“This is the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic.” – Lumen Gentium. How can it be known that the Catholic Church is the one founded by Christ? What aspects of the Church make it unique? In AD 325, the Roman Emperor Constantine convened the First Council of Nicaea. Among its many accomplishments, the Council of Nicaea developed a creed that would eventually take its name. The Nicene Creed states four... Read more
The extraordinary claim of Catholicism is that God became a man to save human beings from the devastating consequences of sin. It is no wonder, then, that the subject of salvation is of great interest and importance for theologians and lay Catholics alike. The study of salvation is called soteriology. I hope that the following work will provide an introduction to this significant subject. I will define and examine soteriology and discuss how Christ made salvation possible. Lastly, I will... Read more
Death. “The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.” – Hamlet by William Shakespeare. No one wishes to ponder it or discuss it, but death is something we all must do. The occasion of our death cannot be avoided, but can that occasion be made good? And, if so, what constitutes a good death? The following discourse will explore whether God intended human beings to experience death and how the Bible treats the subject. What, if any effect, does... Read more
Perhaps the most dramatic and poignant verses in the Bible occur when God appears to a human being. These appearances, known as theophanies, are of great interest to theology and play a significant role in understanding Catholicism. What follows is an introduction to this most fascinating subject. Upon defining the subject, I will explore theophany in relation to Christophany and revelation. I will examine several passages from the New and the Old Testaments that can be categorized as theophanies. Finally,... Read more
“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” – Psalm 30:5 As it seems is always the case, it is not difficult to find evil and suffering in the world. From Cain murdering his brother (Genesis 4:8) to the horrors of war in Eastern Europe, the history of humankind is a history of bloodshed. Despite such a dismal history, human beings never stop seeking happiness. Everyone aims to be happy regardless of age, race, nationality, or... Read more
Whether it be for good or bad, the one constant in life is that everything changes. The reality of change is of great importance in Catholic theology. Spiritual change, called metanoia, is what I will discuss in this work. I will define the subject and discuss what Scripture teaches about metanoia. I will also review what Catholic theology and the saints can teach us about spiritual change. Finally, I will discuss the process of metanoia and suggest some practices to... Read more
“The world is thy ship, not thy home.” – Saint Therese of Lisieux. They are in the world, but not of the world. So says Jesus of His apostles. What are we to make of this mysterious claim? Is Jesus speaking only of the twelve apostles, or is it true of all Christians? In the following exposition, I will discuss this rather mysterious aspect of discipleship. I will begin by looking at Jesus’ prayer for His apostles within the context... Read more
Perhaps the most universal of all human experiences is pain. No matter what stage of life one may find himself in, pain and suffering are ubiquitous. The question is what if any meaning does pain have? If God is good and loving, why does He allow suffering? In the following discourse, I will explore these questions. First, we will see how the Bible addresses pain and look at two examples from the sufferings of Job and Saint Paul. Lastly, I... Read more
“God takes everyone he loves through a desert. It is his cure for our wandering hearts, restlessly searching for a new Eden.” – Paul E. Miller. For most, the desert rarely conjures up images of God or Heaven. Yet the desert plays a significant role in the Bible and has provided a wealth of spiritual treasure within the Catholic tradition. The following article will discuss how the Bible portrays the desert. I will review some of the significant passages that... Read more
This article concludes my series on Aquinas’s Five Ways for the existence of God. Thus far, I have sought to explain Aquinas’s arguments from motion or change (the First Way), his argument from causation (the Second Way), the argument from contingency (the Third Way), and the argument from degree (the Fourth Way). The Fifth Way is an argument from the design or intelligibility of the universe. As I have done with Aquinas’s previous proofs, I will introduce the Fifth Way... Read more
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