Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
He couldn't resist the dig for the artwork being used for the Pope's upcoming visit to the UK: I swear, the Catholic Church in this country is incapable of designing anything that doesn’t feature Pentecostal flames that look as if they’ve been copied from a 30-year-old album cover. I’m sure the Holy Father will be …
Continue reading "Note to Damian Thompson: Lay Off the Old Album Covers"
From his Commentary on the Apostles' Creed (36-38): Whence also the Apostle says, "All Scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable for instruction." And therefore it seems proper in this place to enumerate, as we have learned from the tradition of the Fathers, the books of the New and of the Old Testament, which, …
This, from his Homilies on the Gospel 28, is just too much like our own time: There was long life and health, material prosperity, growth of population and the tranquillity of daily peace, yet while the world was flourishing in itself, in their hearts it had withered away. Our epitaph also? Translation from Donald Dudley's …
Continue reading "Gregory the Great on Rome (and Perhaps Us) Prepared to Decline"
This is the last part of this magnificent sermon. The introduction is here, and the first point is here. Basically, Christians, in this oblivion of both God and herself into which she is plunged, the great God knows where to find her. He has heard her voice, at his pleasure, amid the noise of the …
The beginning of the sermon, with an introduction and links to the second point, is here. Man, which you see bonded to himself by his self-esteem, was not created with this defect. In the beginning, God made him in his image, and the name of the image that was proclaimed was not for himself. An …
There is simply no preacher of the Word who has the stature in English literature that Jaques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704) has in French. Although he is best known for his funeral orations and some of his polemical works, IMHO his best works are his devotional books such as Elevations on the Mysteries and the magnificent Meditations …
I've always been a strong advocate of patristic studies. That's not an easy advocacy in Evangelical Christianity, but it's one that needs to be made. It's not always easy in Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy either, because the Fathers of the Church--or more precisely those who wrote and, as we learn here, preached, during the Roman …
At the end of an otherwise interesting post, James Gibson at Sanctus makes the following parting shot: The visceral reaction against the Manhattan Declaration is a case study in the evangelical ghetto mentality. Born in ignorance, it grows into bigotry and a most un-Christlike lack of charity. If he was fishing for understanding, he needs …
Continue reading "Are People Who Don't Like the Manhattan Declaration Necessarily Bigots?"
Linking the three temptations of Jesus in the wilderness with the three major lusts outlined in 1 John 2 has a long history in Christian preaching. Here is an example from Augustine's second homily on 1 John, with some bullet points for clarity: These three (temptations) there are, and you can find nothing whereby human …
Continue reading "Augustine on the Temptations of Jesus and the Three Major Lusts"
Another gem from Jerome's Homilies on the Psalms, this time Psalm 84 (from here): “How lovely are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!” The sole ambition of some people is to possess property; others long to be enriched with the wealth of the world; still others wish to hold prominent places at conventions and be …
Continue reading "The Greatest Ambition: Jerome on Psalm 84"
Positive Infinity 