I gave a talk to our parish men's group, the Fellowship of St Joseph on the relationship between Christ and culture yesterday. It was loosely based on the classic text by Reformed theologian H Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture. However, I always found Niebuhr's analysis to be weak, subjective and vague. It also was not completely coherent with Catholic [...]
I have started a series of articles called Angels of Advent over at Aleteia. The first is an overview of St Thomas Aquinas' teaching on angels. While St. Thomas says the angels can assume a physical body it would be more precise to say they appear to be in physical form. Rather than the angel taking an [...]
The film Of Gods and Men is an intense experience of some Trappist monks' interaction with violent Muslim extremists. My comments on the film are my latest article for The Imaginative Conservative website. “What can man do against such reckless hate?” asks the trapped and helpless Theoden King in Peter Jackson’s The Two Towers. He speaks for us [...]
I was going to write a blog post criticizing what I call "faux Franciscanism"--that is the problem in the church in which poverty is praised for its own sake. We should be clear. Poverty is not a virtue on its own. The poor are not blessed because they are poor. We should remember that poor people [...]
Church of England nudism advocate Bishop Elect Karen Graham Long time readers of my blog may remember one of my alter egos named The Rev'd Humphrey Blytherington--a lovable but doddery Church of England country vicar. In this post from 2009 Humph was dealing with the outrageous subject of Christian nudism. The trendy female vicar [...]
Happy Thanksgiving
Is there a link between atheism, Thanksgiving Day and Puddleglum from Narnia? I wonder on this Thanksgiving Day, therefore, what the atheist does. I admit that he may nurture a simple attitude of gratitude for the good things in his life, but does he stop to ask why he should feel grateful in the first place? [...]
Today at Suburban Hermit I posted A picture of Quarr Abbey church with a selection from T.S.Eliot's Four Quartets From the Old, Red Book, a quotation from Albert Einstein on mysticism Commentary on stages five through eight of Benedict's teaching on humility Go here for your dose of monastic wisdom at Suburban Hermit
Some time ago when I was out in Belize I happened upon this little Catholic church out in the middle of the jungle. This was the humblest of cement block churches in a clearing in the jungle. It was San Pedro's. St Peter's Catholic Church. One of the things I find appealing about the Catholic faith [...]
My latest blog post at National Catholic Register looks at the signs of the times and how false religion contribute With the increasing violence in the volcano of the Middle East it is difficult not to ponder the growing threat of war, the bitter enemies of Christ’s Church and the gathering storm clouds. As we do, [...]