Showing posts with label Fr. Robert Barron. Show all posts

Thomas Aquinas on Nature/Grace and Faith/Reason (Videos)

Yesterday was the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas (awesome dude!), and so I thought it would be apropos to post some videos on him and his thinking.  The first one, from Taylor Marshall, speaks about Thomas's insight into human nature regarding how grace builds on nature - we're good, but fallen, and grace is what transforms, perfects, and strengthens us.  Yesterday I posted about serving for Pope Francis and how the experience made me realize - you know - the humanness of our Holy Father, and thus that we need to pray for him, and so the video seemed to be especially fitting.  The second one is from Fr. Barron and shows why Thomas's thought still is hugely important today because: (1) he shows that all truth is one - that thus faith and revelation are not only compatible with reason and science, but that they work together, and strengthen each other, (2) his proof of God based on contingency - that things rely on other things for their existence, but that at some point we have to reach some non-contingent, non-created, non-limited "thing" (which is God) or else nothing would exist at all, and (3) Thomas's explanation of us as human - and how that humanity was transformed by the incarnation of Christ, and thus makes Christian humanism, our view of the goodness of man, above that of any secular thinker.  This also goes along with stuff happening in my life - especially the material I'm studying in fundamental theology regarding faith, reason, revelation, the church (and other such important things...), as well as a fascinating conversation I had yesterday with some guys about what Christ would have known  (being both fully human and fully divine), and how that might "work" now that he has a glorified body (a topic that then went into the existence of matter outside of time and quantum states and stuff - it was great, science and faith together!) 

Enjoy!  And keep me in your prayers!
 
Back to paper writing (on modern biblical scholarship: specifically the last 200 years or so of work on understanding the formation of the Pentateuch) and studying (for Fundamental Theology)  It's so cool, I'm studying theology!
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True Marriage - a collection of other responses

Well, I was saddened to here about the Supreme Court decision today.  It just shows how far our society has fallen as of late...  But, I found that Corey already had a terrific response to it on his blog.  That combined with the fact that I need to get some Spanish done (as always) means that, for now, I don't have some great post about it.  Read Corey's it is absolutely fantastic!
 
An excerpt from the USCCB's response:
“Marriage is the only institution that brings together a man and a woman for life, providing any child who comes from their union with the secure foundation of a mother and a father.
“Our culture has taken for granted for far too long what human nature, experience, common sense, and God’s wise design all confirm: the difference between a man and a woman matters, and the difference between a mom and a dad matters. While the culture has failed in many ways to be marriage-strengthening, this is no reason to give up. Now is the time to strengthen marriage, not redefine it.
“When Jesus taught about the meaning of marriage – the lifelong, exclusive union of husband and wife – he pointed back to “the beginning” of God’s creation of the human person as male and female (see Matthew 19). In the face of the customs and laws of his time, Jesus taught an unpopular truth that everyone could understand. The truth of marriage endures, and we will continue to boldly proclaim it with confidence and charity.

I haven't really touched on this topic yet because, well, it's a hard one to cover and is extremely controversial.  I guess I just haven't had enough time to think it over, find the necessary sources, etc. to make a good coherent counter-argument. 
 
Anyway, here's a pretty good video about the topic from Chris Stephanick, about Natural & Divine Law:
And another decent one from Fr. Barron, about Moral argumentation, and how we have stopped looking at morality and instead look at discrimination or something (dictatorship of relativism!):
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The New Evangelization - The Catholicism Series

I'm sure many of you enjoyed and learned a lot from The Catholicism Series by Fr. Robert Barron.  Well, he has started a new project that I am avidly following about the new evangelization.  He is attempting to show our modern world that they can't do it all on their own; they need God.  We must re-convince people that God is a necessary, important, and beneficial part of their life.  This video is just a trailer/snippet of Fr. Barron's project.  Check out the other videos he has - really terrific stuff: channel 1 and channel 2.  Enjoy!  
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