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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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What’s the Big Deal About Priests?
Garry Wills, in Why Priests, provides some interesting thoughts on the significance of the Roman Catholic priesthood (Chapter 2, p. 20): The most striking thing about priests, in the later history of Christianity, is their supposed ability to change bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. “From this unique sacrifice their…
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Garry Wills on Augustine and the Real Presence
Garry Wills is the author of “Why I am a Catholic,” but also of “Why Priests?” and “Papal Sins: Structures of Deceit.” His “Lincoln at Gettysburg” won a Pulitzer Prize. He also wrote a biography of Augustine, St. Augustine (a Penguin Lives Biography). So, it might be good for folks to pay attention when he says…
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Garry Wills on the Title "Holy Father"
Garry Wills (self-identified Catholic, but rejecter of the papacy and transubstantiation), in “Why Priests?” has this interesting comment (p. 12): Jesus is telling his Followers not to be like the Sadducees and Pharisees who seek the “first places”: Everything they do is done to impress people. They enlarge their tefillins and lengthen their tassels. They…
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Garry Wills on Community Functions in Paul’s Epistles
Garry Wills (self-identified Catholic, though he does not accept Transubstantiation and the priesthood) in “Why Priests?” describes the evidence in Paul’s epistles regarding the community functions (pp. 10-11): Thus community functions (not offices) are direct gifts (charismata) of the Spirit, making the early community charistmatic in the root original sense, entirely guided by the Spirit,…
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Evangelii Gaudium – the BBC Has Overstated the Pope’s Liberal Leanings
BBC News has the headline: “Pope Francis calls for power to move away from Vatican” and the opening line: “Pope Francis has called for power in the Catholic Church to be devolved away from the Vatican, in the first major work he has written in the role.” The document in question, Evangelii Gaudium (“Gospel’s Joy”)…
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Garry Wills – Why Priests? – Introduction
Dr. Garry Wills is a lay Roman Catholic. His PhD in classics is from Yale (1961) and he taught history for 18 years at Johns Hopkins University. The Los Angeles Times describes him as “American Catholicism’s most formidable law scholar,” and the New York Times describes him as “One of the country’s most distinguished intellectuals.”…