Jan
28
In my previous post I discussed, in a simple and superficial way, what is generally meant by a “free will”. As Apolonio rightly pointed out in a comment, we ought not to confuse the notion of a free will with actions that are merely voluntary. I can assent to an act without willing it, and [...]
Jan
25
Free Will
January 25, 2007 | 3 Comments
In the next few days I plan to write about free will, particularly as the subject is treated in Saint Maximos the Confessor but more generally as a feature of Christian belief. Before I can really get going, however, it will be essential to get clear about the meaning of the key terms involved.
The will [...]
Jan
24
AmChurch and Pelosi
January 24, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Mike Liccione of Sacramentum Vitae often puts things very well. Today he puts the air-headed Alexandra Pelosi in her place extremely well.
Jan
14
Inverse Docetism?
January 14, 2007 | 1 Comment
Fr. Tim Finigan writes one of my favorite blogs, The Hermeneutic of Continuity. Yesterday he wrote a fine piece about Communion on the hand (he’s against it, but although I receive in the hand myself I find there is much to agree with in Fr. Finigan’s post). One thing he wrote struck me as [...]
Jan
13
It’s Incarnation!
January 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment
When I was in graduate school and only just beginning the process of getting myself received into the Catholic Church, I met fairly regularly with Fr. Philip (John) Walsh, a priest of the parish of St. Thomas More in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to discuss matters of the faith. It was he who first suggested [...]
Jan
12
Coming Up To Speed
January 12, 2007 | 2 Comments
Now that I’ve finally gotten the Martyrology back in place, An Examined Life is finally beginning to look pretty much the way it used to look over at Blogger, and I just want to take a moment publicly to thank Lee Anderson for all the help in getting things here up to speed. Lee has [...]
Jan
10
Good Dog, Sammie!
January 10, 2007 | 5 Comments
Did you ever wish that your dog could talk? Ever wonder what he would talk about if he could? I’m not sure it would really be all that interesting, since dogs have a rather limited outlook on life. One of my favorite books when I was a kid was Half Magic by Edward Eager, a [...]
Jan
10
Natural Ends
January 10, 2007 | 7 Comments
In a recent post I described the Church’s traditional view of what I called the “causal structure of the world”. Some of what I had to say there has raised questions for some of my readers, who have asked how it is that one might motivate an argument in favor of such a metaphysics, particularly [...]
Jan
6
The Causal Structure of the World
January 6, 2007 | 14 Comments
Having just concluded one of the most bizarre conversations I’ve ever had on the net over at the old site, I got to thinking about the ways in which logic and metaphysics interact for the Christian. The great British analytic philosopher and devout Roman Catholic Michael Dummett wrote a book in 1978 entitled The Logical [...]
Jan
6
To My Readers (Both of them)
January 6, 2007 | 4 Comments
If you have a blog that was previously blogrolled at the old site (An Examined Life) but do not see it here, I am slowly copying the links from that site to this one and it may take a while. My priority is to copy (a) those blogs of which I approve and (b) those [...]