Recent Replies
@isaacgreene A friend at Cambridge doing his PhD on Ecclesiastes said it was good too.
@isaacgreene Philo don’t party:
>And besides, the bad man runs about through the market-place, and theatres, and courts of justice, and council halls, and assemblies, and every meeting and collection of men whatever, like one who lives with and for curiosity, letting loose his tongue in immoderate, and interminable, and indiscriminate conversation, confusing and disturbing every thing, mixing up what is true and what is false, what is unspeakable with what is public, private with public things, things profane with things sacred, what is ridiculous with what is excellent, from never having been instructed in what is the most excellent thing in season, namely silence. …
>But the good man, on the contrary, is a lover of that mode of life which is not troubled by business, and withdraws, and loves solitude, desiring to escape the notice of the many, not out of misanthropy, for he is a lover of mankind, if any one in the world is so, but because he eschews wickedness, which the chief multitude eagerly embraces, rejoicing at what it ought to mourn over, and grieving at what it is becoming rather to rejoice. On which account the good man shuts himself up, and remains for the most part at home, scarcely going over his threshold, or if he does go out, for the sake of avoiding the crowds who come to visit him, he generally goes out of the city, and makes his abode in some country place, living more pleasantly with such companions as are the most virtuous of all mankind, whose bodies, indeed, time has dissolved, but whose virtues the records which are left of them keep alive, in poems and in prose, histories by which the soul is naturally improved and led on to perfection.
Philo, On Abraham 20, 22–23
@marmanold my wife’s a big fan. Overheard excerpts have all been gold.
@elliotlovegrove Thanks! I’ve been teaching at church lately and am trying to write up notes as I’m able.
@isaacgreene She also possesses the most desirable quality in an academic—the ability to acquire funding.
@jonah Man, sorry to hear this.
@isaacgreene One of the best things I heard at Cambridge were her Hulsean lectures, which I think became this book. Incredibly generative, though yes not always perspicuous. Most big names in theology today just aren’t that great, but she’s the real deal.
@isaacgreene Thanks for the recommend—amazing stuff. I’m pairing it with Suzanna Black Roberts nice’n’ranty AI takes on her Substack with Alastair. She’s doing a little series.
@dwalbert That’s great.
And cutting off serendipity can happen without tech, it’s just one seems much more likely to find what you weren’t looking for over coffee hour, in the library, looking at archives/manuscripts, etc. (in the world of atoms space and live humans) than using technologies that are designed to give you what you are looking for. During Covid lockdown, my bro-in-law noticed that he missed spontaneous interactions that he would have never scheduled time for but were valuable parts of life.