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What Science Cannot Know

Last updated on: May 24, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Nicholas Rescher argues in Unknowability that there are certain things that logically cannot be known, such as “an idea that will never occur to any human being.” Prominent among unknowables are the unknowables of science. Given the way scientific research and discovery work, it is impossible for present science to anticipate future science, or even to understand it. The reason is that “every new discovery opens the way to others, every question that is answered gives rise to yet further questions to... Read more

What Science Cannot Know

Last updated on: May 24, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Nicholas Rescher argues in Unknowability that there are certain things that logically cannot be known, such as “an idea that will never occur to any human being.” Prominent among unknowables are the unknowables of science. Given the way scientific research and discovery work, it is impossible for present science to anticipate future science, or even to understand it. The reason is that “every new discovery opens the way to others, every question that is answered gives rise to yet further questions to... Read more

Not Monolithic

Last updated on: May 24, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Many Protestants still think of the Catholic church as a monolithic, uniform church. It’s been a long time since Catholics have thought of the church that way. Aloys Grillmeier sums up the results of Vatican II’s embrace of communio ecclesiology: “catholicity is understood as a union of opposites. The people of God represents one pole, in its unity and unicity, but also in being graced by the Spirit. The other pole is formed by the multiplicity of the peoples of... Read more

Tears of Heaven

Last updated on: May 24, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

When John learns that there is no worthy one to open the Father’s book, he weeps greatly (Revelation 5:4). It seems a melodramatic touch, more at home in the Shepherd of Hermas or Pilgrim’s Progress than the Bible. It is an essential moment in the scene, though. For starters, John weeps because history has come to a standstill. Among other things, the book represents unfulfilled prophesies, words spoken but sealed (Daniel 12). Unless the book is opened, what is prophesied... Read more

Articulate Anguish

Last updated on: May 23, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Psalm 38 says some shocking things about God. He is wrathful toward David (v. 1). He is not just distant; indeed, he is altogether too near, near as an enemy, ready to attack. Yahweh has drawn his bow and beaten David down with His hand of power (v. 2). Some of the arrows have hit home: David is wounded, his wounds fester; he’s covered with blemishes over every inch of his skin (v. 3). If this were not in Scripture,... Read more

Articulate Anguish

Last updated on: May 23, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Psalm 38 says some shocking things about God. He is wrathful toward David (v. 1). He is not just distant; indeed, he is altogether too near, near as an enemy, ready to attack. Yahweh has drawn his bow and beaten David down with His hand of power (v. 2). Some of the arrows have hit home: David is wounded, his wounds fester; he’s covered with blemishes over every inch of his skin (v. 3). If this were not in Scripture,... Read more

Receptive Ecumenism in Practice

Last updated on: May 23, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

As Avery Dulles recounts it in The Catholicity of the Church, the reforms of Vatican II came partly from what Paul Murray calls “receptive ecumenism,” an ecumenism of attentive listening to the other. Dulles wasn’t exactly a receptive ecumenist himself. While acknowledging that “the Church can certainly profit from external criticism, whether from friendly or from hostile sources,” he insists that “the Catholic comprehensiveness is so great that it includes the necessary principles for the self-reformation of the Church” (158). Still,... Read more

Fresh Logic

Last updated on: May 23, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In his preface to Receptive Ecumenism, Paul Murray explains that the “driving assumption is that if all were to be asking and acting upon this question, even relatively independently of each other, then all would be moving, albeit somewhat unpredictably, and in such a fashion as might open up currently unforeseeable possibilities” (x). He does not despise the careful conceptual clarification that has been central to bilateral ecumenical discussions, but argues that something more is needed at the present time: “As... Read more

Semper, ubique, ab omnibus?

Last updated on: May 23, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Thomas Guarino (Vincent of Lerins) outlines Newman’s arguments against the Vincentian canon (orthodoxy is what is taught always, everywhere, by everyone). In his Essay on Development, Newman provides historical examples “to demonstrate that the first rule is, at beast, a leaky and dubious criterion. As Newman boldly says . . . ‘I do not see in what sense it can be said that there is a consensus of primitive divines in its [the doctrine of the Trinity’s] favor” (54). There is... Read more

Semper, ubique, ab omnibus?

Last updated on: May 23, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Thomas Guarino (Vincent of Lerins) outlines Newman’s arguments against the Vincentian canon (orthodoxy is what is taught always, everywhere, by everyone). In his Essay on Development, Newman provides historical examples “to demonstrate that the first rule is, at beast, a leaky and dubious criterion. As Newman boldly says . . . ‘I do not see in what sense it can be said that there is a consensus of primitive divines in its [the doctrine of the Trinity’s] favor” (54). There is... Read more

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