Abelard & Peterson: Tractatus de Intellectibus

[_EAllusion]

I was torn between two posters, but I think that one tipped the hand. Nice work.

[_Kevin Graham]

This is great. I've missed me some Darth J.

[_Kishkumen]

Filippo Argenti. Well played, dear writer.

[_Blixa]

Very flattered by those who have mentioned my name, but while I once discussed the harpsichord with William F. Buckley over lunch as an undergrad, I don't have the particular scope manifest here.

[_Gadianton]

I'm really getting into this. So far this is my favorite part:

In fact Athenian citizens were so put off by the idea of the General Assembly that when it was to be called, 300 Scythian Warrior-Slaves were deployed to the marketplace to herd citizens towards the assembly with a red rope. Do you not think that our own inspired leadership would similarly compel the Saints if they could do it with no consequences?

[_honorentheos]

I was hoping someone would make something of the clues to the narrator's identity in this last entry. Most specifically -

One could say that my relationship with Daniel was the median value between what Socrates was to Alcibiades and what Abelard was to Heloise. During the first decade of this century, going to BYU to study with the known “Apologists” was physically daunting, spiritually demanding, and mentally draining. It was a strange but intoxicating socius where intellectually defending the Priesthood and the Gospel was seen to be imitatio of the transcendent. Men like Hugh Nibley were no more and no less an auditor of inspiration and we came to sit at their feet.

[_Kishkumen]

I was hoping someone would make something of the clues to the narrator's identity in this last entry. Most specifically -

One could say that my relationship with Daniel was the median value between what Socrates was to Alcibiades and what Abelard was to Heloise. During the first decade of this century, going to BYU to study with the known “Apologists” was physically daunting, spiritually demanding, and mentally draining. It was a strange but intoxicating socius where intellectually defending the Priesthood and the Gospel was seen to be imitatio of the transcendent. Men like Hugh Nibley were no more and no less an auditor of inspiration and we came to sit at their feet.

As usual, you are honing in on important questions, honor. I don't know, though. This passage rings strangely hollow to me. I was not at BYU after 1999, but does that description really match the a student's experience in the early 2000s? Let me put it this way, the hub of would-be Nibleyites and wannabe professors in the College of Religion were generally Ancient Near Eastern Studies students, not the Classicists. Also, our writer is very keyed in to the concerns of Daniel Peterson, in particular, minus the Medieval Islamic aspect. We are getting a heavy dose of Plato, Athenian history, and Western Medieval culture from this person. Is that really representative of the Mopologists on BYU campus in the early 2000s? Maybe.

[_Johannes]

I was hoping someone would make something of the clues to the narrator's identity in this last entry. Most specifically -

One could say that my relationship with Daniel was the median value between what Socrates was to Alcibiades and what Abelard was to Heloise. During the first decade of this century, going to BYU to study with the known “Apologists” was physically daunting, spiritually demanding, and mentally draining. It was a strange but intoxicating socius where intellectually defending the Priesthood and the Gospel was seen to be imitatio of the transcendent. Men like Hugh Nibley were no more and no less an auditor of inspiration and we came to sit at their feet.

Well, Abelard's relationship with Heloise famously resulted in him being castrated, so if the narrator's relationship with DCP is half way to that....

[_Johannes]

INcidentally, I noticed that Kishkumen was addressed as "Right Reverend". This is an address reserved in Episcopalian circles for bishops. No-one would address a university chaplain with that title (I can be very certain on thsi point).

This is the sort of slip that any Mormon might make, but it sticks right out to someone who is familiar with the Episcopalian terminology. So I decided to search this site to see who had addressed Kishkumen using the title of "Right Reverend" in the past.

There were two such posters. One of them was Prester John. The other was MrStakhanovite.

[_Johannes]

Men like Hugh Nibley were no more and no less an auditor of inspiration and we came to sit at their feet.[/color]

"Auditor", as far as I know, is not a Mormon term, and it is certainly not a term in mainline Christianity. But it is used in Scientology, isn't it?