Dec
31
Those Pin-Heads Still Tantalize
December 31, 2006 | Leave a Comment
You can tell whether your medieval history professor is any good or not by asking him (or her) whether medieval theologians really debated the question, How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? The lazy ones (history professors, that is), will not know either that the question was not about pin heads [...]
Dec
30
Sabotage by Google
December 30, 2006 | Leave a Comment
There’s a certain danger to making use of the “Ads by Google” feature that is available to users of Blogger and other similar services. Take for example the case of Philokalia Republic, a fine blog run by Kevin Jones who is perfectly sound, as far as I can see, in matters of faith and morals, [...]
Dec
29
Pee Wee Herman Still Holding His Own
December 29, 2006 | Leave a Comment
The Associated Press today has published the results of a poll asking Americans who were the biggest heroes and who were the biggest villains of 2006. Since it was a poll of Americans, George Bush managed to take top honors in both categories, though he won the “Biggest Villain” category by a larger margin than [...]
Dec
27
Real and Notional Assent
December 27, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Early in the year 1870 Blessed John Henry (later to be Cardinal) Newman published An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, a work that has had both many detractors and fewer, though not a few, admirers in the intervening 136 years since its appearance. In that Essay he drew a distinction between two [...]
Dec
25
Back to the (for me) Source
December 25, 2006 | Leave a Comment
In the course of working through some of the issues involved in doctrinal development I have been reminded again and again of Blessed John Henry Newman’s contribution to this topic in his An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent. A commenter on one of my earlier posts complained that it sometimes seems as [...]
Dec
25
Die 25 decembris, octavo Kalendas ianuarii, luna 5.
December 25, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Innumeris transactis saeculis a creatione mundi, quando in principio Deus creavit caelum et terram et hominem formavit ad imaginem suam; permultis etiam saeculis, ex quo post diluvium Altissimus in nubibus arcum posuerat, signum foederis et pacis; a migratione Abrahae, patris nostri in fide, de Ur Chaldaeorum saeculo vigesimo primo; ab egressu populi Israel de Aegypto, [...]
Dec
22
Take Back What is Ours
December 22, 2006 | Leave a Comment
There is a movement afoot to get Holy Wisdom returned to the Christians (see the website here). It’s tilting at windmills, but it’s a great idea, and one cannot help but hope and pray for it, even while knowing that the Turks will never let it happen.
Dec
22
Just What Is the Principle of the Development of Doctrine, Anyway?
December 22, 2006 | Leave a Comment
In a singularly unhelpful comment on the running dialogue regarding the Principle of the Development of Doctrine (PDD), one reader suggested that, if I am right about development being Non-ampliative, then we might as well replace the Magisterium with a computer. To say such a thing is to simultaneously misunderstand the nature of deductive reasoning [...]
Dec
20
When Metaphysics Trumps Epistemology
December 20, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Two Gospel readings in a row (yesterday’s and today’s) from Luke contrast for us the difference between Zachariah’s response to God’s message and Mary’s. When I first converted I often wondered what the difference was supposed to be–why was God so much harder on poor old Zachariah than on Mary? Something about humble acceptance of [...]
Dec
20
Again With the Non-ampliative Inference!
December 20, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Mike Liccione of Sacramentum Vitae has taken issue with my post Further Notes on Ampliative and Non-ampliative Inference. In particular, he wants to dispute my claim that doctrine always develops, when it develops, in accordance with deductive rather than inductive principles. If he is right, then doctrine will develop ampliatively (in my sense of [...]
