Carl Olson comments here on Professor Geza Vermes’ patronising review of the Pope’s book on Jesus. Vermes is a Jew who was saved from the concentration camps by a Catholic family as a boy. He converted and was ordained a priest. Eventually he left the priesthood and the Catholic faith. Since then he’s made a career writing books saying that Jesus was just another fanatical Jewish itinerant preacher, and all that ‘incarnate God’ stuff was later interpretation and interpolation by... Read more

I’m not sure where in the New Testament it indicates that Jesus is our best buddy. When I read the gospels he certainly went to parties, was sociable and was very popular, but he is always treated either with extreme respect or with disdain. Even with his apostles there is a distance. He loves people, but he doesn’t come across to me as full of bonhomie, high fives and hearty slaps on the back. Yet the predominant image of Jesus... Read more

…so it did happen on Thursday! Read more

You’ve uncovered another genuine show-stopper! At first reading it takes your breath away. Pius IX’s praise of Mary is high, but granting Mary high praise has been part of the fullness of Christian worship from the earliest ages of the church. While we’re slinging long quotations back and forth, allow me one: O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among... Read more

I’ve been publishing excerpts from the book I wrote with David Gustafson, and today was going to publish David’s reply to my reply, but he already did it himself in the combox. Instead, here is another of his observations. He has problems with Pius IX’s high praise of Mary… I understand your point, and will address it in a moment, but before I enter that conversation, I want to give one more example, to round out my complaint of distorted... Read more

When I was an Anglican vicar on the Isle of Wight in England I was in charge of two ancient churches: Brading and Yaverland. To please as many people as possible I kept the worship at Brading more ‘middle of the road’ and then at Yaverland we were ‘higher’. Therefore, I kept the extra weekday feast days at Yaverland, and it was to Yaverland we went to celebrate Ascension Thursday, with incense and hymns from the New English hymnal and... Read more

No kidding. I knew this Anglican vicar who went in for symbolic liturgical gestures. On Ascension Day he hired a hot air balloonist to be waiting outside the church. After the processional hymn the door were flung wide and everyone processed out and watched as the priest climbed into the hot air balloon and ascended on high. Since the ascension was all about defying gravity why can’t we do more stuff that is fun like this? It could become a... Read more

For Mary’s month I’m posting some excerpts from the book called Mary-A Catholic-Evangelical Debate that I wrote with fellow Bob Jones graduate David Gustafson. (who comments on this blog) In yesterday’s post David displayed a particularly extravagent dedication to the Blessed Virgin written by Stefan Cardinal Wyzinski. It seemed to David that such devotion to Mary must necessarily detract from the proper devotion to her Son. My reply: The problem with your analysis is the “either-or” mentality. You assume Marian... Read more

For Mary’s month, an excerpt from the book I co-wrote with David Gustafson–Mary-A Catholic Evangelical Debate. This is from the chapter on Marian Devotion. David has been taking us on a little tour of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC. He’s been describing the various chapels dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. As an Evangelical he finds them excessive, but he keeps his poweder dry until he comes to the Polish chapel, where he finds a dedication that... Read more

Can anybody explain why Ascension is celebrated on Sunday here? Is the Holy Day of Obligation shifted to a Sunday in order to make it easier for people to fulfill their obligation or so people will get a chance to celebrate Ascension? It seems daft to me, but what do I know, I’m only a convert… As a layman, I used to enjoy getting to church for weekday Holy Days of Obligation. Somehow it made the feast all the more... Read more