Elaine > Recent Status Updates

Read the 32 Paths of Wisdom. It's just a bunch of correspondences between the Hebrew letter, Zodiac sign / element, and Tarot trump. Some of the Tarot correspondences seem completely arbitrary, but I suppose that's kinda how it is. But even more arbitrary is the descriptions. I got a Trinitarian vibe from Sephirot 1-3, but I struggled with the details ascribed to the other paths. Most seemed underspecified/vague.

Finished notes on Sefer Yetzirah. Some cool stuff there but, not super impressed. "The 32 Paths of Wisdom" seems like an interesting supplementary text but mot holding my breath too much

Finished chapter 1, which argues for the priority of the Johannine epistles over the gospel, drawing parallels between the epistles/Revelation and Mark, Matthew, and Papias' Logoi (or Q).

Read chapter 15. I really disliked the argument in chapter 14. Lol.

Finished Chapter 5, the last non-appendix chapter. Wraps up the book's thesis nicely. Will require a second read-through to fully appreciate (particularly in the Pneumatological arguments), but the case is compelling. DBH's utilization of Bulgakov has irrevocably changed the way I look at God, well beyond the naive logos prophorikos. I can put my angelomorphic speculations to bed, at least for now...

Finished Ch. 4. A complex read, it covered Bulgakov's theology of personhood, at once arguing against social or "3-self" strands of Trinitarianism, and for a universal concept of Personhood, at once identified with Bulgakov's Sophia and Ch. 3's prefigured notion of a _natural_ commonality between God and man. Will need to re-read to fully appreciate it, but already have I recovered some trust in "homoousious".

Yet another fantastic chaper. Many notes taken! This was an interesting push and pull for me between the Christological merits of a sound metaphysics and the existentialist appeal to aporia and equivocity nonetheless embodied. The chapter culminates in a fascinating argument for Hart's monistic view that, in solving personal devotional and theological perturbations, I can't help but feel partial to. Ready for Ch. 4.

Chapter 2 finished. Fantastic chapter.

Finished chapter 1.

Really poignant exploration of the New Testament's cosmology and metaphysics, suitable for the flourishing of demi-divine intermediaries, in contrast with the irrevocably altered post-Nicene understanding of God's transcendence. As Hart acknowledged, this confers some genuinely beautiful insight of God as at once the superior summo and interior intimo, but an undermining of God as the non aliud.

Finished Chapter 13

14, 15, 16 particularly relevant to my research

Currently at chapter 10. Found a software which lets me annotate webpages, which is really nice.

"FInished chapter 1, which can be summarized by this snippet:

"This Coptic codex ought to remind us, therefore, that Christian objects, which appear to us to blur the boundaries between 'religion' and 'magic,' might in fact simply reflect different configurations of proper and improper ritual—no less stringently demarcated than those promoted in patristic, monastic, and conciliar sources.""

FInished chapter 1, which can be summarized by this snippet:

"This Coptic codex ought to remind us, therefore, that Christian objects, which appear to us to blur the boundaries between 'religion' and 'magic,' might in fact simply reflect different configurations of proper and improper ritual—no less stringently demarcated than those promoted in patristic, monastic, and conciliar sources."

Finished Introduction. The clear outlining of the thesis statements at the section "Structure of the Book" is appreciated. Interesting discussion on the category of "syncretism" as a preliminary to the discussions in the book.

Midway through the Introduction. Particularly fascinating is the discussion on the taxonomical vs definitional characterization of "magic"

Finished chapter 12 "El Gobernador"

What a contemptible little fail-son

Finished part 1, chapter 9

Finished chapter 9

Fuck FDR