How I Write. 7QT XX Seriatim.

Last updated on: April 1, 2018 at 10:29 pm By Scott Eric Alt

When I was in graduate school (this was in the 1990s), I wrote everything longhand, keyed my rough drafts into an Apple IIGS using Appleworks Word Processing (I know; I’m 45), and revised, by hand, on the hard copy. Then I would repeat over a series of maybe 8–10 more drafts. Then, along about 2001, with the sudden ability to do a great amount of research directly from the Internet, I began to write entirely on the computer, in Microsoft Word. That was not a good idea: Inevitably, my computer crashed. [...] Read more

Is the Novel Protestant? A Reply to Joseph Bottum.

Last updated on: April 1, 2018 at 10:54 pm By Scott Eric Alt

Of all things in literature, the one most futile to generalize about is the novel. No one can even agree on when the novel began; the standard narrative is that the first was Robinson Crusoe, but that’s more a myth of convenience than otherwise. Much of the problem has to do with how you define it the novel. But how? To do so in the most obvious way—“long prose fiction narrative”—is immediately to bump up against novels that don’t fit. Pale Fire (1962) is not prose. The Executioner’s Song (1979) is not fiction. [...] Read more

The Woman of the Apocalypse According to Popes

Last updated on: April 1, 2018 at 11:20 pm By Scott Eric Alt

Steve "Purple" Haze, in a recent post at Failablogue is once more trying to pit those wicked "lay Catholic pop apologists" against their superiors in the USCCB. The subject this time is Revelation 12:1. Those dubious "pop apologists" say the woman clothed with the sun is Mary. But Mr. Haze finds the textual notes for at the USCCB Web site, which say that she is the Church. Sorry! says Mr. Haze to the apologists. I'll side with the bishops! I am glad to know that Mr. Haze now sides with the bishops. Perhaps he will side with the bishop of Rome. [...] Read more

Did Theodoret of Cyrus Teach Sola Scriptura? White vs. Matatics (1997): Part 2

Last updated on: April 4, 2018 at 9:03 pm By Scott Eric Alt

Not satisfied with his effort to co-opt St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Dr.* James White of Alpha & Omega Sophistries, who still has not exegeted Ephesians chapter 4, goes on to abuse Theodoret by quoting him out of context too. The quotation he provides us is this one: “The doctrine of the Church should be proven, not announced. Therefore show that the Scriptures teach these things.” One glaring problem: These words are spoken in the Dialogues by the heretic Eranistes, rather than by Orthodoxos, who speaks for Theodoret. [...] Read more

I’m Shocked, Shocked to Find That There is Orthodoxy Going On In This Papacy: Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome Vol. XI

Last updated on: April 4, 2018 at 9:32 pm By Scott Eric Alt

PFDS, on the left, has reached a critical mass where more and more are reporting themselves shocked, shocked to find that the pope is Catholic. There were trickles of this kind of thing before, but now it seems to be more frequent. Just this weekend there were two meltdowns in the liberal press: the first at MarketWatch, over the shocking discovery that the pope is not in favor of contraception; the second at the Daily Screech, over the shocking discovery that the pope is not in favor of gender theory. How could such things be? [...] Read more

Giordano Bruno and the Truth About the Inquisition, Part 1

Last updated on: April 7, 2018 at 12:47 pm By Scott Eric Alt

Earlier this month, Politicus USA, some named Hrafnkell Haraldsson had a wild fit of pique about three supposed outrages of Catholic history. These include the Crusades (during which, we are told, people were up to their ankles in blood), the Inquisition (during which, we are told, the Church burned Giordano Bruno at the stake), and slavery (which the Church permitted, we are told, against Muslims and heretics). As usual, claims like these contain much myth, as well as a lot of half-truth, while they also lack any meaningful context. [...] Read more

Obama’s Remarks on the Crusades and ISIS: Some Addenda

Last updated on: April 7, 2018 at 12:55 pm By Scott Eric Alt

Some, on blogs and in social media, have been urging that the outrage over President Obama's remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, comparing ISIS to the Crusades, has somehow been made up by the right wing. It’s nothing but “noise." Obama, they say, did not compare the Crusades and ISIS, and violence has been done in the name of Christ. Why, John Paul II even apologized for evil acts done during the Crusades! Which he did. And yet all this misses the mark. For one, the pope never apologized for the Crusades themselves. [...] Read more

No, Mr. Obama, The Crusades and ISIS Are Not The Same Thing

Last updated on: April 7, 2018 at 1:09 pm By Scott Eric Alt

At the National Prayer Breakfast this morning, President Obama said: "Lest we get on our high horse and think [ISIS] is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ." And yes, people have “committed terrible deeds” in the name of Christ. But to say that that is no different than cutting the heads off of babies? To say that that is no different than torching prisoners alive in a caged inferno? No. That is wrong, ignorant, false, and vile. [...] Read more

On Harper Lee’s New Book: Should “To Kill a Mockingbird” Have a Sequel?

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 1:04 am By Scott Eric Alt

Go Set a Watchman may not exactly make Harper Lee look like a “fool.” That may be the self-doubt of a reclusive author talking, or the jadedness of a public that has learned to take a low view of sequels. I suspect that Lee was unwilling to publish anything after Mockingbird for two reasons: (1) she was, as she once said, more like Boo Radley than Scout Finch, and public attention did not suit her; (2) she knew that nothing else she ever wrote, however good, would be Mockingbird. She was publicity-shy and wrote a book that is impossible to match. But one does ask: Why a sequel? Would that not all the more invite unfair comparison? And isn’t Mockingbird so good that it stands on its own? [...] Read more

Notre Dame Professor Dr. Candida Moss Says Jesus “Wasn’t Down With Marriage”

Last updated on: April 7, 2018 at 12:01 am By Scott Eric Alt

Dr. Candida Moss—who is still permitted to teach at Notre Dame, to no one’s great surprise, least of all mine—is all wrought up over the LDS “half-hearted shuffle toward LGBT equality.” (I think she left out Q and A.) Dr. Moss prefers the mad dash over the cliff: When she says “LGBT equality,” what she means is “marriage equality,” in spite of the fact that no one, not even Dr. Moss, believes in any such thing. Would she advocate marrying your dog? a three-year-old child? the exhumed body of King Tut? So let us get this myth of “marriage equality” out of our heads from the start. To define marriage is to limit it, and the real goal is not marriage “equality” but marriage plasticity. [...] Read more