It’s a Binding Catholic Dogma The Adoration of the Shepherds (1622), by Gerard van Honthorst (1590-1656) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (9-24-08; expanded — after the asterisks — on 9-21-15; very slightly revised with top note added, on 3-9-17) * * * * * [Note of 3-9-17: My friend Ryan Grant has argued that this opinion is properly classified as sententia certa: defined by Dr. Ludwig Ott as follows: “A Teaching Pertaining to Faith, i.e., theologically certain (sententia ad... Read more
[completed on 17 April 2008; published by Lulu on the same day] *** Purchase Options *** [PAPERBACK: $20.95] [KINDLE: 2.99] *** TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication (p. 3) Introduction (p. 5) [available online] PART ONE: CRITICISM *** 1. Was Martin Luther a “Revolutionary” Who Had Many Fundamental Disagreements With the Catholic Church? (p. 11) 2. Martin Luther’s Extraordinary (and Arbitrary) Claims Regarding His Own Authority (p. 39) 3. Martin Luther and the Canon of Holy Scripture (p. 47) 4. Luther... Read more
*** (4-17-08) *** The question always arises with regard to a work such as this, written from a Catholic perspective: why write about Martin Luther at all? Such an endeavor is viewed in many quarters as “stirring up a hornet’s nest” or as an unnecessary provoking of undesirable tension between Christians. Life is tough enough without further quarreling, we are told. We are supposed to be beyond all that, seeing that this is an “enlightened” age of tolerance and ecumenism.... Read more
+ Galileo Redux British atheist biologist Richard Dawkins (b. 1941) at the 35th American Atheists Convention (4-10-09). Photo by Marty Stone [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license] *** (3-20-08) *** A Catholic commented in a thread devoted to a post of mine regarding Galileo: I think the Church would not get into these types of situations or be the cause for such questions if she would stick to religion and religious topics and leave science to scientists. I replied: But you... Read more
Noah’s Sacrifice (1847-1853), by Daniel Maclise (1811-1870) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (2-20-08) *** On the Coming Home Network board where I moderate, one of the members told of a horror story where a person who was leading a Bible study taught that Abraham was “the first character in the Bible that we [Catholics] believe actually existed” and that “Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah, etc. may simply have been literary devices.” Here is my reply: * * * *... Read more
Photo by Camilo Rueda López (1-28-08) [Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0 license] *** (1-8-08) ***** Dr. Warren Carroll (Ph.D., Columbia University; founder of Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia), is author of the four-volume History of Christendom (Front Royal, Virginia: Christendom Press, 1985 –), among many other titles. In the first volume, The Founding of Christendom, he states, in the Introduction (p. 11): The majority of citations in these notes refer to secondary sources — that is, to the work... Read more
Footsteps that Echo Forever: My Holy Land Pilgrimage(Nov. 2014, 165 pages) [click on the book title for book and purchase info.] [cover photograph taken by Margie Prox Sindelar in Caesarea Philippi (Mt 16), on 23 October 2014] ***** TABLE OF CONTENTS *** I. DIALOGUES WITH JEWISH APOLOGIST MICHAEL J. ALTER ON JESUS’ RESURRECTION AND ALLEGED NEW TESTAMENT “CONTRADICTIONS” II. THE MESSIAH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT III. RELATIONSHIP OF OLD AND NEW COVENANTS / JEWS AND CHRISTIANS / DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTRINE: JUDAISM TO... Read more
(284 pages; completed in November 2007; published by Lulu in November 2007; revised with new title, typesetting, slight rearrangement of the chapters, new front and back covers, and a dollar off the list price, on 28 August 2013) *** [Old title: The Church Fathers Were Catholic: Patristic Evidences for Catholicism] *** Purchase Options *** [PAPERBACK: $18.02] [KINDLE: 2.99] *** TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication (p. 3) Introduction (p. 5) [available online] Bibliography of Sources / Recommended Books (p. 11) Chronological... Read more
Wouldn’t a real debate be nice for a change? You Tube image [Creative Commons license] *** (10-8-07) *** This was the immediate reason for my decision to cease attempting to debate theology with anti-Catholics any longer, in 2007. If two parties can’t even come to a common premise on fundamental definitions, no actual dialogue (let alone constructive discussion) is possible. * * * * * 1) Whereas I have tried for 12 years to engage an anti-Catholic Christian (either Protestant... Read more
(revised on 28 August 2013) *** Protestants and Catholics both claim that the early Church heritage of theology and broad consensus of the Church fathers leans more towards their own view. Protestants, from the beginning of their existence, claimed to be “reformers” of the Catholic Church; that is, they felt themselves to be hearkening back to the more pure doctrines of the early Church and the Church fathers, rather than overturning historic Catholic doctrine (what might be termed a “revolutionary”... Read more
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