The acknowledgments of J. P. Moreland’s Scientism and Secularism include a nod to colleague Garry DeWeese, followed by a parenthetical comment about how Moreland has never understood the second ‘R’. It’s a throwaway line, possibly tossed in for some private levity to break up the intense, thoughtful process of writing. Yet it helped crystallize for me how I think differently than Moreland and thus why some parts of his book clicked for me while others did not. To me, the answer is obvious: because name spelling drifts over time as parents express personal taste, conflate multiple related names (it’s Larry and Barry so why not Garry?), or simply make mistakes. Granted, I don’t know the exact details of Ma & Pa DeWeese’s thought process, but understanding some general mechanisms is adequate for me. I’m similarly not certain what kind of explanation Moreland would prefer, but based on his writing I’d guess it would involve reasoning from commonsense principles rather than starting with the brute data.
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J.P. Moreland
Christian Devotional Classics: The Way of a Pilgrim
Getting to know The Way of the Pilgrim
The Way of a Pilgrim was written by an unknown nineteenth-century Russian peasant and tells of his constant wrestling with the problem of ‘how to pray without ceasing.’ Through his journeys and travels, and under the tutelage of a spiritual father, he becomes gradually more open to the promptings of God. The reader is enriched as he shares these religious experiences in a most humble, simple, and beautiful narrative. — Summary at the beginning of the Doubleday version of The Way of a Pilgrim And the Pilgrim Continues His Way (Translated by Helen Bacovcin, 1985).
Although it is unclear who authored this piece of 19th century Russian spiritual literature, possibly a interweaving of the stories of several mendicant (i.e., begging) pilgrims and/or a teaching narrative by two Greek monks, The Way of a Pilgrim And the Pilgrim Continues His Way is for the most part based on The Philokalia (1782). In Greek, philokalia means “love of the beautiful, the good” in Greek. The Philokalia is a collection of writings by the Eastern monastic fathers (4th – 15th century). St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain (Mount Athos) and St. Makarios of Corinth compiled The Philokalia in the context of a collection of 20 Greek Orthodox monastic communities at Mount Athos (“the Holy Mountain”), Greece. In case you were unaware, Mount Athos was formally founded in 963 and has remained not only for the most part sovereign, but also entirely without women and children for its whole existence. Some say that the influence of The Philokalia in Eastern Orthodoxy is only surpassed by the Bible. According to the summary on Google books (also a helpful place to read the introduction and excerpts from the book):
[The Philokalia]Â is concerned with themes of universal importance: how man may develop his inner powers and awake from illusion; how he may overcome fragmentation and achieve spiritual wholeness; how he may attain the life of contemplative stillness and union with God.
The pilgrim’s inner journey begins when he is struck by hearing Paul’s call to “pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17). His search for understanding, most probably with a Slavonic translation of the Philokalia in hand, leads him to numerous personal churches, monasteries, and personal conversations along the way. A starets (“spiritual father”) not only teaches him the Jesus Prayer—”Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me”— but also sparks an actual spiritual revival in 19th century Russia through the popularity of The Way of a Pilgrim. The Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 – 1881) , who pioneered existentialism and was the author of a number of significant pieces including Notes from Underground (1864), The Idiot (1868), and The Brothers Karamazo (1880) , was among those touched by this spiritual revival. The story and the interest in hesychasm spread to the United States, resulting in the Jesus Prayer joining the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary as the frequently prayed prayers across Western Christianity. As a matter of fact, The Way of a Pilgrim continued to grow in popularity in 20th century America with J. D. Salinger‘s “zen-like” reading of it in Franny and Zooey (1961), see below. [Read more…] about Christian Devotional Classics: The Way of a Pilgrim
A Jigsaw Guide to Making Sense of the World IV
“[The belief scale]. Picture an old set of set of scales, the kind that would tip to the right, tip to the left, or balance in the middle depending on where you place the weight. These positions represent believing that a proposition is true (tipping to the right), believing that a proposition is not true (tipping to the left), or withholding belief about a proposition (balancing in the middle). The weight placed on the scale is reasons to believe one way or the other, and the balance of the scales reflects the balance of belief. (This is similar to the kind of sliding scale used in market research — e.g., “On a scale from one to ten, how strongly do you agree with the following statement?)
The belief scale helps us visualize how reason tips our beliefs one way or the other and how rather than switching on or off, our beliefs emerge by degree . . .
When I have good reason to believe something is true, I will continue to believe it. Others may challenge my belief, suggesting any number of defeaters, but I can fall back on my good reasons to defeat the defeater. I don’t have to overcome every objection to survive the ordeal; all I have to do is make sure enough weight is still tipping me in the right direction. It’s not easy to upset the scales when they’re heavily weighted, and rather than weakening my position, anyone who questions a strong belief will only remind me — and allow me to share — the reason why my belief is so secure. The danger comes when a belief is not reasonably anchored in the real world. A weak belief is vulnerable, which is one reason people would rather not talk about it; if we expose it they may end up believing something else. . . .
A strong belief will remain strong despite the fact we could be wrong. J.P. Moreland puts it well:
Many times we think that believing something with less than complete certainty means we really do not believe it. But this is not true. If you believe something, you must be slightly more certain that it is true than you are that it is false — you must be more than fifty-fifty regarding that belief. And your certainty about that belief can grow.
Someone has said that you do not really hold your beliefs; your beliefs hold you. There is no disputing the fact that a stronger belief makes us more secure.” — Alex McLellan. A Jigsaw Guide to Making Sense of the World. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013, 88-89, 92.
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