Brother André Marie’s Theology Weblog

Rationalists, for whom the supernatural order is a mere fantasy, contend that the Catholic concept of grace alienates man from his nature. The opposite error was advanced by certain modern Catholic theologians who broke with tradition and made grace virtually implicit in nature. [Read more →]

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In the study of Christology, St. Thomas’ use of Aristotelian natural science helps to avoid two extremes: 1) the neo-modernist “Christology from below” with its Nestorian and Arian tendencies and 2) the Monophysitism implicit in any theology which denigrates our Lord’s Sacred Humanity. The key concept in Aristotelian philosophy ad rem to this subject is the “analogy of being.” [Read more →]

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The assignment: “Explain how modern ideas about the relation of body to soul have affected the Biblical idea of the human person.”

To answer this question, we must first explain the Biblical idea itself. Father Ashley states that human persons are “beings who are at one time material and spiritual, and made in the likeness of God, who is pure spirit, but who is the Creator of matter and our body.” [Read more →]

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Of the three major approaches to Epistemology, (also known as “Major Logic,” or “Criteriology,” i.e., that philosophical discipline which studies the theory of knowledge), two constitute opposite, erroneous poles, while the third strikes a happy medium between them. [Read more →]

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The assignment: Write a three page paper responding to the following questions. How can the finite man Jesus be the fullness of divine revelation? How can the finite Roman Catholic Church transmit the fullness of divine revelation? Include reference to the way in which Dominus Iesus shows the interdependence of claims for the uniqueness of Christ and claims for the uniqueness of the Church.

Certain neo-modernist theologians of our day deny the complete character of Our Lord Jesus Christ’s revelation. Their argument is as follows: “Being finite, limited, and conditioned historically, linguistically, and culturally are part of what it means to be human. Jesus was fully human. Therefore, Jesus’ humanity must also be finite, limited and conditioned historically, linguistically, and culturally. One further step is required: since Jesus’ humanity is thus limited, it can only communicate a limited truth about God.” [Read more →]

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A Review of The Church at the Turning Points of History, by Godfrey Kurth.

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: IHS Press (September 1, 2007)
• ISBN-10: 1932528091
• ISBN-13: 978-1932528091

History is the laboratory of wisdom, says my mentor. But for all the truth of that statement, historians are not men untainted by their share of folly. [Read more →]

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The Edict of Nantes was a pragmatic, political solution to the civil strife that existed in a sixteenth-century France ravaged by wars of religion. Though the edict itself was not trusted, appreciated, or liked by most Frenchmen at the time, its implementation (and enforcement by Henri of Navarre) succeeded in securing a measure of domestic tranquility to this nation seeking to establish itself in modern, international, secular statecraft. [Read more →]

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I have finished reading the wonderful volume of Godfrey Kurth, The Church at the Turning Points of History, now happily brought back into print by my friends at IHS Press. This accomplished author is not so well known as he should be. For that reason, I’m posting the biographical information on him furnished in the older (1929) edition of the book I have at hand. (Note to the hurried reader: At the bottom of this piece, I have put hyperlinks to Kurth’s articles in the Catholic Encyclopedia, where “Godefroid” was the form of his first name the editors used.)

[Read more →]

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I have just finished reading “The Old Covenant: Revoked or Not Revoked?” by Dr. Robert Sungenis. It is a study debunking the notion, now regnant in liberal theological circles, that the Old Covenant still stands side-by-side with the New Covenant. According to this novelty, in essence, God’s “A Plan” and God’s “B Plan” are both currently pleasing to Him and both fully in effect. Opposed to this, the Catholic Faith teaches that the Old Law — itself good, holy, and of divine origin — was a preparation for the New, and that the New Law superceded and fulfilled the Old. [Read more →]

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Philip F. Lawler , Editor of Catholic World News, has authored a new a book called The Faithful Departed, The Collapse of Boston’s Catholic Culture. Not yet released, the book can be ordered from Amazon.com at a pre-publication special price. Mr. Lawler has posted a sneak preview online, from which we excerpt the paragraphs below. [Read more →]

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There are four internal divine relations in the Holy Trinity, of which only three are really distinct relations. To grasp this very important concept in the theology of the Triune God, we begin by considering again what we have said of the Trinitarian processions, namely, that there are two processions, generation and spiration. We may schematize the processions thus:

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This paper summarizes Catholic teaching on the procession of the Son from the Father, and of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son.

Given that the Son and the Holy Ghost are consubstantial with the Father, that is, of the same substance and numerical nature as the First Person, the question arises: “If they are not created, where do they come from?”[1] The answer is that the origin or principle of each of these divine Persons comes by way of two internal[2] processions. That is, each of them comes forth[3] by an immanent act of the Divine Trinity. The word “procession” is the scriptural term for this reality, for Jesus says, concerning his own procession from the Father: “If God were your Father, you would indeed love me. For from God I proceeded, and came; for I came not of myself, but he sent me” (Jn. 8:42). Elsewhere, Our Lord calls the Paraclete, the “the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father” (Jn 15:26). [Read more →]

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The following is from Blessed Columba Marmion’s masterful Christ, the Life of the Soul. In the larger context, Abbot Marmion is considering the mystery of holiness, first in God, then in men. After speaking of holiness considered as an attribute of God (i.e., in the Divine Nature), he goes on to consider holiness in the Trinity:

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In the post, “The Status of Father Feeney’s Doctrinal Position,” I stated that the Sisters of Saint Ann’s House do not have a website. That has changed. The good Sisters now have a site here: Sisters of Saint Benedict Center, Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. [Read more →]

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This paper answers the following question: Given what Catholics believe about grace, merit and justification, why is it much more logical for Catholics to have treatises on progress in the practice of the presence of God and growth in mystical prayer than Protestants?

To answer this question, we must first contrast the two positions on grace, merit, and justification. We begin by asking the question, “Does grace involve a true change in our inner nature?” [Read more →]

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A much more in depth treatment of this subject is found in our “The Three Levels of Magisterial Teaching.” The discrepancy in numbering the levels (three vs. four) is explained by the fact that some theologians, apparently following Cardinal Avery Dulles (The Craft of Theology: from Symbol to System), have created a fourth category that is not in the magisterial documents which outline these different categories. Toward the end of this paper, I explain where I think they get this.

The four kinds of magisterial statement are (1) infallible dogma, (2) definitive statements on matters closely connected with revealed truth, (3) ordinary teaching on faith and morals, and (4) ordinary prudential teaching on disciplinary matters. [Read more →]

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Father asks: “Can an ‘implicit faith in Christ’ be sufficient for salvation?” He answers “No.” And he does so in over thirty pages of serious scholarship, with copious references to Fathers, Doctors, approved theologians, and magisterial pronouncements.

Father Brian Harrison, O.S., M.A., S.T.D., is Professor Emeritus of Theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico in Ponce, P.R. In 1997 he gained his doctorate in Systematic Theology, summa cum laude, from the Pontifical Athenæum of the Holy Cross in Rome. Father is a priest in good standing of the Diocese of Ponce. (Read more about him here.)

Father Harrison’s 33-page paper is online here as a PDF file: http://www.catholicism.org/downloads/FrHarrison_Implicit-Fai th.pdf

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After the Original Sin, man was left in a condition of alienation from God. Whereas before the sin, he enjoyed infused knowledge in his intellect, loving obedience in his will, spontaneous virtue in his emotions, and no sickness or death in the body; after the fall, he is punished with ignorance in the intellect, malice in the will, concupiscence in the emotions, and suffering and death in the body. God himself has to grant the remedies. These are principally two: The Divine Law and grace. [Read more →]

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