I was listening to an Extraenvironmentalist interview with John Michael Greer, and it struck me that his epistemology is subjective, not quite Kantian but related. Still, that doesn't necessarily vitiate what he has to say about economics and our failure to consider the primary economy.

From the Spring 2011, volume 10, number 1 issue of Tidings:

Second Liturgical institute Student Successfully Defends Doctoral Dissertation


On May 4th, 2011, Institute Student Fr. Anthony Putti successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, becoming the second graduate of the Liturgical Institute to complete the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology. The culmination of five years of research and writing, his doctoral dissertation, entitled "Theosis Through Liturgy in the Theologies of Alexander Schmemann and Dumitru Staniloae," was written under the direction of faculty member Fr. Emery De Gaal.


Fr. Putti explained that the Eastern notion of theosis, often called divinization in the West, has strong biblical and patristic support, as in St. Athanasius' famous statement that God became man so that man might become God. In particular, the dissertation focused on comparing the understanding of theosis in two of the twentieth century's great Orthodox theologians.

Schmemann, who served for over 40 years at St. Vladimir's Seminary in New York, is known for his writings on the sacred liturgy, many of which have been available in English for decades. Fr. Putti argued that Schmemann's model saw the Church as the enablign agent of theosis through the sacred liturgy, making theosis the goal of the Christian life in God by the Holy Spirit.

The doctoral defense board spoke highly of Fr. Putti's introduction of the important work of Staniloae to the English-speaking world. A Romanian priest, Staniloae (1903-1993) proposed a mystical-dogmatic approach to theosis centered on the vision of God as three divine persons, envisioning the mystery of the Incarnation as the basis for the transfiguration of the entire cosmos.

The Liturgical Institute congratulates Fr. Putti for his careful academic work and intellectual rigor, and look forward to his scholarly contribution to the Church's liturgical life.

Related:
Father Dumitru Staniloae:Orthodox Spirituality





Dumitru Staniloae: An Ecumenical Ecclesiology by Radu Bordeianu


His obituary in The Independent.

Was about to finish some comments on a piece at The Public Discourse, but the website is down (or the account has been suspended)...

Sandro Magister, Inside the Crisis. With the Society of Jesus
The analysis of the European financial disaster written by "La Civiltà Cattolica" with the approval of the Vatican secretariat of state. Special focus: Italy and Germany

Zenit: Traditional Proclamation of Christ's Birth
"Today Is the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ"

James Chastek, Accounting for what a substance is

Byzantine, Texas: Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy, an abbreviated review

What does doctrine matter, as long as you're a theist. Or you believe in God? (Or worse, as long as you believe something and are a good person?) But some forms of ignorance can be excused; the rejection of charity cannot. Non-Christians (apart from the Jews) know nothing about loving God more than one's self.

But back to dogma - what if God has revealed Himself to us? Shouldn't we then be concerned with what He has actually revealed, instead of relying upon our own possibly mistaken ideas?

(Isn't everyone's faith the same? Isn't all just tradition? But what is the ultimate source of the tradition? And what do we know through the tradition? How is Christianity set apart from Judaism and Islam on this point? I do not think Islam would claim that the object of faith for a Muslim is God Himself.)

Nativity Compline--"God is With Us"


St. Elias Church

Annie Murphy Paul: What we learn before we're born (mp3)


Related:
What Do Babies Think?

St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, and the Nativity: An Interview with Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev)

Dominicana: 795 Years of Preaching: There Still is Work to be Done

MoJ: Kramer on the "Purgative" Justification for Capital Punishment

Moral Absolutes and the Divine Command by Robert T. Miller

(see also God and Moral Absolutes by Matthew O'Brien)

Thaddeus Kozinski has some posts over at ISI reviewing Sertillanges and his recommendations for cultivating the intellectual life.

Thomistica.net: The Catholic Theological Society of America--and St. Thomas Aquinas

No Intentional Killing of the Innocent: A Response to Miscamble and O’Brien by Christopher O. Tollefsen

Montesinos 500th Anniversary

John Zmirak, Gifts of the Spirit: What’s the Return Policy?

Immigration and American Exceptionalism (via MOJ)

Immigration and American Exceptionalism from Center for Vision and Values on Vimeo.

Rorate Caeli: New Secretary General of International Theological Commission
Saint Thomas and the historical method

The Smithy: New Doctor and A Ramble on Ockham, Scholarship, and Other Matters

Chief tells Pope: we must revive soul of Europe

And how, exactly, is this going to be accomplished? Another empty ecumenical gesture? Are Jews going to pray for Christians to be better Christians?

He called on Christians and Jews to open a "new chapter" in their relationship: "If Europe loses the Judeo-Christian heritage that gave it its historic identity and its greatest achievements in literature, art, music, education, politics, and economics, it will lose its identity and its greatness.

One might have thought that the claim of a "Judeo-Christian" identity or culture was limited to Americans. Christianity is rooted in Judaism but that is not the same as the Judaism that came into being through the rejection of Christ.

Affirmative Action in the Church?

Given how feminized the Church and hierarchy are already, is this such a wise move?

Rome Reports: Pope to canonize and name Hildegard of Bingen as Doctor of the Church



How influential has she been on theology?

Rorate Caeli

James Chastek: Philosophies of Nature, Old and Modern

Thomistica.net: Christ and Spirituality in St. Thomas Aquinas: A New Book by Fr. Torrell

Switzerland’s newest bishop ready to evangelize

Zenit: Prelate's Address on the Holy See as Member of the International Organization for Migration


"The Ethical Implications of the Current Situation Seem to Require a Renewed Discussion"

Rorate Caeli: Msgr. Gherardini: Vatican II is not a super-dogma
The importance and the limits of the authentic Magisterium

The Smithy: Scotus' Razor

MoJ: Review of Taylor & Maclure, "Secularism and Freedom of Conscience"

Journal en continu - Séquences choisies - Ordination de Charles Morerod

Related:
Sandro Magister, Theologians, Apologists. What the New Bishops Have To Be

Edward Feser on Frank Pastore (link via his blog) - mp3

The Smithy: Robert Prentice and Illuminationism

MoJ: Koritansky ed., "The Philosophy of Punishment and the History of Political Thought"

(Koritansky's book on Aquinas)

Christopher Kaczor - Pro-Life Aristotle

Tota pulchra es Maria by Durufle performed by Vox Reflexa

Rorate Caeli: The words of Monsignor Ocáriz and Conciliar innovations

Zenit: Papal Address to International Theological Commission
"A Truly Catholic Theology ... Is Necessary Today More Than Ever"

James Chastek, On what can be meant by “there is no morality without God”

The clearest way to show this is to give the various arguments that have actually been used to prove the claim there can be no morality or moral action without God.


1.) Morality is rational, but the existence of God is a necessary practical postulate for rational morality. (Kant)


2.) Human nature is wounded, by which we mean incapable of acting morally without some exterior supernatural aid. (St. Paul, interpretation 1)


3.) Human nature is called to live with a being whose existence exceeds what it can discovered by its own rational power, therefore human nature cannot achieve what it is called to unless this being reveals itself to him. But moral action consists in achieving that which one is called to do, in the sense of perfecting ones nature. (St. Paul, interpretation 2)


4.) Morality requires keeping the weak-minded in line. But one cannot keep the weak minded in line without scaring them with the idea of divine things. (A common opinion of the Roman consuls who killed the Christians)


5.) Justice, the form of the virtues, is nothing but gazing upon the good itself, that is, the philosophical gazing on the divine absolute. (Plato)


6.) The action of anything is its way of trying to become as much like God as possible, and morality is human action (Aristotle)


7.) Of itself, nature is meaningless. But morality of itself is not meaningless. Therefore morality is from a supernatural source, and whatever is from a supernatural source is from God (William Lane Craig)


8.) Of itself, nature is meaningful. But the meaningfulness of artifacts must be reduced to some intelligent being, therefore the meaningfulness of nature must be reduced to an intelligent being. But morality is meaningful action.


9.) Morality is partaking in justice itself, good itself, etc. But God is subsistent justice itself, goodness itself, etc. (Neo-Platonism, sympathetic with Thomism)


10.) Here are the most celebrated atheist regimes. Almost all of them are moral monsters.


11.) Moral action is doing what the herd does. But the herd of Western civilization is founded on belief in God and has not yet given itself a new foundation (suggested by Nietzsche, but not him exactly)


12.) Moral action must satisfy natural desires. But man has a natural desire for God.


13.) Moral action requires knowing what you were made for and what your purpose is. But only your maker and creator knows what your purpose is, and you were specially made and created by God.


So that’s a baker’s dozen, in no particular order. All of them have enjoyed widespread popularity for one reason or another, either by being preacher’s enthymemes or by being the thoughts of a major school or popular thinker. Yet only one of them is a divine command theory (7) and it is not even the paradigm case of the divine command theory (which we find, as Brandon has been saying for years and deserves to be listened to, in William Warburton) There is, in fact, a “default setting” in the Western mind to tie morality to the divine, but divine command theory is only one attempt to articulate this default setting. And so the desire of the Western man’s psyche (and, as Wilkins suggests, this might be a more universal desire) to tie his morality to the divine seems less like a theory and more like a universal sense that articulates itself imperfectly in many different theories.

and

Morality consists in doing ones conscience, conscience is the voice of God (Newman and Frankl)

NASA Telescope Confirms Alien Planet in Habitable Zone

Peter Gilbert, Notes on Liberal Education and Eastern Christianity

Francisco Guerrero - In Exitu Israel

Westminster Cathedral Choir

"The Orthodox Rejection of Doctrinal Development"by Daniel Lattier

Wish I could get my hands on a cheap copy of Criticising the Critics by Fr. Nichols. There was one at Amazon UK but I forgot to complete the order so someone else bought it.

New Blackfriars

Solitude and Political Friendship by Anthony Esolen

"True solitude is the contemplation of the true, the good, and the beautiful, and such solitude is essential to maintaining communities of friendship oriented towards non-quantifiable goods."

SALVE REGINA - Hernando Franco (1532 - 1585)

Westminster Cathedral Choir

I saw at Hearts of Love that St. Benedict Press has published a translation of Fr. Phillipe's The Mysteries of Mary. I hate to say it, but the allegation of scandal has decreased my enthusiasm for his books.

Can the Church Ban Capital Punishment? by Christopher A. Ferrara

Let’s End the Death Penalty, Now
Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput

First Things: Natural Rights Trump Obamacare, or Should by Hadley Arkes

Only the natural law can explain the deep wrongs of the recent health-care bill.

Russell Kirk:

Justice means that every man and every woman have the right to what is their own—to the things best suited to their own nature, to the rewards of their ability and integrity, to their property and their personality. Civilized society requires that all men and women have equal rights before the law, but that equality should not extend to equality of condition: that is, society is a great partnership, in which all have equal rights—but not to equal things. The just society requires sound leadership, different rewards for different abilities, and a sense of respect and duty.

Problems with Fr. Robert Barron?

Carl Olson, Advent with Jean Cardinal Daniélou

Medievalists.net: Customary law before the conquest

Rorate Caeli: The nature of the intellectual assent that is owed to the teachings of the Council

"The following article, written by Monsignor Fernando Ocariz Braña, Vicar General of Holy Cross and Opus Dei (also one of the Vatican representatives in the doctrinal talks with the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X), was published in this afternoon's (dated tomorrow) edition of the official daily of the Holy See, L'Osservatore Romano."

Zenit: Pope's Message to Ecumenical Patriarch for Feast of St. Andrew
"The Present Circumstances ... Present to Catholics and Orthodox the Same Challenge"

Zenit: Pontiff Lauds Efforts to End Death Penalty
Notes Human Dignity of Prisoners

European intellectuals and humanists... or those who are naturally sensitive. Too soft? After all of the deaths and destruction of the 20th century an aversion to killing is understandable.