A Most Uneventful Apocalypse

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:28 pm By Sam Rocha

THE APOCALYPSE, IN FIFTEEN POINTS: 1. Tim Tebow has been released from the New England Patriots football team while their star tight-end, Aaron Hernadez, writes $18,000 letters from his prison cell. Not exactly Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela, but encouraging news nonetheless that the literary genre survives. 2. Michael Voris is not impressed, again. “This is outrageous,” says Voris, “NFL players are severely overpaid; how am I the only one who sees this?” He went on, saying, “Hernandez’ last football contract... Read more

Christ, the Prisoner: Webb on Von Balthasar and Prison Ministry

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:28 pm By Sam Rocha

Stephen Webb has written a short and powerful reflection on Christ’s descent into hell at First Things today. The post reads in the style of a testimonial homiletic. Short, imaginative, rooted in scripture, and personal. Moving, too. Webb begins by disputing Von Balthasar’s thesis in Mysterium Paschale through his own alternative reading of Christ descending into hell as a prisoner. A preaching prisoner. He writes, Jesus, after all, was condemned as a criminal and died between two criminals. It is even... Read more

An Aesthetic Critique of Youth Ministry: Miley Cyrus vs. Bonnie Raitt

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:28 pm By Sam Rocha

MARC BARNES’ CRITIQUE OF YOUTH MINISTRY has, predictably, gone viral. Today there is a measured and intelligent response posted at Fr. Robert Barron’s site, The Word on Fire, written by Fr. Damian J. Ference. This back and forth reveals many studious and sophisticated things: church documents and properly understood Catholic teaching and tradition. The important stuff. The only thing I will add to that discussion is this: there is no reason to assume that, if parents are the primary educators of their children,... Read more

From the Bottum Up: The Pathos of Joseph Bottum

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:28 pm By Sam Rocha

Yesterday, at Commonweal, the former editor of First Things, Joeseph Bottum, published an essay, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, that claims to make “A Catholic’s Case for Same-Sex Marriage.” The essay is not the sort of thing one is used to reading on the internet these days. It twitches and rewinds and plods along, filling time to avoid the break-up talk. It requires patience and, oddly enough, an ability to set a hot button issue aside for a moment... Read more

Two Faces of Credibility

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:28 pm By Sam Rocha

There are two competing lines of thought, etched in my mind, oscillating back and forth, affecting the way I feel about myself and my work. When they are separated and speak univocally, they ring true, but too harsh. When they are taken together, as a whole, they verge on being boring and forgettably balanced or, even worse, contradictory. I am allergic to credentialism, clericalism, and all easy appeals to authority. This is a reality I experience internally and externally. The... Read more

Compulsory Schooling and Preventative War — Or, Why Children Have to Go to School

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:28 pm By Sam Rocha

In the secular liturgical cycle of the American year, two seasonal certainties stand out: going to school and filing taxes. In the late summer and early fall, we send our children to school under penalty of law. (Even students at charter, private, or home schools are still under the same structural authority, leveraged by truancy laws, as those who attend public schools.) In the late winter and early spring, we file taxes under similar legal compulsion. We all know that... Read more

All This Stuff About Millennials

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:28 pm By Sam Rocha

I Googled ‘millennials’ and found out, through Wikipedia, that the term is a synonym for “Generation Y,” the generation that contains people born between the early 1980s to the early 2000s. The reason I decided to finally look it up was because I was pretty sure that I’m a millennial. Born, 1982. But I wanted to be sure. Double-check. The reason I was checking was because of all kinds of noise and panting I’ve been hearing, here at Patheos (see this, this, this,... Read more

Why We Do Not Have Free Will

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:28 pm By Sam Rocha

Patheos is hosting a symposium on the question “Do we have free will?” — one the classic questions of philosophy, psychology, and the humanities in general, a question rich in religious significance and theological implications, a ridiculous question. I’ll take a shot at it. My reply is very simple, albeit perhaps deceiving in its point of emphasis. We do not have free will. The positive way to put it would be to correct the original question and posit the following... Read more

Shopping Amongst the Episcopate

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:29 pm By Sam Rocha

On Saturday I met the new Bishop of the Diocese of Fargo, Bishop John Thomas Folda, while shopping at Costco with my wife. She spotted him first and talked to him in the cooler section. My attitude toward Bishops — and authority figures in general — oscillates from cautious to skeptical, but I’d heard he was a nice guy from a buddy of mine who knew him. I decided to meet him too, and see if I could get a picture... Read more

The Art of Blogging No. 3: An Interview with Will Duquette

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:29 pm By Sam Rocha

Will Duquette is a lifelong Southern Californian and a veteran user of web logs and — as odd as it may seem to say this — the internet. Writing online since 1996, he brings a refreshingly ordinary disposition to a wide palate of literary, religious, and intellectual interests at the following blogs: The View from the Foothills, book reviews on Happy Catholic Bookshelf at Patheos, and monthly posts at CatholicMom. Mr. Duquette’s interview flowed smoothly and easily, perhaps too easy,... Read more