Allowing Myself to Be Fascinated

Wow. I started Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics last night. Our assignment is only about thirty pages for Thursday’s seminar, but it will take me longer than most of the other assignments three times longer. It’s impressive. I want to spend so much time on each section and studying the Greek behind it. I translated a chunk a few days ago and found that the grammar is not entirely beyond my current understanding. His words are pregnant with detail and nuances of meaning. There are no extraneous and useless sentences. There’s no quibbling. If he makes a digression he always acknowledges it and quickly rights the course of his investigation. Now I understand why the mediaeval philosophers and theologians called Aristotle “The Philsopher,” though I don’t agree with their consideration of his ratiocination as somehow significantly divine. His is an impressive mind, I will admit. I think it’s also refreshing to move from Plato (especially these last few dialogues, which were very difficult) to this man who is willing to come out and answer some of the questions his teacher posed. The only concern I have for the rest of the semester is that I budget my time to actually study these texts. There’s so much there to be gained.
Another text that I’m interested in, even more interested in than am I in Aristotle, is Colossians. I’d started a study over December break that I’d forgotten about, going through all the titles Paul attributed to Jesus in the first few chapters. I don’t know where I put it. I thought I’d saved in on this computer too, but I guess not. Oh well. I’ll read it again.

I’m off to study for Greek and maths. We started number theory in Euclid’s Elements. It’s very interesting.

Praise God for His kindness. Praise God for His wisdom. Praise God for His faithfulness. Praise God for His love. Praise God for His promises. Praise God for His name.