I have been reading Peter Abelard's Ethical Writings : Ethics and Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew, and a Christian So far this has been a very interesting book and I wanted to address some points he made and see what people thought about them. Abelard first a little background was born in 1079 at Brittany and chose to pursue logic and philosophy as areas of study. In 1113 he appeared in Paris and began to study theology. He ultimatly became a monk and a lecturer and has left behind an impressive number of philosophical and theological writings. Abelard writes
Fore he who says, "Do not pursue your lusts, and turn away from your will," commanded us not to satisfy our lusts, but not to do without them altogether. For satisfying them is wicked, but going without them is impossible in our feeble state. And so it isn't the lusting after a woman but the consenting to the lust that is the sin. It isn't the will to have sex with her that is damnable but the will's consent.I find this makes for an interesting viewpoint it appears that Abelard is saying that since we are fallen and weak and we can not control our thoughts that lusting isn't a sin. So in effect thinking anything isn't a sin it is just taking action on those thoughts that is the sin. Any thought?
UPDATE
So after discussions with my philosophy instructor my understanding of what Abelard is trying to say has changed. It seems that Abelard is saying that the sin comes in consenting to the thought within the mind. So the action of doing the sin doesn't change the impact one way or the other but when you first think the thought and then you consent to doing it you have sinned whether or not the action takes place. By just consenting to the idea then the sin has taken place.
2 comments:
That sounds similar to the old saying that goes something like 'you can't control whether or not a bird flies over your head, but you can control whether or not it builds a nest in your hair.' I don't think we can always censor the thoughts that come into our mind, but I do think we have a responsibility to deal with the thoughts that are inappropriate or unhealthy. It sounds to me like Abelard is saying that we can think or dwell on any thought, no matter how inappropriate or unhealthy, as long as we don't act on those thoughts. That seems a little sketchy to me.
First off, let me say that I found your blog as I was searching to see what would come up when I type my name, Lance Cummins, into Google. I wanted to see if my new wordpress account has already been picked up. At some point in the results I found your blog.
While I haven't read all of your blog posts, I appreciate your honest and open approach to spiritual matters.
I think that through the New Testament, we see an indication that the battle for a holy life begins in the mind. I think Abelard is trying to elaborate on that by pointing out that we must "put off" sin even while it is still in our mind, so it doesn't become an evil action. The Bible refers to that as temptation, and we understand that it happens to all of us.
In Philippians 4:8, Paul tells us that we can choose what we think about. He gives us a laundry list, checklist, if you will, of what to think about. That filter has been helpful to me as I try to live a life of purity before God.
Post a Comment