Grace and religious experience

GRACE AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

Lonavla, 9 November 2005

 

All of us, it seems to me, are Pelagian by birth. At least I was. Only slowly did I discover the meaning of grace. I remember when I discovered that the spiritual life was not, after all, a matter of how much effort I made; there was grace. I remember the impact of Peter de Rosa’s book, Not I, Not I, But the Wind that Blows Through Me: the seagulls being carried by the wind. That was grace: being carried by the wind of the Spirit. 

So slowly we discover the meaning of grace. But then a new problem, so well expressed by Evasio so many years ago in Divyadaan: if God is the one who has to work, then I will continue sleeping in my meditation. He did not know it, but this was the same problem expressed by the monks of Hadremetum to St Augustine: if God gives grace, why do superiors have to be after our blood? This is the great problem of grace and freedom, and people have sinned on both sides of the spectrum. 

Only slowly, if ever, do we come to a proper synthesis of grace and freedom. It struck me so forcefully one day in Italy: we need not wait for God to act, simply because he has already acted, his grace has already been given to us. It is up to us now to act, to respond to grace, to do our part. 

 

Grace was first a commonsense scriptural category. With the reflection begun by Augustine and completed by Thomas, it became a systematic metaphysical category. Today we prefer experiential categories, and so everywhere there is talk of God-experience or of religious experience. All three ways of speaking have their own validity, though the last mentioned is of recent vintage, having gained popularity only with the Reformation and perhaps with Schleiermacher. 

 

The recent provocation for these reflections was provided by Kenny: why is it that Protestants, and especially the sects, are able to provide our youth with religious experience, and we Catholics are not? 

We could put the question to ourselves more directly: have I had a religious experience? If not, what am I doing here? 

 

I am convinced that grace – God’s love – is given to all. St Paul speaks of the love of God being poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Jesus speaks of the Spirit as the wind, blowing where it will: whither it comes, where it goes, we do not know. 

 

So grace is given to all. We may or may not respond to it. If we respond, we grow in it, and it goes on to become a habitual state in us, we move into the habitual state of being in love with God. 

 

With grace, or perhaps with the transformation wrought in us by grace (fruit of the dialectic of grace and freedom), we become a new creation in Christ. We are born again into new life. We begin to live a life of faith, hope and charity. 

 

The presence of grace is evidenced by the presence of the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace… By their fruits you will know them, says Jesus. There is a whole tradition of discernment of spirits in the Church, for we have to distinguish between true and false prophets, and good and bad spirits. 

 

Religious experience is an ambiguous term. 

Often it refers to the spectacular experiences of grace rather than to the experience of grace across the board. 

Often it is identified with merely good feelings, and then such an understanding finds it difficult to make sense of the experience of pain, suffering, darkness and emptiness. Yet there is the witness of John of the Cross and of Mother Teresa. Good feelings, there is certainly place for them in prayer; but perhaps they are only lollipops, which God in his goodness gives to us when we are as yet merely babes in the spiritual life. The entire spiritual journey is far more complex than a mere set of good feelings. Good feelings alone can certainly not be the criteria of the authenticity of religious expeirnce. The experience of grace is, in fact, as large as life, as Lonergan reminds us so beautifully. 3C. 

 

                "Experience of grace, then, is as large as the Christian experi­ence of life. It is experience of man's capacity for self-transcendence, of his unrestricted openness to the intelligible, the true, the good. It is experience of a twofold frustration of that capacity: the objective frustration of life in a world distorted by sin; the subjective frustration of one's incapacity to break with one's own evil ways. It is experience of a trans­formation one did not bring about but rather underwent, as divine providence let evil take its course and vertical finality be heightened, as it let one's circumstances shift, one's disposi­tions change, new encounters occur, and -- so gently and quietly -- one's heart be touched. It is the experience of a new communi­ty, in which faith and hope and charity dissolve rationaliza­tions, break determinisms, and reconcile the estranged and the alienated, and there is reaped the harvest of the Spirit that is '... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control' (Gal. 5:22)." [3C 32-33.]

 

Maybe we have truncated the Catholic faith and practice: individual attention, confession; deeper entry into the Eucharist; Eucharistic adoration; true pastoral love and concern and support; family visits; systematic catechism and faith formation. 

 

Religious experience comes to us in two ways: through the Spirit, and through the Son and the Church. For us Salesians, it comes to us through young people, through the poor, through our work with people, through all of life, in fact! Hopkins: there is freshness deep down things… Don Bosco is for us the father of our faith; he generates in us an experience of God. This makes perfect sense when we remember the doctrine of mediation, the role of the Church. The place of Our Lady also makes perfect sense in this light, and together with her our parents, family, friends, boys…

 

The temptation of the ephemeral and immediate. American religion. The here and now. Spiritual life is a journey. Once one has tasted the Catholic depths, there is no temptation of the sects and of new Age. It is the poverty of our theology that leads to such temptations. As De Smet used to tell me, the problem of Abhishiktananda was his Benedictine theology. The Benedictines have no theology, they only know liturgy. I have never had a crisis of faith; they all want me to have a crisis of faith, it makes for exciting reading, but I cant manufacture one! 

 

Vacillation is a sign of the counterposition. 

 

Response to Kenny:

1. William and P. Lourdes should not set the categories; but the gospels and sound Catholic tradition. But: what do the gospels and sound catholic tradition say?
2. My PG notes on RE
3. My Rome 2001 article.
4. Scola and co.
5. The rest of my preface to the Research on Catholic youth.
6. How to interiorize?
7. Lonergan…
8. are all ‘once born’ stupid? What about the saints? All twice born? Dominic Savio? Or are we subtly redefining ‘twice born’?
9. Still: how to interiorize? Personal spiritual direction, word in the ear, confession, learning to be masters of prayer – like DB. Aim: Sanctity, not twice born. IC MC RC.

TO CLAUDIUS, 28.10.2OO9:

I think you might find something in these two files too... [PG 04 RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE; PG 07 NOTION OF GOD]

Grace is a metaphysical category; the experiential equivalent seems to be Religious Experience / Conversion / Being in love in an unconditional manner. The manifestation of this state: fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5,22): love, joy, peace, patience, etc. 

Keep in mind: Grace / RE as defined, and as achieved. As achieved, the data are data on a process, and that process is, in a sense, dialectical: a struggle between authenticity and unauthenticity... 

St Therese of Lisieux

“In the evening of this life, I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not ask you, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in your own Justice and to receive from your Love the eternal possession of yourself”. (St Teresa of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face) (Cited by Pope Francis, "C'est la confiance," [10 Oct 2023] 3)

'Therese never uses the expression, common enough in her day, “I will become a saint”.' ("C'est la confiance," 20)

'she has been recognized by UNESCO as one of the most significant figures for contemporary humanity.' ("C'est la confiance," 4)

Pope Francis, Ad theologiam promovendam (2023)

1. Theology cannot simply repropose abstract formulae and schemes of the past. Called to interpret the present in a prophetic manner and to discover new paths for the future in the light of Revelation, it must face squarely the new and profound cultural changes that are taking place. (ATP 1)

3. A synodal, missionary and "outgoing" Church calls for a theology "in uscita." We have to abandon an armchair theology. We need to theologize on the frontiers, the peripheries. Good theologians, like good pastors, must have the smell of the sheep and of the street. with their reflections they pour oil and wine on the wounds of human beings. And such contact cannot be merely "tactical." Reflecting on the frontiers cannot be a strategy that involves merely extrinsic adjustment to contents that are already crystallized. Theology must engage in a rethinking of its epistemology and its methodology (cf. VG).

4. Theological reflection is called to a change of paradigm, a "courageous cultural revolution" (LS 114). In the first place, it must be a contextual theology, capable of reading and interpreting the Gosplel in the concrete conditions in which men and women live their daily lives, in the different geographical, social and cultural contexts. The archetype of such a method is the incarnation of the eternal Logos, his entering into culture, into a worldview, into the religious tradition of a people. 

Starting from this, theology cannot but develop within a culture of dialogue and of encounter between different traditions, wisdoms, christian confessions, religions. The need for dialogue is intrinsic to the human being and to the whole of creation. It is the task of theology to discover 'the Trinitarian imprint that makes the cosmos in which we live a “network of relations” in which “it is proper to every living being to tend towards other things”.' (VG 4a)

5. This relational dimension connotes and defines the status of theology from an epistemic point of view. Theology cannot be self-referential; it has to take its place in a network of relationships, first of all with other disciples and wisdoms. This is the cross-disciplinary approach. Interdisciplinarity in a weak sense is happy to get a better understanding of the object by considering it from different points of view. Cross-disciplinarity or strong interdisciplinarity involves "situating and stimulating all disciplines against the backdrop of the Light and Life offered by the Wisdom streaming from God’s Revelation." (VG 4c)

6. The dialogue with other disciplines presupposes the dialogue within the ecclesial community, and the awareness of the essentially synodal and communion nature of doing theology. The theologian cannot but be a person of fraternity and communion, at the service of evangelization, and for reaching the hearts of all. [He has to be religiously and morally converted.] "Ecclesial synodality therefore commits theologians to do theology in a synodal form, promoting among themselves the ability to listen, dialogue, discern and integrate the multiplicity and variety of instances and contributions". (Francis, Address to members of the ITC, 24 Nov 2022) It is therefore important that there be places, including institutional ones, in which to live and experience theological collegiality and fraternity. [Crowe had suggested monasteries, and seminars and congresses and workshops preceded by live-ins for praying and sharing and talking together; we could think of ashrams.]

7. The necessary attention to the scientific status of theology must not obscure its sapiential dimension. (S.Th. 1.1.6) For Rosmini, theology was a sublime expression of "intellectual charity"; he wanted the critical reason to be oriented to the Idea of Wisdom, which is a union of Truth and Love. It is impossible to know the truth without practising charity. (Degli studi dell'Autore, nn. 100-111)

"In this way, theology can contribute to the current debate of 'rethinking thought', showing itself to be a true critical knowledge insofar as it is sapiential knowledge, not abstract and ideological, but spiritual, elaborated on its knees, pregnant with adoration and prayer; a transcendent knowledge and, at the same time, attentive to the voice of the people, hence 'popular' theology, mercifully addressing the open wounds of humanity and creation and within the folds of human history, to which it prophesises the hope of an ultimate fulfilment."

8. "This is about the pastoral 'stamp' that theology as a whole, and not only in one particular area, must assume: without opposing theory and practice, theological reflection is urged to develop with an inductive method, which starts from the different contexts and concrete situations in which peoples are inserted, allowing itself to be seriously challenged by reality, to become discernment of the 'signs of the times' in the proclamation of the salvific event of the God-agape, communicated in Jesus Christ." Theology must give privileged place to the commonsense of the people, which is a theological place...

Doing theology and learning theology

I've been trying to reformulate the following from 24 FSDB 04.11.2023 EN, Appendix 7: The program of studies: specific formation of the salesian priest:

A simple theoretical exposition of the tenets of Christian faith will not suffice. There must be a balance between two approaches in theological formation: knowledge leading to a relational experience of God in Christ and the need for propositional knowledge of Christ. In other words, theological education has to integrate faith as kerygma, koinonia, diakonia, martyria and leitourgia, keeping in mind that “the whole tradition of the Church cannot be reduced to the mechanical transmission of inert objects, since it is carried by a living subject and knows a development.”  

A serious hermeneutics of the tradition of the Church and “the current trends of contemporary culture” (VG 72.3) is called for. Among the issues of relevance are certainly the existential peripheries, poverty and migration, the digitalized world, new views about marriage, family and gender, the ecological crisis, the plurality of religions and the range of religious attitudes from extreme fundamentalism to the increasing number of those without religious affiliation or else are simply indifferent to all forms of religion.

The original problem arose from the attempt to translate "the need for propositional knowledge of Christ" into Italian. One does not easily say "conoscenza proposizionale" in Italian, says Silvio Roggia. Cloe Taddei-Ferretti suggested "conoscenza di Cristo attraverso proposizioni". 

Perhaps I just need to reformulate the two paragraphs.

I have been dipping into Lonergan, first to find how "propositional truth" has been translated into Italian, and then asking myself: how would Lonergan talk about the teaching / learning of theology? 

I've dipped into "Christ as Subject: A Reply" (CWL 4:153-184); "The Dehellenization of Dogma" (13:11-30); "Questionnaire on Philosophy: Response" 17:352-383); "The Response of the Jesuit as Priest and Apostle in the Modern World" (13:140ff). Also a bit into Method in Theology (CWL 14).

Reading "The Response of the Jesuit as Priest and Apostle in the Modern World" (CWL 13:140ff), I am struck by the structure of the text: (1) Authenticity, (2) The Spirit, (3) The Word, (4) Sending.

I had never noticed the two missions there, in sections 2 and 3: the Spirit and the Word.

And then the Church, in section 3. "The gift of the Spirit can be everywhere at once, but the challenge of the Word radiates to the ends of the earth only through human mediation." (CWL 13:148)

See "Questionnaire on Philosophy: Response" (CWL 17:358): In the Christian religion as lived but not yet thematized there may be distinguished three moments: (1) the ontic present of God's love flooding our hearts through the Holy Spirit he has given us; (2) the objective past in which God's revelation of his love to us through Christ Jesus has been mediated down the ages by the ongoing Christian community; (3) the eschatological consummation and, on the way, the command and the duty to preach the gospel to every class in every culture. 

Doing theology = mediating between a cultural matrix and the significance and role of a religion in that matrix. (CWL 14:3)

Teaching or learning theology: what is it? I guess it is moving from the Christian religion as lived, and as lived with a largely symbolic thematization (scripture, catechism, doctrine) to a properly theological thematization. "A Christian theology thematizes the Christian religion on the level of the times in which the theology is composed." (17:358)

That thematization, for an ordinary student of theology in the first cycle, would involve thematizing his own lived experience (the gift of God's love, the presence of the Holy Spirit in his life), in interaction with the objective past and present mediation by the Christian community of the revelation of God's love in Jesus. 

There is no "individual experience" hermetically sealed from the experience of others in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions, so lived experience includes one's own experience in interaction with that of others. Theology will help one to access one's own experience and enlarge "that of others" to include "the tradition" as well as "the current trends of contemporary culture." (see the Ratio text above)

Reading: Francis, "Ad theologiam provendam" (2023). (See the blog entry of 10.11.2023)

Formulation:

The study of theology in preparation for the Salesian priesthood cannot be a question of merely studying abstract formulae and schemes of the past with no effort to connect them to one's own experience of faith and to the places and times in which one is living. 

The study of theology involves appropriating the faith as lived in the past and in the present in order to deepen one's own faith, and to serve God's people, especially the young. Formation in mission involves also, therefore, theologizing in mission: the young to whom we are sent and our mission to them must enter into our study and our reflection: "For you I study", just as it enters into our prayer. Theology, apostolic experiences, prayer, all must flow together. 

A serious hermeneutics of Scripture, tradition and “the current trends of contemporary culture” (VG 72.3) is called for. Among the issues of relevance are certainly the existential peripheries, poverty and migration, the digitalized world, new views about marriage, family and gender, the ecological crisis, the plurality of religions and the range of religious attitudes from extreme fundamentalism to the increasing number of those without religious affiliation or else are simply indifferent to all forms of religion.

From Mark T. Miller, 11.11.2023:

Wow, I can't think of something that has all of those things.  I'm still looking though. Here's two good ones I've found so far in Method, 1973 red edition, p. 278:

It may be objected that nihil amatum nisi praecognitum. But while that is true of other human love, it need not be true of the love with which God floods our hearts through the Holy Spirit he has given us (Rom. 5, 5). That grace could be the finding that grounds our seeking God through natural reason and through positive religion. It could be the touchstone by which we judge whether it is really God that natural reason reaches⁵ or positive religion preaches. It could be the grace that God offers all men, that underpins what is good in the religions of mankind, that explains how those that never heard the gospel can be saved. It could be what enables the simple faithful to pray to their heavenly Father in secret even though their religious apprehen­sions are faulty. Finally, it is in such grace that can be found the theological justification of Catholic dialogue with all Christians, with non-Christians, and even with atheists who may love God in their hearts while not knowing him with their heads.

Here's a longer one from Method 326-27:

There are two ways in which the unity of the faith may be conceived. On classicist assumptions there is just one culture. That one culture is not attained by the simple faithful, the people, the natives, the barbarians. None the less, career is always open to talent. One enters upon such a career by diligent study of the ancient Latin and Greek authors. One pursues such a career by learning Scholastic philosophy and theology. One aims at high office by becoming proficient in canon law. One succeeds by winning the approbation and favor of the right personages. Within this set-up the unity of faith is a matter of everyone subscribing to the correct formulae.

Such classicism, however , was never more than the shabby shell of Catholicism. The real root and ground of unity is being in love with God—the fact that God’s love has flooded our inmost hearts through the Holy Spirit he has given us (Rom. 5, 5). The acceptance of this gift both constitutes religious conversion and leads to moral and even intellectual conversion.

Further, religious conversion, if it is Christian, is not just a state of mind and heart. Essential to it is an intersubjective, interpersonal component. Besides the gift of the Spirit within, there is the outward encounter with Christian witness. That witness testifies that of old in many ways God has spoken to us through the prophets but in this latest age through his Son (Heb. I, 1.2).

Thirdly, the function of church doctrines lies within the func­tion of Christian witness. For the witness is to the mysteries revealed by God and, for Catholics, infallibly declared by the church. The meaning of such declarations lies beyond the vicissitudes of human historical process. But the contexts, within which such meaning is grasped, and so the manner, in which such meaning is expressed, vary both with cultural differences and with the measure in which human consciousness is differentiated.

Fred Lawrence for the Ratio

I thought of reading Fred Lawrence for the Ratio, thinking of his brilliant phrases: the self that is only eschatologically itself; the divine reversal of the habitual recoil of the self into massive possessiveness; the subject that is not completely master of itself (the authenticity of the subject or lack of it cannot ever be brought completely into the foreground - our course is in the night, our control only rough and approximate)... (see my new file, LAWRENCE anthropology notes, for now in the Revision of the Ratio folder...)

Lawrence / Lonergan's anthropology is complex. is that complexity missing in the Ratio? Given that Lawrence's complexity only reflects the complexity of life and a world in which grace is offered, accepted or rejected, in a multitude of subjects, societies, cultures over time and space, perhaps not. But how to introduce it? 

One obvious element: Lawrence insists on the three conversions, and not only on moral and religious conversion. 

 

Analogy

Mauro Mantovani, "L'analogia 'tomista': tra fonti, interpretazioni e nuove richerche." Salesianum 84/3 (2022) 433-460.

The following bibliography is from his note 3.

F.A. Blance, L'analogie," Revue de Philosophie 23 (1923) 248-271.

N. Balthasar, "L'abstraction et l'analogie de l'être," Estudios Franciscanos 34 (1924) 166-216.

R. McInerny, Studies in Analogy (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1968).

S.M. Ramírez, De analogia, 4 vols. Madrid: CSIC, 1970-1972.

P. Secretan, L'analogie. Paris: PUF, 1984.

B. Pinchard, Métaphysique et sémantique (la signification analogiques des termes dan les principes mathématiques). Paris: Vrin, 1987.

E. Przywara. Analogia entis. Paris: PUF, 1990.

A. de Murault. Néoplatonisme et aristotélisme dans la métaphysique médiévale. Analogie, causalité, participation. Paris: Vrin, 1995.

R.M.W. Stamberger. On analogy. An Essay Historical and Systematic. New York: P. Lang, 1995.

V. Melchiorre. La via analogica. Milano: Vita e Pensiero, 1996.

J. Gambra, La analogia en general. Síntesis tomista de Santiago Ramírez. Pamplona: Eunsa, 2002. 20-70.

J.F. Courtine. Inventio analogiae. Métaphysique et ontothéologie. Paris: Vrin, 2005.

A. Pérez de Laborda, ed. Jornada sobre analogía. Madrid: Publicaciones de la Facultad de Teología "San Dámaso", 2006.

T. Tyn. Metafisica della sostanza. Partecipazione e analogia entis. Verona: Fede & Cultura, 2009.

F. Moretti. Il pensiero di Dio. L'analogia nella teologia occidentale. Milano: Mimesis, 2019.

M. Beuchot Puente. "Acerca de una hermenéutica analógica," Per la filosofia. Filosofia e insegnamento 37 (2020) n. 108, 119-127.

Mantovani's own book is in the press:

M. Mantovani. L'analogia tomista nell'interpretazione di alcuni autori della cosidetta 'seconda Scolastica'. to be published.

He has other bibliography in the rest of the article; I guess these are the "new" interpretions he mentions in the title of his article. I noticed abundant references to A. Alessi. J.F. Wippel, L.B. Geiger (1942), C. Fabro (2005), A. Contat (2017), B. Mondin, and Klubertanz (2009) are also mentioned.

See my own article, which contains a slightly different bibliography, deriving probably from Henrici's course at the Greg (cited in the article).

Ivo Coelho,“Analogy.” ACPI Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ed. Johnson J. Puthenpurackal. Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2010. 1:64-68.  

Benedict XVI: the doctrine of analogy of St Thomas is the basis for any human discourse about divinity. Audiene of 16 June 2010. (Mantovani 460)

B. Mondin: the Thomist doctrine of analogy is of perennial value. contemporary scholars of religious language (Ramsey, Ferré, Mascall, Bochenski) show that it is the best response to the positivists, existentialists, linguistic analysts, who claim that religious language has no objective signification or meaning. (Mantovani 460)

[Missing ... the author I used in Philosophy of God... what's his name. The chap of the three fortresses.]

Wittgenstein, Private Notebooks 1914-1916

Private Notebooks 1914-1916 by Ludwig Wittgenstein review – sex and logic

Translated into English for the first time, these diaries provide a glimpse into the innermost thoughts of a great philosopher

Anil Gomes, The Guardian, Wednesday, 18 May 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/anil-gomes

Ludwig Wittgenstein joined the army the day after his native Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia in August 1914. He had been serving for almost three months when he received word that his brother Paul, a concert pianist, had lost his right arm in battle. “Again and again,” he wrote in his notebook, “I have to think of poor Paul, who has so suddenly been deprived of his vocation! How terrible! What philosophical outlook would it take to overcome such a thing? Can it even happen except through suicide!”

Wittgenstein was an unusual philosopher. He became obsessed with the foundations of logic while an engineering student and presented himself to Bertrand Russell in Cambridge, ready to solve all its problems. His intent was to provide an account of logic that was free from paradox and his solution came in the form of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, sent to Russell from the Italian prisoner-of-war camp in which Wittgenstein was held at the end of the first world war.

The Tractatus is written as a series of numbered propositions, closer in form to modernist poetry than philosophical treatise. Its central ideas can be traced back to the notebooks Wittgenstein kept during the early years of the conflict. The right-hand side of each spread was used to set out his evolving thoughts on logic and language. The left-hand side was saved for his personal notes, written in a simple code in which the letters of the alphabet were reversed (Z = A, and so on).

It is these private remarks that are published in English here for the first time, edited and translated by Marjorie Perloff. They range from complaints about the other soldiers – “a bunch of swine! No enthusiasm for anything, unbelievable crudity, stupidity & malice!” – to the number of times he masturbates (“Yesterday, for the first time in 3 weeks”). He recounts his depression – “like a stone it presses on my chest. Every duty turns into an unbearable burden” – and his living conditions. These are accompanied by constant updates on how his work is going. And by “work”, he always means philosophy. “Remember how great the blessing of work is!” he writes. This work is the focus; the war, a backdrop.

Wittgenstein’s solution to the problems of logic was largely in place by 1916. And had his contribution to philosophy ended there, the Tractatus might be unknown beyond that particular sub-field. But the book ends with a series of puzzling remarks on ethics, value and the meaning of life – remarks that Wittgenstein thought central to his project but which both confused and frustrated his first readers. It is here that the Notebooks tantalise. For in the material on the left-hand pages Wittgenstein first begins to reflect on the inner self, on God’s presence in the world, on what is required for life to make sense. It can sometimes seem irrelevant to the discussion of logic taking place on the right-hand side. “Have thought a great deal about all sorts of things,” he writes, “but curiously enough cannot establish their connection to my mathematical train of thought.”

He has the obsessive focus of a philosophical genius – one who thinks constantly about his work, even under enemy fire

And then in 1916, facing death on the frontline, the connection is forged. Paradox in logic arises when you try to say those things that can only be shown. But that applies equally to God, the self and meaning. As he writes on a left-hand page, “What cannot be said, cannot be said”. The purview of ethics, like the purview of logic, lies outside the realm of what can be stated in language. And thus we get to the seventh and final statement of the Tractatus: whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

For those who know the Tractatus, there is some interest in seeing how concerns that start life among the personal remarks slowly drift over to the facing page. For those who do not care about these details, there is interest in seeing first-hand the obsessive focus of a philosophical genius – one who thinks constantly about his work, even under enemy fire. When he writes of “laying siege”, it is to philosophical problems; when he wants to “spill [his] blood before this fortress”, it is in the context of logic.

Even the masturbation is hard to separate from the philosophy: it happens when work is going well. For Wittgenstein, it seems, masturbation and philosophy are both expressions of living in the face of death.

Perloff sees allusion to sexual affairs in some of Wittgenstein’s taciturn remarks. He records evening visits to the baths in Kraków and notes, somewhat matter-of-factly at the start of a new year, that “my moral standing is now much lower than it was at Easter”. More affecting is his unambiguous love and desire for his Cambridge friend David Pinsent. “A letter from David!! I kissed it. Answered right away.” Pinsent didn’t survive the war. He was a test pilot in Farnborough and died in an accident in May 1918. The Tractatus – one of the most significant works in 20th-century philosophy – is dedicated to his memory.

 Private Notebooks 1914-1916 is published by WW Norton (£18.99). To support the Guardian and the Observer buy a copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.