Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Everything is different in China: Under the breakthrough, Pope Francis recognized the legitimacy of seven bishops appointed by the Chinese government. Because they had not been selected by the Vatican, they had previously been excommunicated. For centuries, the monarchs of Europe exercised authority in the choice of bishops in their realm. The triumph of Ultramontanism …
Continue reading "Bringing Back “La Regale” in the Middle Kingdom"
The Old Grey Lady weighs in on Pope Francis' death penalty ukase by invoking the commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill": Pope Francis’s condemnation of capital punishment is simple and unambiguous: It is inadmissible. No exceptions for especially heinous crimes; no loopholes allowing execution when other lives might be in jeopardy, as in past Catholic teachings. …
Continue reading "Sometimes Doing No Murder Can Get You in Trouble"
His canonisation is being considered: Is he or is he not on the road to being canonized? In the coming weeks, the fate of Gilbert Keith Chesterton will be known. Soon, all eyes will turn upon Canon John Udris as he presents his written report to the bishop of Northampton, England, with, thereafter, a decision …
Continue reading "Chesterton to be Canonised? Bossuet Hasn’t Been Either"
The history of the Twentieth Century is one written in blood. Between two world wars, the procession of genocides from Armenia to Stalin to the Holocaust, China and the Killing Fields, millions seemed to vanish for causes that are better hated than understood. Is there one conflict that we can look at than encapsulates the …
Continue reading "Why the Spanish Civil War is Still Important"
In all of their glorification of the "giants of the faith," evangelicals either overlook or ignore the fact that same giants were usually far better versed in the classics of antiquity than is common today.  To some extent this is understandable: study of these works has taken a beating the last fifty years, and we …
Continue reading "Scourged and Crucified: A Good Friday Reflection"
This series from Jaques-Benigne Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, and specifically the Fifth Day, is complete. The table of contents for this is below. There is more here on the Bossuet Project. The snake. The temptation. Eve is attacked before Adam. The tempter proceeds by underhanded questioning to first produce a doubt. Answer of Eve …
Continue reading "Bossuet: Elevations On The Temptation And Fall Of Man"
This is one in a series from Jaques-Benigne Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, and specifically the Fifth Day. There is more here on the Bossuet Project. But the great penalty of sin, which alone is proportionate, is eternal death, and this punishment of sin is locked up in sin itself; for sin being nothing other …
Continue reading "Elevations On The Temptation And Fall Of Man: 16, Eternal death."
This is one in a series from Jaques-Benigne Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, and specifically the Fifth Day. There is more here on the Bossuet Project. In the day that you eat the forbidden fruit, you will die of death. In the very end you will die of the death of the soul, which will …
Continue reading "Elevations On The Temptation And Fall Of Man: 15, Death, true punishment of sin."
This is one in a series from Jaques-Benigne Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, and specifically the Fifth Day. There is more here on the Bossuet Project. And God said, Give in to Adam, who has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Let us take care, then, that one may put his hand …
This is one in a series from Jaques-Benigne Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, and specifically the Fifth Day. There is more here on the Bossuet Project. And the Lord God made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. Man becomes not only mortal, but exposed, by his mortality, to all the …
Positive Infinity 