“That’s what the truth teaches. Emotion has nothing to do with it. Who cares if you like it or not. You just have to accept the cold, hard facts. Don’t be a snowflake. Toughen up.” Such is the dark, ugly mentality of so many of us when we talk about the nature of the truth. There is, of course, some validity to such statements. The truth does not depend upon us and our emotional attachment to it – however, the... Read more
Kataphatic theology, when done right, offers up an approximation for the absolute truth by rendering the absolute truth in a conventional form. Due to its relative nature, there can be various levels of approximations which would adequately represent the absolute truth. Nicholas of Cusa, considering the infinite number of approximate representations are possible for the absolute truth gave the example of someone trying to turn a polygon into a circle by adding more and more sides to the polygon. Each... Read more
On the final Sunday of January, 2014, when Pope Francis, with the help of children, released two doves representing peace into the air, those two doves were immediately attacked by a hooded crow and a yellow legged gull. Pope Francis was continuing a tradition when he had children from war torn countries brought to the Vatican to release the doves with him. He wanted to show that despite the war and conflict going on, there is a reason for hope.... Read more
God is infinite, while all created beings are finite. This is a very traditional philosophical convention used to express the distinction between God’s ultimate, unlimited transcendence and the limited quality contained by contingent being. The assumption that lies behind this convention is that infinity means unlimited, implying that whatever is limited is finite. For what is finite is what is bound or limited, while the infinite is the negation of such bounds, making it unlimited and without end. This assumption... Read more
In the epistle to the Romans, St. Paul references Psalm 14, where the Psalmist declared: “The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any that act wisely, that seek after God. They have all gone astray, they are all alike corrupt; there is none that does good, no, not one” (Ps. 14:2-3 RSV). Thus, we read in Paul: What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all; for I... Read more
As we engage God, as we grow as a result of that engagement, our understanding and apprehension of the truth will grow. We will reflect upon what we learn, explore it and develop further our appreciation of the truth. Then, when we speak of it, we will do so in a new, improved form. It will approximative the absolute truth better while still being another form of relative truth. It will be greater than our previous exploration of the relative... Read more
The city of Sodom was a city of extreme selfishness and luxury. The people who lived there built a wall around the city to keep outsiders out so they can preserve the wealth they built up on the backs of others for themselves. While some aliens, like Lot and his family, could live side by side with the Sodomites, they were ill treated and disrespected, as the people of Sodom did not want to share their material goods with anyone.... Read more
“I don’t tell my children about Santa Clause. I don’t want to lie to them.” This is what many tell me when they explain why they do not tell their children about Santa Claus. It saddens me to see so many seek to remove the great modern myth from our heritage; while they might do so with the best of intentions, they remove a part of the joy which children around the world experience during the Christmas season. While some... Read more
“It is self-evident that there is no comparative relation of the infinite to the finite,” Nicholas of Cusa wrote.[1] “Therefore, it is most clear that where we find comparative degrees of greatness, we do not arrive at the unqualifiedly Maximum; for things which are comparatively greater and lesser are finite; but, necessarily, such a Maximum is infinite.”[2] For this reason, though we remain ignorant of the absolute as it is in itself, we nonetheless have an infinite possibility in regards... Read more
Many people, upon hearing the term “interfaith” or “inter-religious” dialogue, misunderstand what exactly is being discussed. They think it is some sort of dialogue with the goal of creating a new, syncretic religion formed as a composite created by the various religious traditions which have come together for dialogue. That is, they think inter-religious dialogue aims for the establishment of a new religious faith. Many Christians, therefore, consider inter-religious erroneous, because they think it seeks to create an alternative religion,... Read more
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