When Conscience Is Mistaken Question: Much has been made of the primacy of conscience today in morals. Even some bishops have claimed that as long as a subject is following their conscience, the Church must support their decision no matter … [Read more...]
Aristotelianism in Eucharistic Theology
Father Thomas Reese and Transubstantiation
May 26, 2023 by David Francis Sherwood
This article has been reworked from a paper entitled “They Must Fall into Being: The Son’s Power as Quasi-Subject of the Accidents of Bread and Wine in the Sacrament of the Eucharist” which I delivered on Feb. 4, 2023, at The Holiness of God … [Read more...]
Why Doesn’t Holy Communion Always Seem to “Work”?
St. Thomas Aquinas and Ronald Knox on Objective Grace and Subjective Dispositions at Work in the Reception of the Sacrament
March 29, 2023 by Fr. Charles Fox
For anyone with more than a passing acquaintance with Holy Communion, questions emerge about its efficacy that do not admit of easy answers. The Eucharist is immensely powerful, so why does it not seem to make more of a difference in every … [Read more...]
Book Reviews – April 2023
March 29, 2023 by Book Reviews
The Order and Division of Divine Truth: St. Thomas Aquinas as Scholastic Master of the Sacred Page. By John F. Boyle. Reviewed by Sr. Mary Micaela Hoffmann, RSM. (skip to review) Twelve Great Books: Going Deeper into Classic Literature. … [Read more...]
The Spirit of Truth
The Holy Spirit’s Role in a Deeper Understanding of Revelation
December 22, 2022 by Dr. Michael Brummond
Jesus, who identified himself as the truth (Jn 14:6), indicated that it was “to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you” (Jn 16:7). Indeed, Christ promised to pray to the Father to send ano … [Read more...]
Book Reviews – October 2022
September 30, 2022 by Book Reviews
Touched by Christ: The Sacramental Economy. By Lawrence Feingold. Reviewed by Mark McCann. (skip to review) Transubstantiation: Theology, History, and Christian Unity. By Brett Salkeld. Reviewed by Dan Sherven. (skip to … [Read more...]
Prejudices Against Mercy: Is Mercy a Relaxation of Justice?
An Inquiry Guided by St. Thomas Aquinas
July 28, 2022 by Dr. Vincent DeMeo
Contemporary Concerns about Mercy The fact that the Jubilee Year of Mercy called for by Pope Francis in 2016–17 coincided with mass encounters of Middle Eastern refugees in Europe, challenging immigration policy disputes in the United S … [Read more...]
The Terminal State of Unbaptized Infants
June 24, 2022 by Nate Guyear
Since the earliest centuries of the Church, Christians have debated the terminal state of unbaptized babies. (This paper will use the term “unbaptized babies/infants” to represent all who die without baptism and without the cognitive abi … [Read more...]
How Metaphysical Certitudes Anchor Proofs for God
September 24, 2021 by Dennis Bonnette, PhD
This brief essay is not intended to be a complete presentation of the classical proofs for God’s existence as proposed by St. Thomas Aquinas and his disciples. Even partially full treatment of these arguments would require book-length a … [Read more...]
The Difference Between Imperfect and Perfect Hope
Contrasting Aquinas and Luther
September 9, 2021 by Tyler Pellegrin
In this short essay, I ultimately seek to lay out a brief explanation of the mechanics of hope as a theological virtue, which must include its synergy with charity. First, I will emphasize that the Thomistic or Scholastic theology of hope … [Read more...]
Dante and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Faith and Reason
July 15, 2021 by Darrell Falconburg
The topic of the relatedness between reason and faith is important. As people leave the faith in high numbers, one of the reasons given is that faith and reason — more specifically, scientific reason — are viewed as incompatible. The Cath … [Read more...]
Newman, Aquinas, and the Development of Doctrine
June 30, 2021 by Dr. Joshua Madden
The question of the development of doctrine, and his investigation of its implications, was crucial to John Henry Newman’s conversion to the Catholic Church. The question with which he struggled was this: how can it be that the Christian f … [Read more...]
The Mass that Always Was There
April 22, 2021 by Gerard T. Mundy
As a result of the 2020-2021 coronavirus pandemic, Catholic bishops in dioceses around the world restricted public access to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In the United States, every Latin Rite diocese reportedly canceled public Masses at … [Read more...]
Deferring Absolution in Clerical Abuse Cases
March 12, 2021 by Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC
Deferring absolution is the key moment of decision on several key moral issues like contraception and relations with legal but not legitimate spouses, so it ends up being somewhat controversial. However, regarding clerical abuse, I think … [Read more...]
Conception: A Contradiction?
December 11, 2020 by Francis Etheredge
[Cf. Francis Etheredge: Conception: An Icon of the Beginning, St. Louis: En Route Books and Media, 2019: https://enroutebooksandmedia.com/conception/ (the publisher’s page includes interviews, reviews, endorsements, Contents and connections … [Read more...]
Recent Comments