Amongst the many hundreds of manuscripts left behind by Russian theologian
Mikola Mandelstahm are a number of thin volumes explicating the
philosophy of the
Ancient Greek philosopher
Heraclitus. In the text that follows Mandelstahm considers, in an uncharacteristicaly erratic fashion, some of Heraclitus' writings on
divinity and the relationship between the
human and the
divine.
Of the fact that we do not always know
God, Heraklitous wrote that, "Human nature has no real understanding; only the divine nature has it" (F78). Yet, this does not, I belive, imply our
separation from God, only the dividedness of God, and the
divnity of
division itself, for that which is divided is also thereby undivided and unified in its division, unified as a
multiplicity; whereas that which is completely undivided is thereby already divided in another sense, in the sense of being a-multiple. That is also why Heraklitous wrote that, "It throws apart and then brings together again" (F31). This can only mean that divinity ordains the return of all things to that which they are. On this I have already speculated (
Mandelstahm on Heraclitus : Flux).
In the
Scripture, there is writing of a
Fall.
Eve eats an apple. I do not believe in this, though I believe in the holiness of the Scripture. All Scripture must be read by human eyes, to be known by human hearts.
There can be no Fall for that implies not only a division of the unholy kind between ourselves and God, but also a division between God and God, which is not possible, for God cannot be divided, God is that which is great and indivisible, self-sufficient, self-causing. These things were already written by
Spinoza, a Jew who lives in
Amsterdam, but being a Jew, he did not fully understand the
tautologous character of his thinking, thereby giving rise to an internal tension in the
form of his expression, betrayed by his
faith in
logic, above his faith in God (which is thereby revealed, the one through the other).
For those that believe these thoughts too confusing, I only quote Heraklitous again, when he wrote that, "What is divine escapes men's notice because of their incredulity" (F86). I only choose to believe. Faith is my vocation. My belief in God is profound, for my faith encompasses the entirety of my soul.
I have grown so tired of the moisture, of the weeping, of the
tears.
Death grieves because of me.