From the lips of children (1986) - Richard WurmbrandIulian
From the lips of children (1986) - Richard Wurmbrand
"For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16
"Car Dieu a tant aimé le monde qu'il a donné son Fils unique, afin que quiconque croit en lui ne périsse point, mais qu'il ait la vie éternelle." Jean 3:16
"Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt, daß er seinen eingeborenen Sohn gab, auf daß alle, die an ihn glauben, nicht verloren werden, sondern das ewige Leben haben." Johannes 3:16
"Fiindca atat de mult a iubit Dumnezeu lumea, ca a dat pe singurul Lui Fiu, pentru ca oricine crede in El sa nu piara, ci sa aiba viata vesnica." (Ioan 3:16)
It was rare to come across one who was blind from birth. Many became blind in later life, but to be blind from birth was so extreme that people assumed that there had to be some extreme sin somewhere in the family to account for such a radical judgment on a child.
That human life is a situation devised by
the infinite ingenuity of God, in which to
teach His sons to use power in a friendly
spirit is evident from several considerations:
The nature of life as revealed in its two
most characteristic features shows that it is
intended to serve this purpose.
Divine answers to faith realted issues (from The New Revelation)Simona P
The teachings of Jesus Christ from His New Revelation through Jakob Lorber and Gottfried Mayerhofer respond to all major issues of the Christian theology ( a few examples, contained also in the booklet with the same name that can be found here too, as also almost all the works of the New Revelation in English. Other references on www.new-revelation.ro, www.hisnewword.org
From the lips of children (1986) - Richard WurmbrandIulian
From the lips of children (1986) - Richard Wurmbrand
"For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16
"Car Dieu a tant aimé le monde qu'il a donné son Fils unique, afin que quiconque croit en lui ne périsse point, mais qu'il ait la vie éternelle." Jean 3:16
"Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt, daß er seinen eingeborenen Sohn gab, auf daß alle, die an ihn glauben, nicht verloren werden, sondern das ewige Leben haben." Johannes 3:16
"Fiindca atat de mult a iubit Dumnezeu lumea, ca a dat pe singurul Lui Fiu, pentru ca oricine crede in El sa nu piara, ci sa aiba viata vesnica." (Ioan 3:16)
It was rare to come across one who was blind from birth. Many became blind in later life, but to be blind from birth was so extreme that people assumed that there had to be some extreme sin somewhere in the family to account for such a radical judgment on a child.
That human life is a situation devised by
the infinite ingenuity of God, in which to
teach His sons to use power in a friendly
spirit is evident from several considerations:
The nature of life as revealed in its two
most characteristic features shows that it is
intended to serve this purpose.
Divine answers to faith realted issues (from The New Revelation)Simona P
The teachings of Jesus Christ from His New Revelation through Jakob Lorber and Gottfried Mayerhofer respond to all major issues of the Christian theology ( a few examples, contained also in the booklet with the same name that can be found here too, as also almost all the works of the New Revelation in English. Other references on www.new-revelation.ro, www.hisnewword.org
Bible Alive Jesus Christ 009: “The Kingdom and Jesus’ Death”BibleAlive
Did Jesus need divine inspiration to realize that his life was in imminent danger? Discover how Jesus saw his vocation as the fulfillment of the suffering Servant and thus his death as an expiatory sacrifice of a unique kind. How could Jesus’ suffering and death be part of God’s plan? Explore the Kingdom of God in the Last Supper. Learn the significance of “Eli, Eli, lemah sabbachtani,” and see the Sacrifice of Jesus in new light and what it brings about.
Part 26. the fellowship of his sufferings (.pdf)Ralph W Knowles
' Christ the Antidote regarding Death'' This article is partly relating Pauls suffering, "His thorn in the flesh", "The Man of our Mistaken Identity" & "Is the Feud Over"
This chapter is about the middleman, for that is what Isaac was. He is in the middle between a famous father and a famous son, and that position made him quite a dim bulb in the blazing glare of these two shining stars. This is the only chapter where he is the primary focus, and that focus fades quickly when his son Jacob comes on to the stage. Pink comments, “It is noticeable that though Isaac lived the longest of the four great patriarchs yet less is recorded of him than of the others: some twelve chapters are devoted to the biography of Abraham, and a similar number each to Jacob and Joseph, but excepting for one or two brief mentions, before and after, the history of Isaac is condensed into a single chapter. Contrasting his character with those of his father and son, we may remark that of Isaac there is noted less of Abraham’s triumphs of faith and less of Jacob’s failures.”
An old Cards' fan's reflections on childhood indoctrination, adult disillusion, and the Steroids era... a slideshow presentation on March 26, 2010 at the 15th annual Conference on Baseball in Literature and Culture, hosted by Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreeesboro TN.
Bible Alive Jesus Christ 009: “The Kingdom and Jesus’ Death”BibleAlive
Did Jesus need divine inspiration to realize that his life was in imminent danger? Discover how Jesus saw his vocation as the fulfillment of the suffering Servant and thus his death as an expiatory sacrifice of a unique kind. How could Jesus’ suffering and death be part of God’s plan? Explore the Kingdom of God in the Last Supper. Learn the significance of “Eli, Eli, lemah sabbachtani,” and see the Sacrifice of Jesus in new light and what it brings about.
Part 26. the fellowship of his sufferings (.pdf)Ralph W Knowles
' Christ the Antidote regarding Death'' This article is partly relating Pauls suffering, "His thorn in the flesh", "The Man of our Mistaken Identity" & "Is the Feud Over"
This chapter is about the middleman, for that is what Isaac was. He is in the middle between a famous father and a famous son, and that position made him quite a dim bulb in the blazing glare of these two shining stars. This is the only chapter where he is the primary focus, and that focus fades quickly when his son Jacob comes on to the stage. Pink comments, “It is noticeable that though Isaac lived the longest of the four great patriarchs yet less is recorded of him than of the others: some twelve chapters are devoted to the biography of Abraham, and a similar number each to Jacob and Joseph, but excepting for one or two brief mentions, before and after, the history of Isaac is condensed into a single chapter. Contrasting his character with those of his father and son, we may remark that of Isaac there is noted less of Abraham’s triumphs of faith and less of Jacob’s failures.”
An old Cards' fan's reflections on childhood indoctrination, adult disillusion, and the Steroids era... a slideshow presentation on March 26, 2010 at the 15th annual Conference on Baseball in Literature and Culture, hosted by Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreeesboro TN.
Sermon Slide Deck: "The Hope of Christmas & the Lament Over Evil" (Psalm 10)New City Church
Lament joins your heart with God’s intent.
This message was given on November 29, 2015 at New City Church in Calgary by Pastor John Ferguson. For more info, please visit: www.newcitychurch.ca
" The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that
this man was born in Zion." — Ps. lxxxvii. 6.
I understand the meaning of the passage to
be that the anniversaries of the future will be
held for the righteous. We observe at present
the anniversaries of the intellectually great — of
the poet, of the statesman, of the distinguished
general, of the scientific discoverer. But, without
disparaging these, the psalmist looks forward to a
time when the birthdays observed will be on the
ground of goodness. We hold the natal days of
the heroes of history. What a surprise it would
create if it were to be announced that a com
memorative service was to be held to keep the
centenary of some humble woman historically
unknown !
PREFATORY NOTE.
Some ten or twelve of the brief treatises
embodied in this book have already appeared in
the pages of The Christian World. The remainder,
on the author's death, existed only in the blind-
type characters which constituted his own peculiar
" Braille." His secretary, however, has contrived
to render this MS. into ordinary copy, word for
word; and, at the publishers' request, the dis-
courses are here offered in collective form. They
represent some of the ripest fruit of the author's
intellect, as they are largely the product of his
latest hours ; should any one " Message " bring
" Hope " to the weary and heavy-laden, George
Matheson's latest labours will not have been in
vain.
This is a study of the words of Cain after he killed his brother. God asked him where is your brother and he said this to express his indifference. That is not my concern at all. Much of this study is to show that we are, in fact, our brothers keeper.
This book is for anyone that has gone through a storm and maybe going thru one now. Learn the types of storm and how they relate to you. Trust Gods word and learn his way out of each and every storm.
World Literature from a Christian Perspective By Edwin.docxdunnramage
World Literature from a
Christian Perspective
By Edwin McAllister
2
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Introduction to the Old Testament 8
Introduction to The Iliad 17
Introduction to The Odyssey 29
Introduction to Agamemnon 39
Introduction to Oedipus 50
Introduction to The Aeneid 59
Introduction to the New Testament 73
Introduction to The Confessions 79
Introduction to Beowulf 84
Introduction to The Inferno 90
Introduction to The Canterbury Tales 96
Introduction to Luther’s Commentary on Galatians 104
Introduction to The Prince 110
Introduction to “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” 115
Introduction to Hamlet 121
Introduction to Paradise Lost 130
3
World Literature From A Christian Perspective Introduction
When I was in grade school, I had an argument with a friend over the
ethics of telling lies. We were having a schoolyard fight over a lie I’d been telling
recently. I claimed to have broken my leg in order to avoid playing tackle
football at recess, and my friend told me that I could not lie because “the Bible
says lying is wrong.” I challenged him to “find the place” where the Bible says
lying is wrong.
Finding “the place” turned out to be more difficult than my friend
thought it would be. It took us half an hour to find the Ten Commandments in
the dusty old King James we dug up, but when we did locate them, “Thou shalt
not tell lies” was not among them. Instead, what we found was “Thou shalt not
bear false witness against thy neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16). That didn’t help
much, since it didn’t really cover what I was doing. At worst, I was bearing
false witness against myself. In our further attempt to find “the rule,” what we
discovered was a lot of stories and poems and precious few straightforward
“thou shalt not kill”-type rules.
Although we didn’t realize it at the time, my friend and I were learning a
valuable lesson about the Bible: often, rather than directly stating truth or
ethical ideals, the Bible uses literary techniques to embody or incarnate ideas.
In other words, rather than saying “do not lie,” the Bible shows God’s hatred for
lying in stories like that of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 or in figurative
language like that Jesus uses in John 8 when he identifies Satan as “the father
of lies.” Acts 5 never literally says “Do not lie,” but when Ananias and Sapphira
are struck dead by God after lying to the Holy Spirit, the story shows that God
hates lying. When Jesus identifies Satan as the father of lies he does not
literally mean that Satan is a father who has lies as his children; instead, by
identifying Satan as “the father” of lies, he implies that Satan is the ultimate
source of all falsehood. Stories and figures like these embody God’s love of the
truth and his hatred for falsehood.
Literature not only embod.
World Literature from a Christian Perspective By Edwin.docxhelzerpatrina
World Literature from a
Christian Perspective
By Edwin McAllister
2
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Introduction to the Old Testament 8
Introduction to The Iliad 17
Introduction to The Odyssey 29
Introduction to Agamemnon 39
Introduction to Oedipus 50
Introduction to The Aeneid 59
Introduction to the New Testament 73
Introduction to The Confessions 79
Introduction to Beowulf 84
Introduction to The Inferno 90
Introduction to The Canterbury Tales 96
Introduction to Luther’s Commentary on Galatians 104
Introduction to The Prince 110
Introduction to “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” 115
Introduction to Hamlet 121
Introduction to Paradise Lost 130
3
World Literature From A Christian Perspective Introduction
When I was in grade school, I had an argument with a friend over the
ethics of telling lies. We were having a schoolyard fight over a lie I’d been telling
recently. I claimed to have broken my leg in order to avoid playing tackle
football at recess, and my friend told me that I could not lie because “the Bible
says lying is wrong.” I challenged him to “find the place” where the Bible says
lying is wrong.
Finding “the place” turned out to be more difficult than my friend
thought it would be. It took us half an hour to find the Ten Commandments in
the dusty old King James we dug up, but when we did locate them, “Thou shalt
not tell lies” was not among them. Instead, what we found was “Thou shalt not
bear false witness against thy neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16). That didn’t help
much, since it didn’t really cover what I was doing. At worst, I was bearing
false witness against myself. In our further attempt to find “the rule,” what we
discovered was a lot of stories and poems and precious few straightforward
“thou shalt not kill”-type rules.
Although we didn’t realize it at the time, my friend and I were learning a
valuable lesson about the Bible: often, rather than directly stating truth or
ethical ideals, the Bible uses literary techniques to embody or incarnate ideas.
In other words, rather than saying “do not lie,” the Bible shows God’s hatred for
lying in stories like that of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 or in figurative
language like that Jesus uses in John 8 when he identifies Satan as “the father
of lies.” Acts 5 never literally says “Do not lie,” but when Ananias and Sapphira
are struck dead by God after lying to the Holy Spirit, the story shows that God
hates lying. When Jesus identifies Satan as the father of lies he does not
literally mean that Satan is a father who has lies as his children; instead, by
identifying Satan as “the father” of lies, he implies that Satan is the ultimate
source of all falsehood. Stories and figures like these embody God’s love of the
truth and his hatred for falsehood.
Literature not only embod ...
This is a study of Jesus urging us to be merciful. We are to be like our heavenly Father who is always merciful. We are to relate to people with the same attitude as Jesus
XI. Salvation by Growth,
XII. Salvation by Grace,
XIII. A Power unto Salvation, .
XIV. Christ's Law of Love, .
XV. The Peace of God, .
XVI. What is the Bible?
XVII. The Spiritual Nature,
XVIII. Does God's Mercy Endure Forever?
Healthy Minds, Flourishing Lives: A Philosophical Approach to Mental Health a...Osopher
Honors College lecture, April 8, 2024. Phil Oliver, Dept of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Middle Tennessee State University
"Healthy Minds, Flourishing Lives: A Philosophical Approach to Mental Health and Happiness"
Why I Love Baseball - powerpoint slide showOsopher
27th annual Baseball in Literature and Culture Conference presentation: "Why I Love Baseball"...
(complementing and contrasting with Joe Posnanski's eponymous book)
Twenty-Sixth Annual Conference
Baseball in Literature and Culture,
March 24, 2023 (Postponed from July 7-9, 2022); On the campus of Ottawa University, Ottawa, Kansas
“Character(s) of the game: virtue, integrity, and eccentricity in our pastime” -- 26th annual conference on Baseball in Literature and Culture, on the campus of Ottawa University, Ottawa KS... slideshow UNDER CONSTRUCTION, conference postponement announced June 2022, new date tba (probably Mar/Apr '23)
"Promoting Happiness, Demoting Authority: Richard Rorty's Pragmatic Turn Revisited"/"Pragmatism and the Pursuit of Hope and Happiness"... presented Feb.25-26, 2022, American Philosophical Association Central Division, Palmer House Chicago--William James Society/Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy (SAAP)
"No Justice in This World": David James Duncan's "The Brothers K" -- presentation, 25th anniversary meeting of the Baseball in Literature and Culture conference, originally scheduled for April 3, 2020... postponed to July 16, 2021
"The Spirit of Modern Philosophy" Revisited: A Committed Jamesian Reconsiders Royce (Again, at the William James Society session at the APA Central DIvision meeting in Chicago, 2.26.20.
Who cares?
Reflections on caring about baseball, sports, life, the universe, everything… and why we should...
Presented at the Baseball in Literature and Culture Conference hosted by Ottawa University, March 29, 2019
1. The problem can be summarized: 1. “God” is all-powerful (omnipotent), all-knowing (omniscient), and all good or all-caring (morally perfect). 2. Such a God could, and would, prevent unnecessary suffering. 3. There is unnecessary suffering in the world. So, 4. Either God doesn’t exist, or doesn’t possess the classic attributes of perfection, or is malevolent.
2.
3. From a ship in Lisbon harbor, Candide watches helplessly as the good drown and the wicked survive. His friend Martin concludes that if the world has any purpose at all, it is to drive us mad. Lisbon Earthquake , 1755. Some 90,000 people died in Lisbon- more than one third of its population. Another 10,000 lives were lost in southwest Spain and Morocco.
4. We stand, as it were, on the shore, and see multitudes of our fellow beings struggling in the water, stretching forth their arms, sinking, drowning, and we are powerless to assist them. Felix Adler
5. Philosopher Susan Neiman reminds us that eighteenth century thinkers like Voltaire saw the Lisbon quake as a metaphysical event. For some, Lisbon lessened either God's beneficence or his power. For others, the quake lessened their estimation of human reason and a reasonable world. Nature, according to enlightened minds, was a benign and intelligible force. Its well-oiled operation reflected the intelligence and skill of a designer God. Could we, though, retain our confidence in reason, and thus in God's ways, in the rubble of Lisbon?
6. Today, there no longer seem to be any Voltaires questioning reason and nature, or, put baldly, addressing the problem of evil. Why ?
7. http://bartdehrman.com/ The leading reason given by atheists and agnostics for their disbelief is the problem of suffering or evil. Bart Ehrman, a respected Bible scholar at the University of North Carolina who until quite recently considered himself a devout Christian, was finally led by his reflections on the problem to lose his religion. He says “the Bible fails to answer our most important question - why we suffer.” “ Suffering is not only senseless, it is also random, capricious, and unevenly distributed.”
8. Ehrman's inability to reconcile the claims of faith with the facts of real life led the former pastor of the Princeton Baptist Church ultimately to reject Christianity. In God's Problem , Ehrman discusses his personal anguish upon discovering the Bible's contradictory explanations for suffering and invites all people of faith - or no faith - to confront their deepest questions... Why are the sick wracked with unspeakable pain? Why are babies born with birth defects? Why are young children kidnapped, raped, and mur- dered? 5 Why does a child die of hunger every five seconds ? 6
9. Ehrman's inability to reconcile the claims of faith with the facts of real life led the former pastor of the Princeton Baptist Church ultimately to reject Christianity. In God's Problem , Ehrman discusses his personal anguish upon discovering the Bible's contradictory explanations for suffering and invites all people of faith - or no faith - to confront their deepest questions... Why are the sick wracked with unspeakable pain? Why are babies born with birth defects? Why are young children kidnapped, raped, and mur- dered? 5 Why does a child die of hunger every five seconds ? 6
10. Child suffering is surely the greatest challenge to belief in a perfect, loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing God. Ehrman recounts testimony from the Nuremberg trials: “ The children were thrown in [the ovens] alive. The cries could be heard all over camp.” The cries of children, screaming from the midst of the blazing ovens. 25
11. One of the most common explanations—it fills many pages of the Hebrew Bible—seems simplistic, repugnant, back- ward, or just dead wrong to many modern people. It is that people suffer because God wants them to suffer... they have disobeyed him and he is punishing them... Nothing happens in this world unless God has done it. Suffering comes as punishment for sin. 27
12. Ehrman says that contrary to common opinion, free will plays only a very minor role in the biblical tradition. And even if we attribute the Holocaust, (e.g.) and its horrific toll on innocent victims (including millions of children) to humans' abuse of their god-given freedom, he asks, how can you explain drought or the hurricane that destroys New Orleans or a tsunami that kills hundreds of thousands overnight? Or earthquakes, mudslides, malaria, dysentery...? If in the end we say the answer is a mystery, that's not an answer. It is an admission that there is no answer.
13. In the last analysis, Ehrman concludes, the book of Ecclesiastes gets it right: “suffering does not come for known causes or reasons. Suffering just comes, and we need to deal with it as best we can.” 189 ...it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us; for this is our lot. (Eccl. 5:18-19) 194 “ To be sure, we should work to overcome suffering—in ourselves and others... But life is more than simply avoiding suffering. It is also enjoying what can come to us in our short stay on earth.” So, says Ehrman...
14. “ I have to admit that at the end of the day, I do have a biblical view of suffering - the view put forth in Ecclesiastes... The solution to life is to enjoy it while we can, because it is fleeting. The idea that this life is all there is should not be an occasion for despair and despondency. It should be a source of joy and dreams—joy of living for the moment, and dreams of trying to make the world a better place... This means working to alleviate suffering.” 276
15. When you see images of child suffering and abuse, learn of the devastating consequences for innocents of violent crime, witness the ferocious, heartless impact on vulnerable human beings of “natural” calamities like earthquakes and tornadoes, etc. etc. ad infinitum , can you in good conscience really assert that ours is the kind of world we should expect a perfect and unlimited being to create?
16. Of course we should always bear in mind the cautionary observation of pre-Socratic philosopher Xenophanes (570-480 B.C.E.), when tempted to articulate the attributes of God(s) - “ If oxen and horses and lions had hands and could draw, horses would draw the gods shaped as horses and oxen as oxen...” 9 We're bound to anthropomorphize... probably an error. But, if God is a human exemplar we must suppose some significant common ground...
17. The Brothers Karamazov Book V, Ch. 4 - "Rebellion" - Ivan to Alyosha, on children's suffering: Are you fond of children, Alyosha? I know you are, and you will understand why I prefer to speak of them. If they, too, suffer horribly on earth, they must suffer for their fathers' sins, they must be punished for their fathers, who have eaten the apple; but that reasoning is of the other world and is incomprehensible for the heart of man here on earth... Fyodor Dostoevsky 1821-1881 http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700061h.html#eiv http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700061h.html
18. I renounce the higher harmony altogether. It's not worth the tears of that one tortured child who beat itself on the breast with its little fist and prayed in its stinking outhouse, with its unexpiated tears to 'dear, kind God'! It's not worth it, because those tears are unatoned for. They must be atoned for, or there can be no harmony. (cited in Ehrman, "God's Problem") http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700061h.html#ev Grand Inquisitor
19. Abraham & Isaac The point of the Genesis story of Abraham's “offering” of his son, at God's insistence, is that being faithful to God is the most important thing in life: more important than thinking for yourself, more important than your conscience, more important than your love for your own children. [Ehrman 169] What would Socrates say? http://www.answers.com/topic/abraham http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/macleish/macleish.htm The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard goes into Abraham's plight in considerable detail in his work Fear and Trembling ...
20. Sartre understands the story not in terms of Christian obedience or a "teleological suspension of the ethical", but in terms of mankind's utter behavioral and moral freedom. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son. Sartre doubts that Abraham can know that the voice he hears is really the voice of his God and not of someone else, or the product of a mental condition. Thus, Sartre concludes, even if there are signs in the world, humans are totally free to decide how to interpret them. [Also see Ehrman on Job] But is there any other conscionable answer, from a parent's perspective,than an emphatic, incredulous, apalled “ NO! I will not sacrifice my child!?!”
21. Colin McGinn on suffering as a test from God... and on faith: ...beliefs about what reality contains should always be formed on the basis of evidence or rational argument—so that “faith” is inherently an unethical way to form your beliefs. To believe “on faith” is to believe that the world is a certain way (contains a god etc) without the support of either empirical or logical justification. This violates the ethics of belief—how you ought to arrive at your convictions....
22. Wittgenstein said “a nothing is as good as a something about which nothing can be said .” An incomprehensible God is really not the kind of deity anyone can worship. It can’t be both ways: God can’t be unfathomable and be known as a father figure who cares intimately and personally about each of us.
23. It has been suggested that God grants his creatures free will, and they (we) mess up and bring suffering into the world by abusing that gift. But God is supposed to have created each of us as part of the natural order, and (as Simon Blackburn says): “ if God had not wanted Stalin to slaughter millions he would not have created the nature that eventually gave rise to the decision-making modules of such a person.”
24. Finally: even if we make the dubious concession that some suffering might be necessary to provide the concept and underscore the importance of free will, much suffering in the world (including all suffering due to earthquakes, storms, and the like) is not responsive to human choice. There’s clearly a great deal more suffering in the world than is necessary to illustrate the concept.
25. "I cannot bring myself, as so many seem able to do, to blink the evil out of sight, and gloss it over," William James wrote to his brother as a young man in 1870. "It's as real as the good, and if it is denied, good must be denied too. It must be hated and resisted while there's breath in our bodies." And sixteen years later: "There is no full consolation. Evil is evil and pain is pain."
26. “ Suppose you found yourself at school or university in a dormitory. Things are not too good. The roof leaks, there are rats about, the food is almost inedible, some students in fact starve to death. There is a closed door, behind which is the management, but the management never comes out. You get to speculate what the management must be like. Can you infer from the dormitory as you find it that the management, first, knows ...
27. ...exactly what conditions are like, second, cares intensely for your welfare, and third, possesses unlimited resources for fixing things? The inference is crazy . You would be almost certain to infer that either the management doesn't know, doesn't care, or cannot do anything about it. Nor does it make things any better if occasionally you come across a student who declaims that he has become privy to the mind of the management, and is assured that the management indeed knows, cares, and has resources and ability to do what it wants. The overwhelming inference is not that the management is like that, but that this student is deluded. Perhaps his very deprivations have deluded him.” Simon Blackburn, Think (Oxford, 1999)
28. “ Nobody ever inferred from the multiple infirmities of Windows that Bill Gates was infinitely benevolent, omniscient, and able to fix everything... The imperfections of Windows have no doubt led to virtues of patience or fortitude, but even Microsoft has never used that to defend the perfection of the product, and indeed that is why they continue to try to improve it.” -- Simon Blackburn, Think