Well, No.
I have no time to fairly and justly give you a recommended selection of his works - so if you are hoping for for an "introduction" to him I must diappoint you, at least for today. But then... perhaps (like some other great writers) almost any of his works are a suitable start. In this he is like the holograms of laser physics, a great analogy to certain even more mystical ideas: any fractional part of a hologram contains a representation of the whole image.
But actually, I was thinking about how one could easily have a "Jaki Advent Retreat" with his incomparable meditations on the Savior, and though there are barely two weeks left before Christmas, I suggest the following texts. (You can always work on obtaining them now, for future use.)
1. Advent and Science - a booklet of four essays
2. The Virgin Birth and the Birth of Science - a booklet with pictures by Blake
3. Catholic Essays - this is a collection but I mean specifically these two: "3. The Creator's Coming" and "4. A Most Holy Night"
You may also add, if you like, his little books on the Litany of Loreto and of St. Joseph, as well as the Magnificat...
I must also suggest his cosmological or Christocentric studies, though it would be to open not a retreat, but the bibliography for a grad-school seminar, and add items like his studies of the Psalms and The Savior of Science - but especially deserving of exploration is the important chapter on Science and the Jews, the seventh in Science and Creation which is called "The Beacon of the Covenant":
In the biblical view God is primarily and ultimately a person, whose most unique characteristic is to reveal His unspeakable transcendence in His most immediate concern for the children of Abraham.What a grand statement of What Advent Is All About...
The God of the Bible is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; that is, the God of the Covenant, or a God who freely binds Himself to the welfare of mankind through the mediation of Abraham’s progeny.
[SLJ SC 139]
"...a God who freely binds Himself to the welfare of mankind through the mediation of Abraham’s progeny..."
3 comments:
I have been led to wonder if this blog might not more aptly be titled The Jaki-Duhem Society. Do you have any plans to do similar studies of and meditations on Duhem's life and work? I'm an enormous "fan" of Fr Jaki, so I am asking without guile.
Ah... but this is called "The Duhem Society" because that was the name proposed by Father Jaki in his A Mind's Matter 85.
You will naturally see more of Jaki quoted here than Duhem because I have all of Fr. Jaki's books (or all but the latest) and only two or three of Duhem's, the huge proportion of which are not yet turned into English. (Alas, I cannot read French.)
Also, even Fr. Jaki's proposal for the Duhem Society was larger than merely to study Duhem - it was to further his work, which is the work of a serious intellectual, Catholic, historian, scientist: the restoration of the medieval unity of vision of the unity of Truth. It is as Chesterton said, a small way in which I hope to aid in the "rebuilding of this bridge between sceience and human nature"... So the title is not inappropriate.
But you have a point, and I am aware how infrequent I quote Duhem. At least I have admitted the cause. Of course what is more annoying to me is that I have not been "studying" them - except for my vague beginnings of the exploration of SLJ's Relevance - but merely offering fragments of their thought.
It is not an easy task, and I have been busy. Perhaps in the new year I will manage it better.
PS About the Duhem books: Of course I could imagine trying to learn French but it is too much at this moment in my life... Oh dear. If I had money, I would be financing a major translation effort, since 2016 will mark the centennial of Duhem's death, and we must take due note of it. All I can hope for at present is to stimulate some interest somewhere by one who has a working knowledge of French and English....
Dr. T:
I had the same idea, namely, that Jaki's proposal for a Duhem Society would not be a "Duhem studies forum," so I was just curious what the plans are. Don't feel bad, you are already doing a great thing with this blog and I would like to help as much as I can too, when the time is right.
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