Only if we back off some distance from the actual content of the Pauline letters can we posit a dichotomy between Paul’s theology and his ethics — or between kerygma [κήρυγμα] (the proclamation of the gospel) and didache [διδαχὴ] (the teaching of standards of conduct), or between indicative (what God has done in Christ) and [...]
Archive for January, 2012
Constructing community
Posted in citations, tagged didache, El Greco, ethics, kerygma, Moral Vision of the New Testament, Paul, Richard B. Hays, St Paul, theology on 29 January, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Ante studium
Posted in citations, poetry, tagged A Prayer Before Study, prayers, St Thomas Aquinas on 29 January, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Creator ineffabilis, qui de thesauris sapientiae tuae tres Angelorum hierarchias designasti et eas super caelum empyreum miro ordine collocasti atque universi partes elegantissime distribuisti: Tu, inquam, qui verus fons luminis et sapientiae diceris ac supereminens principium, infundere digneris super intellectus mei tenebras tuae radium claritatis, duplices, in quibus natus sum, a me removens tenebras, peccatum [...]
Nolo episcopari
Posted in citations, words, tagged Acts 1:23-26, Acts of the Apostles, Duccio di Buoninsegna, G.K. Chesterton, Nolo episcopari, Orthodoxy, Pentecost, politics, theology, theopolitical, Thomas Carlyle on 17 January, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Much vague and sentimental journalism has been poured out to the effect that Christianity is akin to democracy, and most of it is scarcely strong or clear enough to refute the fact that the two things have often quarreled. The real ground upon which Christianity and democracy are one is very much deeper. The one [...]
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, Port-au-Prince
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, Haiti, Port-au-Prince on 11 January, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
A combination photograph shows the badly damaged Cathedral after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince almost two years later on Dec. 29, 2011 (top), on Sept. 30, 2010 (middle), and on the bottom on March 18, 2010. (The Big Picture)
theopolitical
Posted in citations, words, tagged Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Effects of Good Government in the City, Michael J. Gorman, Philippians 1:27-2:16, politics, Reading Paul, Romands 5:21, Romans 6:22-23, theology, theopolitical on 11 January, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Paul was not just an itinerant preacher, but also a pastor. He was, nevertheless, a preacher — a proclaimer of the good news of God’s intervention in human history through Jesus Christ. This good news was not a private message of personal salvation, though it included the salvation of individuals. It was a political announcement, [...]
The Church and the Farm
Posted in citations, tagged Being Consumed, Church, Church Supported Agriculture, Community Supported Agriculture, ecclesiology, farming, Judson Memorial Church, New York Times, William Cavanaugh on 11 January, 2012 | 3 Comments »
One example of how Christians are meeting this call [to sustain forms of economy, community, and culture that recognize the universality of the individual person] is Church Supported Agriculture (CSA), which creates a direct link between family farmers and local congregations. Rather than limit their economic activism to demanding that the state intervene in the [...]
property
Posted in citations, tagged Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Being Consumed, common good, economics, Effects of Good Government in the Country, property, St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, theology, William Cavanaugh on 10 January, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The ownership of property is not about power, and the wide distribution of property is not about a greater equilibrium of power. Rather, property has an end, which is to serve the common good. The universal destination of all material goods is in God. As Aquinas says, we should regard property as a gift from [...]
Reading Paul
Posted in citations, tagged Christianity, El Greco, I Thessalonians 5:3, Jesus, Paul, Roman Empire, Romans 13:1-7, St Paul on 6 January, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
In Paul’s day, Jewish zealous nationalism that focused on Israel’s internal purity was not the only temptation to violence. That nationalistic zeal was also directed outwardly toward an oppressive, violent regime–the imperial power of Rome. Paul would become a critic (at least an implicit one) of that form of violence, too–violence in the name of [...]
truth
Posted in citations, words, tagged Guide to Thomas Aquinas, Josef Pieper, St Thomas Aquinas, truth on 4 January, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Thomas, then, did not regard Aristotle primarily as a historical author, any more than he so regarded Augustine or Dionysius Areopagita. He considered them as witnesses for the truth which revealed itself through them, both to himself and, he hoped, to his reader (not only of the Summa theologica but also of the commentaries on [...]
Catholic Theology
Posted in citations, tagged Catholic theology, Duke Divinity School, First Things, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Reinhard Hütter, religious studies, St Ambrose Addressing the Young St Augustine, St Ambrose of Milan, St Augustine of Hippo on 4 January, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Catholic theology cannot establish itself as a de facto counter-magisterium, remaining in splendid isolation from the Church. Nor should it seek to win a lasting standing in the secular academy that offers it a career path like that of any other academic profession. Nor, finally, will Catholic theology flourish if it is transmuted into “religious [...]
