Jesus the Jew / Jewish Law & the NT

Jesus Teaches in the Synagogues, by James Tissot (1836-1902) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (12-4-07) *** I was asked a question about how to reply to a husband who is involved in a form of messianic Judaism (i.e., Christianity) that observes all the Jewish laws and holy days, and believes in Saturday worship. He [Read More...]

The post Jesus the Jew / Jewish Law & the NT appeared first on Biblical Evidence for Catholicism.

from
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/9435.html

Judaism and Christianity: Profound Closeness in the NT

Nicodemus and Jesus on a Rooftop (1899), by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (1-2-09) *** I shall contend that Paul and the early Christians did not consider Judaism and Christianity two separate religions or fundamentally different. * I had one of those wonderful “aha!” moments today when I noticed a few [Read More...]

The post Judaism and Christianity: Profound Closeness in the NT appeared first on Biblical Evidence for Catholicism.

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/judaism-christianity-profound-closeness-nt.html

The Ghosts of Home

When I visit my family in northern Minnesota, I find myself on the same roads I’ve known—back and forth—since I was a child. Often I ride with others because I can’t orient, even in my small town and the outskirts made of barely-there townships and roads that veer only toward themselves. I think of small [Read More...]

The post The Ghosts of Home appeared first on Good Letters.

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/the-ghosts-of-home/

Why So Down? Studies Show Humans Are Wired to Emphasize The Negative, UNLESS….

Why is it that we can do 100 things right but obsess about the 1 thing that went wrong?  Or, why do we ignore the dozens of things the people around us do to be kind but then fuss about the 1 thing they miss?  It turns out that, except for one condition (which I’ll [Read More...]

The post Why So Down? Studies Show Humans Are Wired to Emphasize The Negative, UNLESS…. appeared first on Faith on the Couch.

from
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithonthecouch/2016/11/studies-show-humans-wired-emphasize-negative-unless/

Anti-Semitism in the Church Fathers & Catholic History

Resources and Recent Catholic Repentance Dave & Judy Armstrong in the underground tunnel tour next to the current Western or “Wailing” Wall in Jerusalem (October 2014): exploring the ancient temple retaining walls built by Herod, in Jesus’ time. [photograph by Margie Prox Sindelar] *** (7-7-08) *** Suggested Examples of Patristic Anti-Semitism St. Ignatius of Antioch [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/anti-semitism-in-the-church-fathers-catholic-history.html

A Farmer’s Lament

Last weekend, I cooked lunch for three farmers. One of them was my husband. The other two were a couple who were being forced to close down the small organic vegetable farm they’d been building together for nearly a decade. I could see the loss in their weary smiles, in the holes in their clothes, [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/a-farmers-lament/

Saying Yes to the Annunciation

Of all the Gospel episodes, the Annunciation has long been one of the favorites of poets. The scene is unique and literally earth-shaking: Gabriel’s sudden appearance to the girl Mary, his announcement that she will bear a son who will be “the Son of the Most High,” her puzzlement (“How can this be, since I [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/saying-yes-to-the-annunciation/

Poetry Friday: “Poetry Is the Spirit of the Dead, Watching,” Part I, By Margaret Gibson

Where do our words come from? And our lives: how do they connect with those (whether persons or words) now dead but perhaps living on—in ways we can almost touch, almost speak? These are the complex questions that Margaret Gibson raises and wraps her own language around in this remarkable poem. For all their complexity, [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/poetry-friday-poetry-is-the-spirit-of-the-dead-watching-part-i-by-margaret-gibson/

The Gift of Interdependence

By Camellia Freeman This story has many beginnings. It begins with the great state of Ohio where I’d made my home for eight years. We lived in Columbus, and on late nights my husband and I would walk its city streets during summers so thick you could wade through them, cicada choruses surging like electric [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/the-gift-of-interdependence/

“One Mediator” (1 Tim 2:5) vs. All Human Mediation?

The Preaching of St Paul at Ephesus (1649), by Eustache Le Sueur (1616-1655): St. Paul is being a “mini-mediator”: by sharing God’s grace through his proclamation of the gospel [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (10-14-08) ***** 1 Timothy 2:5 (RSV) For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/one-mediator-1-tim-25-vs-all-human-mediation.html

Bible on Asking Dead Men to Intercede (Luke 16)

The Bad Rich Man in Hell, by James Tissot (1836-1902) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (7-8-14) *** Luke 16:24 (RSV) And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Laz’arus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’ [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/bible-on-asking-dead-men-to-intercede-luke-16.html

Lashing Out at Myself

I was born with a certain level of anxiety in my blood—an electric edge that keeps me vigilant, wise, creative, and, arguably, a little humorous at times. As a child, I funneled much of my worst-case-scenario thinking into colorful stories that helped me face pain and fear head-on while developing an imagination that would shape [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/lashing-out-at-myself/

Listening to Beautiful Darkness

Waking from the Nightmare A little girl awakens in an autumn wood. She stands, looks up through the red-orange fire of the leaves to see a small patch of white sky. Then she brushes the leaves from her cardigan and walks out of the frame. Someone screams. The idyll is broken. We’re back in the [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/listening-to-beautiful-darkness/

Democrat Sore Losers, Race, & Political Unity

American Anti-Slavery Tract: 1853 [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** Bernard Davis is a Facebook friend of mine from Birmingham (UK), who always makes challenging and interesting comments: usually about political and ethical matters (he is very informed about US politics). We almost always disagree, but he is unfailingly polite and congenial (which I greatly respect). [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/democrat-sore-losers-race-political-unity.html

KKK & Kooky Karikatures of Konservatives

vs. Dr. Edwin Woodruff Tait Ku Klux Klan members burning a cross in Denver, Colorado: 1921 [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** Edwin Tait has been an online friend for about 18 or so years, and we have engaged in many debates which I enjoyed, and thought were helpful and constructive (so that I have [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/kkk-kooky-karikatures-of-konservatives.html

Mark Shea, Lies, Bannon/Breitbart, & the Novelty of FACTS

Steve Bannon: currently challenging President-elect Donald Trump for the coveted, prestigious honor of being “The Most Hated Person in America (i.e., by liberals) [Wikimedia Commons /  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license] ***** Mark Shea: the guy who used to specialize in writing excellent and insightful Catholic apologetics (which continue to be excellent and [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/mark-shea-lies-bannonbreitbart-the-novelty-of-facts.html

Poetry Friday: “Full Thunder Moon” by Julie L. Moore

The days following the election have been dark indeed. People unhappy with the outcome fear for many Americans’ safety and freedoms. Supporters of the president-elect feel alienated and misunderstood. The nation’s unsettled tenor reminds me of that post-9/11 haze in which we stumbled through our days unsure of what would happen next. Except this time [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/poetry-friday-full-thunder-moon-by-julie-l-moore/

Dialogue w Traditionalist “Boniface” Re Modernism in the Church

Venerable Pope Pius XII (r. 1939-1958) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (8-16-13) *** The first indented part was something I wrote prior to 2002, which was included in my book, Reflections on Radical Catholic Reactionaries. I then had a discussion with “Boniface”: a well-known legitimate traditionalist, who runs the large website, Unam Sanctam Catholicam. I [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/dialogue-w-traditionalist-boniface-re-modernism-in-the-church.html

There is More to See: A Letter from Gregory Wolfe

Dear friends, We are entering a season of thanksgiving, and soon we’ll begin a season of reflection as we prepare to celebrate a remarkable birth that changed human history. I begin with thanksgiving. On behalf of all the staff at Image, thank you. Thank you for being part of our community. Thank you for your [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/there-is-more-to-see-a-letter-from-gregory-wolfe/

Amoris Laetitia Has ALREADY Been Clarified Many Times

. . . including by high-ranking cardinals. Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke (2-22-14) [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license] ***** So why are Cardinal Burke and three other retired cardinals asking for it again? I have massively documented the repeated clarifications and defenses of this papal document, in my collection, Pope Francis Defended: Resources [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/amoris-laetitia-has-already-been-clarified-many-times.html

What We Talk About When We Talk About Beauty

I have beauty on the mind. No doubt a result of my ongoing debate with Gregory Wolfe (running into its fourth iteration now). We’ve been chatting, lo these many weeks, about the relevance of the religious voice to contemporary debates on aesthetical matters. When you’re talking about aesthetics, the question of beauty tends to rear [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-beauty/

Luther’s Projection of His Depression & Crises Onto St. Paul

Statue of Martin Luther [public domain / Pixabay] *** (6-1-06) *** I don’t maintain any particular position as to Luther’s mental health, though I understand that it is pretty much the consensus of historians that he at least suffered fairly regular (if not cyclical) bouts with severe depression, wrestling with the devil (actually or imagined), [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/luthers-projection-of-his-depression-crises-onto-st-paul.html

Martin Luther: Faith Alone is NOT Lawless Antinomianism

Luther at the Diet of Worms [1521] (1877), by Anton von Werner (1843-1915) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** (2-28-10) ***** Recently, I made this statement in a post about Luther: Luther taught the absolute necessity of good works in the Christian life, as an inevitable manifestation of an authentic faith. He didn’t separate justification [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/martin-luther-faith-alone-is-not-lawless-antinomianism.html

Stiff Necked Church Lady

Church Ladies.  Most of them are pretty darn good souls. They’re at the church every day, bent over pews, cleaning the sanctuary, baking pies, and keeping all the committees peopled. They’re also gorgeously individual souls with their own private concerns, loves, and extracurricular interests. But everyone’s probably known at least one church lady like the [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/stiff-necked-church-lady/

How Catholics View Protestants

Yours truly, in my Protestant evangelical days: February 1984, doing my “Bob Dylan” routine . . .  ***** (9-4-03; rev. 10-9-03 and 1-5-05; abridged on 11-14-16) ***** Vatican II is binding on all Catholics. Here is what Vatican II says (note how Protestants — and Orthodox — are repeatedly referred to as “Christians” and part [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/how-catholics-view-protestants.html

Protestants: Christians, Heretics, or Both?

Original title: How Protestants Can be Brethren in Christ (Christians) and [Partial] Heretics at the Same Time, According to Trent Protestant evangelist Billy Graham (1918 – ): 11 April 1966 [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] (1-4-14) ***** There are serious heretics (like Arius, who denied the Trinity) and partial heretics (like Protestants). “Heresy” literally means [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/protestants-christians-heretics-or-both.html

How Do You Write?

Do you write with a pen? Do you write with the wind? Do you pray first? Do you pray when you are stuck? Do you pray after? Or are you praying the whole way through? Do you wait for the singer on the beach or the sinner in the confession booth to finish before you [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/how-do-you-write/

Poetry Friday: “Plowboy’s Bible” by Austin Segrest

When I read Austin Segrest’s “Plowboy’s Bible,” I began to realize that the entire poem was made up of nothing more than a series of phrases. The phrases veered wildly between images and concepts that were relatively intelligible to exotic, almost surreal metaphors. Slowly it dawned on me that I had read a poem like [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/poetry-friday-plowboys-bible-by-austin-segrest/

The Final Roll Call

As a little girl, I remember watching the grownups in my hometown Episcopal church cross themselves, and feeling like there was a secret I was not yet privy to but wanted to know. Sometime in high school, I started crossing myself at will, at the “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” mentions, but also before and [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/the-final-roll-call-2/

My Successful May Predictions About the 2016 Election

[Pixabay / CC0 public domain] ***** I wrote earlier today, on my Facebook page: “I’ll be making a much more in-depth post-mortem analysis later today, not to gloat, but to at least bask a little in my success at predicting this, which goes back (explicitly) to a May article, where I provided 15 reasons for [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/my-successful-may-predictions-about-the-2016-election.html

An Interview with Newbery Medal-Winning Author Clare Vanderpool, Part 2

Clare Vanderpool, Newbery-Medal winning author of the novels Moon over Manifest (Delacorte, 2010) and Navigating Early (Delacorte, 2013), got her start by attending a writing workshop at The Milton Center, with which Image was associated in its early years and whose programs are now run by Image. While under a Milton fellowship in the mid-90s, [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/an-interview-with-newbery-medal-winning-author-clare-vanderpool-part-2/

Dialogue w Dcn Steven Greydanus on Voting & Pro-Life

Photograph by Elvert Barnes at the 33rd March For Life in Washington, D.C.: 22 January 2006 [Flickr / CC BY 2.0 license] ***** Deacon Steven D. Greydanus writes renowned film reviews and also articles for National Catholic Register.  I appreciate his thoughtful, civil, charitable thoughts on this political campaign. It is possible to engage in [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/dialogue-w-dcn-steven-greydanus-on-voting-pro-life.html

An Interview with Newbery Medal-Winning Author Clare Vanderpool, Part 1

Clare Vanderpool, Newbery-Medal winning author of the novels Moon over Manifest (Delacorte, 2010) and Navigating Early (Delacorte, 2013), got her start by attending a writing workshop at The Milton Center, with which Image was associated in its early years and whose programs have now been taken over by the journal. While under a Milton fellowship [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/an-interview-with-newbery-medal-winning-author-clare-vanderpool-part-1/

Divine Infection

I once took modern dance technique classes with an instructor who asked the dancers to stand in a two parallel lines, facing each other; one line of tired bodies with eyes shut, the other line observant. While our eyes were closed, he asked us to make all of our bodies’ thirty-seven trillion cells seen. It’s [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/divine-infection/

Poetry Friday: “Winter Song” by Amy McCann

What do we understand? What do we even mean by “understanding”? A poem can pose these questions, explicitly or implicitly. Amy McCann’s “Winter Song” does both. She wonders what her father was thinking, was understanding, on a long-ago cold morning before she was born. Meanwhile she, in the warm womb, was a “restless / percussion [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/poetry-friday-winter-song-by-amy-mccann/

Debate on Catholicism & Homosexuality (vs. Prof. Mark Leinauer)

– Photo credit: ‘Theodoranian’, CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons *** This exchange came about in response to comments underneath my National Catholic Register article, “History of the False Ideas Leading to Same-Sex ‘Marriage'” (11-2-16). Mark Leinauer is a lawyer, and (if this is the same person), indeed a professor in the law department at University of California [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/debate-on-catholicism-homosexuality-vs-prof-mark-leinauer.html

Twitter #Micropoetry

Tootling around on Twitter, I’ve come upon a delightful community of poets. Their hashtag is #micropoetry. What these writers have realized is that Twitter’s restriction of 140 characters can be a stimulating challenge to finding just the right words to express concisely an impression, an experience, a thought. Much micropoetry on Twitter seems to be [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/twitter-micropoetry/

Dialogue on 2016 Presidential Polls (Outliers, Accuracy, Etc.)

vs. Scott P. Richert [Pixabay / CC0 public domain] ***** Scott is the Catholicism expert at About.com and executive editor of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. He majored in political science at Michigan State University and Catholic University of America. His words will be in blue. This exchange occurred on my Facebook page on [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/11/dialogue-on-2016-presidential-polls-outliers-accuracy-etc.html

The Best Words: Selections from the Sex Tapes of Tremendous Male Poets

I knew a woman, lovely in her bones, When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them; Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one: The shapes a bright container can contain!    —Theodore Roethke, “I Knew a Woman” I know a woman who feels injustice in her lungs. A therapist, all [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/the-best-words-selections-from-the-sex-tapes-of-tremendous-male-poets/

Pope Francis Asserts the Power of Lay Catholics

Pope Francis recently raised eyebrows in his comments affirming the constant teaching of the Church that it is not possible to ordain women to the priesthood.  According to reports, As he has done in the past, the pope responded that the question was settled in 1994 by St. John Paul II, who taught that because [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithonthecouch/2016/11/pope-francis-asserts-the-power-of-the-catholic-laity/

Poison Ivy and the Path of Grief

Though its fruit should’ve been in season, too many harsh Midwest winters left the leaves of the apple tree to wither. At the time of harvest, very little fruit hung from its branches. But my daughter climbed anyway, her arms wrapped around the low-hanging branches, her feet bouncing against the trunk so she could swing [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/11/poison-ivy-and-the-path-of-grief/