Appropriation and Imputation The conjunction of will

Appropriation and Imputation

The conjunction of will and understanding (in act) Will Understanding • love • affection • delight • perception • thought, reasoning • noticing, sensory awareness Will + Understanding • • holding onto consent (freedom + awareness) confirming with reasons intending & acting (cf. “interior acts)

Circle of Life WILL UNDERSTAND ACT (to(to sense)will) express KNOW

How appropriation takes place will = appropriation will + understanding + act = appropriation outer memory → elevated to inner memory (understanding) (by will) = appropriation

Circle of Life external internal will delight or undelight internal external thought consent or rejection acting (to sense (to express considered will) or express itself) KNOWLEDGE/memory

How appropriation takes place will = appropriation will + understanding + act = appropriation outer memory → elevated to inner memory (understanding) (by will) = appropriation

outer memory (understanding) → elevated to inner memory (by will) = appropriation • Which “internal” are we speaking of in this connection? • Our spiritual or natural internal? • What is the difference between our internal memory and our external memory? • What “will” is it that receives and is thus responsible for appropriating life?

Ruminating AE 242. 4 Knowledges [about faith] are not in the person before they are in his will, but are in the entrance to him, which is his memory.

This may be illustrated by a comparison with the stomachs of birds and beasts of the earth that are called ruminating stomachs. Into these they first collect their food, and afterwards by degrees take it out and eat it, and thus nourish the blood; food thus becomes a part of their life. …

Into [the memory] a person first gathers spiritual foods, which are knowledges, and afterwards he takes them out by a sort of ruminating, that is, by thinking and willing, and appropriates them, and thus makes them a part of his life. reflection, thinking and willing knowledge memory Knowledge appropriated, becomes of the life

From this comparison, although trifling, it can be seen that knowledges, unless implanted in the life by thinking and willing them and then doing them, are like food that remains unconsumed in ruminating stomachs, where it either becomes putrid or is vomited out.

“Not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man. . . ” (Mk 7) We can prevent external states from becoming internal states (thus from becoming our own)

What enters thought and not will is not appropriated and imputed No evil that a person thinks is imputed to him, because he was so created as to be able to understand thus think either good or evil… From this also it is clear that thought is the seat of purification and excretion of the evils resident in a person from his parents; consequently if the evils that a person thinks were to be imputed to him, reformation and regeneration would be impossible. (TCR 659)

[A] person is not able to desist from thinking evil, but [can desist] from doing it. (AC 8910. 3) It is unavoidable that man should think what is false and what is evil… (AE 867. 2) It must be known that a person cannot be purified from evils and the consequent falsities, unless the unclean things that are in him come forth as far as into the thought, and are there seen, recognized, discerned, and put away. (AE 580. 3)

Yet can we desist from feeling evil in our will? In order that a person may examine himself an understanding has been given him, and this separate from the will, that he may know, understand acknowledge what is good and what is evil; and also that he may see the quality of his will, or what it is he loves and desires. (DP 278)

Every person from his birth is in evils of many kinds. These evils are in his will, and whatever is in the will is loved. For that which a person wills from his interior he loves, and that which he loves he wills, and the will's love flows into the understanding and there causes its delight to be felt; and from that it enters into the thoughts and also into the intentions. (DP 281. 2, 4 )

If, therefore, a person were not permitted to think in accordance with the love of his will, which is implanted in him by inheritance, that love would remain shut in and would never be seen by him. … But when a person is permitted to think the evils of his life's love, so far even as to intend them, they are cured by spiritual means, as diseases are by natural means. (DP 281. 2, 4)

… whatever comes into the thought, not the will, is not a sin. … If it comes into the will, or something like the will, and one thinks this is a sin, against the Lord's Word, and will burden one's conscience, and so shakes it off, neither can this be a sin, but is a temptation. (SE 3178) Nothing is appropriated to a person that he merely thinks, or even that he thinks to will, unless at the same time he wills to such a degree as to do it when opportunity offers. (DP 80)

States of freedom and rationality? • 13 year old Johnny finds a Playboy magazine in a ditch on the way home from school… • 18 year old Johnny buys a copy of Playboy magazine… • 14 year old Nancy feels publicly shamed by a friend and is thrown into a fit of vengeful feelings and plots… • 16 year old Jenny is with a group of friends who are all making fun of a teacher & she adds to the spite…

States of freedom and rationality? • 13 year old Johnny sees a Playboy magazine in a ditch and does not pick it up… • 18 year old Johnny resists the urge to buy a copy of Playboy magazine… • 2 weeks later 14 year old Nancy sees her chance to put down the friend who hurt her, and takes it… • 16 year old Jenny is at a church retreat and sings hymns with feeling and makes affirmative responses to questions during lectures…

States of freedom and rationality? • Edward (50 yrs) has been struggling to remain chaste. In a moment of discouragement at work he entertains lustful thoughts of escape. Regret follows immediately… • Winnie’s parents die when she is 13 years old. Raised by promiscuous aunt, sets no moral boundaries re sex (movies, TV, behavior). Aunt is nevertheless affectionate and “cool. ” Winnie starts sleeping with boyfriends at age 16… • over 30 years of adult life Gerta has at times fought her habit of “putting other people in their place. ” This morning, as she endured chronic back pain, she once more poured out vitriol on a co-worker…

What are some factors that affect whether, or to what extent, a mental state is appropriated? • State of knowledge/ awareness of truth • How much state is held onto, delighted in, over time • How much state is confirmed with reasons, embroidered in fantasy, over time • How much states are thought-better-of, regretted, repented of over time • How much premeditation/ planning

“Believing as is the case” When we experience a feeling of lust (desire for “x” with sense of delight in what “x” promises) … Q. … should we regard it as our own? Q. Can we simply “look at it” and say “you are not mine, be gone”? Q. … is repentance required? (make self guilty, condemn self, pray for power… inclination…, desist, begin a new life)?

Divine strategies for guiding appropriation • • withholding reflection distraction (events, thoughts) introducing competing delights raising thought of consequences (via other loves: honor, reputation, gain) • utilizing “intermediate goods”

Where does temptation fit into this “circle of life? ” external internal will delight or undelight internal external thought consent or rejection acting (to sense (to express considered will) or express itself) KNOWLEDGE/memory

Imputation (“assigning to us”) • ruling love • our memory and its organization • our “sphere” and our internal memory/ “book of life” • our “sphere” and our situation in the spiritual world • judgment