Why Do We Need Grace? Question: St. Thomas believed that man has an inborn understanding and disposition toward doing the good. What, then, is the purpose of the infusion of grace? Answer: I really do not know where you get the idea … [Read more...]
Leisure: The Basis of Everything?
January 20, 2017 by Matthew Minerd, Ph.D.
At the start of every semester, I know that I will need to undertake a kind of philosophical apologetics. I need to make my students see that philosophy is important. Indeed, it is really a matter of making them see that it actually exists, … [Read more...]
“The Indelible Mark”
Sacramental Character in Patristic and Scholastic Theology
May 12, 2015 by Nicholas Senz
The history of the development of doctrine is, in many ways, a history of language. It is a story of the perpetual struggle to adequately communicate the divine realities in human words, or at the very least, to attempt to do so without … [Read more...]
Questions Answered
August 11, 2014 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP
Does the Church state that there is an ideal form of government? What Magisterial status does the teaching of the popes on contraception enjoy? Can it be changed? Must we believe it? Plato, St. Thomas Aquinas, and A … [Read more...]
Faith Needs Philosophy: A Primer on the Relationship between Reason and Revelation
April 23, 2014 by Brian Jones
The great philosophers that preceded the Judeo-Christian Revelation demonstrated many of the truths about God and the faith that are affirmed in Scripture, and are what St. Thomas calls the preambles of faith. I recently had a brief … [Read more...]
Contemplation, Action, and the Good Life
February 22, 2014 by Dr. Richard Becka, PhD
Everyone is seeking knowledge, but is the knowledge they are seeking really worth the trade-off in terms of the life’s cost? Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas Everyone familiar with the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition will recognize … [Read more...]
Questions Answered
February 20, 2014 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP
What concerns should a priest have in the weekly homily? “New Evangelization:” What does it mean, and what are its primary focuses? Question: What concerns should a priest have in the weekly homily? Answer: Priests know that the … [Read more...]
Communion, Community, and Communication
January 14, 2014 by Fr. John Navone, SJ
The Gospel summons us to authentic human development in communion, community, and communication under the sovereignty of God’s love. Our Christian conversion is both an event and a lifelong process of ongoing response to the grace and call o … [Read more...]
“It Belongs to the Wise Man to Order”: James Schall on Politics and Revelation
December 11, 2013 by Brian Jones
The wise man not only has the right order in his mind, but in his soul as well; he not only knows how he ought to live, but, more importantly, he does, in fact, live this way, in accord with what he is. Fr. Norris Clarke, the renowned … [Read more...]
Questions Answered
December 10, 2013 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP
Many politicians have claimed that though they are Catholic, they are in favor of a woman’s right to choose whatever is necessary for her reproductive health. Can you comment on this attitude? Some couples have chosen to practice c … [Read more...]
The Dumb Ox on Evolution
November 11, 2013 by Rob Agnelli
Thomism offers a valuable service to mankind by guiding the scientific discussions only in the direction of those theories that have a solid metaphysical foundation. In a 1996 address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pope John … [Read more...]
The Providence of God and the Cross of Christ
October 9, 2013 by Daniel M. Garland, Jr.
When one examines the mystery of divine providence, and its relation to the cross of Christ from the viewpoint of wisdom, which is knowledge of divine things, he sees God’s wonderful plan of redemption for his creatures. Crucifixion is t … [Read more...]
Questions Answered
September 10, 2013 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP
What is the teaching of the Church on the resurrection of the dead, and on reincarnation? Some theologians maintain that Jesus went to Hell after his death as a sinner. Is that possible? Question: What is the teaching of the Church … [Read more...]
Faith, Hope, and Charity
August 11, 2013 by Fr. Edward O'Connor, CSC
I would like to propose what I believe is the solution to a major source of misunderstanding between Catholics and Protestants on the one hand, and theologians and exegetes on the other. Christ Sleeping Through the Storm at Sea by … [Read more...]
On Thinking the Actual World Out of Existence
July 20, 2013 by Fr. James V. Schall, SJ
The scanty conceptions to which we can attain of celestial things give us, from their excellence, more pleasure than all the knowledge of the world in which we live; just as a half-glimpse of persons that we love is more delightful than a … [Read more...]
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