Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
"Well, for openers...where will Christianity be centred? In the U.S.A.? Just think!--by the way, you can read this in Position Paper 6--under the title of 'The USA religiously considered and the American way of life,' as they call it." He gives a summary of the Paper. The United States as a socio-political entity was set …
Continue reading "So Where Should the Centre of Christianity Be? In the United States?"
The Connecticut legislature, for the moment at least, throws in the towel on trying to restructure Roman Catholicism: State legislators have tabled for the rest of the session a controversial bill that would have mandated changes in the corporate structure of parishes and institutions affiliated with the Catholic Church... The proposed bill raised by the …
Continue reading "Regulating How Churches Govern Themselves"
In the summer of 1972, I was making my transition from being an Episcopalian to a Roman Catholic. That transition is commonly referred to today as “swimming the Tiber,” but at the time I was also making another water crossing that, for me, was also very significant: we sold our home in Palm Beach and, …
The world has believed this insignificant group of lowly, unimportant, and uneducated men precisely because the divine character of what happened is more marvellously apparent in the insignificance of such witnesses. What gave power to the preachers who persuaded the world was not the eloquence of the words they uttered, but the miracles of the …
Look, now, at the great virtue called fortitude. Is not its very function—to bear patiently with misfortune—overwhelming evidence that human life is beset with unhappiness, however wise a man may be? It is beyond my comprehension how the Stoics can boldly argue that such ills are not really ills, meanwhile allowing that, if a philosopher …
Continue reading "The Ultimate Good in Life, the Stoics, and the New Atheists"
The city of man, for all of the width of its expansion throughout the world and for all of the depth of its differences in this place and that, is a single community. The simple truth is that the bond of a common nature makes all human beings one. Nevertheless, each individual in this community …
In the case of Cain and Abel, there was no rivalry in any cupidity for the things of earth, nor was there any envy or temptation to murder arising from a fear of losing the sovereignty in both were ruling together. In this case, Abel had no ambition for domination in the city that his …
Continue reading "Evil men hate those who are good for no other reason than that they are good"
Something Anglicans need to remember: Heretics are those who entertain in Christ's Church unsound and distorted ideas and stubbornly refuse, even when warned, to return to what is sound and right, to correct their contagious and death-dealing docrtrines, but go on defending them. When they leave the Church they are ranked as enemies who try …
Continue reading "What Heretics Are For: A Reminder for the Anglicans and the Rest of Us"
Spengler's article on this subject is especially cogent: Like many Jewish prayers, Tevye's prayer to be un-chosen also has become popular among some Catholics. The Catholic Church holds itself to be Israel, the People of God descended from Abraham in the Spirit. But many Catholics, including some in leading positions in the Roman Curia, think …
Continue reading "Pope Benedict Finds Jettisoning Replacement Theology Harder Than It Looks"
N.T. Wright thinks that the Bible can put a new zest into ecumenism, in part because of this: The synod (of Catholic bishops in Rome) was, in effect, inhabiting more fully the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, particularly the document Dei Verbum. Many bishops at the Synod spoke excitedly of the effect of Bible …
Continue reading "N.T. Wright: The Tricky Part Isn’t in Allowing Them to Read the Bible"
Positive Infinity 