Traditional Thomistic Catholic

Category: Religion

  • The Role of Tradition in Catholicism Explained

    It is my humble opinion that The Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) is where some information not written in the Bible comes from by tradition and is passed on in the Catholic Church where Jesus Christ explains all the Old Testament references of Him to them, as well as the meaning of other references which are vague and confusing. But why did they not write it down, a letter possibly entitled: the Lords talk on the way to Emmaus? Because the two disciples were probably illiterate and they, over the course of their lives, passed on the information by word of mouth – Tradition.

    The Ethiopian with Philip (Acts 8:26-40) is why you need an apostolic church, one that springs from Christ and his apostolic supernatural “descendants” (as priests of the Old Testament were descendants of Aaron) to give the correct explanations of the New and Old Testaments and there can really only be one visible apostolic church otherwise you don’t know who to ask. These things make us part of one coherent body. Since the Ethiopian was a eunuch, it shows that Christ eliminated the capability to reproduce (Deuteronomy 23:2) as a qualification for being a member of the mature religion of Catholicism, and enjoying the benefits of being a citizen of heaven, the Beatific Vision.

    The born again quote by Christ means we are born again into the kingdom of God, not as white, black, Asian, Caucasian, Russian, Chinese, Korean, German, Italian, Greek, Japanese, Filipino, Mexican, Columbian, Canadian or American etc. (Galatians 3:28-29) but as Roman Catholics. The tower of Bable (Genesis 11:1-9), the separation of mankind is repaired in the universality (the Greek Katholico meaning universal) of the Roman Catholic Church (event in the Churches name the 2 great ancient civilizations are joined – Greek and Roman) and in the fact that for about 1600 years the common language of the Catholic Church was Latin, and should remain so, so that all priests can have a common language to be able to communicate in emergencies across cultures. This would give them the ability, as in WWII, to help endangered communities, like the Jews, get to safety.  God is the king of all the earth and binds Himself to help all humans, even the ones that have not yet joined his Church. The longer a person lives, that is not in His church, the more time that person has to recognize his church and by joining be saved, and reap the benefits of eternal life in heaven with God, enjoying the Beatific Vision for eternity.

    Originally, for Gods chosen people, because most of society was patriarchal, the mark of conversion to the “Jewish religion” was mostly marked by a permanent physical change, specifically circumcision, for that part of the male body that produced more people for the Jewish religion. For women marriage to a Jewish man made you part of the Jewish religion if you raised your children as Jewish and accepted Jewish law.  With the advent of Jesus and the fulfilment of the Jewish religion in Catholicism, the physical sign was water being pored on the future Catholic while saying “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,” both male and female (outwardly indicating both sexes equal as citizens of heaven), and the permanent change being made in the spiritual realm, on the soul of the individual, with the onus being on the individual to realize their need for God and praying and making the reasoned leap of will to follow Gods laws/commandments as clarified by the Messiah, Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament the permanent, visible mark of circumcision.  In fact, Deuteronomy 23:2 states damage to a male’s genitals disqualified a person from entering the assembly of the Lord (found in a Microsoft copilot search on “Bible where does it indicate damage to your genitals disqulified”).  I think the other reason for this restriction is that God wanted to multiply the Jewish race to the point that it would be a significant enough population (all of chapter 23 of the book of Deuteronomy show ways of keeping genetically healthy, and physically healthy as well as not forming alliances with cultures that offer child sacrifice, the practice of which would decrease the Jewish population – which, to be clear, God strongly disapproved of anyway, but culture is a strong influence)  for the world to take notice and catalog its existence, culture and literature (the Old Testament of the Bible) so their would be adequate preparation for His Son, Jesus Christ, and a larger enough and significant enough platform (literary, philosophically and culturally to reflect the character and the desires of God with regard to mankind) to launch the religion of Catholicism to have the ability to save all of mankind.

    God used signs that were predominately physical, like circumcision, I think to show visible commitment by fairly primitive people from the time of Abraham.  Abraham had inner commitment to God, shown by his willingness to sacrifice his son Issac.  The point of that particular exercise was God revealing the commitment, through Abrahams actions, required to God. Being God, He could see Abraham’s heart and commitment but needed it visible to those, in future generations, reading the bible to see the requirement of commitment needed from us.  Being the example of the Ultimate Being, God, though he stopped Abraham, allowed His own son, Jesus Christ, to sacrifice himself to make reparations for original sin.

    Jesus changed the initiation into the fulfilled Jewish religion of Catholicism to one whose main imprint was spiritual, but whose physical sign was temporary because mankind’s reasoning and philosophical sensitivity had evolved to the point that he or she could understand the leap from permanent physical mark to one of permanent spiritual mark/change from one with original sin to one sinless in the sight of God.

    Upon the start of the Catholic Church, the fulfilled Jewish religion, The ability to reproduce became immaterial and so the injunction not to have damaged genitals was no longer an issue.  The whole reason around being able to reproduce arose from the fact that God needed a special people to train as an example in the way He wished to be worshiped and to carry the prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ, the world’s Messiah, not just the Jews very own exclusive Messiah.  Also to show what was required to be part of God’s people, to follow His commandments closely and not improvise and take literally what God says, not assume and improvise as Moses did in Numbers 20:8-11. God means exactly what He says

       In John 6:26 – 73 (copied from https://www.drbo.org/chapter/50006.htm )From, immediately after the multiplication of the loaves Jesus Christ said this, started in the middle of the verses cited at the beginning of this sentence: Jesus answered them, and said: Amen, amen I say to you, you seek me, not because you have seen miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves, and were filled.  27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto life everlasting, which the Son of man will give you. For him hath God, the Father, sealed.  28 They said therefore unto him: What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?  29 Jesus answered, and said to them: This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he hath sent.  30 They said therefore to him: What sign therefore dost thou shew, that we may see, and may believe thee? What dost thou work?

     31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.  32 Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you; Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.  33 For the bread of God is that which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world.  34 They said therefore unto him: Lord, give us always this bread.  35 And Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger: and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.

     36 But I said unto you, that you also have seen me, and you believe not.  37 All that the Father giveth to me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will not cast out.  38 Because I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.  39 Now this is the will of the Father who sent me: that of all that he hath given me, I should lose nothing; but should raise it up again in the last day.  40 And this is the will of my Father that sent me: that every one who seeth the Son, and believeth in him, may have life everlasting, and I will raise him up in the last day.

     41 The Jews therefore murmured at him, because he had said: I am the living bread which came down from heaven.  42 And they said: Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then saith he, I came down from heaven?  43 Jesus therefore answered, and said to them: Murmur not among yourselves.  44 No man can come to me, except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him; and I will raise him up in the last day.  45 It is written in the prophets: And they shall all be taught of God. Every one that hath heard of the Father, and hath learned, cometh to me.

    [44] “Draw him”: Not by compulsion, nor by laying the free will under any necessity, but by the strong and sweet motions of his heavenly grace.

     46 Not that any man hath seen the Father; but he who is of God, he hath seen the Father.  47 Amen, amen I say unto you: He that believeth in me, hath everlasting life.  48 I am the bread of life.  49 Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead.  50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die.

     51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven.  52 If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world.  53 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat?  54 Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.  55 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.

    [54] “Eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood”: To receive the body and blood of Christ, is a divine precept, insinuated in this text; which the faithful fulfil, though they receive but in one kind; because in one kind they receive both body and blood, which cannot be separated from each other. Hence, life eternal is here promised to the worthy receiving, though but in one kind. Ver. 52. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh for the life of the world. Ver. 58. He that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. Ver. 59. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever.

     56 For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed.  57 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him.  58 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me.  59 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever.  60 These things he said, teaching in the synagogue, in Capharnaum.

     61 Many therefore of his disciples, hearing it, said: This saying is hard, and who can hear it?  62 But Jesus, knowing in himself, that his disciples murmured at this, said to them: Doth this scandalize you?  63 If then you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?  64 It is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life.  65 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning, who they were that did not believe, and who he was, that would betray him.

    [63] “If then you shall see”: Christ by mentioning his ascension, by this instance of his power and divinity, would confirm the truth of what he had before asserted; and at the same time correct their gross apprehension of eating his flesh, and drinking his blood, in a vulgar and carnal manner, by letting them know he should take his whole body living with him to heaven; and consequently not suffer it to be as they supposed, divided, mangled, and consumed upon earth.

    [64] “The flesh profiteth nothing”: Dead flesh separated from the spirit, in the gross manner they supposed they were to eat his flesh, would profit nothing. Neither doth man’s flesh, that is to say, man’s natural and carnal apprehension, (which refuses to be subject to the spirit, and words of Christ,) profit any thing. But it would be the height of blasphemy, to say the living flesh of Christ (which we receive in the blessed sacrament, with his spirit, that is, with his soul and divinity) profiteth nothing. For if Christ’s flesh had profited us nothing, he would never have taken flesh for us, nor died in the flesh for us.

    [64] “Are spirit and life”: By proposing to you a heavenly sacrament, in which you shall receive, in a wonderful manner, spirit, grace, and life, in its very fountain.

     66 And he said: Therefore did I say to you, that no man can come to me, unless it be given him by my Father.  67 After this many of his disciples went back; and walked no more with him.  68 Then Jesus said to the twelve: Will you also go away?  69 And Simon Peter answered him: Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.  70 And we have believed and have known, that thou art the Christ, the Son of God.

     71 Jesus answered them: Have not I chosen you twelve; and one of you is a devil?  72 Now he meant Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon: for this same was about to betray him, whereas he was one of the twelve.

    Here Jesus Christ did not say that He – Almighty God, would feed us the symbol of his flesh, He (Truth itself) said He would feed us his flesh. Just as an animal we eat becomes part of us. By eating the body and Blood of Jesus Christ, He, the uncreated Son of God becomes part of us and as part of the uncreated God (not any of the stuff God created from nothing) our sacrifices, as Christ, can have merit.  This I think is what many Protestants miss that the Catholic religion, through priests sent through an apostolic succession that started with Jesus Christ and his first 12 apostle all of whom, except one, stuck with him after this incident.  This is how and why the Mystical Body of Christ is built, through the Eucharist, Holy Communion, the Bread of Life. If Protestants truly believe man is saved by faith alone they must believe that almighty God can actually make himself bread through the consecrating power of priest/bishop.

    The death on the cross is the consummation of Christs wedding with His bride, part of the mystical body of Christ since He and His bride are one flesh (Genesis 2:24) because His death gives us the privilege of being born again (John 3:1-21), through baptism, into the Kingdom of Heaven as adopted sons and daughters of God.  Just as the marital act, an act produce by the will of at least one of two parties, can, but won’t necessarily produce children, between a man and a woman, Jesus Christs death won’t necessarily produce a citizen of heaven in any particular human being, but just as the marital act, it might, bearing on the acts as parents (if the child is baptized as an infant, like all human infants would have to be trained by parents to be a good citizen of heaven just as a child in the United States is trained to be a good United States citizens, trained in its laws and culture. It is sometimes argued that a parent should give a child a chance to choose on his or her own, but should that child die before reaching adulthood, the salvation of his or her soul would be in question, and by the opinion of most theologians, lost to heaven itself, but destined to reside in an environment natural happiness of limbo – deprived of the Beatific Vision, and it is the parent’s responsibility, having brought that child into existence to try and ensure their existence is the infinitely happy one of heaven) or the individual if baptized as an adult. Just as with Adam and Eve and as with the whole of salvation history, every one is the result of the cooperation of at least 2 people but their ultimate destiny is in their own hands in the case of a reasoning person. As natural life is a gift of our parents to us, supernatural life CAN be a gift to a child that is baptized but dies before reaching the age of reason.  As many great saints show us, men have been given the ability to help save souls, and it is a travesty to possibly let your own son or daughter lose heaven simply because they were not baptized!

  • Great Courses Looks at the Modern Day Religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism Separately

    The first course we will cover is the one on Judaism.

    A summary from the website is as follows:

    “However Judaism is defined, the beliefs, practices, attitudes, and institutions of Jews through the ages display a striking diversity, despite the fact that all would ascribe to a common heritage. Join Professor Gafni for these 12 lectures that explore the ever-changing 4,000-year-old saga of Judaism, one of the world’s most ancient and influential religions. Throughout the lectures, you’ll study Judaism from within – as it was understood by its adherents in the past and by those who practice or identify with Judaism today. You’ll cover the critical stages of Jewish history; the centrality of such books as the Torah, Talmud, Midrash, and Mishna; and the manner in which the Jewish calendar and Jewish law, or Halakha, define daily life. You’ll learn how Judaism reinvented itself by embracing the rabbinical tradition after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. and consider the thinking of such philosophers as Philo of Alexandria and Moses Maimonides. You’ll consider how Judaism deals with converts and other members of the outside world. And you’ll investigate how Judaism manages its dual missions: to be true to itself as a people chosen by God and to be a spiritual example to the world. Rich with historical and spiritual insights, this is your chance to dig deep into the heart of what makes Judaism one of the world’s most important monotheistic faiths.”

    The lecturer is Dr. Isaiah M. Gafni. The following is a background on him from the Great Courses website.  He “is the Sol Rosenbloom Professor of Jewish History at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he earned his Ph.D. and has taught for more than 40 years. He was formerly the Director of the Mandel Center of Jewish Studies at the university and also previously served as Director of Graduate Studies at the university’s Rothberg International School. He has been a visiting professor at numerous American universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Brown. Professor Gafni has written extensively on a broad range of topics relating to the social, religious, and cultural history of the Jews in late antiquity, including more than 100 entries in the Encyclopaedia.”

        Disc 1

    Lecture 1: What is Judaism?

    Lecture 2: The Stages of History

    Lecture 3: The Jewish Library

    Lecture 4: The Emergence of Rabbinic Judaism

    Lecture 5: Jewish Worship – Prayer and the Synagogue

    Lecture 6: The Calendar – A Communal Life-Cycle    

       Disc 2

    Lecture 7: Individual Life-Cycles

    Lecture 8: God and Man: God and Community

    Lecture 9: Philosophers and Mystics

    Lecture 10:  The Legal Frame works of Judaism – Halakha

    Lecture 11:  Common Judaism – or a Plurality of Judaisms?

    Lecture 12: Judaism and “Others”

    In addition to this is might be enlightening to read or listen (available as an audio book) to a book on the Holy Scripture of both Judaism (the Old Testament part of the Bible) and Christianity (Both the Old and New Testament parts of the Bible, that is the whole Bible) A place to start is “The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible.”

    A quote of the overview of the course “Great World Religions: Christianity” from the website reads as follows:

    Discover profound insights into what Professor Johnson calls “one of religion’s great success stories” with these 12 lectures that provide a clear survey of the most important elements of Christianity and a framework for further study. In these lectures, you’ll consider a range of fundamental issues, including Christianity’s birth and expansion across the Mediterranean world, the development of its doctrine, its transformation after Christianity became the imperial religion of Rome, its many and deep connections to Western culture, and tensions within Christianity today. Professor Johnson’s synthetic approach provides first an overview of the Christian story, how it understands history, the relation of scripture to that history, and the Christian creed (what Christians believe about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the church). He explains Christian practice as expressed, in turn, by the structure of the community and its sacraments, by the struggles of Christians to find a coherent and consistent moral teaching, and by various manifestations of Christianity’s more radical edge in martyrs, monks, mendicants, missionaries, and mystics. By the conclusion of his last lecture, you’ll have a firm grasp of Christianity’s distinctive character, the major turning points in its history, its shared beliefs and practices, its sharp internal divisions, its struggles to adapt to changing circumstances, and its continuing appeal to many of the world’s peoples.

    The lecturer we saw in earlier blogs and the following short reminder quote also from the great courses website is as follows:

    Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia. Professor Johnson earned a Ph.D. in New Testament Studies from Yale University, as well as an M.A. in Religious Studies from Indiana University, an M.Div. in Theology from Saint Meinrad School of Theology, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. A former Benedictine monk, Professor Johnson has taught at Yale Divinity School and Indiana University, where he received the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.

        Disc 1

    Lecture 1:  Christianity among World Religions

    Lecture 2:  Birth and Expansion

    Lecture 3:  Second Century and Self-Definition

    Lecture 4:  The Christian Story

    Lecture 5:  What Christians Believe

    Lecture 6:  The Church and Sacraments

       Disc 2

    Lecture 7: Moral Teaching

    Lecture 8: The Radical Edge

    Lecture 9: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant

    Lecture 10:  Christianity and Politics

    Lecture 11: Christianity and Culture

    Lecture 12: Tensions and Possibilities

    Arguably their can only be one truth that Jesus Christ brought us which in my personal opinion was kinda muddied up after Vatican II and to get back to the root I suggest a 1959 copyright edition by Fides Publishers which carries the Imprimatur entitled “THE FAITH EXPLAINED” by father Leo J. Trese.  The fact that it is the 1959 edition is important in that there have been later editions – the latest one is from 2000, I think, and this edition is expository of the old Tridentine Latin form of the mass, which was in some form the mass of the Church for almost 2000 years. It, I think, was responsible for most of the people who lived exceptional Christ like lives referred to as saints, and its loss with the attended silence and reverence, is what is responsible for many of today’s scandals.  In the Bible Hebrews 13:8 reminds us “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

    The next course on religion we will cover is on Islam. This is a quote of the overview again from the great courses website as well as the quote on the lecturers credentials.

    In these 12 lectures, Professor Esposito guides you through the facts and myths surrounding Islam and its more than 1.2 billion adherents. They’ll help you better understand Islam’s role as both a religion and a way of life, and its deep impact on world affairs both historically and today. Moving from Muhammad to the present, from the 7th to the 21st centuries, you’ll explore Muslim beliefs, practices, and history in the context of its significance and impact on Muslim life and society through the ages, as well as world events today. Along the way, you’ll examine topics including Jihad; Muslim beliefs about other faiths; whether the Quran condones terrorism and what it says about God; the contributions to mathematics, science, and art made by a flourishing Islamic civilization; the role of women in Islam; and whether Islam is compatible with modernization, capitalism, and democracy. These lectures also expand the human dimension to spotlight the ever-increasing reality of Muslims as our neighbors and colleagues in Europe and America, examining how and why Muslims came to Europe and America, and the issues of faith and identity, integration and assimilation, that face them in their new homelands and how they are grappling with these challenges. “We will see that Islam is not monolithic,” says Professor Esposito. “Although Muslims share certain core beliefs, the practices, interpretations, images, and realities of Islam vary across time and space.”

    The lecturer, “Dr. John L. Esposito is University Professor, Professor of Religion and International Affairs, and Professor of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University. He earned his B.A. at St. Anthony College, his M.A. at St. John’s University, and his Ph.D. at Temple University. Professor Esposito is Founding Director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding: History and International Affairs in the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He has served as President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America, and the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies. A specialist in Islam, political Islam, and the impact of Islamic movements from North Africa to Southeast Asia, Dr. Esposito serves as a consultant to the Department of State as well as multinational corporations, governments, universities, and the media worldwide. In 2005, Professor Esposito won the American Academy of Religion’s prestigious Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion. This award honors a scholar who has been exemplary in promoting the public understanding of religion. A prolific writer, Professor Esposito is the author of over 25 books, including What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?, and Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, The Oxford History of Islam, and The Oxford Dictionary of Islam.”

        Disc 1

    Lecture 1: Islam Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

    Lecture 2: The Five Pillars of Islam

    Lecture 3: Muhammad-Prophet and Statesman

    Lecture 4:  God’s Word – the Quranic Worldview

    Lecture 5:  The Muslim community – Faith and Politics

    Lecture 6:  Paths to God – Islamic Law and Mysticism

       Disc 2

    Lecture 7: Islamic revivalism – Renewal and Reform

    Lecture 8:  The Contemporary Resurgence of Islam

    Lecture 9: Islam at the Crossroads

    Lecture 10: Women and Change in Islam

    Lecture 11: Islam in the West

    Lecture 12: The future of Islam

    Much is said about Islam good and bad. For complete disclosure it may be helpful to read or listen to something from another perspective covering, as we did in Christianity above, the Holy Book of Islam the Koran.  I found “the Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran” by Robert Spencer interesting.

    Once again, for course on the religion of Buddhism of we take the overview and lectures credentials from the great courses’ website

    Overview

    Buddhism challenges some of the most important Western ideas about God, human life, and the self. An excellent study in the basics of Buddhism, these 12 lectures illustrate why Buddhism is an astonishingly lively and adaptable religion – one which has transformed the civilizations of India and much of Asia, and has now become a vital part of Western culture. In the company of Professor Eckel, you’ll study the Buddhist idea that there is no single almighty God who created the world, that all of life is “suffering”, and that there is no permanent self; the life story of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama; the Buddha’s teaching, or Dharma; the development of his Samgha, or community of disciples; key Buddhist terms such as nirvana, tantra, mandala, bodhisattva, and Zen; the lives of contemporary, well-known Buddhists such as the Dalai Lama; and Buddhist responses to some of the fundamental problems of life. These lectures survey Buddhism from its origin in India in the 6th or 5th centuries B.C.E. to the present day. During its 2,500-year history, Buddhism has grown from a tiny religious community in northern India into a movement that now spans the globe. And, with these lectures, the history, insights, and perhaps the profound peaceful influence of this great world religion may reach you.

    Lecturer

    Dr. Malcolm David Eckel is Professor of Religion and Director of the Core Curriculum at Boston University. He holds two bachelor’s degrees, one in English from Harvard University and a second in Theology from Oxford University. Professor Eckel earned his master’s degree in theology at Oxford University and his Ph.D. in the Study of Comparative Religion at Harvard University. He held teaching positions at Ohio Wesleyan University, Middlebury College in Vermont, and the Harvard Divinity School, where he served as acting director of the Center for the Study of World Religions. At Boston University, Professor Eckel teaches courses on Buddhism, comparative religion, and the religions of Asia. In 1998, Professor Eckel received the Metcalf Award for Teaching Excellence, the university’s highest award for teaching. In addition to writing many articles, Professor Eckel has published two books on Buddhist philosophy: To See the Buddha: A Philosopher’s Quest for the Meaning of Emptiness and Buddhism: Origins, Beliefs, Practices, Holy Texts, Sacred Places.

        Disc 1

    Lecture 1:  Buddhism as a World Religion

    Lecture 2: The Life of the Buddha

    Lecture 3:  All is suffering

    Lecture 4:  The Path to Nirvana

    Lecture 5: The Buddhist Community

    Lecture 6: Mahayana Buddhism – the Bodhisattva Ideal

       Disc 2

    Lecture 7:  Celestial Buddhas and Bodhisattvas

    Lecture 8:  Emptiness

    Lecture 9:  Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia

    Lecture 10: Buddhism in Tibet

    Lecture 11:  Buddhism in China

    Lecture 12:  Buddhism in Japan

    The final religion we will outline the great courses course on is Hinduism. I take it last because thought there appear to be many adherents they seem localized in the geographical and cultural area of India.

    Once again the over view and lecturers credentials are taken from the great courses website.

    Overview

    In Hinduism, you’ll find a religion that is perhaps the most diverse of all. It worships more gods and goddesses than any other, and it rejects the notion that there is only one path to the divine. These 12 lectures provide a window into the roots of, perhaps, all religions. You’ll explore over the course of Hinduism’s 5,000-year journey: the Indus Valley civilization; the sizable variety of Hindu gods and goddess; the sacred writings in the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita, and Upanishads; ritual purity rites; the Aryan language of Sanskrit; and more. As you’ll discover, the story of Hinduism is the story of very non-Western traditions – such as arranged marriages and the caste system – that have survived and thrived for thousands of years. It’s also the story of gods, terms, and practices – karma, Krishna, yoga, guru – that have found a home in Western lives and language. The lectures move chronologically through the history of Hinduism, from its earliest precursors through its classical manifestations to its responses to modernity. Along the way, you’ll encounter the multiple paths to divine reality acknowledged by Hindus: the Way of Action (which aims to improve an individual’s future lives through meritorious deeds), the Way of Wisdom (a more demanding pathway to salvation), and the Way of Devotion (oriented toward faith in a deity of one’s personal choice). Dr. Muesse also discusses salient aspects of Hindu life and places them in historical and theological context.

    Lecturer

    Dr. Mark W. Muesse is W. J. Millard Professor of Religious Studies, Director of the Asian Studies Program, and Director of the Life: Then and Now Program at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. He earned a B.A., summa cum laude, in English Literature from Baylor University and a Master of Theological Studies, a Master of Arts, and a Ph.D. in the Study of Religion from Harvard University. Before taking his position at Rhodes, Professor Muesse held positions at Harvard College, Harvard Divinity School, and the University of Southern Maine, where he served as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He is a recipient of the 2008 Clarence Day Award for Outstanding Teaching, Rhodes College’s highest faculty honor. Known for his experiential teaching style, Professor Muesse was honored for his effective use of imaginative and creative pedagogy as well as his ability to motivate his students toward lifelong study. Professor Muesse has written many articles, papers, and reviews in world religions, spirituality, theology, and gender studies and has coedited a collection of essays titled Redeeming Men: Religion and Masculinities. He is currently compiling an anthology of prayers from around the world. Professor Muesse is a member of the American Academy of Religion and the Society for Indian Philosophy and Religion and has been Visiting Professor at the Tamilnadu Theological Seminary in Madurai, India. He has traveled extensively throughout Asia and has studied at Wat Mahadhatu, Bangkok, Thailand; the Himalayan Yogic Institute, Kathmandu, Nepal; the Subodhi Institute of Integral Education, Sri Lanka; and Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.

        Disc 1

    Lecture 1: Hinduism in the World and the World of Hinduism

    Lecture 2: The Early Cultures of India

    Lecture 3: The World of Veda

    Lecture 4:  From the Vedic Tradition to Classical Hinduism

    Lecture 5:  Caste

    Lecture 6:  Men, Women, and the Stages of Life

       Disc 2

    Lecture 7: The Way of Action

    Lecture 8:  The Way of Wisdom

    Lecture 9:  Seeing God

    Lecture 10: The Way of Devotion

    Lecture 11:  The Goddess and Her Devotees

    Lecture 12:  Hinduism in the Modern Period

    Hopefully this will give some insights into other major religions of the world, and help us understand the motivations of various peoples based on their religious beliefs to help us better work with them and understand them in friendships, relationships, business and politics.

  • Some Great Courses Reflecting On Christianity, In General, Mostly Historically, Up to the Present

            The teachers of these courses and the next set I will review are not necessarily Catholic, but give a different perspective or relate historical facts of interest and should not be relied upon for Catholic dogmatic or doctrinal accuracy.  There deductions on various historical facts might point to, with regard to dogma and doctrine, do not necessarily align with what is accepted by the Catholic Church’s magisterium. 

    The titles of the courses are as follows, for this section, in order to see if you are interested in their content with out having to scroll though the blog to determine the subject.

    • From Jesus to Constantine: A history of Early Christianity
    • The Historical Jesus
    • The History of the Bible, the making of the New Testament Canon
    • After the New Testament: The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers
    • Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication
    • The Triumph of Christianity
    • The History of Christianity II: From the Reformation to the Modern Megachurch
    • The History of Christianity in the Reformation Era
    • Jesus and the Gospels
    • The History of Christian Theology
    • Myth in Human History
    • Luther: Gospel, Law, and Reformation

           The first 4 courses we will give the lecture titles to as well a quote of the scope and first section outline of at least 1 lecture from the course guidebook. They will have Professor Bart D. Ehrman as the lecturer.  He is the James A. Grey Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina a Chapel Hill.  He received his masters of Divinity and Ph.D from Prinston Theological Seminary. He has provided students at Chapel Hill with great insights into Christianity for more than 15 years. Among his acclaimed books is the New York Times bestseller Misquoting Jesus; God’s Problem; Jesus, Interupted; and Forged. He has written or edited at least 12 books. He has won numerous teaching awards including the Bowman and Gorden Grey award for excellence in teaching and the student undergraduate teaching award.

    The first course we will give and overview of is entitled “From Jesus to Constantine: A history of Early Christianity.” They are 30 minute lectures each.

        Disc 1

    Lecture 1: The Birth of Christianity

    Lecture 2: The religious World of Early Christians

    Lecture 3: The historical Jesus

    Lecture 4: Oral and Written Traditions about Jesus

    Lecture 5: The Apostle Paul

    Lecture 6:  The Beginning of Jewish-Christian Relations

        Disc 2:

    Lecture 7: The Anti-Jewish Use of the Old-Testament

    Lecture 8: The Rise of Christian Anti-Judaism

    Lecture 9: The Early Christian Mission

    Lecture 10: Christianization of the Toman Empire

    Lecture 11:  The Early Persecutions of the State

    Lecture 12: The causes of Christian Persecution

        Disc 3

    Lecture 13: Christian Reaction to Persecution

           Lecture 13 Scope: “In this lecture, we try to understand how Christians reacted to their persecution at the hands of pagan mobs and local authorities. We will see that many Christians recanted their faith in the face of persecution, but many others stayed faithful to what they believed to be the truth.  We will use the moving tale of the passion of Perpetua and Felicitas and the letters of Ignatius of Antioch to guide our reflections. From these texts, we will see that many Christians were willing to face torture and death because they believed that doing so would ensure them an afterlife of eternal bliss, whereas those who refused to accept the faith would face eternal torment.  Moreover, some Christians believed that in suffering martyrdom, they were imitating the example set for them by Christ, their Lord.”

           Lecture 13 first paragraph of the Outline:

            “ 1.  In the previous lecture, we saw some of the reasons for the violent opposition to Christians throughout the empire.

    1. Christians were seen as a threat to society because they refused to worship the state gods. Disasters that struck could be seen by pagans, then, as divine retribution for cities that harbored such “atheists.”
    2. Moreover Christians were thought to be morally reprehensible and therefore, socially dangerous.
    3. Christians, of course, denied that they were dangerous, and many of them refused to recant their beliefs even in the face of violent opposition and concerted official efforts.
    4. D.  In this lecture, we will shift from considering the persecution from the pagan prespective (Why did pagans act this way?) to the Christian perspective  (how did Christians react to their opposition.”)”

    Lecture 14: The Early Christian Apologists

    Lecture 15: The Diversity of Ealy Christian Communities

    Lecture 16: Christians of the Second Century

    Lecture 17: The Role of Pseudepigrapha

    Lecture 18: The Victory of the Proto-Orthodox

        Disc 4

    Lecture 19: The New Testament Canon

    Lecture 20: The Development of Church Offices

    Lecture 21: The Rise of Christian Liturgy

    Lecture 22: The Beginnings of Normative Theology

    Lecture 23: The Doctrine of the Trinity

    Lecture 24: Christianity and the Conquest of Empire

            The second course we will be giving an overview of is basically a fleshing out of the third lecture of the first course overviewed, the lecture (and this course) entitled “The Historical Jesus”. They are 30 minute lectures each.

        Disc 1

    Lecture 1: The Many Faces of Jesus

    Lecture 2: One Remarkable Life

    Lecture 3: Scholars Look at the Gospels

    Lecture 4: Fact and fiction in the Gospels

    Lecture 5: The Birth of the Gospels

    Lecture 6: Some of the other Gospels

       Disc 2

    Lecture 7: The Coptic Gospel of Thomas

    Lecture 8: Other Sources

    Lecture 9: Historical Criteria – Getting back to Jesus

    Lecture 10; More Historical Criteria

    Lecture 11: The Early life of Jesus

    Lecture 12: Jesus in His Context

       Disc 3

    Lecture 13: Jesus and Roman Rule

    Lecture 14: Jesus the Apocalyptic Prophet

    Lecture 15:  The Apocalyptic Teachings of Jesus

    Lecture 16:  Other Teachings of Jesus in their Apocalyptic Context

    Lecture 17: The Deeds of Jesus and their Apocalyptic Context

    Lecture 18: Still Other Words and Deeds of Jesus

       Disc 4

    Lecture 19: The Controversies of Jesus

    Lecture 20: The Last Days of Jesus

    Lecture 21: The Last Hours of Jesus

    Lecture 22: The Death and Resurrection of Jesus

    Lecture 23: The Afterlife of Jesus

    Lecture 24: The Prophet of the New Millennium

        The next course, also by Professor Bart D. Ehrman is entitled “The History of the Bible: The making of the New Testament Canon” the title as with most of the courses being self-explanatory. They are 30 minute lectures each.

       Disc 1

    Lecture 1: The New Testament – An Overview

    Lecture 2: Paul – Our Earliest Christian Author

    Lecture 3: The Pauline Epistles

    Lecture 4: The problem of Pseudonymity

    Lecture 5: The beginnings of the Gospel Traditions

    Lecture 6: The Earliest Gospels

        Disc 2

    Lecture 7: The Other Gospels

    Lecture 8: Apocalypticism and the Apocalypse of John

    Lecture 9: The Copyists Who Gave Us Scripture

    Lecture 10:  Authority in the Early Church

    Lecture 11: The importance of Interpretation

    Lecture 12: When Did the Canon Get Finalized?

        The next course, also by Professor Bart D. Ehrman is entitled “After the New Testament: The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers.”  In Catholic circles the subject of this course is called patrology.  To give a taste of what this course is about we quote the 1st 4 paragraphs of the scope at the front of the course guidebook:

    “ At the very foundation of the Christian religion sand the writings of the New Testament, a collection of 27 books that represent the earliest surviving literary productions of the burgeoning Church and that eventually came to be regarded as sacred Scripture.  The writings produced by Christians after the New Testament are also important, however, a they can reveal to us how Christianity changed, developed, an grew after the first Christian Century had passed.

    The writings of the Apostolic Fathers are the most important books for understanding these developments in Christianity immediately after the New Testament period.  The term Apostolic Father was coined by scholars who believed that the authors of these books were companions or followers of the apostles of Jesus. Scholars today do not accept this older view, because the books in the collection appear to have been written in a later generation.  But most of them do date from the early to mid-2nd century, and as such, they are among the earliest Christian writings from outside the New Testament.

    There are 10 (or 11) authors who are traditionally included in the collection of the Apostolic Fathers. Some of the works are by well-known figures of the early 2nd century (such as Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna), others are anonymous.  Together, they represent the early writings of Proto-orthodoxy – that is, they represent the views that eventually came to influence and inform the shape of Christianity as it was to grow into a world religion that eventually converted the Roman Empire and became the major religious (and political, social, cultural and economic) force of the Middle Ages.

    In this course, we will examine the various writings of the Apostolic Fathers, both to see what each of the surviving books has to say and to see how these books can instruct us about the emerging Christian Church of the 2nd Century.

       Disc 1

    Lecture 1:  Introduction to the Apostolic Fathers

    Lecture 2: The Letter of 1 Clement

    Lecture 3: Church Structures in Early Christianity

    Lecture 4: The Letters of Ignatius

    Lecture 5: Doctrinal Problems in the early Church

    Lecture 6: Still Other Doctrinal Disputes

       Disc 2

    Lecture 7: The letter of Poly carp to the Philippians

    Lecture 8: The use of Authorities in the Early Church

    Lecture 9: The First Martyrology – Polycarp

    Lecture 10: The Persecution of the Christians

    Lecture 11: A Church Manual- the Didache of the Apostles

    Lecture 12: Ritual in the Early Church

       Disc 3

    Lecture 13: Barnabas and the Opposition to the Jews

    Lecture 14: The Rise of Christian Anti-Semitism

    Lecture 15: 2 Clement – An Early Sermon

    Lecture 16: The Use of Scripture in the Early Church

    Lecture 17: Papias – An Early Christan Interpreter

    Lecture 18: Oral Tradition in Early Christianity

       Disc 4

    Lecture 19: The Shepherd of Hermas – An Apocalypse

    Lecture 20: Apocalypses in Early Christianity

    Lecture 21: The Letter to Diognetus – An Apology

    Lecture 22: Apologetics in Early Christianity

    Lecture 23: The Apostolic Fathers as a Collection

    Lecture 24: The Apostolic Fathers and Proto-orthodoxy

         The third to last course by this professor is entitled “Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication.” At this time I think I only have a copy of the transcript and course guide book but assume they are 30 minute lectures each on the DVD.

    A brief description on the back of the transcript/guidebook reads as follows:

    In the first centuries after Christ, there was no “official” New Testament. Early Christians read and fervently followed many more Scriptures than we have today.

    Relying on these writings, some Christians believed that there were 2, 12, or as many as 30 gods.  Some thought that a malicious deity created the world. Some maintained that Christ’s resurrection had nothing to do with salvation; others insisted that Christ never died at all.

    What did these “other” scriptures say? Do they exist today? How could such ideas ever be considered Christian?  If such beliefs were once common, why do they no longer exist?  This course by Professor Bart D. Ehrman addresses these fascinating questions with objectivity and rigor

    Part 1

    Lecture 1: The Diversity of Early Christianity

    Lecture 2: Christians Who Would Be Jews

    Lecture 3: Christians Who Refused to Be Jews

    Lecture 4: Early Gnostic Christianity – Our Sources

    Lecture 5: Early Christian Gnosticism – An Overview

    Lecture 6: The Gnostic Gospel of Truth

    Lecture 7: Gnostics Explain Themselves

    Lecture 8: The Coptic Gospel of Thomas

    Lecture 9: Thomas’ Gnostic Teachings

    Lecture 10: Infancy Gospels

    Lecture 11: The Gospel of Peter

    Lecture 12: The Secret Gospel of Mark

    Part 2

    Lecture 13:  The Acts of John

    Lecture 14: The Acts of Thomas

    Lecture 15: The Acts of Paul and Thecla

    Lecture 16: Forgeries in the Name of Paul

    Lecture 17: The Epistle of Barnabas

    Lecture 18: The Apocalypse of Peter

    Lecture 19: The Rise of Early Christian Orthodoxy

    Lecture 20: Beginnings of the Canon

    Lecture 21: Formation of the New Testament Canon

    Lecture 22: Interpretation of Scripture

    Lecture 23: Orthodox Corruption of Scripture

    Lecture 24: Early Christian Creeds

    This second to last course by Professor Ehrman is “How Jesus Became God.” Though all the Apostles, including St. Paul, as well as all good practicing Catholics today and most other Christian sects these days accept this fact, but as we see from the Arian Heresy (covered toward the end of this course), until it was settled, there was some doubt even among some within the Catholic community, at the time of Jesus and immediately after, that Jesus was divine.  This course looks at the bumps along the way in both the secular and Catholic communities to accepting that Jesus’ defining property among other great religions and Jewish prophets was that He was the only “person” claiming to be God Himself that came to Earth to teach man about the actual reality He (God) created.

        Disc 1

    Lecture 1: Jesus – The Man Who Became God

    Lecture 2: Greco-Roman Gods who Became Human

    Lecture 3: Humans as Gods

    Lecture 4: Gods Who Were Human in Ancient Judaism

    Lecture 5: Ancient Jews Who Were Gods

    Lecture 6: The Life and Teachings of Jesus

        Disc 2

    Lecture 7: Did Jesus Think He Was God?

    Lecture 8: The Death of Jesus – Historical Certainties

    Lecture 9: Jesus’s Death – What Historians Can’t Know

    Lecture 10: The Resurrection – What Historians Can’t know

    Lecture 11: What History Reveals about the Resurrection

    Lecture 12: The Disciples’ visions of Jesus

       Disc 3

    Lecture 13: Jesus’s Exaltation _ Earliest Christian Views

    Lecture 14: The Backward Movement of Christology

    Lecture 15: Paul’s View – Christ’s Elevated Divinity

    Lecture 16: John’s View – The Word Made Human

    Lecture 17: Was Christ Human? The Docetic View

    Lecture 18: The Divided Christ of the Separationists

       Disc 4

    Lecture 19: Christ’s Dual Nature – Proto-Orthodoxy

    Lecture 20: The Birth of the Trinity

    Lecture 21: The Arian Controversy

    Lecture 22: The Conversion of Constantime

    Lecture 23: The Council of Nicea

    Lecture 24: Once Jesus Became God

    The last course we will outline by Professor Ehrman is entitled “The Triumph of Christianity” starts covering the existing Pagan religions and the Jewish religion in the Roman world and ends with the beginnings of a Christian Roman Empire with the losses and gains of its triumph.

       Disc 1

    Lecture 1: The Christian Conquest of Rome

    Lecture 2: Pagan Religions in the Roman World

    Lecture 3: Judaism in the Roman World

    Lecture 4: Christianity in the Roman World an Overview

    Lecture 5: The Life and Teachings of Jesus

    Lecture 6: The Beginning of Christianity

        Disc 2

    Lecture 7: The Earliest Christian Missions

    Lecture 8: The Conversions of Paul

    Lecture 9: Paul: The Apostle of the Gentiles

    Lecture 10: The Christian Mission to the Jews

    Lecture 11: Early Christianities

    Lecture 12: Reasons for Christianity’s Success          

       Disc 3

    Lecture 13: Miraculous Incentives for Conversion

    Lecture 14: The Exponential Growth of the Church

    Lecture 15: Early Opposition to the Christian Message

    Lecture 16: Imperial Persecution of the Early Christians

    Lecture 17: Early Christian Apologists

    Lecture 18: Major Imperial Persecutions of Christians

        Disc 4

    Lecture 19: The Conversion of Constantine

    Lecture 20: Did Constantine Really Convert?

    Lecture 21: Constantine’s Interactions with the Church

    Lecture 22: Imperial Christianity after Constantine

    Lecture 23: The Beginnings of a Christian Roman Empire

    Lecture 24: The Triumph of Christianity: Gains and Losses

    In an earlier blog we covered the course going through the history of Christianity from Jesus and the apostles to the Reformation. The title of this course is “The History of Christianity II: From the Reformation to the Modern Megachurch.” This course it taught by Professor Molly Worthen. She is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her PH.D in Religious Studies from Yale University. Dr Worthen has lectured widely around the United States and Canada on evangelical history and the culture wars.  She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and has written numerous articles for newspapers and magazines  as well as two books.  Dr. Worthen teaches courses on North American intellectual history and global Christianity.

       Disc 1

    Lecture 1: Prophets of Reform before Protestantism

    Lecture 2: Luther and the Dawn of Protestantism

    Lecture 3: Zwingli, Calvin, and the Reformed Tradition

    Lecture 4: The Anabaptist Radicals

    Lecture 5: The Catholic Reformation

    Lecture 6: The Church Militant in the Spanish Empire

        Disc 2

    Lecture 7: War and Witchcraft in the Holy Roman Empire

    Lecture 8: Puritans, Kings, and Theology in Practice

    Lecture 9: Religious Dissent and the English Civil War

    Lecture 10: Eastern Orthodoxy: From Byzantium to Russia

    Lecture 11: Christians under Muslim Rule

    Lecture 12:  The Church and the Scientific Revolution

        Disc 3

    Lecture 13: The Enlightenment Quest for Reasonable Faith

    Lecture 14: Pietist Revival in Europe

    Lecture 15: The First Great Awakening

    Lecture 16: Religion and Revolution in the 18th Century

    Lecture 17: The Second Great Awakening

    Lecture 18: The Mormons: A True American Faith

        Disc 4

    Lecture 19: Slave Religion in the Americas

    Lecture 20: Christian Missions and Moral Reform

    Lecture 21: The Church’s Encounter with Modern Learning

    Lecture 22: The Social Gospel

    Lecture 23: Fundamentalism and Pentecostalism

    Lecture 24: Apocalyptic Faith in the 1800s and Beyond

       Disc 5

    Lecture 25: The Church and the Russian Revolution

    Lecture 26: The Rival Gods of the Cold War

    Lecture 27: Rebellion and Reform in Latin America

    Lecture 28: Vatican II and Global Renewal

    Lecture 29: Secularism and the Dathe of God

    Lecture 30: The Gospel and Global Civil Rights

       Disc 6

    Lecture 31: Culture Wars and the Christian Right

    Lecture 32: Liberation Theologies in Latin America

    Lecture 33: Prophetic Religion in Modern Africa

    Lecture 34:  Chinese Christianity: Missionaries to Mao

    Lecture 35: Revival of Repression in Korea

    Lecture 36: The Challenge of 21st Century Christianity

    The next Course in this series looking at Christianity in depth is Entitled “The History of Christianity in the Reformation Era,” and once again its subject is self-explanatory.  The lecturer is Professor Brad S. Gregory, formally of Stanford University.  He became an Associat Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame in 2003.  His five university degrees include an MA in History from the University of Arizona, and a Ph.D in History from Princeton University. Professor Gregory has received several awards and fellowships, including the Walter J. Gores award, Stanford’s Highest teaching honor. His book Salvation at stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe has won six awards.

       Disc 1

    Lecture 1:  Early Modern Christianity – A Larger View

    Lecture 2:  The Landscape of Late Medieval Life

    Lecture 3: Late medieval Christendom– Beliefs, Practices, Institutions I

    Lecture 4:  Late Medieval Christendom – Beliefs, Practices, Institutions II

    Lecture 5:  Vigorous of Corrupt? Christianity on the Eve of the Reformation

    Lecture 6:  Christian Humanism – Erudition, Education, Reform

        Disc 2

    Lecture 7:  Martin Luther’s Road to Reformation

    Lecture 8:  The Theology of Martin Luther

    Lecture 9:  Huldrych Zwingli – The Early Reformation in Switzerland

    Lecture 10:  Profile of a Protest Movement – The Early Reformation in Germany

    Lecture 11:  The Peasants’ War of 1524-1525

    Lecture 12:  The Emergence of Early Anabaptism

        Disc 3

    Lecture 13:  The Spread of Early Protestantism – France, the Low Countries, and England

    Lecture 14:  The Henrician Reformation in England

    Lecture 15:  Defending the Traditional Order – Early Catholic Response

    Lecture 16: The Rise and Fall of the Kingdom of Munster

    Lecture 17: John Calvin and the Reformation in Geneva

    Lecture 18: Catholic Renewal and reform in Italy

        Disc 4

    Lecture 19: The Growth and Embattlement of Protestantism

    Lecture 20:  Calvinism in France and the Low Countries

    Lecture 21: John Knox and the Scottish Reformation

    Lecture 22: Menno Simons and the Dutch Mennonites

    Lecture 23:  The Council of Trent

    Lecture 24:  Roman Catholicism after Trent

       Disc 5

    Lecture 25: Going Global – Catholic Missions

    Lecture 26: The French Wars of religion

    Lecture 27:  Religion and Politics in the Dutch Revolt

    Lecture 28:  Elizabethan England – Protestants, Puritans, and Catholics

    Lecture 29: Confessionalization in Germany

    Lecture 30: France and the Low Countries in the 1600s

       Disc 6

    Lecture 31:  The Thirty Years’ War- Religion and Politics

    Lecture 32:  Revolution and Restoration in England

    Lecture 33: The Impact of the Reformations – Changes in Society and Culture

    Lecture 34:  Were the Reformations a Success?

    Lecture 35: Reflections on Religious Change and Conflict

    Lecture 36: Expectations and Ironies

    “Jesus and the Gospels” is the title of the next course we will outline and touches on the Synoptic Gospel problem, and Coptic and Gnostic gospels that are considered apocrapha with regard to the Catholic Bible of which Protestants consider 7 books included in the Catholic Bible as apocrypha. This course is taught by a professor mentioned in the outline of an earlier course in another blog but we will reprint his information here to give a quick review of his credentials. Professor Luke Timothy Johnson is renowned for his insight into Christianity. He is the Robert W. Woodruff professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the Emory University Candler School of Theology.  A former Benedictine monk and teacher at Yale Divinity School, he is the author of acclaimed books, Including The Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus.  Professor Johnson has twice received the prestigious On Eagle’s Wings Excellence in Teaching Award.

       Disc 1

    Lecture 1:  Why Not “The Historical Jesus?”

    Lecture 2:  The Starting Point – The Resurrection Experience

    Lecture 3:  The Matrix, Symbolic world of Greek and Jew

    Lecture 4:  Parallels – Stories of Greek and Jewish Heros

    Lecture 5:  The Context – Jesus in the Memory of the Church

    Lecture 6:  Earliest Stages – Paul and the Oral Tradition

        Disc 2

    Lecture 7:  Why Compose Gospels?

    Lecture 8:  The Synoptic Problem and its Solutions

    Lecture 9:  Gospel of Mark – Apocalyptic and Irony

    Lecture 10: Gospel of Mark – Good News in Mystery

    Lecture 11: Gospel of Mark – Teacher and Disciples

    Lecture 12:  Gospel of Mark – Passion and Death

        Disc 3

    Lecture 13:  Gospel of Matthew – Synagogue Down the Street

    Lecture 14:  Gospel of Matthew – The Messiah of Isreal

    Lecture 15: Gospel of Matthew – Jesus and the Torah

    Lecture 16: Gospel of Matthew – Teacher and Lord

    Lecture 17:  Luke-Acts – The Prophetic Gospel

    Lecture 18:  Gospel of Luke God’s Prophet

        Disc 4

    Lecture 19:  Gospel of Luke – The Prophet and the People

    Lecture 20:  Acts of the Apostles – The Prophet’s Movement

    Lecture 21:  Gospel of John – Context of Conflict

    Lecture 22:  Gospel of John – Jesus as the Man from Heaven

    Lecture 23:  Gospel of John – Jesus as Obedient Son

    Lecture 24:  Gospel of John – Witness to the Truth

       Disc 5

    Lecture 25:  In and Out – Canonical and Apocryphal Gospels

    Lecture 26:  Young Jesus – The Infancy Gospel of James

    Lecture 27:  Young Jesus – The Infancy Gospel of Thomas

    Lecture 28:  Jewish Christian Narrative Gospels

    Lecture 29:  Fragments of Narrative Gospels – Gospel of Peter

    Lecture 30:  New Revelations – Gnostic Witnesses

       Disc 6

    Lecture 31:  Jesus in Word – The Coptic Gospel of Thomas

    Lecture 32:  Jesus in Word – Two Gnostic Gospels

    Lecture 33:  The Gnostic Good News – The Gospel of Truth

    Lecture 34:  The Gnostic Good News – The Gospel of Philip

    Lecture 35:  Jesus in and through the Gospels

    Lecture 36:  Learning Jesus in Past and Present

    The next course outlined this is “The History of Christian Theology,” a subject of which again is self-explanatory.  The Lecturer is Professor Phillip Cary.  He is Professor of Philosophy at Eastern University and Scholar-in-Residence at the Templeton Honors College.  He holds a Ph.D in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Yale University. A former teacher at Yale, The University of Connecticut, and other prestigious universities. Professor Carey won Eastern University’s prestigious Lindback Award for his excellence in undergraduate teaching.

       Disc 1

    Lecture 1: What is Theology?

    Lecture 2: Early Christian Proclamation  

    Lecture 3: Pauline Eschatology

    Lecture 4: The Synoptic Gospels  

    Lecture 5: The Gospels of John

    Lecture 6: Varieties of Early Christianities

        Disc 2

    Lecture 7:  The Emergence of Christian Doctrine

    Lecture 8:  Christian Reading

    Lecture 9: The Uses of Philosophy

    Lecture 10: The Doctrine of the Trinity

    Lecture 11: The Doctrine of the incarnation

    Lecture 12: The Doctrine of Grace

        Disc 3

    Lecture 13:  The Incomprehensible and the Supernatural

    Lecture 14: Eastern Orthodox Theology

    Lecture 15:  Atonement and the Procession of the Spirit

    Lecture 16:  Scholastic Theology

    Lecture 17:  The Sacraments

    Lecture 18: Souls after Death

        Disc 4

    Lecture 19:  Luther and Protestant Theology

    Lecture 20:  Calvin and Reformed Theology

    Lecture 21:  Protestants on Predestination

    Lecture 22:  Protestant Disagreements

    Lecture 23:  Anabaptists and the Radical Reformation

    Lecture 24:  Anglicans and Puritans

       Disc 5

    Lecture 25:  Baptists and Quakers

    Lecture 26:  Pietists and the Turn to Experience

    Lecture 27:  From Puritans to Revivalists

    Lecture 28:  Perfection, Holiness, and Pentecostalism

    Lecture 29:  Deism and Liberal Protestantism

    Lecture 30:  Neo-Orthodoxy – From Kierkegaard to Barth

       Disc 6

    Lecture 31:  Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism

    Lecture 32:  Protestantism after Modernity

    Lecture 33:  Catholic Theologies of Grace

    Lecture 34:   Catholic Mystical Theology

    Lecture 35:  From Vatican I to Vatican II

    Lecture 36:  Vatican II and Ecumenical Prospects

       “Myth in Human History” is the next course we will cover. The lecturer is Professor Grant L. Voth, a Professor Emeritus in English and interdisciplinary Studies at Monterey Peninsula College and expert in literature from around the world.  A former professor at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech. Professor Voth is the author of more than 30 books and articles on subjects ranging from Shakespear to modern American fiction. His distinguished awards include the Alien Griffin Award for Excellence in Teaching.

       Disc 1

    Lecture 1: Myth and Meaning

    Lecture 2: The Continuing Importance of Myth

    Lecture 3: Creation Myths

    Lecture 4:  Mesopotamian Creation – Enuma Elish

    Lecture 5: Hebrew Creation Myths

    Lecture 6: Emergence and World-Parent Creation Myths

        Disc 2

    Lecture 7:  Cosmic Egg and Ex-Nihilo Creation Myths

    Lecture 8:  Earth-Diver and Dismembered God Creation Myths

    Lecture 9:  Mesopotamian and Hebrew Flood Myths

    Lecture 10: Other Flood Myths

    Lecture 11:  Myths of Cosmic Destruction

    Lecture 12:  Greek and Norse Pantheons

        Disc 3

    Lecture 13:  The Great Goddess Remembered?

    Lecture 14:  The Goddess – Inanna and Dumuzi

    Lecture 15:  The Goddess – Isis and Osiris

    Lecture 16: The Eclipse of the Goddess

    Lecture 17:  Shamans and Vegetation Gods

    Lecture 18: Sky Gods and Earth Goddesses

        Disc 4

    Lecture 19: Creator Gods

    Lecture 20:  Gods and Goddesses of India

    Lecture 21:  Hero Myths

    Lecture 22:  Mythic Heroes – Gilgamesh

    Lecture 23:  Mythic Heroes – King Arthur

    Lecture 24:  Mythic Heroes – Jason and the Argonauts

       Disc 5

    Lecture 25:  The Monomyths of Rank and Campbell

    Lecture 26:  Mythic Heroes – Mwindo

    Lecture 27:  Female Heroes – Demeter and Hester Prynne

    Lecture 28:  Female Heroes – Psyche and Beauty

    Lecture 29:  The Trickster in Mythology

    Lecture 30:  Tricksters from Around the World

       Disc 6

    Lecture 31:  Native American Tricksters

    Lecture 32:  African Tricksters

    Lecture 33:  Mythic Tricksters – Eshu and Legba

    Lecture 34:  The Places of Myth – Rocks and Lakes

    Lecture 35:  The Places of Myth – Mountains

    Lecture 36:  The Places of Myth – Sacred Trees

         The final course we will cover is entitled “Luther: Gospel, Law, and Reformation” and is taught by Professor Philip Cary, the Director of the Philosophy Program at Easten University (formerly Eastern College) in St. David Pennsylvania, where he is also Assistant Professor in the Templeton Honors College.  He received his M.A. in Philosophy and Ph.D in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Yale University.  He has published several papers on St. Augustine and other topics.  He is author of Augustine’s Invention of the Inner Self: The legacy of a Christian Platonist.

       Disc 1

    Lecture 1: Luther’s Gospel

    Lecture 2: The Medieval Church – Abuses and Reform  

    Lecture 3: The Augustinian Paradigm of Spirituality

    Lecture 4: Young Luther Against Himself 

    Lecture 5: Hearing the Gospels

    Lecture 6: Faith and Works

        Disc 2

    Lecture 7:  The Meaning of the Sacraments

    Lecture 8:  The Indulgence Controversy

    Lecture 9: The Reformation Goes Public

    Lecture 10:  The Captivity of the Sacraments

    Lecture 11:  Reformation in Wittenberg

    Lecture 12: The Work of the Reformer

        Disc 3

    Lecture 13:  Against the Spirit of Rebellion

    Lecture 14:  Controversy Over the Lord’s Supper

    Lecture 15:  Controversy Over Infant Baptism

    Lecture 16:  Grace and Justification

    Lecture 17:  Luther and the Bible

    Lecture 18:  Luther and Erasmus

        Disc 4

    Lecture 19:  Luther and Predestination

    Lecture 20:  Luther and Protestantism

    Lecture 21:  Luther and Politics

    Lecture 22:  Luther and His Enemies

    Lecture 23:  Luther and the Jews

    Lecture 24:  Luther and Modernity

       This concludes this set of Great Course outlines on Christian reflections.  There are some overlaps giving more varied views among the courses above concerning things like the synoptic gospels, the different gospels approach etc. These additional insights can help one see Catholicism, and why Catholics do certain thing from a different perspective.

  • Great Course Entitled Why Evil Exists

    This question of evil is one that has plagued mankind since the time he had started thinking in the patterns that led to the earliest philosophy. I though it necessary to cover it as soon as possible as a background against which to look at other books on Christianity, Jesus Christ, early Christianity and early philosophy.  As Jews or Christians, we know the answer we believe is true, and that is from the fall of original sin, and we know that Jesus came to teach each man and woman how to defeat it in our own lives and this idea of the fall is one of the ideas that is covered in this course.

    The following are the headings of the lectures with a summary of the lectures after the ones directly referring to the Judao-Chistian tradition.

    1. The nature and Origins of Evil
    2. “Enuma Elish”—Evil as Cosmic Battle
    3. Greece – Tragedy and “The Peloponnesian War”
    4. Greek Philosophy-Human Evil and Malice
    5. The Hebrew Bible—Human Rivalry with God

    The Hebrew Bible roots evil in various forms of rebellion. In the Hebrew book of Genesis, see how the Fall actualizes an intrinsic potential for evil. Then consider three faces of rebellion: the rejection of God’s plan (the Fall), interhuman strife (Cain and Able), and direct rivalry with God (the Tower of Bable)

    • The Hebrew Bible—Wisdom and the Fear of God

    The Hebrew Bible also offers a contrasting view of evil and suffering – as phenomena reflecting the mysterious will of God. Explore the implications of the covenant between God and Abraham, and Abraham’s mandated sacrifice of Isaac. In the book of Job, see how Job’s faith is established through determined acceptance of suffering

         7.  Christian Scripture—Apocalypse and Original Sin

    This lecture addresses the New Testament heritage on evil. Uncover the early Christian view of a cosmic struggle between God and darkness in the Gospels and the book of Revelation, noting numerous references to demonic powers. See how the doctrine of original sin is linked to the very goodness of Jesus.

    8.  The Inevitability of Evil – Irenaeus

    The early Christian theologian Irenaeus of Lyon proposed an important ‘theodicy” or theory of evil. Discover the tenets of Irenaeu’s thinking, based in his view that the descent into sin is necessary for the fulfillment of human destiny. Study his conceptions of natural and moral evil, and the redemptive “tutelage” of suffering.

          9. Creation, Evil, and the Fall—Augustine

    Saint Augustine propounded another seminal “theodicy” of evil. Contemplate his two foundational claims: evil as “privation” of fundamental good, and evil as perversion of human nature toward the meaningless. Consider also his views on the rationale for evil, evil’s ultimate mysteriousness, and its interior implications for the doe

        10. Rabbinic Judaism—The Evil Impulse

    Rabbinic Judaism resists the Christian “cosmic drama” of sin and redemption. Study the rabbinic conceptions of tov (goodness/conscience) and ra (badness/self-interest), as each functions in human nature. Also grasp the notion of ra as a practical challenge of will and responsibility and an ultimate gift from God to mature humanity.

    11.  Islam—Iblis the Failed, Once-Glorious Being


    12.  On Self-Deception in Evil—Scholasticism

    The monastic tradition of Christian scholasticism offers compelling views of satanic psychology. In the thought of Anselm of Lyon, explore the “logic” of Satan’s rebellion against God, rooted in bottomless, unspecified desire. In Thomas Aquinas, trace the psychology of Satan to a self-deceptive motive.

    13. Dante—Hell and the Abandonment of Hope

    Dante’s Inferno poetically elucidates Christian thinking on evil. In his observation of the damned, see how the literary “Dante” learns the meaning of both pity and piety. Then grasp the nature of Satan’s punishment, revealing Hell as a self-made crucible where the damned become what they internally want to be.

    14. The Reformation—The Power of Evil Within

    This lecture investigates the pivotal thought of reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin. In Luther’s works, discover his view of Satan as a subtle, inner force, working to induce delusive thought and action. Also study Calvin’s core conceptions of moral predestination and the innate depravity or corruptibility of the human spirit.

    15. Dark Politics – Machiavelli on How to Be Bad

    16. Hobbes- Evil as a Social Construct

    17. Montaigne and Pascal – Evil and the Self

    18. Milton—Epic Evil

    Milton’s Paradise Lost is another deeply influential literary meditation on evil. Here, travel deeply into the psychic agony of Satan, in Milton’s complex portrait of temptation, choice, rebellion, and futility. Conclude with reflections on the distinction between satanic and human sin, and the Fall’s significance in God’s plan.

    19.  The Enlightenment and its discontents

    20.  Kant – Evil at the Root of human Agency

    21.  Hegel – The Slaughter Block of History

    22.  Marx – Materialism and Evil

    23.  The American North and South – Holy War

    24.  Nietzsche – Considering the Language of Evil

    25.  Dostoevsky – The Demonic in Modernity

    26.  Conrad – Incomprehensible Terror

    27. Freud – The Death Drive and the Inexplicable

    28.  Camus – The Challenge to Take Evil Seriously

    29.  Post-WWII Protestant Theology on Evil

    Three challenging perspectives: Explore Tillich’s conception of the demonic as human “possession” by dimensions of reality beyond the personal self; Barth’s vision of Das Nichtige (“the nothing”), a force opposing creation, to which God says “no”; and Niebuhr’s “diagnosis” of sin as rooted in the desire to escape our condition as both matter and spirit.

    30.  Post-WWII Roman Catholic Theology on Evil

    In modern Catholicism, grasp theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar’s nuanced spirituality of hope, based in the conviction that God’s providence is so powerful that salvation is a possibility for all humanity. Then study Pope John Paul II’s precise delineation of “objectively” evil actions as a resource in the church’s larger public discourse.

    31.  Post-WWII Jewish Thought on Evil

    The Holocaust radically challenged Jewish conceptions of evil, faith, and identity. Grapple with four major Jewish thinkers, confronting the apparent death of the God of the covenant, as they urge profound questioning, new understandings of faith, and a turning to fellow humans to find meaning in healing the world.

    32. Arendt – The Banality of Evil

    33. Life in Truth – 20th – Century Poets on Evil

    34. Science and the Empirical Study of Evil

    35.  The “Unnaming” of Evil

    36.  Where can Hope Be Found?

    On the lecturer:

    Professor Charles Mathews is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies of the univesity of Virginia. An expert in theology and the philosophy of religion. professor mathews has received a wealth of honors,m including the Mead Honored Faculty Award – one of the University of Virginia’s highest teaching awards.

  • Social Justice Causes and The Catholic Church and How The Catholic Church Can, In My Opinion, Have More impact

            Many popes since, in my opinion, John XXIII have been overly concerned with social justice and trying use the Church to influence these issues through the clergy.  The clergy and the church in general has absolutely no business doing this.  Its main purpose is the salvation of souls.  Now, I think it is absolutely fine for the pope to voice church concern in the secular world but not realign church priorities mainly from training the clergy in the method and main mission of saving souls to that of training the clergy to be social justice warriors, if it is actually concerned with social justice.  If every deacon, priest and bishop (including the bishop of Rome, who I do cede the prerogative to try and influence social justice) were to concentrate on forming and saving the souls of the laity and themselves, social justice, in my opinion would not be a problem.  How many clergy, barring the pope or bishops who have become pope, have had a major impact on social justice, since it has become “a thing” in the last 2 centuries?

            I think the whole thing was precipitated by Pope John XXIII and his saving numerous Jews during WWII.  All of the church assisted the sitting pope during WWII in trying to save as many Jews as possible.  But when Pope John XXIII became pope I think it shifted the mindset of the cardinals at the time to favor focusing on more participation in the “church” personally trying to save the world.  Bring the light of Christ to the world and be its salt (Matthew 5:13), with a concentration on saving souls and champions and solutions to social justice problems will arise organically. 

            To begin with, I think it was a mistake, being a traditional catholic, to introduce the new mass (Novus Ordo) and I think the increase in the sexual abuse cases and the decreasing reverence in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist proves this. But why?  Much has been said about our use of the electronics and the internet robing us of attention span.  The Tridentine Latin Mass AKA traditional Latin Mass (TLM), gives us time away from constantly thinking and having to respond as in the new mass in the vernacular.  The quiet of the church gives ones mind a chance to rest and meditate on the Epistle and the Gospel, reading the translation, and if not able to read, hearing it in the vernacular during the Homily or Sermon as it is on Sundays.  The quiet relaxes our mind and pulls us away from the cacophony that is traffic, the internet, smart phones and modern life in general and gives us time to meditate in relative silence.  It is a psychological breather from our modern noise world, no thinking to do responses, no talking, little noise except for the soft murmur of the priest conducting the sacrifice of the mass, which we can follow along with in our missals and the sound of crying children every once in a while, that are not in the cry room.

             But can I offer any proof that the Latin mass will lead organically to social Justice action? I’m not sure if I can call it proof per se, but I can give at least 2 examples of lay people, who were raised in the Latin mass that were social justice warriors, devout Catholics, one of whom won the Nobel peace prize.

             Lech Walesa was born in 1943.  The new mass or novus ordo was not introduced until 1968 when Lech Walesa was already 25. He had 8 Children.  Helped root communism out of Poland after being elected president, with the help of pope John Paul II.  He started out as a working man’s working man, an electrician. 

    https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/biography/lech-walesa

    https://www.bushcenter.org/freedom-collection/lech-walesa-a-polish-pope

    https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1983/walesa/biographical/

             Cesar Chavez (birth name Cesario Estrada Chavez) is another example. Born in 1927. The new mass or novus ordo was not introduced until 1968 when Cesar Chavez was already 41. He had 8 Children.  As an American labor leader, he helped change the plight for the better of numerous American farm workers.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez

             the bottom line is that the Church should concentrate on the salvation of souls, through going back to things that have proven to work like the Traditional Latin Mass, close booth confessions (which are still predominate in some countries), and communion on the tongue and other forms of respect for the Eucharist (like the priest keeping his thumb and fore fingers together after consecration and use of the paten etc.) to stress the fact that that Jesus Christ is really and truly The Eucharist (John 6:53-70) not symbolically and renews the power of Calvery in a non-violent manner in each mass. 

             These only a couple, there are certainly a lot more, mostly represented by more ancient saints, but their impact was great indeed, in both Europe and the United States of America, during the last 100 years.

  • You Tubes Showing the gentle way Charlie Kirk conducted his discussions, Repeating My Thoughts Concerning Hell and arguing that Originally God Created Man Without Suffering

    Since I was young, I always had only one question in my mind concerning my religion, “why would an all-good God create a place like hell?”  I always had faith that it was true (since God – Jesus Christ, said it), that hell existed and I was always determined not to go there, by obeying Gods laws, if possible, and I determined there was a high probability that I would go there because one of the main thing you had to do was “love God.” (see Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27).  The fact is I never had the strong feeling of “loving God” and still don’t think I have that “feeling.”  Then I determined that loving God has nothing to do with having a feeling, just like loving your wife or children have nothing to do with a feeling, it has to do with actions.  All of the Old Testament in New Testament law says nothing about what you “feel,” I think because essentially you have absolutely no control over that and the devil, if you believe in him, uses that to influence you to do wrong. If you do not believe in the devil, then flawed human nature persuades you to feel a certain way and thereby to do wrong.  The Bible does not say “as a man you can’t feel like you like another man – i.e. be gay,” the King James protestant version of the bible reads: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination.” (Leviticus 18:22) Feeling a certain thing isn’t really the problem, its knowing something is wrong and DOING IT ANYWAY!  The thing that is wrong with it is doing that wrong thing.  Similarly with loving God, feeling you love God is not loving God, doing what He says is loving God.  Specifically, John 14:15 say: “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Love is doing what is good for the one loved, no matter what “you feel.” The Catholic conception of love (or more correctly charity toward anyone – God, spouse, parent, child or good friend) is drawn out in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.

           Bottom line is, based on John 14:15 (“If you love Me keep my commandments”), I knew I could love God based on God’s definition of love not on my feelings (me in this quote referring to Jesus Christ, who is God).  I could use my reason to force my self to follow his commandment (well within my capabilities as a reasoning being), my feelings, which by the secular definition of love, are really out of my control and immaterial, according to God’s definition of love.

           Because of this I eventually stopped worrying about my feelings and started worrying about making sure I was doing the right things according to God. But this still left the question of hell and an all-good God.  In the last clip I include it says Bill Maher was dumbfounded, in my opinion he wasn’t dumbfounded but brought up what he thought was a good question: “If God is all powerful, why not skip all the suffering and just make it so that we [humans] are all the perfect thing?”  The answer may well surprise you.  He did make humans “the perfect thing,” to start with, therefore Adam and Eve had no suffering.  The reason we, humankind, are in the predicament we are in, is that God did make us the perfect thing and as part of that He gave us something that no other material creature had (though all purely spiritual creatures – angles/demons, all arguably already had) and that was free will.  Adam and Eve even though they were put in paradise, a place of perfect pleasure and comfort, they choose to go against God’s one law: “And the lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it and to keep it. And He commanded him saying: of every tree of paradise, thou shalt eat: But the tree of Knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat.  For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death.” I assume that God gave them the ability to understand what death was probably at least saw animals die. That was at least the worst actual thing that they thought could happen to them, since they had no other possibly knowledge of evil, only knowing good, except maybe for death, since they had not yet eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

           Hell is as bad as Jesus Christ gives us a taste of where you are burning for all eternity while being consumed by worms constantly (Mark 9:44-28).  My epiphany on hell is that it probably starts out with the same environment as heaven without being bathe constantly in God’s love – the beatific vision, but it is the people who are in it that will create hell, not God.  If God had any hand in it, besides just allocating a place where it could exist and where people who by free will rejected him would never be forced to see him, there at least be some mercy there. But if there is any mercy in hell to start with, it will eventually fade from the minds of the eternally damned.  All the people in hell choose to live without, or at least ignoring God’s laws in this life and reap what they have sown in the next at the hands of some of their “companions.”

           We have a taste of what fire that causes destruction, sickness burning and death I the form of radioactivity from a nuclear weapon. If there are wars in hell, which with the likes of Hitler and Stalin probably being there, wars are unavoidable. Worms that never die cold conceivably be biological weapons. And the demented people there will no doubt become masters of torture (an even worst scenario).

           They also lack any respect for any authority like many on earth do not respect not only any secular leaders but don’t believe God would leave us any religious leaders leading to people interpreting God’s word in the bible any way they wand. Some say the Holy Ghost (also called the Holy Spirit by some) guides them but if that’s true, why do members of one bible respecting groups dis agree with so vehemently with other groups?

    Kirk defends Christianity

    Kirk defends his stance against abortion

    Charlie Kirk emphasizes the seriousness of selecting who You Marry and how one should conduct themselves before marriage to have a successful life long marriage.

    Maher interview

  • On Sacrifice  

               Sacrifice, as was possibly mentioned some time in this blog (or at least should have been), is the supreme act of religion. But we need an in-depth description of sacrifice in its proper sense to investigate all its implications and past religions practices bearing on the Catholic holy sacrifice of the mass. To insure it is complete we will take an excerpt from Fr. Gihr book The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: Dogmatically, Liturgically and Ascetically Explained by Rev. Dr. Nicholas Gihr, published by B. Herder Book Co. St. Louis Mo. Copyright 1902 Joseph Gummersbach, minus the Latin exemplification, mostly through footnotes. With regard to Sacrifice in the Proper Sense from this book we have the following quote:

            The interior acts and affections of the virtue of religion, that is, of adoration, thanksgiving, petition and satisfaction, manifest themselves in many ways, but find their supreme and most solemn expression in sacrifice.  Sacrifice is a special act of divine service, and, as such, differs essentially from all other acts of worship.  To form a correct idea of sacrifice, we must inquire what is properly meant by sacrifice, and in what its essence consists. By sacrifice we understand the offering of a visible object, effected through and change, transformation of destruction thereof, in order effectually to acknowledge the absolute Majesty and Sovereignty of God as well as man’s total dependence and submission.

         Among the requisites of sacrifice, the gift and its presentation as well as the object and meaning of the exterior act, chiefly deserve consideration.

    1. Sacrifice is the offering of a visible object; hence, in the first place, a visible gift is necessary as an offering to God. This gift ought to correspond to the object in view, and should, therefore, be selected with due regard thereto.  Consequently, the offering most appropriate to God is that which is the noblest in the visible creation – human life.  Wherefore Christ, in order to present the most perfect sacrifice, offered His precious life on the Cross, according to the will of His Father. In every other case the father did not wish that human life should be sacrificed to Him, but rather contented Himself with the interior offering of the heart and its symbolical expression – namely, with the presentation of irrational creature substituted for human life and offered in its stead.

    *footnote: This substitution for man and human life is, as seen in the rite of the Old Testament for the offering of sacrifices, expressed and commanded in the clearest manner (compare the ceremony of laying hands on the head of the animal to be slain, – the sacrifice of the two goats on the great Feast of Atonement). Recall also the sacrifice of Abraham. The patriarch was commanded to sacrifice his only son Isaac: but, in accordance with the will of God, he took a “ram and offered it as a holocaust in place of his son” (Gen. 22:13). The Fathers teach the same.

    It is at once evident that especially the living and inanimate things which serve directly for the support of man, and thus may represent his life, may  be appropriately substituted as offerings for man himself.  Before Christ such offerings consisted, for example, of lambs, heifers, doves; bread, wine, oil, salt, incense.

    As such gifts were offered to give honor to God, it is self-evident that they had to be as perfect as possible, without blemish or defect. In as far as sacrifice is an external act of worship, its value depends chiefly on the dignity and interior dispositions of the person who offers; the value of the fift presented also contributes to make the sacrifice more acceptable to God.  Hence when proper sentiments animate the heart, only precious gifts will be selected as offerings fo an action so exalted and holy.  On the other hand – to make choice of indifferent, trifling or imperfect objects as offerings is a sign that the proper spirit of sacrifice and respect for the Divine Majesty ar wanting (cf. Mal. 1:7-8)

    2. Not every gift offered to God is a sacrifice. It greatly depends on the way and manner of offering. – Some change or destruction of the gift must take place to constitute a sacrifice. An entire destruction of the gift, or such as is at least morally equivalent, pertains essentially to the idea of sacrifice: hence its outward form. Whatever has not been liturgically transformed, v.g. destroyed, cannot be a real sacrifice (sacrificium), but is only a religious gift (oblatio), essentially different from a sacrifice.  Thus we find in all sacrifices mentioned in Holy Writ, that there was ever some mode of destruction or dissolution, appropriate to the nature of the matter of the sacrifice.  Thus, the animals were slain and their blood spilled on the altar, incense was consumed by fire, and wine was poured out.  The intrinsic and more weighty reason why such a transformation, or destruction, of the gift is requisite for the act of sacrifice, lies in the peculiar meaning and in the special object of sacrifice.

    3.  Sacrifice, that is, the transformation of the gift offered, is intended to represent symbolically that God possesses absolute authority and dominion over all things – and, consequently, that man is essentially dependent upon God, belongs and is subject to Him and, therefore, that he is bound and is ready to give and dedicate his life entirely to God.  God is the Supreme Ruler, infinitely holy, the primal source of all being, and the last end to which all being should return, “that He may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).  And now how could this grandeur and sovereignty of God over all that is and tha can be outside of Him, be more appropriately expressed than by the destruction of a visible object, as is done in sacrifice?  How could man’s dependence on and obligation to serve God be more suitably made apparent than in sacrifice, wherein a tangible, material object, is destroyed in the place of a human life?

           If the exterior rite of sacrifice is in reality to have the above meaning and be a worship acceptable to God, them it must also be and expression of the interior and spiritual sacrifice, and be animated and vivified by the essential sentiments of sacrifice. – “the visible sacrifice,” says St. Augustine, “is a holy sign of the invisible offering.”

          Hence the offering up of sacrifice essentially aims to glorify God as the absolute Lord and supreme legislator of all creatures, and this is to adore God.   This meaning is inseparably connected with sacrifice; it holds the first place, and is ever and act of worship due to God alone, – an act of adoration. – With the main object, thanksgiving and petition are naturally combined, inasmuch as the gift is presented also to honor and acknowledge God as the omnipotent and merciful Dispenser of all good gifts, that is, to show one’s self grateful for benefits received, and to supplicate for new graces. – In consequence of the fall of man, sacrifice assumes the additional characteristic of atonement.  It is offered to express the need and desire of appeasing the irritated justice of God and of being thereby freed from sin and its punishment.  Atonement for sin committed is made by sacrifice, inasmuch as the offended majesty of God is glorified, in order to restore to God the honor of which He had been deprived and to make satisfaction for the injury done to Him.  The destruction of the offering is especially suitable to this end.  How could sinful man more worthily and more strikingly acknowledge himself deserving of death on account of his fault, and, willing to undergo death in satisfaction for it, them when, by the laying of his hands on the victim, he transfers to it his sims, and slaying it and shedding its blood, offers it to God instead of his own life?

         History shows us atonement as always accompanying adoration and holding the rank next to it in the idea of sacrifice.  The first and greatest want and desire of fallen man was to appease the anger of an offended God, to obtain mercy and forgiveness for sin; hence it is quite natural that among the guilty, unredeemed generations living before Christ the character of atonement should have ben impressed in a marked manner upon their sacrifices.  In whatever necessity sinful man presents himself before God, whether to adore, to thank or to petition Him, his first and deepest conviction is that he is a poor sinner, unworthy of being heard and answered by God; hence it is most natural that precisely in the most ardent acts of worship, such as sacrifice, he will always, and at the very start, feel deeply conscious that he is laden with sins and debts to God.  How could he, a sinner, more worthily acknowledge the Divine Majesty of the infinitely holy and just God, show his gratitude towards Him in a more appropriate way, and approach Him with greater confidence of being heard?

         It is for this fourfold end that sacrifices are offered: hence there are sacrifices of adoration, of thanksgiving, of petition and of propitiation.  These divisions are not made according to the exclusive object of Sacrifice, but only with reference to its predominant end.  This means only that in the rite of celebration and in the intention of the person offering, one of these ends is chiefly intended, without, however, excluding the others.  Every sacrifice has in itself a fourfold signification: it serves at one and the same time to glorify the Divine Majesty (sacificium latreuticum); to return thanks for benefits received (sacrificium eucharisticum); to petition for new benefits (sacrificium impetratorium); and finally, to satisfy for sin and its punishment (sacrificium propitiatorium).

    4. In so far as sacrifice has a symbolical meaning and is a constituent part of public worship, it must positively be instituted by a legitimate authority.  The sacrificial service of the Old Law was regulated by God Himself in its most minute details; in the New Law the essential elements and features of worship proceed directly from Jesus Christ – hence, first of them all, sacrifice, which constitutes the fundamental and central of divine service.  Neither to the Synagogue nor to the Church did God Impart the right or the power to institute sacrifices: in His infinite mercy He Himself condescended to prescribe the sacrifices by which He would be honored and propitiated. No mere man, but our Divine Saviour alone could institute so sublime and so excellent a Sacrifice as we possess in the Holy Mass.

    5.  Sacrifice is an act of worship which can not be performed by anybody but a priest.  He alone who has been especially chosen, called and empowered, that is, only a priest can and may perform the office of sacrifice.  Sacrifice and priesthood are inseparably connected: no sacrifice can exist without a priesthood, and not priesthood without a sacrifice.  A special priesthood is, therefore, required by the very nature of sacrifice, which, as a public, solemn act of worship, must be performed in the name and for the welfare of the religious body by a duly authorized person.   – Consequently, it is highly proper that only he who is, at least by his office and dignity, especially separated from sinners and sanctified, would present himself in sacrifice as mediator between and offended God and sinful man. “For every high priest taken from among men,” so writes the Apostle, “is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Heb. 5:1). _ It is clear that it belongs to God, alone to bestow the honor of the priestly vocation and office, and to determine “who belong to Him, and the holy He will Join to Himself, and they whom He shall choose shall approach to Him” (Num. 16:5).

    6.  Nor is it less evident that for the celebration of so holy and solemn an act of worship it is especially becoming to make choice of a sanctified place; such a place, where sacrifice is offered, is called and altar.  Wherever sacrifice and priesthood are found, there also is always and altar.

    7. From the above it follows that sacrifice is the most exalted and perfect manner of honoring God, and, therefore, excels all other acts of worship.  It also constitutes the principal act, and is the centra point of the whole divine service.  In this all agree that man by the offering of sacrifice tenders to God the highest possible honor and homage.  In sacrifice the interior adoration of the Divine Majesty attains its fullest expression.  Sacrifice is essentially an act of adoration, and, therefore, always includes the acknowledgment of the divinity of Him to whom it is offered. It is among all acts of worship the prerogative of God, and may be offered only to the one true God.  To offer it to a creature, even to the greatest saint or the most exalted of the angels, would be heinous idolatry. _ At all times sacrifices have been offered to God, to acknowledge in the most perfect and solemn manner His sovereignty, to express gratitude for favors, to implore fresh blessings form Him and especially to avert the scourges of His avenging justice. *footnote: Many theologians assert that sacrifice is strictly required and commanded, by the very law of nature, that it is a natural necessity. Others do not grant this, but say that sacrifice is only in an eminent degree in accord with the law of nature, i.e., that it corresponds to the law of nature; that not only the interior but also the exterior worship of God is assuredly commanded by the natural law, but that this obligation may be fulfilled by performing other acts, for example, by vocal prayer, by the joining of the hands and the bending of the knees. Doubtless, sacrifice is necessary in order to make exterior worship perfect.  The Church teaches that human nature calls for a visible sacrifice. . .

              The above quote brings into clear, exact and concise focus what sacrifice in the ages before Jesus Christ, especially in the old law of the Old Testament meant and consisted of. As the supreme act of worship everyone knew they should carry it out. As the Catholic Church believes all religions have some part of how God wishes to be worshiped. These things were known, I assume, through ancestral memory from the earliest times possibly back to Adam and Eve. Even the Aztec human sacrifice had it partially correct, on how God wanted to be worshiped with “human sacrifice,” just not completely correct or correct in how He wanted complete human sacrifice (not just body consumed but a living body consumed in zeal and performance of his Word sacrificing not only his or her physical self, but their emotional self, their mental self and their spiritual self until God himself called them to heaven in death, natural, violent or as a martyr), with all of how he wanted to be worshiped and what he wanted man to believe, being contained perfectly and completely in the new law, the New Testament completing, clarifying and correcting the old law of the Old Testament. The perfect sacrifice was Jesus Christ, but He was all Human and all God (the all God part being the partial missing from the Aztec’s human sacrifice which was the infinite component that could only be supplied by God in atonement fir humanities offense to the divine dignity of God, Adam and Eve violating the only law (Genesis 2:16-17) given by an all-good Being who created us with infinite power out of nothing) and the only unique appropriate sacrifice to atone for man’s offense through Adam and Eve.

             From Martin Luther we hear that man, having sinned, is like dung and we can never be more, but God covers us with snow to make us appear better if we just have faith. (https://dwightlongenecker.com/luther-and-snow-on-dunghills/#:~:text=Luther%20and%20Snow%20on%20Dunghills%20Somewhere%20or%20other,underneath%20we’re%20still%20a%20pile%20of%20steaming%20shit.. ) But this faith without works led some of Luther’s followers to ignore their fellow man and concentrate only on themselves.  Some of them become experts in quoting and knowing the Bible but not acting on and spreading the gifts they have received from a loving God. Some literature I have read goes so far as to say they ignored the plight of widows and orphans in violation of James 1:27.  But James 2:14-26 relates faith without works is dead. And with regard to the commandments of God In Mark 12:30-31 we can see that faith is really covered in the “first overall commandment” of “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” and the “second and final overall commandment” is “Love your neighbor as yourself,” ”No other commandment is greater than these” (Berean Standard Bible).

              As mentioned above and by God himself (Psalm 51:16-17) “For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it: You take no pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” God does not want physical sacrifice. Old Testament sacrifices are only a representation, a type, of what He actually wants “a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart. . .” What God wants is to devote our whole lives to Him through following His two Commandments: 1) Love God with your whole being and 2) Love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30-31), the 10 commandments being a more granular clarification of these 2 all-encompassing commandments.  If, as the Aztecs did, you sacrifice a human, if it had any effect, it would only be to show adoration to God and acknowledgement of His supreme authority.  It would do little if anything to change the world He created to make it better.  As Catholics we are called to make the world better for our fellow man and help him see the goodness of God and bring Him into God’s family to make things better for all that live on earth and lead our fellow men and women to eternal happiness.

            But Sacrifice is an integral part of the holy sacrifice of the Roman Catholic Mass (thus its inclusion in the common reference to it before 1968 – the holy sacrifice of the mass), the defining ritual of the Catholic religion, for though it, we join with the bloody sacrifice offered once with infinite efficacy which is done in remembrance of it.  But just like everything involving Jesus Christ, there is a more profound effect of the holy sacrifice of the mass, Jesus Christ is brought back body blood soul and divinity, what Catholics define as the “real presence.”  Not symbolic presence or consubstantial presence both of which are believed by some protestant sects. Consubstantial presence (https://www.britannica.com/topic/consubstantiation ) being that Jesus Christ is present with the bread and wine and of course symbolic presence meaning Jesus Christ is not really present at all only symbolically present or in some circles present with the bread and wine, the bread and wine not being actually his body. By real presence Catholics believe, as stressed in John 6:47-70, that the bread and wine changed by the consecration is actually God/Jesus (3rd person of the Blessed Trinity) that look like wine and bread. Though they look the same their essence has changed.  What was bread and wine is now Jesus Christ, something only God could accomplish.  Though this is an act of faith which must be believed by a true followers of Christ – Catholics, that a validly consecrated priest/bishop (the only actual clerical ranks, cardinals being bishops who can elect the bishop of Rome – this most senior elected bishop, St. Peter’s successor, in charge of leading the Catholic church during a particular stretch of time usually ending with his death,  being called the pope, and the lowest rung of this Apostle/God selected hierarchy being priests) can consecrate, red wine and unleavened wheat bread to transform it into the body blood soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. This transformation into the real presence of Jesus Christ is called transubstantiation, i.e bread and wine’s substance or essence is changed.  This is why true Catholics are so careful with the disposition of the consecrated bread and wine.

             What is important about the bread and wine being Christ actual body and blood is the fact that his real actual physical body actually becomes part of us along with his spirit and divinity (sanctifying grace) so that we are truly sons and daughters of God having absorbed a part of the real Jesus Christ!

            Thanks to Jesus Christ coming into this world and bringing us the gospel, the good news of God, animals and moreover humans do not have to die to fulfil a religious obligation to God. If people, like St. Francis of Assisi, have a problem hurting animals, the holy sacrifice of the mass only requires them to consume bread (or if they have an allergy through special permission, consume just wine) to fulfil their religious obligation of sacrifice to God.  God is most interested in that they should use their lives to improve the lives of other humans, not only in their families but at their jobs, and in that way fulfil the rest of their religious obligations to God.  This is of course is in addition to the mandatory weekly offering of the holy sacrifice of the mass on Sunday and daily prayers.  He wants us to use our talents and let those consume us, figuratively, to devote our entire being to His service through not only our religious adoration of him at the mass every Sunday, in which He shows his infinite love by being not only the sacrifice once performed in bloody form on calvary, but coming back to earth, really and truly in the Eucharist, in body, blood, soul and divinity. But as stated earlier, He clearly also wants us to use our talents in service to the universe He created and all who live there to create a happy and enjoyable life for all creatures and spread God’s word and how to worship Him, to our fellow sentient beings – humankind, so that they may live for eternity with God in unspeakable happiness (1 Cor 2:9).

             Not only does the ability to enter heaven given to us by Jesus Christ’s death on the cross but the ability to have our sins forgiven by a priest (John 20:21-23). Now many non-catholic Christians say you can go straight to God, by praying to him to have your sins forgiven. This is true only in the case of lesser sins which we call venial sins. For mortal sins, which cause the “death of the soul” or a break with friendship with God, you can only have your sins forgiven by a priest, unless you offer “perfect contrition,” that is only because you have offended God and for absolutely no other reason, if it is tinged with fear of hell, the contrition is not perfect.  The passage from the gospel of St. John in the first part of this paragraph, Jesus Christ gives his apostles and their successors the power to forgive sins, even with imperfect contrition, through true contrition of some type is mandatory.

           Why would you want to risk your immortal soul on a possible imperfect contrition? God knows what is in your heart, so you can’t fool Him.  After you are baptized the first time, which technically, as I understand any human can do, all your sins are forgiven, but it can only be done once with effect, to have all your sins forgiven and make you a child of God by another human being. You can not really baptize yourself, unless it is one of 2 very special cases, that you want to join the Catholic Church and studying for your baptism you somehow die before you accomplish it or you die as a martyr in defense of the faith before you can be baptized with the intention to be baptized.  Theoretically, also, people that are perfectly ignorant of Christ and his church may be saved if they live a perfect life according to their conscience. This is how people not Jews and not Catholic (Catholicism being the fulfilment of the Jewish religion) are “saved.”  But the event that allows this is still Christ’s death on the cross.  All the Old Testament people of God that faithfully practiced the Jewish religion went to heaven after Christ died on the cross.  He went to where their souls existed and brough them to heaven with Him, He being the first “human” to “merit” heaven.  The terms “merit” and “human” are very mysterious concepts in regard to the God-Man Jesus Christ and our human understanding, their nuances which I have touched on in other blogs.          In this type of sacrifice, a human or an animal, is not physically wasted, but the full physical, emotional, mental and spiritual being, especially in a human, is completely used, to honor God by making the world a better place and bringing clearer knowledge of him here through our words and actions. This is what I think is embodied in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 in saying “pray without ceasing.” We offer up all we do concentrating on doing the best we can to make God’s wish to produce the best world for our fellow man a reality. We Catholics must burn, consumed like fire, offering a sacrifice of our life with a zeal and with action to serve God’s will, to make the world a better place for our fellow man and to bring all our fellow humans back to him for an eternity of happiness. This is the consuming sacrifice God wants from each and every man and woman and how we should raise our children to be.

  • Salvations Climax Summarized

            The a few blogs ago (before the summer movie reviews) we spoke about the last supper, the passion and crucifixion at calvary and the Ascension. The last thing that should be mentioned is Pentecost. In the Old Testament, God the Father interacted with man directly, communicating with him, punishing him, rewarding him and giving prophets the information that He would be sending a messiah to save them from the punishment due to original sin, which they promptly transmitted to the people of Isreal. The information on the Messiah was detailed (see the book of the prophet Isaiah) so that Isreal would know when Salvation had come but unfortunately, they were a stiff-necked people (Exodus 32:9, Jeremiah 17:23 and Acts 7:51) and either refused to see the signs that Jesus Christ was the Messiah or ignored the signs through pride!

            Of all the people that had ever lived, only one was clearly predicted to come over 600 years before he was born, and that person was Jesus Christ.  In the New Testament, Jesus Christ, God Himself, came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17-20) that priest of old had been transmitting to the Jewish people. The priests of the Old Jewish religion were selected by God the Father using the natural law, i.e. the sons of Levi for priests and the sons of Aaron for the high priest. In the New Testament the priest and bishops were selected by supernatural law, by decisions by bishops or Christ Himself in the case of St. Paul which had to be “ratified” by someone who was a disciple and had presumably through at least the sacrament of confirmation if not Holy Orders (on reception of the Spirit being a prerequisite to full service to God see Acts 8:15-17)  had received the Spirit (the first 13 being the 11 apostles who chose the 12th Matthias in Acts 1:15-26 – a decision by the bishops for a successor to Judas Iscariot, and St. Paul, selected supernaturally by the risen Christ from heaven but ratified by a disciple Ananias, see acts 9:10-18, presumably blessed by the apostles to be the equivalent of a priest in those days sometimes referred to a Presbyter in the Douey-Rhiems version of the bible the first English translation of the Vulgate bible, the Vulgate being the first book produced by the first printing press).

           The reason for the implementation of a supernatural law to select priest and, with the advent of New Testament times, senior priests was two-fold: 1) to enable God to select non-Jews (i.e. gentiles) to be priests in his religion and 2) Since gentiles are everywhere, other than the place Isreal has always been, He wanted a religion that was “portable,” where a church or diocese could be anywhere even another planet.  This is why even the idea that dogma/doctrine that is solid, or that it can even change, is so ridiculous.  If man travels to the other side of the galaxy or even universe, how do they get news of that dogma/doctrine has changed?  The same with the holy sacrifice of the mass (the Sunday ritual worship of the Roman Catholic religion), if it is always done and transmitted in Latin, it is a common language neither the rich/[powerful nor poor can lay claim too and can keep the meaning of dogma constant and unconfused. No matter how language changes, if we assume the speed of light is the limiting factor for information transmission, changes in ritual or clarification of dogma will still insure the “old dogma” is not wrong.  Almighty God planned it this way and why everything in the Old and New Testament is infallibly transmitted and meaning is intended to be constant and unchanging.

             Many non-Catholic Christians, who follow Christ’s philosophy, appear to have problem’s with the fact that Christ might leave some visible authority who’s power is traceable back to God, specifically Jesus Christ.  They appear to think that to pick up a bible, learn it then preach it gives them the authority of a true representative of Christ which of course only a priest or bishop selected through apostolic succession/selection is. Hebrews 9:11,24-25 reads:

    “But Christ being come an high priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand, that is, not of this creation: . . . For Jesus is not entered into the holies made with hands, the patterns of the true: but into heaven itself, that He may appear now in the presence of God for us.

    Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holies, every year with the blood of others:”

    Because the bible talks exclusively of Christ as the high priest, people reading the Bible take this to mean he is the only priest, priests having to be consecrated by some authorities are not self-selecting.  The fact is that if  he is indeed the high priest, not “the only priest,” which is not something He said, then it is implied that He has other priests working for him as the “high priest.” Also, a priest’s function is to offer sacrifice but they hold that Christ sacrifice was all that was needed and made total restitution for our sins, which is true, but at the last the supper saying “do this in remembrance of me” meant to renew the power of Calvery, as well as the memory of Calvery, through this union with the original sacrifice to continually draw power for the forgiveness of sins from that sacrifice. The Catholic Church is clear on this point, each mass is not a new sacrifice, it is the self-same sacrifice, to be pulled throughout time to renew the power of this sacrifice, through the remembrance that was asked for by Christ at the last supper.

            Many so called Christians as mentioned above question the churches authority and whether or not priests might still exist (in the bible New Testament presbyters and bishops, which are mentioned are the Catholic Churches names for those officiating at Christs remembrances as replacements for priest and the high priest, so instead of having one temple in one place, each dioceses can have a head official like the former high priest – of which there is still only one, Jesus Christ, who in turn has priests under him), as if God, ever in the Old Testament did not have priests. But Christ said I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it in Matthew 5:17. If this is so and if and entire book of the Old Testament Pentateuch, the most holy 5 books of the Jewish religion is dedicated to the ritual and priest – Leviticus, why would he abolish the priesthood, and the fact that they must be selected by some law God (in this case Jesus Christ through His apostles) put into place, in the New Testament? Plus, if Jesus Christ changed anything from the Old Testament he made it stricter and explicit such as the definition of the sin of adultery:  “I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:28-29)  Also, similarly his injunction on divorce and remarriage when the spouse is not dead is adultery (Matthew 19: 3-9). Everyone is always looking for loopholes for things that are not easy, so to go harder is always a better bet, and if allowed to interpret the bible any way they want, they may interpret it wrong to their everlasting regret! Unfortunately, they must interpret it all correctly to attain salvation!  But that is what the tradition of the Church and the fathers of the church (great Catholics/Christians in the first 400 years of the church) are for.

           This is why the keeping of tradition (“Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.” – 2 Thessalonians 2:14) is so important. As complex a problem as keeping the Barque/ship of Peter (a popular symbolic representation of the Roman Catholic Religion within the Catholic Church) on the right course to heaven, tradition becomes very important.  Just like a nuclear submarine (if we use this to symbolically represent the Catholic Religion), when built, is accompanied by a manual (this being like the Bible).  The builders wrote the manual, (Jesus Christ – God) also trained the first crew.  This original crew (which is equivalent to the original apostles) learned tricks to run the submarine which became tradition, which one crew passed on to the next when they left through reassignment or retirement.  If It’s important to ensure that a machine that could do incredible damage to the entire world have experienced people pass on the secrets to its efficient operation, how much more important is it to put into place a cadre of professionals to pass on the hard learned secrets to salvation for each and every man’s immortal soul from generation to generation?

            Some things that come to mind when I think of people rebelling against Gods appointed authority in the Old Testament are the respect David had for the ruling king Saul as God’s anointed one in the first and second books of Samuel as well as the rebellion of Korah and 250 followers who said Moses and Aaron were not above the congregation in authority as high priest etc.  God opened up the earth and swallowed them to prove the authority of Moses and Aaron as we see in the book of Numbers chapter 16. Others were not convinced (as seen in the same chapter) and as a result 14,700 Israelites died before the rest of the Israelites got the message loud and clear. Finally, Moses’ own sister Miriam challenged his authority in chapter 12 of the book of Numbers and as a punishment contracted leprosy until she recanted.

           God always leads his people through people He selects, either by natural law or by supernatural law, which in our case is seen in the apostolic succession/selection (see Acts 1:15-26 that this was sanctioned that they should select successors).  Those who pick up a bible and start to preach, should remember this.  God chooses his representative, they are sent by Him, His representatives don’t select themselves.

           But how can people now be thought to represent God? Because as spoke of earlier they are lead by the Holy Ghost, the third Person of the blessed Trinity – that is God, sent first on the last event of salvations climax, Pentecost, to the apostles (as promised by Jesus Christ in John 14:16-17).  They in turned passed it to their successors, for the purpose of the priesthood/episcopate through the sacrament of Holy Orders.  Rank and file Catholics are passed the Holy Ghost in different a way, with out the power to consecrate the bread and wine in mass to make it the body and blood of Jesus Christ, or to forgive sins (God alone can forgive sins  as supported by Matthew 9:2-8 and Mark 2:7, but if the power is delegated to someone in cooperation with the Holy Ghost as in John 20:19-23, then sins can be forgive by God the Holy Ghost through the representative He authorizes – the priest or bishop, through apostolic succession i.e. the sacrament of holy orders).    

       In part of the climax to salvation the apostles are given the Eucharist (Mark 14:22-25) to be able to increase grace in all men and the ability to forgive all sins, but most notably mortal sin (1 John 5:17), to be able to save their souls from eternal damnation should the devil’s wiles succeed in making a man or woman fall hard!  The Eucharist was a most wonderous way for Christ himself to quite literally guide every man and woman (John 6:53-66), at the age of reason, personally.

  • Pertinent Information on the Great Courses Lectures on The History of Christianity from the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation

               The following are the subjects of each of the 30-minute lectures

    Disc 1

    1. The Historical Study of Christianity

    2. The First Cultural context – Greece and Rome

    3. The First Cultural context – Judaism

    4. The Jesus Movement and the birth of Christianity

    5. Paul and Christianity’s first Expansion

    5. The Diversity of Early Christianity.

    Disc 2

    7. The Unpopular Cult – Persecution

    8. forms of Witness – Martyrdom and Apologetic

    9. Extreme Christianity in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries

    10.  The Shaping Of Orthodoxy

    11.  Institutional Development before Constantine

    12. The Beginnings of Christian Philosophy

    Disc 3

    13. Imperial Politics and Religion

    14.  Constantine and the Established Church

    15.  The Extension of Christian Culture

    16.  Monasticism as Radical Christianity

    17. The Emergence of Patriarchal Centers

    18.  Theological Crisis and Council – The Trinity

    Disc 4

    19.  Theological Crisis and Council – Christology

    20.  The Distinctive Issues of the Latin West

    21.  Expansion beyond the Boundaries of Empire

    22.  The Court of Justinian and Byzantine Christianity

    23.  The Rise of Islam and the Threat of Iconoclasm

    24.  Eastern Orthodoxy – Holy Tradition

    Disc 5

    25.  From Roman Empire to Holy Roman Empire

    26.  Benedictine Monasticism and its Influence

    27,  Evangelization of Western Europe                

    28.  The Great Divorce between East and West

    29.  Monastic Reform

    30.  Cathedrals and Chapters

    Disc 6

    31. The Crusades

    32.  Papal Revolution

    33.  Universities and Theology

    34.  The Great Plague

    35.  Corruption and the Beginnings of Reform

    36.  The Ever-Adapting Religion

    The Lecturer (Following as with all other notes in the future on the lecturer are quoted from the write up on the back of the DVD cases.

    “Professor Luke Timothey Johnson is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins of Emory University’s Candler School of Theology .  A Former Benedictine monk and teacher at Yale Divinity School, he is the author of numerous acclaimed books including The Real Jesus, The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels and, most recently, Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity. Professor Johnson has twice received Emory University’s prestigious On Eagle’s Wings Excellence in Teaching Award.”

    The course book has the standard Suggested Reading and questions to consider after each lecture section as well as the bibliography at the end and blank pages except for the heading of notes.

    An example of the Questions to consider and a quote of a possible answer from the text is as follows:

    “Why are doctrine and disputes over doctrine so prominent in Christianity in comparison to other world religions?”

    “It would be a mistake to regard the controversies as quibbling over words: Genuine convictions concerning the nature of salvation were at stake.

    • Those on the Arian side thought that they were protecting the “Oneness” of God by making Christ a creature.
    • For Athanasius and his friends, however, it was a a question of whether humans were saved by God or by themselves; the divinity of Christ was critical to God alone being given the glory.”

  • A Review of the course guide book for the Great Courses Lectures and one of the biggest misunderstandings of Protestants exposed in The Catholic Church: A History

             Most of the guide books that come with the great course’s lectures have summaries of each lecture, as well as suggested reading and questions to consider after each summary with the guidebook concluding with an extensive bibliography and some pages left blank except for the heading of notes, which, surprise, I assume are for taking notes while watching the DVDs or reading the course book.  With most of the rest of the blogs on the great courses both the DVDs and guide book will be covered in one blog, but in this case, there were a few extras in this particular guide book which I felt it important enough to cover separately.

           The biggest misunderstanding, as I understand as a traditional catholic, is the definition of  “apostolic,” in this course, when referring to the “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic” Church.  The author of these lectures sees apostolic as meaning: “that the apostles would recognize the Roman Church as theirs . . .”  For traditional Catholics, we see apostolic as meaning that the legitimacy, authority and power that is entrusted to the Roman Catholic Church derives from Jesus Christ giving that legitimacy, authority and power to his apostles and sending them out to select their successors who they in turn send with the power to fearlessly and truthfully hand on the Truth, which Jesus Christ sent the human race, and through those perpetuate a perfected Jewish priesthood (Matthew 5:17), through supernatural means (see the selection of Mathias in the first Chapter of Acts)  to include the gentiles, which formally was perpetuated through natural means, the sons of Levi and Aaron.  This divergence in what the meaning of apostolic means leads to protestants not easily seeing the necessity or origin of the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church.  Picking up and learning the bible is enough for a person to preach and lead a congregation in the protestant mind, without the necessity of having been sent by Jesus Christ or those He personally selected to teach his message who in turn personally selected their successors (As in the case of Mathias mentioned above).

          The additions to the standard stuff in most other guidebooks include:

    A time line with an excerpt below:

    c. 4 ……….of Jesus

    c. 30 …….death and resurrection of Jesus; Pentecost

    c. 65 …….Paul writes letters to several Christian communities

    54-68……Reign of Emperor Nero 

    c.64 …….Martyrdom of Peter and Paul

    c.65/70…Gospel of Mark written

           .     .     .

    1968…..Humanae vitae proclaimed by Paul VI; Latin American Episcopal Conference meets in Medellin

    1970…..Hans Kung publishes Infallible? An Inquiry
    1972 ….Gustavo Gutierrez publishes A Theology of Liberation 

    1978…..The pontificate of John Paul I (33 days)

    1978-2005… Pontificate of John Paul II

    1981……Attempted assassination of John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square, Rome

    1986……John Paul II calls Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi

    1999……John Paul II and Lutheran leaders agree to a Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification

    2005-  …Pontificate of Benedict XVI

    A Glossary with an excerpt from the section of terms beginning with the letters C and D

    .   .   .

    Counterreformation (a.k.a. Catholic Reformation):  The programs of change that the Catholic Church carried out in the 16th century, often seen as a response to Protestantism and sometimes seen as having its origin before the Protestant Reformation began.

    Crusade: An armed expedition from Western Europe that attempted to conquer the Holy Land.  The First Crusade was successful in conquering Jerusalem and establishing a Latin Kingdom there.  Later, Crusades were conducted against other perceived enemies of the church, including Lithuania and Bohemia, as well as against heretics in France and Italy.

    Cyrillic: The Alphabet created in the 9th century by Saints Cyril and Methodius to create a written form of Slavic.  It is the basis of the alphabet of Russia and several other Slavic nations today.

    Deacon: A rank of clergy below priest.  Some deacons are permanent deacons, while transitional deacons are later ordained as priests.

    Decretum: A compilation of canon law formed by Gratian in 1140, which became the basis for the canon law of the church until the 20th century.

    .      .       .

    A set of Bibliographical notes that cite important people in the Catholic Church to include at least some popes;

    A bibliography broken down into the following headings:

    Primary Sources – Series

    Primary Sources – Individual Texts

    Modern Scholarly Works