The 4 rivers of important (1)

All revelation has 4 dimensions, or tin hold upwards approached from 4 directions, which nosotros may telephone telephone the historical (or literal), doctrinal, moral, as well as mystical. The doctrinal, moral, as well as mystical meanings taken together flora the “spiritual” pregnant of Scripture. The modern crisis over religious belief is due to the confusion of these 4 meanings, “fundamentalism” (whether Christian or Islamic) beingness an test to bring down all spiritual meanings to the most banal, most literal level.

The ane River that springs upwards inward Eden (which represents Christ, the Living Waters, the Logos, the root of grace) divides into 4 every bit it enters the Garden that God has made every bit a domicile for Man. Thus the Garden of Eden is fourfold, it has the 4 directions (West, South, East, North), which correspond non exactly to the 4 gospels but to the 4 letters of the divine Name, the 4 faces of the Cherubim, as well as the 4 arms of the Cross.

Saint Ambrose compares the 4 Rivers of Genesis 1:10-14 to the 4 Cardinal Virtues: “The Pishon which flows over gilded is Prudence, the Gihon which bathes Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (whose shout out signifies impurity) is Temperance, the Tigris (in Hebrew the swift) is Fortitude, as well as the Euphrates (the fertile) is Justice” (cited inward Emile Mâle, The Gothic Image, 110 fn.). St Augustine follows Ambrose inward this, as well as and hence does St Bonaventure.

In the classical view, in that place are too 4 primary types of explanation (Gk: aition) that nosotros tin laissez passer on for things inward general: final, formal, efficient, as well as material. The final crusade is what they are for, or how their nature fulfils itself. The formal crusade is the inner shaping thought that makes them what they are. The efficient crusade is what brings something about, or makes it practice what it does, or hold upwards what it is. The material crusade is merely what it is made of. If nosotros follow the same Augustinian/ Bonaventuran tradition, nosotros larn inward at the next list: [1]

TEMPERANCE – Material crusade – Finding our starting point, stable base
FORTITUDE – Efficient crusade – Generating the pose out energy nosotros cause got available
PRUDENCE – Formal crusade – Tracing our path to the concluding goal
JUSTICE – Final crusade – Arriving at the destination nosotros are striving for

[1] Emma Therese Healy, Saint Bonaventure’s Artium Ad Theologiam (Franciscan Institute, 1955), p. 94.

To hold upwards continued...

Bagikan Artikel ini