Grace again. Misc.

David Morris fqmorris at gmail.com
Mon Jul 31 05:56:04 CDT 2017


Luther's revolution was born of his concept of Grace.  Say "grace," hear
Luther.

David Morris

On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 2:32 AM Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>
wrote:

>
> Could it be that Pynchon's understanding of Grace is Lutheran?
>
> > ... Martin Luther’s theology can be fundamentally construed as the
> development of his thought regarding the nature of grace, the nature of
> God’s favor and blessing bestowed upon undeserving human beings. The many
> dimensions of Luther’s biblical teaching and theological reflection have,
> in the background a desire to understand God’s grace most fully revealed in
> Jesus Christ. As such, Luther’s concepts of the righteousness of God,
> justification by faith, the bound will, the distinction of law and gospel,
> the new obedience, the “happy exchange,” and many related concepts are, at
> heart, attempts to describe what it is to have a God of grace.
> Most interpreters have rightly understood that in Luther’s view, to have a
> gracious God means to have a God who does not require human beings to
> fulfill a set of prerequisites in order to receive God’s gift in Christ or
> to reciprocate God’s giving in order to continue receiving Christ and his
> benefits. For Luther, to have a God of grace means to believe and trust
> that through Jesus Christ, God has already met all prerequisites and
> fulfilled all reciprocations. On this point, Luther found himself breaking
> new ground (or recovering lost ground) in the understanding of divine
> grace. Luther “broke” with those theological forebears who taught that
> divine grace was, in one way or another, partly dependent on human willing
> and doing. For Luther, God graciously wills and works “all in all.”
> Nevertheless, when Luther’s many descriptions of what it is to “have a
> gracious God” are analyzed, a more nuanced understanding of the
> relationship between the One giving the gift and the ones receiving it
> begins to reveal itself. For Luther, faith—that gracious means through
> which God graciously bestows the righteousness of Christ—creates a dynamic
> rather than static experience of possessing and being possessed of a God of
> grace ... <
>
>
> http://religion.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-335
>
>
>
> Am 30.07.2017 um 13:58 schrieb Mark Kohut:
>
> In Calvinism and other religious traditions, grace gets earned--or shown--
> by human free will choices.
>
> if grace is not earned or shown-- by free will human choices, then grace
> as Pynchon uses it, is unearned, totally unexpected (by Lew and in the
> text) and is somehow a function of the cosmos. Chance or otherwise. No?
>
> On Sun, Jul 30, 2017 at 7:41 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> If Free Will replaces Grace, then it is it's equal, not its opposite.
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 30, 2017 at 5:27 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Now THAT'S an answer I did not expect---nor really know (although I know
>>> some of that shit from that tradition).
>>> Another theologian rendered into the dustbin of churchyards because of
>>> Augustine's dominance.
>>>
>>> A heretic, P's tradition. One might say a theological preterite,
>>> analogously speaking? As Bailey alludes, and Morris fills in:
>>> a kind of theological shlemiel, maybe? Profane Pelagius.
>>>
>>> I'm going to suggest that as Pynchon transformed the concept of Grace
>>> within the religious tradition, for him
>>> in the fiction, it became like "the free will" of the cosmos---which
>>> might all be predetermined, of course, per your observation---
>>> when Lew experienced it unexpectedly.....when Against the Day ends....
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Jul 29, 2017 at 5:16 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> In the way back, Pelagius (St Agustine's antagonist) thought we didn't
>>>> need Grace--that our free will was sufficient to overcome sin. So, the
>>>> opposite of Grace is Free Will.  Which science now says doesn't exist.
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Jul 29, 2017 at 4:03 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> From the wayback (but eternal?) religious uses, the opposite might be
>>>>> damnation.
>>>>>
>>>>> What might it be in Pynchon's transformation of the meaning of the
>>>>> word?
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, Jul 29, 2017 at 3:28 PM, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> You are the native speaker, Mark, but I would say it's bullshit if
>>>>>> you don't provide context. What kind of grace? You have disgrace, you have
>>>>>> clumsiness, I'm sure you have more opposites of grace.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 2017-07-29 21:11 GMT+02:00 Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com>:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I suggest "trump"
>>>>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>>>> From: Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>>>>>>> Sent: ‎7/‎29/‎2017 20:06
>>>>>>> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>>>>>> Subject: Grace again. Misc.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Gracelessness is an absence of grace, but the English language
>>>>>>> lacks a word for the opposite of grace.--Cass Sunstein, very recent
>>>>>>> essay.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>
>
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