masch
Speaking again of Zoroastrianism. I've been told the three wise men were stolen from that religion, do you know if there is any truth to that accusation Professor?
I'm guessing you are not a huge fan of Josef Pieper's _End of Time_, in wh he theorizes abt something called the "transposition" from this aiôn the ... to what? I think he'd say a new kind of time (kairos? the aevum? angelic time?). But I suspect that all of that is a bit too metaphysically ambitious, given your take on eschatology (wh I appreciate). Of course, it's possible that you are both partly right, each containing large grains of truth. (I love Pieper, BTW.)
I think your on to something in suggesting much of the attraction people feel in collapse narratives is the return to simplicity, the freedom from many of the shackles of modern existence. There's also a type of person, usually (always?) male, that finds the prospect of violent, post-apocalyptic survival extremely appealing, especially in comparison to the mundanity of wherever they happen to work. Fight Club seems a good study of this kind of psychology, and I think it's quite widespread, unfortunately. On the other hand, I think it's born of a genuine (if misdirected) spiritual yearning, something along the lines of Dostoevsky's "I am not a piano key!" or what have you.
We have several hundred magnetic words on our fridge, the kind you’re supposed to encourage your kids to write poetry with. A year or so ago, my husband arranged some of them into this: “it’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel” and he and I then took turns adding a last word. Giggly, funny, sad, bright, sleepy, nothing, everything. In the end we just removed the last word and left it as he first arranged it. People are feeling so much about so many different things, we’re always getting pulled in so many different directions all at once, and life has become almost too confusing and overwhelming for many of us to bear it. I frequently do wish the apocalypse would just hurry up and happen (finish happening?) already so we can get on with whatever comes next.
Our kids, on the other hand, who are growing up with this overwhelming, confusing state of the world as completely normal to them, have turned the zombie apocalypse into a meme. Should I be pleased or worried?
I think something of this stands behind the renewed popularity of Marvel: behind CGI spectacles, there’s something psychologically important about imagining a future and a cosmos more obviously enchanted than our own period. That’s what good myth—be it of origins or ends—does, after all.
Dr. Hart. In consideration of your grand 'finale' on Eschatology, I came across this blog by a Historian by the name of Tim O'Neil and it just so happens he holds your scholarly work in high regard. (Comparing you to Raymond Brown, James Dunn and Dale Allison) It should also be noted he's an atheist, but isn't an anti-theist, he actually holds much contempt towards them. IE. Hitchen's 'How religion poisons everything'
But I digress, he wrote a post concerning the historical Jesus and I figured maybe you could sponge any useful information you might have overlooked. Just a friendly suggestion.
https://historyforatheists.com/2018/12/jesus-apocalyptic-prophet/
It has been said that Zoroastrianism is the oldest organized religion, do you think that true Dr. Hart?