September 2010

Cardinal Newman has been raised to the altars! He was a brilliant patrologist. He served the Fathers as translator, historian, compiler, controversialist, poet, and even journalist. Reading in the Fathers of the Church, he came to desire the Church of the Fathers. May we all follow him in that, and more. Certain of his books

Very few of us can be numbered among the rich and the powerful who have the power to exploit the poor. So how are we to apply to our own lives the readings for the 25th and 26th S undays in Ordinary Time (Cycle C), which are so preoccupied with questions of social justice, wealth

If you’ve ever traveled in conservative evangelical or fundamentalist circles, you know the Scofield Reference Bible. It’s a hefty tome, and influential. And one could argue that this annotated edition of the Scriptures, first published in 1909, created modern fundamentalism. Its editor, C.I. Scofield, made his own theological opinions seem like the plain sense of

As I explained in the last post in this series, Gundry has made the case that Jesus’ use of petros / petra was intended to highlight the fact that Peter was not the foundation but that the church would be built upon Jesus’ own words. While this reading may at first seem possible, a number

“The fascination of mystery is so strong that almost all religious and social organizations that exercise or have exercised an inspiring and lasting influence on mankind have wrapped themselves up in the obscurity of mystery, and have even gloried in the mysteries which they were aware of, although they disdained Christianity because of its mysteries.