I have not read a page of Ayn Rand and I could hardly present what her philosophy of Objectivism is or means, other than to say that she believed that reality existed and it did not depend on our minds to do so.
Regardless, the title of her book Atlas Shrugged was the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw this image in a recent article on the Architecture of Saint Patrick’s cathedral in New York City.
Curiously, in the same public square, directly across Fifth Avenue and in his own confined enclosure, crouches one of the most aggressively pagan responses to the Christian faith ever promulgated by the arts. In direct alignment with the cathedral’s great western doors, long center aisle, and high altar of sacrifice, the long-shelved Titan Atlas struggles in obsolescent effort to carry creation. We thank Atlas, for his constant vigil lends unintended richness to the Christian tradition of penitential veneration.
~James McCrery; First Things, A Proper Place
Is the story of Atlas a response to the Christian faith or just another precursor that is reasonably aligned with it?
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
~Romans, 8:22
The story of Atlas may have appeared as early as the 6th century BC, placing it well before the birth of Christ and Christianity.
I was recently amazed to learn of the nature of Augustine’s conversion being built upon the pre-Christian writings of Plato. When he read the theology presented in the gospels he saw immediate congruence with the wisdom of Plato, it made sense… it was rational. He was not trying to bend his mind into another dimension, he could just be honest about what he knew to be true already…
As a preliminary way of showing me how ‘the proud you rebuff, while favoring the lowly,’ and how great is the pity you show to humans on the lowly Path of your ‘Word made flesh in order to live with men,’ you brought to me a man, himself inflated with raging winds of pride, to acquaint me with certain books of the Platonists, translated into Latin from the Greek. What I found in reading them no precisely in these words, but saying the same thing in varied and very convincing ways, was this:’At the origin was the Word, and the Word was in God’s presence, and the Word was God. This was at the origin with God, and all things were made through it, and nothing was made without it. In it, life was made, and the life was men’s light, and the light shone in the darkness, and darkness could not control it.’ Further, that the human soul, however it may bear testimony to the light, is not itself the light. God’s word is ‘the true light that gives light to every man who arrives in this world’ Further, that ‘He was in this world, and the world was made by Him, and the world did not recognize Him.’
but this I did not read there: ‘He came among His own, and His own did not accept Him, but to all who accepted Him, who believed in this title, He gave the right to become God’s sons.’
~St. Augustine, The Confessions
Confessions (Penguin Classics)
Author: Augustine
It sounds familiar and it should, it’s basically John 1…
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
~John 1:1-5
Anyone who is conscious knows that there is a struggle going on in this world; externally and internally, its nothing new but it bears down fresh on every generation of humanity… “the weight of the world.” This is something every human can attest to, even with a pagan polytheistic cultural environment. But there is more, and this is what Augustine admits to as well…
but this I did not read there: ‘He came among His own, and His own did not accept Him, but to all who accepted Him, who believed in this title, He gave the right to become God’s sons.’
~St. Augustine
The scriptures brought him Christ. And in some way this photographic perspective of looking through the hollow atlas at the Church with a small yet centered cross is our continual testimony, mission, and commission. It is what the Church can do that mere philosophical or scientific speculation can not…
28″Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
~Matthew 11:28-30
Go ahead and try to hold up the world, try to fix everything in your own power… and when the banks fail, the ecology gets plundered, the noise is unbearable, and the loneliness is palpable even with 500 million friends… when you are truly weary and burdened… perhaps then you can shrug, drop the world, kneel even, and crawl across the street and into Communion…
18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that[i] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
~Romans 8:18-27
Categories: Christianity, Plato, Architecture, Church, First Things, Bible Study, Philosophy, Books
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