Thomist Tacos for the Soul » Culture Watch

Dr. Norman Geisler responds to the “Story of Suzie”

David Mendez — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:52:01 +0000

From The Christian Post

An atheist known for satirical videos on Christianity recently released an update to “The Story of Suzie” video, which depicts Christians as delusional for praying to God for help amid tragedies.

The animated video features a devout religious character named Suzie who sees divine love and intervention everywhere while the narrator suggests otherwise.

Before going to bed, Suzie prays asking Jesus to heal the sick and ease the suffering in the world. But when she wakes up, “the problems of the world were still there,” said the narrator. Suzie rationalizes the result by believing that “somehow it was all part of God’s plan.”

Produced by The Thinking Atheist, the video implies that while Suzie continues to seek God when there is violence, natural disasters, or illness, her prayers only serve to bring her comfort, not produce any real effect.

Dr. Normal L. Geisler, author of If God, Why Evil?, said the video contains a lot of misconceptions.

“You look at all of that [and] you sympathize with Susie because you think they (disasters, illnesses, etc.) are evil,” he said. “But if it’s evil, then there must be a standard for good. If there is a crooked line in this world then there must be a straight line. If there is a straight line then there must be God.”

Order Online: If God, Why Evil?

Continue reading at The Christian Post

Thomistic Reflections on the Psychology of Love

David Mendez — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 03:39:00 +0000

From: http://theologyphilosophycentre.co.uk/

Aquinas Lecture 2011

‘If Love It Is…’:
Thomistic Reflections on
the Psychology of Love

Michael Sherwin, OP
(University of Fribourg, Switzerland)

Wednesday 26 January 2011

5.00pm

The Aquinas Institute
Blackfriars Oxford

Further Information from vivian.boland@english.op.org

Download the event poster here.

Posted: January 17th, 2011 Permalink Announcements, Events

New Book: The Logic of Desire – Aquinas on Emotion

David Mendez — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 02:38:03 +0000

Nicholas E. Lombardo , O.P.

The Logic of Desire

Aquinas on Emotion

http://cuapress.cua.edu/BOOKS/viewbook.cfm?Book=lold

When Thomas Aquinas completed his Treatise on the Passions, it was likely the longest sustained discussion of the emotions ever written. His influence on medieval and early modern philosophy was enormous, overshadowing every other medieval author on the topic of emotion. Although Aquinas’s account of emotion merits attention for its historical significance and enduring value, it remains neglected by philosophers and theologians.

With emotion emerging as a focus of interest in many disciplines, the time is ripe for a reconsideration of Aquinas’s contribution. Desire and emotion are central to Aquinas’s theological project, and his views on many topics, including the relationship between cognition and emotion, show remarkable prescience in the light of recent developments. Emotion is particularly important to his understanding of virtue and vice. Focusing on the Summa theologiae, Nicholas Lombardo contributes to the recovery, reconstruction, and critique of Aquinas’s account of emotion in dialogue with both the Thomist tradition and contemporary analytic philosophy. It considers Aquinas’s thought on emotion in its historical context and inner logic, and shows how it bears on larger issues in his anthropology and ethics.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nicholas E. Lombardo is a Dominican priest engaged in research at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:

“Nicholas Lombardo’s beautifully argued and carefully documented book is a persuasive retrieval of what Saint Thomas himself obviously regarded as essential to our understanding of the moral and spiritual life–even more important now than in his own day.”–Fergus Kerr, O.P., Honorary Fellow, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh

Why do I have to study math and how does this relate to a pursuit of truth?

David Mendez — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:24:28 +0000

Jonathan Edwards

You know, growing up I would always ask the dreaded question that every math teacher would cringe and even made them question their vocation. I remember getting frustrated with certain mathematical problems and I would always ask, “Why do I need to learn this anyways?” “It’s not like I am going to use this in the real world!” Ah, I remember it as though it was yesterday. In fact, I think it was yesterday!

Seriously, my elementary (junior high and high school too) would just look at me and realize that it was easier to dismiss my question with a sigh and or argument from authority and respond, “because I said so!” Little did I know that these seemingly complex mathematical problems were pondered and solved by generations upon generations of people before me. As a matter of fact, I could say that a problem as simple as two plus two equals four had a legacy of thought behind it, no matter how simple it was. Here I was not realizing what I had on my hands: I was working on a conceptual problem that either blessed or plagued thinkers way before me. In fact, it has been classified so important that every generation feels it is important enough to pass it down to the next generation.

Here I am, in the 21st century and as an adult, I now realize that if I do not understand simple mathematical processes I will not understand concepts such as budgeting, percentage points, and interest rates on that credit card that I can never seem to pay. Without giving these math problems too much importance (I still hold resentment against them), I know that without them I would be “lost in translation,” as it may, in many of areas of society. In fact, society cannot function without these “rules” of math. If you think I am making a big deal about math, I think it really is a big deal. This “big deal” could also be applied to other disciplines such logic, language, grammar, and even spelling.

Let me bring the aforementioned illustration to the topic of Bible study and Christian thought. When engaging in the proper study of God and his word, every Christian should be asking the following questions. Well, before we go there and since we do not want to put Christianity on the hot seat as to whether all of us practice a good thought life, I am going to use my fictional character named Joe to take this role. To make it even easier, I am going to give Joe the script of questions he should be asking as a thoughtful Christian. Ok Joe, fire away.

Well,
1. Why do I need to read and get to know my Bible?
2. Why do I need to know if the resurrection happened or not?
3. Why do I need to know if God exists? (in the sense that I can articulate why)
4. Why do I need to know what truth is?
5. Why do I need to study theology?
6. Why do I need to study apologetics?
7. Why do I need to study epistemology? Episte-what?
8. Logic! Are you kidding me?! I am not Spock and my spouse knows I am not logical sometimes.
9. Metaphysics – ok, this is getting weird and somewhat uncomfortable, what is metaphysics?
10. Can we just do devotions at this point; I am mentally exhausted.

Ok, Joe, we will let you off the hook. You did a good job and you hung in there for the series of questions.

You see, just like those math questions I asked many moons ago, people should be asking these questions in their Christian life. However, unlike math, many Christians have never engaged in anything deeper than a casual bible study. More importantly, many, many people do not know the rich history behind these deeper fields of study. There have been entire church councils that have discussed these subjects at length. Moreover, a lot of the language these godly men used in forming what is called Theology are principals outlined by the peculiar words found in points 7, 8 and 9 above. Entire periods of church history were marked by a rich intellectual tradition that goes back all the way to the apostles themselves.

To put it more concretely, think of the one aspect that us humans share: we long to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. Sometimes we see those in entertainment industry or on the big screen as “larger than life” and when we see them in real life, we seem to feel as though they have a social gravitational pull on us. How many of us have laid claim to a friend, neighbor or even a family member that was made famous for something? It’s even happened to me. For example, it is funny how I love to talk about the fact that my brother in law is an Olympic boxer that won Mexico’s first bronze medal in Tokyo 64. I don’t know a lick of boxing, but I talk about it as though I am an expert on the subject. I even make it seem as though we talk every day and that somehow I am a part of his legacy. This is what people call, being “star struck” and this contributed to the fact that we always long to be a part of something bigger (hint, this is where God fits in with Pascal’s quote but I will leave it for another day).

Now, let me relate this to our Christian experience so that the above scenario can make more sense. What if I was to tell you that you have a great intellectual legacy? It is a tradition so old and so prestigious that it goes back to God himself. Even Jesus, during his time on earth was the crowning jewel of this tradition. Jesus’ knowledge of the father was so close, so rich, so intellectual, yet so intimate (Jn. 10:30). Even Peter declares that, “you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out.” (2nd Pet 2:94)

Let me try a mental experiment here to drive the point even further. As I am writing this, one of the headlines on the world scene is the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Prince William of Wales is the eldest son of Prince Charles and Dianna and is second in line to the throne. It seems that all the eyes of the world are on him, as he is getting ready for the royal wedding of the decade. Even attaching the word “royal” to everything he does ups the ante quite a bit. The words that come to mind when you think about the prince and the soon to be princess of Wales are prestige, honor, tradition, glamour, royalty, castles, family crest, etc., etc.

Furthermore, what if I were to tell you that through geneology.com I found out that you were somehow related to the prince? In addition, he found out about your existence and made sure to include you in the festivities that are set to occur before and after his wedding ceremony. In fact, the prince would like you to meet all of his family and would like to take you to a tour with the family’s historian so that you can know more about them before your meeting with them. How would you feel? What would you do in the meantime?

In my case, I know that I would be so nervous; I would feel disbelief at the fact that somehow I am part of this great family crest. But wait, there’s more (not a sham wow commercial). Let’s say that in your pursuit to know more about who you are interacting with and the colossal history that is a part of every one of them, you find out that your great to the 9th degree cousin is William Shakespeare and that Beethoven somehow, through another distant Nth degree cousin is also in your family tree. Wow, what can you say? You are not only part of the royal lineage, you are also part of something so big, that both of these relatives influenced and changed symphonies and plays forever.

At this point, I would wake up and get coffee; but follow me here. You would probably feel as though second Peter 2:9 starts to sound familiar and very applicable. In fact, it is. Now, before you pull out that purple Barney robe and the hiking stick you are now calling a “scepter,” let me elaborate. I know that the majority of us know or should know that we are part of salvation history and heirs to God’s kingdom. However, there is a part of this great tradition that is often overlooked, underestimated, and even disregarded by many of us. We have a great intellectual history that has not only enriched our knowledge of God so much, but has also contributed to the knowledge of science, math, logic, engineering, astronomy among other disciplines.

Christianity’s intellectual heritage is so vast and so rich that I propose that if the church today would even know 10% of this vast repository of knowledge, we would be in different shape. Unfortunately, history has also showed us what happens when the church flees into ignorance and disregards this great tradition. This has led us to lose our relevance in society and when this happens, we stop becoming effective as the salt of the earth. In addition, society starts to bite the hand that has intellectually fed it and when this happens, society regresses.

I am kind of giving the answer before the question here but now we know why in the last hundred years or so, we have lost relevance. Hence, we resort to phrases like, “just preach the cross!” to a society that is lost in its own skeptical mire and has deemed all truth as relative. This enthusiastic clamor then falls on death ears. Metaphorically, just as the behaviors of the son are usually a reflection of the parents, (I am going out on a limb here) I think that the church is somewhat responsible for fostering this rampant relativism and closet subjectivism that now plagues our society.

Even though this would be a subject for another article, I am going to use some of JP Moreland’s assessment about culture and our current predicament. In essence, during the last two hundred years, when the going got tough, many in the church retreated into personal pietism and a mentality of retreat. In other words, when a few radicals moved the carpet from under the church through Immanuel Kant’s fact/value dichotomy, Darwin’s theory of evolution, and those rebel kiddos that served us a hefty plate of theological liberalism, the church’s immediate response (and this can be verified by historical analysis) was to retreat and concentrate on revivals. Now, this wasn’t happening to the whole church per se, but it was still a significant amount of people. And even though there were a few significant responses, many in the pew preferred experience over engagement and thus we started to fade into non-relevance.

Now don’t get me wrong here. I am all for revival. In fact, even revivalist and scholar Jonathon Edwards actually argued that you could have a true spiritual revival without sacrificing your mind. Nevertheless, these actions did so much damage, I personally think we still have yet to recover from that crucial period in church history. Furthermore, I think that if we had continued the work started by our spiritual ancestors, these intellectual rascals like Darwin and gang wouldn’t have spawned the dishonest scientific children that have dominated the scenes for close to two hundred years. We could say the same things of other ideas that have plagued us equally. Take relativism for example. This is the idea that all truth is relative and that it’s all a matter of perspective. This has done so much damage in our intellectual, theological and even biblical heritage that these mental termites have eaten away at truth, thus leaving us an eroded view of reality and a society swinging above the chasm between fact and value. This is evident even in our churches when people’s response to harsher biblical truths by saying, “well, that might be true for you but I feel differently about that!”

I think that if we are going to “win this world” over to God’s kingdom and be relevant again, we need start rediscovering our heritage in the treasure trove of wisdom and knowledge and ask simple questions such as, “Why do I need to know this?” I think that we would be surprised to find out how important these questions are. Even more and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this search for truth will lead us to God himself. For as Arthur Holmes once wrote, “All truth is God-truth.”

The Literal American Idol- When a cult gets too hizzot to hazandle

David Mendez — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 18:46:01 +0000

I must congratulate Jose Luis de Jesus for being the first aberrational leader to put a video and a pretty face to a dangerous cult. I guess that in the marketing age we live in, where image reigns and soundbytes serve, it would be only logical to promote these dangerous ideas through these mediums. Although the song is in spanish any marketing guru knows that the image is more subtle and powerful than speech. In addition you will see faded throughout the video images of the false christ Jose Luis de Jesus as he is ministering. The song says:

En ti encontre la paz
Que nunca imagino
Cambiaste mis temores
En gozo, amor y fe

Ahora puedo cantar
Como siempre soñando
Mi voz es como el viento
Ya no se puede detener

Eres tu mi inspiracion
Mi alegra mi cancion

Eres la fuerza que da vida a todo mi ser
Gracias a ti puedo volar
Tu has extendido mis alas
No puedo fallar si conmigo
Tu esta¡s

Gracias a ti puedo volar
Tu eres la nube y el viento
El cielo y el mar
Nunca me dejaras
Gracias a ti puedo volar

“In you I found the peace
of which I never imagined
You changed my fears
to Joy, love and faith

Now I can sing
Like I always dreamed
My voice is like the wind
It cannot be stopped

You are my inspiration
You are the happiness of my song….”

Solo de Jesus Follower Martita Roca

The somewhat sensual video shows singing sensation Martita Roca as she sings to her leader she calls “papi,”which is an endearing spanish term for father. If you follow the link to her site you can see her adoration for this false prohpet.

I can only image that if the any of the detractors or heretics of old had used this same approach they would of been more succesful in not getting immediately banned, written against, excluded, excommunicated, etc. I can see Siger de Brabant in Aquinas’ day using a rapper to promte his double dizzle truth fo shizzle ideas. He might of saved himself from fleeing to Italy.