1And why is it amazing that the desires of the soul for the enjoyment of beauty are rendered powerless?
2It is for this reason, certainly, that the temperate Joseph is praised, because by mental effort he overcame the prospect of pleasure.
3 of the passions.
4Reason is proved to rule not only over the frenzied urge of sexual desire but also over every desire.
5
15It is evident that reason rules even the more violent passions: lust for power, vanity, boasting, arrogance, and malice.
16For the temperate mind repels all these malicious passions, just as it repels anger—for it is sovereign over even this.
17Num 16.23–30When Moses was angry with Dathan and Abiram, he did nothing against them in anger but controlled his anger by reason.
18For, as I have said, the temperate mind is able to get the better of the passions, to correct some and to render others powerless.
19Gen 34.30; 49.7Why else did Jacob, our most wise father, censure the households of Simeon and Levi for their irrational slaughter of the entire tribe of the Shechemites, saying, “Cursed be their anger”?
20For if reason could not control anger, he would not have spoken thus.
21Now when God fashioned humans, he planted in them passions and inclinations,
22but at the same time he enthroned the mind among the senses as a sacred governor over them all.
23To the mind he gave the law, and one who lives subject to this will rule a kingdom that is temperate, just, good, and courageous.
24 4 Macc 1.5 How is it then, one might say, that if reason is master of the passions, it does not control forgetfulness and ignorance?
Who We AreWhat We EelieveWhat We Do
2025 by iamachristian.org,Inc All rights reserved.
