Topics

Indiff’rent Strokes

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

In blurting out his opinion of the supposedly wonderful and God-gifted diversity of religions in a slapdash manner, Francis does great injustice to the Catholic religion.

Transanity Is Taking Over. How Will the Church Respond?

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

Gender ideologues are at work in the Church -- no surprise. That they occupy positions of power and speak with authority is, however, cause for great concern.

Honji Suijaku: Shell Game of the Gods

MIX AND MATCH DEITIES

Jason M. Morgan

When one set of gods merges with another, all that’s really needed is to make charts designating which god goes where. More gods? Bigger chart. Easy.

Are “White Lies” Ever Permissible?

THE INTRINSIC TELEOLOGY OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION

Brian Besong

On its face, the debate seems insignificant to the point of banality: Can a lie be morally justified? Yet, the matter cuts to the heart of our moral heritage.

Preaching Christ Customized

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

To the list of things Jesus could have been but wasn’t, there is now one more to add: A new movement would recast Our Lord as a transgender woman.

The Variety & Theological Implications of Private Revelations

THE ODD CASE OF ADRIENNE VON SPEYR -- PART II

Richard E. Gallagher

Evil spirits, often in a very subtle manner, have been far more clever and more destructive of sound spiritual thinking than generally supposed.

Private Revelations: Authentic, Paranormal & Preternatural

THE ODD CASE OF ADRIENNE VON SPEYR -- PART I

Richard E. Gallagher

Pseudo-mystical phenomena have occurred in cases of seemingly pious individuals who are unwittingly tricked by demons, sometimes for years.

An American Hodgepodge of Religious Kookery

Jason M. Morgan

The temptation to be religiously promiscuous is simply how Protestantism works. Once the individual is the axis, the whole world takes the shape of the ego exalted.

The “New Spirituality” & the Ghost of Catholicism

THE DELETERIOUS EFFECTS OF A SUBTLE INVERSION

John A. Perricone

The “new spirituality” is an ugly caricature of the truths of union with God set forth by the Church, her saints, and her Doctors.

A Peek into Papal Priorities

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

Here’s your Pope: When pagan idols are removed from a sacred space, he apologizes; when his belief in the divinity of Christ is questioned, he’s silent.

Father Figuring

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

The Catholic Church's sex-abuse problem is caused by predators who wear clerical collars and who are protected by a clericalist culture.

Catholic Dreamers’ Failed Dialogue with Islam

Anne Barbeau Gardiner

Interreligious talks have proven fruitless, and our own theologians have not told us even the minimum of truth about Islam.

The Futility of Trying to Derive a Religion from a Book

HOW “SCRIPTURE ALONE” FAILS BOTH MUSLIMS & PROTESTANTS

Howard P. Kainz

"Scripture Alone" fails both Muslims and Protestants, as living by one text leads to problems of authority and fundamentalism.

Who Determines Scripture's "Plain Meaning"?

Casey Chalk

The "I'm too catholic to be Catholic" line of argumentation falls to a subjectivity or "lowest common denominator" critique.

The Narcissist's Religion

GUEST COLUMN

David Mills

We need a word from outside, a revelation, a voice that tells us all the things we would never see on our own. In other words, we need settled dogma.

Return of the Gnostic Jesuits

To say that we cannot rely on the Gospels as clear accounts of Jesus' doings and sayings is tantamount to saying that the Gospels are unremarkable, uninspired, and unreliable.

Welcome to the Battlefield

Liberal Catholic theologians cannot brook dissent from their own way of thinking. They won't debate subjects they consider long settled, and will resort to censorship to silence dissent.

The Theological Treachery of Partial Scientific Truths

GOOD TEILHARD ! BAD TEILHARD !

Mark McMenamin

Partial truths are treacherous when applied to theology. By its very nature, scientific knowledge is incomplete.

The Green Goddess

Anne Barbeau Gardiner

In "Ask the Beasts," Sister Elizabeth Johnson develops her own evolutionary theology, and of course attacks Church teaching.

Quest to Topple the Patriarchal Idol

Anne Barbeau Gardiner

Sr. Elizabeth Johnson warns that if we take literally the "naming" of God in the "image of powerful men," we turn God into an "idol."

Reverend Mother Libertine

Anne Barbeau Gardiner

Feminist Sister of Mercy Margaret Farley, who has taught ethics for three decades at Yale, defends the entire gamut of sexual activity outside of marriage.

The Charismatic Appetite

THE CULT OF EXPERIENCE

Heather M. Erb

The charismatic quest for paranormal experiences of God is also a contrived pseudo-communion of ecstatic emotional dissolution.

A Legacy of Dissent

THE MEMOIRS OF CHARLES CURRAN

Daniel B. Gallagher

If it weren't for the splendor of truth shining through John Paul's theology of the body, we would still be floundering in the false promises of Fr. Curran's theory of compromise.

On Retreat With Sister Rupp

EXERCISES IN TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Ginger Hutton

This popular author and conference speaker, with a master’s in transpersonal psychology, is an evangelist for New Age syncretism.

Thank Goodness for the Unitarians!

The new queer theologians don't need your approval.

Would You Like to "Search for Truth" in an "Open Church"?

One may wonder why Michael Novak allowed his 1964 book to be republished.

Oh Pain, Where Is Thy Sting?

Psychobabble and weird theology can be used to justify anything.

The Hydra of Heterodoxy

America magazine makes a case for a Deistic conception of God.

Idiocy Undisturbed

The complete idiot's guide to misunderstanding Catholicism

When 'Faith-Sharing' Isn't

FAITH WITHOUT DOCTRINE IS NOT FAITH

Jeffrey Gordon

A Catholic high school teacher explains why a trendy (and mandated) exercise is really just an exercise in narcissistic self-indulgence.

"Jesus is God": Can That Statement Be True for Me but False for You?

THE ILLOGIC OF RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENTISM

John Schommer

Young people are hungry for a faith that makes sense and — although they might deny this — for a faith that makes demands of them.

McNuggets From McCormick

THE BRITTLE ARCHES OF DISSENT

James Hitchcock

Dissent has long been noisy, abrasive, and antagonistic. Dissenters seldom pause long enough to consider that they may be in error.

Karl Rahner's Baneful Impact on Theology

FROM MYSTERY TO OBSCURITY

Charles W. James

Leonardo Boff, Harvey Cox & Liberation Theology

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C.Cort

Pros & Cons of Pentecostalism & Charismatic Catholicism

James J. Thompson Jr.

Having banished one strange tongue — Latin — the Catholic Church witnessed an odd phenomenon in the 1960s: an out­break of “unknown tongues” or glossolalia.

The Mormons Reconsidered

GUEST COLUMN

Bill Kauffman

A Summer With the Moonies

DECEITFUL LOVE

Thomas W. Case

An Inside Look at a Moonie Training Session

ON THE NOW-RESPECTABLE MOONIES

Thomas W. Case

The Infantile Illusion of Omnipotence & the Modern Ideology of Science

NOTES ON GNOSTICISM

Christopher Lasch

Renewed scholarly interest in gnosticism has been, for the most part, remarkably sympathetic, as if it represented an important corrective and alternative to Christianity.

Is Christianity the Same as Buddhism Underneath?

SEARCHING FOR THE REAL GOD

Thomas W. Case

By some stretch of the imagination, Buddhism can be chopped down to fit Christianity, but Christianity cannot be chopped down to fit Buddhism.