I was reading an old review from the Tablet today and it made me smile. It was discussing Cardinal Ratzinger before he was elected as Pope and made some interesting assertions that are rarely discussed any more, but were accepted at the time: "It is certainly strange that the 'enforcer' of Catholic orthodoxy should be a self-confessed anti-Thomist. His dislike of the views of … [Read more...]
Aristotle and Aquinas part 1 of many
So I've tried praying for help etc, I've had other people try to give advice and prayer, but in the end God doesn't say anything to me. That's cool, I'm lucky to have revelation at all, but right now it appears my approach to God will always be through the sacraments, reason, and revelation rather than a personal interaction boasted about by most evangelicals I know. But … [Read more...]
Some Marian Prayers
I know it annoys the Protestant readers, I'm sorry, but Marian devotion is a large part of Catholic spirituality, so I'm going to post stuff on it. I've sort of been trying to understand the catholic doctrine of Mary as mediatrix lately, and Newman has been helpful as usual. Currently I'm in grave sin and so these might reflect that reality (Our Lady obtain for me a good … [Read more...]
Aristotelian Thomism
"Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse" - Romans 1:20I get why philosophers convert to Catholicism frequently. Aristotelian Thomism makes sense of the above verse. I find that all of life makes the most sense in that system. … [Read more...]
The Invisible, Uncreated world of Being, Makes More Sense than the Material World of Becoming
Plato, Kant, Thomas, Augustine, and Jesus all posited a (post) hellenic worldview whereby behind everything in the physical world, there existed ideas, the non-material, the noumenal, God. Something Other, something not like what we see. From our life experience and our own human being/existence, we know that Being must exist. Plato posited that there was a realm of the … [Read more...]