Review of 50 Years of Spanking Research Reveals Sobering Truth

In a recently published meta analysis in the Journal of Family Psychology, developmental psychologist Elizabeth Gershoff and University of Michigan professor Andrew Grogan-Kaylor sift through 75 studies, for a total data pool of nearly 161,000 children, and find “no evidence that spanking is associated with improved child behavior.” What’s more, the analysis finds evidence that spanking is associated with [Read More...]

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Hate Attachment Parenting? So Did This Mom. Here’s The Surprising Thing She Discovered.

God gives us the children we need.  He speaks to us through our children.  We can listen for his voice, or let the noise in our heads tune it out. The choice is ours.  Here’s one mother’s heartfelt struggle to learn to listen–and experience the healing that comes in hearing. When my daughter Azalea was [Read More...]

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Microbes, Miracles, and Monstrosities

I’ve always promised myself I wouldn’t work with anything living, a prohibition I applied first when, in high school, I job-shadowed a pathologist and fainted when watching a lung biopsy, fainted when seeing the wall of stored blood, fainted ad infinitum into the twenty-first century. I couldn’t deal with watching pain, and I hadn’t considered [Read More...]

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Margo Jefferson’s Negroland

In her photo on the jacket flap of Negroland: A Memoir,  Margo Jefferson looks to me like an attractive white woman in her late sixties. In the chapter where she delineates beauty standards for African American girls in the 1950s, when she was a child, her list of skin color options astounds me: “Ivory, cream, [Read More...]

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Laura Ingalls Wilder and Me

At night at the Ingalls Homestead in DeSmet, SD, we can see the pale, translucent arm of the Milky Way divide a sky of a million stars. The small bright point of a satellite zips across to our left with striking speed and intention. We can’t see the same sky from Evanston, IL. Down the [Read More...]

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Salty Language = Being “Salt”?

The Woman Taken in Adultery (1527-1529), by Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1556) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** Matthew 5:13-16 (RSV) “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by [Read More...]

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Poetry Friday: “The Embrace”

Poetry can recall us to the sensuousness of ordinary experience. Elizabeth Smither does this in “The Embrace” through the pointed choice of particular details. We are invited into a room in which almost nothing is happening, yet the room fills with sumptuously imaged life: two pianos which seem to be playing (though literally they’re not); [Read More...]

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In the Company of Women, Part II

By Jeffrey Overstreet Continued from yesterday.  “You’re the sort of man who can’t know anyone intimately, least of all a woman.” That may be the most stinging, hurtful reprimand I’ve ever heard. Thank God it wasn’t aimed at me: Those words were spoken by Miss Lucy Honeychurch to her fiancé, Mr. Cesil Vyse, in 1985’s [Read More...]

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Why Wrangle w Catholic Reactionaries?

Luke 15:7 (RSV): “. . . there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”  *** Music Making Angels (c. 1628), by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** Ever wonder why I contend with and write about radical Catholic reactionaries? [Read More...]

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Cussing Women, Chivalry, Etc.

Image created digitally by Dawn Hudson from another public domain photo [publicdomainpictures.net / public domain license (CC0 1.0)] ***** Truly obscene, crude, sexually-oriented language is beneath the standards of the Bible and the Catholic Church. The way some (many!) talk today was confined to locker rooms, bars, and bachelor parties when I was in college [Read More...]

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In the Company of Women, Part I

By Jeffrey Overstreet In late July of 1992, Batman Returns ruled the box office. I bought a ticket for something else: A film about two married women and a grumpy widow who take a holiday and, as The Seattle Times put it, “rediscover their sensuality on the sunny Mediterranean.” Strange, I know. But there I [Read More...]

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Chimayo and the Bloody Knees of Jesus

“I want a holy experience!” I say to my companions, Amy and Danielle, leaning toward them in the cafeteria of St. John’s College in Santa Fe. We are all spending a week away from our children and husbands at the Glen Workshop to get some time to write and explore the area. They seem mildly [Read More...]

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Circumincession: 50 Cent Trinitarian Word

Image by Philip Barrington [Pixabay / CC0 public domain] *** (6-7-08) *** Circumincession in Latin and perichoresis in Greek is the doctrine describing how all three Persons in the Trinity are contained in each other.  Theologian Ludwig Ott, in his Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, has a lot to say on this: In God all is [Read More...]

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Prayer to Jesus in the New Testament

Martyrdom of St Stephen (1560s), by Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (6-7-08; new introduction on 8-22-16) *** I ran across a person in one of my Facebook groups that denied the practices that I will soon show are perfectly biblical. He thought one could only pray to God the Father. And it [Read More...]

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Sitting Together: A Week at the Glen Workshop

I’m an introvert who loves to talk, an often confusing combination that can leave me drained in spite of myself, or perplex my friends when I suddenly slink off after an hour of raucous guffawing. But I just spent a week in Santa Fe at the Glen Workshop, a gathering of writers, artists, and musicians [Read More...]

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Uma rápida refutação do “Sola Scriptura” em dez passos

[Portugese translation of A Quick Ten-Step Refutation of Sola Scriptura, by Fábio Salgado de Carvalho] [public domain / Pixabay] *** 1. O “Sola Scriptura” não é ensinado na Bíblia Os católicos concordam com os protestantes que a Escritura é um “padrão para a verdade” — até mesmo o mais preeminente —, mas não em um sentido [Read More...]

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“Mother of God” = Greater than God?

The Annunciation (1444), by Barthélemy d’Eyck (fl. 1444-1469) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (8-31-06) *** This is my own original draft for a chapter that was to appear in my book, The One-Minute Apologist (2007). It’s very different from the final draft, so that it amounts to an alternate approach to arguing the Catholic position. ***** MARY [Read More...]

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Mary’s Knowledge About Jesus’ Divinity

The Annunciation (c. 1440), by the workshop of Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1400 – 1464) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** (2000 and 8 January 2002, re-edited on 8-19-16) *** How much did the Blessed Virgin Mary know about Jesus? The Catholic Church teaches that the Holy Spirit revealed to Mary the knowledge of the divinity of [Read More...]

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More2Life Hack: 3 Tips for More Joyful Living!

Who doesn’t want more joy in their lives?  Today on More2Life Radio, we explored what it takes to overcome common obstacles to more joyful living.  The short version?  You don’t have to wait for all the stress and problems in your life to go away before you feel more joyful.  Here are three simple things [Read More...]

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Poetry Friday: “Recovery”

What I like about this poem is how it slides almost unnoticeably from a simple, upbeat view of life into increasing complexities and ambiguities. The title and opening stanza announce that this will be an unequivocally optimistic poem. But something a bit unnerving happens in the second stanza: that glorious golden sunflower’s head seems to [Read More...]

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More2Life Hack: 3 Tips for Staying Close Through Conflict

Today on More2Life radio, we looked at ways husbands and wives can grow closer not just in spite of conflict.  Here are three things happy couples know about managing conflict…gracefully.   Avoid catastrophizing conflict–couples in happy marriages argue as often as couples in unhappy marriages.  The difference between happy and unhappy couples is not how [Read More...]

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The Cost of Glory

Here I sit, watching the Olympics again; it hooks me every time. I always say I like the winter ones better because there aren’t so many sports to keep track of, but when I start watching the summer ones, they suck me in too. In the winter, the downhill racing and the extreme sports I [Read More...]

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More2Life Hack: 3 Tips for Authentic Forgiveness

Today on More2Life, we explored what authentic forgives does (and doesn’t) require.  Here are three tips to help you make forgiving others less complicated. 1. There is a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation.   St. Augustine said that we’ve forgiven someone when we’ve surrendered our natural desire for revenge.  Forgiveness doesn’t mean pretending it never [Read More...]

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Florence Foster Jenkins, Holy Fool

By Asher Gelzer-Govatos In many respects the new film Florence Foster Jenkins takes a paint by numbers approach to its genre—the classic biopic. It features a meaty role for a star (Meryl Streep), designed to play well to Oscar voters in the next awards cycle. It gets a lot of mileage—comic and dramatic—out of contemporary [Read More...]

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On Trump & the “Supreme” Pro-Life Cause

The United States Supreme Court [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** [various thoughts of mine on various threads] *** You’re in Ohio, the ultimate battleground state (with Florida). If it’s very close there and Trump loses, and you don’t vote, then you and others like you there will have played a key role in getting [Read More...]

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Are All Bible Books Self-Evidently Inspired?

This is an excerpt from my book, The One-Minute Apologist (Sophia Institute Press, 2007). It’s my own initial draft, and so is slightly different from the book. * * * * * (6-19-06) *** BIBLE AND TRADITION *** We know which books are inspired and belong in the Bible by reading them Biblical books are self-attesting, [Read More...]

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“Tradition” Isn’t a Dirty Word

The Pharisees Question Jesus (1886-1894), by James Tissot (1836-1902) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** (late 90s; rev. 8-16-16) ***** Many Protestants (especially anti-Catholic ones) hold, by and large, the view that Scripture and sacred, apostolic tradition are somehow unalterably opposed to each other and, for all practical purposes, mutually exclusive. This is yet another example of a [Read More...]

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The Neglected Garden, Part II

Continued from yesterday. The dollhouse my father was building for me was still unfinished when he draped a boat tarpaulin over the top, to protect it against the summer rain. The doctor had told my parents that there was a tumor in his lung. He was being sent to the M.D. Anderson hospital in Houston, [Read More...]

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The Neglected Garden, Part I

When my father built the house where I was born, the land was flat and there was little vegetation on it. It had once been the Curran family’s cotton plantation, my mother later told me—sold and subdivided for a row of little Cape Cods and ranch houses, all arrayed in pastel asbestos siding. Including the [Read More...]

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Mary’s Assumption & Historic Protestantism

Assumption of the Virgin (1526-1529), by Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (6-30-08) *** I’ve documented in the past that both Catholic and Protestant (including Lutheran) historians and Luther scholars accept the fact that Luther believed in the Assumption, at least in his early days, if not later. Catholic writer Thomas [Read More...]

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Jonah Was a Real Person!

Jonah Spat Up by the Whale (c. 1582), by Johannes Sadeler I (1550 -c. 1600) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** [6-27-08] *** Regarding Jonah, the straightforward sense would seem to be that he was an actual historical person, as were all the prophets. The book about him, after all, is included in the prophetic writings [Read More...]

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Reply to Democrats for Life

Color photo of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “Man of The Year” on the cover of Time Magazine, January 2, 1933 edition [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** FDR said the following things about abortion: “Abortion is entirely built on excluding the most helpless and vulnerable members of the human race from the most basic, [Read More...]

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Poetry Friday: “More Strange”

This poem coaxes me to inhabit a story I’ve heard many times, and makes it astonishingly new, summoning me with the urgency of the second-person perspective and the half-answered question of the title. It’s a poem that asks a lot of its reader—nothing less than to experience a mother’s grief at the loss of her [Read More...]

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“Apocrypha”: Why It’s Part of the Bible

Codex Sinaiticus (4th century): text of Matthew 6:4-32. This manuscript included all seven deuterocanonical books [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** [Written in 1994; from A Biblical Defense of Catholicism: pp. 259-264] *** (Bible verses: RSV) *** The Old Testament in Catholic Bibles contains seven more books than are found in Protestant Bibles (46 and 39, respectively). Protestants [Read More...]

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John Calvin: Ignatian Epistles (c. 110) Not Authentic

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1828-1889): Anglican biblical scholar, translator of the early Church fathers and Bishop of Durham. He was a key advocate of the authenticity of the epistles of St. Ignatius of Antioch [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (6-7-09) *** The Catholic Encyclopedia (“St. Ignatius of Antioch”) provides an overview summary, with which we [Read More...]

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Eat

By Kelly Foster Lundquist Since birth, the rhythm of my week has been set by church. Both my parents have held leadership positions in the varied churches we have attended over the years. In one of the many commonplaces of the evangelical testimony, I could easily say that I was indeed trained to be in [Read More...]

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“They Did What?!?” Simple Steps to Making Peace with People Who Hurt Us

My latest for OSVNewsweekly Life is filled with people who frustrate, irritate and otherwise infuriate us. Whether it comes to managing conflict in our own households or facing political battles and culture wars, there seems to be no end to the ways other people can inflame us. And yet, in the face of all this [Read More...]

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You Must Be Present to Learn

For the past five years, I’ve been experimenting with the use of contemplative practices in the classes I teach at UNC Asheville. For a quick overview of the range of contemplative practices being used in higher education today, see The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society’s Tree of Contemplative Practices. On the eve of a [Read More...]

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Bible on the Blessing of [Many] Children

Triplets. The original uploader was Michael L. Kaufman at English Wikipedia (2-10-05) [Wikimedia Commons /  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license] *** [3-9-09] ***** Genesis 38:8-10 (RSV) Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew [Read More...]

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Biblical Evidence Against Contraception

Family of Ole Hanson (1874-1940), mayor of Seattle and founder of San Clemente, California (c. 1919) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** This is a portion of my book, The One-Minute Apologist (Sophia Institute Press: 2007). All biblical quotations in my book (as usual) are from the RSV, unless otherwise noted. It is slightly different from [Read More...]

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Publishers Omit Calvin’s Anti-Contraception View?!

Original title: Why Did Baker Books and Crossway Omit John Calvin’s Remarks Against Contraception in His Commentaries (Genesis 38:10)? Photograph by Nic McPhee (1-26-08) [Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0 license] *** (9-14-13) *** This came about on one of the threads on my Facebook page, when a Reformed Protestant (his words in blue below) questioned [Read More...]

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Theosis & the Exalted Virgin Mary

The Coronation of the Virgin with Six Saints (1504), by Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio (1483-1561) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** [7-11-04] *** The exaltation of Mary is the supreme example of how highly God sought to raise man. This is part and parcel (as the foremost and most extraordinary instance) of the notion of divinization or deification [Read More...]

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Mortal vs. Venial Sin: Biblical?

St John the Evangelist,  by Vicente Juan Masip (1507-1579) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** [1997; additions on 2-25-03] ***** 1 John 5:17 explicitly differentiates a mortal sin from a less serious one (RSV): “All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal” (RSV; KJV: “not unto death”). Denying this would be tantamount [Read More...]

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Fit for Immortality?

“How’s your health?” my long-time friend asked me with concern. “The leukemia is creeping toward trouble zone,” I answered, “and I’m not sleeping much, so sometimes I’m pretty wiped. I don’t deal well with physical discomfort.” Then I added, laughing but serious, “I feel ready for eternal life.” That evening I opened to my bookmark [Read More...]

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When Ethics Conflict with the Law

Among the courses that I teach is Professional Responsibility—Legal Ethics—which is a subject covered on every state bar exam in the country. The professional code of ethics—the Model Rules of Professional Conduct—sets out in statutory form a log of rules that cover such varied topics as candor to the tribunal and third parties, conflicts of [Read More...]

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Apostles & Synagogue & Temple Worship

1st century southern steps leading up to Herod’s Temple. Jesus walked these steps (and I did, too, in 2014) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** [3-25-07; slight editing and minor additions on 8-8-16] *** The apostles worshiped at the temple in Jerusalem and at synagogues. The Jews didn’t even accept the Trinity (they were and [Read More...]

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Can a Christian Fund a Mosque?

Sultan Ahmad I Mosque, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia: built 1991-1993 [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** [3-25-07; edited and abridged significantly on 8-8-16] ***** I don’t see such an act as any different than, say, if a Buddhist neighbor of mine had their house burned down, that the neighborhood chipped in to help. Doing this doesn’t necessarily [Read More...]

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Catholic Indulgences: History & Myths

Johann Tetzel (1465-1519): the German Dominican friar who was a central figure in the “Reformation” debate about indulgences and their abuses [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** [see the related paper, Biblical Evidence for Indulgences, for necessary background on how the Catholic Church defines an indulgence] ***** In his book, The Question Box (New York: Paulist [Read More...]

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Biblical Evidence for Indulgences

Russian icon of St. Paul / Apostle Paul (1550) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** [slightly modified excerpt from my book, A Biblical Defense of Catholicism] Biblical Evidence for Indulgences Matthew 16:19 [RSV] I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and [Read More...]

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Christian Civilization Self-Demolition

Image from Pixabay [CC0 public domain] ***** Once again, we Christians, pro-lifers, conservatives, and all moral traditionalists (the real ones and so-called) are well on our way towards sabotaging our own efforts in a presidential election year that was easily ours for the taking. If Hillary Clinton wins, terrorism will grow even more rapidly than it [Read More...]

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Biblical Evidence for Annulments

From my notes for The Catholic Answer Bible [later expanded as The New Catholic Answer Bible] (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2002): The Catholic Church teaches that a valid, sacramental marriage between two baptized Christians is permanent, or indissoluble. No power on earth can dissolve it. This is based on the explicit teaching of Jesus. [Read More...]

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Matthew 19:9 “Divorce Exception” Translation Bias

[public domain / Pexels.com / CC0 license] *** (11-6-08) *** My reply to a question (in blue) on the Coming Home Network Internet forum (I was the moderator there from 2007-2010): *** Do you have any general guidance for someone like me who is still reeling from learning that the NIV translation of Matthew 19:9 [Read More...]

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Poetry Friday: “Onesimus”

In this month of painful national and international news, Tania Runyan’s poem “Onesimus” offers a gut-deep breath of brotherhood. The poem recounts the story of Philemon, a new Christian Paul addresses on behalf of Onesimus, both Philemon’s fugitive slave and also a new convert. In “Onesimus,” Runyan singles out, perhaps, the most marginalized and voiceless [Read More...]

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Christianity & Vegetarianism

Jesus ate lamb with His disciples at this meal, which was a celebration of Passover. The Last Supper (1625-1626), by Valentin de Boulogne (1591-1632) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] [3-7-04] ***** Most Christians (with the exception of Seventh-Day Adventists) do not believe it is wrong, immoral, or unethical to eat meat (or, by extension, to [Read More...]

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Catholic Bible Verses on Sanctification & Merit

St. Paul (1625-1626), by Nicolas Tournier (1590-1639) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** [12-20-07] *** SANCTIFICATION AS PART OF SALVATION  * Sanctification: Catholic Definition Being made holy. The first sanctification takes place at baptism, by which the love of God is infused by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). Newly baptized persons are holy because the [Read More...]

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Millennials Less Promiscuous Than Any Generation for 60 Years. Here’s Why That’s TERRIBLE.

Some Christian news outlets are rejoicing at the recent study finding that Millennials are less sexually active than any other generation for the last 60 years. The perception by some is that this generation is experiencing a spontaneous outbreak of unusual moral fortitude. Confronting the Nightmare Would that it were so.  If you read the reports, [Read More...]

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Blood Lines

Last September, I was in Philadelphia for the first time since my freshman year of college. In the train station, I paid attention to what was new, though I suspect memory shouldn’t take a conscious effort. I thought it would be easy, that I could walk into the mall, down the escalator (I remembered this [Read More...]

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Only the Godless Die Young

With apologies to Billy Joel, new research from Harvard shows that, irrespective of the state of their general health, only the godless die young. Over the last 20 years, research has gradually accumulated suggesting that religious service attendance is associated with better physical and mental health. For example, research articles have indicated that regular religious [Read More...]

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What Faith Stage Are You? The 6 Stages of Seeking Meaning, Significance, and Transcendence.

The following article is adapted from Discovering God Together:  The Catholic Guide to Raising Faithful Kids Most people think that faith is something you either have or you don’t.  But research by Emory University’s Dr. James Fowler revealed that faith evolves in discernible stages throughout our lifespan.  At each stage, a person’s faith needs to be [Read More...]

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Ubiquitous “Trumpmania” & Sensible Prudence

Whitetail deer bucks locking antlers  in Cades Cove, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee. Photograph by Brian Stansberry (12-23-13) [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license] *** [see my previous related piece, Statement on Catholic “Trump Wars” & Civil Discourse, from 7-23-16] *** Catholic writer Austin Ruse recently bemoaned the “open war between and among [Read More...]

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Catholic Answers Ignores Catholic Social Teaching?

Reply to Traditionalist Critic Kevin Tierney “Short” video message concerning Catholic Answers apologist Tim Staples’ teaching tour in Australia in June 2011 [You Tube / CC0 license] (1-25-15) ***** I have already critiqued Kevin’s statement: “. . . the guys at Patheos, Catholic Answers, . . . Whatever good they do is far outweighed by the bad [Read More...]

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Maybe the Kids Will Sleep in Tomorrow

The kids are home for the summer, but my husband has remained on the same schedule under which we operate during the school year, up at 6:30 a.m., fumbling around the room in the dark, until it seems the thought of me still sleeping is just too much to bear, so he turns on the [Read More...]

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Questions Re Catholic Mariology & the Rosary

Madonna and Child (c. 1742), by Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** [1-29-07] ** The following is my response to a Catholic convert, Jonathan, who described himself as “struggling.” His words will be in blue. *** As a recent convert to Catholicism I must admit that the most difficult and frightening thing [Read More...]

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Biblical Evidence for Marian Apparitions

  Transfiguration, by Giovanni Gerolamo Savoldo (c. 1480 – c. 1548) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** [2-26-11] *** By analogy, biblical accounts of “appearances” of those who have died, are of the same essential nature as a Marian apparition. Angels (i.e., also creatures like men) might also be included in such a survey, but stories [Read More...]

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More2Life Radio Coming to EWTN Radio Network & SIRIUS/XM Channel 130 @ 10amE/9amC

EWTN Radio announced today that they will begin airing More2Life with Dr. Greg and Lisa Popcak each weekday at a new time, 10am Eastern/9am Central, beginning August 15th, 2016.  More2Life is a call-in advice program integrating insights from counseling psychology and St John Paul the Great’s Theology of the Body (TOB).   Mike Jones, Vice-President of Ave Maria [Read More...]

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Attending to the Body, Part II

Continued from yesterday. The following is excerpted from Attending Others: A Doctor’s Education in Bodies and Words, a new memoir by Brian Volck. In the mountain clinics of rural Honduras, where every medicine and piece of equipment arrives by pickup or is carried on our backs, there’s no way to bring all we want or [Read More...]

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Imagining the Future Helps Couples Resolve Present Arguments More Easily

A new study published in the journal  Social Psychological and Personality Science found that thinking about the future helps couples focus on their feelings and reasoning strategies.  “When romantic partners argue over things like finances, jealousy, or other interpersonal issues, they tend to employ their current feelings as fuel for a heated argument. By envisioning their relationship in [Read More...]

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America: Wickedest Nation Ever?

Pro-Life Sarasota Florida: 33rd March For Life. Photograph by Elvert Barnes (22 January 2006) [Flickr / CC BY 2.0 license] *** [9-21-01] *** [Excerpts from a much longer paper, written at the same time] *** The most rebellious nations (by definition), and the most worthy of judgment, are the most Judaism- or Christianity-saturated nations. They [Read More...]

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Luther Wasn’t a Revolutionary?! HUH?!

Posthumous Portrait of Martin Luther as an Augustinian Monk (after 1546), from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** [4-27-04] *** Many Protestants have argued that Martin Luther never intended to start a “new religion” or denomination, or to split Christianity; in fact that he never intended to leave the Catholic [Read More...]

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Protestantism Was NOT a Revolt?

  Luther at the Diet of Worms (1877), by Anton von Werner (1843-1915) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]  *** [6-2-03; slightly revised on 12-8-11] *** The so-called Protestant “Reformation” had to do with the abolition of five of seven sacraments, the move to sola Scriptura as the rule of faith over against an authoritative Church [Read More...]

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Attending to the Body, Part I

By Brian Volck The following is excerpted from Attending Others: A Doctor’s Education in Bodies and Words, a new memoir by Brian Volck.   I don’t recall when I first learned of lectio divina, a reading practice rooted in Christian monasticism still followed by contemporary Benedictine monks, nuns, and laypersons. Lectio divina is traditionally divided [Read More...]

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