I found the Mass readings today intriguing. We are all familiar with the verses that talk about how God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, etc. But today’s readings highlighted the idea that although God reaches out to the fool, he expects the fool to then become wise – it’s [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Amatuer Theologian’
June 15, 2009
To Obey or Not to Obey, Is There Even a Question?
I’ve had many discussions over which comes first (or is more important), obedience or love? Do we obey God because of our love for him or because we have to do it? Does this obedience then produce a love for God?
I had always ascribed to the first of these propositions – obedience stems from love, [...]
May 6, 2009
How We Can Know For Sure That James Was the (Half)Brother of Jesus, Or What I Overheard in a Coffee Shop This Morning
I have an exam tomorrow that’s going to kill me. I am trying to study, but I find myself checking email or blog stats (thank you Tim Troutman) instead. I decided that this morning I was treating myself to sleeping in late and drinking good coffee. I convinced myself that if I went to the [...]
April 23, 2009
The Magical, Infallible Pope
It seems that certain urban legends will never die. Today my art history professor informed an auditorium size class that papal infallibility means that the Pope can never be wrong. Really? In 2009 people are still repeating that garbage? Doesn’t anyone ever check their facts before they make statements like that? Even Wikipedia knows that [...]
April 20, 2009
Who Can Forgive Sins?
This began as a response to one of the comments on my post “Evangelism”. I decided to do it here because it was going to be long, and I don’t want it to get lost among comments.
Sunday mornings Gospel reading gave me chills. Here I was, trying to explain to my son how the Church, [...]
April 9, 2009
The “Easter Goddess”
This is Easter week and Taylor Marshall has a blog post about the common myth that the word Easter has pagan roots at his blog Canterbury Tales . So I thought I would trot out my overly verbose post (that takes about 40 pages to make the same point as Mr. Marshall does in 5 [...]
April 8, 2009
Dagon the “Fish God”
Yet another oldie from Take the Long Way Home. This subject was brought to mind today and so I bring it here. I promise to have some new content soon. I have a couple of drafts to clean up and post, but it’s a been a busy couple of weeks and with this one being [...]
March 18, 2009
Paul, the “Hellenist”
This is a post from Take the Long Way Home, I was inspired to repost it today by this post over here at The Wooley Swamp.
I was doing a little searching for something entirely different when I stumbled upon this article in the Jewish Encyclopedia (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=283&letter=S&search=temple%20virgins). It had nothing to do with what I was [...]
March 12, 2009
No Magic Water Here
This is another post from Take the Long Way Home, written back in 2007. It deals specifically with a couple of reactions. One is to critics of the sacraments from people like my brother, who have trouble believing in miracles period (but not God), the other is from people who argue that God is spirit [...]
March 8, 2009
I’ll Take Indulgences for $200
This is another repost from Take the Long Way Home. But I would also like to provide a link to Amy Welborn’s new blog Via Media. Like all things Amy Welborn does, this new blog is great. She posted some exerts from a Q & A with Pope Benedict 16. One of which is on… [...]
