The following excerpts are from: The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Vol. II: Books, Broadcasts, and the War, 1931-1949, edited by Walter Hooper, HarperSanFrancisco, 2004: [H]is [Charles Williams’] death has made my faith ten times stronger than it was a week ago. And I find all that talk about ‘feeling he is closer to us than before’ isn’t just talk. It’s just what it does feel like — I can’t put it into words. (To Mary Neylan, 20 May 1945,... Read more
See Part I for background. This is a continuation of that discussion, after Joe Omundson, who runs the website, Recovering from Religion: Ex-Communications, made a second lengthy counter-reply in the combox. His words will be in blue. ***** Thanks for your additional reply. I’d like especially to clarify a few things where either you misunderstood or I did not express my view clearly enough, and make some other responses. Perhaps that may set us on a course of even more fruitful dialogue... Read more
St. John Henry Newman was canonized by Pope Francis on 13 October 2019 in Rome. ***** * MY ARTICLES * Newman’s Conversion Story in His Own Words (Brief) [1991, at Internet Archive] * How Newman Convinced me to Become a Catholic [1996] * Conscience: the Catholic (and Cardinal Newman’s) View [1998] * Dialogues on Development of Doctrine, Newman, and Anglican vs. Catholic Authority [11-7-98 at Internet Archive] * William Webster’s Misunderstanding of Development of Doctrine [2000] * The Philosophical Premises of Newman’s Views... Read more
I received the following question from a friend, and replied to it: Your “dialogue” vs. James White contained this back-and-forth: WHITE: Now this assertion of a second inspired source of God’s truth has led, I feel, to some tremendously false beliefs. ME: We don’t believe that tradition and Church proclamations are ‘inspired” but rather, infallible and authoritative / binding under certain carefully specified conditions. This is a surprising mistake from White on an elementary matter. Fr. Mitch Pacwa... Read more
In his fictional book, The Great Divorce (New York: Macmillan, 1946, 39), Lewis portrays the damned (including some near-damned, as it were) making a trip to the outskirts of heaven. One of the spirits is told: “You have been in Hell; though if you don’t go back you may call it Purgatory.” This theme was expanded later in the book (p. 67): “If they leave that grey town behind it will not have been Hell. To any that leaves it, it is... Read more
I discovered this information in the book, The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Vol. II: Books, Broadcasts, and the War, 1931-1949, edited by Walter Hooper, HarperSanFrancisco, 2004. Lewis’ words will be in blue. ***** On 24 October 1940 Lewis wrote to his friend Sister Penelope: an Anglican nun (p. 452), noting that “I am going to make my first confession next week” and declaring that this decision “was one of the hardest I have ever made.” One part of himself ... Read more
Joe Omundson runs the website, Recovering from Religion: Ex-Communications. I found the article, “My Escape from the Belly of the Beast” (9-24-18) there, written by one Don R., and replied with my article, Typical Deconversion Story: False Dilemmas & Incoherence (3-28-19). Joe in turn offered comments on my article, underneath it. This is my response. His words will be in blue. ***** Hi Joe, Thanks for your eloquent and cordial reply. I really appreciate it. I am the person who manages the blog where... Read more
No one need accept the Documentary Hypothesis, and there are many solid reasons not to: In the last two decades of Pentateuchal scholarship, the source-critical method has come under unprecedented attack; in many quarters it has been rejected entirely. . . . [various factors] have led scholarship to the brink of abandoning the four sources, J, E, P and D. (The Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University: Spring 2009 Calendar of Events) C. S. Lewis lampooned the theory in... Read more
This is a reply to Bishop “Dr.” [???] James White’s article, “Truths of the Bible or Untruths of Roman Tradition?: James White Responds to Tim Staples’ Article, “How to Explain the Eucharist” in the September, 1997 issue of Catholic Digest“ (1 March 2000). See my Introduction to what will be a very long series (and the other installments). Words of James White will be in blue. ***** Catholic apologists know the situation well. The Evangelical Christian has his Bible and is making waves at... Read more
It is completely understandable that many people are outraged by abuses in the Mass. When the rubrics are violated it is scandalous and the laity have every right to protest and try to reform the mistaken, erroneous, improper practices. Lots of things are routinely violated. For example, the use of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion is supposed to be restricted to, well, “extraordinary” circumstances (hence the name). As we know, that guideline is hardly ever applied. The Vatican document Inaestimabile Donum (1980)... Read more
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