Gilson has made a good case for the difference between the city in the Stoic cosmos and Augustine's "city" in "City of God." And it reminds me sharply of one of my struggles with postliberal Catholics: how this new cosmic view (expressed by Augustine) produces confusion as much as clarification.

Anne M. Carpenter@catholickungfu.bsky.social · 10m ago

"[In Augustine] the City does more than extend to the limits of the earth or the world; it includes it and explains it... ... if we can have faith in the ultimate intelligibility of the smallest occurrence or the most humble being, the City of God holds its secret." (31)

Oh we are citing "Letter to Diognetes" hell yeah

Anne M. Carpenter@catholickungfu.bsky.social · 2h ago

"Even if the theologians were to conclude that there exists no genuine Christendom, we can assure them that there are many false ones. The history of our own time abounds in parodies of the City of God."

"Even if the theologians were to conclude that there exists no genuine Christendom, we can assure them that there are many false ones. The history of our own time abounds in parodies of the City of God."

"We hired a feminist. She has OPINIONS. What the fuck. Just get along with us. Be a woman, but like, in a chill way." No the point is to be presented with new problems. That's part of resolving old ones.

Anne M. Carpenter@catholickungfu.bsky.social · 6h ago

I believe in the goodness of being unbearably awkward. The part that white liberals try to manage away is the awkwardness, though. No. You have to fail. That's part of the agreement of trying to fix problems. Problem with progressive thought is this usually prompts giving up / not trying.

I believe in the goodness of being unbearably awkward. The part that white liberals try to manage away is the awkwardness, though. No. You have to fail. That's part of the agreement of trying to fix problems. Problem with progressive thought is this usually prompts giving up / not trying.

Andrew Reeves@andrewsshi.bsky.social · 6h ago

The whole, "solve the problem of Always Chaotic Evil by turning orcs into a Proud Warrior Race, you know, like Zulus" is just my absolute pet peeve, because it's so emblematic of Try-Hard White Liberal right down to making things more awkward.

I've been thinking a lot about radically revising my teaching method. Over a long time, I learned to kind of... co-create... lectures with students. It just doesn't work as well as it once did. Since I agreed to guest lecture for a class, I'm gonna try out one (just one) revision I'm thinking of.

"In the aftermath of economic and political upheavals, amidst the fears of worse evils to come, the thesis of progress needs to be affirmed again. ... But if the thesis of progress must be affirmed, it must be taken to imply, not only a contrast with the past, but also a contrast with its goal."

Jonathan Ladd@jonathanmladd.com · 10h ago

I always get a lot of grief online when I write that the solution to America's problems cannot be "Democrats win every election forever." That's not democracy. The solution is having at least two parties where the major center-right and center-left parties accept liberal democracy.

The biggest challenge for the US political system is reforming itself so that it can work with regular alternation in party control without either party trying to murder the other party's voters with secret police outside the law or, more generally, ignoring our Constitution.

There are sort of, ah, two elements. - one is our desire to be reasonable, which makes malformation matter, because it works against that - the other is our being irrational (that is, sin), in which case the relationship between intelligence and deed is, quite precisely, arbitrary

Irenic Bro@irenicbro.bsky.social · 10h ago

I do not think that the way we teach has an entirely arbitrary relationship to the way that those we teach believe

The thing about rationalizations, about excusing something irrational, is literally anything can be a rationalization. Some of the things in our lives are more convenient excuses, definitely. But if I had nothing nearby, I’d invent it, or claim that the little plant on my desk supported my cause.

Irenic Bro@irenicbro.bsky.social · 10h ago

"Not liking the trans stuff" is good enough reason for the vast majority of Catholics to overlook their neighbor in the pews being abused and tortured in camps

I don’t know. Fulton Sheen makes me pity Barron. In the sort of positive, older sense of pity. I wonder sometimes how it would be for Barron, what it would be like, if he hadn’t made a company, gone into the business of evangelization. So many temptations. It would change me, too.

Yeah… Sheen’s writing across world war 2 is extremely pessimistic about war. He’s pretty consistent about that. Sheen got adopted by the right but he was pretty normal. mid-century American Catholicism is a different animal than what we’re all familiar with now and we kind of forget.

John Herreid@herreidjohn.bsky.social · 10h ago

Sheen was also one of the only prominent American clerics to publicly denounce the atomic bombing of Japan, and was also vocally against involvement in the Vietnam War despite being firmly anti-communist

In Barron’s defense: he’s been devoted to Sheen for a long time. Sheen’s presence on TV in particular — back in the day — is a core inspiration and model for Barron. They’ve got different personalities, but Barron being this excited makes complete sense to me.

economymedicine.bsky.social@economymedicine.bsky.social · 11h ago

Fulton Sheen is an interesting choice for him to focus on given they would not have been on the same side of a lot of church fights

Just imagine if he also had a Fulton Sheen plushie who also went to Ted Drewes for ice cream. On his trip to see himself beatified. I’m a social media genius.

Live‘n‘Fly 🇺🇦🇬🇱🇫🇷🇩🇪@live-n-fly.bsky.social · 19h ago

Could it be that this Bishop has a somewhat inflated feeling of self-importance? Not even the pope says: Friends, follow me on every step of my visit to the eldest daughter of the church. Or is this called evangelization nowadays?

love when my best friends do live blog updates

Cavadini is as lefty as my right thumb. But God forbid he prioritize unity — and in the Catholic Church of all places — or an ecumenical council endorsed by literally all the modern popes. I feel insane.

Anne M. Carpenter@catholickungfu.bsky.social · yesterday

No I mean… look. LOOK.

No I mean… look. LOOK.

@lamorak.bsky.social · yesterday

It’s fascinating how being a non-fascist is enough to be considered among the Christian Left. This isn’t an insult to you or to them. It’s just an interesting part of the world we live in now.

First: it’s in Latin so it must be true. Second: I am going to take “privata” as “privation” because it’s much more apocalyptic if I do that.

Revan@revan.eurosky.social · yesterday

Anarchist’s post is privileging the res privata over the res publica

I think I’m in some kind of starter pack for “Christian Left.” Which is very funny. It’s not what my CV screams. I’m not NOT the Christian left. I guess. Although it makes me feel bad for the Christian left to say so. Be better, everybody. Look at who’s in the room.

Well yeah. 1970s California Buddhism isn't actually good at Buddhism or American Transcendentalism. Good has to triumph over evil, and the sheer pressure of Western storytelling tropes pushes us back to the secret monotheism underneath the architecture of the space adventure.

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt@jjj123-05.bsky.social · yesterday

Glad to learn this from you. I would say, though, that Star Wars does treat the Emperor and the Dark Side as a true evil that the Jedi (and good people in general) have a duty to oppose. Not merely a necessary pary of life or people who are just as right as the Jedi are

Yeah... I love this question. It's death. Which is interpret as the other, fundamental side of life and the living. "All houses wherein men have lived and died Are haunted houses. Through the open doors The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, With feet that make no sound upon the floors."

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt@jjj123-05.bsky.social · yesterday

Does the Dark Side have any equivalent in Transcendentalism? And there's the weird relationship between Jedi-ism and pacifism, where it's OK for Luke to mow down Storm Troopers and Jabba's guards, but a Jedi only uses the force for defense, and Luke's decision to not kill Vader is his great triumph

I think the Force is thoroughly a 1970s California guy's Buddhism (so it's actually Leaves of Grass). And it works fine! It's not really the focus of the original trilogy.

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt@jjj123-05.bsky.social · yesterday

I would think that's just because the Jedi religion doesn't withstand scrutiny so the more screen time it gets, the more you see it makes no sense.

Entirely covered within the original 1951 treaty bsky.app/profile/giga...

Defense News@defensenews.bsky.social · yesterday

bit.ly/4cWRmxJ

"If the Force has a will, it does not have two sides: a theological argument for monotheism."

☀️ Starshine@starshine.bsky.social · 2d ago

What’s your fake starwars academic paper

To be peak lonarganianism it needs at least one word in the post that you think you understand but don’t

I'm not sorry.

Anyway conservatives are worried that interreligious dialogue is relativistic because they don't know what truth is. So let's all read this short book:

Evening reading: www.vatican.va/roman_curia/...

"When it comes to confronting this structure (in which we encounter all Being both objectively and subjectively), with the contents of Christian theology, it should be clear from the outset that there can be no question of a univocal transposition and application of categories." HUvB

Anne M. Carpenter@catholickungfu.bsky.social · 2w ago

"Beauty is the disinterested one, without which the ancient world refused to understand itself, a word which both imperceptibly and yet unmistakably has bid farewell to our new world, a world of interests, leaving it to its own avarice and sadness." Hans Urs von Balthasar