Ten Commandments: Changed by Catholics to Uphold Idolatry?

Moses and Aaron with the Ten Commandments: Creechurch Lane Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue, London (1674), painted by Aron de Chaves [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** (9-4-04) *** This is a critique of an anti-Catholic article, entitled, “Catholic Religion Purposely takes out one of God’s Ten Commandments.” It listed alternate numbering of the Ten Commandments as follows: First Commandment [Read More...]

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Dialogue: Why Was Luther Excommunicated?

+ Luther’s Expressed Obedience to the Pope’s Decision Regarding His Orthodoxy Martin Luther and the Emperor at the Diet of Worms, 1521 (1887-1891), by Ernst Wilhelm Hildebrand (1833-1924) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (6-18-08) *** This exchange was brought on by my paper, The “Catholic-Sounding” Luther: 25 Examples. Discussion immediately followed in the combox. [Read More...]

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Poetry Friday: “New Year, Good Work”

A delightful scene is set in this poem. At the start of the new year, the speaker and some friends are doing volunteer woodwork to repair their church’s altar. As the speaker details the steps of their careful work, we’re carried along by the poem’s base rhythm of iambic pentameter. Soon religious language enters the [Read More...]

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Luther’s Inflammatory Rhetoric & the Peasants’ Revolt (1524-1525)

Title page of the Memmingen Articles of War drawn up in March 1525, during the German Peasants War. It shows armed peasants with an assortment of weaponry. [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]***(10-31-03) ***[see Part II] ***  I. Introduction and Statement of Purpose Historians on both sides are in agreement that Luther never supported the Peasants’ [Read More...]

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Luther’s Inflammatory Rhetoric & the Peasants’ Revolt (1524-1525), Part II

Martin Luther (1526), by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]***(10-31-03) ***** [see Part I] ***** In what follows (all quotations henceforth, excepting introductory remarks here and there), I shall use the following highlighting and identifying codes:Red = “inflammatory, violent” statements of Luther (not intended on my part to imply in any [Read More...]

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Quaecumque Vera: 16 Songs for 2016

By Joel Heng Hartse You do not have to feel guilty about loving music. Please keep this in mind. Alan Jacobs, in his The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, writes, “read what gives you delight…and do so without shame.” Amen, I say, and don’t be afraid to apply this to the music [Read More...]

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Thirty Minutes Without My Phone

The fact that a half-hour meal alone in an IHOP occasions its own blog post shows just how far I’ve devolved in my practice of solitude. I’ve gotten pretty good at putting my phone away when going out for meals with friends and family. But when I’m alone in a waiting room, in line at [Read More...]

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ImageUpdate’s Top Ten of 2016

Every week, the Image staff curates a digital dispatch of compelling new books, music, artwork, and more, with personal recommendations, links from around the web, and a community message board with calls for art and job postings (not to mention exclusive access to Image discounts and VIP workshop registration!). We deliver these dispatches from the [Read More...]

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A Love Supreme: The Surprising Art of Sedrick Huckaby

This essay is a web exclusive accompanying Image journal’s current issue, #90.  By Bruce Herman Homely, decorative, domestic—that’s how most of us think of quilting: something a sweet grandmother does while humming an old tune and waiting for a pie to cool on the rack. It’s a comfy-seeming practice we associate with homemaking and mothering—vocations [Read More...]

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“Xmas” & the Christian “Fish”: Etymology & History

[public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (12-22-98) ***** The following was a response to an anti-Catholic named Matthew Bell, on an anti-Catholic-dominated discussion list (called “Apologetics,” I believe). Matthew Bell wrote: Twice you have used the designation Xmas in the title of your posts rather than Christmas. Such is erroneous, Christ is not an X, [Read More...]

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Orthodox Catholic Christology: A Theological Primer

Jesus: detail of the Ghent Altarpiece (1432), by Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** (11-13-07) ***** The “short version” of orthodox Christology is to remember the following formulas (the fine points and details are best left to theologians, as long as they are undeniably orthodox and are teaching opinions in [Read More...]

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Poetry Friday: “Carol of the Infuriated Hour”

Christmas carols: we love their joyous celebration of the birth of Christ. In “Carol of the Infuriated Hour,” David Brendan Hopes takes the carol form—its rhythm and rhyme scheme—to present a more complex view of the Christmas event. The poem’s speaker has “warred” with God, but  he decides to cease his struggle “for the sake [Read More...]

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Gird Yourselves, Yet Be Shattered

Of Lanecia A. Rouse Tinsley’s small encaustic Advent paintings, my favorite is Meditation on the Incarnation. If food can have mouthfeel, then art has gutfeel. Meditation on the Incarnation drops and spreads into the gut holy and creepy like tequila, like subzero air that both hardens and hurts the belly. Three blue, elongated forms more [Read More...]

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5 Tips For Avoiding Family Holiday Drama

Ah, Christmas. A solemn, joyful time of year for Christians, where silent and holy nights are de rigueur and Norman Rockwell springs eternal in the collective unconscious of the American mind.  And then it happens…. You try–contrary to what conventional wisdom says about the subject–to go home again. Now, let me state right up front that this article [Read More...]

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On the Front Lines

By Paul Anderson Seven months ago, I was teaching writing to high school seniors at a Christian school on the southwest side of Chicago, thirty minutes from my suburban hometown but essentially in another universe. I was three months away from finishing my MFA through Seattle Pacific University, and I wasn’t sure that I was [Read More...]

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Mary Mediatrix & the Bible (vs. Dr. Robert Bowman)

The Coronation of the Virgin, by Jean Fouquet (1420-1480) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (8-1-03) ***** Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Jr. is  an eminent Protestant evangelical theologian and apologist. His words will be in blue. *** Biblical Evidence: Mary, Paul, and “Spirits” as Distributors of Grace Mary as Mediatrix, or Co-Redemptrix (rightly understood) is no [Read More...]

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Mary Mediatrix vs. Jesus Christ the Sole Mediator?

Coronation of the Virgin (1324), by Paolo Veneziano [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license] *** (1-30-03) *** In disputes over words, definitions, and proper uses of words, it is always good to consult the dictionary. A simple use of the words mediate, mediatrix, or mediation does not necessarily imply some sort of [Read More...]

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Kathleen Wakefield’s Invisible Stenographer

You’ve got to meet this character. She’s a stenographer by trade: From the outset she was the obsessive type, maker of lists: dates, births and deaths, diagnoses, times of arrival and departure, the amassing of coins, weapons and works of art, portions of letters, speeches and grocery lists, though soon it was statements of motivation, [Read More...]

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I Miss Gwen Ifill

For Kate Keplinger It is the blight man was born for It is Margaret that you mourn for… –“Spring and Fall,” George Herbert “I’m sorry for your loss,” my friend Dionne posted in response to a note I posted on Facebook. I’d just come back on the redeye from the West Coast that morning, and [Read More...]

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Why Transubstantiation Isn’t Idolatry At All

Real idolatry: The Adoration of the Golden Calf (1633), by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** (11-22-96) *** An anti-Catholic Protestant evangelical stated in a list I was on: Transubstantiation is a form of idolatry. The Catholic belief in transubstantiation is why when the host is elevated, Catholics bow and pay homage. [Read More...]

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Poetry Friday: “A Christmas Story”

In “A Christmas Story,” Robert Cording evokes Aleksander Wat (1900-1967), a Polish poet that converted from Judaism to Christianity while imprisoned in the Soviet Union. During a brief moment out of prison walls, the poem explains that Wat was awestruck by a simple street scene: a beautiful women in a green dress, the “bell of [Read More...]

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A Conversation with Scott Derrickson, Part 2

Continued from yesterday. Scott Derrickson is a director whose films include The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister, and Deliver Us From Evil. His most recent film, Marvel’s Doctor Strange, is in theaters now. I had the chance to chat with Scott for Christianity Today in the summer of 2014, when news had just broke that he was [Read More...]

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A Conversation with Scott Derrickson, Part 1

Scott Derrickson is the director of several films, including The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister, and Deliver Us From Evil. His most recent film, Doctor Strange, is in theaters now. I had the chance to chat with Scott for Christianity Today in the summer of 2014, when news had just broke that he was Marvel’s [Read More...]

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Is Pope Francis a Heretic?

Options and Respectful Speculations on the Synod on the Family, Amoris Laetitia and Practical Applications  Pope Francis at Varginha in southwest Minas Gerais state, Brazil during World Youth Day (7-27-13). Photograph from Agência Brasil, a public Brazilian news agency. [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Brazil license] ***** As most of you who have followed my writings [Read More...]

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Keeping Vigil

By Suzanne M. Wolfe These are dark times. Here in the northern hemisphere the sun is at its lowest point in the sky; the winter solstice is still weeks away. I’m sitting outside on my elderly mother’s kitchen step. I’ve come to England three times this year to take care of her. I came before [Read More...]

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Total Depravity & the Evil of the Non-Elect (vs. John Calvin)

Noah’s Ark Cycle: 3. The Flood (1588), by Kaspar Memberger the Elder (c. 1555-1618) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** (10-12-12) *** [my Bible citations: RSV] ****   Of how little value it is in the sight of God, in regard to all the parts of life, Paul shows, when he says, that we are not [Read More...]

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25 Biblical Passages Against Limited Atonement

Christ on the Cross (1627), by Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (4-29-10) ***** Luke 19:10 (RSV) For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost. (cf. “sinners”: Matt 9:13; Mk 2:17; Lk 5:32; 1 Tim 1:15) John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, [Read More...]

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Stopping the Press

By Mary Kenagy Mitchell This is the time of year when we work on Image’s annual budget. Here in the excruciatingly lean nonprofit sector, there’s a sort of elegant efficiency to having very little to spend—but it also means that when we need to make cuts, we cut close to the bone. I’m a practical [Read More...]

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Defense of “Our Lady of Perpetual Help” vs. Calvinists

Our Mother of Perpetual Help, a 15th Century Marian Byzantine Icon [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (7-16-07) ***** The following exchange about the Our Lady of Perpetual Help devotion occurred on the Parchment and Pen blog. C. Michael Patton and others have been very gracious and polite in allowing me to give my dissenting viewpoint. [Read More...]

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Poetry Friday: “Advent” by Bruce Bond

I’ve heard many people say we’ve never needed poetry more than we do now, but “Advent,” by Bruce Bond, reminds me that poetry has always been vital. The poem begins with a bombing in the Yellow Sea and smoke so thick “you cannot  see your hands,” which sets the reader up for a domino effect of [Read More...]

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New Study Finds Parental Conflict/Lack of Affection Impairs Brain Development in Teens

Once again, research shows that parenting styles directly impact brain development and predict the likelihood of emotional problems in adolescence and adulthood. New research finds that those who experience relatively common family problems early in childhood have an increased risk of mental health issues later on.The study is one of the first to look at [Read More...]

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Joy!: A Christmas Poem for My Wife Judy

Christmas 1991 (already married for seven years), with our first son Paul (then 8 months old). ***** Many times I’ve reflected, gazing at a sparkling Scotch pine tree or by a cozy fire, How blessed I’ve been with you by my side, during Advent and Christmastime. Each year it’s so lovely to ponder baby Jesus or listen to carols sung [Read More...]

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Immaculate Conception & Assumption: Why Defined So Late?

Assumption of Mary (c. 1650), by Juan Martin Cabezalero (1633-1673) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (2-1-09) ***** [The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary was proclaimed ex cathedra (highest level of dogmatic authority) in 1854, and likewise, the dogma concerning the Glorious Bodily Assumption of Mary in 1950] ***** From a Protestant questioner on [Read More...]

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This is Your Brain on Religion. Any Questions?

New research support the notion that religious faith is a neurological imperative of being human. a new study shows through functional MRI scans that such religious and spiritual experiences can be rewarding to your brain. They activate the same reward systems between your ears as do feelings of love, being moved by music and even [Read More...]

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Why Annie Dillard Supports Image

Dear readers, When Image was founded in 1989, we turned to a few literary exemplars for endorsements. After all, we had no reputation, money, or power, so we needed to find advocates whose words carried authority. One of the first we turned to was Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Dillard, whose incandescent prose dealt with some of [Read More...]

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James the Lord’s “Brother” (i.e., Cousin)

+ Who Wrote the Book of James? Icon: Saint James the Just [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (11-6-08) ***** According to The New Bible Dictionary (Protestant), the most plausible (though not certain) theory is that the author was James, the “brother” (i.e., cousin, from biblical and historical evidences) of Jesus, and that the data [Read More...]

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The Patron Saint of Losers, Part 2

This post, which appears as the Editorial Statement in Image issue 90, is continued from yesterday. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, a contemporary of Shakespeare, knew his share of failure. As a young man he went off to serve in the military—whether to escape arrest for wounding a man in a duel or for some other [Read More...]

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Does God Forbid ALL Contact with the Dead?

Saint Benedict in Glory (1748), by Johann Jakob Zeiller (1708-1783) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** (6-23-07) ***** The following illustrates the logical structure of biblical arguments in favor of contact with the dead under special and specific circumstances and indirectly for the invocation of the saints in heaven (at least how I myself make [Read More...]

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Catholics: “SO Dogmatic About the Perpetual Virginity of Mary!”

+ Lutheran Confessional Agreement The Annunciation (1850), by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (11-1-08) *** From discussion on the Coming Home Network forum. The woman whose words are in blue is married to a Lutheran, who has a hard time accepting many Catholic beliefs. * * * * * Dave [Read More...]

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Mark Shea vs. “Old Pro-Life” Texas Legislators (Medicaid)

23 boys at Crumpsall Workhouse, circa 1895-1897: sent there, no doubt, by wicked conservative pro-lifers [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] ***** Mark Shea wrote, in his article, What Does the New Prolife Movement Look Like in Action? (12-5-16): As it happens, Texas Republicans did me the favor of demonstrating my point by, in their utter passion [Read More...]

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The Patron Saint of Losers, Part 1

This post appears as the Editorial Statement in Image issue 90. One of the stranger conversations I’ve ever had took place during my senior year of college. I was attending a conference, and during one of the coffee breaks I was talking with a scholar who had taken a shine to me. He asked if I [Read More...]

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The Good Samaritan: Not Just a Good Neighbor

A guest post by Pastoral Solutions Clinical Counselor, Dave McClow, M.Div., LMFT, LCSW. Providence is a powerful force—it’s God’s invisible hand guiding our lives.  I experience Providence in different ways.  Most frequently it happens on the phone with my clients when a story or metaphor comes to mind that I don’t normally use, and it [Read More...]

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The Nightingale Floors

In Kyoto, Japan, seventeenth-century Nijo Castle contains an architectural feature meant to protect the ruling shogun. The floors in the inner most chambers are constructed in such a way that the nails rub together when trod upon, creating the acoustical effect of chirping birds. Known as “nightingale floors,” the sound acts an alarm, providing a warning [Read More...]

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Perpetual Virginity of Mary: Binding Catholic Dogma

The Virgin Annunciate, by Carlo Crivelli (c. 1435-c. 1495) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (11-3-08) ***** Dr. Ludwig Ott, in his Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, a standard theological reference source, states (pp. 203-207) that Mary’s virginity, before, during, and after the birth of Jesus (i.e., the perpetual virginity of Mary) is de fide dogma (the [Read More...]

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Was St. Louis de Montfort a Blasphemous Mariolater?

St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort (1673-1716) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] (2009) ***** St. Louis de Montfort’s Mariology is often misinterpreted, just as, unfortunately, many, if not most books about devotion to Mary are misunderstood by non-Catholics, and not a few Catholics as well. Anti-Catholic Protestants (a small, fringe wing of Protestantism) often seize on [Read More...]

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Sacramentalism: James White Proves Augustine & Luther Aren’t Christians

BLU-82 Daisy Cutter Fireball [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** Original title: “Man-Centered” Sacramentalism: The Remarkable Incoherence of James White: How Can Martin Luther and St. Augustine Be Christians According to His Definition? *** (11-26-03) ***** Bishop James White (one of the most vociferous critics of Catholicism today) and I engaged in a vigorous postal exchange [Read More...]

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Sunday Mass Obligation: Brief Explanation & Rationale

Main door of the Church of Saint George in Sopot, Poland. [Wikimedia Commons /  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license] ***** A Lutheran woman who is considering Catholicism brought up a question regarding the Sunday Mass obligation: My therapist and his wife – formerly life-long Evangelicals – became part of the RC church last [Read More...]

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Sacred Heart & Immaculate Heart: Biblical Reflections

The Heart of Mary, by Leopold Kupelwieser (1796-1862) [Wikimedia Commons /  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license] *** (11-23-10) *** On the Coming Home Network board where I am the head moderator, a person (Catholic convert since 1997) wrote, asking about both the sacred heart of Jesus and immaculate heart of Mary devotions: In [Read More...]

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“New” Pro-Life? Only Spiritual Revival Stops Abortion

Engraving of John Wesley preaching outside a church. Wesley was a key figure in a true spiritual revival that occurred in England in the 18th century, resulting in massive societal change in spirituality and theology, morals, and laws. [Wikimedia Commons /  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license] ***** The New Pro-Life Movement (NPLM) is not [Read More...]

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Poetry Friday: “Advent”

Of course you’ve heard of “El Niño.” And you know that it refers to the Pacific Ocean’s warming spells, which can cause heavy rains and even cyclones in the tropics. But did you know that El Niño (Spanish for “the boy”) is so named because it occurs around Christmas time? And did you know that [Read More...]

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Pope Francis: Please Answer Cardinal Burke Et Al

Image by PeteLinforth [Pixabay / CC0 public domain] *** Regarding the present controversy between Pope Francis and Cardinal Burke, I think only good can come from answering the questions, or “dubia” raised by Burke and three Cardinals Emeritus. This is a big reason why we have the pope in the Church: to give the “final say” [Read More...]

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Good Letters Is My Devotional

By Cathy Warner I came to Christianity in my mid-twenties and joined a Protestant church whose denominational arm publishes devotional booklets that called to mind the copies of Watchtowers Jehovah’s Witnesses used to foist on me. As a new believer, I was supposed to develop a disciplined spiritual life, the cornerstone being morning devotions: Rise [Read More...]

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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...]

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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...]

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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...]

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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.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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/

The Resurrection Volvo

Just about nine months ago—the Tuesday after Valentine’s Day, to be exact—I hit a carload of nuns. It’s not like I was trying to or anything, though: It was the middle of the morning, a misty winter day. I was driving on a quiet street in the part of Washington, D.C. that’s sometimes called “Little [Read More...]

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Poetry Friday: “Poverty of Spirit” by Fleda Brown

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” This beatitude has always puzzled me: what, I’ve wondered, does it mean to be “poor in spirit”? So I was drawn to Fleda Brown’s poem “Poverty of Spirit,” hoping it would elucidate the concept. What I found was a fascinating narrative: of the speaker letting a wagonload of gypsies [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/poetry-friday-poverty-of-spirit-by-fleda-brown/

When the Gate is Shut–A Faithful Response to Vaginismus

Aleteia posted a deeply heartfelt article about a Catholic woman’s struggle with vaginismus, a disorder in which the muscles of the vagina involuntarily spasm or become rigid which makes intercourse either painful or, in extreme cases, impossible. I don’t know anything about the author of the blog referenced in the article, except to say that, [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithonthecouch/2016/10/when-the-gate-is-shut-a-faithful-response-to-vaginismus/

Interview with a Zombie

Halloween costumes and decorations. If I’m a vampire, Pinterest is my garlic. Not only do I cut and paste at a first-grade level but tolerate little more than a basic jack-o-lantern or paper bat in my house. But come September, neighborhood front yards become graveyards. Styrofoam headstones with epitaphs like “I.M. Dead” and “Bone Voyage” [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/interview-with-a-zombie/

The Debate About Beauty

I’ve been engaged in an ongoing wrangle with Gregory Wolfe about the status of Christian intellectuals in the public sphere. We got a bit stuck on the question of T.S. Eliot and the worthiness of New Criticism. Mr. Wolfe has helped to un-stick the conversation with a rather devastating reply to my last post. Pointing [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/the-debate-about-beauty/

A Conversation with Pinckney Benedict

This post originally appeared as a web-exclusive feature accompanying Image journal issue 57. Mary Kenagy Mitchell for Image: You have a novel titled Dogs of God, and in your new story in Image, “The World, the Flesh, and the Devil,” a feral dog is one of the two main characters. What do dogs have to teach [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/a-conversation-with-pinckney-benedict/

Glorying in Flawless Skin and God’s Love

Driving in the car recently, my daughter pulled down the visor in front of her and opened the mirror. Her hair was in a side ponytail draped over her right shoulder. She wore a black and white plaid beret. “I really like this hat and hair thing I have going on today.” “Yes, very cute,” [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/glorying-in-flawless-skin-and-gods-love/

Poetry Friday: “Hive Boxes” by Megan Snyder-Camp

The sounds in this poem! I love its compactness and humming—its slender shape on the page, just like a tower of hive boxes. Bookended by two phrases that particularly sing—“lit hum” and “known oak”—this poem concentrates its gaze on the compelling paradoxes alive in our world, visible and audible in those very phrases. The hive [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/poetry-friday-hive-boxes-by-megan-snyder-camp/

Peter the “Rock”: Protestant Contra-Catholic Exegetical Bias

St. Peter (1326), by Simone Martini (1285-1344) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (7-7-09) *** Matthew 16:18 (RSV) And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. This curious phenomenon was one of the central themes of my [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/10/peter-the-rock-protestant-contra-catholic-exegetical-bias.html

A Conversation with John Terpstra

This interview originally appeared as a web-exclusive feature for Image issue 63. John Terpstra has been in church since before he was born. “I have heard everything there is to say about the place, for and against; both its necessity and its redundancy. Have felt it all, in my bones,” he writes. Issue 63 of [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/a-conversation-with-john-terpstra/

Reading (in) Walden

What are the classics but the noblest recorded thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there are such answers to the most modern inquiry in them as Delphi and Dodona never gave.… To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise…. [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/reading-in-walden/

Relation of Baptism to Baptism of Desire

The Good Thief on the Cross, by Jacopo Bassano (1510-1592) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (3-3-07) *** A certain Protestant objection is made that Catholics make baptism necessary for salvation, so that if someone doesn’t receive baptism they are necessarily damned, and that this is the Council of Trent’s teaching (Canons on the Sacrament [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/10/relation-of-baptism-to-baptism-of-desire.html

Further Thoughts on Communion in the Hand

My daughter Angelina on the day of her first Holy Communion at our beautiful church, St. Joseph’s, in Detroit (7-24-11). *** (6-20-13) *** [this is a follow-up to my earlier paper, Thoughts on Communion in the Hand] ***** [I’ve written many times about this; also about abuses in the use of eucharistic ministers; see the papers [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/10/further-thoughts-on-communion-in-the-hand.html

Creative Tension in the White Imagination

Tension Isn’t Usually Pretty A Facebook video shows a deputy sheriff getting in the face of a young black protester attempting to access the courthouse lawn in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. The young man keeps his cool, insisting their intentions are merely to pray peacefully, but the deputy isn’t interested. He just wants them to [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/creative-tension-in-the-white-imagination/

Traveling Through These Days of Awe

I’m in a plane ascending to 37,000 feet. How restless have I been this year? How easily distractible? Already on this flight, from the time of boarding the plane until now, I’ve jumped from e-mail to Facebook to FiveThirtyEight to Jane Hirshfield on Basho to Mishkan Hanefesh, Sanctuary of the Soul, the Reform movement’s new [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/traveling-through-these-days-of-awe/

Dialogue w Mike Maturen: 3rd Party Candidate

President Theodore Roosevelt: the most famous 3rd party presidential candidate. He ran on the “Bull Moose” (or, Progressive) Party ticket in 1912, and received 27% of the votes, to President William Howard Taft’s 23%, and Woodrow Wilson’s 42%. This was the best 3rd party result ever, and the only time a 3rd party got more [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/10/dialogue-w-mike-maturen-3rd-party-candidate.html

Poetry Friday: “Nothing More” by Todd Davis

Whenever I first meet a long skinny poem, I ask myself: Why has the poet chosen these very brief lines for the poem’s shape? In Todd Davis’s “Nothing More,” the effect of these short lines is a sort of staccato: short phrases punched out in succession and often snapped by startling line breaks. Yet what [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/poetry-friday-nothing-more-by-todd-davis/

A Conversation with Scott Cairns

This post originally appeared as web-exclusive content in Image issue 68. Scott Cairns, the author of numerous volumes of poetry, a convert to Orthodox Christianity, and a longtime contributor to Image, has often advocated what he calls a “sacramental poetics”—the idea that a poem should not so much describe something as do something. Mary Kenagy Mitchell interviewed Scott Cairns [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/a-conversation-with-scott-cairns/

66% of Kids On ADHD Meds Don’t Have ADHD, Says Scientific American

According to the American Psychiatric Association, about 5 percent of American children suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), yet the diagnosis is given to some 15 percent of American children, many of whom are placed on powerful drugs with lifelong consequences. This is the central fact of the journalist Alan Schwarz’s new book, ADHD Nation. [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithonthecouch/2016/10/66-of-kids-on-adhd-meds-dont-have-adhd-says-scientific-american/

Parting the Veil

The light on the ceiling of our bedroom is slanted in a parody of the open doorway, letting in the blue glow of a nightlight from the hall. This nightly and usually innocuous shape hides something in the darkness tonight; I see it creeping in the light box, plotting something against me, about to attack. [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/parting-the-veil/

When Every Child is Left Behind: Teaching “Stupid Faith”

My latest for OSV (online now and in the 10/16 print edition) Catholic children as young as 10 years old are renouncing God and quitting Church, claims a new study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown.  According to lead researcher Mark Gray, children are finding that faith is “incompatible” [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithonthecouch/2016/10/when-every-child-is-left-behind-teaching-stupid-faith/

Art, Icons, and Ant Ovaries

“A world created out of silence gives itself over to prayer.” I’m listening to local painter Debra Korluka discuss her work: the icons she’s painted since she was a child studying in the Ukrainian Orthodox church. I’m interested in the symbolism of an icon’s composition and in the paints—their colors, chemistry, poisons, and history. All [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/art-icons-and-ant-ovaries/

In (Partial) Defense of William Jennings Bryan (Famous “Scopes ‘Monkey’ Trial” of 1925)

William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) as a young man [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (6-6-09) *** [Note: a few years after I wrote this, I was able to visit the famous courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee] ***** I don’t think Bryan was so much a “pseudo-intellectual” as he was simply ignorant of biblical exegesis and the [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/10/in-partial-defense-of-william-jennings-bryan-famous-scopes-monkey-trial-of-1925.html

Pastoral Solutions Institute Seeks New Catholic Counselor to Join Team

The Pastoral Solutions Institute is pleased to announce that we are expanding and seeking a new Catholic therapist to join our team of professional Catholic counselors.  If you are interested, please read the following carefully. About the Institute Founded by Dr. Greg Popcak in 1999, the Pastoral Solutions Institute is a Catholic behavioral tele-health practice providing [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithonthecouch/2016/10/pastoral-solutions-institute-seeks-new-catholic-counselor-to-join-team/

Elegy for My Father

My father: Roy Franklin Harmon, Jr., M.D., passed away on September 22, 2016 at the age of eighty-seven. He was the best man I will ever know. Difficult as it was, my mother wanted me to say something at his funeral service that would at least attempt to encapsulate something of his character. I chose [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/elegy-for-my-father/

The Bible’s Teaching on Abortion

[Flickr / CC BY 2.0 license] (3-8-09) *** [all verses: RSV. Passages in blue are not included in my book, Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths; and the Bible version in the book is KJV rather than RSV] *** FULL PERSONHOOD OF THE CHILD IN THE WOMB * Genesis 16:11 And the angel of the LORD [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/10/the-bibles-teaching-on-abortion.html

Poetry Friday: “Intercession: For My Daughter” by Brett Foster

We pass into this world at birth. We pass out of it at death. And in between: holiness and horrors. This is probably the largest of themes that a poet could take on, and in “Intercession: For My Daughter” Brett Foster wraps his mind and language around it with consummate craft. First, to keep us [Read More...]

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2016/10/poetry-friday-intercession-for-my-daughter-by-brett-foster/