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December 29, 2021 - January 1, 2022
"Everything sways for the one not firmly anchored in Christ."'
Here the classic distinction of the Unity of Brethren-namely that between essentialia, ministerialia, and accessoria, or what is essential, useful, and auxiliary (incidental) in the life of the church-came to Comenius's aid. This "hierarchy of truths" is to be respected. The essentials that would divide the church must be distinguished from the non-divisive incidentals.
I enjoy the disti ction between essentaland useful ersus prmary and seco dary
In other words, it is not the world that gives Comenius hope, but hope that gives him the world.
So beautiful.
Vaclav Havel
Look for books or thoughts wrtten by him
Peter ChelNcky
Look up his redo on nonviolence
The Great Didactic.
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Pansophism was an important late-Renaissance concept attempting to unite religion, philosophy, and science in a coherent and unified system.
De rerum humanarum emendatione consultatio catholica,
Look upamd try tp find
the spirit which was given to me from the very beginning by the Father of spirits be shed upon you all, so that you would desire as
sincerely as I did the union of all who call upon the name of Christ in truth.213
Comenius was a failure in keepinv bis denomi ation tovrther but flourised in so manh wayz
Education provided humanity with the means to see beneath the chaos of the world and discover the underlying harmony of God's universe.
All education does now is reae more chaos
Comenius maintained that for learning to be effective, all the senses needed to be engaged. True education was not an abstract exercise of the intellect.
The Orb is Pictus ends with an apocalyptic vision of the Last Judgment. The teacher reminds his pupil that God's wisdom is the final goal of true education."'
A childrens book ends with judgement day
God has provided humanity with three tools to learn wisdom: the five senses to discover the secrets of the natural world; reason and intelligence to increase their knowledge; and faith, for it is only with this spiritual gift that God's children may hear his voice through Scripture, meditation, or prayer. These three bases of Comenius's pedagogical reforms are central components of the Labyrinth.
Senses reason and fath as epistemovy
Since God is the center and source of all being and harmony, a theme Comenius would develop more fully a few years later in his Centrum securitatis, the further human beings move away from this center, the more chaotic and unblessed their lives become.""
the negative allegory employs the same technique to strip meaning away, to expose a reality devoid of significance.
If someone should ask about my theology, I would seize the Bible (with the dying Aquinas, for I myself am also about to die), and would say with all my heart and in a plain language: `I believe all that is written in this book!' If someone should inquire more closely about my confession of faith, I would show him the Apostle's Creed, for I know nothing shorter, simpler, or pithier, nothing that could sooner bring me to a decision in all controversies and save me the endless labyrinths of disputation. If someone should ask me for a book of prayers, I would point him to the Lord's Prayer. For I
...more
Then I understood that in beholding the world I would no longer travel freely as before, but would be driven on forcibly by the fickleness and insatiable thirst of my own mind.
Curiosity is what controls an incontentmimd that wants to seek theworld i steAD of God
As I learned afterwards, these spectacles were fashioned out
of the glass of presumption; and the frames in which they were set were made of horn called habit.
People do not have the eyes to see. ALsp, does this mn the rest of the point of thr book will bethuvh this lnse?
Alone one can be as one is, but among others, it is fitting to conform and to give a semblance of propriety in one's affairs."
saw that many wore elevated shoes and that some made stilts for themselves. (By raising themselves above all the others, they were able to observe everyone from a higher vantage point.) In this manner they strutted about. But whoever had higher stilts was more easily knocked down or tripped up by others
jest, they tricked me into getting onto the scale. Then I received chains and walked about yoked as one of four. They then added to me a number of others (for the purpose of service and honor, they said). Thus, panting and gasping, I was hardly able to pull them after me.
advantage of this moment to escape more easily. "Why, then, did you first advise me to marry?" I asked. They replied that it was not time to quarrel, but to flee.
It is true that I saw others who lived more easily and with greater remuneration, but the less drudgery, the more vice and fraud there were.
Lack of labor is supplemeeted by i dulgence
Fish prudently remain in their dwelling-place, but we foolishly abandon ours.
The first examination for each person investigated what kind of purse, buttocks, head, brain (which they judged by the nasal mucus), and
skin they brought. If the head were of steel, the brain inside it of mercury, the buttocks of lead, the skin of iron, and the purse of gold, they
"If one does not have a head of steel, it will burst; without a brain of mercury, he would not have a mirror;20 without skin of sheet iron, he would not endure the educational process; without a seat of lead, he would not endure sitting and would lose everything; and without a purse of gold, where would he obtain time and teachers, both living and dead? Or do you presume that such great things can be obtained without cost?"
"Those who love libraries are reckoned among the learned," he explained.
Seneca praised poverty while sitting amidst tons of gold;
Only rarely did they show them secretly to one another. However, carefully surveying the process, I saw
clearly that they had broken and crushed the outer rind and husk, but that the hardest shell, which contained the kernel, was still whole. Seeing, then, their vain pretensions and futile striving (indeed I saw how some of them lost their sight and broke their teeth), I urged that we go elsewhere.
Holy Scripture is the touchstone
remained; for it was round and very smooth. Whoever grasped it could not hold on to it. It immediately slipped out of his hands and continued to turn behind the railing.
They walked silently, as if in deep thought, looking often to heaven and conducting themselves kindly toward all. They were unprepossessing in appearance, ragged, and emaciated by fasting and thirst. Others only laughed at them, jeered and whistled at them, scratched and plucked at them, tripped them up, and cursed them. However, bearing everything, they walked among the others as if blind, deaf, and dumb. When I saw them going in and out behind a certain curtain in the choir, I wanted to go in and see what they had there. But the interpreter pulled me back.
Although it had seemed at first to be something costly and brilliant, it was discovered to be nothing but a spider's web. And behold, her face was shown to be pale
Let your religion be to serve me in quietness and to be free from bondage to ceremonies, for I do not require them of you. When you serve me as I teach you, in spirit and in truth, then quarrel no longer with anyone about these matters, even if they call you a hypocrite, a heretic, or anything else. Rather cling quietly to me, and continue in my service.
"I live in two places, in my glory in heaven and in the penitent heart on earth. So from this time forward, I want you also to have two dwellings: one here at home, where I have promised to dwell with you; the other with me in heaven. I give you these wings (which are the desire for eternal things and prayer) so that you might reach heaven.
Whenever you wish, you will be able to raise yourself up to me so that we may experience delight in one another."
(The exterior frame of these glasses was the Word of God, and the glass within was the Holy Spirit.) "Go, then," he said, "and return to the place that you passed over earlier. You will see things that you were not able to perceive at that time without these aids."
In the place of those iron fetters, I saw here golden clasps; instead of pulling apart from each other, a joyful union of bodies and hearts. But if some lack of freedom still clings to this estate, it is more than recompensed by the increase of God's kingdom that results from it.
the path to glory that I have pointed out to you. Remain in the world as a pilgrim, a tenant, an alien, and a guest as long as I leave you there. But with me in my household you have been given the right of heavenly citizenship. Therefore, seek to have your associations here!
Constantly lift your mind as high as possible to me, but incline as low as possible to your neighbor.
endless love! But what else shall I say, my Lord? Here I am, I am yours; I am your own, yours eternally.
16. "And death's craftsman is itself." Sallust, Duae epistolae de republica ordinanda I,1.
17.
