Posted on: June 5th, 2010 _Cities of God_: Transcorporeality
Ward points out in chapter 3, “The Ontological Scandal,” that, much to the chagrin of the likes of Bertrand Russell and all other empiricist types, materiality (don’t forget that Ward is theologizing, or philosophizing, about bodies in this book) is transient.
That is, it arrives in the mode of a gift. It is not static; it cannot be stockpiled; it cannot be commodified and transactionalized.
Rather (and here is where secular postmodernists such as Derrida have trouble making affirmations), it exists in the mode of gift, “continually in a state of being gifted to us, animated by God” (89). That is, “nature cannot be natural without the Spirit informing it at every point” (88).
Consistent with this view is Gregory of Nyssa’s view that the materiality of creation is literally an energeia of God, a mode of Trinitarian dynamis, or power. For more on the energies of God, see here.
2 Responses to “_Cities of God_: Transcorporeality”
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Collins aka Boo Says:
June 7th, 2010 at 11:02 amI like that, “nature cannot be natural without the Spirit informing it at every point” (88).” This what I was getting out of Milbanks’ piece on De Lubac, “The Suspended Middle”.
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matt Says:
June 8th, 2010 at 12:29 amGreat, Boo. It (Radical Orthodoxy) is all connected….