Splendid Formation

05/23/2026

Saint Augustine on Time and Eternity: A Restless Soul’s Vision of the Eternal Now

In Confessions Book XI, Augustine invites us into one of the most beautiful meditations ever written on time and God’s eternity.

He begins with humble honesty:
“What is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is, but if someone asks me to explain it, I find myself at a loss for words.”

For us humans, time is a distension of the soul — stretched between memory of the past and expectation of the future, leaving us fragmented and restless in a present that constantly slips away.

Yet for God, there is only the perfect, unchanging Eternal Now:
“In eternity nothing passes away, but the whole is present… Your today is eternity.”

Our scattered, temporal lives are lovingly held within His timeless presence. Time itself is a creature — a gift from the Eternal One.
This truth brings such peace. Our restlessness is not meaningless, but a holy homesickness calling us home.

A Gentle Audio Companion For a soothing narration of these ideas: Fall Asleep to Augustine’s Philosophy & Theology by Sleepy Philosophy.
https://youtu.be/JWKYYfQY3uA?si=pIH2rLQGGpiq2FTl

Full text in Confessions Book XI: https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/schaff-a-select-library-of-the-nicene-and-post-nicene-fathers-of-the-christian-church-vol-1

What stirs in your heart when you reflect on time and eternity? 💛

This volume contains St. Augustine’s famous “Confessions” and numerous letters.

05/14/2026

Martin Luther's Interpretation of Repentance (from his Explanation of the Ninety-five Theses, 1518, commenting on Thesis 1)

"I wish to clarify this thesis for the benefit of those who may be misinformed, beginning with the Greek term 'metanoeite' itself. This term, commonly translated as 'repent,' more accurately corresponds to the Latin 'transmentamini,' which denotes a change in one's way of thinking and feeling, a recovery of one's understanding, a transition from one mental state to another, and a fundamental alteration of spirit.

As a result, individuals who were previously preoccupied with worldly matters may now achieve spiritual comprehension, as stated by the Apostle Paul in Romans 12:2, 'Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.' This restoration of one's understanding leads to a profound change of heart in the one who has erred, fostering a dislike for their past wrongdoings."

In this explanation, Luther subtly reintroduces the profound essence of the Gospel: repentance is not merely a series of outward actions, but rather a profound, transformative renewal of one's intellect and emotions—a reorientation that encourages a closer relationship with the Divine.

05/14/2026

🏛
Aristotle’s Ten Categories
(from his work Categories, ~350 BC — part of the Organon)
🥀
Aristotle created these ten basic ways of describing anything that exists or can be talked about. It’s a straightforward framework that became a foundation for clear thinking, logic, and philosophy lasting more than two thousand years.

Here they are, with their original Greek and Latin names:

1. Substance (ousia / substantia) — What a thing essentially is (a human, a tree, a horse).

2. Quantity (poson / quantitas) — How much or how many (size, number, length).

3. Quality (poion / qualitas) — What kind or characteristic (color, shape, virtue).

4. Relation (pros ti / relatio) — How it relates to something else (double, father, knowledge of).

5. Place (pou / ubi) — Where it is (in the marketplace, in Athens).

6. Time (pote / quando) — When it exists or happens (yesterday, next year).

7. Position (keisthai / situs) — Orientation or posture (sitting, standing, lying down).

8. State (echein / habitus) — What it possesses or is wearing (armed, shod, having a cloak).

9. Action (poiein / actio) — What it is doing (cutting, burning, healing).

10. Passion (paschein / passio) — What is being done to it (being cut, being burned, being healed).

A simple yet useful idea from ancient Greece that still helps bring order to our thinking today.

04/28/2026

Something interesting found at Liberty Fund
How curious, he was called a humanist and a Catholic Priest. The writing is lovely. The imagined speaker is Peace.

Interesting to learn that:
"At the time of Erasmus (late 15th–early 16th century), being called a “humanist” had a very specific, positive, and scholarly meaning — quite different from today’s usage.
In the Renaissance, a humanist was a scholar and educator who devoted himself to the studia humanitatis — the “studies of humanity” or the humanities. This curriculum centered on the recovery and teaching of classical Greek and Roman literature, language, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy."

The Complaint of Peace
Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466 – 1536), also known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, theologian, and scholar who became one of the most influential intellectuals of his time.

The Reformation scholar Desiderius Erasmus portrays Peace visiting to earth to deliver her verdict on the human race. She chastises kings and princes, church leaders, noblemen and ordinary soldiers alike for betraying their Christian values by waging unjust and unnecessary wars. “This translation ...

04/23/2026

Easy on the ears! Excellent synopsis of the works by Augustine!

Tonight on Sleepy Philosophy, we’re resting in the gentle wisdom of Augustine of Hippo — one of history’s greatest minds in Christian philosophy and theology...

04/02/2026

🥀 Your mind is worth it! (Link to Video Series in Comments)

Podcast Series:

A recap of Michael Munger's podcast exploration of Wealth of Nations on the book's 250th anniversary.

Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations was first published on March 9, 1776 and was widely available by July of that year.

In honor of the book's 250th anniversary, AdamSmithWorks joined with Michael Munger of Duke University to present an in-depth background, analysis, and assessment of The Wealth of Nations. The book sought to explain the sources of prosperity in commercial societies and remains foundational for modern economics. Over ten episodes, this podcast series traces Smith’s argument from its intellectual roots in the Scottish Enlightenment to its continuing relevance in contemporary economic debates.

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