Sep
30
Heretics
September 30, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Probably the craziest religion-oriented website I’ve ever seen is that of the self-styled “Most Holy Family Monastery” of Fillmore, NY. To hear these folks tell it, they are the only genuine Catholics left on the planet: literally everyone else has fallen into heresy. Some of us have fallen into particularly grave heresies, such as wanting [...]
Sep
30
Bisho-whaaaat?
September 30, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Bob Sungenis, falling all over himself to try to keep the funds rolling into his Catholic Apologetics International, offers a rambling cri de coeur cum mea culpa, during the course of which he declares:
Third, the present prelature is God’s ordained authority over us and we should show them the honor and respect they deserve, at [...]
Sep
30
Even Homer Nods….
September 30, 2006 | Leave a Comment
For a long time now I have been attracted to Benedictine spirituality. About a year ago I got myself a copy of the Rule with commentary (Benedict’s Rule: A Translation and Commentary by Terrence G. Kardong, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1996) and have been having a good time working my way through it (for [...]
Sep
30
Anselm on the Temporal and Atemporal
September 30, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Here is a passage from St. Anselm’s De concordia, section 5, that addresses very nicely the assymetry between the temporal and the atemporal that I was talking about in this post.
When St. Paul says that God foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified his saints, none of these actions happen before or after on God’s part. [...]
Sep
25
Strange Words
September 25, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Anyone following the news of the international religion scene these days will be struck by the repeated use of words like “extremist”, “moderate”, “fundamentalist”, “Islamofascist”, and “Islamicist” in connection with Islam. What is usually meant by “extremist”, “fundamentalist”, “Islamofascist”, and “Islamicist”, is somebody who is a Muslim and who wants to do something in the [...]
Sep
23
Only One Creation
September 23, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Speaking of creation (as I was in the previous post), I think it’s worth pondering an interesting but false distinction that is all too common in arguments between evolutionists and creationists. Evolutionists and other scientists claim that creationism cannot count as science because it is untestable–and they are right, but not for the reasons they [...]
Sep
23
History and Creation
September 23, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Paul Halsall of English Eclectic has an interesting post up about how the historian ought to think about creationism. What he says about the possibility that evolution is a material fact that is nonetheless part of a larger metaphysical fact strikes me as just right.
Sep
22
A Bloke Called McCartney
September 22, 2006 | Leave a Comment
I rather enjoyed an item in today’s Wall Street Journal about Paul McCartney’s new choral work, “Ecce cor meum”, forthcoming from EMI next Tuesday. My wife finds him tiresome but I’ve always thought he was a dear, not so much the Handsome Beatle as the Simple Beatle. I’ve liked many of his tunes, things like [...]
Sep
18
Bill Donohue Gets it Right
September 18, 2006 | Leave a Comment
It’s hard not to agree with Catholic League’s president Bill Donohue’s statement on recent anti-Catholic violence among Muslims:
September 18, 2006 MUSLIM REACTION PROVES POPE’S POINT
Catholic League president Bill Donohue addressed today the Muslim reaction to Pope Benedict XVI’s speech at Regensburg University:
“One of the points that the pope made in his speech at Regensburg [...]
Sep
18
Predestination
September 18, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Fr. Al Kimel of Pontifications has a post up on election and predestination that, as usual, has me astounded by its lucidity. (Where was this guy when I was first coming to the faith?) It is principally a discussion of some aspects of James Daane’s book The Freedom of God: A Study of Election and [...]