I cannot use Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” to draw an analogy without acknowledging that to do so, in almost any context, might be considered cliche. That possibility notwithstanding, I am going to use the poem to describe something, in the hope that others will share my opinion that it is great enough to still be [...]
Among the intensely interesting dynamics of the Christian life as envisioned by Reformed theology, is the fact that it can easily, and with perfect theological consistency, tip towards presumption or despair. On the one hand, salvation according to the Reformed is supposed to be a graceful, no-danger of being disinherited, sort of thing. On the [...]
I want to follow up on a topic briefly raised in the current lead article (Holy Orders and the Sacrificial Priesthood, Section VI.b.) and in Jonathan Deane’s recent post, Drawn Closer by Scandal? The topic is consecrated celibacy, as required for religious life and the higher Orders of Catholic clergy.
In his recent article on the ecclesiology of the Ravenna Document, Ansgar Santogrossi, O.S.B., mentions four historical forms of relation between the Church (or some sort of religion) and the State. [1] Fr. Santogrossi presents this material in the course of explaining the philosophical assumptions under-girding the “ecclesiology of communion” model which largely informs this [...]
Ligonier Ministries recently posted an excerpt from the late John Gerstner’s Primer on Justification. This article, taken together with things he has written elsewhere concerning the nature of faith, manifests an interesting and important inconsistency in Dr. Gerstner’s thinking about justification. Before turning to that problem, I want to make a few comments on the [...]
Towards the end of Leo Tolstoy’s literary masterpiece, Anna Karenina, we find Konstantin Levin, the book’s male protagonist, grasping his way towards an explicit faith in God. Along the way, Levin considers the faith of the Church, but finds himself unable to fully accept her testimony to divine truth.
The Catholic Church dogmatically affirms that Sacred Scripture indeed teaches the salvific efficacy of baptism, where “baptism” refers to the sacrament in which a person is washed with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and “salvation” refers to the bestowal of gifts whereby a person [...]
Every story features an action, carried out by a protagonist, who is hindered by an antagonist, which makes for an essential conflict, the development and resolution of which constitutes the basic structure of the story. The larger the scope of the action, the more potential a story has for “greatness.” Every human life, on this [...]
Fr. Dwight Longenecker has written a nice summary (in two sentences!) of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novel, The Lord of the Rings. I was moved to comment there, and now to post a greatly amplified version of that comment here. One justification for the latter move is that the subject has some bearing upon recent discussions at [...]
There were all kinds of Catholic doctrines that I already believed before coming into full communion with the Catholic Church (e.g., the Trinity, the virgin birth, the full deity and full humanity of the one Lord Jesus Christ, the divine inspiration of the Bible). The similarities between some of my own beliefs and some of [...]
