CT 18: The Infinity of God According to Essence

Last updated on: December 23, 2014 at 3:45 pm 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 that God does not exist bodily according to His essence (the Incarnation is a separate concern). And then he says, perhaps surprisingly, This leads to the question of God’s infinity. We think of a body as the physical part of a human being or animal. In Aristotelian terms, though, a body is any material thing that takes up space:... Read more

Third-Cousins Twice Removed?

Last updated on: November 28, 2014 at 7:29 pm By willduquette

Are you sure? You can check this handy chart if not. Read more

Music for Black Friday: I’ll Fly Away

Last updated on: November 27, 2014 at 2:27 pm By willduquette

The Coen brothers attracted some remarkable talent for the soundtrack for their movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?; and one of my favorite tracks is this one, performed by Alison Krauss & Gillian Welch. Typically for bluegrass, it’s about going to heaven. The song has been recorded by virtually everyone; I first encountered it in bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley’s version: One verse contains this lyric, Just a few more weary days and then I’ll fly away To a land where... Read more

Thanksgiving Day

Last updated on: November 26, 2014 at 11:48 pm By willduquette

I am thankful for Turkey. It keeps Syria and Iraq from bumping into Europe. Read more

CT 17: God Neither the Form of a Body nor a Force in a Body

Last updated on: December 23, 2014 at 3:47 pm By willduquette

We’re blogging through St. Thomas Aquinas’ Compendium Theologiae, sometimes called his Shorter Summa. Find the previous posts here. And so we continue the long march through the categories, showing that God isn’t any of the normal things of our experience. We’ve shown in the past that God isn’t a species predicated of individuals, so He isn’t the essence of an individual being. We’ve shown that God isn’t a body that has an essence. And now we see that God isn’t something that pertains... Read more

On Praying for What You Really Want

Last updated on: December 23, 2014 at 3:49 pm By willduquette

Should I ask God for what I want? Is it arrogant to ask the Lord of Creation to listen to my requests, or to think that they might affect the way things are? Ought I instead to assume that God knows what I need and pray simply for His will to be done? I see these questions come up time and again. I’ve asked them myself, and I often see others asking them. My basic response has always been that... Read more

New Directions

Last updated on: December 23, 2014 at 3:48 pm By willduquette

I’ve been writing here at Patheos for a little over a year. When I started, I promised myself that I’d post every day, and I’ve kept to that schedule; but in the meantime, other responsibilities have crept up on me. I started assisting in my parish’s RCIA program last year, and this year I’m leading an increasing number of the sessions. I’ve also got new responsibilities in my Lay Dominican chapter. And then I got started with Quill, which I’m... Read more

Peace and the Warrior Ethos

Last updated on: December 23, 2014 at 3:49 pm By willduquette

During my career I’ve been privileged to work face-to-face with two retired four-star generals, who were as unlike as you can imagine. The first was a good old country boy who lived on what remained of his family’s Spanish land grant in Texas. He was a mustang: that is, he’d started as an enlisted man and worked his way up. This is not easy. I got the idea that he might be glad to let you underestimate him, but that... Read more

Jack Aubrey on Midshipmen

Last updated on: December 23, 2014 at 3:51 pm By willduquette

In the Royal Navy in Jack Aubrey’s day, there was no naval academy. Boys from naval families went to sea at a young age as “midshipmen”, also known as “young gentlemen”. They were treated as officers—of a sort—so as to learn both seamanship and the art of command, and might with luck and skill ultimately “pass for lieutenant” and become real officers. But as they came to sea before showing any affinity for it, and because they were often quite... Read more

Review: A Call to Duty, by David Weber and Timothy Zahn

Last updated on: November 18, 2014 at 7:35 pm By willduquette

A Call to Duty, by David Weber and Timothy Zahn, is the first book in a new sub-series set in David Weber’s Honor Harrington universe. The Royal Manticoran Navy was formed shortly after the settling of Manticore, based on six battlecruisers purchased to defend Manticore against pirate attacks. And then the plagues set in; Manticore’s population was decimated and more than decimated, and there were far too few people to maintain the navy. Now, many years later, the RMN is... Read more