Grace again. Misc.

Mon Jul 31 02:32:09 CDT 2017

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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto:eburns at gmail.com>>:
I suggest "trump"
________________________________
From: Mark Kohut<mailto:mark.kohut at gmail.com>
Sent: ‎7/‎29/‎2017 20:06
To: pynchon -l<mailto: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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