Joseph Sverker > Recent Status Updates

"The problem is not that Jesus was male but that more men are not like Jesus."

p. 168 in Willing: "The concept of 'will-to-power' is redundant: the Will generates power by willing, hence the will whose objective is humility is no less powerful than the will to rule over others. <

Välskriven rapport, eller slutliga reflektioner efter ett forskningsprojekt där Esaiasson med kollegor har intervjuat och samlad in frågeformulär från en stor mängd människor i förorten. Eller två förorter i Göteborg. Ger en klargörande bild av attityder och levnadsvillkor i förorten. Befriande skriven i ton och attityd.

Interesting in the discussion about freedom and American ideals, Bellah says that the interviewees thinks much about freedom as “freedom from”. I wonder if Colin Gunton received that term from here? He distinguishes concepts of freedom from with freedom with.

”The purpose of the Bible is to get to heaven.” In a book that I disagree with much this probably takes the prize. Surely the purpose is community with God and discipleship of Christ? That might mean that we “get to heaven”, but it is not the purpose. I’m not surprised that his Christian platonism leads him here though. It’s just a natural consequence.

Håller iofs med Lönnebo att tystnad och tal är tvillingsystrar, men han har fel i att tal och ord kräver tystnad ”emellan orden” så att säga. När man spelar in tal så finns det inga ”pauser” mellan orden utan det är vår hjärna som delar upp ljusflödet i igenkännbara ord (Pinker). Det betyder att det är vår hjärna som ”skapar” tystnaden mellan orden. Vet inte om det påverkar.

”Av detta förstår Elsa att man inte bara kan ställa sig i världen och låta sina ögon vila på tingen. Man måste undra över något också för att få några svar.”

”Sustainability is the study of complex systems and the relationships between society, economy and the natural world.”

"Enormous profits can be made in finance in the midst of a deep recession or depression. For example, the lower the general wage level, the more people will be forced into debt in order to make ends meet, the more valuable those loans will be to them, and the more they will be willing to pay for them."

"Enormous profits can be made in finance in the midst of a deep recession or depression. For example, the lower the general wage level, the more people will be forced into debt in order to make ends meet, the more valuable those loans will be to them, and the more they will be willing to pay for them."

"What Thomas's claim amounts to is that the 'act of being' in virtue of which the Word of God is the Word of God is the sole ground of the act of being in virtue of which Jesus of Nazareth is Jesus of Nazareth considered as an active finite agent: and the implication clearly is that there can be in Jesus no finite act of being in virtue of which he is who he is."

"Clearly"?

Jag tröttnar aldrig på att häpna över hur intressant ett vanligt människoliv är.

Jag tröttnar aldrig på att häpna över hur intressant ett vanligt människoliv är.

"Hardship itself dosn’t necessarily lead to the hopelessness and fury of which Donald Trump seemingly speaks. But when hardship fels both permanent and deserved, the psychological appeal of demagogues promising to divert blame elsewhere, be it Muslims, ’experts’, immigrants, the Chinese, Brussels or wherever, becomes irresistible."

A little too close to comfort, but a very interesting read.

"The term 'abstract', for its part originates from the Latin abstrahere, meaning 'draw away', referring to the activity of 'drawing away' certain aspects from the concrete whole."

"The word 'concrete' stems from the latin concrescere, meaning 'grow together'. Sayer notes that this etymology 'draws attention to the fact that objects are usually constituted by a combination of diverse elements or forces'. Marx puts it in a similar way: 'The concrete is concrete because it is the concentration of many determinations, hence unity in the diverse.'"

Good and insightful in many places, but not really the type of biblical commentary that gets me started.

Bara 20 sidor in, men har redan lett stort några gånger efter ett antal träffsäkra poänger. Han skräder knappast orden här.

This opening is among the most powerful I have ever read. The sense of beauty and the denseness of meaning and emotion in such a short space is almost too much to bear. I actually read it the first time almost a year ago and then I had to put the book down - now I will continue.

On it and at it again!

750 pages to set things up, 2 pages to grab the readers heart with an iron fist and then the following 600 pages or so to tie the strings together I suppose. A longish kind of novel this, but well worth the month it takes me to get through to the end (Christmas?).

"God" is the answer to the question implied in man's finitude.

Knowing is an event within the totality of events. Every epistemological assertion is implicitly ontological.

Knowing is an event within the totality of events. Every epistemological assertion is implicitly ontological.