Bookish Diversions: The Point of Poetry? Slow Down (Millers Book Review): “Since this April marks the thirtieth anniversary of National Poetry Month, I thought it’d be good to explore why—and what we’re missing.”
Playthings, Zombies, and Bodily Hope (What We Need Now): “The ancients believed that we were the playthings of the gods. Today, we have become the playthings of men.”
UST Researcher Explores Why Young Catholics Are Returning to Their Faith (University of St Thomas, Houston): “News outlets across the United States are reporting on the growing number of young people returning to the Catholic faith. Recent research suggests that the reasons may be closer to home than many expect.”
The Cold War Splitting American Catholics (Crisis Magazine): “The rupture between Pope Leo and the Trump Administration threatens to weaken both American diplomacy and the Church’s moral voice.”
From former Muslims who became Catholics, and their friends, to His Holiness Pope Francis, about his attitude towards Islam: “Most Holy Father, Many of us have tried to contact you, on many occasions and for several years, and we have never received the slightest acknowledgement of our letters or requests for meetings.”
The Myth of the Independent Girlboss (First Things): “Is the independent girlboss dead? Maybe she never existed to begin with.”
How Creatives Will Survive the AI Apocalypse (The Ghost – Substack): “To be creative means to use your natural curiosity and innovativeness and find tools that help you express what is inside you. There is always a need for this skill, but at different times, it looks quite different.”
A Great Awakening: Would America Exist Without It? (The Washington Stand): “…this was no ordinary ‘rebellion’. Why? The American people had experienced a great spiritual awakening that drew them back to a founding purpose that went far beyond achieving great wealth or serving the narrow interests of the monarchy.”
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From former Muslims who became Catholics: Wow, I mean WOW! Talk about telling it like it is. I have said it here before, but I’ll say it again, “How many in the Magisterium have actually read the Quran?” Carl – this letter is from 2017, I assume you linked it again because of ongoing conflict in the Mideast, or did you have a different reason? Whatever the reason, thanks.
@From former Muslims
The signers of the proposed open letter to Pope Leo write: “Allow us to ask Your Holiness to quickly convene a synod on the dangers of Islam. What remains of the Church where Islam has installed itself?”
Four points and a Problem and a Question:
FIRST, we are reminded of the equivalent(!) Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) where the Church clarified the distinction of Persons in the also infinitely relational nature of the Triune One (homoousios versus the Arian homoousios).
SECOND, today the needed distinction posed by smorgasbord Islam is the clarity of Natural Law as both distinct and a part of Divine Law. But, for Islam to propose such coherence between Faith and Reason is, in itself, is to assert a separate autonomy from the autonomy of Allah—and therefore “blasphemy.”
THIRD, about the only marginal relevance of theology in such interreligious dialogue: “…The Church Fathers found the seeds of the Word, not in the religions of the world, but rather in philosophy, that is, in the process of critical reason directed against the (pagan) religions, in the history of progressive reason, and not in the history of religion” (Benedict XVI, “On the Way to Jesus Christ,” 2005).
FOURTH, Benedict stresses that the narrow aperture into the coherence of faith and reason came providentially when St. Paul passed into Macedonia and the world of Greek thought. What to do when even the charter of the European Union deletes the Christian taproot of the event called Europe (more than a mere geography), and when jihad denies…everything except the umma?
PROBLEM: The meaning of inborn and universal Natural Law finds a mutilated counterpart in Islamic “fitrah.” So, other than a synod of theologians, in addition to the nature of God (Nicaea) how also to clarify the nature and transcendent dignity of the Human Person (which is central to Catholic Social Thought).
About philosophy, rather than either Christian Faith or omnivorous Islamic Belief, the Muslim notion of fitrah—our original and universal orientation as humans toward God, and “the ‘germ’ of Islam”—is partly congruent with what the Church and the West more completely articulate as the inborn and universal Natural Law. Except that Islam denies human free will and, therefore, the fact of original sin so integral to a complete Christian anthropology.
And, while the Qur’an prominently does incorporate the “Law of Moses” (the Commandments as the Natural Law) the text omits(!) explicit mention of the six prohibitive Commandments—a vacuum then easily filled by other verses unleashed to advocate the violence of jihad. Islam: the alternative universe(!) of a totally inscrutable and arbitrary Allah and, therefore, contradictions–and the principle of “abrogation” in place of the philosophical “self-evident first principle of non-contradiction.”
QUESTION: How to isolate a dialogue “fitrah” alongside of “Natural Law”— rather than bulkily comparing the theologies of two monotheistic “religions” as if they are comparable? Islam replaces philosophy with dictates, the relational and “incarnate” Christ with the “uncreated” Qur’an, and Mary (the Mother of God) with Muhammad (the 7th-century custodian of polyglot dictations).
About the Mosque-State versus both civil institutions and the Catholic Church, quo vadis?
Two days ago in Algeria Pope Leo proclaimed, “Communion between Christians and Muslims takes shape under the mantle of Our Lady of Africa.” Communion? Certain words have particular meanings.
Indeed. But presumably in terms far less than Eucharist, it might well be that Mary is the factor who will cut the Gordian Knot of congested and muddled interreligious dialogue. A better term might have been “communal friendliness.”
Under the influence of grace, individual “followers of Islam” must discover for themselves that the choice is between(a) the maternal Mary as the Mother of God, or (b) Muhammad who in effect substitutes himself in her role, as the patriarchal custodian of the Qur’an. The polyglot Qur’an is Islam’s 7th and 8th-century cosmopolitan replacement for the person of Jesus Christ.
The symmetrical comparison is not between the two scriptures, the Bible and the Qur’an, but between the miraculous Incarnation of the Second Person of the Triune Unity, and the “uncreated” Qur’an.
Interreligious “communion,” then, is at the distinct level of inborn and universal natural law, not at the level of divine revelation. The problem is that Islam interprets such a reasoned differentiation into “levels” as introducing an autonomy separate from the autonomy of God who alone is great—that is, as blasphemy.
Communion has more than one meaning though.
Interesting article in the Great Awakening movie. Initially I was not planning on seeing it, since I thought it was just a lot of hype about religion in the colonies. Now thinking it might be interesting to see.
@ Playthings, Zombies, and Bodily Hope
Fr Olek Stirrat describes himself as an Obscure Philosopher. He entertains himself and others with images, the Zombie well known and widely spoken of as a descript of modern Man, his personal identity obscured in the widening vortex of all the structures that define us. The zombie.
What will define us unless we define ourselves? How does one have a say in the process of definition? We can begin by becoming a commentator, a role many take believing they’ve achieved independence. Until by fortune they realize they remain products of the vortex. Resolution lies beyond the consuming vortex in the one whose life the living model diverted the course of living death defeating death.
@ How Creatives Will Survive the AI Apocalypse
Another identity crisis scenario similar to what I just commented on Playthings, Zombies, and Bodily Hope.
Here it’s losing our livelihood. AI the menace. Commenter Goins says we are who we are not what we do. Goins response to the frightened is reinvent yourself. Use your curiosity and inventiveness. The reader will likely guess my response would differ. The ancient Know thyself. Know who you are. Introspection was the starting point for several saints, perhaps Ignatius of Loyola the more imminent.
From there we open ourselves through our desires, what gives us lasting contentment. Ignatius found it when handed the Gospels.
There are many who search, few who are there for them to convey eternal truths. Insofar as the new evangelism all of us can, and do convey that pathway by our actions, what we cherish. It’s Christ who reveals our humanness, what we are capable of in an adventure of totalities, of complete and full exertion in our expression of living.
#5 From former Muslims – letter to Pope Francis – odd that we are getting this now.
Hendershott’s article at Crisis is worthy of note. I cannot help but shake that Leo’s Trump dust-up has further undercut and subverted what little moral authority Francis left his successor.
Could the Vatican not have gently provided Trump a safe space of guidance (approaching the president one-on-one) as Scripture often advises? Instead, the pope brought about the cold war with Trump’s administration, allowing the public relation disaster to simmer, burn, and now almost explode. It almost seems as if Leo thinks the Muslims mullahs warrant better speech and treatment than many American Catholics. Leo surely acts and speaks in many ways that lead many to question his beliefs.
Should Leo not have approached Trump with care, with discussion and explanation and reason for a rebuke? Of course Trump is a difficult personality, but Leo is the Pope, a Catholic presumably in the state of grace, supported and given words to say by the Savior Himself. Or does Leo not believe that?
Scripture:
Matthew 18:15-17 outlines the steps to address a brother’s sin privately, involving witnesses, and if necessary, bringing the matter to the church. It emphasizes the importance of personal communication and the role of witnesses in establishing the truth of the matter.
Galatians 6:1 instructs believers to restore a fallen brother with gentleness, focusing on healing and restoration rather than punishment.
1 Corinthians 5:3-5 describes the process of disciplining a brother who has fallen from grace, highlighting the importance of love and gentleness in the process.
1 Thessalonians 5:19-20 encourages believers to consider the gravity of restoring a wayward person and the potential for spiritual harm.
2 Timothy 2:24-26 emphasizes the importance of being gentle and patient in correcting those who are in opposition, if God will grant them repentance.
– from BibleGateway website.