Evangelicals gladly assent to Jean Daniélou’s claim that the mission of the church “continues the mighty works, the mirabilia Dei, recorded in the two Testaments” and agree that “God still accomplishes his mighty works, in the conversion and sanctification of souls.” Few Evangelicals, though, would make sense of his further claim that “The working of God’s power among us is through the sacraments.” … Continue Reading »
When my fellow conservatives and Republicans were beating up on President Obama for his “you didn’t build that” remark, representing him as having claimed that business owners didn’t build their own businesses, the government did it, I spoke out in defense of the President. I argued that his artless words should not be seized upon to exaggerate or distort his views on the respective contributions of government and business owners to the success of businesses… . Continue Reading »
An Internet search seems to confirm that the late Baptist minister Clinton Locy holds the world’s record for the longest sermon ever preached. In forty-eight hours and eighteen minutes Pastor Locy, back in February 1955, reportedly preached on every book in the Bible, tossing in as well some remarks on the nuclear age. I can find no record of the actual sermon text itself but the exertion did get him mentioned in Time magazine… . Continue Reading »
Matthew Vines has made a name for himself. He took two years off from college to study the question of homosexuality and the church. At the end, he came out bearing what he takes to be good news: Same-sex sexual activity is not contrary to the teaching of the church, or so he tells us. His arguments are nothing new… . Continue Reading »
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, the most important Catholic event since the 16th-century Council of Trent, was solemnly opened by Pope John XXIII 50 years ago, on Oct. 11, 1962. Commentators ever since have taken that date as the beginning of the Catholic Church’s engagement with modern society and culture… . . Continue Reading »
The stories from the Bible so often come to us as isolated examples of pious or ethical behavior, that it’s frankly a relief to read Yoram Hazony’s book, The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture. Hazony reads these stories intertextually across the books in order to argue for a number of provocative conclusions from the Hebrew Scriptures. It’s a great read, but I want to press his argument on two points… . Continue Reading »
During the Second Vatican Council, a little-known moment occurred when Msgr Alberto Gori, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, rose to raise a question. Why, he wanted to know, was so little being said about “the eternity of hell” and the possibility of “personal damnation”? Twenty-five years later, a prominent Cardinal voiced similar concern: “Belief in eternal life has hardly any role to play in preaching today.” … Continue Reading »
Eric Hobsbawm, who died this month at a grand old age of 95, was a lifelong apologist for some of the most monstrous crimes in history. Despite this, the British Establishment welcomed him to its bosom. He was professor and then president at my alma mater of Birkbeck College at the University of London. Prime Minister Tony Blair consulted him and advised the Queen to make him a Companion of Honour in 1998… . Continue Reading »
Not too long ago, the ethics of medicine were pretty straightforward. Inspired by the Hippocratic Oath, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other medical professionals generally followed the “do no harm” maxim, seeing themselves (ideally) as duty-bound to protect and preserve all human life… . Continue Reading »
Keith Donohue’s most recent novel is a chain of interlinking stories in the tradition of The Canterbury Tales, The Decameron, or, closer to our time, Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, with a dash of Flann O’Brien, Groucho Marx, and Tristram Shandy. It’s very funny, raucous, erotic, tender, tragic, and”gasp”entertaining… . Continue Reading »
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