Tag Archives: Catholicism

What’s It Feel Like For Your Existence To Precede Your Essence? Monochromatic And Abstract Expressionist Paintings Suggest An Answer

God’s death (and essentialism’s) represented in art. Above is a monochromatic artwork by the French artist, Yves Klein (1928-1962), but what do monochromatic and abstract expressionist paintings mean? Matthew Israel’s recent essay on Klein suggests an answer: [W]hen [Yves] Klein started painting seriously … Continue reading

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Archbishop Romero, Liberal Icon Of The 1980s, Gets Canonized

This is a pretty big deal. Pope Francis has succeeded in getting Archbishop Romero of El Salvador canonized. Here’s a quote from an excellent summary, at The New York Times, of Romero’s life–and murder: Archbishop Romero was shot and killed … Continue reading

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Thomas Aquinas for Beginners

Listening closely to theist arguments–and Aquinas. As an agnostic, I’m not sure whether God exists or not, nor whether Thomas Aquinas’s metaphysics is wholly correct, but I’m also not the sort of person who is interested in practicing confirmation bias … Continue reading

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Arguing about Gay Marriage with Thomists: Love vs. Reproduction

The premises underlying Thomistic arguments against gay marriage are four: sex’s goal should be directed ultimately to reproduction; marriage is for the rearing of children and the union of man and woman; marriage is naturally a social institution for promoting … Continue reading

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Thomas Aquinas on Exterminating Heretics

In the Summa, Thomas Aquinas says that you can reason with someone who holds a different doctrine from yours so long as that person is open and searching. On the other hand, if the person persists in his view, and does … Continue reading

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Thomistic Essentialism and Sex in the Real World

Virtually every healthy human adult on the planet has a sex life of some sort, and the effect of Thomistic sexual ideology (use sex organs for procreation only), were it to be seriously followed everywhere, would be the generation of … Continue reading

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Sex, Thomistic Essentialism, and the Demographic Maintenance of the Catholic Church

With regard to sex, Thomism is a question-begging exercise that puts a veneer of essentialist metaphysics over the question, “Why is God upset if humans don’t make use of their sex organs in accord with their primary and essential function?” … Continue reading

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Thomas Aquinas Says We Are Children of Wrath. Is He Right?

In the fourth book of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Contra Gentiles, chapter 52, there is quite a dark vision of the world on display. At one point, for example, Aquinas, echoing the apostle Paul, speaks of all humanity as “children of wrath.” God, … Continue reading

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Gay Marriage and Thomism

At Catholic philosopher Edward Feser’s blog, a poster in the threads wrote the following: “If I start with a conclusion, then perhaps I can manufacture a theory (or modify an existing theory) to arrive at my desired conclusion, but that … Continue reading

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Two Arguments Against Thomism

I think of metaphysics as akin to poetry. If you can’t ground arguments in empiricism and experience, you can’t really say with certainty whether what you’re claiming is in fact true or merely clever. So my first argument against metaphysical … Continue reading

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Atheist Andrew? Is Andrew Sullivan on His Way to Becoming an Ex-Catholic?

The grotesque story coming to light of the sexual shaming of single mothers and their children in Tuam in mid-20th century Catholic Ireland–and the septic tank there that was used as the collective and unmarked grave for bastard children–800 of … Continue reading

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Aquinas and Dante On Homosexuality

Louis Crompton. Homosexuality and History (Harvard 2003), by Louis Crompton, is by far the best general history of homosexuality yet written, and in his chapter on the medieval world, he has a fascinating discussion of Thomas Aquinas’s and Dante’s treatment of … Continue reading

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A Good Thing a Catholic Congregation is Doing in South Africa

Congregants recently pulled together enough funds to send to university 31 promising students from some of the poorest townships in South Africa: __________ I personally know of a Catholic priest in Southern California who is doing something similar (raising tuition … Continue reading

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Critical Thinking: Roger Kimball Is Against It

Catholic conservative Roger Kimball is editor of The New Criterion, which is a great journal. I read it. I like it. But sometimes Kimball comes a little unhinged. He often seems, for example, to regret that the Enlightenment ever happened at … Continue reading

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Bill Maher on the New Pope

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Paul Ryan Betrays His Mother: Ayn Rand Is an Atheist and “I reject her philosophy”

And Paul Ryan claims that his lifelong love of Ayn Rand is an “urban legend.” Except it isn’t. A tape of his talk to the Atlas Society, from 2005, has surfaced, and here’s some of what he said: “I just … Continue reading

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Vatican to US Nuns: Shut Up!

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious represents 57,000 nuns in the US, but it has become too feminist for the reactionary hierarchy of the Church at Rome. Here’s the BBC: Vatican officials . . . castigated the group for making some … Continue reading

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A New Documentary Tracks the Life of a Vatican Approved Exorcist

The documentary is titled, The Exorcist in the 21st Century, and was done by a Norwegian filmmaker. Here’s the trailer.

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Can You Have Your Lent and Capitalism Too?

This past week, have you been indulging or denying yourself? The warring sides of human existence—the selfishly sensual and the altruistic—are brutally depicted in the below painting by Pieter Bruegal titled, “The Fight Between Carnival and Lent” (1559). At left … Continue reading

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Rick Santorum: Pro-Torture Catholic

There’s something grimly ironic in a contemporary politician claiming to be a serious Catholic while supporting the torture of prisoners. But this is what Rick Santorum does: he supports the return of Bush-era torture practices. And this, of course, is … Continue reading

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