This is one of those times when there's a bit too much to take in. Too much fecundity. Too many good blogs saying too many interesting things. You've probably already seen them, but let's recap:
Barbara blogs in a whole other league. Much food for thought in that post, and much that I have saved off. She says more before 9am than I say all day.
Professional writers like her who blog honestly - i.e. are not overly protective of their reputations - are the creme de la creme of the blogging world. They tend to have read more and thought more and can deliver it better to boot.
Not that I've a mind to quit blogging, though, since I'm allergic to the view that anyone but the highly qualified should do anything (admittedly I do have a conflict-of-interest). But life is a participatory sport. God thinks more of love than efficiency, given the trouble He goes to in order to effect our conversions.
Another post that interested me was right chere, over at Thomas of Endlessly Rockin' who sez: "I suppose it's clear by now that I don't really flinch from saying that God has his way with all of us. It's just that we trust that his way is, you know, radically good."
It isn't a concern for abstract 'divine sovereignty' that moves Augustine, but an eschatological vision of personhood whole and restored so that one simply cannot sin any longer because one is possessed by the God who inspired one's infinite desire for him in the first place, a desire that was for so long just flailing about, coming to rest on this or that penultimate good and thus coming to grief because temporary, finite things, however good, cannot satisfy such a longing. Thus every thought of God is inspired by God, every desire for God wells up because he first desired his beloved - and thus Augustine's dark and terrible notion of reprobation stands in complete contradiction to his wonderful, truly good teaching on predestination. Wherever we wander with our divided wills and our despair at desire unfulfilled, God in Christ is already there, and he will have us. -Thomas of ER
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