idiom:

a phrase or expression that has a figurative meaning.  Categorized as formulaic language, an idiom's figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning.

 

ego habeo factum:

Latin, I have done

 

excelsior:

Latin comparative word, meaning "ever upwards" or "even higher"

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Russian (prime symbol):

the prime symbol of any Culture is the unique master image from which all other manifestations or symbols (the Macrocosm) are based on.  In this case Spengler is stating the Russian Culture’s  prime symbol is the limitless plains.

 

Nechludov: * see EndNote<A>

the hero of Tolstoy’s  novel Resurrection; a Russian nobleman seeking redemption for a sin committed years earlier (sleeping with a maid led to her sacking & eventual work as a prostitute).  Years later he is on a jury which sentences the maid to prison in Siberia for murder.  He tries to help & visits her in prison, where he discovers a world of cruelty, injustice & suffering (invisible to his own social class).  Nechludov represents an egocentric person indifferent to the suffering of others.  Some have speculated that Nechludov is an autobiographic representation of the author himself. 

and see Tolstoy Chapter I page 24

 

Tolstoy:

Tolstoy was heavily influenced by the 19th century American Christian abolitionist Adin Ballou, a man highly critical of the state & government, who preached that a new order would replace them.  In this new order individuals were to be guided solely by their love for God, an idea Tolstoy adopted whole heartedly.  Tolstoy sought to separate Russian Orthodox Christianity (a state church) from what he believed was the true message of Jesus as contained in the Gospels, specifically in the Sermon on the Mount.  He believed that all governments who wage war, and churches who in turn support those governments, are an affront to the Christian principles of nonviolence.   

 

pseudomorphosis:

A term Spengler coins, it is the merging of 2 inherently different Cultures.   In this case Spengler is referring to the Faustian & Russian Cultures, suggesting that Russian Culture has been flooded with the more powerful but older Faustian Culture.  The end result is a pseudomorphosis, a Culture which comes from Russian lands but which shares many characters unique to Faustian Culture.  Spengler also uses this term to describe the relation between the younger Faustian Culture & the much older Magian Civilization in the first centuries of AD (late Roman Empire). 

 

Petrinism: * see EndNote<B>

A singular characteristic of the Orthodox Church (of Russia, Greece).  The Eastern Orthodox church granted primacy to Peter, but primacy of honour NOT a political right to exercise pastoral authority (as was promoted in the West by Rome).  The Eastern Orthodox Church regards both Peter, together with Paul, as "preeminent apostles".  Peter as the icon of the episcopate, with his title of protos (first), has authority over the other apostles.  In this view, the Church is the local Eucharistic assembly (the local diocese NOT a global community) & the one who holds the "Chair of Peter" is the bishop.  The primacy of Peter is relevant to the relationship between the bishop and the presbyters (high officers of the diocese, elders or priests) BUT not between the bishop of Rome and the other bishops who are all equally holding Peter's chair.  St Cyprian of Carthage argued that See of Peter" being present in every local Church, and not only in Rome. 

 

Raskolnikov: * see EndNote<C>

fictional protagonist of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment by (published1866). He is an impoverished young ex-law student in Saint Petersburg, handsome & intelligent, though disliked by fellow students.  He finds it hard paying rent & lives in poverty.  He is devoted to his sister and his mother.  He decides to kill a corrupt pawnbroker, with the idea of using her money to start his life all over & help those in need.  He also commits murder as justification for his pride, as he wants to prove that he is "exceptional" (in the way Napoleon was).  In committing the murder he is nervous & makes mistakes & fears he will be caught.  His real failure is that he lacks the conviction of his beliefs to accomplish greatness & so declines into madness.  He confesses to the destitute but pious prostitute Sofya who guides him towards confession.  He is sentenced to exile in Siberia, accompanied by Sofya, where he experiences a mental and spiritual rebirth.  He is best seen as two characters.  He often acts in contradictory fashions.  His intellectual side is bound up in his theory of the extraordinary man; if he is to be extraordinary, he must be able to stand alone, without human companionship or being influenced by others.   The other side of his character is the warm, compassionate side.  His first reaction to any situation represents this aspect of his personality.  Consequently, he will often act in a warm, friendly, charitable, or humane manner, but once he has had a chance to think over his actions intellectually, he regrets them.

 

τήν έαυτού  ψυχήν:

ancient Greek, of the soul itself

 

Son of Man:

the title of God's messiah, destined to preside over the final judgment of humankind; it reflects  a father/son relation.  Spengler contests this particular meaning & title for Jesus.  He provides in footnote 4 the Hebrew word “Barnasha” which is used in the Old Testament numerous times.  As interpreted by Jews, "son of man" denotes mankind generally in contrast to deity or godhead, with special reference to their weakness and frailty.  The word is less a special title for Jesus, and more a connotation of humanity in general.  Scholars (agreeing with Spengler) have concluded that that Jesus, speaking Aramaic, never have designated himself with the title "son of man" in a Messianic, mystic sense, because the Aramaic term never implied this meaning.

 

Consensus of the Orthodox:

reference to the Russian Orthodox church

 

Jan van Eyck:

see Chapter VIII page 272

 

Marees:

see Chapter VII page 244

 

νούs:

ancient Greek, English meaning is nous; in Greek philosophy this is mind or intellect; in Neo-Platonism it is the first & purest emanation of the One, regarded as the self-contemplating order of the universe.

 

θυμός:

ancient Greek, meaning anger, wrath, ire; Spengler associates the Greek word with ahistoric animal impulse

 

έπιθυμία:

ancient Greek, meaning wish, longing, yearning; Spengler associates the Greek word with ahistoric vegatative impulse