Robert P. Kraynak, Justice Without Foundations (via ML)

What is so strange about our age is that demands for respecting human rights and human dignity are increasing even as the foundations for those demands are disappearing. In particular, beliefs in man as a creature made in the image of God, or an animal with a rational soul, are being replaced by a scientific materialism that undermines what is noble and special about man, and by doctrines of relativism that deny the objective morality required to undergird human dignity. How do we account for the widening gap between metaphysics and morals today? How do we explain “justice without foundations” — a virtue that seems to exist like a table without legs, suspended in mid-air? What is holding up the central moral beliefs of our times?

t seems difficult for laymen to have a deep friendship with priests, even those with whom you have a shared history. Who can relate to their daily problems, except other priests? Those priests who cultivate an intellectual life or other [masculine] pursuits can have non-priest friends to share those activities, but for an intimate friendship that understands the daily experiences and trials of being a priest, it seems only priests are qualified.

Drew Berry: Animations of unseeable biology

Today I was thinking about certain teachers of moral theology at a certain NE college. Should we surprised that when rationalism has affected theology, that dissenters within and without academia now judge the moral precepts given in Sacred Tradition in accordance with their own moral "reasonings," rejecting those that don't comply? Hello, the Syllabus of Errors? The Rule of Faith? What? What "prudential reasons" can our bishops give for failing to deal with the problem in the College colleges and universities within their jurisdictions?

The Language of Politics

Alasdair MacIntyre uses an allegory to explain the state of contemporary moral discourse, claiming that our language of morality has been retained from the past, but it has lost its meaning because we no longer subscribe to the theoretical basis (i.e. teleology) that informed it. Although he does not make a similar assertion with respect to political language (community, friendship, and the common good) I am thinking that this may be the case, at least with respect to the United States and modern nation-states. The use of such language reinforces the illusion that we live in a real community, rather than living in an area inhabited by other individuals and with whom we have very little shared social life, and disinclining us from questioning our judgments of our fundamental political reality.

As I've mentioned before, Fr. Cessario made the apt observation that we talk about community so much because we don't have it, while the medievals didn't discuss it in such detail in their treatises because they did. While only some American philosophers realize that it is missing or present only weakly, it seems to be that the majority of us continue to debate or "deliberate" in public as if we do live in a community. (Even communitarians may start off with the wrong beginnings when it comes to the discussion of practical matters.) If we realized that we don't, would we be willing to question our assumptions about economics and the "free market" in looking for what prevents the development of communal life?

We may say we believe in the common good but how many of us weigh the outcome of possible legislation based on how it affects us personally and vote accordingly? How can we make appeals to solidarity when such fellowship exists only in our imaginations?

James Chastek, Nature and sensation

Switzerland’s newest bishop ready to evangelize by David Kerr

Religion versus relationship

All-Merciful Saviour Orthodox Monastery posts the following on FB:

Orthodoxy is NOT a religion, but a way of life that is centered in Jesus Christ. Orthodoxy, as a way of life, has the cure to what ails us and can return us to that state of wholeness that was God's original intent for human kind. Because Orthodoxy is not about religion, it can offer the transformation of the heart that comes with entering into a relationship with our creator. This transformation begins with repentance, that moment when we decide to return to that pure state of communion with God, for which we were created. When we renounce ourselves, we become a difference person through the action of God's grace. Where we were corrupt because of the fall, through repentance we are returned to that state for which we were created.

It's the second time I've seen such a distinction being made in recent days on the Internet.

A Thomist could agree with this in so far as religion (being concerned with practices or rituals and other actions in the service of God) does not have God as its object, as it is not a theological virtue, but has God for its end (and is thus concerned with the means). One needs charity (or perhaps the natural love of God) for religion to be enlivened. Religion by itself does not give the motivating force, nor can it substitute for a living union with God. But this does not mean that for the Christian the virtue of religion is not necessary either.

If, however, religion is defined as faith or belief system then we would have to distinguish between the infused theological virtue and some acquired virtue that is not dependent upon God for the revealing authority, along with an explanation of how faith and charity differ.

Edit. Remembered that this video has been making the rounds on FB, and Catholics and other Christians have been putting up responses. I don't think I'll be responding to that.

Edward Feser & Jonathan Sanford - Science and Faith Conference

Dominican friars appointed to the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas

New books from Liturgical Press:
On the Historical Development of the Liturgy
Anton Baumstark; Translated by Fritz West

At the Heart of Christian Worship: Liturgical Essays of Yves Congar

True and False Reform in the Church
Yves Congar, OP; Translated with an Introduction by Paul Philibert


Spirituality of the Premonstratensian: The Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
François Petit, O. Praem.
Translated by Victor Szczurek, O. Praem. and edited with an Introduction by Carol Neel

Issues in Eucharistic Praying in East and West
Essays in Liturgical and Theological Analysis
Edited by Maxwell E. Johnson

Early Christian Worship
A Basic Introduction to Ideas and Practice
Paul F. Bradshaw

Essays on Early Eastern Eucharistic Prayers
Paul F. Bradshaw, Editor

The Eucharistic Liturgies: Their Evolution and Interpretation
Paul F. Bradshaw and Maxwell E. Johnson

The Origins of Feasts, Fasts, and Seasons in Early Christianity
Paul F. Bradshaw and Maxwell E. Johnson

Reconstructing Early Christian Worship
Paul F. Bradshaw

Rule of Prayer, Rule of Faith
Essays in Honor of Aidan Kavanagh, O.S.B.
Nathan Mitchell, OSB, and John F. Baldovin, SJ, Editors


Related:
1998 - Colloque - Comparative liturgy - Baumstarck
West, Fritz. The Comparative Liturgy of Anton Baumstark

Ensemble Ad Libitvm, Oruro - Bolivia. Versa est In Luctum

The Smithy: Marilyn Adams on History of Philosophy and A Definition of Scholasticism

Homiletics

An apparent weakness of IVE formation of priests is homiletics. Their homilies tend to verbosity, comparable with papers for a popular conference with all of the references. (The opposite extreme is the short homily that gives very little instruction or catechesis, when these would be necessary for the uninformed faithful in the parish.)

But what of the great homilies or sermons of the past, the Cure of Ars or St. John Chrysostom? Or priests like Fr. Rutler? Am I suffering from ADD or some acquired deficiency in my attention span? What about the delivery of the homilies?

Is it the case that priests should be learning rhetoric and this is what is missing from university education? While we cannot count on the art of persuasion alone to produce Christian living, can it not work in concert with the Holy Spirit? Can the emotions be influenced in a way to make people more open to the gospel? After all, are the emotions of Christians not grounded upon the life of grace and faith?

A homily or speech is not a spoken essay. Seminarians (and students of the liberal arts in general) should be learning how to compose and give oral presentations effectively. If not from a rhetorician then from whom?

Insight Scoop: The new HPR site is up, running, and accessible to all

MoJ: McConnell: "Is There Still a 'Catholic Question' in America?"

"The important question facing the nation was not whether forty million Americans baptized into a certain religion are excluded from the presidency, but whether many more millions of Americans are excluded from full political participation because they ground their understanding of justice and morality in the teachings of their faith."

What does he mean by this? I don't think I'll trudge through the whole speech to find out; it seems like he is tackling the political problem from the wrong premises.

Skimming through Matthew Levering's The Betrayal of Charity, I find that he follows Aquinas's treatment of the sins against charity. However, as far as I can tell, he does not deal with the problem of the loss of the ordo caritatis, so prominent in the United States, but perhaps present to a lesser degree in Europe. If there is to be a return to communal life, there must first be a recovery of the ordo caritatis. The bishops American are wasting their time with making political statements since they are apparently unaware that the biggest problem lays at the foundation of political life.

Is there a similar lacunae in the moral theology of Joseph Ratzinger?

Responsorio Graduale Gregoriano, Epifania, Giovanni Vianini, SCHOLA GREGORIANA MEDIOLANENSIS

Because we're too busy to celebrate Epiphany on Friday and go to Mass then...

Michael Sullivan, Ockham and Scotus and Natural Theology

James Chastek, The intentional as other than being, or Nothing and Puzzling over definitions

Séquences choisies - Messe de Noël à Fribourg
Première messe de Noël célébrée par Mgr. Charles Morerod en tant qu'évêque en la cathédrale de Fribourg dimanche