Category: Reading Excerpts

Fifty years after the event of Vatican II, we find ourselves in that crucial moment of passage between the short run and the long run: the "clash of narratives" about Vatican II encounters here the perennial law of the reception of the Councils of the Church. Giuseppe Alberigo, recalling the worrisome memorandum sent between 1600… Continue reading The Reception of Vatican II

I'm reading a book entitled In the Beginning There Were Stories by William Bausch. The subtitle of the book is "Thoughts about the Oral Tradition of the Bible", and Bausch is making a case that to adequately understand the Scriptures they need to be seen as the written form of what were initially oral stories. One… Continue reading A Library of Stories

...the church as sacrament is inseparable from its baptismal and Eucharistic practices, for the unity of the church is sacramentally realized in its communion with its Lord (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). Therefore the principles of good worship are also the principles of life in the church more generally, since the nature of the church is manifested… Continue reading Liturgy, Leadership, and Governance in the Church

...the church is sacramental, mystical, Christological, and pneumatological before it is sociological or juridical. The unity of the church is not psychological, political, or a federation of the like-minded, but a sacramental and spiritual unity in Christ first established in baptism and then expressed, nourished, and brought to maturity in eucharistic communion. Susan K. Wood,… Continue reading The Nature of Church

Nothing of what a repentant sinner places before God's mercy can be excluded from the embrace of his forgiveness. For this reason, none of us has the right to make forgiveness conditional. Mercy is always a gratuitous act of our heavenly Father, an unconditional and unmerited act of love. Consequently, we cannot risk opposing the… Continue reading Unconditional Mercy

In recent weeks I've been reading Sorting Out Catholicism: A Brief History of the New Ecclesial Movements by Massimo Faggioli, the 2014 translation of his 2008 original Italian volume. It has been a fascinating read, and one particular part I read this afternoon is worthy of being shared in its entirety: In terms of worldviews, it… Continue reading The Worldview of New Ecclesial Movements

...Ford (2000) posits three responsibilities for theology. In the first instance, theology has responsibilities to churches and religious communities, to help them better understand themselves and their place in the world. This aligns closely with the definition of theology we considered with Anselm earlier. Second, theology has responsibilities to the other academic disciplines: it must… Continue reading The Responsibilities for Theology

There can be little argument that some within the Church look at theologians with a certain degree of suspicion, as if the belief is that theologians, and particular theologians who are seen as being "liberal", are tasked with destroying the Church's faith rather than seeking to foster a greater understanding of that same faith. Writing… Continue reading The Necessary Link Between Church and Theology

...citizens of the Western democracies, and Americans in particular, no longer understand the concept of democracy itself. This, perhaps more than anything, has corroded the relationship between experts and citizens. The relationship between experts and citizens is not "democratic." All people are not, and can never be, equally talented or intelligent. Democratic societies, however, are… Continue reading In Search of Democratic Equality

Public debate over almost everything devolves into trench warfare, in which the most important goal is to establish that the other person is wrong. Sensible differences of opinion deteriorate into a bad high school debate in which the objective is to win and facts are deployed like checkers on a board - none of this… Continue reading I’d Like An Argument Please

...The United States is now a country obsessed with the worship of its own ignorance. It's not just that people don't know a lot about science or politics or geography; they don't, but that's an old problem. And really, it's not even a problem, insofar as we live in a society that works because of… Continue reading The Problem of Ignorance

"The rise and rise of presidential-style politics has infected every aspect of the way politicians’ days are shaped. In Question Time, almost all the questions go to the prime minister, rather than his or her ministers. The driving force is getting the “grab” for the evening news. The days when an Opposition would ask questions… Continue reading A Presidential Style Politics?

"This world of foggy memories – and mediocre politics – has often helped take us back to the political equivalent of debating science versus religion. It has cleared the way for a vapid politics of three-word slogans and the “cheap corn” of appealing to our basest instincts and self-interest. It has cleared the way for… Continue reading Fallout of Foggy Memories

"Much is said about the dumbing-down of politics; the 24-hour news cycle; too much polling and poll-driven politics; the decline of community involvement in political organisations; the rise of the political professional; and the decline of “real-life” experience among our politicians. Without doubt, these all play a role. But elements that I think are regularly… Continue reading The Loss of Institutional Memory

"The idea of state paternalism is embedded in our relationship with government, and has been since the time our convict forefathers expected Governor Phillip to fix the small problem of starvation rather than do anything about it themselves. We have expected governments to intervene to create equality. The very way funding is divided up among… Continue reading State Paternalism