Bereitschaftsbeitrag

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11. September 2020

Our cause

Want to learn something about our time?
"affection for the world" - about 10.900.000 results
"affection for worldly" - about 42.900 results
"affection by worldly" - about 1 result
I prefer to write this post in English, but there is a little difficulty that I need to address. I've defined (spiritual) life as the sum of Vorliebe, Glaube and Gewissen, which translate easily enough as preference, belief and conscience, but the emotions of which they are modes, i.e. Wertschätzung, Liebe and Anteilnahme, don't translate as easily. The first two do, i.e. as appreciation and love, but the third one is quite problematic. The word literally means taking part, which is often meant as sharing someone's emotions, but its basic meaning is simply that you're emotionally involved in a process. So, I'll translate as affection, as in being affected.

Affection in turn according to my definitions is then either a state between happiness and haplessness or between pride and shame (Schmach in German, not Scham) and conscience is a mode of the latter two.

It is important to realise that the different layers of a society (I translated that post, but it is a good case study why that quickly turns into folly. I simply cannot maintain the same rigour of notional precision in English as in German and that results in conflicting uses of terms and an ever growing trail of corrections.)
  • rightfulness,
  • amical bonds and
  • provision
rely on sensitivities that not every man possesses, namely
  • love of a certain kind of (spiritual) life,
  • appreciation of certain character traits,
  • affection by certain worldly goods.
When people who know neither spiritual life nor character traits go about designing a society people who do know these things will not feel at home in it.

But let us be more specific than that. In order for amical bonds to exist in a society, two requirements must be met, which are both quite tricky:
  1. people must be able to interact on the basis of their character (as opposed to some rationale or plan),
  2. the local blend of characters must be a harmonious one.
In practical terms: flat, independent organisations and a grown culture of dealings.

And in order for rightfulness to bind people together so that they would consider each other all participants in it (cf. also Approaching the person we want to be), people have to love God above all else and the next man as themselves and must agree that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

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