From the book
The Sophic Hydrolith, Water Stone of the Wise
Anonymous and companion authors · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordNatural incapacity is the condition described when the natural person, with all his powers, is called blind, deaf and dead in spiritual matters.
- In the Sophic HydrolithPart IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 36 defines new birth as inward spiritual renewal with God and Christ, accomplished by the Spirit in holy baptism.
- In this editionThe English keeps 'in no way' and 'solely', preserving the force of the exclusion and its alternative.
- A place to readThe natural person is blind, deaf and dead in spiritual things.
Meaning
Natural incapacity is the condition described when the natural person, with all his powers, is called blind, deaf and dead in spiritual matters. These are figures of inability to generate the required spiritual renewal from oneself. They do not say that a human being lacks bodily senses or ordinary life, and their stated domain, spiritual matters, must remain explicit.
The cluster is immediately opposed to worthiness, merit and own will as supposed causes of renewal. The author does not merely recommend humility after successful self-improvement. He denies that self-originating spiritual power supplies the transition and attributes it solely to the Holy Spirit.
Use in the book
Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 36 defines new birth as inward spiritual renewal with God and Christ, accomplished by the Spirit in holy baptism. The paragraph distinguishes fleshly birth from spiritual birth, and enemies or children of wrath from friends, children, heirs and fellow-partakers. The contrast concerns a changed relation to God, not a replacement of one biological body by another.
Christ's own process—suffering, death, resurrection and ascension—is then identified as opening the way to the eternal fatherland. Believers, named his brothers and sisters, should follow him, grow in humility and virtues, and become conformed to his body. The passage thus contains strong language of conduct and growth alongside the denial of merit. These are not competing alternatives in its argument: the growth belongs to life made possible by the prior saving work.
The closing sentence resolves the relation of human following to divine agency. Such remembrance and following do not proceed from worthiness, merit or self-will. The Spirit is powerful and active through the saving bath of regeneration and baptism. An account that retained only inwardness would lose the named sacramental means; an account that retained only duty would misassign the source of power. The text's negative claim about nature is therefore inseparable from its positive claim about the Spirit's action.
Places to read
- Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 36The natural person is blind, deaf and dead in spiritual things.
Translation
The English keeps 'in no way' and 'solely', preserving the force of the exclusion and its alternative. It also retains 'in spiritual matters' inside the parenthesis on blindness, deafness and death. 'Inward spiritual renewal' is not allowed to replace the twice-named baptism. These details prevent either a purely psychological reading or a merit-based account from being attributed to the source.
Attested forms
blind; taub; tod vnd erstorben; eigen wille