VLVL2 (15): Full of Grace

[Dave Monroe]

"... the Sisters pursued lives of exceptional, though
antinomian, purity.  They went on as before with all
the drug and alcohol abuse, violence symbolic and
real, sexual practices upon which Mrs. Grundy has been
known to frown, and an unqualified hatred of authority
at all levels, but with every act now transfigured,
the vital difference being Jesus, the First Biker,
according to Sister Vince, the Order's theologian.

[...]

   "'The Sisters? they don't give a shit.  Their club
tattoo says 'Full of Grace.'  They believe whatever
they do, it's cool with Jesus, including armed
insurrection against the government, which, I'm no
lawyer, but I think is the technical name for this.'"
(VL, Ch. 15, p. 359)


antinomian

Main Entry: an·ti·no·mi·an 
Pronunciation: "an-ti-'nO-mE-&n
Function: noun
Etymology: Medieval Latin antinomus, from Latin anti-
+ Greek nomos law
1 : one who holds that under the gospel dispensation
of grace the moral law is of no use or obligation
because faith alone is necessary to salvation
2 : one who rejects a socially established morality
- antinomian adjective
- an·ti·no·mi·an·ism  /-mE-&-"ni-z&m/ noun

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=antinomian

p. 359 "Antinomian" = one who holds that moral law is
not binding on Christians. Therefore, as mentioned
below, "They believe whatever they do, it's cool with
Jesus..."

http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/chapter15.htm

Antinomianism
(anti, against, and nomos, law) 

The heretical doctrine that Christians are exempt from
the obligations of moral law. The term first came into
use at the Protestant Reformation, when it was
employed by Martin Luther to designate the teachings
of Johannes Agricola and his secretaries, who, pushing
a mistaken and perverted interpretation of the
Reformer's doctrine of justification by faith alone to
a far-reaching but logical conclusion, asserted that,
as good works do not promote salvation, so neither do
evil works hinder it; and, as all Christians are
necessarily sanctified by their very vocation and
profession, so as justified Christians, they are
incapable of losing their spiritual holiness,
justification, and final salvation by any act of
disobedience to, or even by any direct violation of
the law of God....

Although the term designating this error came into use
only in the sixteenth century, the doctrine itself can
be traced in the teaching of the earlier heresies.
Certain of the Gnostic sects ... held Antinomian or
quasi-Antinomian views. In any case, it is generally
understood that Antinomianism was professed by more
than one of the Gnostic schools....

[...]

Although from the seventeenth century onward
Antinomianism does not appear to be an official
doctrine of any of the more important Protestant
sects, at least it has undoubtedly been held from time
to time either by individual members of sections, and
taught, both by implication and actually, by the
religious leaders of several of these bodies. Certain
forms of Calvinism may seem capable of bearing an
Antinomian construction. Indeed it has been said that
the heresy is in reality nothing more than "Calvinism
run to the seed".... 

But possibly the most noteworthy instance is that of
the Plymouth Brethren, of whom some are quite frankly
Antinomian in their doctrine of justification and
sanctification. It is their constant assertion that
the law is not the rule or standard of the life of the
Christian....

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01564b.htm


Mrs. Grundy 
  
SYLLABICATION: Mrs. Grun·dy 
PRONUNCIATION: grun'de
NOUN: An extremely conventional or priggish person.  
ETYMOLOGY: After Mrs. Grundy, character alluded to in
the play Speed the Plough by Thomas Morton
(1764–1838), British playwright.  

http://www.bartleby.com/61/82/M0458200.html


"Full of Grace"

Not only ...

Hail Mary, full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

http://www.worldprayers.org/frameit.cgi?/archive/prayers/invocations/hail_mary_full_of_grace.html

The Fathers of the Church taught that Mary received a
number of distinctive blessings in order to make her a
more fitting mother for Christ and the prototypical
Christian (follower of Christ). These blessings
included her role as the New Eve (corresponding to
Christ’s role as the New Adam), her Immaculate
Conception, her spiritual motherhood of all
Christians, and her Assumption into heaven. These
gifts were given to her by God’s grace. She did not
earn them, but she possessed them nonetheless. 

The key to understanding all these graces is Mary’s
role as the New Eve, which the Fathers proclaimed so
forcefully. Because she is the New Eve, she, like the
New Adam, was born immaculate, just as the First Adam
and Eve were created immaculate. Because she is the
New Eve, she is mother of the New Humanity
(Christians), just as the first Eve was the mother of
humanity. And, because she is the New Eve, she shares
the fate of the New Adam. Whereas the First Adam and
Eve died and went to dust, the New Adam and Eve were
lifted up physically into heaven. 

http://www.catholic.com/library/Mary_Full_of_Grace.asp

But also ...

Calvinism divides mankind into the Elect, those
favoured with God’s grace, and the Preterite, those
who are rejected or “passed over.” Pynchon finds in
modern America a kind of secular Calvinism, where the
preterite - those excluded from consumer society - are
cut off from grace. He imagines “election” working in
reverse, making the Preterite the inheritors of the
Whitmanesque ideal of inclusive democracy and the
bearers of true grace. In an American millennium, the
humbled and despised Preterite would finally be
exalted.

http://www.sfu.ca/~delany/market1.html

Grace belongs to Them, the Elect, in every version of
Their Western Puritan Grand Narratives. 

http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/gr/finnished.html

And see as well ...

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/3928/pns554.html

Catholic + Puritan = ...

Catholic AND Puritan AND ...


"whatever they do, it's cool with Jesus"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus/


"including armed insurrection"

Louis Auguste Blanqui, Instruction pour une prise
d'armes (1866) ...

http://www.bellum.nu/wp/lab/labmfaai.html


	
		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Domains – Claim yours for only $14.70/year
http://smallbusiness.promotions.yahoo.com/offer