‘Theology’ Archives
When Great Scientists Make Bad Philosophers…
...Carl Olson does the heavy lifting.
Stupid Headline, Stupid Thoughts
Via Mark Shea, this pearl of a headline: Brain unable to understand existence of God: expert To which I automatically say, "Of course!" But then the article starts, and I do a facepalm: One of the world’s foremost neuroscientists is about to tell some of the world’s foremost theologians the bad news: God may exist, but the human brain [...]
HIGHLY Recommended Viewing
Fr. Barron, more or less on the subject of "love":
Fr. Barron on Blasphemy
+10 to Fr. Barron for incorporating Dylan's recent comments regarding irreverence in an interview for Christmas in the Heart. My two cents: blasphemy in this day and age is boring. Any attempt to provoke prompts a huge yawn from yours truly.
Why I Love the New Encyclical: A Brief Look
More to say on this soon, but here are two major reasons I love Caritas in Veritate: It's acidic to liberals because the Holy Father expresses love in relationship to objective truth, which " men and women to let go of their subjective opinions and impressions, them to move beyond cultural and historical limitations and to come together in [...]
What Really Grinds My Gears: “Vows” vs. “Promises”
A couple times a week, I encounter stories which refer to a priest's "vows." Fair enough. Except for the fact that most priests never take vows, and these stories almost always erroneously apply the term to a diocesan priest. Diocesan priests make "promises," not "vows." As this article sums up nicely: As history unfolded, these priests [...]
From the USCCB’s National Directory for Catechesis
While looking at the challenges to catechesis in the United States, a keen observation: Pragmatism. Another mark of the culture of the United States is pragmatism. A strongly individualistic, philosophical utilitarianism permeates U.S. culture, showing itself in a preoccupation with practical knowledge rather than intellectual knowledge. Many [...]
The Anthropological Relationship to Nature
As irony would have it (in light of my previous lighthearted post), I began taking a seminar on Christian perspectives regarding ecology this week. It's cross-denominational by students and presenters, so we have a number of churches and traditions involved. One of the constantly recurring themes is that of dominion (Gen 1:28). Because the [...]
He is Exactly… Exactly… Exactly Correct.
Fr. Barron on the next generation of the "Catholic commentariat." This explains to perfection why I make natural/systematic theology and philosophy my primary emphasis of study. This is the kind of stuff an educated, growingly skeptical generation needs. This also explains why I have little interest in liturgical/internal Church battles. [...]
In Defense of Univocity
Duns Scotus' doctrine of univocity has been providing us with a lot of lunch table debate these days. Check out a defense of the doctrine (PDF), which may or may not serve as a good introduction to the problem. As for me, I remain noncommital. I still need to read through Scotus (and his interlocutors) in the original. Still, this is [...]
Dominican Disputation
Fr. Philip Neri Powell writes a very informative post explaining early Dominican disputation. If you're at all familiar with St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa, the format will look relatively familiar. To quote one "Master" of sorts: "An elegant weapon for a more civilized age."
