Benjamin Domenech

For a man swollen with pride in comparison to another might say “My faith distinguishes me,” or “my justice,” or whatever. It is to prevent such ideas that the good teacher asks, “But what do you have that you have not received?” Did you not receive it from him who chose to distinguish you from another? It was he who chose to give you what another did not receive. “But if you have received, why do you glory as if you had not received it?” Now I ask, is the apostle concerned here with anything else than that “He who glories should glory in the Lord?” But nothing is so contrary to this sentiment than for anyone to glory in his own merits as if he and not the grace of God were responsible for them. I reger to that grace that distinguishes the good from the wicked, not one which is common to the good and the wicked. On this premise, the grace by which we are living and rational creatures, and thus distinguished from beasts, would be enmeshed in nature. The grace by which the beautiful are distinguished from the ugly, or the intelligent from the stupid, is a grace that perceives nature. But that person whose pride the apostle was trying to restrain was not puffing himself up in comparison to the beasts, nor in comparison to the gifts of nature that might exist even in the worst of men. Rather, he was puffed up because he attributed some good thing which pertained to the morally good life to himself and not to God.

Augustine of Hippo
On the Saints

• In the post-Richard Dawkins phase, Nicholas Beale writes at The Trinity Forum, a more open conversation between science and religion can take place.
• Matthew Lee Anderson writes at Mere Orthodoxy on Faith and Justice.
• One of the best poets of her generation, A.E. Stallings — whose work has been featured in past editions of The City — has a fascinating manifesto on rhyme in Poetry magazine.
• Is courage a masculine attribute? Harvey Mansfield and Ayaan Hirsi Ali debate at In Character.
• At The University Bookman, Mark Kalthoff reviews an interesting book on Isaac Newton.

The chastening of a just God hath produced man’s weakness; for there is a kind of strength that is a fault. It was by a kind of strength that man offended so as to require to be corrected by weakness; for it was by pride in himself that he offended in Paradise so as to require to be chastened by humility; therefore have many attained to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. They would not be strong; in other words, they were afraid to presume of their own merits: they did not “go about to establish their own righteousness”; rather would they “submit themselves to the righteousness of God.”

Behold! You are mortal, and you bear about you a body of flesh that is corrupting away: “And you shall fall like one of the princes. You shall die like human beings” and shall fall like the devil. What good does the remedial discipline of mortality do you ? The devil is proud, as not having a mortal body, as being an angel. But as for you, who have received a mortal body, and to whom even this does no good, so as to humble you by so great weakness, you shall “fall like one of the princes.“ This then is the first grace of God’s gift, to bring us to the confession of our infirmity, that whatever good we can do, whatever ability we have, we may be that in I Cor. Him; that “He that glorieth, may glory in the Lord.” “When I am weak,” saith he, “then am I strong.”

St. Augustine of Hippo
Explanations of the Psalms

• A must-read piece by W. Bradford Wilcox at Public Discourse on What the Obama Revolution Means for Religion in America.
• At GetReligion, E.E. Evans writes on Lent and Textual Abstinence. It might even be more beneficial than what you were giving up!
• View from the other side: The New Scientist features a piece on religion that should be read with a careful eye, essentially advancing the argument that God does not exist, and that religion is the compelled invention of the human mind.
• At Conversant Life, Biola magazine editor Brett McCracken writes on Christian hipsters.
• Joseph Epstein has an interesting review in The Weekly Standard of Malcolm Gladwell and his rules by anecdote.

The City team is hard at work creating the next issue, which will go to press shortly. Expect a preview next week!