Learning the First Notes All Over Again. In Fellini’s film “Orchestra Rehearsal” the Conductor suddenly found himself in the midst of a revolt. The musicians had long murmured against the Conductor on account of his rigorous methods, demands and practice sessions. The exchanges between them and he were bitter. And time did not heal the… Read More Fellini’s Orchestra Rehearsal.
by Stephen Hand In Evelyn Waugh’s stunning classic, Brideshead Revisited, there is a scene which presses on my mind these days as I ponder so many forces gathering against a Church weakened greatly by the sins of her own children, both clerical and lay. All of us. It is the time when Sebastian, Lord Alex… Read More Lord Marchmain’s Long Hate
“And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun.”— Joseph Pearce Note: I do not consider Pope Benedict XVI to have been perfect. Which pope in history was? Even Pius XII allowed the infamous Teilhard de Chardin to remain a priest in the… Read More Benedict XVI by Joseph Pearce
“I appeal also to philosophers, and to all teachers of philosophy, asking them to have the courage to recover, in the flow of an enduringly valid philosophical tradition, the range of authentic wisdom and truth — metaphysical truth included — which is proper to philosophical inquiry — John Paul II, Fides et Ratio # 106… Read More John Paul II’s Battle Against Nihilism
Artificial Intelligence: Garbage In, Garbage Out? New Oxford Review. Christopher M. Reilly, Fredericksburg, Virginia, New Oxford Review, Letters. November 2024. I greatly appreciated Bob Weil’s article “Wrestling for Truth with ChatGPT” (Sept.). He describes the inherent flaws of generative artificial intelligence (AI) with a deft hand. He also suggests a crucial element of responsibly managing… Read More A.I. Garbage In, Garbage Out.
Note: Mary Daly died in January 2010. It is good to be tolerant, even of incoherent things, we are told today. The devil himself ought to be given a seat at the table. So the courts have ruled. But that can’t stop us from noticing that Mary Daly represents the meltdown of the dissident transgressive… Read More Mary Daly: The Witch of Boston College
“Dickens must have known it would have worked on the consciences of the Parliamentarians too, as it did!” At least for a time. “By advocating that population should be controlled voluntarily through birth control, abstinence, or delayed marriage – or involuntarily, and through the scourges “of war, famine, and disease,” [Thomas] Malthus was derided by his peers… Read More Scrooge and Thomas Malthus
Even when your brain feels like mush. by Alissa Wilkinson | Jul 21, 2022 | Vox.com I doubt you need to be told you should be reading more. There’s a good chance you struggle to make time for reading, and it feels like just another obligation, like hitting your daily step goal, or drinking more water. You’re not… Read More How to fall back in love with reading
James Day. On September 12, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI took to the dais of the University of Regensburg’s Aula Magna to offer a few “memories and reflections.” Contrary to the resulting rebukes, the 79-year-old pontiff knew exactly what he was doing. Catholic World Report Pope Benedict XVI took to the dais of the University of… Read More Benedict the Brave: The Regensburg Address. Islam, reason and faith.
“We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you.” Jeremiah 14: Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name’s sake;for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.8 O you hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble,why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler… Read More “Our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you”
“Each According to Its Kind”.by Dr. Werner Gitt. From the creation account, it is clear that all living beings were created in clearly separate groups—each according to its kind. For biologists, kinds of organisms are the fundamental building blocks, just as the chemical elements are for a study of chemistry. Rolf Siewing defines “kind” according… Read More “Each According to Its Kind’
The stoics were important pre-modern psychologists. “It was in Greece that the most sublime wisdom flourished, as it is said in the Epistle to the Corinthians: “The Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.” — St. Albert the Great “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever… Read More Gleaning The Wisdom of the Ancients. On Depression.
Truth does not change with the changes in political parties, current philosophies or trends. ” a thing cannot be and not be at the same time”— St. Thomas (Summa Contra Gentiles, Book 1, chap. 84) “…reason’s first principle is the principle of contradiction. He who denies this principle affirms a self-destructive sentence. To deny this principle… Read More Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange on Reason and The Law of Non-Contradiction.
Why “faith and culture”? Do they go together? Can they be separated? Can faith exist without culture? Can culture exist without faith? In the broadest sense of the word, faith and culture are inextricably connected because a culture is always an expression of the faith which informs it. If a culture is animated by a… Read More Faith and Culture by Joseph Pearce
Human Beings have certain rights, moral values, and responsibilities that are inherent in human nature. Natural law teaching is based on the idea that natural laws are universal concepts and are not based on any culture or customs. Still, it is a way society acts naturally and inherently as human beings. “Few ideas have been… Read More The Essential Natural Law. Dr. Samuel Gregg.
Vaclav Havel waves to crowds in Prague, shortly before becoming Czech president in December 1989. Kamila Valenta writes in America, “I was 17 years old when I heard the Lord’s Prayer spoken in public for the first time. It was in November 1989 during the Velvet Revolution, which brought freedom to Communist Czechoslovakia. The crowd… Read More The Lord’s Prayer, Freedom, and the Spiritual Vaclav Havel
By Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, 1951. The meaning of biblical, patristic Christology vs. speculative, merely academic versions. Our Savior and His Love For Us: Catholic Doctrine on the Interior Life of Christ as it relates to our own. “For to me, to live is Christ.”Phil. 1:21. We are “not the Center of the Universe” IN ORDER first… Read More The Interior Life and the Mystery of Christ
In the time of Noah they laughed at him, but in a time when Creation, the Natural Law and gender itself, is being globally attacked as “hate”… Be it Near or Still a Ways Off, the Second Coming of the Lord & the Last Judgment By Fr. Wm. Saunders Will the last judgment occur at… Read More “We must stay awake and keep watch”
John Gerassi, author of Jean-Paul Sartre: Hated Conscience of His Century, writes, “Sartre thought that my spontaneity in politics meant that, like a woman, first I reacted, then I acted, and only then did I try to justify. To most readers trained by bourgeois rationalizers to “think before you act,” what I’ve just said will… Read More Sartre: “Throw It In His Face!”
By Mallory Millet. Front Page Magazine. Feminist icon Kate Millett passed away recently in Paris at the age of 82. Her 1970 book Sexual Politics, called “the Bible of Women’s Liberation” by the New York Times, had a seismic effect on feminist thought and launched Millett as what the Times called “a defining architect of… Read More My Sister Kate: The Destructive Feminist Legacy of Kate Millett
I admire much that Jordan Peterson has done and said. Very much. But I cannot accept his thought entirely regarding the question of Meaning in our lives and times, which he and others have publicly discussed, and which many admire. To the contrary, it is Jesus Christ, “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8),… Read More Jordan Peterson on Meaning
Jerry D. Salyer,Crisis Magazine. American conservatism has certainly come a long way since the days of Richard Weaver, the Southern philosopher who identified “contempt for natural order” as the underlying ailment of the modern mind. Back in the 1960s, when he was known and celebrated as a conservative intellectual icon, Weaver saw “the foolish and… Read More Are Women in the Workplace a Good Thing?
John E. Fagan “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart the desire to know the truth — in a word, to know himself — so that by knowing and loving God, men and women can come… Read More John Paul II on Faith, Reason and Nihilism
A Personal Account Ross Gregory Douthat (born 1979) is an American political analyst, blogger, author and New York Times columnist. He was a senior editor of The Atlantic. He has written on a variety of topics, including the state of Christianity in America and “sustainable decadence” in contemporary society. Ross Douthat and Matt Lewis
John Waters, IrelandDec 5 The desecration implicit in the proposal to reconstruct the basilica of Notre-Dame in the image of Woke may announce the culmination of a shift in human consciousness that began centuries ago. I remember well the morning of April 16th 2019, waking up in a hospital bed, to a message from a… Read More Burning Down God’s House. The Age of Unreason.
Plato paints the picture of a Charioteer (Greek: ἡνίοχος) driving a chariot pulled by two winged horses: “First the charioteer of the human soul drives the pair. “The Charioteer represents intellect, reason, or the part of the soul that must guide the soul to truth; one horse represents the rational or moral impulse, the positive… Read More Avoiding the Crash. Plato’s Chariot & the Passions
With respect to ideas, thoughts, and sanity, “…reason’s first principle is the principle of contradiction. He who denies this principle affirms a self-destructive sentence. “To deny this principle is to annihilate language, is to destroy all substance, all distinction between things, all truths, thoughts, and even opinions, all desires and acts. We could no longer… Read More Reason’s First Principle
Catholic Critique 