Today’s Aquinas: The Son and the Father are One

July 13, 2015 By willduquette

We’re blogging through St. Thomas Aquinas’ Compendium Theologiae, sometimes called his Shorter Summa. Find the previous posts here. Having explained just how the Word, the Second Person of the Trinity, is generated from the Father from all eternity, Thomas goes on to explain that, in John the Evangelist’s words, “the Word was God.” Since natural existence and the action of understanding are distinct in us, we should note that a word conceived in our intellect, having only intellectual existence, differs in nature from... Read more

The Dogmat Saw The Beauty

July 9, 2015 By willduquette

The Dogmat has seen a lot of neat and beautiful stuff over the last couple of weeks, amid everything else. Being doggy rather than catty, the Dogmat prefers to focus on the beautiful stuff. How to Express Admiration: Scott Meyer explains (in cartoon form) how to express admiration for another; and specifically how to express admiration for Walt Disney because “he’s the closest thing we’ve ever had to a Bond movie villain.” After all, did build “an immense complex in... Read more

A Collection of Mindfulness-ness (Updated!)

July 8, 2015 By willduquette

Recently I’ve been hearing quite a bit about mindfulness, most recently at Weight Watchers where we are encouraged to be mindful about the food we are eating. A couple of weeks ago they gave us a “mindfulness exercise”, to wit, spending two minutes counting our breaths. From what I’ve gathered, mindfulness involves quieting your thoughts and being aware and alert to your body and your environment. As such, it’s a way of being present, of living in the moment; and... Read more

Movie Review: Inside Out

July 7, 2015 By willduquette

Go see it. Pixar’s knocked it out of the park with this one: there wasn’t a single false note. I can’t really say any more without spoiling it. You’ve probably seen a review or two by now, or a trailer, so you have enough of a notion of what it’s about already. So go see it, already! Read more

Today’s Aquinas: What Did John Say about the Word?

July 6, 2015 By willduquette

We’re blogging through St. Thomas Aquinas’ Compendium Theologiae, sometimes called his Shorter Summa. Find the previous posts here. In the previous chapter, Thomas showed a way in which we can say that the First and Second Persons of the Trinity are related as Father and Son; and he clarifies his usage in this chapter: Hence in the rule of Catholic faith we are taught to profess belief in the Father and Son in God by saying: “I believe in God the Father, and... Read more

Danny Deever, by Rudyard Kipling

July 3, 2015 By willduquette

Kipling’s poem “Danny Deever” is about a soldier who is going to be hanged for shooting a fellow soldier while he slept. “What are the bugles blowin’ for?” said Files-on-Parade. “To turn you out, to turn you out”, the Colour-Sergeant said. “What makes you look so white, so white?” said Files-on-Parade. “I’m dreadin’ what I’ve got to watch”, the Colour-Sergeant said. For they’re hangin’ Danny Deever, you can hear the Dead March play, The regiment’s in ‘ollow square — they’re hangin’... Read more

Which Monotheistic God is God?

July 2, 2015 By willduquette

Last time I looked at theological systems that aim at the divine as the ultimate reality, and rejected pantheism and deism for monotheism. That still seems to leave a lot of ground to cover, but it’s actually not so bad. As I’ve said before I’ve had personal experiences of the presence of God. I don’t want to make too much of them, but there they are, and they are part of my experience. I don’t claim that you should believe... Read more

In Search of Ultimate Reality

July 1, 2015 By willduquette

In my previous post I argued that worship is what is owed in justice to the divine, and that a god who is the creator, the ultimate reality, is more worthy of worship than any lesser god—always presuming that the god actually exists. (Non-existent gods are not worthy of worship, however well we might have “crafted” them.) I cannot speak for all religions practiced in the world today, but certainly the largest claim to reflect ultimate reality in one way... Read more

Why Not Worship Zeus?

June 30, 2015 By willduquette

Several commenters on my post “Proving God Experimentally” asked why my experiment would lead to belief in the specifically Christian God? Why not to some other religion? Similarly, my atheist interlocutor Korou said, To be fair, I’ve never asked Allah or the Hindu gods, or Zeus to do the same. From my point of view, any of them are as likely to exist as the other. As I’ve noted elsewhere, I didn’t come to the Catholic faith as a result... Read more

Today’s Aquinas: Why is the Word the Son of the Father?

June 28, 2015 By willduquette

We’re blogging through St. Thomas Aquinas’ Compendium Theologiae, sometimes called his Shorter Summa. Find the previous posts here. In this Chapter Thomas continues building up a model of the Trinity in Aristotelian terms. I must note that this is not the definitive model of the Trinity; as Augustine famously noted, the Trinity is a mystery that we cannot encompass. But it’s a way of thinking about the Trinity that Thomas found spiritually useful. He continues from the previous chapter, in which he compared God’s... Read more