Friday, February 07, 2014

2014 Huffington Ecumenical Symposium

From the Rising of the Sun to Its Setting: Chant and Contemporary Liturgical Music, East and West: February 21 - 22 at Loyola Marymount University

I had planned on attending a day of recollection that Saturday; otherwise I'd drive down to SoCal for this. Even now it is tempting.

Cappella Romana to perform at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA

Related:
New Arctic Light Track on SoundCloud — Paschal Exaposteilarion No. 2

Boston Byzantine Music Festival



If I were still living in Boston I'd attempt to attend.

Mary Jaharis Center Presents Boston Byzantine Music Festival
Orthodox Arts Journal
Vatican Radio: Dialogue between Catholics and Oriental Orthodox concludes in India

EWTN Live - 2014-2-5- Fr. Mark M. Morozowich - Eastern Rite of the Church.

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Monday, February 03, 2014

Vatican News: Pope to Neocatechumenal Way: Build Ecclesial Communion, Evangelize With Love


James Chastek: Beginner-level notes on double effect

A quick response:
And so we distinguish things that knowingly belong to an act from those that define it. Since acts are defined by their goals or the things we intended, it makes sense to distinguish what is knowingly done from what is intentionally done.

What defines the act as opposed to what knowingly belongs to it - this is important consideration. But it is also important to note that two acts may be similar in their physical description (~the matter of the moral act), and yet what is being aimed at by the agent is different. (~the form of the moral act). The object of the moral act would include both the form and the matter, and not one to the exclusion of the other.
Notice these things, in a concrete case, are notionally distinct as opposed to being really distinct. A man might do surgery on the battlefield while thinking to himself “Gosh, I just love that sound they make when they scream and beg me to stop”. If this is so, he is not just a surgeon but a sadist too.
I don't agree that they are notionally distinct rather than really distinct - the intention of an act is really different from the object of the act. The intention of the will is the end to which the act is ordered.
A thing can be done knowingly without being done intentionally (at least in the sense of “intentional” set out here), and this is opens the possibility of what became the doctrine of double effect.

What opens the possibility of the doctrine of double effect is the distinction between the 'form' and 'matter' of the moral act (and foreseeen consequences and willed consequences and the like).  Does Brock offer the best treatment of these points? I'll have to review my notes.).


Class on the First Ecumenical Council


Sunday, February 02, 2014

Medieval Political Philosophy



website

The Grillo-Reid Exchange

New Liturgical Movement: Andrea Grillo Replies to Alcuin Reid's Review of "Beyond Pius V"
Alcuin Reid Replies to Andrea Grillo's Critique

Also:
On Recovering the Roman Canon—Or, Bad Reasons for Preferring Other Anaphoras

Saturday, February 01, 2014

Will Constantinople Ever Repent of Its Ecclesial Pretensions?

Posted by a member at Catholic & Orthodox: Steps Towards a Reunited Church:

So far on the poll at least 93 people identify themselves as Catholic (Latin & Eastern) and Eastern Orthodox. By default all of these and the majority of the ones yet to vote (as this is mainly a Catholic-EO reunion group) accept Chalcedon and recognize the line of the Chalcedonian Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch as the legitimate successors of those Sees. I've posted an Oriental Narrative on Chalcedon before in response to related topics but we've never had a thread about it. Chalcedon still prevents 'the two arms of Orthodoxy' from reuniting even though they both agree that they believe the same thing but say it in different ways. In my opinion, the political, historical, and ecclesiastical implications of Chalcedon are more preventative of reunion than the formulation of the doctrine that was affirmed. I just wanted to get your thoughts on this and how we can realistically approach ecumenism with the Orientals also. Is reunion possible without the Orientals accepting Chalcedon? By the way I will post the symbolism in the Syriac Liturgy of St. James soon because in my opinion it's very beautiful and I think you guys will like it. Anyway, without further ado here is a summary of an Oriental narrative on Chalcedon:

In 324 AD, Byzantium, renamed Constantinople in 330, became the capital of the Roman Empire. The city's ecclesiastical community naturally began to rise in prominence and authority. The church in Constantinople had previously been under the jurisdiction and authority of the Metropolitan Bishop of Ephesus before becoming the church of the capital city of the Roman Empire. This rise in authority was happening at the expense of Alexandria and Antioch which were the Sees of the East, with Alexandria having primacy, being second only to Rome in all of Christendom; these three, Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, are the Petrine Sees in order of primacy. A rivalry had begun to brew between Alexandria and Constantinople in the East.

Driven by power and political gain, the Synod of the Oak was called for in 403 by the Pope of Alexandria Theophilus and the Empress Eudoxia that deposed St. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople.

The defeat of Constantinople by Alexandria again at the Council of Ephesus in 431 where Pope Cyril of Alexandria anathematized Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople for heresy was another blow to Constantinople by Alexandria.

Constantinople, aiming to officially and finally consolidate its position in Christendom as the capital of the Roman Empire to have primacy in the East, achieved its goal at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. This was retribution against Alexandria by the rising See of Constantinople. The result of Chalcedon was widely expected as some think that the only reason this council was called together was to officially rank Constantinople second only to Rome in all of Christendom and to de facto remove Alexandria as a heretical See due to its Miaphysite position. The council is called 'the conspiracy of Chalcedon' by some. Rome even initially rejected the 28th Canon of Chalcedon, seeking to protect Alexandria and Antioch's positions and authority.

The jurisdiction of the See of Antioch, also a predominantly Miaphysite See at the time, was reduced by the establishment of Jerusalem as a Patriarchate at Chalcedon. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, was known in history to have been an opportunist. He sided with the Chalcedonians with the intention of promoting his own See at the expense of Antioch. Also, Juvenal put in his vote of condemnation against the Pope of Alexandria Dioscorus at the Council of Chalcedon although the two had previously been close friends.

In other words the Council of Chalcedon got Alexandria out of the way and officially ranked Constantinople above all the Eastern Sees and reduced Antioch's power by making Jerusalem an independent See all by the authority of an 'Ecumenical' Council. The Council of Chalcedon's main purpose in the Oriental perspective was to promote the See of Constantinople above Alexandria and Antioch by anathematizing them and reducing their authority.

This was followed by almost constant persecution of the Miaphysites of Egypt, Syria, and Armenia by the Chalcedonian Roman Empire causing many to seek refuge in neighboring rural areas such as the Egyptian Desert and Transjordan.

In the 6th Century, the Ghassanid Kingdom, an Arab Christian vassal state of the Roman Empire, is credited to have revived the Syriac Church, the Ghassanids themselves being staunch Miaphysites. The Muslim invasions which began in the 7th century brought even worse periods of persecution against the Oriental Communion that have not ceased to this day.

Friday, January 31, 2014

One of the books Fr. David will be using for his liturgy class is The Wellspring of Worship (an excerpt), written by Fr. Jean Corbon, a Melkite Dominican (Dominican Melkite)? Fr. David told us that Fr. Corbon is the author of the fourth part of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Perhaps I should go back and read the fourth part in its entirety. (Is there a special calling of Dominicans to the Melkite churches? Fr. Corbon is the second Dominican I have come to know who is Melkite. The first is Fr. Brendan.


Thursday, January 30, 2014

Catholic World Report: Roman Rights and Wrongs by Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille
What needs to change for East-West unity to happen?

See also: Spitting in Rome’s Eye: A Reflection on How Orthodoxy’s Sinfulness Prevents Reunion

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

St. Ephrem the Syrian


"Let us pray for Christian unity."


A review by David Abulafia of ‘Inventing the Individual’, by Larry Siedentop

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Companion and Patron

From 2012:

Eclectic Orthodoxy: Saint Silouan and the Mystery of God

2013-0214 Bannan Institute

Sponsored by the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education at Santa Clara University. The theme for this academic year: What Good is God?

An intro statement:
Banna Institutes are yearlong thematic programs that address matters of significance within the Jesuit, Catholic intellectual tradition, foster an ethic of dialogue among persons of diverse religious and philosophical commitments, and facilitate opportunities for interdisciplinary exchange across the University and broader community.
Except that no such thing as the broader community actually exists - a purely 'academic' exercise, indeed. Most academics live in their own little world and contribute very little to the reform of moral and political life.

Winter Quarter 2014: God and Reality
Spring Quarter 2014: God and the University

The winter quarter session could be of interest, but will there be a critical examination of 'evolutionary biology' or contemporary physics? As for the spring quarter session will they profess adherence to the ideals put forth in Ex Corde Ecclesiae? I doubt it.

Upcoming Bannan Institutes:
The 2014–15 Bannan Institute will dive deeply into what distinguishes Ignatian leadership and the role and responsibility that is has, both locally and globally.

Should the Jesuits still be trying to form the elites of 'society' when Christendom no longer exists? Perhaps they should focus on teaching Christians, the leaven, in accordance with Tradition.

Related:
2014 Explore Journal
Bannan Institutes

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Breathing with Both Lungs of the Church

It would seem that this division between East and West apply to the Chalcedonian churches. How will this
statement and metaphor need to be modified if the Oriental Orthodox and the Church of the East are fully reconciled?

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy: ROCOR Says Overlapping Dioceses are Canonical: An Ecclesiological Analysis by Nathaniel McCallum

Byzantine, Texas

What if...

The Assyrians had been successful in evangelizing China?

Pravoslavie: Burial of Nestorian Christians Discovered in China

Thursday, January 23, 2014

A Foretaste of Wisdom: Liturgical History and the Novus Ordo

The Legacy of Joseph Ratzinger?

Two new books from Ignatius Press:

Joseph Ratzinger Collected Works, Theology of the Liturgy
This major volume is a collection of the writings of Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI) on the theology of the Liturgy of the Church, a subject of preeminence to him as a theologian, professor and spiritual writer. It brings together all his writings on the subject, short and long, giving his views on liturgical matters and questions over many years and from various perspectives.

He chose to have his writings on the Liturgy for the first volume published of his collected works (though listed as vol. 11) because, as he says in the Introduction: "The liturgy of the Church has been for me since my childhood the central reality of my life, and it became the center of my theological efforts. I chose fundamental theology as my field because I wanted first and foremost to examine thoroughly the question: Why do we believe? But also included from the beginning in this question was the other question of the right response to God and, thus, the question of the liturgy."

Pope Benedict Sets the Course by Gero P. Weishaupt
The Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum of Pope Benedict XVI and the Explanatory Letter to the Bishops

Dr. Anthony P. Andres on Chance

TAC: Lecture, Dr. Anthony P. Andres: “Does God Play Dice With The World?”

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Coptic Monastery of Saint Shenouda (website):


Christology and the Council of Chalcedon, by Fr. Shenouda M. Ishak

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Eastern Christian Books: Female Deacons in the East

What has been the teaching and historical practice of the Church of the East and the Oriental Orthodox churches regarding deaconesses? I have read the claim that the Greek word for "ordination" or "ordained" was used without specifically referring to the sacrament of orders, but I don't know how true this claim is. (For that matter, what is the position of the non-Chalcedonian churches on clerical celibacy/continence?)

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Sr. Vassa Larin on Peanut Butter Toast



Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Eastern Dominicans: February 2014 Vocation Weekend
Why is Vatican II So Vexing? by Peter Kwasniewski


A subtitled version of the presentation given by Mons. Brunero Gherardini at the conference organized by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, Rome, December 2010.

Transcript
2014 Pan-Orthodox Liturgical Music Symposium
June 12-15, 2014
NORTHERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY, HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, KY (Greater Cincinnati)

"The services will feature liturgical music composed mostly in the last 20 years and will be conducted by Irene Riazanova."
So, not so traditional?

Monday, January 13, 2014

City Journal Review of The Church Building as a Sacred Place: Beauty, Transcendence, and the Eternal

City Journal: Sacred Revival by Colette Arredondo
A Catholic architect calls for churches that “look like churches.”

I actually received this book as a gift for Christmas - looking forward to reading it. Now if only Mr. Stroik would do a study of Byzantine architecture...

Duncan Stroik - faculty page
Hillenbrand Books


alt





Originality and Tradition

Duncan Stroik's YT channel

Sunday, January 12, 2014

This essay, "Where East Meets West is Best," got me thinking about an English Gothic and Byzantine hybrid design for a temple. Not like the 'wholly' Byzantine style of Westminster Cathedral. I can visualize how a temple without a dome might incorporate some features of Gothic architecture, Gothic arches - it might be more (neo-)Gothic than Byzantine, in some respects - imagine transforming St. Ignatius Church with an iconostasis, for example. A neo-Gothic temple that is more of a square than the Latin cruciform shape - is that possible? Is it possible to construct a wooden dome, with ribs/slices? I think there are some Orthodox temples near here that have domes not made from stone or concrete, but I could be wrong about the construction material.
NLM: Fr. Cassian Speaks on Summorum Pontificum at Brompton Oratory - OSB Norcia

"Summorum Pontificum and Liturgical Law"
podcast

Check out the monastery's wall calendar for 2014!

Sacred Liturgy



Has Ignatius Press become more friendly to Roman-rite traditionalists? (Possibly due to the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI?)

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Remnant: Episode 5 - Tradition - Minded vs. Traditionalist What's the Deal

A satisfactory defense of Roman-rite traditionalists?

Eastern Christian Books: Dhimmitude

Eastern Christian Books: Dhimmitude - Bat  Ye'or, Understanding Dhimmitude

DVD of Bishop Borys Gudziak's First Pontifical Divine Liturgy



They may be willing to ship to the US/Canada for extra?

website for the church

Interview with Archbishop Agostino Marchetto on EWTN Radio's "Celtic Connections"




Don't know if the audio file will be made available for download somewhere.

Thursday, January 09, 2014

Studies in Christian Ethics: Andrew Louth, "Virtue Ethics: St Maximos the Confessor and Aquinas Compared" (pdf)

Aquinas distinguishes the cardinal virtues from the theologial virtues, as Louth points out, but he also distinguishes between the infused virtues and the acquired virtues, a distinction which is missed by Louth in his essay. The infused cardinal virtues are subordinate to the theological virtues (also infused) but they cannot be acquired through practice, though it would seem that they can be strengthened to practice. (Does St. Maximus make this distinction between infused and acquired virtues?) The infused cardinal virtues are distinguished from the theological virtues by reason, but united in exercise, through grace and charity. If Louth were to take this distinction between the infused and acquired virtues into account, how would his treatment of Aquinas differ?

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Medievalists.net: Christian warriors and the enslavement of fellow Christians by John Gillingham
Leftist communitarians are naive, utopian, or sheltered in their assumptions of what is required for "community." They think that it is easy to create community; one only needs a common end or purpose, something other than friendship itself (and what that necessities). This common end or purpose is sufficient to create and sustain a community, even though obtaining the goal may require some work (as in the case of scaling down or simplifying the economy). Their conception of community is more akin to a team (such as what one finds in a workplace, rather than a sports team). Even if MacIntyre is more realistic in his assumptions, recognizing the contribution of language, culture, and tradition to the formation of culture, and he recognizes that these are bound with historical ethnic groups, leftist communitarians (of whom MacIntyre may be said to be one in other respects) do not acknowledge or seem to be ignorant of the historical origins of identity.

MacIntyre himself does not think there are genuine differences between the sexes and any differences between ethnic/culture groups do not seem to factor into his considerations of multiculturalism and pluralism. Even if he thinks that pluralism is possible because there is not one "community" but many, how would he respond to those who object that the long-term consequences of pluralism are not sustainable if the state or megacity at large hits a crisis point that can only get worse?

Friday, January 03, 2014

Duns Scotus

Still haven't seen the movie...


Rome Reports

Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Te Deum



Te Deum laudamus, Gregoriano, T. Simplex; SCHOLA GREGORIANA MEDIOLANENSIS, Giovanni Vianini, Milano.It.

"The Te Deum. PLENARY INDULGENCE when recited publicly on the last day of the year. Otherwise partial. (Enchiridion indulgentiarum, 60)"

Do some Catholics mistakenly hold to a Pelagian mindset? (I'm not addressing Pope Francis on this question.) A mentality of
"works righteousness"? Does an extreme focus on indulgences in some forms of popular spirituality help us grow in charity? Or does it lead us to wrongly focus on subjective rewards instead? A truncated Christian spirituality... Orthodox/Eastern Catholics are puzzled by talk about indulgences; some even think the doctrine erroneous. How do we properly motivate people to prayer and acts of charity?


Tick Tock

VN, CMT, and PT - here to stay? Or has the realization of irrelevance not hit us yet? It may take a generation or two for a certain Uhmerican mindset to go away.

Orthodox Georgian Psaltic Chant



Derived from Byzantine chant, I think.

Monday, December 30, 2013

More on Icon "Writing"

A Symptom of Modern Blindness – Further Thoughts on the Phrase “To Write an Icon” by Andrew Gould
The Guardian: Peter Geach obituary by Jane O'Grady
Prominent Catholic philosopher admired for his mastery of logic and work on ethics

Martyrdom

Saints Cyril & Athanasius of Alexandria Institute for Orthodox Studies
February 2014 Symposium: Martyrdom - Past, Present and Future
San Francisco: February 15-16 (there is also an event in Riverside, CA)

Early registration ends on December 31. ($20 discount)


This has been making the rounds on Facebook, a talk by Cardinal Burke on the call to martyrdom.

Antiphon Articles on Bouyer

In 16.2 of Antiphon: Keith Lemna, “The Liturgical and Ascetical Heart of Louis Bouyer’s Trinitarian Theology” - Should see if I can find this article somewhere.

In 16.1: Alcuin Reid, “The Reformed Liturgy: A ‘Cadaver Decomposed’? Louis Bouyer and Liturgical Ressourcement”

Fr. Gabriel Bunge Explains His Journey to Orthodoxy

Pravoslavie: "WE HAVE TO RETURN TO OUR ROOTS." A CONVERSATION WITH FR. GABRIEL BUNGE

He recounts reading various history books and how he came to see what were the exaggerated claims of the papacy. Do such claims destroy its credibility or authority? What is official teaching? What is affirmation or interpretation of the Tradition? Can problematic statements be reconciled with a more 'moderate' understanding of the primacy of Rome?

What is the proper use of history in this case? What is its relation to the theological virtue of Faith? (That is a problem, how is the teaching authority of the Church to be understood with respect to the pope?) A historical study is necessary for us to understand how the papal office was exercised in the first millennium, what claims were made by bishops of Rome and what was accepted by other bishops.


Position of the Moscow Patriarchate on the problem of primacy in the Universal Church

Updated
FIRST WITHOUT EQUALS
The Russian Veto Against Francis and Bartholomew
Thinking a question through to a tentative answer... who doesn't enjoy doing that? There are days when I miss "doing philosophy."

Divine Personhood and the Critique of Substance Metaphysics - Fr. Dominic Holtz OP

Friday, December 27, 2013

Rev. Fr. James Cox

A Shepherd of the Jobless by Mark Barrett
First Things: Celibacy as Political Resistance by Grant Kaplan
Explaining Johann Möhler’s political theology to subvert state domination.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

God is With Us!

Bread, A Substance?

Or an aggregate/mixture, even if it is one made through human skill? Of what relevance is the question? Transubstantiation. A doctrine of the Latin churches, or a theologoumenon given much weight? If bread is not a substance, I would think that Trent's teaching would need to be reconsidered, as the 'physics' is inaccurate, or "substance" as applied to bread would need to be understood analogously, as referring more properly to the components of bread that are substances in themselves.

The Antiquity of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Καλά Χριστούγεννα!

χριστός γεννάται! δοξάσατε! Christ is born! Glorify Him!

Monday, December 23, 2013

An affirmation of the possibility of Peter Faber being a relevant example today - St. Peter Faber: Model for a New Reformation by William Doino Jr.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Jesuit Favoritism?

Pope Francis Set to Declare Jesuit Priest a Saint

He should be honored for his tireless apostolic work during the Catholic Counter-Reformation, but is there any local or universal cult to him? The age of the Protestant Reformation (and the Catholic Counter-Reformation) is gone and one might think that the reforms needed then are not complete still. He might still be relevant, an example for us now?

Cathen
NCR Blog
Ignatian Spirituality

Edit. Vatican News

Fr. Z Pope approves canonization of St. Peter Faber, waiving the usual process

RR


RR

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Mathematical Models...

Nature: Simulations back up theory that Universe is a hologram by Ron Cowen
A ten-dimensional theory of gravity makes the same predictions as standard quantum physics in fewer dimensions.

A book
The Holographic Principle

Friday, December 13, 2013

Pravmir: Contextual and Pastoral by Archpriest Michael Oleksa
An Essay on the 30th Anniversary of the Repose of Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Pravmir: The 30th Anniversary of the Repose of Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann



His last homily.
How can there be "decentralization" within the Western patriarchate (the model being used here for convenience, not because it necessarily corresponds to ecclesial reality - we could just say the Roman-rite churches) if the metropolitans and bishops don't do what they can now, with the authority they've always had, to reform their dioceses first (and if necessary, to create new dioceses from within old ones)? How can members of a national conference of bishops discuss "national" questions if they do not even properly understand the problems besetting the local church?