Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog

"Light of the World" blog

A blog has been set up for posting news, interviews, commentary, and anything else relating to Pope Benedict XVI's book, Light of the World: http://lightoftheworldbook.blogspot.com

I'll continue to post information and links here on Insight Scoop, but will also be pointing folks toward the new blog when it seems appropriate or when I need to take a java break—which, obviously, is always appropriate.

I'm not quite sure how using the term "web-based McCarthyism"...

... as an exhortation to charity and calm discussion works, or is meant to work. But Fr. James Martin, S.J., gives it a try:

"Taliban Catholicism" is John Allen's description of web-based McCarthyism on the rise in the Catholic blogosphere.

He then links to the AP piece I remarked upon yesterday that reports on how certain "conservative" Catholic blogs are viewed as harsh and negative in tone because they liken liberals to women-mutilating Islamicist radicals and ultra-right-wing Red Scare Commie hunters. Oh, wait. I guess it isn't the conservatives who are using that language. Well, it's all very confusing, isn't it?

I've e-mailed and talked on the phone a couple of times with Fr. Martin, and I like him. He's a smart, well-spoken, and thoughtful man, and a talented writer as well. Which is why his use of such language puzzles me, especially since it undermines many of the points he makes further in his post. I won't look at each one, but do want to comment on this statement, which is apparently made about those in Catholic blogdom that Fr. Martin describes as "inquisitorial bloggers" and "attack-bloggers" of the left, right, and middle:

Third, the focus of their blogs is almost risibly narrow.  Here are the sole topics of interest, in the order in which they cause foaming at the mouth (or on the keyboard): homosexuality, abortion, women's ordination, birth control, liturgical abuses and the exercise of church authority.  Is this really the sum total of what makes us Catholic? 

Well, I think it is fair to say (and I say it with all seriousness), that, for example, for Andrew Sullivan it really is almost all about homosexuality, and for Sister Joan Chittister it is about women's ordination, and for nearly everyone at National "Catholic" Reporter it is all about questioning and rejecting Church authority. Of course, "liberal" bloggers don't generally complain about liturgical abuse (since they are often so busy fomenting and actualizing such abuses), so I suspect Fr. Martin is, in fact, more focused on bloggers on the "right" (goodness, I really do dislike those terms).

But, to his question: "Is this really the sum total of what makes us Catholic?"

This is misleading to the degree that it suggests that because Blogger Bob focuses on, say, the issue of homosexuality it means that Bob is not interested in or knows nothing about the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the Cross, the Church, and the Sacraments. Put another way, there are numerous Catholic blogs out there that don't address controversial topics, but instead focus on spirituality, devotions, prayer, the Saints, and so forth. Does it mean those bloggers aren't concerned about controversial, hot button topics of great moral import? I doubt it; my guess is that it means those folks feel called to focus on certain issues and topics. So also with those bloggers who focus on the issues listed by Fr. Martin.

The fact is, it's hard to deny the vital importance of these topics, for at least a couple of reasons. First, they are points of serious contention among Catholics, and they have been used over the past few decades to confuse many, mislead others, and to compromise the faith of many more.

Secondly, at an even more fundamental level, these topics do indeed directly touch on what it means to be a Catholic because they are closely rooted in and related to what it means to be human and to have a right relationship with God, which is, of course, the heart of being Catholic. Just yesterday I was teaching my five-year-old son from the Baltimore Catechism, and together we read the following: "Why did God make us? God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven." And: "What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven? To gain the happiness of heaven we must know, love, and serve God in this world." And when you skip ahead a bit, you read that mortal sin "is a grevious offense against the law of God" and that it is called "mortal" because "it deprives the sinner of sanctifying grace, the supernatural life of the soul."

If we take Church teaching seriously, and if we believe that sin is real and should be avoided, then we should also recognize that homosexual acts, the use of contraceptives, abortion, abuse of the sacraments, and the rejection of Church authority by Catholics are objectively grave sins. And all of these hot button topics have to do with right order and right relationship—with our nature, with our fellow man, with the Church, and with God. Homosexual acts are a perversion of sexuality, which is a gift from God intended for marriage; abortion is the murder of unborn innocents; women's ordination is a direct rejection of Christ's teaching about the priesthood; liturgical abuse involves a renunciation of proper worship of God; denial of Church authority is ultimately a denial of Christ himself. Put in a positive way, concern for these issues is a properly Catholic concern because we are made to know ourselves, to love our neighbor, to love the Church, and to know, love, worship, and serve God.

The fact is, if a person is in mortal sin, he is in danger of losing his soul—and the salvation of souls is at the heart of what it means to be Catholic, for, as the Catechism states in the first paragraph, "God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Saviour. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life."

If this isn't clear, one must wonder, "Why not?" Is there a denial of these facts? Or is there a failure to take them seriously?

Fr. Martin writes that the focus of certain blogs on these serious and very real dangers is "almost risibly narrow"; that is, such focus is ludicrous and even laughable. Since when is sin a laughing matter? I know he doesn't mean it in that way, but I would suggest that when taking sin seriously is considered a fault among Catholics, then Catholics probably have a serious sin problem, beginning with a failure to either name the sin or face up to its existence. Perhaps there is a concern that a focus on such matters betrays a certain judgmental narrow-mindedness. Perhaps. But being narrow is not always a fault. On the contrary, a proper narrowmindedness is at the service of liberating narrowgatedness, something Jesus spoke of in rather stark fashion:

Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matt. 7:13-14).

And, yes, quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder (2 Cor. 12:20) are sinful as well. There is, unfortunately, more than enough failings and sin to go around. I think that Fr. Martin and I agree that more charity, maturity, honesty, integrity, and humilty are needed on Catholic blogs. But, really, don't we need more of those qualities in every Catholic heart, parish, chancellery, sacristy, home, classroom, and office? Is it only blogs that attack? That go on witch hunts? Back stab? Condescend? Bait? Mock? Smirk? Slander? Snarl?

Could it be that this focus on blogs is almost risibly narrow?

UPDATE (Oct. 27, 2010): Fr. James Martin, S.J., praises the AP piece and then laments the "web-based McCarthyism" that he claims is rambant in Catholic blogdom. Here is my response.

The Associated Press comes to the defense of Catholics? Not really.

Well, sort of—if by "Catholics" you mean those who publicly dissent from Church teaching. From the AP article, "Catholic bloggers aim to purge dissenters" (Oct. 25, 2010):

Pressure is on to change the Roman Catholic Church in America, but it's not coming from the usual liberal suspects. A new breed of theological conservatives has taken to blogs and YouTube to say the church isn't Catholic enough.

Enraged by dissent that they believe has gone unchecked for decades, and unafraid to say so in the starkest language, these activists are naming names and unsettling the church.

Oooh...how chilling! The mere mention of "starkest language" gives me chills. Wait, check that; I'm actually laughing with robust and hearty charity. Anyhow, as interesting as the topic is, the approach taken in the piece is not the sort that lends itself to substantive reporting. But, goodness, why should I complain? I'm sure the piece was written to balance out all of those Associated Press pieces reporting on those Catholic politicians, pundits, and periodicals, who live off of being called "Catholic" while outrightly denying, mocking, or even attacking the Magisterium and Church teaching. Yeah, that must be it.

John Allen, Vatican analyst for the National Catholic Reporter, has dubbed this trend "Taliban Catholicism." But he says it's not a strictly conservative phenomenon - liberals can fit the mindset, too, Allen says. Some left-leaning Catholics are outraged by any exercise of church authority.

Yes, "some"—as in nearly everyone who works for National "Catholic" Reporter (see, for example, this recent post). Finally, near the article's conclusion:

Catholic officials are struggling to come to terms with the bloggers and have organized several recent media conferences on the topic, the latest at the Vatican this month. The U.S. bishops' conference issued social media guidelines in July calling for Christian charity online.

Still, no one expects the Catholic blogosphere to change tone anytime soon. Many of the conservatives most active online had spent years raising the alarm about dissent on their own in their local dioceses without much effect. Now, they feel they are finally being heard online.

I think I understand: open dissent from clear and consistent Church teaching is about the centrality of the infallible individual conscience, the divine call for a more democratic Church, a gnostic-like sensitivity to the "spirit of Vatican II", and freedom from traditional and patriarchal structures of oppression, while criticism of such tired Sixties' styled-dissent is narrow-minded, politically-motivated, and accompanied by a disturbing "tone". As the past forty years or so indicate, the former has not been of substantial concern to a number of bishops, but the latter is suddenly now a grave and bothersome issue that demands calls for "charity" and change in "tone". Gotcha. This state of affairs actually lends creedence to the article's statement, "The [conservative] activists also say that since the 1970s, after the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, liberals have filled the bureaucracy of the church, hiding dissent from the bishops they serve."

For the record, my perfectly tuned remarks here are not meant as a carte blanche endorsement of all the "conservative" blogs mentioned (a couple of which I've never heard of), although I'll happily and publicly make known my support for Thomas "The American Papist" Peters, whose work I admire. Blogs are unruly and wildly diverse (even blogs that share core beliefs and principles), and I understand well that bloggers can indeed be uncharitable, harsh, and even grammatically unsound on occasion. Heck, I know that my grammar ain't always what it could and should be. But the simple fact is this: "conservative" Catholic blogs are no more harsh or nasty or caustic or filled with bad writing and poor arguments than are "liberal" Catholic blogs. Far from it.

There is one notion or description in the article that should be corrected, which is that of a "new breed of theological conservatives", as if these bloggers with the bad "tone" and the unabashed love for the Church have emerged suddenly and without warning in recent years from the deep recesses of the most dank, subterranean regions of  the earth with nary a strand of genetic code or a notarized family tree to give an account for their existence. Ever since the late 1960s, there has been a lively and important group of writers who produced works—mostly popular and even polemical—that criticized dissent in the Church and worked to expose heretics and heresies. A short (and hardly exhaustive list) would include books such as Trojan Horse in the City of God (1967) and The Devastated Vineyard (1973) by Dietrich von Hildebrand, The Decline and Fall of Radical Catholicism (1971) and Catholicism and Modernity (1979) by Dr. James Hitchcock, A Crisis of Truth (1982) by Ralph Martin, The Desolate City (1986) by Anne Roche Muggeridge, and The Battle for the American Church (1979), by Monsignor George A. Kelly. The latter is an especially invaluable guide to the wastelands of the 1970s, a thoroughly documented and vigorously argued work filled with an abundance of detail and insight. Near the conclusion of that book, Monsignor Kelly wrote:

The modern problem for the Church, as for the state, is not more input, shared responsibility, participation in decision-making, and consulation with those affected by official decisions. These are legitimate contemporary counterbalances to the sometimes arbitrary, thoughtless, or uninformed deicions of office-holders. The problem has become decision-making itself. Those constitutionally empowered to act in the name of society or the Church frequently do not act, and those citizens or religionists bound to compliance frequently do not comply , with no suitable remedy for the vacuum created. Both authority figures and subjects lose in the process, because society, if its necessary works are to be done or if it is to keep its unity, needs decisions and compliance. In Catholic affairs there is also the question of Christ's authority given to men to preach, to make disciples, and to govern the Church. Without authority, human or divine, there is political or ecclesiastical confusion. This becomes a highly desirable condition only for those who value confusion as  condition of liberty. (p. 482).

And, a couple of paragraphs later:

Speaking up to pastors, bishops, and Pope is commplace, as is defiance. Church officials rarely call in a recalcitrant priest or head of a dissenting Catholic organization for a stern warning or reprimand. Dissent from Catholic teaching, from liturgical or disciplinary norms by those who hold positions of trust, is publicly tolerated by high officials. For this reason alone, Catholic dissenters have acquired a role and power that normally would not be theirs. (p. 483).

That dissenting role and power has slowly, if not smoothly or steadily, waned and withered over the past couple of decades. It goes without saying that those who have been losing that power have not been happy; whereas they used to gin up discord and dissent with a flick of the pro-contraceptive whip, they now have to settle for faux ordinations of 85-year-old women who recount how they've longed to "be a priest" since they were little girls growing up during the Depression. Alas, serious damage was inflicted over the past few decades, and the rot is still very much present, although it is often covered over or tweaked to appear more respectable. But "news" pieces such as the one above are a good reminder of the various alignments and perceptions, challenges and confusions, that still exist and likely will until Christ returns and separates the sheep from the goats—following which, I suspect, the AP will run a story complaining about the "tone" encountered at the Last Judgment.

Related Ignatius  Insight Articles and Book Excerpts:

• Authority and Dissent in the Catholic Church | Dr. William E. May
• Is Heresy Heretical? | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• On The Intellectual Needs of Ordinary People | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• Conservative Bishops, Liberal Results | Dr. James Hitchcock
• Hans Küng Has a Religion the New York Times Can Love | Donna Steichen
• On Being Catholic American | Joseph A. Varacalli
• Pascal For Today | Peter Kreeft
• Unity, Plurality, and the Papacy | Hans Urs von Balthasar

Cosmic Slotmachine Part II

Below I mentioned part I of Jimmy Akin's review of the new book by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow. Here is part II, which addresses the issue of the book's attack on the cosmological contants argument for design.  Jimmy points out that the invocation of a mulitverse or multiple universes argues from something we have no evidence for--just a lot of speculation about--to explain things we have evidence of.  If the issue is, "Can we conceive of an alternate explanation for the constants of physical laws that seem fine-tuned for life?", the answer to the question is, "We can speculate the about the possibility of multiple universes and the idea that we just happen to exist in one with the right physical constants to allow for life." But speculation is not evidence.

What's more, we can still ask the question: "What ontologically underwrites the system of the multiverse or multiple universes?" In other words, contrary to what Hawking and his pal have written and stated, they have not explained why there is something rather than nothing, if "something" includes the multiverse.  Unless they can show us that the multiverse is a necessary being, that it cannot not exist and that it is inherent in the kind of thing that it is that it must be, they still must account for the multiverse.  And in any event it does not seem that they can do the above by resorting to the laws of physics or, more broadly, the disciple of science, if it can be done at all.  It is, at least, a philosophical issue--one that involves fundamental, prescientific notions of being--and, as believers insist, also theological.

Jimmy Akin on Hawking's Cosmic Slotmachine

My chum Jimmy Akin at his NCRegister blog has a lucid, helpful discussion of one part of Hawking and Mlodinow's new book--the book getting the press about why we don't need God to account for the cosmos.  Of course the book is about much more than that, but it seems that many reviewers and the authors themselves seem to think their God conclusion is the "take home" message.  Jimmy will get around to talking about that message in the yet-to-be published part II.  Meanwhile, in part I, he shows why Hawking and Mlodinow's bad-mouthing of philosophy, in contrast to science, undercuts their enterprise.

As I read Jimmy's piece and reflected on what I have seen in Hawking and Mlodinow, as well as certain other scientists writing popular books, I got the same feeling I get when I read certain religious writers, usually of a fundamentalist or contrarian bent, expounding on physics or biological evolution. It's the feeling that these folks are simply out of their depth.  I'm no physicist or biologist, so I am not an expert judge of when the waters are really too deep. and when they just seem to be.  But I know enough to have a well-founded opinion.  Then when I run things past real scientists and after they manage to pick themselves up off the floor, I find my suspicions confirmed.

When I read Hawking and Mlodinow, or some of their pals, I get the feeling these gentlemen are up to their noses in deep philosophical waters and about to go under.  Since I am better informed in philosophy than I am in science, I'm a bit more prepared to stand by my sense of things. Still, I like to run things by the professional philosophers.  When I do, and after they pick themselves up off the floor, I find my judgment confirm.

Ortega y Gasset wrote in Revolt of the Masses about the "barbarism of the specialist".  That frequently may be what we see when very narrowly-learned scientists make philosophical statements or theological claims; their statements seem as if they were made by ignoramuses.  I don't claim that is what is happening here with Hawking and Mlodinow.  But at the very least, we have two men who think they're prescending from philosophy, with what they regard as its weaknesses in relation to science, when in fact they've adopted particular philosophical stances and presuppositions, and they're trying to wrap their philosophy in the mantle of science.  What's more, they've embraced their philosophies as if there are not well-founded contrary philosophical views that they should consider before opining.

Readers who are interested in pursuing the distinction between philosophy and science should read this semipopular treatment by Mortimer J. Adler.  And, needless to say, readers should look out for part II of Jimmy's analysis of Hawking and Mlodinow.

Mark Brumley, President of Ignatius Press...

... talks on the "Inside the Pages" program about the collaboration between Ignatius Press and the Catholic Truth Society. There are also archived shows (mp3 files) of Mark talking about the Resurrection, Catholic apologetics, and other topics.

Learn more about the joint efforts of IP and CTS by reading this Ignatius Insight piece. Also:

• Browse the booklets available from Ignatius Press and the Catholic Truth Society
• Read a message from Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J. about this joint apostolate of Ignatius Press and the Catholic Truth Society
• Learn how you can begin to evangelize your parish!

And for even more information about the CTS booklets, visit the Catholic Book Reviews blog, which features "independent reviews of Catholic Truth Society publications" and other Catholic books.

I currently have 137 browser windows open (seriously, I do)...

... (64 in Camino, 68 in Firefox, and 5 in Google Chrome; I don't use Safari anymore), which means it is time for one of my occasional clear-the-decks, something-for-(almost)-everyone, potluck-styled round-up posts.

• I begin with a quote from St. John of the Cross, whose writings I had spent very little time reading until recently because of a writing project and a study of the Song of Songs I am leading at my parish:

The very substance of soul and body seems to be dried up by thirst after this living well of God, for the thirst resembles that of David when he cried out, "As the hart longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for You, O God. My soul has thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?" So oppressive is this thirst to the soul, that it counts it as nothing to break through the camp of the Philistines, like the valiant men of David, to fill its pitcher with "water out of the cisterns of Bethlehem," which is Christ. The trials of this world, the rage of the devil, and the pains of hell are nothing to pass through, in order to plunge into this fathomless fountain of love. (from Spiritual Canticle)

See the readings for June 20th and note the connections.

• Damian Thompson argues that Tony Blair's fingerprints are all over the Holy Father's visit to Britain, and that is not a good thing. And I see that his cover article for The Spectator, "The papal visit is in jeopardy" (June 2, 2010 edition) is now online. Opening paragraph:

Last week, the Catholic Arch-bishops of England and Wales were summoned to a private meeting in London where they were given astonishing news about Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain. The pontiff is due in four months’ time (16-19 September), yet preparations were going badly wrong. Some of the major venues, while announced, had still not been booked. And worse, the Church’s share of the cost of the four-day trip had veered wildly out of control, from £7 million to a figure nearer £14 million. They later concluded that the centrepiece — an open-air Mass at Coventry airport — was probably going to have to be cancelled. It was a disaster.

• Tired of hearing people say, "I'm spiritual, not religious"? So is David Mills.

• Thomas E. Woods, Jr., makes many good points about economics and free markets:

Lurking beneath all this criticism of the market is a naïveté regarding the state that almost defies belief coming from a serious Catholic. The current federal apparatus, whether occupied by Republicans or Democrats, can hardly be anything but anathema to anyone with conservative sensibilities, Catholic or not. Private corporations, even the largest among them, can go bankrupt – as did Kmart not long ago, which no doubt gave the critics of chain stores their share of satisfaction. But there is little prospect of the American government going out of business.

• It's hard not to gag when Nancy Pelosi waxes theological. 'Nuf said.

• Can something be simultaneously rather fascinating and quite dull? I think the whole "emergent church" movement is evidence that, indeed, is possible.

• As you may have heard by now, June has been declaired "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month," by President Obama, who assures American citizens that, "LGBT Americans have enriched and strengthened the fabric of our national life." In reading many of the comments left at The Advocate post announcing the declaration, I'm struck by how many LGBT Americans are angry—some of them very angry—that Obama has not done more. Not that I'm surprised. My experience over the years is that most "LGBT" activists are never satisfied and are perpetually playing the victim card. (It won't be long before this comment is condemned as "homophobic." It never fails.) Meanwhile, Dennis Prager explains why the "T" in "LGBT" is so significant.

• Sandra Miesel had a very interesting childhood.

• New insights into the work and thought of Alexis de Tocqueville.

• A very, very good question: "What is the USCCB’s problem with subsidiarity?"

• I'm shocked. So shocked. The Miami Herald reports on Fr. Alberto Cutié, who was just ordained an Episcopalian pastor:

As a Catholic, he secretly struggled with his church's stance toward homosexuality, contraceptives and his own celibacy. As an Episcopalian, he's speaking freely about his support of openly gay clergy, of birth control, and, when a woman's life is in danger, even abortion.

Turns out his nickname, "Father Oprah," was far more apt than most realized.

• We need to diet, says Alain de Botton, from endless distraction and intellectual/informational clutter:

A student pursuing a degree in the humanities can expect to run through 1,000 books before graduation day. A wealthy family in England in 1250 might have owned three books: a Bible, a collection of prayers, and a life of the saints—this modestly sized library nevertheless costing as much as a cottage. The painstaking craftsmanship of a pre-Gutenberg Bible was evidence of a society that could not afford to make room for an unlimited range of works but also welcomed restriction as the basis for proper engagement with a set of ideas.

The need to diet, which we know so well in relation to food, and which runs so contrary to our natural impulses, should be brought to bear on what we now have to relearn in relation to knowledge, people, and ideas. Our minds, no less than our bodies, require periods of fasting.

Read the entire essay on City Journal. A fuller exposition of this important reminder can be found in Josef Pieper's Leisure: The Basis of Culture, which everyone should read. Without distraction, if possible.

• The 50th anniversary of The Pill, writes R. J. Snell, reveals that people are far more ambiguous about it than might be expected:

While one expects criticism of the Pill from some religious and political groups, the commentary found in mainstream, non-religious journalism has been remarkably subdued, with many essays expressing a sense of mixed blessings and paradox, moderating praise with frequent discordant notes of social problems, the rise of illegitimacy, the failure to make women happy, sexual dysfunction, and the Pill’s unhappy correlation with HIV/AIDS, among other hesitations.

In fact, so honest are the accounts of the Pill’s failure to deliver as promised that one might expect serious reservations about the Pill’s future. One Los Angeles Times story on the Pill’s dismal results in reducing unwanted pregnancies and abortions paraphrases James Trussell, director of Princeton University’s Office of Population Research, who “thinks that the pill’s time is passing.”

And yet one suspects that there is even less clarity of thought about sexuality and reproduction now than fifty years ago. As Snell writes, "Contraception is thought of as something like shampoo or deodorant, a 'necessity' that one picks up at the drug store when occasion arises or supplies are low." As a friend once put it, the reproductive system is now considered primarily, even solely, an entertainment system. And so the issue is not morality, but technology.

• The Dalai Lama, writes Stephen Prothero, is wrong:

Like the Dalai Lama, who writes of how he was influenced by Thomas Merton, I believe we can learn greatly from other religions. I too hope for tolerance and harmony in our interreligious interactions. I am convinced, however, that true tolerance and lasting harmony must be built on reality, not fantasy. Religious exclusivism is dangerous and naïve. But so too is pretend pluralism. The cause of religious harmony is not advanced in the least by the shibboleth that all religions are different paths up the same mountain.

• "Globalization and integral human development", by Eamonn Keane is a very good essay about globalization and Caritas in Veritate.

• The Fifty Best Books and the Fifty Worst Books of the 20th Century, as selected by First Principles.

• Speaking of good books, the five Ignatius Press books that I have recommended the most over the years are, as best I can guess: God and the World, by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger; Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man, by Henri de Lubac; Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic, by David Currie; Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton; and Theology and Sanity, by Frank Sheed. And, no, I'm not including my two books.

• Evidence (as if it was needed) that neither a degree in psychology nor a gig posting blather on the Psychology Today blog provides any special insight into the study of the Gospels and early Christianity:

Between the crucifixion and Mark (perhaps a century later) only Paul has anything to say about Christ Jesus and he'd clearly never heard of a virgin mother, three wise men, a star over Bethlehem, etc. In fact, he puts the Son of God firmly in the spirit world...as in...not a real person. That should get your attention.

Well, yes, it does get my attention, since none of it is true. See my articles, "Are the Gospels Myth?" (This Rock: March 2008) and "Did St. Paul Invent Christianity?" (This Rock: July-August 2009).

• I'll soon be posting my semi-semi-annual music post. Stay tuned (get it? Huh? Do ya?)

Ignatius Press is now on Facebook

Here is the link.

I'm not sure what is planned for the page (the top secret discussions for launching the page were held in Latin in an underground bunker, lit only by candles), but what's not to like?

Top 200 Most Popular Catholic Blogs...

... by Google Subscribers, compiled by Eric Sammons, as of June 2, 2010 (see explanation for this list here).

Here is the Top 20:

(1) What Does the Prayer Really Say?: 4841
(2) Whispers in the Loggia: 4685
(3) Charlotte Was Both: 3053
(4) Conversion Diary: 1817
(5) New Advent Blog: 1429
(6) Creative Minority Report: 1248
(7) Patrick Madrid: 1173
(8) Standing on my Head: 1156
(9) The Hermeneutic of Continuity: 1053
(10) Damian Thompson: 954
(11) Rorate Caeli: 933
(12) The New Liturgical Movement: 892
(13) Ask Sister Mary Martha: 867
(14) Mere Comments: 811
(15) Catholic and Enjoying It!: 796
(16) Ignatius Insight Scoop: 749
(17) By Sun and Candlelight: 712
(18) Catholic Cuisine: 648
(19) The Shrine of the Holy Whapping: 643
(20) Testosterhome: 638

See the entire list.

You can add Insight Scoop to your Google reader (or other readers) by going here.

First Things and Ignatius Press invite you...

... To An Evening With Mary Eberstadt to celebrate the publication of The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism, just published by Ignatius Press.

Here are the details.

Also: visit the book's website, or read the book's opening chapter on Ignatius Insight:

New blog: The New Theological Movement

The New Theological Movement blog, which launched a couple of months ago, is the work of a group of young priests responding to the recent call by Pope Benedict XVI to used the internet and related technologies to proclaim the Gospel. The authors of the blog, who are anonymous, state:

There has been much written, and rightly so, since the beginning of Benedict XVI’s Pontificate about the “hermeneutic of continuity” with respect to the Sacred Liturgy. The consequence of continuity cannot be understated for the life of the Church not only in the liturgy but also in doctrine and theology. Theology and liturgy are inseparable because they both inform and enrich each other as the lex orandi, lex credendi of the Church.

In response to the Holy Father’s request that priests make full and responsible use of the modern means of communication, the New Theological Movement was created. ...

Our aim at the New Theological Movement is threefold: (1) To write faithful Catholic theology in communion with the Church's entire 2,000 year Tradition, through the medium of the internet. (2) To continue our own theological growth by penetrating the tradition in our study. (3) To create a platform upon which a theological discussion can be carried out in charity and in truth. ...

Because blogs tend towards jumbled writing, we will utilize a three tiered approach to the blog so as to bring some order to the process. First, there is the blog reel on the front page. This, as one would expect, will consist of small theological thoughts and reflections. The second tier is the category called "Series." These posts will extend over long periods of time on a specific theological topic. The third tier is the journal. If you click the New Theological Movement Journal on the right hand side of the page, you will find articles between 1,500 and 2,000 words posted once a month in six specific areas of theology. These articles will be more thoroughly researched and thought-out than the other writing on the site. 

Read more about the blog, which promises to be a very edifying addition to the realm of Catholic blogs.

Please say a prayer...

... for Michael Spencer, "the Internet Monk," who is dying of cancer, and for his family:

It is with a heavy heart that I bring my latest update on Michael. We have learned that his cancer is too advanced and too aggressive to expect any sort of remission. Our oncologist estimates that with continued treatment Michael most likely has somewhere between six months and a year to live. This is not really a surprise to us, though it is certainly horrible news. From the very beginning, both of us have suspected that this would prove to be an extremely bad situation. I don’t know why; perhaps God was preparing us for the worst all along by giving us that intuition.

Read more about Michael's situation on his blog.

The Spiritual Exercises Blog

A group of young Jesuits have launched The Spiritual Exercises Blog, which "will offer daily reflections over the course of Lent based on the prayers proposed by St. Ignatius Loyola, S.J., in his Spiritual Exercises.  By Easter, one who has followed these reflections regularly will have a basic introduction to the whole of the Spiritual Exercises." Here is the introductory post.

Finally! At last! Yeah!

NPR has broken the Religious Story of the Year:

Catholic Church Joins Blogosphere; Pope Urges Priests To Blog

Because, you see, the Pope + Clergy = "the Church," and the hundreds (if not thousands) of Catholic blogs run by lay people such as Amy Welborn, Mark Shea, and a host of others don't count. Never mind that priests such as Fr. Z and others also have very popular blogs. The piece, contrary to its silly headline, then states:

That's not to say that priests aren't already on the Web.

"If people live in cyberspace then the Church ought to be in cyberspace" says Father Brian Paulson S.J. a Jesuit priest in Chicago. Paulson will soon head up a community of about 80 priests and seminarians, some of whom blog, and one of his concerns with the Pope's mandate is quality. He worries that blogs that don't pay close enough attention to the Church's teachings or are written poorly will turn people away rather than attract them.

Yes, well, I fully understand Fr. Paulson's concern about National "Catholic" Reporter. But I'm also a little concerned that NPR seems stuck in 2001 when it comes to Catholic blogging and is apparently incapable of spending more than twelve seconds "researching" the internet for Catholic blogs. Why, if I didn't know better, I'd be concerned about the level of journalistic effort and professionalism when it comes to reporting stories big and small about the Catholic Church...

Benedict XVI on using internet, blogs, and "new communications technologies"...

... to spread and share the Gospel. From the Holy Father's Message for 44th World Day of Communications:

Responding adequately to this challenge amid today's cultural shifts, to which young people are especially sensitive, necessarily involves using new communications technologies. The world of digital communication, with its almost limitless expressive capacity, makes us appreciate all the more Saint Paul's exclamation: "Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel" (1 Cor 9:16) The increased availability of the new technologies demands greater responsibility on the part of those called to proclaim the Word, but it also requires them to become more focused, efficient and compelling in their efforts. Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word.

The spread of multimedia communications and its rich "menu of options" might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web, or to see it only as a space to be filled. Yet priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different "voices" provided by the digital marketplace. Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.

Using new communication technologies, priests can introduce people to the life of the Church and help our contemporaries to discover the face of Christ. They will best achieve this aim if they learn, from the time of their formation, how to use these technologies in a competent and appropriate way, shaped by sound theological insights and reflecting a strong priestly spirituality grounded in constant dialogue with the Lord. Yet priests present in the world of digital communications should be less notable for their media savvy than for their priestly heart, their closeness to Christ. This will not only enliven their pastoral outreach, but also will give a "soul" to the fabric of communications that makes up the "Web". God's loving care for all people in Christ must be expressed in the digital world not simply as an artifact from the past, or a learned theory, but as something concrete, present and engaging. Our pastoral presence in that world must thus serve to show our contemporaries, especially the many people in our day who experience uncertainty and confusion, "that God is near; that in Christ we all belong to one another" (Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman Curia, 21 December 2009).

Read the entire message. Hat tip to Fr. James Martin, S.J..

Cleaning the water. And clearing the (metaphorical) air.

Okay, here goes a strange combo post.

First, Robert Salter, a wonderful guy is who is a member of the parish I attend, owns a company, HTI (Hydration Technology Innovations), that is helping people in Haiti by providing them with water-cleansing, membrane filtration technology:



Just one of countless examples of how people are helping those in need in Haiti. I've read several stories like this one, and I am amazed at the generosity and selflessness of ordinary people helping out those in desperate need.

Now, part two. A couple of days I received a curt e-mail from a reader who said she found it "shocking" this blog had not yet, at the point, posted anything about Haiti; she demanded that her name be removed from the Ignatius Insight e-letter list. Frankly, I was a bit surprised by her apparent anger.

It caused me to reflect a bit on the nature of blogs and the expectations readers sometimes have of blogs. Put one way: did the reader think there was a moral imperative on the part of this blog to post something about Haiti? If so, why? What about earthquakes in China, or genocides in Africa, or other horrible events that take place, sadly, all over the world? Did the reader think I needed to tell people about what had happened in Haiti? I find that hard to believe since the news about the earthquake and relief efforts is readily available; I have nothing new or original to say about it. Do I need to urge readers to help out financially? Again, folks have plenty of options in that regard, there is a lot of info about such options and, honestly, I don't have a preferred charity or relief organization; I simply don't have anything to say in that regard.

I occasionally receive e-mails from readers asking that I comment on this news story or that author or those books. Frankly, it's flattering that some readers have that sort of trust and interest in my opinions; I don't take it lightly. But I'm not able to respond to everything, nor do I think I should comment on matters of which I have no knowledge or have nothing helpful to say. Now, not everything here is helpful or interesting to everyone; how could it be? Blogging, by nature, tends to be a somewhat scattered, imperfect, and even fragmented undertaking.

To state the painfully obvious, this blog—like every blog I've ever visited—has a certain focus and has certain limits. The primary focus (again, stating what should be obvious) is the work of Ignatius Press. Directly related to that are matters concerning Catholicism and the Catholic Church. And then there are issues of interest to me that are, for the most part, related to matters of faith, theology, philosophy, Scripture, culture, and so forth.

The fact is, for every post that makes it onto the blog, there are ten, twenty, or thirty articles, stories, thoughts, and such that I pass over. I try to avoid being repetitive, constantly serious, or needlessly dull. (Also, I don't post much at all about my interests in tennis, basketball, jazz, "Lost," etc.; it just isn't the place, at least not often.) There are many, many, many big news stories—about natural disasters, political elections, technological and medical advances, etc.—that I don't blog about for a number of reasons, but never because I deem them to not be important or meaningful. And, of course, there are many, many stories relating to the Catholic Church I don't mention.

Finally, please know that I appreciate the e-mails I receive from readers with links, suggestions, encouraging notes, and interesting questions. If I don't respond, it is because I often do not have the time to get to everything. And if I haven't blogged about something you think I could have or should have, don't hesitate to mention it. Please just don't be shocked or upset if I can't or don't blog about everything.

Today's forecast?

Yesterday was weird and windy. I told Mark Brumley in the morning that I should have my work computer up and running "in a couple of hours," which proves that I am either hopelessly optimistic or completely confused; I really should know better by now that certain things in life take ten times as long as planned: house projects, computer fixes, and book edits.

I was finally able to perform a complete re-install of the system software, a process that bombed twice and then, on the third attempt, was rudely interrupted by a two-hour power outage due to a sudden and rather violent wind storm yesterday evening. (Oh, and the water main on our street broke yesterday, flooding the street with water and, shortly thereafter, public utility vehicles. What next?) Yet all is still not completely well, as attempts this morning to transfer applications and files from the external back-up drive have so far been unsuccessful. Ugh.

All of which to say I will be blogging as much as possible, but it might not be much until things are back to normal.

Seven years before the Mac

Actually, it's been some seventeen years in front of the Mac (at least a Mac that I bought and owned), and another seven years if you count some old Apples. And, all in all, it's been at least seven Macs, although it could be eight. I lost count. Numbers, it turns out, aren't my strong suit.

But that's not really the point of this post. Well, sorta, but not really.

The point, actually, is I realized a couple of weeks ago that my very first blog post was, as best I can remember and tell, written and posted on November 1, 2002—seven years ago (plus a day). Here it is. I was, obviously, working as editor of Envoy magazine, a position I took in May 2002 and held for two years. I had first heard of this thing called "blogging" early in 2002 (the one blogger I remember well is Amy Welborn), and told Patrick Madrid it might be something to for the Envoy staff to pursue. I never expected it to become a nearly daily part of my life and my work, first at Envoy, and then with Ignatius Press.

Much ink (so to speak) has been spilled about the glories and evils of blogging. I tend toward the "let's not get carried away, shall we?" camp, believing that blogging does not mark the end of civilization (no, that would probably be disco and death metal), nor is it going to save the world. It is a tool of communication, and people can use it to communicate well or poorly. Examples of the former are available, and examples of the latter are unavoidable. There is certainly some truth in saying the medium is the message, and I think the really unique quality of blogging is the quickness with which is can be employed and used to respond to news and communicate ideas. But, in the end, people have to assess the responses and judge the ideas. And it is there, in the realm of critical thinking and logic and reflection, where the deeper problems exist and await the sort of devastating analysis that escapes me at the moment.

But I digress.

The Insight Scoop blog has been up and running over five years now, and recently passed the 3,000,000 mark for page views. In those five years, there have been over 5,700 posts and 25,000 comments on this blog. I estimate that in my seven years of blogging, I've put together about a thousand posts each year, perhaps more. What does that mean? I'm not really sure. (Hey, I can barely count to 87 by tens.) After all, there are blogs out there apparently getting 3,000,000 visits a month. Or a week. But, whatever the case, blogging has been, for me, both a rather steady presence and, at times, a somewhat surprising thing—especially when it comes to what catches and holds the attention of readers. After all, the greatest mystery in blogging is, "Why do 361 people comment about a link to a silly piece about 'X-Files," but no one comments on my 4,700-word reflection on the the Council of Chalcedon and the hypostatic union?"

Anyhow, I want to say that I really do appreciate you, the readers of this blog, and your many comments and e-mails. Believe it or not, I do read them. I take them seriously. I try to respond to most of them. But sometimes, I confess, I simply write something caustic about and mildly provoking about heretics or prog rock or "Lost". Or I link to this cool video of my sister playing piano and singing. This blog, likely every blog (and every man), is always a work in progress. I hope it has improved and grown, even if in small and not always easily seen ways. It's hard for me to judge; I'm right in the middle of it. At least that's my excuse for the moment.

For more of my deep and meaningful thoughts on blogging, see this January 3, 2006, post. For more about my taste in music, go here. For my favorite beer, go here. And for more about Ignatius Press, the great Catholic publisher that makes it all possible, go here.

Until the next post (on the same iMac)!

Quotable

A few quotes worth sharing as I tidy up a bit:

• "...the dissatisfied Anglican leaves because his Church ain't what she used to be. The dissatisfied Catholic leaves his Church because she is." — Diogenes

• "Our Eastern Catholic brothers and sisters are very conscious of being the living bearers of this tradition, together with our Orthodox brothers and sisters. The members of the Catholic Church of the Latin tradition must also be fully acquainted with this treasure and thus feel, with the Pope, a passionate longing that the full manifestation of the Church's catholicity be restored to the Church and to the world, expressed not by a single tradition, and still less by one community in opposition to the other; and that we too may be granted a full taste of the divinely revealed and undivided heritage of the universal Church(2) which is preserved and grows in the life of the Churches of the East as in those of the West." — Pope John Paul II

• "Genuine ecumenism does not require that the Catholic Church turn away converts knocking on its doors, just as the Catholic Church’s genuine respect for tradition does not preclude the creation of a canonical structure that allows Anglican converts to retain some liturgical riches of their Anglican heritage while uniting with Rome." — Colleen Carroll Campbell

• "Looking at the bigger picture, being a home schooling freak isn't what it used to be. We aren't Bible-thumping Christians or off-the-grid hippies, and we definitely don't feel isolated. You certainly encounter both of those groups in the home-school universe, a fascinating realm in which social dissidents from the left and right margins of society struggle to communicate and coexist. But home schooling has become a broad and diverse phenomenon found at all socioeconomic levels and in all regions of the country, and it can't be summarized with easy demographic labels." — Andrew O'Herir

• "Today more than ever, with Joseph Ratzinger as pope, the ecumenical journey seems not a pursuit of modernity, but a return to the terrain of tradition." — Sandro Magister

• "Half of American high-school seniors surveyed recently thought Sodom and Gomorrah were a married couple." — The National Post

• "This matrix of familial equality, mutuality, and common identity is the wellspring and ground of love, duty, loyalty, care-giving—the whole moral culture of family life. The lifelong and unbreakable chords of fealty and relatedness which family members possess, one for the others, and which even distance and alienation never quite erase, depend upon it." — Gerard V. Bradley

• "I start with Plato's critique of writing where he says that if we depend on writing, we will lose the ability to remember things. Our memory will become weak. And he also criticizes writing because the written text is not interactive in the way spoken communication is. He also says that written words are essentially shadows of the things they represent. They're not the thing itself. Of course we remember all this because Plato wrote it down -- the ultimate irony." — Vincent Rossmeier

• "I am the new Howard Pyle. I simply moved the school from Chadds Ford to Kennett Square." — Neilson Carlin

• "Newspapers perform more or less the same function for me. There is always something in them to irritate me profoundly, and there is nothing quite like irritation to get the juices circulating and the mind working. Oddly enough, only the print version of a newspaper, not the online one, has this tonic effect upon me; perhaps this is a conditioned response. I am like one of Pavlov’s dogs, who salivated at the sound of a bell. I have only to hold a newspaper in my hand to feel a pleasant frisson of outrage coming on." — Theodore Dalrymple

• "Our elites are smart already, but they are not wise. They mean well, but they do not know virtue" — Robert C. Jeffrey

• "It was a fantastic book! I enjoyed every minute of the story, even when I felt a little bit stressed about doing a good enough job (and pronouncing all the Polish place-names correctly) and getting done on time (they had a very short deadline for this one)." — Kara Shallenberg

• "When we want to know what it means to 'be a man' we need to look at the ultimate alpha man—Jesus Christ. Jesus became a man to save us and to show us what true manhood is." — Fr. Larry Richards

From A to Z: Catching up and writing down

I've not blogged as much the past few days as I'd hoped to, so rather than attempt the impossible (offer one page of incredibly thoughtful and entertaining commentary on each link and topic), I'm going with sincere shtick and good-hearted gimmicks. Here are 26 items I've been sitting on for a little while, each with one or sentences of commentary. Or something.

A strong call to authentic manhood: Be A Man! Becoming the Man God Created You to Be, by Fr. Larry Richards, new from Ignatius Press.

Brits don't smile enough. But surely some get a wry smile out of being home to "cage-fighting transvestites and poisoned curries from gay tripedal-catnappers."

Church without religion? It's about time someone figured out how to make it happen. Finally! (Ahem.)

Didn't disco die? Then why is it destroying this Mass?

Excellent piece about homeschooling on Salon.com. By a non-religious, liberal city-dweller: "Specifically, we have rejected the mainstream consensus that since education is a good thing, more of it -- more formal, more 'academic,' reaching ever deeper into early childhood and filling up more of the day and more of the year -- is better for society and better for all children. This is almost an article of faith in contemporary America, but it's also one that's debatable at best and remains largely unsupported by research data." Be careful or people might think you're a religious whacko...

Francis Cardinal George is interviewed about his new book, The Difference God Makes: A Catholic Vision of Faith, Communion and Culture (Crossroad).

Godless, we are hopeless and helpless. That's the short version of Cardinal George Pell's speech at the recent (and first ever) Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney.

How American Catholics can work to better relate to some foreign-born priests whose accent and speaking style is difficult to comprehend.

"I admit it: I'm a bigot. A hopeless bigot at that: I know my particular prejudice is absurd, but I just can't control it." If only more Mac-haters were so honest. Confession is good for the soul, even if your hard drive is infested with viruses.

Joseph Haydn is, I think, arguably the most under appreciated composer and musical genius. Ever. Of all-time. And he was an incredibly devout and humble Catholic as well. Coincidence? Despite being completely beyond my competence (yes, I sense the smile), I'll have to take up this topic again in the future.

Kindle prices have been trimmed as Christmas approaches. If that's the reading route you pursue, do remember that more and more Ignatius Press books are available in electronic format.

Leading indicators of marriage, five in number—what do they tell us?

Masonry membership and pastoral issues. William A Whalen, who authored Christianity and American Freemasonry, wrote a report on the topic back in 1985 for for The Bishops' Committee For Pastoral Research And Practices.

Now we should accept there are "hate crimes" against the homeless? Well, of course: it's Eugene, Oregon.

"One Nation Under God": I have to say, this painting freaks me out. Art, however good or bad, in the service of politics—left, right, or otherwise—is creepy, cruddy, or both.

Priest, preacher, author, teacher, counselor, and a walking miracle: "I'm getting ready to go to purgatory. I know what I'm going to be doing in purgatory. I will be reading The New York Times and drinking bubblegum soda and eating Twinkies."

Quoth the Enigmatic, Difficult Musical Genius: "People are deep, serious creatures with little to hang on to.”

Really? Over 40% of Americans, according to a recent Pew Center Research poll, didn't know that Pres. Obama was and is "pro-choice." They must not have been paying attention to the news, eh?

Support for Christopher West from Cardinal Justin Rigali (Archbishop of Philadelphia) and Bishop Kevin Rhoades (West's bishop), who state, "... we believe that Christopher West, the Institute's popular lecturer and spokesman, has been given a particular charism to carry out this mission" of making Pope John Paul II's theology of the body accessible to ordinary Catholics.

Trying to prove the Shroud of Turin is a medieval fake causes some believers to be understandably skeptical of the motives of a scientist skeptical of faith and who is being funded by an association of atheists and agnostics.

Unintentionally hilarious sentence of the week: "If you think you know all about the Renaissance Man after reading Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, think again." Or, simply try to start thinking. Please. Think about it.

Veritate and Family Size: "Furthermore, smaller and at times miniscule families run the risk of impoverishing social relations, and failing to ensure effective forms of solidarity.”

Women, some scientists are suggesting, are less and less attracted to masculine men. The culprit? The Pill. Hey, you have to admit, it explains a lot, including George Michael's glory days.

X, as in Max and Benedict XVI.

You don't hear these terms used very often in referring to the Blessed Mother: Maria Gravida and Maria Lactans. Count on Sandra Miesel to unearth and explain.

Zzzzzzzzz....