Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog

Fr. Robert Barron on Protestantism, authority, and Cardinal Newman

From Fr. Robert Barron of Word on Fire, thoughts on Alister McGrath's book, Christianity's Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution--A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First (2007), Protestantism, authority, and John Henry Cardinal Newman:



• A Conversation with a Post-Liberal, Post-Conservative Evangelical Catholic Priest | Interview with Fr. Robert Barron | Carl E. Olson | October 15, 2007
• Eucharist (DVD) | Fr. Robert Barron
• Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Lively Virtues (DVD) | Fr. Robert Barron
• Untold Blessings (DVD) | Fr. Robert Barron

Catholics have feast days. Ex-Catholics have a "blasphemy day".

Not all ex-Catholics, of course, just a few, some of them educated in "Catholic" schools. From a newly posted article on CNN.com:

 In his youth, Ronald Lindsey planned to enter the priesthood, so fervent was his devotion to God. But these days, Lindsay is devoted to protecting a person's right to ridicule, criticize -- even lambaste God.

You might say he is a blasphemer's savior.

The devout Catholic turned non-believer leads a movement that is all about protecting people's rights to speak irreverently about religion.

Pause button: Regarding the descriptive "devout Catholic", be sure to read this September 24, 2009, post on Get Religion by Terry Mattingly. Unpause.

Criticizing God is an act punishable by death in several nations. In America, blasphemy laws remain on the books in six states, though they are largely arcane and not enforced.

But everywhere, it seems to Lindsay, scoffing at God is not socially acceptable.

Apparently he's never been to Oregon. Or any of the other 49 states.

People are willing to tolerate the harshest statements about the president of the United States, he said. But talk about Jesus or Mohammed -- that's a whole different ball game.

"We think religious beliefs should be subject to examination and criticism just as political beliefs are," said Lindsay, 56, who heads the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York, an organization that claims about 100,000 followers worldwide. "But we have a taboo on religion."

Really? Do taboos even still exist? Well, to be fair, some examples are given:

Ellyn said she never means to harm anyone, so she finds it frightening that someone could be punished -- or lose their life -- over remarks or actions considered blasphemous. An Afghan student journalist was sentenced to death for distributing a paper that allegedly blasphemed Islam. A British schoolteacher spent time in a Sudanese jail after she allowed her students to name teddy bears after Mohammed.

Strange, then, that the article keeps mentioning "God." Shouldn't that be "Allah"? Here, however, is the saddest part of the piece:

All this did not come easy to Lindsay, the son of Catholic parents who bared his soul in a confession booth each week. Later, he studied religion and philosophy in at Georgetown University. The more he read, the more he questioned beliefs that had been ingrained from childhood.

Slowly, the would-be-priest turned into an atheist lawyer -- and a 21st-century defender of time-worn sacrilege.

That's right—he was brainwashed as a kid (ingrained beliefs!), but finally freed from superstition, confession, sin, guilt, God, and theocratic oppression at a "Catholic" school. Sad. And all too common. G. K. Chesterton, as usual, knocked such silliness out of the ballpark:

Atheism is the supreme example of a simple faith. ... The truth is that the atmosphere of excitement by which the atheist lives, is an atmosphere of thrilled and shuttering theism, and not of atheism at all; it is an atmosphere of defiance and not of denial. Irreverence is a very servile parasite of reverence; and has starved with its starving lord. After this first fuss about the merely aesthetic effect of blasphemy, the whole thing vanishes into its own void. If there were not God, there would be no atheists. ("Where All Roads Lead," Collected Works, vol. 3 [San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1990] 37-38).

Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles and Excerpts:

• Professor Dawkins and the Origins of Religion | Fr. Thomas Crean, O.P. | From God Is No Delusion: A Refutation of Richard Dawkins
• Are Truth, Faith, and Tolerance Compatible? | Joseph Ratzinger
• Atheism and the Purely "Human" Ethic | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• Is Religion Evil? Secularism's Pride and Irrational Prejudice | Carl E. Olson
• A Short Introduction to Atheism | Carl E. Olson
• C.S. Lewis’s Case for Christianity | An Interview with Richard Purtill
• Paganism and the Conversion of C.S. Lewis | Clotilde Morhan
• Designed Beauty and Evolutionary Theory | Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.
• The Universe is Meaning-full | An interview with Dr. Benjamin Wiker
• The Mythological Conflict Between Christianity and Science | An interview with Dr. Stephen Barr
• The Source of Certitude | Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.
• Deadly Architects | An Interview with Donald De Marco & Benjamin Wiker
• The Mystery of Human Origins | Mark Brumley
• Relativism 101: A Brief, Objective Guide | Carl E. Olson

'The 13th Day' Film to Debut in Key Cities

More information about the movie, The 13th Day:

Ignatius Press Hosts Simultaneous Screenings on October 13

Contact: Christine Schicker, 404-610-8871, [email protected] 

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 30 /Christian Newswire/ -- Based on the memoirs of Sister Maria Lucia de Jesus, and thousands of independent eyewitness accounts, The 13th Day is a dramatic retelling of the supernatural experiences of three shepherd children nearly a century ago. The events depicted in the film transpired between May 13, 1917 and October 13, 1917 in the Cova da Iria (Cove of Irene) region of Fatima, Portugal.

The 13th Day is the first major motion picture by directors Ian and Dominic Higgins. The filmmakers tell an accurate, relevant and artistic story about the Blessed Mother's appearances to Lucia Santos and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto. Over six months, Our Lady gave incredible prophecies and warnings to the children that included a harrowing vision of hell, the timing of World War II, the spread of communism and the attempted assassination of a Pope, who later was revealed to be Pope John Paul II.

Ignatius Press is the North American distributor of the film. In cooperation with Catholic Dioceses and organizations, Ignatius will host pre-release screenings of The 13th Day to Catholic leadership on October 13, the anniversary of the final apparition. At release time, the following key cities were secured: Atlanta, GA; New York, NY; Denver, CO; Chicago, IL; Austin and Fort Worth, TX; Oakland, CA and Orlando, FL. If you are a Catholic leader, you can sign-up for a screening in your area by visiting www.CatholicScreenings.com.

Stylistically beautiful and technically innovative, the film uses state-of-the-art digital effects to create stunning images of the visions and the final miracle that have never before been fully realized on screen. Shot on location in Portugal and in the UK, the film has a cast of hundreds to re-create the scenes of the 70,000 strong crowds of witnesses, with three young Portuguese actors playing the iconic roles of Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta.

Says Anthony Ryan, Director of Marketing for Ignatius Press, "The 13th Day is an antidote film for our time. It is a reminder that a thin veil exists between our world and the next. The Message of Fatima is a relevant wake-up call to a culture torn apart by abortion, war, and injustice. Every Catholic, perhaps every person, should see this film."

Ignatius Press is a Catholic publishing house based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1978 by Father Joseph Fessio SJ, a Jesuit priest and former pupil of Pope Benedict XVI.

For more information about The 13th Day or to schedule an interview with one of the film spokespersons including Fr. Andrew Apostoli, C.F.R and Michael LaCorte of the World Apostolate of Fatima, please contact Christine Schicker with The Maximus Group at 404-610-8871. You may visit the website at www.the13thdaymovie.com.

• "'The 13th Day' is the best film ever made about Fatima..." (Sept. 23, 2009)

The Better We Reason, the Nearer We Come to Truth

The Better We Reason, the Nearer We Come to Truth | The Introduction to Reason to Believe: Why Faith Makes Sense | Richard Purtill | Ignatius Insight

This is a book about philosophy of religion. Since philosophy and religion are both words of many meanings, I will begin by trying to clarify the two terms.

Philosophy, as it is understood by most contemporary philosophers, has the following characteristics.

  1. An effort is made to state the point under discussion as clearly and understandably as possible. Thus a concept may be defined or explained, various possible interpretations of a thesis or statement may be discussed, an argument may be laid out formally or informally, and the relation of its premises to its conclusion discussed. Philosophers characteristically ask, "What do you mean?"

2. An effort is made to examine the point under discussion critically. Thus assumptions may be brought out into the open and examined, possible objections to a thesis may be stated as fairly as possible, and counterarguments may be invented or drawn from the arguments of opponents. Philosophers characteristically ask, "What are the objections?"

3. An effort is made to decide questions on the basis of arguments. Arguments for a thesis may be shown to be valid and their premises true. Counterarguments may be refuted or shown to be irrelevant. Definite conclusions may be reached, or it may be concluded that there is no conclusive argument for or against a position. Philosophers characteristically ask, "How can you show that?"

The above concerns are characteristic of philosophical method. When applied to trivial or specialized subject matter, philosophical method may not lead to philosophy in the full sense. Thus we must add to the above list something about subject matter.

Continue reading...

"Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ"

Today is the feast of the great priest, Doctor, Church Father, Scripture scholar, translator, and apologist St. Jerome (347-420). From the Holy Father's November 7, 2007, General Audience:

Jerome refuted with energy and liveliness the heretics who contested the tradition and faith of the Church. He also demonstrated the importance and validity of Christian literature, which had by then become a real culture that deserved to be compared with classical literature: he did so by composing his De Viris Illustribus, a work in which Jerome presents the biographies of more than a hundred Christian authors. Further, he wrote biographies of monks, comparing among other things their spiritual itineraries as well as monastic ideal. In addition, he translated various works by Greek authors. Lastly, in the important Epistulae, a masterpiece of Latin literature, Jerome emerges with the profile of a man of culture, an ascetic and a guide of souls.

What can we learn from St Jerome? It seems to me, this above all; to love the Word of God in Sacred Scripture. St Jerome said: "Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ". It is therefore important that every Christian live in contact and in personal dialogue with the Word of God given to us in Sacred Scripture. This dialogue with Scripture must always have two dimensions: on the one hand, it must be a truly personal dialogue because God speaks with each one of us through Sacred Scripture and it has a message for each one. We must not read Sacred Scripture as a word of the past but as the Word of God that is also addressed to us, and we must try to understand what it is that the Lord wants to tell us. However, to avoid falling into individualism, we must bear in mind that the Word of God has been given to us precisely in order to build communion and to join forces in the truth on our journey towards God. Thus, although it is always a personal Word, it is also a Word that builds community, that builds the Church. We must therefore read it in communion with the living Church. The privileged place for reading and listening to the Word of God is the liturgy, in which, celebrating the Word and making Christ's Body present in the Sacrament, we actualize the Word in our lives and make it present among us. We must never forget that the Word of God transcends time. Human opinions come and go. What is very modern today will be very antiquated tomorrow. On the other hand, the Word of God is the Word of eternal life, it bears within it eternity and is valid for ever. By carrying the Word of God within us, we therefore carry within us eternity, eternal life.

And from his November 14, 2007, General Audience, also dedicated to St. Jerome:

For Jerome, a fundamental criterion of the method for interpreting the Scriptures was harmony with the Church's Magisterium. We should never read Scripture alone because we meet too many closed doors and could easily slip into error. The Bible has been written by the People of God and for the People of God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Only in this communion with the People of God do we truly enter into the "we", into the nucleus of the truth that God himself wants to tell us. For him, an authentic interpretation of the Bible must always be in harmonious accord with the faith of the Catholic Church. It does not treat of an exegesis imposed on this Book from without; the Book is really the voice of the pilgrim People of God and only in the faith of this People are we "correctly attuned" to understand Sacred Scripture. Therefore, Jerome admonishes: "Remain firmly attached to the traditional doctrine that you have been taught, so that you can preach according to right doctrine and refute those who contradict it" (Ep. 52, 7). In particular, given that Jesus Christ founded his Church on Peter, every Christian, he concludes, must be in communion "with St Peter's See. I know that on this rock the Church is built" (Ep. 15, 2). Consequently, without approximations, he declared: "I am with whoever is united to the teaching of St Peter" (Ep. 16).

Those audiences and numerous others are in the collection, Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine, by Pope Benedict XVI

Following his best selling book, Jesus of Nazareth, and his talks published in Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church, Pope Benedict's Church Fathers presents these important figures of early Christianity in all their evangelical vitality, spiritual profundity, and uncompromising love of God. Benedict tells the true story of Christianity's against-all-odds triumph in the face of fierce Roman hostility and persecution. He does this by exploring the lives and the ideas of the early Christian writers, pastors, and martyrs, men so important to the spread of Christianity that history remembers them as "the Fathers of the Church".

This rich and engrossing survey of the early Church includes those churchmen who immediately succeeded the Apostles, the "Apostolic Fathers": Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus of Lyon. Benedict also discusses such great Christian figures as Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian of Carthage, the Cappadocian Fathers, as well as the giants John Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine. This book is a wonderful way to get to know the Church Fathers and the tremendous spiritually rich patrimony they have bequeathed to us. Continue reading...

Benedict XVI: "The priest is the man of the future..."

From Vatican Information Service, some short but powerful remarks by the Pope about the priesthood:

PRIESTS ARE WITNESSES OF THE POWER OF GOD

VATICAN CITY, 29 SEP 2009 (VIS) - Made public today were the contents of a video Message from the Pope to participants in an international spiritual retreat for priests at the French shrine of Ars for the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Mary Vianney. The preacher of the retreat, which is taking place from 27 September to 3 October, is Cardinal Christoph Schonborn O.P., archbishop of Vienna, Austria, and the theme of the spiritual exercises is: "The joy of being a priest, consecrated for the salvation of the world".

 "The priest", says the Holy Father in his Message, "is called to serve human beings and to give them life in God. ... He is a man of the divine Word and of all things holy and, today more than ever, he must be a man of joy and hope. To those who cannot conceive that God is pure Love, he will affirm that life is worthy to be lived and that Christ gives it its full meaning because He loves all humankind".

 Benedict XVI then turns to address priests who have to serve a number of parishes and who "commit themselves unreservedly to preserving sacramental life in their various communities. The Church's recognition for you all is immense", he says. "Do not lose heart but continue to pray and to make others pray that many young people may accept the call of Christ, Who always wishes to see the number of His apostles increase".

 The Holy Father also invites priests to consider "the extreme diversity of the ministries" they perform "in the service of the Church", and "the large number of Masses you celebrate or will celebrate, each time making Christ truly present at the altar. Think of the numerous absolutions you have given and will give, freeing sinners from their burdens. Thus you may perceive the infinite fruitfulness of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Your hands and lips become, for a single instant, the hands and lips of God".

 "This thought", the Pope added, "should bring you to ensure harmonious relations among the clergy so as to form the priestly community as St. Peter wanted, and so build the body of Christ and consolidate you in love".

 "The priest is the man of the future. ... What he does in this world is part of the order of things directed towards the final Goal. Mass is the only point of union between the means and the Goal because it enables us to contemplate, under the humble appearance of the bread and the wine, the Body and Blood of Him Whom we adore in eternity".

 "Nothing will ever replace the ministry of priests in the heart of the Church", the Pope concluded. "You are the living witnesses of God's power at work in the weakness of human beings, consecrated for the salvation of the world, chosen by Christ Himself to be, thanks to Him, salt of the earth and light of the world".

Some might be puzzled by the expression, "The priest is the man of the future." Whatever does that mean? I think another way of putting it is, "The priest is the man of the eschaton." As minister of the eschatological sacrament, the priest participates in a unique way in the anticipation and culmination of all things at the end of time. This was summarized quite beautifully by Benedict XVI in the Apostolic Exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis (Feb. 22, 2007):

The Eucharist and Eschatology

The Eucharist: a gift to men and women on their journey

30. If it is true that the sacraments are part of the Church's pilgrimage through history (99) towards the full manifestation of the victory of the risen Christ, it is also true that, especially in the liturgy of the Eucharist, they give us a real foretaste of the eschatological fulfilment for which every human being and all creation are destined (cf. Rom 8:19ff.). Man is created for that true and eternal happiness which only God's love can give. But our wounded freedom would go astray were it not already able to experience something of that future fulfilment. Moreover, to move forward in the right direction, we all need to be guided towards our final goal. That goal is Christ himself, the Lord who conquered sin and death, and who makes himself present to us in a special way in the eucharistic celebration. Even though we remain "aliens and exiles" in this world (1 Pet 2:11), through faith we already share in the fullness of risen life. The eucharistic banquet, by disclosing its powerful eschatological dimension, comes to the aid of our freedom as we continue our journey.

The eschatological banquet

31. Reflecting on this mystery, we can say that Jesus' coming responded to an expectation present in the people of Israel, in the whole of humanity and ultimately in creation itself. By his self-gift, he objectively inaugurated the eschatological age. Christ came to gather together the scattered People of God (cf. Jn 11:52) and clearly manifested his intention to gather together the community of the covenant, in order to bring to fulfilment the promises made by God to the fathers of old (cf. Jer 23:3; Lk 1:55, 70). In the calling of the Twelve, which is to be understood in relation to the twelve tribes of Israel, and in the command he gave them at the Last Supper, before his redemptive passion, to celebrate his memorial, Jesus showed that he wished to transfer to the entire community which he had founded the task of being, within history, the sign and instrument of the eschatological gathering that had its origin in him. Consequently, every eucharistic celebration sacramentally accomplishes the eschatological gathering of the People of God. For us, the eucharistic banquet is a real foretaste of the final banquet foretold by the prophets (cf. Is 25:6-9) and described in the New Testament as "the marriage-feast of the Lamb" (Rev 19:7-9), to be celebrated in the joy of the communion of saints (100).

Prayer for the dead

32. The eucharistic celebration, in which we proclaim that Christ has died and risen, and will come again, is a pledge of the future glory in which our bodies too will be glorified. Celebrating the memorial of our salvation strengthens our hope in the resurrection of the body and in the possibility of meeting once again, face to face, those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. In this context, I wish, together with the Synod Fathers, to remind all the faithful of the importance of prayers for the dead, especially the offering of Mass for them, so that, once purified, they can come to the beatific vision of God. (101) A rediscovery of the eschatological dimension inherent in the Eucharist, celebrated and adored, will help sustain us on our journey and comfort us in the hope of glory (cf. Rom 5:2; Tit 2:13).

Related Ignatius Insight Articles and Excerpts:

• The Eucharist: Source and Summit of Christian Spirituality | Mark Brumley
• The Spirit of the Liturgy page
• For "Many" or For "All"? | From God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
• Foreword to U.M. Lang's Turning Towards the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical Prayer | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
• The Meaning and Purpose of the Year of the Eucharist | Carl E. Olson
• The Doctrine (and the Defense) of the Eucharist | Carl E. Olson
• Benedict and the Eucharist: On the Apostolic Exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis | Carl E. Olson
• Walking To Heaven Backward | Interview with Father Jonathan Robinson of the Oratory
• Rite and Liturgy | Denis Crouan, STD
• The Liturgy Lived: The Divinization of Man | Jean Corbon, OP
• The Mass of Vatican II | Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J.
• Liturgy, Catechesis, and Conversion | Barbara Morgan

Update on the Bennett family

Mark Shea has an update from Rod Bennett, whose house near Atlanta was completely destroyed in flash floods a few days ago. And for those who wish to help out the Bennett family, Mark includes this information:

Repeating last week's blog entries, I would like to urge you to go log on to PayPal and click on the "Send Money" tab. Then enter Rod's email address ([email protected]) and be as generous as you can be. Do NOT--I repeat, NOT--send the money to me by clicking on my Paypal button on the left rail, but instead log onto the site and use the "Send Money" tab to get it directly to Rod at [email protected]. When you send it to me, Paypal takes a cut. When I forward it to Rod, Paypal takes another cut. Send it straight to Rod and more money gets to him. If you can't do the PayPal thang, then please send as big a check as you can to:

Rod Bennett
640 Parkcrest Pl. NE
Marietta GA 30068

Read Mark's entire post.

• Ignatius Press author and family loses everything in Georgia flash floods (Sept. 26, 2009)

Straight talk from Fr. Schall about...

... Catholic education, Catholic intellectuals, and the "Catholic mind", in a September 28th interview with ZENIT:

ZENIT: Do you believe that Catholic schools do a good job of fostering a Catholic mind in young Catholics? 

Father Schall: Briefly, no. 

No one could think that the curriculum and spirit of Catholic schools today are based in the tradition of specifically Catholic intelligence. That requires discipline, study, and virtue. 

In the modern world, we find no group more deprived of the glories of their own mind than young Catholics.  This is why those small enclaves that do address themselves to it are in many ways remarkable. 

Catholic institutions of higher learning, as they are called, simply gave up what was unique about themselves and the reasons for having Catholic universities in the first place. This lost source was the active vigor of the Catholic mind read not as an historical phenomenon or as a social activism, but as a search for and testimony of the truth, that towards which all mind is directed.

ZENIT: What modern persons, in your opinion, best embody ‘a mind that is Catholic?' Why?

Father Schall: In most of my books, beginning with "Another Sort of Learning," I have provided lists of books or reminders of them -- books that I think tell the truth. 

I always list Chesterton and E. F. Schumacher. I think the present pope, as well as the previous one, were marvels of the Catholic mind, a mind that comes to grips with all things, yet with the light of grace and revelation. 

The philosophy department at the Catholic University of America, to which I dedicated my book "The Mind That Is Catholic," is a perennial source of wisdom and rigorous intelligence. There is no place quite like it. I am a great admirer of the work of Monsignor Sokolowski, whose latest book, "The Phenomenology of the Human Person," is itself the Catholic mind at work; it is a mind that knows of reason and its limits as well as of its reaches.

Why do these and many other thinkers "embody a mind that is Catholic?" I think it is because they take everything into account. 

What is peculiar to Catholicism, I have always thought, is its refusal to leave anything out. In my short book, "The Regensburg Lecture," I was constantly astonished at the enormous range of the mind of the present Holy Father. There is simply no mind in any university or public office that can match his. He is a humble man, in fact. 

It is embarrassing to the world, and often to Catholic "intellectuals," to find that its most intelligent mind is on the Chair of Peter. I have always considered this papal intellectual profundity to be God's little joke to the modern mind. 

The modern mind has built up for itself theories and ideologies whereby it prevents itself from seeing the truth that a man like Benedict XVI spells out for it in lucid and rigorously argued terms – terms fully aware and familiar with all of modern philosophy itself. 

But Benedict XVI is a messenger of the Logos.

Read the entire interview.

Related Ignatius Insight Interviews:

• Putting Things In Order: Father James V. Schall, S.J., on Eighty Years of Living, Thinking, and Believing
• On Learning and Education: An Interview with Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | Part 1 of 3
• On Writing and Reading: Interview with Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | Part 2 of 3
• Chesterton, Sports, and Politics: Interview with Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | Part 3 of 3

"I would say that normally it is the creative minorities that determine the future..."

From Chiesa, a September 26th interview with Benedict XVI during his flight from Rome to Prague; an excerpt:

Q: Your Holiness, the Czech Republic is a very secularized country in which the Catholic Church is a minority. In this situation, how can the Church effectively contribute to the common good of the country?

A: I would say that normally it is the creative minorities that determine the future, and in this sense the Catholic Church must understand itself as a creative minority that has a heritage of values that are not things of the past, but a very living and relevant reality. The Church must actualize, be present in the public debate, in our struggle for a true concept of liberty and peace.

So it can contribute in various areas. I would say that the first is precisely the intellectual dialogue between agnostics and believers. Each needs the other: the agnostic cannot be content with not knowing whether God exists or not, but must be searching and sense the great heritage of the faith; the Catholic cannot be content with having the faith, but must be searching for God even more, and in dialogue with others relearn God in a more profound way. This is the first level: the great intellectual, ethical, and human dialogue.

Then, in the area of education, the Church has a great deal to do and to give, concerning formation. In Italy, we talk about the problem of the educational emergency. It is a problem common to all of the West: here the Church must again actualize, make concrete, open to the future its great heritage.

A third area is "Caritas." This has always been one of the marks of the Church's identity: that of coming to the aid of the poor, of being an instrument of charity. Caritas does a great deal in the Czech Republic, in the different communities, in situations of necessity, and it also offers much to suffering humanity on the different continents, thus giving an example of responsibility for others, of international solidarity, which is one of the conditions for peace.

Read the entire interview. Very interesting points, and just as applicable, undoubtedly, to the U.S. (and all of the West) as to the Czech Republic.

New from IP: "Reason to Believe: Why Faith Makes Sense" by Richard Purtill

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Reason to Believe: Why Faith Makes Sense

by Richard Purtill, emeritus professor of Philosophy at Western Washington University and author of numerous books including C.S. Lewis' Case For The Christian Faith, J.R.R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality, And Religion, and Lord Of The Elves And Eldils: Fantasy and Philosophy in C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Is religious belief reasonable? Of course the so-called New Atheists, such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, energetically say, "No!," Many others, including some believers, insist that faith is utterly beyond reasoned argument. Faith, they declare, is believing something that reason tells you can't be so. In this way they think they shield belief from rational criticism.

But philosopher Richard Purtill will have none of that approach to religion. In this newly updated classic work, Purtill carefully applies the power of the mind to understanding whether there is a rational basis for certain religious beliefs. His focus is on widely held Christian beliefs, although much of what he says applies also to other religious traditions. Purtill assesses the common objections to religious belief the claims that religious tenets are nonsensical, wishful thinking, the result of gullibility, immoral, or refuted by modern discoveries. Then he considers the arguments in favor of Christian belief by studying the nature of faith, of the universe, of morality, of happiness, and the world with God in it.

He also scrutinizes certain beliefs involving claims of Christian revelation — the credentials of revelation, the idea of God, Jesus as God's Son, organized religion, and the last things (death, judgment, heaven and hell). The two appendices tackle the Christian doctrine of the Atonement and the influence of certain Christian writers on the revival of Christian belief in the 20th century. An updated For Further Reading section is included.

Reason to Believe is not a work of revealed theology or religious devotion; it is a highly readable book on the philosophy of religion, aimed at the reader who wants to think seriously about religion but who doesn't know all the philosophers’ and theologians’ jargon and who may or may not be a committed believer.

"Sound atheists cannot be too careful of their reading, remarked C.S. Lewis. Richard Purtill gives the reason to believe that Lewis was right. Atheists will read this book at their peril. With Lewis-like lucidity, Purtill demolishes the case for atheism systematically and makes the case for Christianity with the logic of the true philosopher. In the pages of this majestic book, Christians will find their faith illuminated with the flare of a truly great thinker and communicator of ideas; atheists will discover that their unbelief flies in the face of the rationally provable foundations of reality "  — Joseph Pearce, author, The Quest for Shakespeare

"Reason to Believe is a clearly-written, philosophically rooted work that will help readers better understand and appreciate the rational nature of Christian faith, and will help them to respond to questions and challenges from skeptics. Highly recommended!"  — Carl E. Olson, author of The Da Vinci Hoax

"Richard Purtill writes with a lucidity reminiscent of Frank Sheed. The ability to show the support of faith by reason is crucial for evangelizing in today’s skeptical world. As Sheed walked the common man through theology, so Purtill guides us through a philosophical reasoning of faith." — Joe Tremblay, Veni.sanctespirit.us, "The Permanent Things in a Bookcase".

"After all, Kirk is practically Boston Catholic royalty."

Ah, isn't that what you want to hear about the pro-abortion friend of Sen. Ted Kennedy who will fill in for the recently deceased "Lion of the Senate" until a January 2010 election. You see, Kirk is

the grand-nephew of Cardinal William H. O'Connell, one of the most powerful figures in local church history, who served as archbishop of Boston from 1907 until his death in 1944. Kirk, 71, is one of five children of Josephine O'Connell, whose father, Edward J. O'Connell, was an older brother of Cardinal O'Connell.

Hmmm. Is Boston the only place in the U.S. with "Catholic royalty?" Do such royality have to swear some sort of oath to uphold and defend certain and sundry aspects of Catholic teaching, except where and when they conflict with the prevalent and infallible doctrines of the abortion industry? Do tell.

The 12 most important things to know about angels

As tomorrow is the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels, here is an excerpt from Angels (and Demons): What Do We Really About Them? (Ignatius Press; 2004, sixth printing) by Peter Kreeft:

The Twelve Most Important Things to Know About Them

1. They really exist. Not just in our minds, or our myths, or our symbols, or our culture. They are as real as your dog, or your sister, or electricity.

2. They’re present, right here, right now, right next to you, reading these words with you.

3. They’re not cute, cuddly, comfortable, chummy, or “cool”. They are fearsome and formidable. They are huge. They are warriors.

4. They are the real “extra-terrestrials”, the real “Super-men”, the ultimate aliens. Their powers are far beyond those of all fictional creatures.

5. They are more brilliant minds than Einstein.

6. They can literally move the heavens and the earth if God permits them.

7. There are also evil angels, fallen angels, demons, or devils. These too are not myths. Demon possessions, and exorcisms, are real.

8. Angels are aware of you, even though you can’t usually see or hear them. But you can communicate with them. You can talk to them without even speaking.

9. You really do have your very own “guardian angel”. Everybody does.

10. Angels often come disguised. “Do not neglect hospitality, for some have entertained angels unawares”—that’s a warning from life’s oldest and best instruction manual.

11. We are on a protected part of a great battlefield between angels and devils, extending to eternity.

12. Angels are sentinels standing at the crossroads where life meets death. They work especially at moments of crisis, at the brink of disaster—for bodies, for souls, and for nations.

Why do people think it's stupid to believe in angels?

One reason is a mistake about themselves: the failure to distinguish between (1) sense perception or imagination (which is a kind of inner sensing) and (2) reason, or intelligence, or understanding. We don't see pure spirits, and we can't imagine them. That doesn't mean we can't know or understand them. We can see and imagine the difference between a five-sided figure (a pentagon) and a six-sided figure (a hexagon), and we can also intellectually understand that difference. We cannot, however, sense or imagine the difference between a 105-sided figure and a 106-sided figure. Both look to us simply like circles. But we can understand the difference and even measure it exactly. So we can understand some things we can't see. We can't see qualities like good and evil either. What color or shape or size is evil? Yet we can understand them. We can imagine our brains, but not our minds, our personalities. But we can know them.

Many who deny angels deny or are uaware of the spiritual half of themselves. Angels are a touchstone of "know thyself". So are animals.

Aren't angels irrelevant today? This is the age of man, isn't it?

Yes, this is the age of man, of self-consciousness, of psychology. And therefore it is crucial to "know thyself" accurately today. The major heresies of our day are not about God but about man.

The two most destructive of these heresies—and the two most popular—are angelism, confusing man with an angel by denying his likeness to animals, and animalism, confusing man with an animal by denying his likeness to angels.

Man is the only being that is both angel and animal, both spirit and body. He is the lowest spirit and the highest body, the stupidest angel and the smartest animal, the low point of the hierarchy of minds and the high point of the hierarchy of bodies.

More accurately stated, man is not both angel and animal because he is neither angel nor animal; he is between angels and animals, a unique rung on the cosmic ladder.

But whichever way you say it, man must know angels to know himself, just as he must know animals to know himself, for he must know what he is, and he must know what he is not.

A free 80-minute lecture,"Aquinas and the Angels," by Peter Kreeft can be accessed here.

"Dayspring: A Novel", by Harry Sylvester, "a classic of American religious fiction"...

... is now available from Ignatius Press. A bit about the book, first published in 1945:

Dayspring: A Novel

by Harry Sylvester

Spencer Bain is a modern man of science, a university anthropologist doing fieldwork in a small New Mexican town. Used to long separations from his wife, a UCLA professor equally dedicated to her career, he is mostly untroubled by his infidelities, and hers; that is, until now.
In order to study the religious practices of the Penitentes, a brotherhood of local men who engage in severe, medieval penances, Bain feigns a conversion to Catholicism and participates in their Lenten observances, including their dramatic public procession on Good Friday.

Nothing in Bain’s skeptical academic training has prepared him for the profound remorse that he begins to experience. Though no sentimentalist with respect to the poor and ignorant who surround him, he cannot help but contrast the simple yet solid lives of the men and women he studies with his own fruitless relationships and those of the jaded, over-sexed sophisticates — the self-proclaimed artists and intellectuals — he considers his peers.

Artistically descriptive of the rugged Southwest and the people who dwell there, the novel also movingly portrays the inner landscape of a man coming to grips with his need for redemption. Author Harry Sylvester masterfully illustrates both the objective reality and the subjective experience of guilt and grace.

“Dayspring is timeless in that it deals with an ordinary man suddenly and shockingly exposed to eternal realities far beyond his experience or comprehension”.  — Philip Jenkins, Professor of Humanities, Pennsylvania State University

More from Jenkins (who wrote the foreword to this new edition of Dayspring) about Sylvester (1908-1993) in this March 2007 article for First Things:

Forgotten writers often deserve their oblivion: Either they were not all that good in the first place, or their work made sense only in the context of a particular era. Neither applies to Harry Sylvester or his three Catholic novels, Dearly Beloved (1942), Dayspring (1945), and Moon Gaffney. To read them today is to recognize their relevance for modern audiences. In the mid-1940s, a generation ahead of their time, Sylvester's novels were already exploring such themes as Catholic social activism, church involvement in civil rights, Christian mysticism, and Hispanic religious practice.

<snip>

Both these novels reflect Sylvester's immersion in the political causes of the 1940s, issues from which he largely escaped in Dayspring, his best novel and a classic of American religious fiction. Like many artists of the time, he spent lengthy periods in New Mexico, which had become wildly fashionable because of the primitivist vogue for Native American cultures. For Sylvester, though, the area was a revelation because it introduced him to the Hispanic religious tradition symbolized by the Penitentes, made nationally famous by Alice Corbin Henderson's book Brothers of Light (1937). While many Americans saw in Hispanic religion merely another tourist attraction, Sylvester found a radically different version of Catholic Christianity, apparently free of the clericalism, bureaucracy, and compromise he so despised. This was palpably not the “Irish-French kind of Catholicism that's managed to bitch the Church up over here. It's why a few people have come here or stay here [in the Southwest], where Catholicism is still pretty close to what it should be.”

<snip>

Harry Sylvester's novels are worth reading for many reasons, not least because they so challenge the widespread sense among younger American Catholics that they are the first to confront the paradoxes created by an institutional church living at once in the world and beyond time. But Dayspring is modern also in the questions it asks about the nature of Catholic Christianity and the tremendous spiritual appeal of the forms of faith found outside the European mainstream. During the 1940s, at a time when other Westerners were seeking enlightenment in the religious mysticism of India, Japan, or Tibet, or in the imagined primitivism of Native America, Sylvester was among the few who grasped the power of the faith in Hispanic spirituality. His openness to hearing those voices is all the more attractive at a time when Catholic numbers are growing so rapidly in the global South and when churches across the United States are being transformed by the Latino presence.

In Harry Sylvester, we find novels of devotion, of social activism, of mystical experience. What else do we need to see all his books back in print?

Read the entire piece.

The Comprehensive Claim of Marxism

The Comprehensive Claim of Marxism | Peter Kreeft | From Socrates Meets Marx: The Father of Philosophy Cross-Examines the Founder of Communism

Introduction

This book is one in a series of Socratic explorations of some of the Great Books. Books in this series are intended to be short, clear, and non-technical, thus fully understandable by beginners. They also introduce (or review) the basic questions in the fundamental divisions of philosophy (see the chapter titles): metaphysics, epistemology, anthropology, ethics, logic, and method. They are designed both for classroom use and for educational do-it-yourselfers. The "Socrates Meets . . ." books can be read and understood completely on their own, but each is best appreciated after reading the little classic it engages in dialogue.

The setting – Socrates and the author of the Great Book meeting in the afterlife – need not deter readers who do not believe there is an afterlife. For although the two characters and their philosophies are historically real, their conversation, of course, is not and requires a "willing suspension of disbelief ". There is no reason the skeptic cannot extend this literary belief also to the setting.

This excerpt is Chapter 2 of Socrates Meets Marx.

---

SOCRATES: Perhaps it would be best for you to introduce your book first, to explain its context and its purpose, as if you were teaching it in a university classroom. I think you are much readier to lecture than to dialogue at this point, so perhaps this method would relieve that itch a bit.

MARX: Do you really expect me to respond to an insulting invitation like that?

SOCRATES: Yes.

MARX: Why?

SOCRATES: Because you are an egotist. And also because you have no choice: there is nothing else to do here.

MARX: Hmph! Well, I will take up your challenge.

The book we are about to explore is very short: a pamphlet of only 12,000 words. Yet it has changed the world, as I knew it would. It contains the essentials of Communism in these few pages. All the rest of my writing consists in additions or refinements to this.

I wrote it at age twenty-nine. Engels did not write a word of it. However, he supplied some of the ideas. The Manifesto corresponds to the first twenty-five questions in his Catechism. More importantly, he supplied most of the money to print it.

It is a Great Book because it finally solves the mystery of man and lays bare the most fundamental laws that have always governed human behavior. I did for man's history what Darwin did for the history of an- imal species and Newton did for the inorganic universe. It is the supreme achievement of human thought. I was the first to make history truly scientific.

All the philosophers, from Plato on, sought the "philosopher's stone", the world system, the formula. Each claimed to find it, but none did. Every time thought came to a halt before the timeless formula of some philosopher, the world moved on and refuted it.

Then came Hegel, who made change itself the formula. That was true, but not original: Heraclitus, even before your time, Socrates, had seen that "everything flows", like a river. He sought for the logos, the law or formula, for universal change; but it was not found until Hegel, who saw for the first time that logic itself moves with history, that truth itself changes according to the pattern of what he called the "dialectic": a thesis generates its own antithesis, and from this perpetual conflict emerges a synthesis, which then becomes a new thesis generating its own new antithesis, and so on until the final synthesis. Hegel, with unbelievable stupidity, identified this with "God", or "The Absolute" or "Spirit"--probably the three worst words in human speech and the three most harmful myths in human thought.

Continue reading...

The itsy-bitsy spider...

... climbed up the pontiff's shoulder. Funny footage of the tiny feet of the Order of Araneida traversing the Holy Father's shoulders and arms.

Benedict XVI on Europe, Communism, hope, faith, and freedom

From the Vatican Information Service, reports on and excerpts from addresses and homily given by the Holy Father during his trip to the Czech Republic:

 EUROPE MUST KEEP ITS CHRISTIAN HERITAGE ALIVE

VATICAN CITY, 26 SEP 2009 (VIS) - At 4.30 p.m. today Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, greeted the Holy Father at Prague Castle. The castle dates from the ninth century and has been the seat of Holy Roman emperors, kings and governors. Since 1918 it has been a fortified citadel enclosing various monuments and museums. It is the seat of the president of the Republic and is the cultural and historical symbol par excellence of Bohemia.

 Benedict XVI had a private meeting with President Klaus before going on to meet with Jan Fischer, prime minister of the Czech Republic, and with Premysl Sobotka and Miloslav Vlcek, presidents, respectively, of the senate and of the chamber of deputies. Subsequently, accompanied by President cKlaus and his wife, the Pope visited the Spanish Hall for a brief concert by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, after which he met the country's political and administrative authorities, the diplomatic corps, university rectors and various representatives from the civil, business and cultural worlds of the Czech Republic.

Feeling much better, thank you...

... after today's events at the local Gridiron Temple (located just a few minutes away). Not that I worship there. But I do keep tabs on the autumnal worship services, and this one, I must admit, was quite entertaining.

• Not feeling so great this evening (Sept. 3, 2009)

Ignatius Press author and family loses everything in Georgia flash floods

From Mark Shea's blog, this sad news:

And, on a more personal note, my friend Rod Bennett (author of the terrific book Four Witnesses) writes:

Just a note to any of our friends who haven't got the word: we Bennetts lost our home and practically all of its contents in Monday's flash flooding here in Georgia. Please be in prayer as we look for guidance on where to go from here and as our kids (who've never really known any other home than this one) try to pick up the pieces emotionally.

We'll be staying with my parents in Marietta for the next week or so.

I spoke to Rod this morning. He was standing in eight inches of mud on the *third* floor of his house. He is the soul of Christian courage and fidelity in all this, though his voice cracked a couple of times and nearly broke my heart. They have lost *everything*. And they had *just* sunk $30,000 dollars into a renovation ("The roof didn't leak" he said.) Thanks be to God, they have flood insurance and so should be able to find a new home. But everything they own is gone and they are, like us, basically lower middle class folk. His library he built his whole life is goo. All their kids' things. All his wife treasured. Everything. Look around your home at all the dear familiar things you take for granted. Now imagine it all taken away. Every stick of it. He is meditating on Job and saying to God, "I'm not going anywhere." But it's bitterly hard.

They will stay in their folks' summer home for the time being. But that's 150 miles away, which means his wife will have to radically scale back her work hours as a nurse--and that means way less income. Plus, the kids are traumatized and are now suddenly thrust into a strange place far from friends and familiar things.

All of which is to say "They could really use, not just your prayers, but your help."

Visit Mark's post to find out more about helping the Bennett family during this difficult time.

The Tragic Misunderstanding of Atheist Humanism

The Tragic Misunderstanding of Atheist Humanism | Henri de Lubac | From Chapter One of The Drama of Atheist Humanism

A wonderful piece of sculpture adorning the cathedral of Chartres represents Adam, head and shoulders barely roughed out, emerging from the earth from which he was made and being molded by the hands of God. The face of the first man reproduces the features of his modeler. This parable in stone translates for the eyes the mysterious words of Genesis: "God made man in his own image and likeness."

From its earliest beginnings Christian tradition has not ceased to annotate this verse, recognizing in it our first title of nobility and the foundation of our greatness. Reason, liberty, immortality and dominion over nature are so many prerogatives of divine origin that God has imparted to his creatures. Establishing man from the outset in God's likeness, each of these prerogatives is meant to grow and unfold until the divine resemblance is brought to perfection. Thus they are the key to the highest of destinies.

"Man, know thyself!" Taking up, after Epictetus, the Socratic gnôthi seauton, the Church transformed and deepened it, [1] so that what had been chiefly a piece of moral advice became an exhortation to form a metaphysical judgment. Know your- self, said the Church, that is to say, know your nobility and your dignity, understand the greatness of your being and your vocation, of that vocation which constitutes your being. Learn how to see in yourself the spirit, which is a reflection of God, made for God. "O man, scorn not that which is admirable in you! You are a poor thing in your own eyes, but I would teach you that in reality you are a great thing! ... Realize what you are! Consider your royal dignity! The heavens have not been made in God's image as you have, nor the moon, nor the sun, nor anything to be seen in creation .... Behold, of all that exists there is nothing that can contain your greatness." [2] Philosophers have told man that he is a "microcosm", a little world made of the same elements, given the same structure, subject to the same rhythms as the great universe; they have reminded him that he is made in its image and is subject to its laws; they have made him into part of the mechanism or, at most, into an epitome of the cosmic machine. Nor were they completely mistaken. Of man's body and of all that, in man, can be called "nature", it is true. But if man digs deeper and if his reflection is illuminated by what is said in Sacred Scripture, he will be amazed at the depths opening up within him. [3] Unaccountable space extends before his gaze. In a sort of infinitude he overflows this great world on all sides, and in reality it is that world, "macrocosm", which is contained in this apparent "microcosm" . . . in parvo magnus. That looks like a paradox borrowed from one of our great modern idealists. Far from it. First formulated by Origen, then by Saint Gregory Nazianzen, it was later repeated by many others. [4] Saint Thomas Aquinas was to give much the same translation of it when he said that the soul is in the world continens magis quam contenta—containing it rather than contained by it—and it found fresh utterance through the lips of Bossuet. [5]

Continue reading...

What's it take to be savior of the world these days?

This pressing question, fraught with all sorts of theological, soteriological, and political undertones, is bravely and soberly (ahem!) addressed in this recent AFP article, which provides the following (admittedly non-systematic) answers:

1. Be based in New York City.
2. Establish a "Global Initiative".
3. Employ "swelling, movie-style music".
4. Stay in a Sheraton.
5. Be praised by the most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States.
6. Be surrounded by politicians, global leaders, and Hollywood stars.
7. Prepare for adulation of your " famous schmoozing skills."
8. Listen to the Prez say, ""He looks you in the eye, he feels your pain..."
9. Have plenty of "charm."
10. Found an organization that as, for the past few years, helped treat millions for disease, educated many, and provided drinking water for many others.

Now, how would Jesus do in comparison? Two thousand years ago...

1. He was born in Bethlehem.
2. He established the Kingdom of God and founded the Catholic Church.
3. His birth was announced by a host of singing angels.
4. He was born in a manger, lived in modest mud/clay homes, often slept under the stars.
5. He was persecuted by political and religious leaders and mocked by the Emperor's representative.
6. He was surrounded by fishermen, poor people, sick people, and tax collectors, along with a few devoted women.
7. He was told by some disciples, following a discourse, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?"
8. While dying on the Cross, a Roman centurion said, looking upon him: "Truly this was the Son of God!"
9. He was mocked for being from Nazareth and he described himself as "lowly."
10. He established an institution, the Catholic Church, which changed the course of human history, brought the sacraments and salvation to untold numbers of people for two thousand years, established the roots of the greatest civilization in the history of humanity, founded more hospitals, hospices, charities, apostolates, religious orders, and orphanages than any other institution or movement in the history of man, founded the university, educated tens of millions, advanced scientific discovery and research in numerous fields, sponsored great music and art, directly and indirectly inspired some of the greatest works of poetry, prose, and scholarship known to man, and so forth and so on.

Not to take anything away, of course, from 21st century world saviors. I'm just sayin'...