Sunday Afternoon: Catholic in an LDS Culture
Sunday, December 21st, 2008I live in a town that is dominated by LDS culture, which is a distinct American subculture all its own. Music, books, daily interactions – in some ways, living here is like living in a different country. My wife and children are LDS. I don’t make any apologies for that, but I also don’t recommend [...]
Sunday Afternoon: Science Fiction and Religion
Sunday, December 7th, 2008There is some new discussion on Science Fiction and Religion that started with John Scalzi’s column at AMC, and continuing with Gabriel McKee’s post at SF Gospel in which he says that he disagrees with Scalzi in his title, then agrees with him. Scalzi got this exactly right: It’s an interesting topic because in our [...]
Sunday Afternoon: Ravi Zacharias
Sunday, November 30th, 2008When I was in high school, I decided I didn’t believe in God. I’m not sure why, looking back – I had no bad experiences at church (I was raised Catholic) – I just didn’t really feel anything. I just didn’t see the point. This atheistic state of mind lasted through my college years, but [...]
Sunday Afternoon: The Pontifical Academy on the Sciences
Sunday, November 9th, 2008Last week, the Vatican hosted a plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The subject was “Scientific Insight Into the Evolution of the Universe and of Life”. First thing, what is the Pontifical Academy of Sciences? It is an independent entity within the Holy See. New members are “elected by the body of Academicians [...]
Review: The Fathers by Pope Benedict XVI
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008The Fathers by Pope Benedict XVI Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor Published: 2008 The material in this book, says the first footnote, is taken from Pope Benedict XVI’s general audiences from March 7, 2007 through February 27, 2008. There are 26 short chapters, each a talk given at one of those audiences, and each about an [...]
Ostrov (2006)
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008I’m not much of a film critic, so I can’t really say how this Russian film fits into the history of film or comment on its style, but I can say that I found it remarkable. The title is “Ostrov”, and I found it on Netflix titled “The Island”. In the little research I did [...]
Sunday Afternoon: Prayer
Sunday, October 19th, 2008I’ve written of my difficulty with prayer before. At mass, I’ve got no problems focusing and being there for prayer, but I haven’t been successful yet at any kind of regular daily prayer routine – I’m completely open to suggestions or thoughts here. I once considered reading a form of prayer, and perhaps some reading [...]
John Paul Stabbed by a Priest in 1982
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008Wow – this Reuters story is interesting; it says that Pope John Paul II was stabbed in 1982 by a knife-wielding priest, and that it was kept secret. Apparently, the wound wasn’t serious, though, because the article also says that he carried on with the trip he was on.
Sunday Afternoon: Teaching World Religions
Sunday, October 12th, 2008I was listening to a public radio show called “To the Best of Our Knowledge” (podcast feed |here|) this week. The episode I heard was called “Getting Religion”, and the first story on the show was about Stephen Prothero, a person who is trying to get religious education back into schools, but not of the [...]
Jesus and the Catholic Church Podcast
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008My friend Jeff Vehige has started a wonderful podcast called “Jesus and the Catholic Church”. Currently available are an Introduction to the podcast, and Episode 1, in which he “unpacks” John 1:1-5. The podcast is everything I hoped it would be – it sounds great and is incredibly informative (so much so that I listened [...]
« Previous Entries