The Reconverted Catholic

One word keeps flashing in my mind as we study the several hundred years of repeatedly rehashed arguments between the eastern and western churches. And that word is *bananas* — b-a-n-a-n-a-s (to the rhythm of that one Gwen Stefani song). Anyhow, lame joke aside, it is not a stretch to say that this debate is…

As two of the many great scholastics who contributed to Christian theology and philosophy in the 12th and 13th centuries, Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure stand out among the pack. Many Christians are already aware of the monumental effect that Aquinas has had on Christian theology, such as providing logical proofs for the existence of God and explaining…

Last night, while I was at Mass, the presiding priest gave an outstanding homily that indirectly, yet coincidentally, fit with the Trinitarian controversy we are discussing here in Question #1. Hang with me here for a moment, as it may seem like I am taking a major detour in this discussion thread. That is, the…

The Antiochene-Alexandrian rift alone is so frustrating to study: As I was going through this module’s readings, and then the letters between Cyril and Nestorius, I lost count of how many times I yelled in my mind, arggghh, you guys keep overlapping each other on the same theology – but then you use some of…

One thing is for certain about the history of Christianity: There has been no shortage of movements – all the way up to today – that have staked their claim in having the entire truth of Christian belief and practice. The first five centuries alone were a hot mess of various Christian movements locking horns…

Awhile back, a person interested in Catholicism/Christianity asked me to explain the Trinity. This subject can be like getting hit with a piercing brain freeze after taking a swig or bite of something ice cold. And not that I claim to be a master at explaining such an abstract topic; rather studying Tertullian, Thomas Aquinas,…

When thinking about documents that influenced the spread of the Christianity in its first few centuries, the immediate go-to works are the Gospels and Paul’s letters. However, as this module has covered, other documents were also widely influential. The Didache and The Letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch, for instance, are two crucial documents in…

Hellenistic influence. The Gentiles. The complex relationship between Jews and Romans. Trade routes. Cross-cultural influences throughout the Mediterranean and Near East. Pagan beliefs versus Jewish and Christian beliefs. Diversity amongst Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian practices. All of these elements from the ancient world — around and after Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection — reveal…

As the Module 8 lecture info well summarizes about Kierkegaard’s and Nietzsche’s philosophies — or lack thereof — both have two thoughts in common: contempt for systems centered around ideological absolutes, and contempt for philosophies or ideological pursuits that then lead to systems centered around ideological absolutes (Saint Leo AVP). When looking more closely at…

Descartes’ roller coaster ride of epistemological mental gymnastics, A.K.A Meditations, is like grappling with the old question, ‘If a tree falls in a forest and no is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”  Much of Descartes’ perspective appears to involve what he perceives versus what is reality, and whether God is truly the…