You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. [Big Yellow Taxi, Joni Mitchell.] As Western Civilization is decaying, we still don’t know what we had and there’s a good reason for that. As I’ve stated repeatedly, a civilization is mostly inside of its members: our understanding of ourselves and others, of Creation and Creator. … [Read more…]
Let me expand upon the title: Self-government isn’t government structure, it’s a claim for (positive) rights successfully made by a morally well-ordered population; that is, a claim for rights not magically granted to us but earned by real-world efforts and made possible by a bit of luck. We, the American people and our government, can’t … [Read more…]
Introduction On 2017/04/20, Judge Andrew Napolitano published: What if We Don’t Really Govern Ourselves?, a simple and coherent article questioning whether democracy exists in the United States and whether democracy is, in any case, an absolute good or an answer to our various political problems. Napolitano’s essay is in the form of questions which move … [Read more…]
My hope is to hook up with some human beings or foundations who would like to help me to continue constructing an intellectually and empirically respectable worldview for sacramental Christians. The established Christian intellectual and artistic institutions aren’t nearly doing the job. I addressed this issue in a post back in 2014: We Need All … [Read more…]
We Are the Image of God, Except When that Requires Effort on Our Part At an Easter Vigil Mass (RC), I was a lector—5th reading. That reading is from the book of the prophet Isaiah and includes these lines: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. … [Read more…]
Far too often, Christians—including some who should know better—claim that: Christianity is simple; just follow Christ’s teaching of loving your neighbor and doing good for him. Baloney. For reference, this is the link to the creed, Profession of Faith, used in the Catholic Mass on Sundays and other Holy Days: Profession of Faith used in … [Read more…]
The title of this essay refers to a book I recently published, The Shape of Reality. That book is an effort to move forward in our understanding of created being, perhaps even move forward a little in our understanding of the Triune God of Jesus Christ. That book builds upon my understanding of created being, … [Read more…]
In a recent article, Sacred Music. An Appeal To Restore Hearing To the Deaf, the Italian Catholic journalist, Sandro Magister, writes of criticism by musicians and musician-scholars of the loss of tradition in the liturgical music in the Roman Catholic Church: “This disdain for Gregorian chant and traditional repertoires is one sign of a much … [Read more…]
[This essay is a lightly edited chapter from my upcoming book, The Shape of Reality, a book which should be posted on my weblog by the end of March and maybe the middle of March.] From 2006 to the present, I’ve been writing about the need to make peace with empirical reality. This is not … [Read more…]
[This essay is a lightly edited chapter from my upcoming book, The Shape of Reality, a book which should be posted on my weblog by the end of March and maybe the middle of March.] What is truth? Not so ridiculous a question as some would have it, certainly those who don’t understand how difficult … [Read more…]