What we’re about
Meetups Every Weekday and Sunday at 8pm ET &
See all upcoming Meetups at a glance here: https://www.meetup.com/52LivingIdeas/events/calendar/
Bring your curiosity, your love of learning, share what you have learnt and let us build a vibrant intellectual community. Looking forward to your active and ambitious participation. See you soon!
Watch Past Meetups here: https://www.youtube.com/c/52LivingIdeas?sub_confirmation=1
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Asian Philosophies | Confucius, The First TeacherLink visible for attendees
Our schedule for 2024 is every Saturday 2:00pm Pacific (5:00pm East)
Reading and discussing "A Short History of Chinese Philosophy" by Fung Yu-Lan (Feng Youlan 馮友蘭)
Amazon - https://a.co/d/2ENfKPL
Archive.org https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.260423
Please Read The Chapter 4 - Confucius, The First Teacher
There are 28 chapters in this book. Each chapter is an independent article about the Chinese Philosophy. We are going to discuss one chapter per meetup.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Spirit of Chinese Philosophy (2024-01-20)
- The Background of Chinese Philosophy (2024-02-24)
- The Origin of the Schools (2024-03-09)
- Confucius, The First Teacher (2024-04-27)
- Mo Tzu, The First Opponent of Confucius (2024-05-04)
- The First Phase of Taoism: Yang Chu (2024-05-11)
- The Idealistic Wing of Confucianism: Mencius (2024-05-18)
- The School of Names (2024-05-25)
- The Second Phase of Taoism: Lao Tzu
- The Third Phase of Taoism: Chung Tzu
- The Later Mohists
- The Yin-Yang School and Early Chinese Cosmology
- The Realistic Wing of Confucianism: Hsun Tzu
- Han Fei Tzu and The Legalist School
- Confucianist Metaphysics
- World Politics and World Philosophy
- Theorizer of the Han Empire: Tung Chung-Shu
- The Ascendancy of Confucianism and Revival of Taoism
- Neo-Taoism: The Rationalists
- Neo-Taoism: The Sentimentalists
- The Foundation of Chinese Buddhism
- Ch’anism (Zen Buddhism), The Philosophy of Silence
- Neo-Confucianism: The Cosmologists
- Neo-Confucianism: The Beginning of The Two Schools
- Neo-Confucianism: The School of Platonic Ideas
- Neo-Confucianism: The School of Universal Mind
- The Introduction of Western Philosophy
- Chinese Philosophy in the Modern World
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Playlist for A Short History of Chinese Philosophy
Please see our 2023 meetup recordings and reading materials :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14zML15Ea7IkWHWaqkQjEmmcbPsl6L1kV/view?usp=drive_link
Please see our 2024 meetup schedule, recordings and reading materials:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1moDzDM4xb--hDgw7zXC7Rrayq-GEwQYETyJKa4W9usU/edit?usp=share_link - On the Incarnation by St Athanasius — an Interactive Conversation — Chapter 1.1Saint George Greek Orthodox Church, New York, NY
“He became what we are so that he might make us what he is… For the Word, realizing that in no other way would the corruption of human beings be undone except, simply, by dying, yet being immortal and the Son of the Father of the Word was not able to die, for this reason he takes to himself a body capable of death, in order that it, participating in the Word who is above all, might be sufficient for death on behalf of all, and through the indwelling Word would remain incorruptible, and so corruption might henceforth cease from all by the grace of the resurrection.” ― Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation
Come join us in studying a foundational work of Christian Theology through an interactive in-person conversation. We have a few zoom spots available for those who have a serious interest in going through the work. Please message me privately to request a zoom link.
You can read the book in its entirety here along with a great introduction by C S Lewis: https://www.worldinvisible.com/library/athanasius/incarnation/incarnation.c.htm
You can listen to it here in about 2 hours here: http://youtu.be/vjjgtZuZvIoOur aim is to have an interactive discussion to make this great work accessible to everyone by helping each other in our individual learning. While everyone is encouraged to read or listen to the entire book, we will be discussing selected passages from the book, which best highlight Athanasius’ vision of Christ.
We start off slow by going through the first two paragraphs of the book introducing its subject. Please read the following and come prepared to discuss it point by point.
“
(1) In our former book, we dealt fully enough with a few of the chief points about the heathen worship of idols, and how those false fears originally arose. We also, by God's grace, briefly indicated that the Word of the Father is Himself divine, that all things that are owe their being to His will and power, and that it is through Him that the Father gives order to creation, by Him that all things are moved, and through Him that they receive their being. (2) Now, Macarius, true lover of Christ, we must take a step further in the faith of our holy religion, and consider also the Word's becoming Man and His divine Appearing in our midst. That mystery the Jews traduce, the Greeks deride, but we adore; and your own love and devotion to the Word also will be the greater, because in His Manhood He seems so little worth. (3) For it is a fact that the more unbelievers pour scorn on Him, so much the more does He make His Godhead evident. The things which they, as men, rule out as impossible, He plainly shows to be possible; that which they deride as unfitting, His goodness makes most fit; and things which these wiseacres laugh at as "human" He by His inherent might declares divine. (4) Thus by what seems His utter poverty and weakness on the cross He overturns the pomp and parade of idols, and quietly and hiddenly wins over the mockers and unbelievers to recognize Him as God.(5) Now in dealing with these matters it is necessary first to recall what has already been said. You must understand why it is that the Word of the Father, so great and so high, has been made manifest in bodily form. He has not assumed a body as proper to His own nature, far from it, for as the Word He is without body. (6) He has been manifested in a human body for this reason only, out of the love and goodness of His Father, for the salvation of us men. (7) We will begin, then, with the creation of the world and with God its Maker, for the first fact that you must grasp is this: the renewal of creation has been wrought by the Self-same Word Who made it in the beginning. There is thus no inconsistency between creation and salvation for the One Father has employed the same Agent for both works, effecting the salvation of the world through the same Word Who made it in the beginning.”