17 Thursday Sep 2009
Posted in Articles Published in Other Venues, Theology
This problem is important in establishing the relationship of nature to grace because it offers something of a “test case” by which we can illustrate certain fundamental truths of the Catholic Faith. These truths regard man’s natural powers and the elevation of those powers by grace that he may achieve his final end, the Beatific Vision.
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06 Thursday Aug 2009
The gifts of the Holy Ghost resemble the infused virtues in a number of ways. Both are operative habits which have God as their efficient cause and the perfection of man as their final cause. Both reside in the human faculties and have right behavior as their material object. Continue reading
02 Thursday Jul 2009
Posted in Articles Published in Other Venues, Theology
An explanation of authentic doctrinal development.
We hear a lot about doctrinal development. All too often, it is in the context of articulating some novelty that something is called a “development of doctrine.” Continue reading
25 Thursday Jun 2009
Posted in Articles Published in Other Venues, Theology
And immediately as he had made an end of speaking, the earth broke asunder under their feet:85 And they went down alive into hell . . . and they perished from among the people. — Num. 16:31,33
The book of Numbers records the details of a rebellion violently suppressed by God Himself. Continue reading
11 Thursday Jun 2009
“But now [Christ] hath obtained a better ministry, by how much also he is a mediator of a better testament which is established on better promises.” (Heb. 8:6)
The terms “supersessionism” and “replacement theology” are used by Jews and heterodox Christians alike to signify the traditional teaching that the Old Covenant is no longer in effect, but has been surpassed by a superior Covenant, the New Testament in Christ’s Precious Blood. Continue reading
28 Thursday May 2009
In his Epistle to the Hebrews, St. Paul calls Our Lord the “high Priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle” (9:11). Greater than the Israelite priests — those who “serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things” —Christ Our Lord has “obtained a better ministry, by how much also he is a mediator of a better testament which is established on better promises” (8:5-6). To St. Paul — and to all other Catholics — the Old Law was both finished and surpassed by the New Law of the Gospel. Continue reading
25 Saturday Apr 2009
Posted in Apologetics, Revelation, Theology
Picture this. A conversation is going on at the coffee machine at work. It’s about, of all things, religion. After several people offer their opinions about religion in general, one of the caffeinated interlocutors offers this for his hearers: “There is only one True Religion from the beginning of the world and it’s mine.” The man is a Catholic. We can well imagine that the conversation will either heat up intensely, or end very quickly while the coffee-breakers disband, looking incredulously at “that weirdo.”
However harshly our protagonist’s words may fall on modern ears, they express the truth. Continue reading