This is a guest post. Pater Edmund Waldstein is a Cistercian monk who blogs at Sancrucensis. You will find out all you want to know about him in his testimony below. =========== Why am I a Catholic? It would be easy to answer this question from a sociological point of view. To say that I come from a devoutly Catholic milieu hardly begins to capture it. An Aunt of mine once said that in our family being Catholic is like... Read more
After watching Linklater’s Boyhood–a portrayal of divorce as boring, normal, quietly despairing, and not at all liberating (there’s more, I’ll talk about it later)–the following thought from Jamie Smith’s Twitter feed really jumped out at me: Is this not also the best definition of Gaston and Lily [in the film Trouble in Paradise]? Are these two burglars not “placid old cosmic conservatives, happy in the immemorial respectability of apes and wolves,” i.e., living in their paradise before the fall into... Read more
This is a guest post. ================ Emily Edmondson is a graduate student at the University of Notre Dame pursuing a Master’s of Theological Studies. Originally from Texas, she completed her undergraduate education in Theology at Baylor University – a Baptist school where she took some suspiciously Catholic courses. When not doing theology, Emily enjoys cooking, linguistics, and southern scenery. You can find her on Twitter @nosdnomde where she unsuccessfully attempts humor. ================ Why Remain Catholic? Flannery O’Connor’s first novel Wise... Read more
The 20th century’s most influential theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar, once called for a “kneeling theology.” A kneeling theology is one that integrates theological reflection with spirituality. According to von Balthasar the Church Fathers practiced such a theology; it ought to be theology’s natural environment. The kneeling theology was taken for granted in Western Christendom until the scholastic period when, starting with Abelard, the practice of writing disputations that concentrated upon answering mostly abstract questions divorced theology from the spiritual... Read more
The Patheos Catholic channel is doing a roundup of members defending their faith. This is a response to the less than encouraging Catholic numbers in the recent PEW Religion Poll. They haven’t racked my brains as much as other people. I don’t see what the big deal is. In this my answer is identical to Walker Percy’s answer in the self-interview “Questions They Never Asked Me,” which can be found, along with other entertaining non-fiction writings and interviews in Signposts... Read more
Theorists and practitioners of Gender Theory are frequently mistakenly considered to be postmodern relativists. But, this is not so, if you actually pay close attention to what Bruce, now Caitlyn, Jenner says in a promo video for Vanity Fair: You might remember Jenner also self-identifies as a Republican and has gotten much flack for it. This actually makes perfect sense, because neoliberal economic theory is libertarian in that it stresses the importance of individual choice against governmental and societal control.... Read more
Here’s hyper-Republican ideologue Rick Santorum on Pope Francis (and climate change) in a radio interview you can find in its entirety below: The Church has gotten it wrong a few times on science, and I think we’re probably better off leaving science to the scientists and focus on what we’re really good on, which is theology and morality. When we get involved with political and controversial scientific theories, then I think the church is probably not as forceful and credible.... Read more
Since you are reading this, I’d like to ask you a question: Do you have a philosophy or theology of using the internet, one that involves a little more sophistication than seeing digital media as the Whore of Babylon at the disposal of the liberal intellectual elites or wily conservative conglomerates (both clamoring to control your mind)? If not, then we have a problem. You are, after all, reading this on the internet. Philosophy and theology, in their own ways,... Read more
One of the great blessings of the rosary is its repetitiveness. This repetitiveness fosters the kind of presence to God and neighbor inherent to the practices recommended by Kevin M. Johnson in his indispensable interview. Repetitiveness empties our mind of the junk that veils the presence of God in our lives. 1. This repetitiveness can sometimes get a little bit impersonal. Stratford Caldecott’s All Things New: The Mysteries of the World In Christ gives you an easy tip for addressing... Read more
Music has power. And its greatest power is to create a pathway between the human and the divine. Shamans in every part of the world knew that long ago. And every form of worship has tried to draw on this power. Only in the modern world, with our fixation on music as entertainment, have we forgotten this basic fact. Heidegger understood that. He was deeply schooled in the thinking of the pre-Socratics. He would have known that Pythagoras once picked... Read more
Cosmos The In Lost
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