Looting for Ideas 21/02/2025
Papal Sanction, Matthew 10:28, the Moat of Low Status, Weightlifting and the Mind, CS Lewis on Friendship
The Ideas
Looting for ideas has papal sanction
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)
Go for a swim in the “Moat of Low Status”
Weightlifting is good for the mind
Crises are interruptions to friendship
The Main Idea
Looting for ideas has papal sanction
This week I published a piece on Aeterni Patris. Pope Leo XIII commends the study of St Thomas Aquinas to uphold the doctrine of the Church. What I did not expect to find when rereading the document was explicit support for my Friday Looting for Ideas series as well. Pope Leo XIII wrote:
What is more, those venerable men, the witnesses and guardians of religious traditions, recognize a certain form and figure of this [turning to the wisdom of pagan sages] in the action of the Hebrews, who, when about to depart out of Egypt, were commanded to take with them the gold and silver vessels and precious robes of the Egyptians, that by a change of use the things might be dedicated to the service of the true God which had formerly been the instruments of ignoble and superstitious rites. (Aeterni Patris 4)
This is what I hope to do in my looting for ideas posts. The only difference is that I will not be limiting myself to pagan sages. The great sages have particularly intense concentrations of truths to be pondered, looted, and repurposed. Contemporary people, and not just contemporary sages, also have access to truths, and it can be drawn from many sources through a variety of media with wildly different intentions. For example, I started picking at a podcast series when I published my Fear and Philosophy piece a few weeks ago that I expect to loot periodically in the coming months. It is also why I use a Saw/Read/Heard structure.
Something I Saw
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)
I saw this note and knew immediately that I needed to look into it more. The painting struck me intensely even though I saw it while scrolling through Substack on my phone. It turns out I really like John William Waterhouse paintings. This one in particular touches on many things I love. The Romantic style appeals greatly to my taste, as does its Greek mythological base, and I confess a great attraction to images of idealized chivalry. It touches on the Weird, which is something I will start exploring more explicitly in future. I have made a note to track down the John Keats poem that inspired it as well.
What struck me most was the obvious ineffectiveness of the knight’s armor. The young man has gone to great expense to adorn himself in metal to protect his body. His heart, though invisible, clearly has no comparable shielding. The lamia takes the classic posture of a suppliant yet clearly controls the situation. She has already closed the distance between them, and she is crawling up his arm. Meanwhile the young man looks passive, unsure but intrigued, and utterly ignorant of the snakeskin that ought to warn him of danger even though his gaze falls directly upon it.
I could not help but think of Matthew 10:28 when I pondered this painting, and pity the young knight who orients himself to violence and war and neglects his heart.
Something I Read
Go for a swim in the “Moat of Low Status”
While gearing up to post more regularly, I found in my notes from last October a reference to How to Be More Agentic at
and the words “moat of low status.” I reread the piece and remembered why I had noted it.This may not be unique, but I really dislike doing things I think I am bad at doing. It is a problem because there are things I want to be able to do, like playing guitar, that I cannot currently do. Even though I practice guitar on my own, I find myself frustrated that my fingers will not do the things I will them to do, or if they do they do it badly. There is no status in that example, as I would be absolutely mortified to try practicing in front of anyone. My goal is not to be a rock star anyway.
I do, however, hope to become a wildly successful and fabulously wealthy Neo-Scholastic Substacker. So I need to learn to love swimming in the moat of low status, at least until the door opens to the extensive bank vaults people have earmarked for niche philosophical and theological interests.
Weightlifting is good for the mind
I like weightlifting. I am not particularly good at it, but I am working on it. So it was a pleasant surprise when I found Philosophy and Weightlifting by
. Philosophy has a reputation, doubtless a well earned one, for prioritizing the mind at the expense of the body. This was a good reminder that a good Aristotelian-Thomist thinks that a person is one thing, a composite of body and soul, and that a flourishing person nourishes both the mind and the body. Weightlifting, specifically, may not be for everyone, but I think the principle is worth holding.Something I Heard
Crises are interruptions to friendship
CS Lewis is my favorite author. I discovered recently The Original Recordings: CS Lewis on Philia by
. Friendship is one of my favorite topics, so it was good to listen to Lewis talk about it for a few minutes. What struck me was Lewis’s beginning in that clip. Often I hear people talk about friendship as though its a guarantee of help when things get difficult. But if that is the essence of friendship, then it is only alliance, and probably self-serving. I very much like the idea that the crisis is an anomaly, an interruption, and that once the help is given friendship returns to its proper form.Of course, as Lewis notes, the help must come, for it is in our nature to depend on others. We are creatures who give, but also creatures who must receive.
Books I Am Currently Reading
Magisterium: Teacher and Guardian of the Faith, by Avery Cardinal Dulles S.J.
Questioning God, by Timothy Radcliffe and Lukasz Popko
The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium, by Anthony Kaldellis
Twentieth Century Catholic Theologians, by Fergus Kerr OP
Foundations of Systematic Theology, by Thomas G Guarino
Till We Have Faces, by CS Lewis
I do not have one of those cool Amazon links that give me money if you buy from those links. Frankly I would encourage you to buy them at your local bookstore, but some of those may be difficult to find in most local bookstores.
Community Questions
What other painters should I take a look at?
Does anyone have any recommendations for good compilations of Greek mythology? (I had the Graves one but did not like it very much, and gave it away when I moved)
Do you have any podcast recommendations?
What do you think of Till We Have Faces? Is this a first read or a reread?