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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Two phrases occurred to me while entering a post that I felt was probably not really going to add anything of value. The first was “teaching your grandmother to suck eggs”, which I have put on ewein’s “new posters” thread. The second was “a work of supererogation”, which I had always believed meant doing something that was unnecessary as it had been done already, but differently. The dictionary, however, gives it as a term used in the Roman Catholic Church and defines it as a contribution to a reserve fund of merit that can be drawn upon in favour of sinners (I take this to be a fund of good deeds or gladly suffered misfortune rather than a fund of money). This is so far from what I had believed that I am baffled. Please, can anyone help me out here?
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
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I didn't know it had a fancy name, but i know the concept.
as a child, if i complained, that "yard duty" or "eraser duty" or some other chore was difficult, (its too sunny, and hot, I'm all chalk covered and coughing..") we were told to suffer it gladly, and offer up our sacrafice to save some other soul, a deceased aunt, or grandparent.
Our good deeds, could help speed their way from purgatory, a holding place were human could atone for all earthy sins they forgot to confess, and be absolved off, before they could enter heaven.
So we were encourage to "offer up" our simple earthy suffering, to releive the more exquistly painful suffering of those in purgertory.
its actually quite effective.. instead of focusing on your own discomfort, you focus on easing other pain.. a reframe of what you were doing..
but you need to check with WOW--she is the one who really paid attention in class.. i have fallen so far from what the catholic church considers a state of grace, i am almost on first names basis with the devil!
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Here's something from the 1911 Britannica that should add nothing but confusion to the topic:
SUPEREROGATION
tendency to death from heart failure, rest in the rectimbent position, the use of diffusible stimulants, such as ammonia or ether, &c., together with friction or warmth applied to the extremities, are the means to be adopted. Where, on the other hand, the symptoms are those 01 apoplexy or of hyperpyrexia, by far the most successful results are obtained by the use of cold (the cold affusion, rubbing the surface with ice, enemata of ice-cold water).
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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David, I gather that you're asking how this word made the transition from a reserve fund of merit to something that is unnecessary. well, it's through our old friend transferral. take a look at a more complete definition and it becomes a little more clear:
1. a. R. C. Theol. The performance of good works beyond what God commands or requires, which are held to constitute a store of merit which the Church may dispense to others to make up for their deficiencies.
b. transf. and gen. Performance of more than duty or circumstances require; doing more than is needed.
(so then Roget dumps it into a category called redundancy, and it gets lumped with superfluity :)
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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For "supererogate" my dictionary says simply 'to do more than is required or expected'. So the cup "full measure. pressed down, and running over" is supererogatory.
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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dr. bill, that was a supererogatory addition.
-ron (consider the root, erogation) obvious
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear tsuwm: only to a superecclesiast.
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Joined: Aug 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Do not fault him for the slip-up, tsuwm; recognize the supralapsarian nature of the lapse. [I'll leave the Ambrose Bierce reference for you, tsuwm.  ]
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
A good exposition, Helen. Another view:
Article XIV of the 39 Articles of Religion, adopted by the Church of England at the Reformation, reads as follows:
Of Works of Supererogation.
Voluntary Works besides, over and above, God's Commandments, which they call Works of Supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety; for by them men do declare, that they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do more for his sake, than of bounden duty is required: whereas Christ saith plainly, When ye have done all that are commanded to you, say, We are unprofitable servants.
Those old divines didn't mince words. (Some of the other Articles are more blunt and uncomplimentary.) Of course, those were the days when people killed each other, often in most unpleasant ways, over niceties of dogma.
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