Certainly, philosophy, theology, and literature were weakened by the apparently embarrassing comparison to strict science. But the humanities were already in bad shape. The romantic emphasis on personal uniqueness had undermined the belief that universal ideas are conveyed in great texts. Perennial themes about nature and human nature looked like the furniture of grandma’s attic, [...]
Entries from October 2007
Humanities
October 22nd, 2007 · No Comments
Tags: Humanities & the University
The Eschatological Economy: Time and the Hospitality of God
October 19th, 2007 · No Comments
Now and again, there appears in all fields of study a work that offers its readers a radical reconception of the basic subject matter in question. In the case of Douglas Knight’s The Eschatological Economy, the term ‘radical’ is especially apt because, rather than seeking something novel, Knight returns us to the roots of Christian [...]
Tags: Eschatological Economy
What he once spoke, he now sings
October 16th, 2007 · Comments Off
There are no liturgical materials available in the parish. The vessels are glass or pottery, everything else having been tossed out. So there is no monstrance, no patens, and the tabernacle is buried somewhere where it can’t be seen. The available vestments are unworthy.
Then there is the belief infrastructure of the parish. People are out [...]
Tags: Church
Presenting the Word that becomes flesh in the liturgy of the day
October 15th, 2007 · No Comments
The words that Benedict XVI speaks every Sunday at midday, before and after the Angelus are among those most closely followed by the media.
The real and proper message comes before the prayer…is a brief homily on the Gospel and the other readings of that day’s Mass.
As in the Wednesday catecheses Benedict XVI is gradually recounting [...]
Tags: JPII & Benedict XVI
Abortion
October 13th, 2007 · No Comments
Saturday 27th October 2007 is the 40th anniversary of the passing of the 1967 Abortion Act.
Time for Change brings together churches, professional bodies and pro-life organisations to mark this anniversary.
There will be a rally in Old Palace Yard outside Parliament on Saturday 27th October followed by a march and a service of remembrance, repentance and [...]
Tags: Blog
Courageous posture against the corrupt and very popular culture of their day
October 5th, 2007 · No Comments
In the tenth volume in its Liturgical Studies series, A New Song for an Old World, Musical Thought in the Early Church, Calvin Stapert discusses the relationship between the emerging church and the musical culture of the late-antique Mediterranean world. Believing that Christian ideas about music have been “truncated and twisted” by naturalistic thought since [...]
Tags: Blog
Biblical studies against biblical theology
October 4th, 2007 · No Comments
‘Modern’ theologians do not regard biblical theology, that sets out the narrative logic of Scripture, as a respectable form of discourse. Their apologies and caution betray their fear that the hard men of critical historical biblical studies will burst in on them and pour scorn on their proceedings. But the Scriptural exegetes are genuinely not [...]
Tags: Blog
Weberianized Church
October 3rd, 2007 · No Comments
The three previous thinkers (Pannenberg, Jüngel and Moltmann) find strategies of accommodating to the Weberian-inspired ‘fact-value split’ of the modern academy, in which reason is seen as instrumental while the final purpose of life is deemed to be wholly subjective. Via accommodation, they also ‘Weberianize’ the Church in the process. In a Weberian mode, mainline [...]
Tags: Blog