| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: are good works commanded? Are we then to take our ease and do no
works, content with faith?" Not so, impious men, I reply; not so.
That would indeed really be the case, if we were thoroughly and
completely inner and spiritual persons; but that will not happen
until the last day, when the dead shall be raised. As long as we
live in the flesh, we are but beginning and making advances in
that which shall be completed in a future life. On this account
the Apostle calls that which we have in this life the firstfruits
of the Spirit (Rom. viii. 23). In future we shall have the
tenths, and the fullness of the Spirit. To this part belongs the
fact I have stated before: that the Christian is the servant of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: There seem to be altogether three aims or interests in this little
Dialogue: (1) the dialectical development of the idea of piety; (2) the
antithesis of true and false religion, which is carried to a certain extent
only; (3) the defence of Socrates.
The subtle connection with the Apology and the Crito; the holding back of
the conclusion, as in the Charmides, Lysis, Laches, Protagoras, and other
Dialogues; the deep insight into the religious world; the dramatic power
and play of the two characters; the inimitable irony, are reasons for
believing that the Euthyphro is a genuine Platonic writing. The spirit in
which the popular representations of mythology are denounced recalls
Republic II. The virtue of piety has been already mentioned as one of five
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: thou also have mercy on thy fellow-servant as I had mercy on
thee?"
"And is this all?" Nekhludoff suddenly exclaimed aloud, and the
inner voice of the whole of his being said, "Yes, it is all." And
it happened to Nekhludoff, as it often happens to men who are
living a spiritual life. The thought that seemed strange at first
and paradoxical or even to be only a joke, being confirmed more
and more often by life's experience, suddenly appeared as the
simplest, truest certainty. In this way the idea that the only
certain means of salvation from the terrible evil from which men
were suffering was that they should always acknowledge themselves
Resurrection |
