James Kalb, Liberalism, Catholicism, and the Good

MoJ: What is the Purpose of the Natural Law?

Perhaps the natural law has a proper use, and we have missed it. If the natural law does not exist to create agreement among reasonable minds on the requirements of morality for human action, then we should not be surprised when it does not.


But what is the purpose of the natural law? I believe the natural law exists to convict the sinful human heart. We can see this purpose in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. Catholic Social Thought often quotes Romans chapter 2 for the proposition that “the law is written on the heart,” but Paul says much more about this law: “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:19-20).


“Through the law comes knowledge of sin.” The Apostle Paul certainly “uses” natural law, but not to reach agreement on social policy. The Apostle Paul uses the natural law to demonstrate that we know right, yet do wrong. The standard is high and we fall short. He uses the natural law for eternal purposes, to crush any faith we may have built up in ourselves, so our faith may find rest in Christ. Is this the purpose of natural law? Can the natural law be used as a common foundation for moral reasoning, when no one lives up to the full extent of the law?


Can we expect people to consent to the rule of natural law, as a basis for State enforced social policy, when serious contemplation of the natural law illuminates our shortcomings? Or should we focus on pushing the sharp conviction of the law upon the human heart, so hard hearts are plowed, and the ground is made fertile for seeds of grace?

Is rejection of the natural law always tied to one's personal disposition towards God? Or is just an indication either of indoctrination or disordered appetite? Should we perhaps be wary of turning discussion of the natural law into a liberal search for a public reason accessible to all? Is personal dignity offended when people are "coerced" into accepting valid laws with which they disagree?

MoJ: supplement to Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought published

Rowman-Littlefield

Byzantine, Texas: Dr. Lewis J. Patsavos delivers SS. Cyril & Methodius lecture

A new series featuring Edward Feser as one of its editors: Contemporary Scholasticism

Two on university education

Robert John Araujo, SJ, The University as the Classroom of Life

While public service is often heralded and promoted in “service learning” that has become another feature of contemporary education, the nature and extent of what constitutes public service is often determined by the autonomous individual (usually director who has some kind of “expertise”) who has been empowered, through leading and living “an extraordinary life,” to decide what the public needs regardless of whether this is beneficial or detrimental to the common good.


What is missing from all of these shaping factors of the “good education” are crucial elements of Catholic social thought whose benefits are not restricted to Catholic thinking and institutions: (1) the inviolability of the human dignity that belongs to everyone; (2) the common good as defined by the inextricable connection of the righteous life well-lived by everyone (and I do mean everyone) in cooperation with the destiny of everyone to do the same; (3) the idea of solidarity which underscores the common good; and (4) the cultivation of the cardinal virtues of justice, fortitude or courage, prudence, and temperance or forbearance. Unfortunately, too many members of the mainstream contemporary academy respond to these elements as I have proposed them as old fashioned. The fact that these elements also undergird much of the development of western law and legal theory is oft forgotten in most law school—to say nothing of undergraduate—education of the present day.

In an oversized society, a university cannot teach about the common good and legal justice because it does not exist in a community, and Behemoth U. itself is often too large to be a community as well.

Bradley J. Birzer, A Modest Proposal: A Freshman Year of Studies

While I have immense appreciation of a Great Books approach, such as that found at St. John’s, I’ve been far more influenced by a cultural approach to the liberal arts as understood by my heroes, Christopher Dawson, Russell Kirk, and Jacques Barzun.

The cultural approach (or the poetic education of John Senior) may be a necessary part of a liberal education, but is freshman year too late? No, if the freshman are 14 year-olds. If I were in charge, I'd do more to reverse the infantilization of young adults. (Would such a cultural component of a liberal education be necessary if our young grew up in real communities with real story-telling? I don't think so.)


Shakespeare's Spirituality: A Perspective, An Interview with Dr. Martin Lings
World Wisdom profile of Dr. Lings

Romeiko Ensemble, Axion esti

Sandro Magister, The Lost Papers of Vatican II (via Chant Cafe)

"God is not a liberal"

As he has given man a social nature and willed that they perfect one another, and so He does not will that they become perfected alone. Hence it was appropriate that He set apart a people, not just an individual or even a family, from whom the Mother of the Messiah and the Messiah Himself would be born.

New from Cistercian Publications

Christian de Chergé
A Theology of Hope

Christian de Chergé was the prior of the Cistercian community at Tibhirine, Algeria, whose members were killed apparently by Muslim "extremists." Their last days were fictionalized in the movie Of Gods and Men:


From the publisher's description:
"De Chergé saw his monastic vocation as a call to be a person of prayer among persons who pray, that is, among the Muslim friends and neighbours with whom he and his brothers shared daily life. De Chergé’s writings bear witness to an original thinker who insists on the value of interreligious dialogue for a more intelligent grasp of one’s own faith."

Will we discover a problematic sort of ecumenism being described in the book? Or is this summary just insufficient? I think he may provide one model for evangelizing to Muslims, but not a model to be adopted by all. There is the question of whether the monks should ahve been there in the first place, and if their witness was in anyway obscured or hindered by their association with the French state. If so, would it have been better if they had left and just prayed for the conversion of that land's inhabitants?

Related:
The Monks of Thibhirine by John W. Kiser

Also from Cisterican Publications -

The Great Beginning of Cîteaux
A Narrative of the Beginning of the Cistercian Order
The Exordium Magnum of Conrad of Eberbach

Gregory the Great On the Song of Songs
(see also the collection of Forty Gospel Homilies)

Lovers of the Place
Monasticism Loose in the Church
Francis Kline, OCSO

"Abbot Kline invites all the baptized to a participation in the monastic charism now loose in the Church at large."
I don't see that the charism is now loose in the Church at large. It may be a helpful model for helping the laity understanding community and stability. What is Abbot Kline's diagnosis of what ails contemporary monasticism?

Hildegard of Bingen, Homilies on the Gospels

What of the 2009 German movie about her? It's probably lousy. The NYT review, NPR, and NCR.



Margarethe von Trotta On Her New Film “Vision” – The Life Of Hildegard von Bingen
Zeitgeist

Some thoughts on CL

One of my former professors was a follower of CL and introduced me to the writings of Msgr. Giussani, its founder. The group and its founder have received praise from the current and previous popes. I think GodSpy, which has not been updated in more than three years, was also associated with CL in some way? (Or maybe it just published essays by Msgr. Alcabete.)

I have some of Msgr. Giussani's books, but I must admit that I have not really read through most of them. I tried to read through one but stopped, as it was too dense for me at the time. Having grown a little, maybe I would comprehend it better now and thus profit from it. Or maybe I'm too simple-minded to appreciate it. My first impression was that its literary style of presenting the Faith was not for me. (Or the style of the English translation, at least.)

I also know that study groups are very popular with CL; they read the writings of Msgr. Giusanni plus other texts. This reminds me of the study groups of Jacques Maritain. (How many conversions did Maritain facilitate?) I've been invited to a CL study group, but never attended. It may have a better reputation than some of the other ecclesial movements. I think its apostolate is more directed towards university faculty and students and professionals? The key to understanding it better for me would be to see how they define culture and education (and how this relates to community, both the local Church and the political community). How is it different from John Senior's IHP at the U. Kansas? Its sort of ecumenical outreach reminds me of Sant'Egidio, but their apostolates are different? For the big cities I tend to favor something more radically simple like the Catholic Worker movement, which was not anti-intellectual, far from it. (iirc, Dorothy Day had her own study groups.)

What are the philosophical/literary sources upon which CL texts rely? Maybe I'm not steeped enough in recent European intellectual culture to fully appreciate the texts, but is there a danger of over-intellectualizing the Gospel?

There is actually a CL group at the local parish. If things ever settle down, maybe I'll check it out.

Related:
The Risk of Education
Traces
The "Right Way" of Fr. Luigi Giussani
International Institute of Culture
Crossroads Cultural Center

New York Encounter
A Festival of Faith and Reason


More with Msgr. Alcabete:
Frontline interview
REFLECTIONS ON HUMANAE VITAE'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY
Younger than Sin
Some appearances on Charlie Rose.



Msgr. Alcabete on the salvation of non-Christians - he is correct that salvation is not works-righteousness; it is your stand to the Other. But it seems rather muddled. Maybe it's my preference for "scholastic distinctions." Truth and Love can be names for God, yes. And we must know and love Him to be happy.

Adam DeVille interviews Tim Kelleher: Tim Kelleher on the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed


First Things

The World Over

Domenic D’Ettore Earns Doctorate in Philosophy
5/2/2012
Domenic D’Ettore, a doctoral candidate in the University of St. Thomas Center for Thomistic Studies program, publicly defended his dissertation on April 23 before the University community and his dissertation board.

D’Ettore’s dissertation was accepted by the Center for Thomistic Studies and in May he will be the 21st recipient of a doctorate in philosophy from the University of St. Thomas.

The purpose of D’Ettore’s dissertation, titled “Early Thomists on Demonstration with Analogous Terms,” is to defend the demonstration through analogical terms given by early Thomists, such as Thomas of Sutton (1250-1315/20) and John Capreolus (1380-1444), in the face of objections that such demonstration is fallacious from John Duns Scotus (c.1265-1308) and those influenced by Scotus, such as Henry of Harclay (ca. 1270-1317) and Peter of Auriol (ca. 1280-1322).

The virtue of the Scotist position is its preservation of the apparent integrity of arguments from perfections in creatures to those same perfections in God. The weakness of this position is that it blurs the distinction between God and creatures. The strength of the Thomist position is the preservation of the distinction of God from creatures.

D’Ettore’s dissertation considers whether or not the early Thomist tradition provides the contemporary Thomist with an adequate answer as to how Thomas’s doctrine of analogy avoids the problems Scotus and his early successors find in it and what aspects these Thomists left for future Thomists to develop.

D’Ettore’s dissertation committee included Dr. Jeremy Wilkins, associate professor in the School of Theology; Dr. Thomas Osborne, Jr., associate professor of philosophy; Dr. John F.X. Knasas, professor and Bishop Nold Chair in graduate philosophy; Dr. Mirela Oliva, assistant professor of philosophy; Dr. Mary Catherine Sommers, professor of philosophy and director of the Center for Thomistic Studies; and external reader Dr. Joshua Hochschild, dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Mount St. Mary’s University.

Hochschild stated in the summary of his examination of the dissertation that he felt “confident that Mr. D’Ettore’s dissertation represents a genuine contribution to the field.”

via Thomistica.net

Father Julián Carrón to receive honorary doctorate from CUA

Dominicana: De Veritate

There has been much attention given to the recently published doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women’s Religious (LCWR). The document, produced by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), identifies several problems, including dissent from Church teaching (e.g., concerning the reservation of priestly orders to men), the inviting of speakers who ignore or contradict the teaching of the Church, and the justification, by some speakers, of dissent against the Magisterium as a “prophetic office.”


There are two common responses to this document, both of which focus on authority. Some who oppose the assessment see it as an oppressive action by a male hierarchy, a reactionary effort to deal with the perceived threat of progressive women religious. Some who support it, on the other hand, cheer it on, thinking that the Vatican has finally dropped the hammer on these wayward sisters. Both of these responses are unsatisfactory.

Que dire du mal

Que dire du mal ? by college-des-bernardins
Conférence du jeudi 22 mars 2012
Par le père Antoine Guggenheim

Tradition-Constituted Theological Rationality and the Possibility of the Non-Theocratic Regime by Thaddeus Kozinski

Now, the liberal state never explicitly affirms “we are God,” for in its official agnosticism, it does not even explicitly deny or affirm the possible or actual existence of a transcendent being. Moreover, it insists that it leaves open the possibility of some such being’s revealing or having revealed himself and his will to man. Secular liberalism, that is, the purportedly non-theocratic state, simply does not deem it necessary to recognize any such being and revelation for the purposes of either political philosophy or political practice. It claims public ignorance about, but does not deny outright the possibility of, an authoritative revelation demanding personal recognition.


Yet, the believer in a being who has clearly and publicly revealed to man his will for the political order could argue that a studied ignorance regarding the existence of such a publicly accessible divine revelation is intellectually unjustified and politically unjust. For a Roman Catholic, for example, the Church exists as a public institution claiming to be the embodiment and spokesman of a publicly authoritative divine revelation bearing directly on morality and politics. Therefore, the Church is at least a possible candidate for a publicly authoritative social institution. Even if one prescinds from the question of the truth of this revelation, the Church’s claim about itself to be the authoritative spokesman for this truth is still an objective, intelligible fact within societies, and while a political philosopher can deny the truth of this claim, it cannot plead ignorance to the fact of the claim itself. Thus, in articulating any ideal political order, the political philosopher must deal in some way with the Church’s claim to have the authority to define the ultimate meaning of goodness and politics, by either recognizing or denying the Church’s public authority to do so. Practical agnosticism to the very possibility of such an authority is, in effect, an implicit moral judgment of the injustice of its ever becoming an actual, living authority, and therefore an implicit theological denial of the authority it indeed has (from the Catholic perspective).

Blackboard Rumble: Why Are Physicists Hating On Philosophy (and Philosophers)? ny Adam Frank

Varieties of atheism by Jacques Maritain

Benedict XVI's Reform: The Liturgy Between Innovation and Tradition

Presuming God's approval

If God doesn't will it, then wouldn't he stop it from happening? "I asked for His aid, and it was successful; why shouldn't I give Him the creidt." Could this line of reasoning be twisted in those who seek to uphold the status quo, rather than questioning their basic assumptions about the political economy (e.g. perpetual growth)? How counter-cultural do we have to be as Christians? Will the Holy Spirit aid us in being critical of our assumptions about what the good life requires? Or is this only for a few, while the rest He leaves in ignorance? If we do not struggle for community, is its absence not a fitting punishment?

Only He can judge who is guilty of pride and blindness and who was only muddling by in a fallen world.

Matthew 7: 21-23
Non omnis, qui dicit mihi: “Domine, Domine”, intrabit in regnum caelorum, sed qui facit voluntatem Patris mei, qui in caelis est.
Multi dicent mihi in illa die: “Domine, Domine, nonne in tuo nomine prophetavimus, et in tuo nomine daemonia eiecimus, et in tuo nomine virtutes multas fecimus?”. Et tunc confitebor illis: Numquam novi vos; discedite a me, qui operamini iniquitatem.

Over at Mount St. Mary College: Midsummer Conference on Aquinas and the Mind/Body Problem

Why Punish? (via MoJ: DeGirolami on Punishment Theory)

Ambrosian chant - Tecum principium in die virtutis tue

Tradition and the future

Francis of Assisi: A New Biography by Fr. Pius Pietrzyk, O.P

Family Life in an Orthodox Rhythm

James Chastek, Two truths in theology and history

Per impossibile, what if there were rock-solid evidence that Christ didn't rise from the dead? I just find the hypothetical question posed rather baffling. "Assume we have, say, rock solid evidence that Pilate was a no-nonsense judge, with no scruples about killing anyone for the sake of order (I’ve heard historians modify or contest this, but assume that it is firmly established)."

What what the rock solid evidence be? Some record, some testimony, plus some reasoning on the part of the historian. Can a historian ever capture the full character or personality of a historical person? It is questionable whether we can even do that with respect to the people we "know."

Mr. Chastek writes at the end:

The Christian can point to the fact that it is possible that the accounts are true, but is it necessary that he be able to transmute possibility into a historically reasonable claim? So do we have some sort of “two truths” doctrine here? In fact, if historical truth is what the theologian calls a probable opinion, and the theologian can admit that some historical facts need not be the ones that are most probable given the historical evidence we have, is there even a tension between the two truths? Why can’t something that is in fact false be what is most probable given the historical evidence that we have?

Any evidence we have is some sort of testimony and subjected to criteria pertaining to trustworthiness/credibility. If history cannot attain the level of certitude necessary for a science, then this isn't really a problem of "two truths, " is it? Can we say that the history given within Sacred Scripture is more reliable than anything constructed by human historians working without the aid of the Holy Spirit? Why not? In addition, isn't the testimony of the authors of Sacred Scripture one more historical source that must be taken into consideration by the secular historian? On what a priori basis can he exclude it as being unreliable?

The Valaam Monastery CD, The Secret Way: Jesus Prayer. Znameny melody.

Edward Feser: McInerny on TLS

Icon painting class at Thomas More College

NLM: Learn to Paint Icons in the Western Tradition at Thomas More College this Summer

Aidan Hart's book is rather expensive, but I'd still like to get a copy. Alas, I don't think I could become an iconographer.

Adam De Ville: Aidan Hart on Iconography (an interview with Aidan Hart)

Zenit: Achieving the Ideal Society
University Professor Explains Thomas More's Utopia

One example of how Utopia is relevant is found in "the need for the careful, studied place of intellectuals in the political life."


"It's really a call for intellectuals, to think about [their role]" in society, explains Dr. Boyle. Thomas More himself exemplified this well, being an intellectual who was deeply involved in the politics of his day. "More was a very smart man, a clear intellectual. Many of his humanist colleagues thought he was wasting his time in government service. But it's not just that he was really smart, he read his Plato, terrific how he would go boss princes around. Rather, his intelligence, his certain understanding of precisely how it is, in the practical realm… works."


"Given the complexity of modern life, the need for solid philosophical principles, at the same time on the firm ground in the practice of politics, in economics, in any number of aspects of culture, seems all the more relevant."


"The political order," Dr. Boyle goes on, "is not the source of our happiness. This is a theological point, but it's very dear to More's heart. The political order can serve to help order men to their happiness, but it cannot achieve it. This is a matter of Church, of the City of God. Political order can more or less help, but it can't achieve what I think, in the modern sense, is the Utopian dream."

I need to read Utopia, but "political order" seems to be rather squishy here because of the word "order." Are we talking about the constitution, the government, the laws (and customs) or something else? None of them are identical to the ultimate end, but some precision may be warranted if we're trying to understand Utopia better.

Dr. John Boyle

From 2009: Lost Aquinas

Rick Garnett, "Growing in Love": Congrats to Susan!

Mr. Garnett hypes Susan Stabile's Growing in Love and Wisdom: Tibetan Buddhist Sources for Christian Meditation. Why? The book's description:

In Growing in Love and Wisdom, Susan Stabile draws on a unique dual perspective to explore the value of interreligious dialogue, the essential spiritual dynamics that operate across faith traditions, and the many fruitful ways Buddhist meditation practices can deepen Christian prayer.


Raised as a Catholic, Stabile devoted 20 years of her life to practicing Buddhism and was ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun before returning to Catholicism in 2001. She begins the book by examining the values and principles shared by the two faith traditions, focusing on the importance of prayer--particularly contemplative prayer--to both Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism. Both traditions seek to effect a fundamental transformation in the lives of believers, and both stress the need for experiences that have deep emotional resonance, that go beyond the level of concepts to touch the heart. Stabile illuminates the similarities between Tibetan Buddhist meditations and Christian forms of prayer such as Ignatian Contemplation and Lectio Divina; she explores as well such guided Buddhist practices as Metta and Tonglen, which cultivate compassion and find echoes in Jesus' teachings about loving one's enemies and transcending self-cherishing. The heart of the book offers 15 Tibetan Buddhist practices adapted to a contemplative Christian perspective. Stabile provides clear instructions on how to do these meditations as well as helpful commentary on each, explaining its purpose and the relation between the original and her adaptation. Throughout, she highlights the many remarkably close parallels in the teachings of Jesus and Buddha.


Arguing that engagement between religions offers mutual enrichment and greater understanding of both traditions, Growing in Love and Wisdom shows how Buddhist meditation can be fruitfully adapted for Christian prayer.

The legacy of the 13th Apostle: origins of the East Christian conceptions of church and state relation (pdf)

James Chastek, Aristotle’s theohedonics (pt. 1)

Waiting for the next part.

Zenit: On Prayer and Ministry

Rorate Caeli: The Life and Thoughts of Cardinal Merry del Val - IV
Disregard for self

The Theology of the Hypostatic Union

(Leonine Edition of the Summa Theologiae and Contra Gentiles Now Available as Reprints)

William of Ockham’s Early Theory of Property Rights: Sources, Texts, and Contexts

A post from last month at Mary Victrix: SSPX on the Brink:

It seems, as I have said, that the Holy Father does not favor the position of Gheradini and De Mattei. The doctrinal preamble is non-negotiable. The existence of a hermeneutic of continunity, as such, is not a matter for debate.

Why? What in our understanding of the Magisterium and the status of the conciliar documents requires that we have to interpret them thusly? Giving a charitable interpretation may be required, but is it possible that some of the documents may contain some errors? Isn't that the question? If it is impossible that the documents contain error, then everything must be interpreted in the light of Tradition. But if it is possible... then such an interpretation may go far but it may still not be enough to turn falsehood into truth.

The Smithy: Leonine Edition of Thomas's Summa - In Print

القديس جاورجيوس-Saint Georgeos


Troparion of Saint George - طروبارية قديس جيورجيوس

The 50th Psalm as chanted at the Ecumenical Patriarchate (Byzantine Chant)

Aquinas on the Intentionality of the Passions

Archbishop Augustine DiNoia, The Easter Vigil with the Queen of Heaven

Vultus Christi: Little birds in the nest of our nothingness

News on Silverstream Priory. And some photos.

U. of St. Thomas (MN): Law Journal Spring Symposium: Sentence Commutations and the Executive Pardon Power (via MOJ)

Rome Reports: Society of St. Pius X is one step closer to reconciling with the Vatican

2 from 30 Days

What we need most of all is prayer
Witness of Cardinal Roger Etchegaray
by Cardinal Roger Etchegaray

It is prayer that is the keystone of the Christian life
“We need much humility, we need to recite the Rosary and the simplest prayers, like those of popular devotion; one understands there that it is very often the people who hand on the faith to the learned”.
An Interview with Prosper Grech, the Augustinian created cardinal by Benedict XVI in the recent Consistory

Distinguo

James Chastek: Don’t always distinguish

In the (corrupted?) Scholastic tradition, “distinguish” has become a fraternity password or cheerleader-slogan. All problems and paradoxes are seen as mechanically calling forth the need to “distinguish!” The irony is that what is most loveable in the great Scholastics is not their distinctions but their syntheses and unifications. Distinction itself is purely ad hoc, arbitrary and hateful unless it can reduce to some evident principle that allows for the distinction itself.

As a beginner, I'm not understanding the critique so much. Distinguishing may be a necessary step to clarity when definitions have not been stated and one does not to presume that an interlocutor or opponent is using a specific one. It seems necessary when the discussion is taking place through the written word rather than through speech; it is useful too for preserving a measure of humility and politeness in discourse.
definitions

DSPT: The 22nd Annual Aquinas Lecture - vimeo

The Evidence of the Precepts of Natural Law

Is the Natural Law Persuasive? by R.J. Snell

The theory of natural law, not the precepts of natural law.

One can try to persuade not through demonstration of the principles (i.e. human goods), but through dialectic.

The first-person aspect of natural law explains also the appeals to the self-evident. As John Finnis articulates in Fundamentals of Ethics, “ethics is not deduced or inferred from metaphysics or anthropology,” and principles are self-evident precisely in that they are not deduced from previous principles, but in no way is ethics merely intuited or asserted or mystically known. Rather, by adverting to the object(ive)s of human action—the for-the-sake-of-which rendering action intelligible—we can attend “to precisely those aspects of our experience . . . in which human good(s) became or can now become intelligible to us.” In other words, we can understand human goods rather than deduce human goods, but while understanding is not an inference it nonetheless involves insight into our experience, and without the experience and insight we would not understand. Basic goods are not deduced or derived, for they are self-evident, but there are conditions for our understanding of the goods.

The condition of coming to understand basic human goods, which serve as grounds for reasonable action, is a first-person understanding of our own reasons for acting. That is, we have to understand why we act and what we seek when we act. If an action is intelligible, that action will have some grounds which are understood as worth seeking in themselves, not requiring justification or demonstration on the basis of some other good(s). Understanding this entails self-understanding, adverting to the reasons for acting always operative in our knowing and choosing. Such self-understanding, Finnis explains, is not simply “opening one’s eyes” to take a look at oneself, nor is it an “intuition”; it is an “insight” gained by “reflecting on one’s own wanting, deciding and acting,” which occurs not by “peer[ing] inside oneself” but by noticing and understanding one’s own reasons for acting.

While these goods are assumed in ethics, they can be shown to be such in metaphysics? What about the precepts dealing with the means to these goods? Can they be demonstrated (through moral science)? Even so, would such demonstrations be persuasive to the man of vice(s)? Probably not.

[We have a natural inclination to know truth. But moral truth is not the same "truth" as speculative truth.]

Lefebvriani, la risposta positiva è arrivata (via Fr. Z) - Rorate Caeli

A different take: St. Pius X Society gives mixed response to Vatican

The Interior Life by Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J (ia Insight Scoop)

Logos Bringing Aquinas’ Other Works into English

James Chastek, Two answers to “why do we form political associations?”

Plato says that the city arises from an individual’s inability to meet his own physical needs; Aristotle says that it arises because men are political by nature. At first glace, it seems like Aristotle’s account is facile, or even that it is no explanation at all: “men are naturally political because they are political by nature! What an insight!” But Aristotle’s explanation is the better one. In effect, he is insisting that political life is irreducible. It is not the result of a more fundamental drive or desire – political life itself is the fundamental desire, and it would remain so even if it was not as good at meeting physical needs. This is why his Politics doesn’t begin by considering the individual (and his needs) as the principle of a society, but takes communal life as irreducible.

How many modern political theories start with the good of the individual and the myth that society originates in the need of individuals to cooperate for survival?

But if political life is a basic and irreducible need, then just regimes must at least strive to make the regime a place in which the citizens can be truly politically active. Again, where political order reduces to physical need, the Leviathan-state is possible and perhaps even desirable; but where an individual’s political life is an irreducible reality, the Leviathan-state is in flagrant contradiction with the first principle of politics, since no one can lead a political life in the Leviathan state. The Leviathan might meet all the individual’s physical needs, but it does not allow his political actions to make anything beyond a negligible difference.

Political friendship, by the nature of friendship, is ordered to some measure of equality? (Or that constitution known as republic/polity?)

St. Thomas and the Keeping of Pets

Might some pets (e.g. dogs) be more suited to be companions for man than others?

OP: Initial formation: between postmodernity and new evangelisation

PASCHA "As Smoke Vanishes...let them vanish" St. Elias Church

Rome Reports: Benedict XVI: Celebrating his birthday and election as Pope




My Brother the Pope by Georg Ratzinger and Michael Hesemann

Cardinal Raymond Burke Discussing Religious Freedom (video)

Some beautiful iconostases

Paschal troparion | Russian Patriarchate Choir | Anatoly Grindenko direction


Haven't decided if I will attend Russian Pasha vigil liturgy tonight or not.

The Sperm of Sea Urchins and the Directedness of Natural Processes by William Carroll

Urgent/For the record:Le Figaro - "Rome and Écône on the verge of reaching an agreement" (Rorate Caeli)

The Remnant: The Ides of April by Stephen Dupuy
Some thoughts on the Society's Imminent Response to Rome

James Chastek, Re-evaluation of First Matter

Sandro Magister: That Strange Mass the Pope Doesn't Like
It is the Mass according to the rite of the Neocatechumenal Way. Benedict XVI has ordered the congregation for the doctrine of the faith to examine it thoroughly. Its condemnation appears to be sealed

For the Lefebvrists, It's the Last Call to the Sheepfold
Otherwise it's schism. But Rome will do everything possible to avoid the irreparable. From Australia, the theologian John Lamont shows that reconciliation is possible

Was Robert Bellarmine Ahead of His Time? (via Insight Scoop)

Reviewed: Empire of Souls: Robert Bellarmine and the Christian Commonwealth. By Stefania Tutino (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 416 pp. ISBN 978-0-19974-053-6.

On Temporal and Spiritual Authority. By Robert Bellarmine. Edited, translated and with an introduction by Stefania Tutino (Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 2012), 500 pp. PB: ISBN 978-0-86597-717-4.

Jimmy Akin: A Day of Shame in Christian History

Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False
Thomas Nagel


Thomistic Circles Symposium on Creation and Modern Science (via Edward Feser)

Eileen Sweeney has a new book out: Anselm of Canterbury and the Desire for the Word.

Recently uploaded - Living Tradition No. 150: Father Feeney and the Implicitum Votum Ecclesiae Part B. Reading Cantate Domino, Unam Sanctam, and the 1949 Letter in a Hermeneutic of Continuity

How many issues of RT were there last year? No. 150 is dated January 2011.

It's been a while since I've looked at Amy Welborn's blog. She recently wrote a post on Fr. Augustine Thompson's new biography of St. Francis of Assisi.

Nicolas Gombert: Regina Coeli - Marian Antiphon for 12 voices

Alexander Agricola: Regina Caeli

Ethiopian Iconography (Photo Report)

CUA Press: Select philosophy titles on sale

Details

More from Valaam

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A blessed and Holy Pascha to all!

Julia Annas has written a book, another in the project of recovering virtue ethics for "the modern age": Intelligent Virtue. A review here.


More:
Virtue Ethics: what kind of naturalism?
The Phenomenology of Virtue
Virtue as a Skill
Being Virtuous and Doing the Right Thing
Virtue Ethics and Social Psychology

An essay in philosophy in biology referencing her.
Aristotle on human nature and political virtue

(see this comment)

Morality and Virtue: An Assessment of Some Recent Work in Virtue Ethics by David Copp and David Sobel

Aristotelian ethical and political naturalism

Confusion About Discrimination by Richard W. Garnett

Mystagogy: The Tragedy of Russia's Abandoned Wooden Churches

Another John Behr lecture (via MB).

Sandro Magister, Vatican Diary / The focolarini's conquest of the curia
Vatican Diary / The Holy Office at the click of a mouse

The Lamentations For The Lord (Romanian Orthodox Church Music)

Byzantine, Texas: NBC to air Orthodox Paschal service

It will not be shown in the SF Bay Area. But it will be shown in SLO.

More links for Fr. Ramirez

Santiago Ramírez, O.P., su vida y su obra
Edicion de las obras completas de Santiago Ramírez, O.P.
A bio (in Spanish).

Éditeur Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas CSIC / Instituto «Luis Vives» de Filosofía
CSIC

Klubertanz and Ramirez by Tom Osborne

I used to have a bookmark at BAC? for books by Fr. Ramirez, but his books appear out of print now? The bookmark is on another hard drive, so I can't look it up now. Maybe someone over at the Thomism YG or Ite Ad Thomam would have more info.

Partakers of the Divine Nature: The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions, edited by Michael J. Christensen and Jeffery A. Wittung (via 8th Day Books)

The frailties of men

Could Byzantium have been saved?

The First Crusade, the true story

Why was there a sudden need to recover the city where Jesus Christ lived and was crucified? The answer, writes Peter Frankopan, lies in the imperial capital of Constantinople.
By Peter Frankopan *

Harvard University Press & Random House UK

A review in The Tablet.

Tristis est anima mea - University of Utah Singers

Catholicism Producer Speaks About the Friars

Catholicism Project: Filmmaker Mike Leonard from Province of Saint Joseph on Vimeo.

Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ: Creation and the New Cosmology
(via this link)

The Shocking Truth about Christian Orthodoxy - John Behr

Thomistica.net: Hypothetical Disqualification of Dogma? by Christopher J. Malloy

Metaphysics, the Middle Ages and the Birth of Protestantism - a review of Brad Gregory's The Unintended Reformation (via The Smith)

One might think that a committed Protestant would have a stake in showing that the Protestant Reformers were not determined in their teachings by their acceptance of bad medieval metaphysics, but I think that the claim in the critique that the metaphysical views of the Reformers were widely divergent (not all were followers of Ockham or Soctus) is something we should attend.

A new book on the way from Dr. Rao

An interview with Dr. John Rao - The Remnant: Black Legends and the Light of the World (New Blockbuster History Book on the Horizon)

For Palm Sunday...

Alleluia: O Pimenon - Ensemble Organum