Summer Afternoon

New Blog Title

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Mon, 30 May 2011 16:08:00 +0000

"Ave" seemed fairly dull as a blog title. I've changed mine to "Summer Afternoon", after reading (in the WSJ's weekend edition) the quotation from Henry James.

The quotation captures what I love about Florida weather. When I was a boy growing up on Long Island, "summer afternoon" meant a hot baked feeling from the hot sun and clear blue skies, playing baseball all day long with my brother, or golf at the Black Course, and staying outside until long into the evening.

For me, living in Florida is like that kind of a summer afternoon, almost year round.

Favorite Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Wed, 18 May 2011 12:34:00 +0000

"This is one of the most important persons in the world. How can he do this?" the friend asked of Strauss-Kahn, an influential international power broker.

Ha ha ha ha! You gotta be kidding me!

Last Launch of Shuttle Endeavor

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Mon, 16 May 2011 13:17:00 +0000

A vapor trail visible from Ave Maria. This is the best picture I could take using the magnified setting on my iPhone.

"Keep the Old Missals -- It's Coming Back"

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:11:00 +0000

Saints often speak prophetically. I know a priest who knew St. Josemaria Escriva and remembered him saying this.

How eerily prophetic given today's instruction from the Vatican which, effectively, aims to make the extraordinary rite a part of a Catholic's ordinary life of worship and prayer!

When I was in Rome for the beatification of John Paul II, I had the pleasure of attending an early morning Mass at St. Peter's celebrated by a priest friend who serves in the office charged with implementing the Old Mass, Ecclesia Dei. I explained to Father how the Old Mass is celebrated on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings at Ave Maria, and each Sunday at 12:30, so that members of the university community as a matter of course become conversant with both forms.

Father agreed that Ave's practice represented something of an ideal for parishes, where the Ordinary and Extraordinary forms illuminate each other, each revealing better the distinctive reality of the other.

Influential, But Usually Wrong

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Fri, 06 May 2011 19:42:00 +0000

Although I think that almost always Leo Strauss is wrong in his interpretations, I would have made many sacrifices to attend one of his classes. Now, in a sense, all of us can (from the Jack Miller Center):

... all of the extant collection of audio recordings of Leo Strauss are now online at the Leo Strauss Center Website. You can listen to all of the available classes HERE. Fully edited editions of all course transcripts are also ongoing. The combined efforts of the Leo Strauss center will produce a body of original materials which is larger than Strauss’s published works.

Blessed are you, beloved Pope John Paul II, because you believed!

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Sun, 01 May 2011 15:53:00 +0000

The jubilant scene moments after John Paul II was pronounced Blessed by Pope Benedict XVI.

(BE SURE TO EXPAND THESE VIDEOS TO FILL THE WHOLE SCREEN, TO GET A TRUE EFFECT!)

The scene in the Via dell Conciliazione at the end of the Mass of Beatification.

As a pilgrim, I brought many intentions with me, to present to our new Beatus, and I was sure to ask for John Paul II's guidance over and assistance for Ave Maria University, which, as an institution earnestly striving to fulfill Ex Corde Ecclesiae, without doubt is very dear to his heart.

Upbeat Painting in the Vatican Museum

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:41:00 +0000

The contrast between this picture and the Raphael stanzas, which came just before, was fairly striking. Still, I rather liked this one, in a perverse sort of way. It's by Philip Evergood and is called "Strange Bird Contemplating the Doom of Man."

Santo Subito!

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 20:33:00 +0000

I remember seeing this Mass on TV as clear yesterday. On Thursday, I fly to Rome as a pilgrim to attend John Paul II' s beatification.

Wynton Marsalis on Creativity

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 11:07:00 +0000

You do that and you say, "People don't understand the music I'm playing." Well, the challenge of being a heavyweight in any field is to come up with something that has all of that substance, but that anybody can relate to in life. This ultimately is what the failure of serial music represents. If you can come up with all these formulas and scientific theories, and it can be well researched and worked out, and have a true theoretical basis that is valid and require hard work and diligence, but if it doesn't deal with something human, something that either elevates the human spirit or deals with it, if it's not something people can like, then ultimately it really has no value. All this "Oh, people will understand it one day," everybody thinking they are going to be Beethoven. That's not going to happen. Because first, in his early years, he wrote music that everybody could understand. And just to start off with the conception of a master, when you are a student, that's a seriously tragic mistake that has been made. And it's a mistake that I have made. "Hey, man, nobody really knows what we are doing." Well, why not? Is it because we are thinking about something that nobody is thinking about? No, that's not true, because we're not thinking about nothing. So let's start thinking about what's happening, just to get focused, and then develop a foundation from which we can develop.

The Difference Between Right and Wrong

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 17:20:00 +0000

Interesting comment from a 92 year old man who was imprisoned in a German POW camp in WWII and used to break into Auschwitz to witness what was going on there.

"The difference between right and wrong is fast receding. Awareness is being diluted, people are just saying 'such is life'. People are like this now."

Reuters posted the story a week ago about this man's recently published book, and this quotation is now all over the internet.

I used to read books about the Holocaust voraciously when I was a child, precisely because it seemed to me that the concentration camps posed so clearly the difference between right and wrong, and the utter importance of siding with right.

Rabbi David Dalin and I were talking about that the other night. When I explained this reaction of mine, he said that he thought the same way. We puzzled over how even some Jewish philosophers claimed that the Holocaust showed that God did not exist: Wouldn't it be Hitler's ultimate triumph to destroy not simply life but also belief? One cannot allow Hitler to have that victory.

"The Screwtape Letters", Explained to the Pope

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:49:00 +0000

I have been recommending Father Cantalamessa's Lenten reflections, in the retreat he is giving for the Pope and the papal household this Lent. The first and second sermons, excellent material for meditation, are available through Zenit (have you signed up to support it yet?).

But the second sermon has this comical and very "Italian" passage, where Father Cantalamessa is trying to explain the Screwtape Letters to his listeners:

The great convert and apologist of the faith Clive Staples Lewis (the author, said incidentally, of the narrative cycle of Narnia, taken recently to the screen) wrote a singular novel entitled "The Screwtape Letters." They are letters that an old devil writes to a young and inexperienced little devil who is determined to seduce on earth a young Londoner who has just returned to Christian practice. The purpose is to instruct him on the ways to follow to succeed in his attempt. It is a modern, very fine treatise of morality and asceticism, to be read the opposite way, that is doing exactly the contrary of what is suggested.  

At a certain point the author makes us witness a discussion carried out among the demons. They cannot be persuaded that the Enemy (thus they call God) can really love "the human vermin and desire their liberty." They are sure it cannot be. There must be a fraud, a trick. We are investigating, they say, from the day that "Our Father" (thus they call Lucifer), precisely for this reason, distanced himself from him; we have not discovered it yet, but one day we will. The love of God for his creatures is, for them, the mystery of mysteries. And I believe that, at least on this, the demons are right.  

"I Have a Degree in Philosophy"

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:45:00 +0000

All the quotations are actual. Unfortunately it is not a parody.

By the way, "schpeeizasist" is the way the voice generator reads "speciesist". (The term may baffle you, but some bioethical philosophers have said that to prefer human beings is to have an irrational prejudice in favor of one's own species -- to be guilty of species-ism rather than race-ism.)

Father Corapi's Latest Message, Lent 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 02:21:00 +0000

I was amazed at how insipid the message was, as if the preacher had very little sympathy for Lent (really, you have to print out some pages about it from the internet?), but he did seem to get more passionate as it turned into a commercial for a $289 DVD series.

Getting those DVDs is the very best recommendation he has for you for Lent. "It is the only series of its kind in the world ... in the world!" He wants you to make a "very special commitment to God" to do so.

His promise is that, if you do so, "you will know your Catholic faith so much better than when you began"! Imagine that!

I liked the old Fr. Corapi very much, but this new Fr. Corapi appears the shell of the earlier man and offers us nothing but a sales pitch for his product.

Particularly spooky for me was the preacher's appearance at 1:22, just as he says the word "internet." Take a look, what seems a harsh flickering in the eyes. It is without question strange, as well as the hard visage, the distractedness and absence of clarity, the emptiness of what he says and the dyed beard (Code of Canon Law: Can. 282 §1. Clerics are to foster simplicity of life and are to refrain from all things that have a semblance of vanity).

He runs his own media business, a for profit corporation, and controls and manages its funds, including presumably the $3 million he won in a legal cause a couple of years ago. A member of his order explained in a National Catholic Register interview earlier this week how he "told his superiors" the way it would be:

He made Santa Cruz Media a for-profit company, he told his superiors, in order to have the proper freedom to proclaim the Gospel without any fear of raising issues that might threaten the company’s tax-exempt status.
He said he would pay his taxes and proclaim the Gospel fearlessly. Father Flanagan allowed him to manage his own funds. No one knew it would become so big.

In a recent public statement, the vice president of operations of Santa Cruz Media, Inc. described the for-profit production company as a “secular corporation and not affiliated with the Catholic Church in any way. As such, we are not under the jurisdiction of any bishop or other official in the Catholic Church.” Would you explain?
You would have to ask Santa Cruz Media what they mean by that.

Those Were the Days, My Friend

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:40:00 +0000

Reading the chapter on the Lehman Brothers failure in the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission's "Final Report", I came across this perversely humorous passage:

In his testimony before the FCIC, Bernanke admitted that the considerations behind
the government’s decision to allow Lehman to fail were both legal and practical.
From a legal standpoint, Bernanke explained, “We are not allowed to lend without a
reasonable expectation of repayment. The loan has to be secured to the satisfaction of the Reserve Bank. Remember, this was before TARP. We had no ability to inject capital or to make guarantees.”

Ah, for those innocent days when the government did not lend taxpayers' money without a reasonable expectation of repayment!

(To be fair, Bernanke's "practical" reason was enough-- he was anticipating a run on Lehman, which an "injection of capital" would not have prevented.)

Pilgrimage to the Fosse Ardeatine

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:12:00 +0000

I was deeply moved by Pope Benedict's reflections on the murders at the Fosse Ardeatine, published by Zenit, and, when I arrived at the bottom of the article, I was filled with pride to discover that it had been translated by my colleague in philosophy at AMU, Joseph Trabbic.

A couple of days earlier I had finally decided stop being a free-rider and signed up for monthly contributions to Zenit!

From the Holy Father's reflections:

"I believe in God and in Italy / I believe in the resurrection / of the martyrs and heroes / I believe in the rebirth / of the fatherland and in / the freedom of the people." These words were scratched on the wall of a torture cell on the Via Tasso in Rome during the Nazi occupation. They are the testimony of an unknown person who was imprisoned in the cell and show that the human soul remains free even in the harshest of conditions.

"I believe in God and in Italy": this expression struck me also because this year is the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, but above all because it affirms the primacy of faith, from which confidence and hope for Italy and for its future. What happened here on March 24, 1944, is a deeply grave offense against God because it is deliberate violence of man against man. It is the most execrable effect of war, of every war, while God is life, peace, communion.

The Korcula Institute (Croatia), 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 01:35:00 +0000

Prof. William Stuntz, R.I.P.

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:11:00 +0000

As a result, I've become a better husband and father than I was. I love better than I did before. I am certain that's true in my family, and maybe even generally beyond my family. I think I am actually better at my job. One of the things I've learned over the years is that believers have a large advantage in many academic fields, but definitely in mine. We understand that the world is not what it should be, and that our own capacities to understand it are severely limited. These are things that many of our colleagues do not understand. They are simple realities. They are facts. And if you understand those realities, then you cannot help but see things that others are not seeing.

From an interview with William Stuntz, a Harvard Law professor who died of cancer last Monday, age 52.

Please read the interview if you have a couple of minutes; you won't regret it, and you'll find

more matter to pray about during Lent.

A Surprising Visitor from the Past

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 23:59:00 +0000

Two surprising visitors today: first, in my political philosophy class, Richard Hooker himself actually showed up to give a presentation on his own political thought in the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity:

Then, later in the day, I encountered President-Elect Towey in the faculty lounge, where a party was in the offing to celebrate his start today as the CEO of AMU:

Mount Olivet

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:26:00 +0000

The cross in the middle of the concentric circles of graves reads "Dominican Fathers." One may see the fresh earth where the body of Fr. Kurt Pritzl, O.P., is buried. The gravesite is atop the highest hill in the cemetery and overlooks the city.

I visited the grave when in D.C. last week to give a lecture on John Henry Newman.

"Without the light of faith ..."

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 09:27:00 +0000

"Without the light of faith, the entire universe finishes shut within a tomb devoid of any future, any hope."

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Lenten period, which leads us to the celebration of Holy Easter, is for the Church a most valuable and important liturgical time, in view of which I am pleased to offer a specific word in order that it may be lived with due diligence. As she awaits the definitive encounter with her Spouse in the eternal Easter, the Church community, assiduous in prayer and charitable works, intensifies her journey in purifying the spirit, so as to draw more abundantly from the Mystery of Redemption the new life in Christ the Lord (cf. Preface I of Lent).

1. This very life was already bestowed upon us on the day of our Baptism, when we "become sharers in Christ's death and Resurrection", and there began for us "the joyful and exulting adventure of his disciples" (Homily on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, 10 January, 2010). In his Letters, St. Paul repeatedly insists on the singular communion with the Son of God that this washing brings about. The fact that, in most cases, Baptism is received in infancy highlights how it is a gift of God: no one earns eternal life through their own efforts. The mercy of God, which cancels sin and, at the same time, allows us to experience in our lives "the mind of Christ Jesus" (Phil 2: 5), is given to men and women freely.The Apostle to the Gentiles, in the Letter to the Philippians, expresses the meaning of the transformation that takes place through participation in the death and resurrection of Christ, pointing to its goal: that "I may come to know him and the power of his resurrection, and partake of his sufferings by being molded to the pattern of his death, striving towards the goal of resurrection from the dead" (Phil 3: 10-11). Hence, Baptism is not a rite from the past, but the encounter with Christ, which informs the entire existence of the baptized, imparting divine life and calling for sincere conversion; initiated and supported by Grace, it permits the baptized to reach the adult stature of Christ.

A particular connection binds Baptism to Lent as the favorable time to experience this saving Grace. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council exhorted all of the Church's Pastors to make greater use "of the baptismal features proper to the Lenten liturgy" (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum concilium, n. 109). In fact, the Church has always associated the Easter Vigil with the celebration of Baptism: this Sacrament realizes the great mystery in which man dies to sin, is made a sharer in the new life of the Risen Christ and receives the same Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead (cf. Rm 8: 11). This free gift must always be rekindled in each one of us, and Lent offers us a path like that of the catechumenate, which, for the Christians of the early Church, just as for catechumens today, is an irreplaceable school of faith and Christian life. Truly, they live their Baptism as an act that shapes their entire existence.

2. In order to undertake more seriously our journey towards Easter and prepare ourselves to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord - the most joyous and solemn feast of the entire liturgical year - what could be more appropriate than allowing ourselves to be guided by the Word of God? For this reason, the Church, in the Gospel texts of the Sundays of Lent, leads us to a particularly intense encounter with the Lord, calling us to retrace the steps of Christian initiation: for catechumens, in preparation for receiving the Sacrament of rebirth; for the baptized, in light of the new and decisive steps to be taken in the sequela Christi and a fuller giving of oneself to him.

The First Sunday of the Lenten journey reveals our condition as human beings here on earth. The victorious battle against temptation, the starting point of Jesus' mission, is an invitation to become aware of our own fragility in order to accept the Grace that frees from sin and infuses new strength in Christ - the way, the truth and the life (cf. Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum, n. 25). It is a powerful
reminder that Christian faith implies, following the example of Jesus and in union with him, a battle "against the ruling forces who are masters of the darkness in this world" (Eph 6: 12), in which the devil is at work and never tires - even today - of tempting whoever wishes to draw close to the Lord: Christ emerges victorious to open also our hearts to hope and guide us in overcoming the seductions of evil.

The Gospel of the Transfiguration of the Lord puts before our eyes the glory of Christ, which anticipates the resurrection and announces the divinization of man. The Christian community becomes aware that Jesus leads it, like the Apostles Peter, James and John "up a high mountain by themselves" (Mt 17: 1), to receive once again in Christ, as sons and daughters in the Son, the gift of the Grace of God: "This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favor. Listen to him" (Mt17: 5). It is the invitation to take a distance from the noisiness of everyday life in order to immerse oneself in God's presence. He desires to hand down to us, each day, a Word that penetrates the depths of our spirit, where we discern good from evil (cf. Heb 4:12), reinforcing our will to follow the Lord.

The question that Jesus puts to the Samaritan woman: "Give me a drink" (Jn 4: 7), is presented to us in the liturgy of the third Sunday; it expresses the passion of God for every man and woman, and wishes to awaken in our hearts the desire for the gift of "a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life" (Jn 4: 14): this is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who transforms Christians into "true worshipers," capable of praying to the Father "in spirit and truth" (Jn 4: 23). Only this water can extinguish our thirst for goodness, truth and beauty! Only this water, given to us by the Son, can irrigate the deserts of our restless and unsatisfied soul, until it "finds rest in God", as per the famous words of St. Augustine.

The Sunday of the man born blind presents Christ as the light of the world. The Gospel confronts each one of us with the question: "Do you believe in the Son of man?" "Lord, I believe!" (Jn 9: 35. 38), the man born blind joyfully exclaims, giving voice to all believers. The miracle of this healing is a sign that Christ wants not only to give us sight, but also open our interior vision, so that our faith may become ever deeper and we may recognize him as our only Savior. He illuminates all that is dark in life and leads men and women to live as "children of the light".

On the fifth Sunday, when the resurrection of Lazarus is proclaimed, we are faced with the ultimate mystery of our existence: "I am the resurrection and the life... Do you believe this?" (Jn11: 25-26). For the Christian community, it is the moment to place with sincerity - together with Martha - all of our hopes in Jesus of Nazareth: "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world" (Jn 11: 27). Communion with Christ in this life prepares us to overcome the barrier of death, so that we may live eternally with him. Faith in the resurrection of the dead and hope in eternal life open our eyes to the ultimate meaning of our existence: God created men and women for resurrection and life, and this truth gives an authentic and definitive meaning to human history, to the personal and social lives of men and women, to culture, politics and the economy. Without the light of faith, the entire universe finishes shut within a tomb devoid of any future, any hope.

The Lenten journey finds its fulfillment in the Paschal Triduum, especially in the Great Vigil of the Holy Night: renewing our baptismal promises, we reaffirm that Christ is the Lord of our life, that life which God bestowed upon us when we were reborn of "water and Holy Spirit", and we profess again our firm commitment to respond to the action of the Grace in order to be his disciples.

3. By immersing ourselves into the death and resurrection of Christ through the Sacrament of Baptism, we are moved to free our hearts every day from the burden of material things, from a self-centered relationship with the "world" that impoverishes us and prevents us from being available and open to God and our neighbor. In Christ, God revealed himself as Love (cf. 1Jn 4: 7-10). The Cross of Christ, the "word of the Cross", manifests God's saving power (cf. 1Cor 1: 18), that is given to raise men and women anew and bring them salvation: it is love in its most extreme form (cf. Encyclical Deus caritas est, n. 12). Through the traditional practices of fasting, almsgiving and prayer, which are an expression of our commitment to conversion, Lent teaches us how to live the love of Christ in an ever more radical way. Fasting, which can have various motivations, takes on a profoundly religious significance for the Christian: by rendering our table poorer, we learn to overcome selfishness in order to live in the logic of gift and love; by bearing some form of deprivation - and not just what is in excess - we learn to look away from our "ego", to discover Someone close to us and to recognize God in the face of so many brothers and sisters. For Christians, fasting, far from being depressing, opens us ever more to God and to the needs of others, thus allowing love of God to become also love of our neighbor (cf. Mk 12: 31).

In our journey, we are often faced with the temptation of accumulating and love of money that undermine God's primacy in our lives. The greed of possession leads to violence, exploitation and death; for this, the Church, especially during the Lenten period, reminds us to practicealmsgiving - which is the capacity to share. The idolatry of goods, on the other hand, not only causes us to drift away from others, but divests man, making him unhappy, deceiving him, deluding him without fulfilling its promises, since it puts materialistic goods in the place of God, the only source of life. How can we understand God's paternal goodness, if our heart is full of egoism and our own projects, deceiving us that our future is guaranteed? The temptation is to think, just like the rich man in the parable: "My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come...". We are all aware of the Lord's judgment: "Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul..." (Lk 12: 19-20). The practice of almsgiving is a reminder of God's primacy and turns our attention towards others, so that we may rediscover how good our Father is, and receive his mercy.

During the entire Lenten period, the Church offers us God's Word with particular abundance. By meditating and internalizing the Word in order to live it every day, we learn a precious and irreplaceable form of prayer; by attentively listening to God, who continues to speak to our hearts, we nourish the itinerary of faith initiated on the day of our Baptism. Prayer also allows us to gain a new concept of time: without the perspective of eternity and transcendence, in fact, time simply directs our steps towards a horizon without a future. Instead, when we pray, we find time for God, to understand that his "words will not pass away" (cf. Mk 13: 31), to enter into that intimate communion with Him "that no one shall take from you" (Jn 16: 22), opening us to the hope that does not disappoint, eternal life.

In synthesis, the Lenten journey, in which we are invited to contemplate the Mystery of the Cross, is meant to reproduce within us "the pattern of his death" (Ph 3: 10), so as to effect a deepconversion in our lives; that we may be transformed by the action of the Holy Spirit, like St. Paul on the road to Damascus; that we may firmly orient our existence according to the will of God; that we may be freed of our egoism, overcoming the instinct to dominate others and opening us to the love of Christ. The Lenten period is a favorable time to recognize our weakness and to accept, through a sincere inventory of our life, the renewing Grace of the Sacrament of Penance, and walk resolutely towards Christ.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, through the personal encounter with our Redeemer and through fasting, almsgiving and prayer, the journey of conversion towards Easter leads us to rediscover our Baptism. This Lent, let us renew our acceptance of the Grace that God bestowed upon us at that moment, so that it may illuminate and guide all of our actions. What the Sacrament signifies and realizes, we are called to experience every day by following Christ in an ever more generous and authentic manner. In this our itinerary, let us entrust ourselves to the Virgin Mary, who generated the Word of God in faith and in the flesh, so that we may immerse ourselves - just as she did - in the death and resurrection of her Son Jesus, and possess eternal life.

BENEDICTUS PP XVI

Mardi Gras

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:24:00 +0000

A martini so cold that it was giving off "smoke", served with steaks on the side. Later, an extravagantly large Reeses Pieces Sundae.

Now, Lent.

Butler the Apologist

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:32:00 +0000

Here's a fascinating passage from Newman's Idea which gives an implicit argument for a return to studying Butler's Analogy. (This passage hasn't meant much to me past times I've read it, but now I'm reflecting that I haven't ever seen Butler get much credit for the Oxford Movement.)

I have said that all branches of knowledge are connected together, because the subject-matter of knowledge is intimately united in itself, as being the acts and the work of the Creator. Hence it is that the Sciences, into which our knowledge may be said to be cast, have multiplied bearings one on another, and an internal sympathy, and admit, or rather demand, comparison and adjustment. They complete, correct, balance each other. This consideration, if well-founded, must be taken into account, not only as regards the attainment of truth, which is {100} their common end, but as regards the influence which they exercise upon those whose education consists in the study of them. I have said already, that to give undue prominence to one is to be unjust to another; to neglect or supersede these is to divert those from their proper object. It is to unsettle the boundary lines between science and science, to disturb their action, to destroy the harmony which binds them together. Such a proceeding will have a corresponding effect when introduced into a place of education. There is no science but tells a different tale, when viewed as a portion of a whole, from what it is likely to suggest when taken by itself, without the safeguard, as I may call it, of others.
Let me make use of an illustration. In the combination of colours, very different effects are produced by a difference in their selection and juxtaposition; red, green, and white, change their shades, according to the contrast to which they are submitted. And, in like manner, the drift and meaning of a branch of knowledge varies with the company in which it is introduced to the student. If his reading is confined simply to one subject, however such division of labour may favour the advancement of a particular pursuit, a point into which I do not here enter, certainly it has a tendency to contract his mind. If it is incorporated with others, it depends on those others as to the kind of influence which it exerts upon him. Thus the Classics, which in England are the means of refining the taste, have in France subserved the spread of revolutionary and deistical doctrines. In Metaphysics, again, Butler's Analogy of Religion, which has had so much to do with the conversion to the Catholic faith of members of the University of Oxford, appeared to Pitt and others, who had received a different training, to operate only in the direction of infidelity. And so again, Watson, Bishop {101} of Llandaff, as I think he tells us in the narrative of his life, felt the science of Mathematics to indispose the mind to religious belief, while others see in its investigations the best parallel, and thereby defence, of the Christian Mysteries. In like manner, I suppose, Arcesilas would not have handled logic as Aristotle, nor Aristotle have criticized poets as Plato; yet reasoning and poetry are subject to scientific rules.

A Picture of Pietas

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 14:56:00 +0000

Professor Michael Waldstein, the Max Seckler Professor of Theology at Ave Maria University, introduces Professor Wolfgang Waldstein, Professor of Law at the University of Salzburg, during the conference on "The Foundation of Human Rights: Catholic Contributions", at Ave Maria University yesterday.

Kurt Pritzl, O.P., Requiescat in pace

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 01:41:00 +0000

Also on February 21st. Along with Alex Klucik a strong friend of Ave Maria University. His steady hand guided the CUA School of Philosophy through the years, building up both its scholarly excellence and Catholic inspiration. He was a true son of St. Dominic.

Why Does God Hide (from Us)?

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Pakaluk) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:05:00 +0000

So asked Fr. Tacelli (philosophy, Boston College) last Friday, in a lecture sponsored by the Philosophy Department. His answer was that we, rather, hide from God, because of our sin, whereas in fact any reality if contemplated correctly reveals the existence of God.