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Transubstantiation: Historical Development as Described by Garry Wills
Garry Wills (author of “Why I am a Catholic”), in “Why Priests,” describes the development of Eucharistic theology in the Middle Ages (p. 43): William of Ockham (c. 1288–c. 1346), also known as Occam, wrote a long treatise on the Sacrament of the Altar. There he admitted (because the dogma of the Resurrection demanded it)…
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Steve Ray vs. Thomas Aquinas on the Protoevangelium of James
In a recent post, Steve Ray describes the “Protoevangelium of James” in this way: “This document was written in the early 2nd century and known and loved by the first Christians.” On the other hand, Thomas Aquinas described this same work as “apocryphal ravings.” (see also the Decree attributed to Pope Gelasius) Even the famous…
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Thomas Aquinas’ Fictional Adoption of the Immaculate Conception
It ought to be well-known that Rome’s dogma of the Immaculate Conception was denied by her leading medieval saint, Thomas Aquinas (as outlined here). This has been something of a thorn in the side of those contending that Mary was immaculately conceived. They have tried to explain Aquinas’ position away in various ways – such…
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Bryan Cross places the Cart before the Horse, Theologically Speaking
Over at Called to Communion, in the comment box, Bryan Cross wrote: In the first century, no one needed to confess that Christ is homoousious with the Father. But after the fourth century, to deny the homoousious is to fall into [at least material] heresy. This is dead wrong and gets things exactly backwards. It…
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Thomas Aquinas (and the Fathers of the Church) on Mary’s non-Immaculate Conception
Thomas Aquinas did not believe that Mary’s conception was immaculate. In fact he was quite clear about the matter in his Compendium of Theology: As appears from the foregoing exposition, the Blessed Virgin Mary became the mother of God’s Son by conceiving of the Holy Spirit. Therefore it was fitting that she should be adorned…
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Sungenis Claims: "the Church did not receive any divine revelation on the nature of Purgatory"
In a recent (2009) response to Dr. White, Robert Sungenis made some interesting admissions regarding the absence of knowledge of what Purgatory is in Roman Catholic theology: Since the Church did not receive any divine revelation on the nature of Purgatory, and since the Church declined to make any official statements on its nature, it…
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What Catholic Answers Isn’t Telling You About the New Mass Translation
Over the past few months I’ve seen a number of requests for funding from Catholic Answers to support what is billed as the “new translation” of the Order of the Mass. Some of the earlier requests seemed vague as to why this is important. The latest email claims that the issue is that the current…
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Thomas Aquinas, William Webster, and Scripture against Bellisario
Over in the comment box of the Beggars All Reformation blog, Bellisario has attempted to take on William Webster (source). Pastor Webster is not there to defend himself, instead Bellisario is responding to a blogger named Rhology. Bellisario writes: “Scared of Webster! Are you serious?” Of course Rhology’s serious that it seems that folks are…
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Rule of Faith and Life
A reader (who I’m not naming to protect the reader’s privacy) wrote the following comment, to which I will respond, line-by-line: “Turretinfan, you have espoused the view that for an act to be considered immoral, we must find the condemnation of such an act in Scripture.” This seems like an accurate description of my position,…
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Necessity of Scripture Reading – Whitaker and the Fathers
William Whitaker: Nay, the fathers also confess, that a knowledge of, and acquaintance with, the scriptures is necessary for all Christians. Jerome in his commentary upon the Colossians, iii. 16, says: ” Hence we see that the laity ought to have not only a sufficient, but an abundant knowledge of the scriptures, and also to…