Orwell, Lewis, and Us: What Contemporaries Share Without Seeing (Miller’s Book Review): “In a 1944 issue of Tribune, George Orwell took a jab at C.S. Lewis. His target was Beyond Personality, the collected radio talks that would later become the final section of Mere Christianity.”
What Does Academic Freedom Look Like at a Catholic University? (Public Discourse): “When a university advertises Catholic identity, it is making a promise to students and families: that faith and reason will be engaged seriously, that moral questions will be treated as real, that the human person’s complexity will not be assumed away.”
America’s new Catholics, by the numbers (The Pillar): “America’s convert surge is actually a rebound.”
King Charles Is Failing to Defend the Faith (Providence): “Last week King Charles III, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, neglected to put out a statement celebrating Easter. ”
Texts on tyranny from the tradition (Edward Feser – Blogspot): “Since the power granted to a king is so great, it easily degenerates into tyranny, unless he to whom this power is given be a very virtuous man … ”
The Real Religious Renewal Happening in Gen Z (The Atlantic): “Some pastors and politicians claim that a Christian revival is afoot among young Americans. Nationwide data tell a different story.”
When the Book about When Prophecy Fails Fails: The Lies Promoted by the Originator of Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Christian Scholar’s Review): “You may not have heard of When Prophecy Fails, but you likely have heard of the famous term and theory, cognitive dissonance. The book served as the foundation for the theory.”
Revival in the pews, crisis at the altar: Why churches are closing amid a Catholic comeback (Fox Business): “The ‘business’ of the Catholic priesthood in the United States is navigating a critical juncture.”
A Chronology of the Resurrection Appearances (Spiritualdirection.com): “I want to propose to you a possible, dare I claim even likely, sequence of the resurrection events. The work is my own and I make no claim that this scenario is certain or backed up by recognized ancient authority.”
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@America’s new Catholics by the numbers.
I read this on the Pillar site. We had over a hundred catachumens being baptized, received into full communion, or both, and I don’t remember numbers that high even 15 years ago, which is I would have started paying attention. It would be interesting to cross-reference the data with demographic data such as increases or decreases in population in the general area, to see what the patterns in various regions of the country.
It’s good news in that the general expectation seemed to be an ongoing decline, as people continued to lose interest in the Catholic faith. But the graph with the number of infant baptisms vs. the number of adults becoming Catholic is still sobering.
@ Texts on tyranny from the tradition Feser
True Aquinas spoke of the tendency toward malevolence of the king, whereas he believed monarchy was the best form of government. Aquinas speaks of the pitfalls that await the unlimited power of a king – thus a king must be a man of exceptional propriety, honesty, well intended in all things, adding with a nuance of sarcasm such a man is very difficult to find.
Greats Plato, Aristotle, Augustine mark the difference between the crook, pirate, scoundrel is measured by the degree of power one exercises their crookery because unlimited power to rob makes one a conqueror and king.
Whereas Machiavelli advised the Prince that to maintain power it is more prudent to be feared than be loved. Love is variable while fear of retribution endures. To maintain power and stability within the State the Prince must disregard morality in favor of what punitive actions strengthen management, stability. One’s appearance of virtue, a priority, is maintained if necessary by underhanded practices.
Readers can easily perceive, at least those who scrupulously study the unscrupulous, which political dogma fits the times.
Can a politician instead be a saint? Yes. If they’re prepared to encounter those similar Machiavellian tactics in this instance employed by his staff and charges.
As the article notes, British monarchs don’t typically make public addresses for Easter so I don’t know what the fuss was about.
I subscribe to the Royal Family’s YouTube channel and there was a lovely message there for Easter with many well wishers leaving King Charles thanks and comments.
The Royal Family has been deeply involved in the Muslim community-holding Iftar dinners, etc, while there is quite the scandal of Islamic “spicy” gangs targeting the native English children. Meira K over on youtube has some reporting on it.
King Charles is the head of the Anglican Church of England. Note quite the Pope is to the RCC, but close enough. You’d think he’d have an Easter message, especially if he is going to have some kind of welcoming message to the Islamic immigrants.
The UK is home to close to 4 million Muslims & the Commonwealth holds approx. 59% of the world’s Muslim population. King Charles has a good reason to reach out to them as monarch.
“59 percent?” Show that it’s more than 35 percent.
I beg your pardon Mr Peter. I should know better than to try to repeat something correctly from a pdf. What I read and misquoted was that the Commonwealth has 59% more Muslims than the Arab world.
Dr. Google AI tells me that the Commonwealth either holds 30%, “more than a third, and 40% to more than 50% of the global Muslim population. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Any way you look at it, that’s a boatload of Muslim people.
I have a demographer in the family and I should ask them. Hopefully they rely on better resources than Dr Google.
🙂
I seem to recall that Henry the Libidinous Glutton didn’t give a murine posterior about the number of Catholics in England when he unleashed his new religion, he not only didn’t reach out to them, he mass-murdered them. Did Elizabeth (not the lead addict) accommodate Catholics after hundreds of years of red and white martyrdom?
In the past few years Lady Marina Charlotte Alexandra Katharine Helen Windsor (good grief) and Princess Alexandra of Hanover were removed from succession, despite the remote prospects of their coronation for converting to Catholicism.
Regardless of the actual percentage of Muslims in England, they now represent an aggressively militant plurality enjoying exclusive privileges and exemptions. England is not only not protecting its own people from invasion, it’s actively employing it as a component of anarcho-tyranny against them.
It has been rumored for some time that Charles Windsor (a made up surname designed to conceal that Victoria’s husband was German) has covertly recited the Shahada.
The British Monarchy is a ridiculous and morally corrupt anachronism. It needs to be relegated to the ash heap of history, not defended on a Catholic website.
Well Mr Pitchfork, the British monarchy is a British institution. Its future is not for US citizens to decide. Thankfully.
“Its future is not for US citizens to decide.”
“Do you hear yourself when you talk?”
-Owen Grady.
@ When the Book about When Prophecy Fails Fails: The Lies Promoted by the Originator of Cognitive Dissonance Theory
My reflexion starts with prophetess Dorothy Martin who’s failed prophecy of world flood and salvation by flying saucers and Dorothy Martin Hungarian pop singer who was saved, eventually, when she realized she had healing powers then with her own miraculous recovery.
Leon Festinger, psychologist, parents, described by Festinger as thoroughly atheistic, Russian emigre’s – created the psychology of cognitive dissonance based on failed prophesies. He and his two psychologist collaborators make their biggest evidentiary source Christ’s death and resurrection – that disappointed Christians concocted the fable of resurrection from the dead.
What’s remarkable is that the book became a best seller. What’s not remarkable is that the argument is precisely that of the Gospel account in Matthew in which the Sanhedrin paid the Roman soldiers who witnessed the resurrection that Christians stole the body and falsely claimed a resurrection from the dead. What’s remarkable is that it attracted so many readers.
But then there are lots of buyers out there in the book market that are unwilling to accept the reasonable evidence of Christ’s resurrection – whose cognitive dissonance is evidenced by their flat denials of 2000 years of historical consistency of the message and its wisdom.
Our modern Dorothy Martin saved pop singer has a story to tell that seems viable. Moreso than our resident Muslim prophet who frequently makes dated, outlandish prophesies of doom for Christians if we don’t convert to Islam. We’re all still here yet he engages in a form of heroic cognitive dissonance.
I would venture on with Feser, Texts on tyranny, that successes in and growth coming through civil administration, in the subsidiary levels, in recent era, establish their own benchmark without reference to monarchy. Found in all areas of life through public administration and corporate management. It needs better understanding in order to be witnessed to and be made itself authentic witness; and actually this is envisaged in VATICAN II. The Council is interested in how human value can magnify there.
At least in many western nations, the central personalized power thing is not working out too well these days, if you notice. And we can list out all the different corrupting effects and goings-on with that in modernity. Alike in the OT to enduring unresolved contradictions and tensions of being ruled, Judges 9, Samuel, Solomon’s legacy, Herodians. It is not to suggest a dig at Trump as “king”. Trump more and more resembles Keanu Reeves’ character type in A Scanner Darkly.