Sacramentum Vitae

Why feminism is sexist

2011-09-03T01:00:00.000-05:00

With less to lose, I am freer to speak my mind than most members of the American chattering class. So I'll just say it straight: Feminism is sexist. But why? It doesn't have to be, of course. And...

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People, I'm religious but not "spiritual"

2011-09-02T12:28:00.001-05:00

I just had to say that in this medium, as I once did on Facebook. The consternation I aroused there bodes well for the traffic I hope to get here. But my saying it here and now is not just lust for...

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If you have a Google account....

2011-08-31T14:54:00.001-05:00

...and if you like this blog, and you haven't already done so, please sign up as a "follower" with Google Friend Connect. You can find the link, and the list of current "followers," by scrolling down...

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God's doing OK in the polls!!!

2011-08-30T16:33:00.013-05:00

You read that right. According to William E. Carroll—a Catholic philosopher currently ensconced as a good old Fellow at Blackfriars, Oxford—a respectable organization conducted a...

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Evolutionary theology

2011-08-25T19:25:00.003-05:00

Yes, it feels like a so-bad-it's-good Chuck Norris movie. At the climax of yet another such flick, the words of the steely-eyed hero played by Chuck resounded in the villain’s head: “It’s...

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The argument from desire

2011-08-20T11:02:00.006-05:00

As I waded this morning through my overwhelming social-network streams—all of which now integrate into my single Google+ stream—I managed to notice somebody quoting C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity: "If...

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Get PAID to GIVE

2011-08-19T19:15:00.002-05:00

Anybody know anything about this? Get PAID to GIVE. It looks legit and was recommended to me by a trustworthy woman who runs a retreat center. But this is the Internet. Clever scams abound.

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Why "Apostolate" is Bigger Than Ever

2011-08-16T16:50:00.004-05:00

The following is a slightly edited version of a column I have written for this month's Dominican Laity newsletter eLumen. Only this year, my first as a Dominican, did I notice that August is a...

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Assumptions

2011-08-15T20:12:00.001-05:00

The most important assumption to note today is that of the Mother of God into heaven. Among Eastern Christians, that reality is known as the "Dormition" of the Theotokos (depicted left). As the...

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Taking Stock of our Inner Scrooge

2010-12-24T12:16:00.002-05:00

The unregenerate Scrooge got and gets a bum rap. Of course he was cruel, selfish, cynical, and unbelieving. But so are all of us, to the extent we fail to internalize the message of Christmas....

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"Efficacious grace": why not everybody?

2010-10-08T11:12:00.022-05:00

As I understand the concept, grace is "efficacious" when it ensures that there will be no "mortal" sin, i.e. when it ensures that the recipient will never lose the divine life within. St. Thomas...

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Back, with evil

2010-10-06T19:27:00.003-05:00

Apologies to my vast readership for the weeks of silence. At the beginning of September, I moved from NYC for a new full-time teaching job in Syracuse, which has turned out to be fairly demanding. At...

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Resisting the Gnostic impulse

2010-08-17T19:47:00.013-05:00

Gnosticism is a perennial impulse. I don't mean all the mythic confabulations that the bewildering variety of Gnostic sects spun during the first three centuries C.E. I mean a tendency they all...

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Where's the joy?

2010-08-10T19:42:00.000-05:00

Almost every American past puberty knows the old Wendy's hamburger slogan: "Where's the beef?" Used as a metaphor, it summarizes part of why I majored in philosophy and came to be still more...

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Yes! A devotions meme...

2010-08-05T21:25:00.001-05:00

The Anchoress has tagged me to follow her example and name my five favorite devotions. I am honored. They are: The Jesus Prayer Meditating on the Bible readings for the day The Memorare The Sacred...

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Organizing apologetics

2010-08-04T12:02:00.003-05:00

Perhaps I'm weird, but I must admit that, even when I was alienated from the Catholic Church in youth, I never had any principled difficulty with the faith/reason relation. I always took for granted...

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A Rosary Meditation for Job-Seekers

2010-08-03T19:32:00.002-05:00

A repost from The Anchoress. Prayer has power. When everything is falling apart, prayer holds. Any one of us can suddenly find ourselves out of work, and looking at the job opportunities with...

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The Manhattan Declaration and Christian Principles

2010-07-27T19:20:00.002-05:00

See my post at the First Things blog "First Thoughts." A lot more can and should be said, but as a response to Steve Hutchens of Touchstone, I believe the post is a good conversation...

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Outside the Magic Circle

2010-07-23T13:00:00.010-05:00

With his conservative confrères, British Catholic blogger Damien Thompson likes to call the British Catholic hierarchy "The Magic Circle." The phrase is meant pejoratively, of course. They see the...

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How "choice" devours itself

2010-07-17T18:14:00.007-05:00

Lydia McGrew has coined a chillingly apt metaphor for the culture of death: "choice devours itself." She has applied the metaphor to the specific issues of forced abortion, euthanasia, and...

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Toward a theology of vocation

2010-07-09T11:00:00.006-05:00

Catholics need a sounder understanding of vocation. The old-fashioned, hard-bitten Catholics I know are comfortable thinking only of clergy and religious as having vocations, which makes a certain...

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Ecclesial Consumerism

2010-07-08T11:37:00.009-05:00

Over at Called to Communion, one of my favorite blogs, Bryan Cross has posted a rather amusing meditation on and critique of "ecclesial consumerism." If you read it, you will probably enjoy yourself...

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Secular Ecclesiology

2010-07-06T15:17:00.005-05:00

In my online career, I have found that the issues sparking the longest debates are almost invariably ecclesiological, i.e., questions concerning the identity, nature, and authority of something...

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Orthodox Constructions of the West

2010-07-05T10:24:00.000-05:00

First, apologies to readers and friends. Late last week I traveled to Annapolis to attend my brother's wedding. He even asked me to do the blessing at the reception on a rented yacht. Such an...

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Dawn Eden on the Theology of the Body

2010-06-29T14:25:00.008-05:00

I've obtained the revised version of Dawn Eden's recent master's thesis at "the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies" in Washington, DC: ...

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