tblake@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu (Tom Blake) (06/02/91)
Yowsers! It is amazing to me how contentious we are! The question of what day Jesus was crucified on is an interesting one I guess. But what difference does it make folks? Will we have to reinterpret the Gospels if we decide Jesus was actually crucified on a Wednesday? Or will it just give us one more thing to get into shouting matches over? Tell you what, if you want to believe that Jesus was crucified on Wednesday, that's just fine with me. I'll continue to celebrate on Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. You can celebrate when you see fit, only please, don't let this be a cause to further divide The Body of Christ. As long as we're on the topic, as I recall a definitive answer for the question of how many angels could dance on the head of a pin was arrived at, right? What was the answer? And what was the explanation? And can you offer any citations from Pauline epistles to support this explanation? ;-) Tom Blake SUNY-Binghamton [42 --clh]
mib@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I Bushnell) (06/03/91)
In article <Jun.2.01.08.39.1991.16164@athos.rutgers.edu> tblake@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu (Tom Blake) writes:
As long as we're on the topic, as I recall a definitive answer for
the question of how many angels could dance on the head of a pin
was arrived at, right?
What was the answer? And what was the explanation? And can you offer any
citations from Pauline epistles to support this explanation? ;-)
[42 --clh]
Since I'm in a feistly mood today, I'll tackle this one. Despite
OFM's amusing response, there is more to that medeival debate than
most realize. The issue wasn't whether a million or a billion or only
two could fit; the issue was whether some finite amount or an infinite
amount could fit. But nobody really cared about angels dancing on a
pin, that was just a clever way to express the issue. The real issue
was whether angels had corporeal substance. Integral-spin particles
aside, it was thought that corporeal bodies could not occupy the same
space at the same time, and so, if angels were corporeal, only a
finite number of them could fit on a pin.
-mib