Two Short Answers to Pro-file Questions: "Pro-Choice" vs "Pro-Abortion", and The Case of Dangerous Pregnancies

Today I thought I'd cover two questions on the Western world's most debated issue:

The Mass - A Sacrifice... but not a Re-Sacrifice? Huh?

Today I wanted to address one of the most incomprehensible aspects of Catholic worship when looking in from the outside.

The Catholic Church’s worship service is called “the Mass”.  As you may be aware, the Church regards the Mass as a sacrifice in which the offered victim is Jesus Christ.  In addition, most Catholic parishes celebrate the Mass multiple times per day.

With this in mind, many non-Catholics will be concerned that Catholics are attempting to sacrifice Jesus again and again.  In  fact, some will confront Catholics with the words from the letter to the Hebrews, which emphatically says that Christ was sacrificed ONCE for all.  However, when faced with those quotations, knowledgeable Catholics will look you in the eye and assert that the Mass does not “re-sacrifice” Jesus.

The mind reels.

What is going on there?  How can the Mass be a sacrifice, be something which is repeated, and yet not be a “re-sacrifice”?

That’s what we’ll explore today.

Why Do Some Catholics Say Mary is the "Coredemptrix"?

Catholics are often thought to have an unhealthy preoccupation with the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The number of titles and honors given to the mother of the Savior seem, from the outside, to be an unnecessary distraction from Christ – and many times a theologically problematic one.  For those who know about it, the crowning jewel of these unnecessary and problematic titles for Mary is “Coredemptrix.”

The title of “Coredemptrix” is not an official, dogmatically defined title in way certain others are.  Rather, it is common parlance among Catholics with a particularly high Marian piety.... and it is misunderstood by almost everyone else.

So today I wanted to explore the title, what it means, and how it reflects the teaching of Scripture.

A Response to Saint Hilary on the Agony in the Garden

A friend of mine approached me after the Monday Bible Study and said he had an ancient quandary.  It came from a commentary on the Agony in the Garden written by Saint Hilary of Potiers.

My Favorite Theistic Arguments - Part 0 - What Do We Mean?

For a long while I've been wanting to give a treatment to the most basic tenet of Christianity - the existence of God.  Namely, I wanted to do a sketch of the most common (and powerful, in my opinion) argument's for God's existence.

Before we begin with the messy work of providing those arguments, it may be instructive to do a little background work.  First, we'll touch upon what we mean by “God" and then what it means to have "faith in God".  Lastly, I'll provide links to all 6 arguments I wanted to examine.

My Favorite Theistic Arguments - Part VI - The Moral Argument

The previous parts dealt with things which are observed outside of us – the nature of the universe, miracles, and so on.  Today we’re going to look at an argument that requires a bit of introspection.  Today we will give a brief sketch of that most provocative argument:  The moral argument.

Over time I’ve become more convinced that comprehension of this argument is a supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit.  The most common response from non-Theists to this argument is the complete inability to understand what it is getting at.  So it is probably not a good argument to start with, but is more helpful to a person who is on the fence.

With that said, let’s begin:

My Favorite Theistic Arguments - Part V - The Argument from Miracles

Up until now we have been looking at arguments formed from purely natural premises.   Today I wanted to look at the supernatural - namely miracles.

 Miracles are typically understood as events which go beyond what is possible given the natural forces present.  The argument here is simple;  If there has ever been a single genuine miracle - that serves as verification that God exists.

So today I want to look at five examples.

My Favorite Theistic Arguments - Part IV - The Argument from Regularity, Intelligibility, and Mathematics

In the previous note we examined how physics is shot through with physical constants which govern its effects in reality.  So, for instance, we look at the equation for gravitational attraction.

Today we’re going to come at this from a slightly different angle.  The fourth argument I’d want to take a look at has various forms, but I think they all point to the same thing.

My Favorite Theistic Arguments - Part III - The Fine Tuning Argument

In the previous two parts we looked at the Kalam and Contingency arguments.  Those focused on the need for an external cause to create and sustain the universe (or anything at all) in being.

Today we’ll look at an argument of a different type – one which looks for fingerprints on the universe itself.  The most well-known of these is called the “Cosmological Fine Tuning Argument”.

But before we look into that, we first have to review some background.

My Favorite Theistic Arguments - Part II - The Contingency Argument

In the previous post we drew a sketch of the Kalam Cosmological Argument.  It looks at the beginning of the universe and asks, “Why did that happen?  What or who could do that?”

We closed with an objection that can undermine one of the hidden assumptions in the Kalam.  Namely, the reality of the passage of time.  That, I said, moves us into the next argument:  The Contingency Argument.

My Favorite Theistic Arguments - Part I - The Kalam

Today I wanted to start with an overview of the Kalam Cosmological Argument.  The Kalam is probably the most basic argument – so much so that people come realize it on their own.

The Kalam is basically the observation that if the universe has a beginning, then something had to make that happen.  And the only suitable candidate is something like God.

Now let's go through it in more detail.