Tag: Saint Thomas

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How ‘Truth’ is Shaped.

Of the roughly three hundred bishops in attendance at the Council of Nicea, two bishops did not sign the Nicene Creed that condemned Arianism.  Emperor Constantine also ordered a penalty of death for those who refused to surrender the Arian writings, his words:

“In addition, if any writing composed by Arius should be found, it should be handed over to the flames, so that not only will the wickedness of his teaching be obliterated, but nothing will be left even to remind anyone of him. And I hereby make a public order, that if someone should be discovered to have hidden a writing composed by Arius, and not to have immediately brought it forward and destroyed it by fire, his penalty shall be death. As soon as he is discovered in this offence, he shall be submitted for capital punishment.

Emperor Constantine against the Arians

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Confusion (Verses versus Verses)

I’ve always thought that there is/was an upside to confusion.  Being confused usually tells us that a piece of information that we have is wrong or doesn’t fit.  I suppose the scribe that worked on transcribing Thomas’ work ran into a real head scratching moment when he got to the 5th, 6th and 14th sayings.  Go here for the ‘as written’ texts along with how I think they should have been compiled.

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The Cave

In book VII of ‘The Republic’ Plato crafts a narrative between Socrates and Plato’s brother, Glaucon.  It’s a thought provoking piece that, written roughly 400 years before the birth of Christ, is commonly referred to as ‘The Allegory of the Cave’.   A paraphrase of the Cave and an caffeine induced correlation to Christ on the cross– here 

 

 

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The Elephant

The Blind Men and the Elephant is a famous Indian fable that tells the story of six blind sojourners that come across different parts of an elephant in their life journeys. In turn, each blind man creates his own version of reality from that limited experience and perspective.

I thought the fable was particularly emblematic of why Christs disciples may have had trouble defining him.  More here.