Archive for the ‘Theology’ Category
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
Just to put in my two cents on the strange case of Anne Rice, who announced on July 30th that she was leaving Christianity but still follows Christ. The reasons she gave for denouncing Christianity were,
…that she refuses to be “anti-gay,” “anti-feminist,” “anti-science” and “anti-Democrat.”
Hmmm…. well, if she thinks Christianity is all that, then why did she join it in the first place? I’d also like to know who in the world has informed her that Christianity is all that? If she thinks it is all that, then I propose she really never became a Christian to begin with… at least not any form of Christianity that I’ve ever heard of. Now it’s possible she has confused Christianity with those who call themselves Christian while holding these toxic tendencies… and while I wouldn’t want to say they aren’t Christian, I would say they need to reflect a bit deeper on what it means to be a Christian and maybe, just maybe, they might have a change of heart.
I think the clue to explaining Ms. Rice’s confusing statement and puzzling move may lay in the realization that she probably confused Christianity with Christ … and while this can be an honest mistake it overlooks one very sad reality: Human beings proclaim a set of values and quite often fail in many ways to live up to those values. That’s kinda what it means to be Fallen… oh, but if I say that then I’m just making those Christian sounds and I loose Ms. Rice’s attention. <sigh> what to do?
Tags: anne rice, God, Religion, Roman Catholic, Theology
Posted in Catholic, Religion, Theology | Comments Off
Saturday, June 19th, 2010
There is a pretty good article located at National Catholic Reporter, that brings up some interesting ethical points regarding Bishop Olmsted’s excommunication of the Sister of Mercy, Sr. Margaret Mary McBride. I posted a little
commentary earlier regarding the situation.
Here’s a quote from the article:
While theologians and canonists dispute whether excommunications can be issued so broadly and unequivocally without a more detailed process, the primary objections deal with issues at the heart of the case. Both the recent reactions, as well as writings, of a range of theologians and canonists whose work spans a good portion of the liberal-to-conservative spectrum, suggests that the approach of Olmsted and his chief ethicist, Fr. John Ehrich, while defensible under the most rigid reading of canon law, is outside of the mainstream of scholarship and thinking on the matter.
These experts faulted Olmsted’s action for several reasons:
- It does not, for instance, take into account such factors as the intent of those involved, a consideration regularly applied to other complex moral problems.
- It does not ask if the death of the fetus — assured whether the decision was to do nothing to save the life of the mother or to remove the fetus from the mother’s womb — should even enter into “the moral framework” in this instance.
- Its application in this case is inconsistent with the approach the church takes to other grave public sins, such as support of the death penalty, war, or clergy accused of sexual abuse, including rape, of children.
- In a pastoral sense, the sanction was unnecessarily heavy-handed, given the agonizing circumstances involved. (more…)
Tags: abortion, catholic healthcare west, olmsted, Roman Catholic, sexual abuse, sisters of mercy, Theology
Posted in Catholic, Religion, Theology | Comments Off
Sunday, May 30th, 2010
The Tablet is reporting that Cardinal Pell of Australia is bragging that the new English translation of the Missal is not in “Barbecue English” like the current translation apparently is, in the good cardinal’s mind.
Hmmmm…..
I wonder if he is familiar with the Greek New Testament and is therefore aware that it’s written in Koine Greek (or in other words “Street Level Greek”). Does he think we need to polish the gospel up a bit too? Apparently he doesn’t want the unwashed to be able to understand the mass. Odd attitude for a Prince of the Church, that. I’m just sayin’…
Tags: Catholic, missal, pell
Posted in Biblical Studies, Catholic, Religion, Theology | Comments Off
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
If you haven’t heard yet, Bishop Olmsted of the Roman Church has excommunicated a Sister of Mercy who served on the ethics committee at a hospital for her role in the decision to end the pregnancy of a woman whose death was a certainty if the baby was carried to term.
Now this is a disaster on several levels. Here we have a religious insitution, the Roman Catholic Church, which seeks to serve as a voice of morality for the world. This mission is playing out in the following way: If you are a bishop or priest and have raped a child, then you will be reassigned after a slap on the wrist. You certainly should not be excommunicated, let alone be handed over to the legal authorities. However, if you recommend abortion to save the life of the mother, you’re out of here… anathema… don’t let the door hit you on the butt on your way out.
Never mind the fact that the intent was to save the life of the mother…
Who the hell are these people and why are they masquarading as the Body of Christ???
Tags: abortion, Ethics, Roman Catholic, sexual abuse, Theology
Posted in Catholic, Ethics, Philosophy, Religion, Theology | Comments Off
Friday, May 14th, 2010
Divine Acton. How do we understand and talk about God acting in the world if everything is evolving?
So to continue what I began in part 1, part, 2 and part 3…The concept of divine action, or how we understand God acting in the world, is critical for a lot of different reasons. As we saw earlier in part 2, how we understand God acting directly impacts our concept of God as creator, and as we saw in part 3, how we understand God acting in the world impacts our understanding of how God acts specifically as creator of the human soul. (more…)
Tags: Evolution, God, Philosophy, Religion, Roman Catholic, Theology
Posted in Catholic, Philosophy, Religion, Science, Theology | Comments Off
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
NOTE: This paper was written quite some time ago so please keep that in mind as you read this. I plan on revisiting this topic many times and hope to improve on my reflections.
I. Introduction
This paper will be a summarization of THE WISDOM OF LAOTSE (translated, edited and with an introduction and notes by Lin Yutang), and a comparison of the major elements of Tao with Christian themes generally and, specifically, with St. Thomas Aquinas’ doctrine of the divine simplicity of God. (more…)
Tags: God, Philosophy, Religion, tao, Theology, thomism
Posted in Philosophy, Religion, Theology | Comments Off
Friday, April 2nd, 2010
As mentioned in my previous posts, Part 1 and Part 2, I will now take up issue 2, the Image of God, or to be more specific, “How does evolution affect our self understanding as being made in the image of God?”
There are several problems that evolution seems to create for the concept of humans as made in the image of God, but I think the big ones are,
1) If humans evolved from lower forms of life, then this means humans are not radically different from animals… does this mean we are but one kind of animal among many?
2) If humans appeared on the scene through the process of evolution, then what are we to make of Adam and Eve and, consequently, the doctrine of Original Sin? (more…)
Tags: Evolution, God, intelligent design, Religion, Roman Catholic, Theology
Posted in Philosophy, Religion, Science, Theology | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
I’ve just finished attending a study group at Grace Cathedral for Richard Rohr’s latest book, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See. I was struck by something he said within it… actually struck by many things, but the one thing I want to talk about today is on page 166-167 where he says,
The ego self is the unobserved self. If you do not find an objective standing point from which to look back at yourself, you will almost always be egocentric – identified with yourself instead of in relationship with yourself.
Most of us have been given no training or practice in this, because it was all negative self-criticism rather than calm self-observation (moral examination of conscience instead of examination of consciousness). Ego is not bad; it is just what takes over when you do not see truthfully and completely. That “lamp” does not illuminate well. (more…)
Tags: Friedman, God, naked now, Philosophy, Religion, Richard Rohr, Theology
Posted in Ethics, Philosophy, Religion, Theology | Comments Off
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
To continue from Part 1, the first theological issue I want to look at which I believe is critical to the process of talking about God in the context of our knowledge of evolution is the issue of creation, or the creator God. How can it be said that God created everything if everything is in a constant state of change, constant evolution? Personally, I don’t think this particular issue is problematic from within a thomistic framework, which is a theological framework in which God is on a different ontological plane than the rest of reality. In other words, a reality that is in a constant state of change was already a part of the classical thomistic understanding of created reality. God as such was not a part of created reality but rather was the source of all created reality and as such did not enter into the constant state of change. I suspect that it would take very little effort to re-vision a thomistic theological understanding within our current framework of evolutionary reality. There are other aspects of thomistic thought that would make it a difficult framework to work within, however… but I do think it’s possible. It is but one among many, I think. There are also possible ways of conceptualizing God that would include God on the same ontological plane as the rest of reality.
(more…)
Tags: cosmology, Evolution, God, intelligent design, Religion, Theology
Posted in Religion, Science, Theology | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
As I argued in my article The Church and the Cosmological Revolution, the opposition by the Catholic Church to Galileo and the cosmological revolution in general, was due to a pastoral concern. To summarize my argument, the news that the Earth was NOT the center of the universe shattered the common understanding of how everything was put together. In that understanding, the new vision of the sun at the center of the universe and Earth as one body among many that circled the sun was tantamount to saying that there was no God. The church leaders knew very well that such a radical change in world views would leave the vast majority of believers without a framework for understanding who God was and where we stood in relation to God. They may not have articulated it quite this way, but they understood the threat. It would take a very long time for theologians to articulate an understanding of God within this new vision… and in fact, to this day the struggle to do so continues. It’s not only the Catholic Church nor even Christianity that struggles with the new vision… many religions are still going through the same struggle. The modern day version of this struggle is being played out in the so-called “Intelligent Design” debate.
(more…)
Tags: cosmology, Evolution, God, intelligent design, Religion, Roman Catholic, Theology
Posted in Religion, Science, Theology | 3 Comments »