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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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Michuta on the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonicals in 1 Clement
Beginning around page 56, Michuta tries to argue that “the earliest Christians considered the Deuterocanonical books to be divinely inspired.” His first example is 1 Clement – a book whose authorship is unknown, but is sometimes ascribed to Clement of Rome. Michuta argues that 1 Clement 3:4 “quotes Wisdom 2:24.” (p. 57) 1 Clement 3:4For…
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Michuta on Augustine on the Canon – Some Mistakes Corrected
One of the faults of Gary Michuta’s “Why are Catholic Bibles Bigger,” is its apparent uncritical reliance on a number of secondary sources, especially Breen’s “General and Critical Introduction,” (here is one problem that came from that) and Gigot’s “General Introduction.” In the section on Augustine, Michuta seems to draw mostly from Charles J. Costello’s…
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Right to Life – but No Right to Support?
One of the arguments proposed by advocates of permitting intentional abortion is that even if a fetus or embryo has a “right to life” (by virtue of being a separate human being), that right does not include a right to insist on another person’s assistance. For example, if you need blood transfusions to live, that…
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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 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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Responses to Miscellaneous Canon Questions and Objections
1) What is the canon? Is it an “authoritative list of books”? It’s better to think of the canon as the list of authoritative books. An official canon may itself be in some sense authoritative, but in that case it is an authoritative list of authoritative books. Even before any “authority” pronounces what the list…
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Ergun Caner and "Assistant Rabbi" Peter Hirsch
Ergun Caner has several times complained about a post-9/11 ecumenical prayer gathering (sorry, I don’t have the speeches and timestamps available). I think that’s why I was surprised to read an account from the Fort-Worth Star Telegram (apparently dated May 3, 2002), reporting Caner’s participation in a National Day of Prayer group event (link to…
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Ergun Caner and "Assistant Rabbi" Peter Hirsch
Ergun Caner has several times complained about a post-9/11 ecumenical prayer gathering (sorry, I don’t have the speeches and timestamps available). I think that’s why I was surprised to read an account from the Fort-Worth Star Telegram (apparently dated May 3, 2002), reporting Caner’s participation in a National Day of Prayer group event (link to…