Zion - Lauryn Hill

I touched my belly overwhelmed
by what I had been chosen to perform
But then an angel came one day
Told me to kneel down and pray
for unto me a man child would be born
Woe this crazy circumstance
I knew his life deserved a chance
but everybody told me to be smart
"Look at your career " they said,
"Lauryn baby use your head."
But instead I chose to use my heart
Now the joy... of my world...
is in Zion!

Medieval Voting

Voting in Medieval Universities and Religious Orders

This looks interesting although it is not light reading.

The Theology of Popular Economics

A post made by secular economist Tyler Cowen;

Once I pick up a popular economics book, I ask myself: what is this book's implicit theology? (How would you in this regard classify Freakonomics? Undercover Economist? Steve Landsburg?)

That is one of the best first questions to ask about any non-fiction book.

I view Discover Your Inner Economist as largely Thomist and more Catholic than anything else.

It is suggested that people are capable of simply doing the right thing, although we should not necessarily expect them to do the right thing.

It is suggested that a unified perspective of faith and reason, applied in voluntarist fashion, can indeed give people better and more complete lives.

It is suggested that not everything can be bought and sold, yet markets have a very important role in human life.

The chapters on food, or the seven deadly sins, are too obvious to require explanation.

The book is highly cosmopolitan, and it is suggested that acts of will and understanding can open up the sacraments to us. The possibility of those sacraments lies right before our very eyes, and they are literally available for free. Except the relevant sacraments are those of culture, and not of the Roman Church.

I am not a Catholic or for that matter a believer, but as I tried to solve various problems in the exposition, the argument fell naturally into religious ideas. Religion has so much power over the human mind, in part, because its basic teachings about life are largely true. Furthermore classical liberalism is far more of an intellectual offshoot of Christianity than most non-Christians are keen to admit. (Muslims and Chinese often see this more clearly.)

So when I realized that Inner Economist had this strongly Thomist philosophic flavor, I was greatly comforted. Link

I think that Tyler Cowen is satisfied with the scraps from the Catholic table but is missing out on the banquet. I have to admit that it is refreshing that someone from the secular side of things can acknowledges at least some of the truth of the Catholic Faith.

Liturgical Use of Fire

Fire is one of the most expressive and most ancient of liturgical symbols. All the creeds of antiquity accorded a prominent place to this element whose mysterious nature and irresistible power frequently caused it to be adored as a god. The sun, as the principle of heat and light for the earth, was regarded as an igneous mass and had its share in this worship. Christianity adapted this usual belief, but denied the divine title to heat and light, and made them the symbols of the divinity, which enlightens and warms humanity. The symbolism led quite naturally to the liturgical rite by which the Church on the Eve of Easter celebrates the mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, of which the extinguished and rekindled fire furnishes the expressive image. The beginning of the office also reflects ancient beliefs. The new fire is struck from a flint and is blessed with this prayer:

Lord God, Almighty Father, inextinguishable light, Who hast created all light, bless this light sanctified and blessed by Thee, Who hast enlightened the whole world; make us enlightened by that light and inflamed with the fire of Thy brightness; and as Thou didst enlighten Moses when he went out of Egypt, so illuminate our hearts and senses that we may attain life and light everlasting through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Catholic Encyclopedia

Christopher Hitchen's Challenge

My challenge: name an ethical statement or action, made or performed by a person of faith, that could not have been made or performed by a nonbeliever. I have since asked this question at every stop and haven't had a reply yet. Link

This challenge reduces faith to an object of which only has the use of producing works. It’s like asking a married man what he has in his marriage that a bachelor doesn’t. I did not get married just to produce something. I am married because I love my wife. My faith is the same. My faith is my relationship with Christ. I am able to give an oath to someone that is greater than myself. I am able to give an oath to my creator out of love. Now I can predict that I will get snickers for this statement. Just like when I was in junior high I got snickers from friends when I told them that it was not cool to use girls because girls are more than objects to be manipulated. The problem with the challenge is that it has a faulty premise.

Beliefs have consequences. If this were not true then why make the challenge towards believers?

Being a follower of Christ has many consequences. I am called to love my enemies. I don’t see how this command would make much sense to an atheist. It is also possible as a Christian to find joy when persecuted for Christ. Again I don’t know how this would make much sense to an atheist. Christians can find meaning through suffering. Suffering is an evil but through Christ I have the ability to transcend suffering. Again I don’t think this would compute for an atheist. The Beatitude would also fit the description. Now these things are hard and I will concede that most Christians are not there spiritually. But without Christ setting this high standard I do not know why an atheist would even try to reach to this. Atheism does not produce saints.

Atheists can be moral but they do not have an explanation for the why of their subjective conscious based morality. Why not reject your own conscious if it’s just the product of evolution to better pass on genes? [Or based on some other external cause] If my conscious is based on my own making, why not change it to whatever I want?

Apollo

Vatican City: Vatican Museum: Belvedere Apollo (2nd century Roman copy of 4th century BC bronze sculpture of artist from Attica)

Beautiful, ruthless, and cruelly imperturbable, Apollo performed precisely this cool seduction on his ancient worshipers; he was a healer as well as a destroyer, and hence not to be resisted. Although Winckelmann responds to the ancient god's image with an aesthetic rather than a religious rapture, the Apollo Belvedere had stood in the Vatican for more than two centuries in part because Apollo was seen as a forerunner of Christ, the brilliant son of God who comes to earth in a burst of light. In a real sense, Winckelmann's reverie before the statue is a spiritual exercise, a disciplined journey of senses and imagination in the tradition, if not to the purposes, of Ignatius Loyola, and it captures the continuing religious significance of a work of art that has embodied something more than human for two thousand years. "In gazing upon this masterpiece of art, I forget all else, and I myself adopt an elevated stance, in order to be worthy of gazing upon it," he wrote. "My chest seems to expand with veneration and to heave like those I have seen swollen as if by the spirit of prophecy, and I feel myself transported to Delos and to the Lycian groves, places Apollo honored with his presence -- for my figure seems to take on life and movement, like Pygmalion's beauty."Link

I seem to do this a lot. Take something of beauty from a different culture and submit it to the truth of Christ. It seems to me that we are not just called to convert the masses but the culture as well.

Modern Cosmology

Modern Cosmology: Science or Folktale?

I think there is still more that we don't know about the world than what we do know.

Chinese Room

Now, Searle asks us to suppose that he is sitting inside the computer. In other words, he is in a small room in which he receives Chinese characters, consults a rule book, and returns the Chinese characters that the rules dictate. Searle notes that he doesn't, of course, understand a word of Chinese. Furthermore, he argues that his lack of understanding goes to show that computers don't understand Chinese either, because they are in the same situation as he is. They are mindless manipulators of symbols, just as he is — and they don't understand what they're 'saying', just as he doesn't. Link

This is a good thought experiment to bring up when discussing how the mind is different from a computer.

World Clock

I don't know if these numbers are right but it's interesting.

World Clock

Secular Stained Glass

Give a stain glass window to a post modern artist and what does he make? That’s right....computer pixels. The depth and breath of secular culture is breathtaking. (NOT)

German: das Gerhard Richter Fenster in Köln Link

Bobby McFerrin - Ave Maria

I wouldn't know the words. lol

Transmitting the Flame

The preacher is of no account spiritually if he himself is not holy. People might say: “He spoke very well” (a theatrical success), or: “He is right” (a university success). But the silent adherence which results from the contact of souls communicating in God, transmitting the flame from one to the other- that, he will not experience. Father Antonin Gilbert Sertillanges

The same can be said of apologetics.

Mother Teresa

Time Magazine has a story on Mother Teresa based a letter she wrote to her spiritual adviser, "Please pray specially for me that I may not spoil His work and that Our Lord may show Himself — for there is such terrible darkness within me, as if everything was dead. It has been like this more or less from the time I started 'the work.'" Time tries to ster up some controversy but ends the piece in a level headed way.

The following is a comment left on a blog that I was reading....

Hello,

Too bad Mother Teresa couldn't discern that the reason for her conclusions about the Christian god is because he doesn't exist. In fact, the gods professed by all three so-called faiths of Abraham are purposeful deceptions, hence the darkness she felt.

On the other hand, in spite of her inability to discern the existence of Jesus or God, she persisted in doing good, by her own strength.

I am deeply sorry for her suffering while greatly admiring her decades of good works. After all, no true saint would ever claim that faith is more important than good works.

Here is Wisdom !!

My response...

Steve it funny to me how desperate some people are to down play Mother Teresa. She is a phenomenon that should not exist in your world view. Any detail that can be twisted to explains her away is embraced with relief. So Mother Teresa suffered a dark night of the soul. This is actually not unusual for a saint. The love Mother Teresa had was not based on getting a good feeling back. She loved, even when she did not feel love. To me this is evidence that she had supernatural grace to persevere. You still haven’t explained her away. Our faith is not based on emotions but supernatural grace.

Hat tip to The Ark Of the Dove

Update: This is actually old news. Here is an article in First things from 4 years ago...The Dark Night of Mother Teresa

ENVOY MAGAZINE IS BACK!

After three years of sabbatical Envoy is back. Link

Bending the Language

The preacher’s problem is that relevance is decided not only by what the hearer can and will hear, but what he needs to hear whether or not he wants to, and the latter may not be communicable in language he will naturally understand. The language can be bent only so far, till it is bent out of shape. The apostles of relevance do not see this problem, and hence toss away the truths they genuinely want to convey.

Because the right word is often the unusual or technical or “outdated” word, the preacher should not abandon a specifically Christian vocabulary even though the man in the pew may not understand it right away, and even though he may find it off-putting or even offensive. These words will be the language of the insider, and therefore almost by definition irrelevant to the outsider the preacher wishes to bring inside and many of those who are already inside but lack the conscious and energetic commitment of the real insider. Link

This is something that I need to watch out for.

John Michael Talbot

John Michael Talbot also has a blog

The Truth Shall Set You Free

“What we need is not truths that serve us but a truth we may serve.” (Jacques Maritain)

The science only crowd needs to become aware of this insight. Hat tip to Apolonio Latar

Check the Method

Here is a quote from, The Art of War...

36. When you surround an army, leave an outlet free.
Do not press a desperate foe too hard. Link

I think this applies to apologetics as well as literal war. We can do more damage than good with apologetics. It’s kind of like chemotherapy. We attack that which is unhealthy but there is a risk of destroying the healthy as well. So allow some room if someone’s ego gets hurt or if they start to look “desperate”. You do not want to push them farther away.

Apologetics is really not all that glamours. It’s like working a potato farm. But instead of planting seeds your job is just to throw out all the rocks in the soil. Sure there may be some seeds we plant but we really are not doing apologetics when we do this. We also must remember that we are not the one that converts the heart. That is the Holy Spirit’s job.

Godwin's Law

Godwin's Law is good to know when talking to people on the net.

Godwin's Law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies)[1] is an adage that Mike Godwin formulated in 1990. The law states:[2]

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

Godwin's Law does not question whether any particular reference or comparison to Hitler or the Nazis might be appropriate, but only asserts that one arising is increasingly probable. It is precisely because such a comparison or reference may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin has argued,[3] that overuse of Nazi and Hitler comparisons should be avoided, because it robs the valid comparisons of their impact.

Although in one of its early forms Godwin's Law referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions,[4] the law is now applied to any threaded online discussion: electronic mailing lists, message boards, chat rooms, and more recently blog comment threads and wiki talk pages. Link

Some say that due to Godwin's Law that if you bring up the Nazis you automatically loose the debate. So unless unavoidable, my suggestion would be to not use the Nazis or Hitler to make a point in a debate.

Silence

Music is everywhere. Long live it.

Just give me five minutes without it; that's all I ask, perhaps all I'll need to bring it back into being for myself. Imprisoned by it as I am now, assaulted in every store, elevator, voice-mail system, passing car, neighbor's home, by it and its consequent immolation in the noise of the quotidian, it is lost to me as anything other than a kind of psychic rape, a forced intimacy with sonic partners not of my choosing. When music is everywhere, it is nowhere; when everything is music, nothing is. Silence is as crucial to the musical experience as any of its sounding parameters, and not merely as a kind of acoustical "negative space." Silence births, nurtures, and eventually takes back the musical utterance; it shapes both the formation of its textures and the arc of its progress through time. Link

I find myself seeking music out like it’s a compulsion. I think it is away of avoiding the reality of my aloneness and my dependency on God.