Diligite iustitiam

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

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.

Monday, December 26, 2011

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)...

Sunday, December 25, 2011

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"

Saturday, December 24, 2011

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.)