To the editor:
Gossip and misinformation are not what I expect to see in the Catholic Herald, but its April 30 edition gave us both in its coverage of the coronavirus.
Tag: Bishop Barron
The voices of thousands of skeptics on Reddit
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This article is the first in a two-part series.
I just finished my second dive into the Reddit AMA world. One of the most popular websites in the world, Reddit is a forum for all sorts of online conversations and presentations.
The AMA (Ask Me Anything) is a 21st century version of the medieval quodlibetal questions, during which a game theology professor would entertain any inquiry that came from the floor.
Now, things are a bit cruder and more rough and ready on Reddit than they were in the universities of the Middle Ages, but you get the idea.
Birdbox and engaging in spiritual warfare
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Spoiler Alert! This column reveals details of a newly released film.
The film Birdbox, based on a British novel of the same name, started streaming on Netflix around Christmas time. Starring Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich, it is a taut thriller that manages, perhaps despite itself, to shed considerable light on the parlous spiritual condition of contemporary culture.
Mulling over Jordan Peterson and Sam Harris
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Over the Christmas break, I spent a fair amount of time binge-watching Jordan Peterson videos. For those not in the know, Peterson is not the latest hip-hop sensation. He is a psychology professor from Toronto who has made a rather substantial splash as a culture-commentator and public intellectual, largely through appearances on social media.
Bishop Barron’s comments on Luther found ‘confusing, disturbing’
To the editor:
This letter is in response to Bishop Robert Barron’s article, “Looking at Luther with Fresh Eyes,” in your June 29, 2017 issue.
Bishop Barron’s comments, based on a book he had read on Martin Luther, were confusing and disturbing. In the article’s descriptions of Luther’s “experience of grace,” his “love affair,” and his “ecstatic experience,” the seriousness of Luther’s harmful effect on countless souls was minimized. Bishop Barron even seemed to conclude that both the criticism and the celebration of Luther’s solas could simultaneously be appropriate, thus helping to pave the way for ecumenism.
Philosophers did not set out to undermine religion
To the editor:
I am in agreement with Bishop Robert Barron in part two of “Christian apologists, wake up!” In all, that is, but one point. I do not believe the Enlightenment philosophers, Voltaire, Diderot, and Spinoza, set out to undermine religion.
Each did have an encounter with the Catholic Church. Diderot had considered becoming a priest, Voltaire had been educated by the Jesuits (1704-1711).
We need to spend more time with God
To the editor:
There were many good insights in the article by Bishop Robert Barron (on a Pew Study about why young people are leaving the active practice of Christianity) which we can easily recognize.
What is often left out for consideration in discussion of this issue is that in the modern faith formation process, at least in my limited experience of 50 years, there is a lack of engagement of many people, including myself, to a life devoted to dynamic personal devotional intercession and communal intercession happening outside the confines of a very structured and impersonal speedy approach by some to the celebration of the Mass and community involvement within the parish outside of Mass.