Matter, your own living flesh and blood or the bread and wine brought to the altar, is an essential element of any Christian Sacrament. More than that, it’s the most concrete part of a sacramental world. Even non-sacramental Christians accept baptism as a Sacrament though perhaps refusing to use the term, but I’m going to … [Read more…]
An Overview of What I’m Up To I’ve tried to concentrate on the general speculative, or `metaphysical’, task of making sense of created being, abstract as well as concrete, in light of Christian beliefs. I’ve tried to avoid too much in the way of theological speculation and certainly have and will avoid questioning the basic … [Read more…]
In his spiritual biography of John Henry Newman, The Spiritual Journey of Newman, Fr Jean Honore (a future cardinal and Archbishop and member of the committee which supervised the writing of the Catechism of the Catholic Church) told us that Newman had seen the problems the Church (and all Christian churches—in my opinion) was having … [Read more…]
I distort for the sake of modern men who have trouble focusing upon reality. Apes are our cousins, not our ancestors; the terms used for the common ancestors of men and ape seem to change every few years or so. And those ancestors were only killers part of the time, perhaps less often than modern … [Read more…]
Scientific American published an article about research on the relationship between prayer and cure of diseases: Scientists Find One Source of Prayer’s Power. The results seem plausible and the interpretation of the results emphasize the natural but don’t deny the possibility of the supernatural. I’m probably more inclined to deny the supernatural when it comes … [Read more…]
In his catechesis for the general audience of 2013/10/02, Pope Francis had this to say: The Church is holy because “she comes from God Who is holy, Who is faithful to her and never abandons her to the power of death and evil. She is holy because Jesus Christ, Saint of God, is indissolubly united … [Read more…]
From a simple intellectual viewpoint, the problem with “cafeteria Catholics” is that they don’t think in terms of a God of reason, in terms of a Creation which is a well-ordered multitude and unity of manifestations of divine reason. Of course, if they were to place their thoughts and feelings and behaviors in better order, … [Read more…]
Those who have been following the Obamacare mandate mess will know of the prayers of American-Catholics, led by their bishops, for religious liberty. Apparently, the religious liberty, even the very lives, of Syrian Christians is of little interest, nor were the liberties and lives of the Christians living in other ancient communities which have been … [Read more…]
[While working on an ebook containing a large number of my weblog posting, I decided this article, The Christian in the Universe of Einstein: 6. Adopting the Techniques of Negative Theology to Physics and Metaphysics, first published under that ugly title on 2007/03/09, provides a good summary of some of the fundamental, metaphysical aspects of … [Read more…]
There is an argument of sorts being conducted in the Catholic Church between those who think the Fathers of the Vatican Council II erred in claiming God grants religious freedom to human beings and those who think Truth must always be served by…well, by serving some established view of the Truth. See Religious Freedom. Was … [Read more…]