I don’t think it is autonomous rationalism to begin one’s apologetics with theological proofs. The whole point of beginning with reason is not to start from a neutral ground where all facts are brute facts and everyone agrees that religion is not an issue. The point of beginning with reason is to demonstrate the necessity [...]
Archive for June, 2008
Medieval Architecture and the Summae: Theology’s Aesthetic Counterpart
Posted in Freedom, History, tagged architecture, cathedral, gothic, summa on June 19, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The Middle Ages fashioned summae in stone and stained glass as well as in theology. In the twelfth century a new architecture (what would later be called pejoratively “Gothic” in contrast to the earlier “Roman” style) produced a building out of freedom and synthesis. Sharp arches pointed toward heaven and, since the arches could sustain [...]
Random Thought on Rationalism and God’s Decree
Posted in Doctrine of God, Philosophy on June 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Assuming we all hold to some form of divine simplicity: It seems that many Reformed folks, especially those who believe that the “5 points” are the quintessential articulation of “Calvinism”, have forgotten the historic apophatic theology, including the functions of the intellect in acquiring knowledge and consequently the doctrine of analogy. This can be seen [...]
Theological “Experts”
Posted in Thomas Aquinas, tagged apprenticeship, perseverance, sorrow, studies on June 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Thomas O’Meara notes:
The theologian and historian Yves Congar once told young Dominicans that it would take them fifteen years to grasp Aquinas. (Thomas Aquinas: Theologian, xvi)
Hmmm.
St. Thomas in Protestant Thought
Posted in History, John Calvin, Thomas Aquinas, tagged ecumenism, Reformation, scholasticism on June 18, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The Protestant Reformation was, among other things, a reaction to the late Medieval church and a return to the Church Fathers. The sixteenth-century Reformers were highly critical of the doctrine of faith espoused by their Catholic contemporaries, the Schoolmen (the Catholic theologians at the various universities). By and large, later generations of Protestants seem simply [...]
Vermigli on the Visio Dei
Posted in Doctrine of God, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Philosophy, tagged epistemology, heaven, resurrection, visio dei on June 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In eternal life the essence of God will be known by the blessed, not of course by the senses but by the soul or mind; as John says: “When he appears we shall see him as he is.” Paul affirms the same thing: “Now we see him through a glass darkly, but then face to [...]
God’s Will Does Not Exclude Secondary Causes
Posted in Doctrine of God, Freedom, Thomas Aquinas, tagged cause, divine attributes, freewill, God's will on June 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The will of God, as it is the first and universal cause, does not exclude intermediate causes that have power to produce certain effects. Since however all intermediate causes are inferior in power to the first cause, there are many things in the divine power, knowledge and will that are not included in the order [...]
The Errors of Men
Posted in Augustine, Doctrine of God, Hamartiology, tagged confessions, epistemology, God's will, predestination on June 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
You have ordered it, and so it is, that every disordered mind should be its own punishment. (St. Augustine, Confessions, I.12)
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