Doctrine

The Unexpectedly Non-controversial Placuit Deo

On Thursday, the CDF released a letter to the Catholic bishops of the world entitled Placuit Deo. Continue Reading »

6 Mar 2018

Four Ideas About Development

by Michael Pakaluk

Development of doctrine is not itself a doctrine, but a theory, and there are several such theories. Continue Reading »

17 Nov 2017

Pope Francis on the Development of Doctrine

by P. J. Smith

Pope Francis recently declared that the death penalty is “per se contrary to the Gospel”—but this statement is flatly untraditional according to Church history. Continue Reading »

16 Oct 2017

Thomas Joseph White Teaches Catholicism

by Mary Eberstadt

Fr. Thomas Joseph White’s The Light of Christ is a most unusual combination of literary humility and splendid erudition. Continue Reading »

10 Oct 2017

Fr. Martin Does Not Actually Say

by Dan Hitchens

In reality, Fr. James Martin does not preach directly against the Church’s teachings—but neither will he affirm them as true. Continue Reading »

2 Oct 2017

Burying Benedict

by Matthew Schmitz

Though Benedict is still living, Francis is trying to bury him. Continue Reading »

22 May 2017

Any sort of “creeping infallibility” that would attach the same level of authority to every papal utterance or document must be avoided. To fail to draw appropriate distinctions—whether between binding and non-binding documents of the ordinary magisterium, or between the development and the evolution of doctrine—is to dim the light of the Petrine ministry and impoverish the faithful. Continue Reading »

27 Sep 2016

God's Strangeness

by Wesley Hill

Skimming through a stack of books recently, I found myself reading a testimonial of sorts from James D. G. Dunn, the great New Testament scholar who coined the phrase “the new perspective on Paul.” Having logged decades of ministry in various Methodist contexts, Dunn tries to explain what it . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Jan 2016

New Norms for Marriage Nullity

by Kurt Martens

I recently attended a conference in Rome, “La riforma operata dal m.p. ‘Mitis Iudex,’”sponsored by the Consociatio Internationalis Studio Iuris Canonici Promovendo—the international association of canon lawyers of which I am a board member—which dealt with the fiercely relevant topic of . . . . Continue Reading »

4 Dec 2015

Reckoning with Modernity

by Bruce D. Marshall

In the late summer of 1977, I made my way to New Haven, Connecticut, not yet twenty-two years old and afire to study theology at Yale Divinity School. At that innocent dawn of my theological life, I was surprised to discover that not everybody at YDS shared my passion for theology. People had other . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Dec 2015

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