Reflexionando sobre el dogma de la trinidad, Hans Küng apunta:

«No hay doctrina de la trinidad en el Nuevo Testamento. Si bien abundan las fórmulas triádicas, sin embargo, en todo el Nuevo Testamento no hay ni una sola palabra acerca de una ‘unidad’ de estas tres magnitudes altamente distintas, de una unidad en un igual plano divino. Cierto que hubo una vez en la primera carta de Juan una frase (Comma Johanneum) que, en el contexto de espíritu, agua y sangre, mencionaba a continuación al Padre, la Palabra y el Espíritu, que serían uno.

Sin embargo, la investigación histórico-crítica ha desenmascarado esta frase como una falsificación nacida en el norte de África o en España en siglo III o IV, y de nada sirvió a las inquisitoriales autoridades romanas su empeño en defender todavía a principios de este siglo como auténtica esta frase.»

Y continúa diciendo:

¿Qué otra cosa significa esto en palabras llanas sino que en el judeo-cristianismo, incluso en todo el Nuevo Testamento, existe la fe en Dios el Padre, en Jesús el Hijo, y en el Espíritu Santo de Dios, pero que no hay una doctrina de un Dios en tres personas (modos de ser), una doctrina de un «Dios uni-trino», de una «Trinidad»?

Pero ¿cómo entiende el Nuevo Testamento la relación entre el Padre, el Hijo y el Espíritu Santo? «Para darnos a entender la relación de Padre, Hijo y Espíritu no hay en todo el Nuevo Testamento otra historia mejor que aquel discurso de defensa del protomártir Esteban que Lucas nos ha transmitido en sus Hechos de los Apóstoles.

Esteban tiene una visión durante ese discurso: Lleno del Espíritu Santo, fijó la mirada en el cielo, vio la gloria de Dios y a Jesús de pie a la derecha de Dios, y dijo: «Veo el cielo abierto y a aquel Hombre de pie a la derecha de Dios.»

Aquí se habla, pues, de Dios, del Hijo del Hombre y del Espíritu Santo.

Pero Esteban no ve, por ejemplo, una divinidad trifacética y menos aún tres hombres de igual figura, ni un símbolo triangular, como llegará a utilizarse siglos más tarde en el arte cristiano occidental. Más bien:

• El Espíritu Santo está al lado de Esteban, está en él mismo. El Espíritu, la fuerza y poder invisibles que proceden de Dios, lo llena por completo y le abre así los ojos: «en el espíritu» se muestra a él el cielo.

• Dios mismo (ho theós «el» Dios a secas) permanece oculto, no se asemeja al hombre; solo su «gloria»(hebreo «kaboda», griego «doxa») es visible: esplendor y poder de Dios, el resplandor que proviene por completo de él.

• Jesús, finalmente, visible como el Hijo del Hombre, está «a la derecha de Dios»: esto significa en comunidad con Dios, en igual poder y gloria. Como Hijo de Dios elevado y recibido en la vida eterna de Dios, él es vicario de Dios para nosotros y, a la vez, como hombre, el representante de los hombres ante Dios.

De todo esto debería desprenderse con claridad que la cuestión clave sobre la doctrina de la Trinidad es, según el Nuevo Testamento, no la cuestión declarada como «misterio impenetrable» (misterium stricte dictum) de cómo tres magnitudes tan distintas pueden ser ontológicamente uno, sino la cuestión cristológica de cómo hay que expresar según las Escrituras la relación de Jesús (y en consecuencia también la del Espíritu) con Dios mismo. Ahí no es lícito poner en tela de juicio ni por un instante la fe en el Dios uno, que el cristianismo comparte con judíos y musulmanes: fuera de Dios no existe ningún otro dios… El principio de unidad es para el Nuevo Testamento, como para la Biblia hebrea, el Dios uno, (ho théos: el Dios=el Padre), del que todo procede y hacia el que todo se dirije.

Si se quisiera enjuiciar a los cristianos anteriores a Nicea desde la vertiente del concilio de Nicea, entonces no solo los judeoscristianos, sino también casi todos los padres de la iglesia griegos serían herejes porque ellos enseñaban como obvia una subordinación del «Hijo» al «Padre» que según la posterior medida de la definición equiparadora de una «igualdad de esencia» por el concilio de Nicea es considerada como herética.

A la vista de estos datos apenas se puede obviar la pregunta: si en vez de tomar al Nuevo Testamento como medida se toma al concilio de Nicea, ¿quién había en la Iglesia antigua de los primeros siglos que fuera ortodoxo?

Por último: «¿De dónde proviene en realidad esta doctrina de la Trinidad? Respuesta: solamente es un producto del gran cambio de paradigmas, del paradigma protocristiano-apocalíptico al paradigma veterocristiano-helenista.»

Introduction: N. T. Wright’s New Testament Foundations for Ecclesiology

The starting point, the a priori, for any ecclesiology must be an understanding of the Church as the people of God, an eschatological community that exists for the sake of those not yet apart of said community. N.T. Wright lays out the three primary criteria that defined the church in its first few decades, it was essentially baptismal, Eucharistic and disciplined.[1] Wright continues, “The problems which arose in relation to the care of the needy, particularly widows, are most readily comprehensible if we envisage the church, not as a part-time voluntary organization of the like-minded which left normal social and familial attachments unaffected, but as a group with definite boundaries.”[2] The question then becomes what are the boundaries that define the people of God? How should the church understand itself and what would a definitively “charismatic” ecclesiology look like? These are the questions that will be attempted to be addressed in a brief and admittedly shallow treatment, for the sake of space.  Perhaps the two major theological voices in modern ecclesiology and ecumenism are Volf and Küng. By synthesizing these voices into a duet perhaps a definitive and constructive “charismatic” ecclesiology can be ascertained and thus expressed.  The most pressing issue to face the church over the next hundred, or so, years will most likely not be issues of morality or politics but of ecumenism and the church’s self-understanding.[3]

Volf’s Participatory Ecclesiology

Primarily, Volf wants to equate the church with the expression of charisms, “Wherever the Spirit of Christ, which as the eschatological gift anticipates God’s new creation in history, is present in it ecclesially constitutive activity, there is the church.”[4] While this does not necessarily validate the expression or it’s experiential interpretation, it does make room for otherness inside of the community (which is an idea to be explored later). Volf will go on to try and transcend the disagreement between Free Church and Episcopal models of ecclesial criteria for what constitutes a church, unfortunately his definition borders on the overly subjective and begins to side more with the Free Church suppositions.[5] He states directly, “the presence of Christ is not attested merely by the institution of office, but rather through the multidimensional confession of the entire assembly.”[6] The consequence of this statement is the striping of any Sacramentology to the foundation of mere communal confession of faith, not an objective reality.[7] While Volf’s experiment in ecclesiology is right minded and often correct in its aims, the way in which he answers key issues is at the expense of history and ecumenism for the higher church traditions. What is needed is an understanding of the activity of the Spirit that is not objective solely or subjective merely.

Acknowledging the objectivity of the Spirit’s work within the subjective experience and expression is imperative. Room must be made for the work of the Spirit to communicate objectively through otherwise subjective means. Ultimately these experiences and expressions will be misunderstood, misinterpreted and misappropriated, but that does not mean we discard or devalue them. Volf’s disdain for Episcopal authority is directly related to his witnessing its abuse in the Balkans during the late eighties and nineties.[8] What is needed, in order balance Volf, is to embrace theological otherness within the community as a charism. Ecclesiological self-understanding as the community that embodies the objectively subjective work of the Spirit is a priori to a healthy ecumenism and view of the universal as well as local church.

Hans Küng’s Pneumatological Ecclesiology

Kärkkäinen makes an observation about Küng’s ecclesiology that is important. “As a real church, the faith community is composed of sinful men and women and it exists for sinful men and women. Küng’s view comes close to that of Luther, who regarded the church as the community of sinners. Therefore, the communio sanctorum as communio peccatorum is always in need of forgiveness…”[9] This self-perception on the part of the church is essential in that it requires self-criticism, self-criticism that lends itself to a more open ecclesiology, one that makes room for otherness inside of the community. Otherness inside of the Christian community is not only a self-evident fact of the current state of world Christianity as Volf points out[10], but can also be understood as a virtue, which Küng is rightly advocating.[11] When otherness is embraced in ecclesiology, not simply in a vague superficial manner but as ontologically legitimate otherness, it demonstrates two things. First, its mimics and reveals the identity of the church as the image of the Trinity, which is the argument of Ware[12], Lossky[13] and Zizioulas[14]. Second, it shows the church in her glory as the redemptive community that accepts and embraces the strangeness of the other.  Küng argues that without this ability to embrace the otherness that exists inside of the universal church in a real way there is a loss of legitimacy, or genuineness, in the ability to embrace the otherness outside the boundaries of the community.[15]

The natural consequence of accepting otherness as ontologically legitimate in ecclesiology is the ability to not only co-exist but also to enter into dialogue through common language, dialogue that leads toward communion. The goal of any ecclesiology with any legitimacy is not simply the defense of one’s theological system or traditions, as is all too often the case[16], but toward real familial communion that recognizes one Lord and one Baptism.

Küng, not unlike Volf, is explicitly interested in defining the church in terms of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.[17] Kärkkäinen notes, “Küng. . . emphasizes the fact that the Spirit of God who indwells the church is no ‘obscure and nameless power’. . . but is the concrete presence of God in Christ and derivatively in the church. . . the Spirit is the earthly presence of the glorified Lord in the Church.”[18] Küng goes onto to exposit the “charismatic structure of the church” paying much attention to issues of ecclesiastical authority and the tension between the laity and hierarchy. [19][20] The pertinent portions of Küng’s treatment lie in his persistence toward the oneness of the Church.[21] By placing his definition of the church in strictly Pneumatological terminology, Küng proves himself light years ahead of much of his ecclesiastical colleagues, He also provides the linguistic framework for a holistic charismatic ecclesiology, one that, hopefully, places the charismatic-Pentecostal understanding of the charisms within the linguistic traditions of the historical, sacramental church.

A Proposal for a Charismatic Ecclesiology

The cardinal issue in defining a distinctly charismatic ecclesiology will be with the definition of what constitutes a charism. Charisms, almost without exception, have essentially been hijacked by the Pentecostal tradition and its subsequent offspring in the last century. Rather then accept a rather narrow definition of charismata the definition must be broadened, to the presence of the Holy Spirit in the expression of the Church that is pointing to an eschatological reality.  This understanding of charismata is supported not only by Küng[22] and Volf[23], but also Moltmann[24], Stronstad[25] and even Barth.[26] If considered seriously and examined thoroughly the broadened language defining what a charism is, and by consequence what it means, lends itself towards a mutual vocabulary between the sacramental and charismatic churches.

That which defines the meaning of a sacrament and that which defines a charism are not mutually exclusive. Both only hold meaning in an eschatological sense, and if understood as being objective within their subjective contexts because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit (as explored earlier), the two have a tremendous amount in common. Ultimately the classical argument about the distinction between the two has to do with the effects of each. With the sacrament being a means of grace conferred for the personal sanctification[27] of the participant and the charism being a means of grace by which the Spirit effects the work of the church through but not necessarily in the life of the participant.[28] The difference, in reality, between the two understandings? Semantics.  The commonality between the two definitions is uncanny; both are the activity of the spirit in the life of the church for salvific purposes that point toward an eschatological hope and reality caught between the “already” and “not yet.”  If the commonality is truly present between the two realities then the ecclesiological consequence is that the sacraments are to be understood as charisms and the charisms, conversely, become sacramental; the barriers between ecumenical belief, rhetoric and praxis breakdown.

Last, the church must be understood as “for the sake of the non-elect.”[29] A church ceases to be The Church when it’s charismatic/sacramental expression loses its missional presupposition and purpose.  A church is only The Church in so much that its primary self-understanding and orientation is focused on the culture and community in which it is particularly located.[30] Once this breaks down it becomes just another cult among the plethora offering personal spiritual salvation in the history of Greco-Roman mysticism.[31]

[2] Ibid. 448.

[3] Kärkkäinen, An Introduction to Ecclesiology. (Dovers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 231.

[4] Volf, After our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 129. While such a definition of the church is valid, what is needed is a more thorough and yet broad understanding of a charism then Volf seems willing to consent to, which will be explored later.

[5] Ibid. 133-135.  Volf defines the ecclesiality of a church it terms of Matthew 18:20, while ideal and true, it does not constitute a complete definition of the church as it does not seem to acknowledge any sense of objectivity in the activity or experience of the community.

[6] Ibid. 152.

[7] Kärkkäinen, An Introduction to Ecclesiology. (Dovers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 137.

[8] Hedges, War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning. (New York, Anchor Books, 2002), 56.

[9] Kärkkäinen, An Introduction to Ecclesiology. (Dovers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 105.

[10] Volf, After our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 140-141

[11] Küng, The Church. (New York: Image Books, 1967), 230.

[12] Ware, The Orthodox Church. (London: Penguin Books, 1997), 308.

[13] Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church. (New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1976), 176-177.

[14] Zizioulas, Being as Communion. (New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997), 15.  Interesting to note that all three contemporary Orthodox theologians embrace a view that theirs is the true church and yet have the ability, seeming theological mandate, to embrace those not inside the eastern church in a way beyond the typical ecumenism in the west. See Anglican-Orthodox dialogue and communion.  The Moscow statement of 1976, the Dublin statement in 1984, and the Cyprus agreed statement presented at Lambeth 2008 as “The Church of the Triune God.” Also see Anglican-Orthodox Dialogue by Kallistos Ware.

[15] Küng, The Church. (New York: Image Books, 1967), 169.

[16] Kärkkäinen, An Introduction to Ecclesiology. (Dovers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 231-232.

[17]  Küng, The Church. (New York: Image Books, 1967), 215-18.

[18] Kärkkäinen, An Introduction to Ecclesiology. (Dovers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 109.

[19] Küng, The Church. (New York: Image Books, 1967), 239-247.

[20] Ibid, The Church: Mandated in truth. Trans. Edward Quinn, (New York; The Seabury Press, 1979), 50-51.  This passage particularly deals with the interaction between the Magisterium and laity and tries to lay out a possible future interaction. An interesting read but not overly pertinent to the current discussion.

[21] Ibid, The Church. (New York: Image Books, 1967), 353.

[22] Ibid, 215-18.

[23] Volf, After our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 129.

[24] Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit. Trans. Margaret Kohl.  Munich: Fortress Press, 1993.  294.

[25] Stronstad, The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1984. 81-82

[26] O’Grady, The Church in the theology of Karl Barth. Washington: Corpus Books, 1968.  250-268.

[27] The Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Image Books, 2^nd edition , 1995.

[28] Stronstad, The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1984. 73. Stronstad makes a strong and clear argument for the purely vocational understanding of the “baptism of the Spirit.”

[29] Wright, The New Testament and the People of God. (London: Fortress Press, 1992), 334, 447.

[30] Volf, After our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 141-147.

[31] Wright, The New Testament and the People of God. (London: Fortress Press, 1992), 152-166.

The Catholic Church has always had a bull’s-eye attached to it, and in truth many of us wouldn’t want it any other way, for when we are almost universally loved, as has happened a few times in the last 40 years we have become “of the world,” instead of suffering for the world.”  Lately, during the pontificates of Pope John Paul II and now Pope Benedict XVI dark forces have gathered at the gates of truth attacking the Church for a variety of long held beliefs.  These beliefs can range from the theological to the social. However, following the US Election of 2008 a tidal wave seems to have inundated the Church from the mainstream media, the political realm and even the entertainment world. The Church’s 2,000 year old teachings and beliefs have been attacked in the United States and Western Europe from elected officials, the mainstream media and well known entertainment celebrities. Some of the faithful have become discouraged and questioned me as to how the thesis of my book, The Tide is Turning Toward Catholicism, could possibly be true in light of this news.

The truth of the matter is that against this troubling backdrop the Church continues to grow around the world, especially in African and Asia but even in North America, where much of the onslaught against the Church has emanated. Seminaries and Mother Houses often have no room for those pursuing a vocation and those young African and Asian men and women are often sent to the US or Europe to explore their vocation. Even in the US and pockets of Europe seminaries are experiencing a mini boom. One seminary rector told me that in the 40+ plus years of being affiliated with the Church, he has never seen a longer sustained period of top notch orthodox minded young men coming in and being ordained as he has seen in the last 10 years. Perhaps this is why the powers that be are so angry.

It seemed the US midterm Election of 2006 emboldened the cause of those militant liberals and secularists who have contempt for much of what orthodox minded Catholicism holds dear. Following the results of the Election of 2008, many pundits proclaimed the results as a sea change for America. Agnostics and atheists gleefully announced that a world where religion and especially conservative or orthodox minded Catholicism held sway was being replaced by a humanist brand of religion where age old teachings were replaced by the ideas of “enlightened” religious leaders, agnostic thinkers, and pop culture celebrities. It seemed this new brand of liberal thinker was less idealistic than their 1960s peers and displayed an anger and hostility that was a far cry from the utopian idealism displayed some 40 years ago. Yet, beneath the surface and below the radar screens of many news organizations, lies the hope of the Catholic faithful who hold on to the ideas  imparted by Christ, His Apostles, Popes, Bishops, Priests, Women Religious, Saints and holy laymen and laywomen throughout the centuries.

Hope doesn’t merely rest on those being ordained or vowed, but also on those young people who attend Mass. Recent data shows that the 18-30 age group, who attend Mass regularly, are the most supportive of the Church’s teachings and the most pro life of any generation, including their grandparents. How can this be one might ask, aren’t these the same young people who have become pampered by a self absorbed reality show culture and who voted en masse for liberal candidates in the 2008 Election? Actually this particular group of young people has seen firsthand what has happened and is happening to their Catholic friends who have been mesmerized by the increasingly militant secular culture. They have seen their friends check out of regular participation in the Faith, to say nothing of their friends and acquaintances who have turned their existence into sad real life television reality show. Because of this troubling reality, many young people are embracing Eucharistic Adoration and the rosary as a peaceful weapon against the forces of hedonism, self absorption, doubt and fear. The Doubting Thomas’s need look no further than the Catholic blogosphere where orthodox minded sites run by young people run in the hundreds, while liberal leaning sites can almost be counted on one hand.

It always seems to start innocently enough with those hoping to change perceived wrongs. In 1517 the Church was full of too many corrupt and sinful leaders. Martin Luther may have had the best of intentions when he began his actions. Indeed, he could have been many of the Church’s greatest reformers. However, instead of trying to reform the institution as did St Bernard of Clairveaux or St Catherine of Sienna, Luther let his personal demons against authority and sin get the better of him, which sadly caused him to abolish the Sacrament of Confession and the hierarchy when he created his own church. He would become the leader (or so he thought) of the Reformation Church and sin would be all but forgotten.  Never mind what the Scriptures and Sacred Tradition said about authority, Martin Luther had been plagued by fear of authority and sin his entire life, and certainly he must have thought he wasn’t alone. As for Confession, even though it was the first thing Jesus instituted when he returned to the assembled Apostles on Easter Sunday night (John 20:19-23,) Martin Luther abolished it. Dutch Philosopher and frequent Church critic Erasmus and a future Catholic saint, Sir Thomas More both reached the same conclusion about Luther. They both voiced the opinion that he must be mad to think that 1,500 after the fact he knew better than the Church.

When some of Luther’s fellow leaders of the Protestant Reformation had a problem with the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist and Blessed Virgin Mary, which Luther largely didn’t have a problem with, Luther became enraged. At the Marburg Colloquy Luther was shown the door when he told his colleagues that he would rather drink blood with the pope then listen to their ramblings. They never met again but the damage had already been done and Pandora’s Box was wide open.   Luther thought everyone who disagreed with the Church would naturally follow him. It did not happen and some five hundred years later and some 40,000 denominations and independent churches later, here we are even though Christ specifically told us to be One with One Shepherd (John 10:16.)

During the French Revolution, some 40,000 Catholic clergy, laity and nobility were starved, beaten to death or beheaded. Some of the very nobility who helped to kick out the Jesuits a few years earlier thought the revolution might not be all bad, perhaps a good way to thumb their nose at the Church. However, some months later, one would think they might have had second thoughts while looking up at the guillotine. Before the Russian Revolution some of the very elites who would suffer the same grisly fate as the Romanovs actually helped fund the Bolsheviks, perhaps thinking they were showing their trendy side by funding the same cause that their western cousins found so exciting.

As you can see a construct began to emerge, talented, intelligent and often financially well to do people with a lot of time on their hands began to somehow believe they knew better than the Church. It is nothing new, as one could say it started in the Garden or even before when the “light bearer” was supposedly repulsed by the idea of the Incarnation and tried to take over heaven. St Michael the Archangel booted the Prince of Lies out and today he tries to assuage others, most often using the formula of the seven deadly sins in order to join him in his kingdom of horrors.  Unchecked egos can lead to our eternal downfall.

The 1960s set the stage for a tumultuous period in the Church. The times, as Bob Dylan reminded us, certainly were a changing. In 1961 some 500,000 people gathered in San Francisco’s City Park for a Rosary Rally, some six years later the same park was filled with what one would assume was a different crowd tripping out on LSD and espousing and practicing free love. Some liberals will tell you San Francisco was always liberal, obviously it wasn’t that liberal in 1961.

Vatican II, the transformational council which was called by Pope John XXIII, but had wanted to be called by Pope Pius XII before he fell ill, was in some ways the Church’s finest hour. However, activists within the Church would later twist the words of the Council and try to change the Church into something unrecognizable for many Catholics. The Council’s documents were as orthodox as anything coming out of Nicaea, Chalcedon, Ephesus etc. However, some twisted the words of the holy assembly and tried to make parish churches into something architecturally resembling a warehouse, not a holy place of worship. It didn’t stop there.

Some seemed to think that if the Byrds, Peter, Paul and Mary and Bob Dylan were popular on the radio, their sound might be popular at Mass. After all it wasn’t like they wanted these new found parish musical groups to do a cover version of Led Zeppelin’s Good Times Bad Times or Jimi Hendrix’s The Wind Cries Mary at Mass.  What would be the harm they thought? However, Francis Beckwith noted after returning to the Church some 25 years after leaving it, why would we want to hear a bad Bob Dylan cover band when we could hear the real thing on the stereo or in concert? Many parish musical groups were talented, reverent and joyous. Sadly, some parish musical groups sounded like an American Idol first round reject that incurred the wrath of Simon Cowell, rather than something holy, solemn or joyful.  Again, it didn’t stop

Some within the Church seemed to think that with the invention of the Birth Control Pill, if some young people were acting like rabbits, better to have them use the pill than to avoid it. Those who often felt this way seemed to think abortions were awash since it had to be a blob of tissue rather than a human being. Time and ultrasounds would prove this horrific conclusion wrong. In addition the birth control pill caused a demographic nightmare in the western world leaving the young to pay for the care of the old, who were much larger in number. Unfortunately, by the time many figured this out, millions had left the Church for something they felt was more tangible. Men in particular were turned off by homilies that had more in common with Alan Alda, David Gates & Bread and Air Supply more than they did an exhortation coming from a priest whose very title meant in the person of Christ.

Church liberals felt happy because in a way they had chased out the very element they had disliked (conservative oriented males) while welcoming in those who had a more liberal view of life. Just when thought they were in the driver’ seat, as evidenced by the censured priest Father Hans Kung’s 1980s assertion that liberals were now in control of most dioceses, seminaries and parishes, they realized their hold on the Church was slipping away. In Germany’s famed seminary of Tubingen, gone were the days when the liberal intelligentsia snickered as their “old school” Professor Father Josef Ratzinger huffed and puffed his way around town on his bicycle, while the rebel cause célèbre Father Kung tooled about in his sporty Porsche. The waves he enlisted from his fellow liberal elites, who had plenty of time on their hands, must now look like some grainy black and white movetone video of days gone by.

Younger liberals might be forgiven if they mistakenly believed the canard told by their elder comrades that 1950s Catholic leaders and especially bishops were all right wing conservatives who had no patience for the ideas of liberals but possessed the patience of Job for fellow conservatives. In his memoirs published shortly after his death, the late Senator Edward Kennedy wrote that his famous father the former Ambassador to England Joseph P Kennedy would often socialize with Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston.  Senator Kennedy wrote that his father always called the famous prelate by his first name.

In a revealing account the late Senator spoke of an incident in which brother Bobby, the future Senator from New York, heard a controversial conservative priest at a Boston lecture whose views about Protestant salvation were deemed very conservative. After Bobby’s father made a phone call to “Richard” the priest was promptly booted from the Archdiocese. Senator Edward Kennedy surmises that because of this incident, his brother Bobby unwittingly played a part in bringing about Vatican II. As one can clearly see from this example, the right wing Catholic hierarchy may not have existed as vividly as it did in some liberal’s imagination.

Because of bold action taken under the pontificates of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, an extended period of younger more orthodox minded seminarians, priests and women religious have entered the Church. Recent bishop’s appointments have also skewed more orthodox or conservative in their political and social leanings. The orthodox nature of these two pontiffs’ theological views has brought admiration from an unlikely quarter, Evangelicals. Many Evangelicals look with alarm at their own denominations and see an ally in the Catholic Church. Enter Pope Benedict XVI, whose pontificate couldn’t have come at a better time. He truly is “The Pope of Christian Unity,” rallying the Christian faithful to the call of theological and social orthodoxy which is the only hope an increasingly secular world has of saving itself from itself.

From Stalin to Mao to the radicals behind the flaming barricades of 1968 Paris, as well as today’s militant secular activists in Europe and the US, the world has seen the sort of outcome freedom from religion brings; utter chaos, mayhem and worse yet unrelenting violence against those who disapprove of espousing a militant secular agenda. Against this nefarious and sinister backdrop the Holy Spirit saw to it that the “springtime” promised by Pope John Paul II would continue with the blossoming pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. East and west, north and south the octogenarian pontiff travels to meet with other Christian leaders and propose better relations against a backdrop of increasing violence and hedonism which is paralyzing an already troubled world. When theologian Matthew Fox, who had penchant for polytheism, was censured by then Cardinal Ratzinger, the censured theologian took out a full page ad in the New York Times that read, “I Have Been Silenced.” The smoke of Satan that Pope Paul VI had lamented had entered the Vatican was being swept out by the pontificates of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, but not before many choked on the fumes of self absoprtion emitted by Fox and many others.

Jesus warned us about the hired hands that would leave the flock when the wolves came, which is why he implored us to remain One (John 10:16.) These modern day religious hired hands were influenced by Marx, Engels, Freud and the latest pop culture bards more than they were by Scripture or Sacred Tradition. Whether inside the Church or in other Christian communities, they fled from the truth when it came. The world needed a man who would fight off the wolves and gather together the scattered and injured flock. The day the newly installed Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his Inauguration Mass he told the faithful assembled in St Peter’s Square to pray for him that he would not run when the wolves came. He has not and because of it he was ridiculed by many in the mainstream media, other Christian communities and even the Church itself. However, the discerning Christian faithful now see the picture more clearly.

The  sad reality of division is beginning to see it’s elixir is in the pontificate of the man from Bavaria, who has seen the worst of what life has to offer and thus he is making it his life’ work to make sure that this won’t happen again.  Pope Benedict XVI is reaching out to all Christian communities and asking them to join him in protecting the sacredness of all that binds Christianity as well as the sanctity that hold society together. The tide is turning thanks to Pope Benedict XVI, “The Pope of Christian Unity.”

William

this is my first day getting ubuntu to run on a 250gig old tower machine with wifi

took me literally 40 hours of experimenting cause documentation is poor and installation programs are not intuitively obvious

5:33am

Nyc
Linux is for Enterprise, not entertainment
more stable than windows
when I worked at FriendFinder it was a 24/7 shop and it took over 3 months before I saw a box crash
at least they finally adopted a GUI for installing programs, not too many years back it was all done via the Command Line

6:19am
William
just now i succeeded in getting into paltalk in ubuntu with foxpro, and it supports mic and headphones
i couldt do that with Wubi Ubuntu intalled on WIndows
but this is a pure Ubuntu system

6:21am
Nyc
wanna field test VivaVox on Ubuntu?

6:25am William
hmmm…. interesting…. i wonder what or IF it will install on my ubuntu
Kamal would know
good questions
try to invite me, and we will see

6:26am William
its installing now
vivox is not compatible with my build of firefox
thats the message i got

6:28am Nyc
bummer, Kamal needs to know that

6:31am William
i just tried to message him and firefox crashed
it restored this session

6:31am Nyc
oops

6:31am William
but you know, i updated TODAY an hour ago
so, i must have the latest firefox ubuntu build

6:31am Nyc
try a complete restart

6:32am William
good idea… i just sent Kamal the message

6:36am William
i just reloaded firefox, but still no install, and this time i got valuable info about the linux build

Linux-x86-gcc3
so i need to tell Kamal

6:37am William
you know, everything is so much faster in this ubuntu
i am amazed
i think windows has too much overhead with antivirus firewalls etc
of course, i never could get one single person to try out vivox with me under windows
so, i dont think I will cry too hard

6:51am Nyc
I’m running Snow Leopard, Ubuntu and xp on this box, with has 2 quad cores running at 2.66 and 16 gigs of DDR3 RAM, so overhead isn’t a problem

6:58am William
I had a LONG talk in that EMPATHY chat client with my long time friend who is a doctor in Tehran
and it is SUPER FAST
cause I was also chatting with a woman in nyc, and a long time friend in Singapore

7:00am Nyc
was in Berlin last week for the Last Hurrah of the West

7:00am William
oh right
pbs is showing some documentary about how the Beatles helped to defeat the Soviet Union

7:01am Nyc
google ‘Plastic People Of the Universe’ + Hungary

7:01am William
this is so fast and it is only WIFI
I couldnt get ethernet to work

7:02am Nyc
The Velvet Underground had more to do with the collapse than the Beatles

7:02am William
but cabled Ethernet is supposed to be faster than wifi

7:02am Nyc
I used to be able to buy Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ in the DDR’s hard currency Intershops as a child
on vinyl. The State allowed it because it was in keeping with their Principles

7:04amWilliam
Socrates and Jesus died over principles. Principles can be rather toxic at times.
Im so clever I scare myself sometimes, ha ha

7:05amNyc
I’ve always believed that both those characters are fictional products of Plato’s Academy
sucker existed for 900 years after Plato’s death

7:06amWilliam
I spend a lot of time in Paltalk Catholic chat, because the average age is 50, so it is some companionship
but some of the people really irritate me
but its better than the other chat rooms

7:07amNyc
no doubt

7:07amWilliam
but this one guy gives everyone a hard time if they do not capitalize the g in God
so I lectured him that he will go to hell for missing the message of the Gospel
I said that in ancient hebrew and greek there was NO LOWER CASE
lower case was a recent innovation

7:08amNyc
logic doesn’t enter into it with the indoctrinated

7:08amWilliam
so i said he would be in the crowd who says “Lord Lord I worked miracles in your name
and Jesus said “go away I never knew you
I told him that he misses the entire point of the Gospels which is HUMILITY
i said that’s why Jesus washed everyone’s feet
he said he just wants to show God respect
I said that he is a control freak who judges others
ha ha, he had a hard time dealing with what i had to say

7:10amNyc
Have you read ‘Jesus Is A Jerk’ ?

7:10amWilliam
then this other goody two shoes preacher type started to say to me “… my friend”
so i told him that i NEVER trust anyone who uses that phrase “…my friend”
and i don’t
i said that in life friends are few and far between, and don’t need to be told “my friend”

all the Paki Muslims that argue with me always, without fail, say “my friend” and “my dear”

I told the preacher guy why i despise all the radio and tv ministers
the fact is that all this “personal relationship with Jesus” is an innovation of the 20th century

7:12amNyc
all the hot dog vendors in NYC say ‘my friend’

7:12amWilliam
because in the 19th century in America, in the 1st and 2nd GREAT AWAKENINGS of the revivalists
the most famous sermon was ‘in the hands of an angry God‘
and it was all Calvinism
Jesus wasnt your “buddy pal”

7:13amNyc
found it: http://godisimaginary.com/i39.htm
have you seen ‘Dogma’ ?

7:13amWilliam
even Jesus said “you are my friends IF you do as I say”

7:14amNyc
The ‘Buddy Jesus’ plays a role in that movie

7:14amWilliam
there is no place really in the bible which says “yes, Jesus loves me”
like that old song “the bible tells me so”

I searched long and hard, and there is only ONE passage in one gospel that vaguely substantiates Jesus loving someone

and i know a protestant would rebuttal with “greater love hath no man than to give his live”

well, stop and think about heros like Patrick Henry

7:15amNyc
The Buddy Jesus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BEZaPN8gUY

7:15amWilliam
or posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor winners

7:16amNyc
I met a direct descendant of Nathan Hale in DC

7:16amWilliam
yes, they have great love, to give their life for their country, but they do not have a PERSONAL relationship with those for whom they sacrifice

If I gave up my life tomorrow to help the suffering people in some African nation… it is an IMPERSONAL act

7:17amNyc
hmm

7:17amWilliam
and the whole Protestant reformation twists the rhetoric to argue that we are SAVED from our just punishment by our lipservice faith
yet, the epistle of James (which Luther HATED) says, “the devils believe, and tremble”

So, obviously demons had faith and knew who and what Christ was, but that didnt save them

7:19amNyc
The Koine New Testament was the Fox News of its day

7:19amWilliam
and the most christian person of the 20th century was Gandhi, who rejected Christianity as his personal religion

an Athenian in highschool today has an easier time understanding Xenophons greek than Koine greek

and in the gospels where is says jesus took the bread and broke it…

the word is “artos EKLASE”

Which was the koine for break KLASO

but in modern Greek it means HE FARTED

LIKE broke wind

same root

and britches is related to BREECH of a gun, and the root means NOISE

i.e. fart

so, the peasants in church when the gospel is read in koine greek, they cant understand it

7:21amNyc
huh

7:21amWilliam
so, the priest in the sermon usually gives an elaborate explanation
well, a greek priest came to our monastery, and gave a sermon like that, and afterwards, apologized
because he forgot that we all knew koine greek
he was used to the villagers who needed a synopsis recap

7:22amNyc
whoa
what are the odds of a congregation being fluent in koine in the 20th century?

7:23amWilliam
well, unless they studied like we did, they wont know
when i recite church slavonic to russian speakers, they cant understand a word
only people who STUDY church slavonic understand it, even if the speak a modern slavic language

i mean, if you read the entire Philokalia, which was written by 70 authors between 300 ad and 1100ad
you will not see a single HINT of protestant piety

7:25amNyc
kalia?

7:25amWilliam
Philokalia

7:25amNyc
Kalia means?

7:25amWilliam
is a collection of writings for monastic life on Mt. Athos

Kalia means wholesomeness

7:26amNyc
got it

7:26amWilliam
in modern greek “kalos kagathos” means a fine gentleman
fine and dandy
but, it is honorific, not pejorative

7:26amNyc
great song

7:26amWilliam
kalos kai agathos
a contraction to ka’gathos
so philo-sophia is contrasted with philo-kalia

like Paul, on that hill of mars…
the greeks seek after some new idea

7:27amNyc

7:27amWilliam
that sort of thing

7:37amWilliam
hope i didnt gross you out with all the theology
but, that is my lifelong thing, comparative religions
so, when you look at someone like Hans Kung
his mental feat was like climbing mt everest
so, after years of study, he is at the top, and he gets this panoramic view

So, he shouts down to everyone on the ground what he sees
EXCEPT, they cant understand, unless and until THEY climb a mt everest

7:39amNyc
right you’ve mentioned that before

7:39amWilliam
and they cant really hear what he is really saying up there,k because of the distnace,

7:39amNyc
i deal with that everyday

7:40amWilliam
so they dont even know WHAT he is saying, much less WHY

William
same with Kurt Godel’s indefiniteness proof
very few know OF it and its import
but only a handful are cabaple of FOLLOWING IT
and they say that IF You can follow it, it is like an ecstatic revelation
king of like mastering Euclids final theorem where he inscribes all the perfect solids in a sphere
except 1000 times more difficult
which MEANS that most of us take such things on FAITH
LIKE relativity quantum heisenbergs uncertaintity, schroedingers cat
or dna, quarks muons, even atoms

7:52amNyc
65% of all humans alive lack the ability for abstract thought

7:52amWilliam
just like Karl Popper says… we CANNOT Know that every atom of copper in the universe conducts electricity, because we cannot TEST every atom of copper

7:53amNyc
that’s been true for our entire history that we’ve skittered about on the face of the Earth

7:53amWilliam

and much to the chagrin of Noam Chomsky, there is a tribe of 500 in the Brazilian rain forest who speak a language that has no RECURSION

and Chomsky’s big theory is that every language is recursive

So when I say, “yesterday, I saw a man walking down the road wearing a red hat” that is a recursive linguistic structure

The Pidaha tribe (pronounced Piranha) would say “last day. man walking. walking road. has hat. hat like blood
and they dont have words for colors like red
or numbers the way we understand number

William
Cool stuff
but only cool to the really cool few, sadly

I wish I could die on a cross so that all future generations would enjoy such realizations, and i would do it out of LOVE, but not personal individual love, as in a “personal relationship”, but an abstract kind of love.

William

Would you be offended if i posted an edited version of this chat in my facebook notes.. just curious to see what some of the catholics say.

its cools stuff
that only comes out during discourse

8:05amNyc
sure, i was thinking the same thing

8:05amWilliam
great, and i am editing out the parts where you admit to masturbating and picking your nose
ha ha , just kidding

8:06amNyc
leave those in, they’re key

8:06amWilliam
imagine having lunch with ratzinger and kung, and your first question is “have you ever masturbated or picked your nose”
i know everone picks their nose
i am not certain about the universality of masturbation

8:08amWilliam
and Sartre points out that it is utterly impossible to pick your nose AND masturbate simultaneously with the same hand, UNLESS your dick fits in your nostril, in which case it is so small as to be a mere pecadillo

8:09amNyc
i had an encounter at the EPA Building in DC where a guard pointed out the cameras in an attempt to intimidate me, so I faced the cam picked my nose and ate the booger

8:09amWilliam
you do realize that just now i reached a height which surpasses even Seinfeld and Family guy. This may be my apotheosis

8:13amNyc

thanks for the reminder
downloading the Seinfeld reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm right now

8:17amWilliam

I figure mortality and discord are two survival traits of our species
in theory an individual could be immoratl,… but then the species would not be flexible, to adapt to changing circumstances
and, if we all saw things the same way and agreed, then, there would be no diversity,
you would not have some desert dwellers, some mount dwellers, some sea-farers, some rain forest people
we would not have spread out to occupy diverse ecological niches
our survival trait means we will always be divided on key issues
so, if we used weapons of mass destruction to eleminate all our ideological enemies… why in a few generations,
more sectarian and partisan divisions would arrise

8:22amNyc
there have already been 5 extinctions in Earth’s history. I fail to see what makes humans more specialer than any other species

I difensori del crocefisso  nelle aule delle scuole pubbliche sostengono  argomentando che  “non è solo un simbolo religioso ma rappresenta la nostra cultura”. Tesi su cui non si può dissentire, né io dissento. Bisogna però dire che in verità  “rappresenta un pezzo importante della nostra cultura”.
La nostra cultura, però, è rappresentata da altri importanti simboli figli di una cultura laica e a volte anticlericale. Le scuole dovrebbero essere piene di simboli e  per rappresentare tutta la nostra cultura non ci sarebbero pareti sufficienti. La verità è che si confonde il messaggio di Cristo con la rappresentazione del suo martirio e questo è sbagliato. Cristo fu portatore di un messaggio di pace e di solidarietà, difendeva i deboli e odiava l’arroganza dei potenti, di cui fu vittima. Cacciò i mercanti dal tempio e non è stato lui a inventare le Crociate, l’intolleranza religiosa e avrebbe rispettato il pronunciamento della sentenza della Corte di Giustizia della Comunità Europea spiegandoci pacatamente perché quella sentenza era giusta. Peraltro come ha scritto Corrado Augias già la nostra Corte di Cassazione si occupò dell’argomento e precisò che  la presenza del crocifisso, elemento distintivo di una religione, viola l’art. 3, comma 1 del testo costituzionale. Interessante il ragionamento della Cassazione: «Neppure è sostenibile la giustificazione collegata al valore simbolico di un’intera civiltà o della coscienza etica collettiva e, quindi, secondo un parere del consiglio di Stato 27/4/1988, n. 63, “universale, indipendente da una specifica confessione religiosa”. In altro ordinamento dell’unione europea s’è ritenuto, viceversa, una sorta di “profanazione della croce” non considerare questo simbolo in collegamento con uno specifico credo (Bundes Verfassungs Gericht, 16 maggio 1995) che ha dichiarato illegittima l’affissione obbligatoria del crocifisso nelle aule scolastiche della Baviera per l’influenza sugli alunni obbligati a confrontarsi di continuo con siffatto simbolo religioso». In una Europa multietnica e multi religiosa fare Crociate di cui non se ne sente il bisogno serve soltanto a quelli che Cristo aveva combattuto e che lo mandarono sulla croce. Abbiamo purtroppo capito  a nostre spese quanto  le critiche che il teologo Hans Kung muove al  Papa siano fondate. Egli dice infatti” Il Papa riporta la Chiesa al medioevo», e aggiunge “«l´attuale politica del Vaticano è un fiasco. Il tentativo di costringere la Chiesa a tornare al medioevo la svuota. Non si può tornare ai vecchi tempi».Purtroppo l’errore non è della Chiesa, ma di quei politici che fingendosi integralisti Cattolici si servono della Chiesa per legittimarsi nei confronti del mondo cattolico. Invece di consumarsi i questa inutile e spocchiosa polemica le gerarchie cattoliche dovrebbero domandarsi perché le chiese sono sempre più vuote, i matrimoni religiosi sono sempre meno, calano i battesimi, le vocazioni sono crollate o quasi inesistenti.

Under the surface, and largely unbeknownst to the mainstream media, the tide has been turning to Catholicism for some time. The pontificates of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI along with events such as an increase in orthodox minded seminarians, young priests and young women religious, a return to devotions and a reform of the reform of liturgy have shown us that indeed the tide is turning. However, for some time now western culture has been moving in the opposite direction, where any, whim or opinion that holds that orthodox minded religious thought is antiquated and even harmful is held in high regard. How could this jibe with the turning tide within the Church? Who would win? Didn’t Jesus promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church after He gave Peter the keys (and the 265 subsequent popes) to lead it? The answer is the same answer that has always been, the Church eventually always wins and it will this time as well.

Following the Election of 2008 when liberalism was on the ascendancy, many in the mainstream media joyfully proclaimed a new era, where one could read between the lines and see that traditional views of society, family and religion were on their way out and big government was in. However, a funny thing happened on the way to the revolution, many Americans refused to go to the Bastille with pitchfork in hand. Americans view of revolution was almost always in line with George Washington’s view of limited government and not Maximilien Robespierre’s view of war against society, family and religion. Perhaps the Election of 2008 was a pox on both their big spending houses that was wrongly construed as a vote for Big Government.

This was demonstrated in the Tea Party protests that took place early this year, as well as the outcry that has arisen largely from Catholic clergy and Catholic laity with regard to abortion provisions for the Big Government Health Care Plan. Many in the mainstream media labeled these protesters as kooks and worst yet mean spirited bigots who thumbed their noses at the enlightened elites.  The protesters were told to get with the program and the Church was viciously mocked by writers (Maureen Dowd and Richard Dawkins) as well as comedians Kathy Griffin and Penn & Teller. Those who always hated what the Church stood for now saw an opening and they let their venomous juices flow, and yet the Church Militant continues to pray for those who mock us. Yet, somehow we are portrayed as the ones who are bigots and mean spirited?

This only helped to show the Church in a truthful light as more and more orthodox minded Christians were coming to the Church, as evidenced by the bombshell Anglican Personal Ordinate announcement made by Pope Benedict XVI. Just like past failed attempts at Big Government, liberal Christianity had failed and many were seeing the writing on the wall and subsequently crossing the Tiber as fast as humanly possible.

As I noted before, all of this is made manifest in ordination numbers. Sixty four to six and 14 to 4 stand out. What does this mean? In 2006 when writing my book, The Tide is Turning Toward Catholicism, I noted that even though the Diocese of Rochester had more Catholics than the dioceses of Lincoln and Omaha combined, Rochester had 6 men studying for the priesthood while Lincoln and Omaha had sixty four. That same year of 2006 Denver had 14 young men ordained to the priesthood (eleven in May and three earlier in the academic year) while Los Angeles had four; a staggering statistic when one considers that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has 4,300,000 Catholic residents compared to 385,000 Catholics for the Archdiocese of Denver. Los Angeles and Rochester are led by two of the most liberal prelates in the Church, while Omaha, Lincoln and Denver are led by three of the more conservative bishops in the US, a revelatory statistic to say the least.

This year we heard again of the many women’s liberal religious orders that had not a single postulant step forward. Yet, at the same time we hear that the Sisters of Mary of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, Michigan and the Nashville Dominicans both are experiencing a vocations boom, so much so that that in Ann Arbor the good sisters have run out of room in their motherhouse. You guessed it, the Sisters of Mary of the Eucharist and the Nashville Dominicans are very orthodox in their beliefs. The telling quote of Archbishop Edwin O’Brien speaks volumes, ”A person may give their life for a mystery, but not a question mark.” Yet, the liberals still wonder why the young priests and nuns are all so orthodox minded?

During their 2009 election coverage, the mainstream media was all but anointing Maine as a forward thinking rural state about ready to openly endorse same sex marriage. However, the residents of Maine said no to changing the definition of marriage and the mainstream media chose to forget Maine, rather than remembering her. Maine would now be treated by the mainstream media as Alaska was when Sarah Palin was Governor, left to the butt of jokes about the ignorant nature of rural people. To the militant secular left, Governor Palin had committed the ultimate sin, she kept her Down Syndrome baby, something the secular left knew they would never have the courage to do.  Had Sarah Palin been a pro abortion outdoorswoman, who was Ivy League educated and big city born she would have been hailed by the mainstream media as a conservative darling and a Renaissance woman instead of a rogue hunter who somehow was elected governor. The moral of the story; be very careful of the mainstream media’s conservative darlings, they rarely are either.

The liberal reckoning is closer than we think and when the tide turns for society it often comes faster and more surprising than in the Church, for the Church is 2,000 years old and she moves at glacial pace unlike society which goes through many fits and starts. Thankfully and unlike the cultural aspects of the French Revolution and the cultural revolutions that hit Paris in 1968 and the US in 1967, the tide is being influenced by the Church and that is a great thing. We have a long way to go but there is hope.

Pope Benedict XVI has often spoken against the “Dictatorship of Relativism,” where the latest trends and whims are treated as truths, since relativism by its own definition doesn’t believe in truths. The Holy Father’s condemnation of the “Dictatorship if Relativism” was first attacked by Father Richard McBrien when the erstwhile Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger invoked the phrase at the opening Mass of the Conclave, which would later see his election as Pontiff of the Church. Father McBrien, friend of many Church dissidents, told a live television audience after hearing the phrase “Dictatorship of Relativism,” that most Catholics would head to the margins of the Church if Cardinal Ratzinger were elected. Father McBrien said he felt quite sure Cardinal Ratzinger’s election wouldn’t happen. Yet, it did.

Those in and outside of the Church who have spoken out against both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II are perhaps unwittingly playing into the very hands that despises them. Some struggle with faith but try to believe, others hate the faithful and would never take the time to believe, much like an arrogant lab technician who refuses to look through a microscope to see what others take the time to see and investigate.

To conclude, I would like to close with an analogy that I made in a previous article. In 1968 when cultural upheaval was hitting the Western world’s city streets, college campuses and religious seminaries, dissident theologian Father Hans Kung (who would later be censured by the Vatican) and Father Joseph Ratzinger were teaching at the famed Tubingen Seminary in the small German southern town of the same name. Father Kung was much loved by the dissident students; they relished his trendy ways and often scoffed and snickered at Father Kung’s polar opposite, Father Joseph Ratzinger. It was said that Father Kung loved to tool about the small town of Tubingen in his Porsche leaving his colleague, the bicycle peddling Father Ratzinger in the dust. Some forty years later, and much to the chagrin of the pop culture powers that be, the ideas and beliefs of the Tortoise of Truth are slowly passing the Hare of Relativism.

Teolog Hans Küng označil katolickou nabídku konzervativním anglikánům za “tragédii a dílo krajní pravice v církvi“. Prohlášení tohoto značně nonkonformního kněze, kterému katolická církev pro četná disidentská stanoviska odebrala právo vyučovat katolickou teologii, přinesla La Repubblica. Jeho nesouhlas je pochopitelný, neboť jako přední stoupenec “ekumenického hnutí” Wir sind Kirche! má ke konzervativním anglikánům názorově velmi daleko.

 Gustavo Bueno ha venido publicndo artículos(revistas ElBasilisco y El Catoblepas) libros(El animal divino; Cuestiones cuodlibetales sobre Dios y la Religión,La fe del ateo) sobre la religión desde las coordenadas del sistema del Materialismo Filosófico

A continuación ponemos la primera cuestión del librotitulado Cuestiones cuodlibetales sobre Dios y  la religión

Today is Reformation Day that is right sports fans, Reformation Day.  Now most people, unless they are Lutheran or a really “reformed” Presbyterian or Reformed Church kind of Christian have no clue about this. However when a young Priest and Theology Professor at the University of Wittenberg named Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the door of the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg it changed the course of Western as well as Church history.

Martin Luther

Luther posted his “theses” which was basically points of theological debate on the door of the Schlosskirche it broke the hold of the Roman Catholic Church of Europe, brought about what would become an increasingly fractured and diverse church in the west and established the primacy of the State over the Church in Western nations.  Luther intended nothing more than reforming and curtailing abuses in the Catholic Church and how the Church saw grace, faith and scripture.  His act and subsequent actions when put under the “ban” by the Pope drew to him the support of German nobility who desired to be free of the Holy Roman Empire and rapidly engulfed Europe in religious, political and military conflict.

The theology that Luther developed based upon the Three Solas; Sola fides by faith alone, Sola Gratia by grace alone and Sola Scriptura by scripture alone became the hallmarks of the Reformation and without getting into the weeds to dissect all the ramifications for the Church and the world impact the way that many Christians practice and express their faith to the current day.

For me Martin Luther was along with Fr Hans Kung, Jurgen Moltmann, and Alistair McGrath a key figure in the development of my faith.  At some point I will probably get deeper into this on this blog, but right now it suffices to say that it was Martin Luther who confirmed to my the essential nature of the Eucharist to the Christian faith and which helping bring me to a catholic understanding of the faith versus a truly reformed Protestant understanding of it.  I do not agree with all of Luther’s points or ideas but his Theology of the Cross brought me to a much more incarnational understanding of the Christian faith especially in regards to understanding that it is only through the Cross that we come to know God in a truly Christian sense of understanding.  For Luther the Cross was central to understanding the humanity’s relationship to the Trinity, not as Calvin would enunciate God’s will and predestination from before time began.  Kung from the Catholic side is a big Luther supporter (see On Being a Christian) and Moltmann has brought Luther’s thought to the 21^st Century in Theology of Hope and The Crucified God as has Anglican Theologian and Luther scholar Alistair McGrath (The Mystery of the Cross.) All of these men helped me in my transition following seminary to a moderate Anglo-Catholic expression of faith that places a high place to Scripture, Apostolic Tradition and Reason in interpreting and living out the faith.

Luther at the Diet of Worms

I did a lot of study on the Lutheran Reformation in and after seminary and in 1996 while stationed in Germany as a mobilized Army Reserve Chaplain had the privilege of organizing a series of Reformation tours to Wittenberg on Reformation day where we attended the Reformationstag service at the Schlosskirche and I led a walking tour of the town.  One of the parishioners from the chapel asked me if I had been to Wittenberg before because I seemed like I knew every place in the town.  I had to tell her that I had not been there in person but because of my study felt like I had from the time we stepped off of our tour bus.  I also directed a tour to Worms where Luther on trial before Charles V was told to recant his writings and made his timeless statement:

“Unless I am convicted by scripture and plain reason – I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other – my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.” It is legend that Luther said the words “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me, Amen!” These words were probably only added later by someone else to make the story more interesting as they do not appear in the council notes.  Not that Luther would have objected.  The film version is linked here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0tk_EvWXQQ&feature=player_embedded

Zwingli and Luther at Marburg

Likewise his debate with Swiss Reformer Ulrich Zwingli at the Marburg colloquy regarding points of doctrine was significant for me. It was held that they might unify their movements. They agreed on all points except the Eucharist where Luther enunciated a very catholic understanding of the “Real Presence” and Zwingli held to be a symbolic memorial though might have some spiritual component.   Luther would not budge and to each of Zwingli’s arguments pulled back the tablecloth to reveal the words “This is my body, this is my blood” which he had carved on the table.  They departed without achieving unity, something that has plagued Protestants to this day and when Zwingli was killed in battle when leading the militia from Zurich to fight the approaching Catholic Army.  When Luther heard about the Zwingli’s death he commented Zwingli drew his sword. Therefore he has received the reward that Christ spoke of, ‘All who take the sword will perish by the sword’ [Matt. 26:52]. If God has saved him, he has done so above and beyond the rule.” (Table Talk #1451)

I have always had a special place in my heart for Luther even with all of his flaws which were many; he was earthy, spoke his mind, and had no problem with having fun or good beer.  Additionally he had a bit of an anger problem, suffered from clinical depression and had issues with his father.  Luther could be an ass, but then I can be an ass too.

Well the “unhappy few” at the Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton North Carolina are moving right along in their book and Bible burning crusade led by their Grand Master Pastor Marc Grizzard. In the past few days he has gotten into a pissing contest with a very conservative and should I even say “Fundamentalist” theologian named James White.  Evidently Mr. White is on the opposite end of the Fundamental spectrum according to Grand Master Pastor Marc along with “the agnostics, liberals, New Evangelicals, and Bible doubters.”  I did find it fascinating to see how Grand Master Pastor Marc’s little brain works in the text of their terrible translation tiff which is linked here: http://amazinggracebaptistchurchkjv.com/subpage570.html

I especially enjoyed this comment from his most recent webpage update where he castigates Mr. White:

“I had rather be uneducated and irrational and know that I have God’s preserved, inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God, than to be a scholar who doesn’t know where God’s Word is. One person said, “I’d rather be an fool on fire, than a scholar on ice.” Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying a person should not better themselves or study. They should! But if study and education is going to rob you of your unwavering faith in the KJB, than leave the education to the Bible doubters. I will never be open to anything but the KJV, call me what you want. I don’t care!” Pastor Marc Grizzard

Profiles in Stupidity Pastor Marc Grizzard

Since he has invited people to call him anything they want I think idiot works well. Have no fear he is already talking about next year’s event:

“God has showed me why this years event went around the world. Check back in a couple of weeks as we begin to “Turn this world upside down.” Acts 17:6 ”…These that have turned the world upside down” “Coming to a town near you!!!!” Please not my town.

Make arrangements now, if it gets popular you might have to book through Ticketmaster or the Amazing Grace Baptist Church Box Office.  By the way the start time is 7PM and Marc has said if you are not a member or have an invitation from him you are not welcome, and that includes law enforcement who promise to be there, kind of reminds me of the concert in the Blues Brothers. Of course he will have to compete with the folks at the fictional Landover Baptist Church to have the world’s greatest book and Bible burning. http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news1002/bookburning.html

Of course I wonder about a group of separatist Baptists staking their faith not on Jesus but the King James Version. It seems absurd for a group that descends from people who valued religious liberty to be burning book or Bibles of any kind.  The fact that they have set an Anglican translation, authorized by a flaming homosexual who hated, persecuted and killed the early English Baptists and which is actually a later version than the 1611 that has multiple versions, the Oxford and the Cambridge and is based on a text that was not the most common text used by the early or “ante-Nicene” church is beyond me.  The fact that King James onlyism is only about 100 years old and comes from a unusual 7^th Day Adventist preacher and was advanced by the founder of the Pensacola Bible Institute who experimented with Zen Buddhism, thought about becoming a Jesuit and believed in a bunch of stuff including UFO;s that most Fundamentalists would deride only adds to my mystification.  But then to quote Forrest Gump “stupid is as stupid does.”  Congratulations Pastor Marc you win the Gump award for 2009. Congratulations, your 1973 orange Ford Pinto is waiting in the A-1 Auto Salvage in Fayetteville.

Tonight the Abbess and I will go to a Halloween party at our favorite restaurant the Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant in Virginia Beach.  I went as a baseball player from a scary team, the Orioles and the Abbess is going as a Hippy Chick.  It was fun, nice people, good music and 70’s and 80’s music videos and great beer.

Alex Rodriguez Broke out of His Slump

Now I sit watching game three of the World Series. For once replay was used to overturn a bad call, Alex Rodriguez getting his first hit, a 2 run home run that hit the lens of the right field television camera that was initially ruled a double.  Cole Hammels was hit hard as I predicted giving up five runs before he was pulled in the 5^th, one of the runs coning off the bat of Andy Pettitte who drove in Nick Swisher and then later scored.  The Yankees bats began to come alive, Nick Swisher who had had a miserable post season hit a home run and a double, and Alex Rodriguez broke out of his slump with his 2 run homer. Hideki Matsui hit his second home run of the series with 2 outs in the 8^th as a pinch hitter against Brett Myers.  For the Phillies the hot hitting Ryan Howard has continued to slump striking out 3 more times tonight to make him 2 for 13 with 9 strike outs in the first three games.  On the other hand Jayson Wirth continues to hammer the ball hitting two solo shots tonight.

Tomorrow should be nice, Church in the morning after an extra hour sleep, followed by some study for my exams and game four of the series tomorrow with C.C. Sabathia coming back against Joel Blanton.  Advantage has to go to the Yankees with Sabathia on the hill and thier bats starting to come to life. Should be another great game.

Peace,

Padre Steve+

Una specifica Costituzione Apostolica è stata predisposta da Papa Benedetto XVI, con la quale I sacerdoti anglicani sposati potranno diventare sacerdoti cattolici, ma non potranno diventare né vescovi né ordinari. Con questa Costituzione Apostolica La Chiesa cattolica accoglie nelle sue file la Comunione Anglicana  che ha vissuto in tempi recenti grosse difficoltà, avanzate quando alcune realtà decisero la ordinazione di sacerdoti dichiaratamente gay e la benedizione di matrimoni omosessuali. Si è decisa la costituzione di “ordinariati personali”, in tutto simili agli Ordinariati militari, ma dotati di regole proprie, che consentirà agli ex anglicani di non dipendere dal vescovo diocesano, mantenendo una parte delle tradizioni e dei riti non in contrasto con la Chiesa cattolica.
Il numero complessivo non è molto alto. In effetti la questione di una “riunione senza assorbimento” della Chiesa Anglicana in quella Cattolica non è mai scomparsa dall’orizzonte. Se ne parlò nel XIX secolo e poi, nel secolo scorso, ci furono colloqui ufficiali sull’argomento. Il Concilio Ecumenico Vaticano II dichiarò chiaramente che «tra quelle comunioni nelle quali continuano a sussistere in parte le tradizioni e le strutture cattoliche, occupa un posto speciale la Comunione Anglicana», e la Commissione internazionale anglicano-cattolica ha negli anni prodotto una serie di documenti e dichiarazioni in vista di una piena e visibile comunione. Nel 1982 Giovanni Paolo II autorizzò l’emanazione di un “provvedimento pastorale” per favorire il passaggio di clero sposato nella Chiesa cattolica.
La Chiesa d’Inghilterra tra il 1529 e il 1534 ruppe traumaticamente i rapporti con Roma quando re Enrico VIII, che aveva chiesto a Papa Clemente VII di annullare il matrimonio con Caterina d’Aragona per sposare la più giovane Anna Bolena e cercare di avere quell’erede maschio che la moglie non poteva più dargli, aggirò il rifiuto papale nel modo più drastico, distaccandosi dalla confessione cattolica. Una Chiesa della casa reale, quella anglicana, che ha come Governatore supremo il sovrano d’Inghilterra da quando Enrico VIII, nel 1534 fece votare al Parlamento inglese l’Atto di supremazia, con cui si proclamò «capo supremo» della Chiesa d’Inghilterra (la guida, in realtà, seppure “non ufficialmente”, è l’arcivescovo di Canterbury, attualmente Rowan Williams). Attualmente molte confessioni cristiane e persino le Chiese cattoliche di rito orientale accettano tranquillamente il cd. sacerdozio uxorato.Hans Kung, teologo svizzero che è ritenuto fra  i principali critici dell’autorità papale (che ritiene essere un’invenzione umana) e del culto mariano; ha aspramente criticato l’iniziativa del Papa definendola una tragedia. Secondo l’eminente teologo la Costituzione apostolica anziché unire servirà ancora di più a dividere. Inoltre la Costituzione sarà un ulteriore elemento di indebolimento della Chiesa Anglicana, determinerà un generale disorientamento dei fedeli anglicani e lo sdegno del clero cattolico, che si sente discriminato da una misura che dopo il Concilio Ecumenico Vaticano II molti avevano chiesto di adottare. Conclude Kung “La fame di potere di Roma divide la cristianità e nuoce alla sua Chiesa.”

Last year scientists identified a new condition affecting thousands of people around the world: Obama Derangement Syndrome. They define this as “the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the statements – nay – the very existence of Barack Obama”.

Researchers have now discovered a debilitating new substrain, which they are calling Personal Ordinariate Derangement Syndrome, or PODS.

If you are highly intelligent, have a worldwide following which hangs on your every word and have a pre-existing dislike of Benedict XVI, then you run a high risk of developing PODS. How do you know whether you have the syndrome? Simple: if you begin to write an article about the Pope’s new Anglican provision and find yourself raging about cannibalism, homophobia, misogyny and pederasty, then you should consult your doctor immediately. Prominent sufferers include Richard Dawkins, Maureen Dowd and Hans Küng.

Photo: A patient receives an inoculation against PODS

Hans Küng has broken his silence about the Apostolic Constitution. Writing on the Guardian website he accuses Pope Benedict of being “set upon restoring the Roman imperium”.

He continues:

The dream of orthodox minded Catholics and Anglican liberals came true on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 as the Vatican announced that traditional minded Anglicans, clergy included, would be welcomed into the Catholic Church with their own Anglican style rite (though not exactly a rite of their own.) The promise Jesus made that the Gates of Hell would not prevail against His Church is now once again being made manifest for those who chose to recognize it (Matthew 16:16-20.) What King Henry VIII started Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have salvaged. The English and their former empire (if they wish) can return home again.

Since many conservatives may now leave, religious liberals too have high hopes as the worldwide Anglican Communion can possibly fulfill their wish of unbridled liberalism. However, it is becoming plain to see that it is for all intents and purposes the liberal’s wish is now turning into a death wish.  The irony of reading statements by traditional Anglicans thanking God for Pope Benedict’s statement coupled by liberal Catholic posters in the dissident National Catholic Reporter asking to be saved from Rome spoke volumes. Even with fawning mainstream media coverage, every liberal Protestant denomination has seen their numbers plummet in recent years, some as much as 50%, while Catholicism, with all the negative banner headlines, continues to grow around the world.

The Archbishop of Canterbury seems a truly tragic figure cut from a Shakespearean play trying to hold together what a murderous king wrought. It couldn’t be done and so we may now see the implosion of the Anglican Communion, especially in the only region that had any vibrancy, Africa. The African and Asian continents have long been the hope of the One True Church. Fortunately, the embers of truth can also be seen in North & South American seminaries and even in Europe, where the Faith had seemed all but dead.

The last four decades have seen liberal Christianity reach out to every sort of relativistic idea, whim and group. The western intellgentsia praised these efforts even as liberal churches emptied of their adherents.  The Catholic Church reached out as well but a pivotal moment occurred in 1968 when Pope Paul VI published his famous encyclical on life, Humanae Vitae. The Church would not cross the same line that Anglicanism crossed in 1930. As the barricades in Paris burned, the liberal elites predicted the same revolutionary fervor would force the Catholic Church to acquiesce much as the western world had to the ideas fermented by those manning the barricades of Paris. Yet, the Church held the line.

Even though liturgical folly would follow and a dark cloud of gloom would hang over the Church until the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, his leadership would bring the eventual Springtime of Evangelization and a longing for truth. The subsequent pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI would continue the springtime, bringing the Reform of the Reform assisting seminaries and motherhouses that opened themselves up to liturgical reform, devotions and the truth of Mother Church’s teachings. Because of these two pontificates, shoots and blossoms of hope and truth were noticeably visible within the Catholic Church.

Two examples illustrate this point that I made in my 2006 book, The Tide is Turning Toward Catholicism. The Diocese of Rochester, which is considered to be one of the most liberal in America, had a Catholic population of 342,000. In 2006 they had a total of six seminarians studying for the priesthood. The Archdiocese of Omaha had a Catholic population of 230,000 with 30 seminarians. In Nebraska, the Diocese of Lincoln (run by perhaps the most conservative ordinary in America, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz) had a population of 89,236 Catholics with 24 in their local seminary and 10 in other seminaries. Put another way, while Lincoln and Omaha did not have as many Catholics as Rochester, these two dioceses had sixty-four men studying for the priesthood while Rochester had only six men.

Liberal Christianity would see their promise and hope disintegrate as an aging clergy turned bitter toward the very young they once claimed as their own a few decades earlier. The young who now attend Mass regularly, are more apt to believe the Church’s teachings and are more pro life in their orientation than their parents and grandparents, a fact that caused consternation with the aging dissidents. During the 1970s and early 1980s when famed dissident theologian Father Hans Kung, boasted that liberals controlled an overwhelming majority of seminaries and chanceries, little did he know that his glee would turn to anger by the time his onetime university teaching colleague, then Father Joseph Ratzinger, would become Pope Benedict XVI.  Censured by the Vatican for his heretical ideas which were increasingly falling on deaf ears, Kung could only long for the days of dissent in Tubingen.

In the heyday of 1960s liberalism, Kung would tool around the narrow streets of the German university town of Tubingen in his Porsche leaving the poor bicycling Father Ratzinger in the dust. Some forty years later, the Tortoise of Truth had passed the Hare of Relativism.  Because of this glorious event, the Wrecks of Walsingham can sing of liberation, Saint Thomas More and the English Martyrs are vindicated. The faithful of England can come home again; the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 is almost complete. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has been said to be despondent over her church, her heir (Prince Charles) has announced that he doesn’t believe in the title Defender of the Faith.

Perhaps the future King of England will be relieved of this meddlesome title and realize that crossing the Tiber is his country’s best hope.  Though the Catholic faithful may be accused of triumphalism, it is not gloating which causes them glee, but the humility of seeking what Christ wills for His Church, salvation. There is a hope that others may join the faithful on the path that Christ made manifest through His suffering, dying and rising and in the teachings of a growing Church He started 2,000 years ago. The authority that Christ left to those who would guard these sacred truths is now being listened to, respected and followed even amidst a torrent of negative verbal barbs thrown by powers and principalities that have always been rebellious. Against this improbable backdrop, the tide is still turning.

• Antonio Piñero comenta su traducción para Trotta de La expansión del cristianismo, por Rodney Stark.

• «No dejarás con vida a la hechicera», Éx 22, 18. En dos estados de Nigeria se han tomado ese pasaje de la biblia muy en serio (inglés, vía Brian McLaren).

• «Ya no es cuestión de “Patria o Muerte”;  realmente y sin exageración, es una cuestión de “Vida o Muerte” para la especie humana.», ha dicho Fidel Castro sobre el cambio climático.

• Juan Bosch y la biblia. Interesantes datos históricos sobre el histórico debate político-religioso de 1962 entre el sacerdote Láutico García y Juan Bosch.

• Primer libro en castellano sobre teología y discapacidad.

• El Génesis en arte.

• «[El Papa] está conduciendo a la Iglesia a la Edad Media», ha dicho Hans Küng.

[Estoy] curioso de ver qué pasará en el mas allá. Porque no creo en esas simplificadoras representaciones del cielo, como la que representa a la gente sentada en sedes doradas cantando aleluyas.

Hans Küng, en entrevista para el semanario alemán Stern, vía Religión Digital.

Also so einen Oktober habe ich lange nicht mehr erlebt. Zuerst hielt er sonnig und fast mit sommerlichen Temperaturen seinen Einzug, während der Nebel einsetzte. Dann stiegen hie und da Wolken auf, die sich mit jedem Tag mehr zu einer dicken, fast undurchdringlichen Wolkendecke entwickelten und danach kam der Regen. Seit Tagen haben wir in der Nacht eine Eiseskälte. In dieser Nacht sank das Quecksilber unter Null und jetzt gerade schneit es zum zweiten Mal am Tag. Allerdings bleibt der Schnee nicht liegen. Dazu ist der Boden wohl doch noch zu warm.

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Bei David Ianni habe ich ein wunderschönes Video entdeckt, welches mich nicht nur der Bilder wegen sehr berührt, sondern auch, weil ich bald Tante von Zwillingen werde!!! Ich bete, dass alles gut verläuft.

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Stanislaus veröffentlicht auf seinem Blog nicht nur Politisch Unpolitisches, sondern bisweilen auch Glaublich Unglaubliches! So wie heute, als ihm offensichtlich bei einem (weiteren?) unheilvollen Ausflug in die Küngsche Umlaufbahn direkt einige Brocken entgegen geflogen sind. Ha, nicht getroffen! Gott sei Dank!

Ich denke wir müssen noch viel beten für die Menschen, die zwar nicht aus der Kirche austreten wollen, aber auch nicht wissen, warum sie überhaupt drin bleiben sollten.

Kort artikel oor die ontluiking van ‘n Post-Moderne paradigma vir Sending

David J Bosch draai geen doekies om nie: Die enigste konstante is verandering!

In navolging van Hans Küng neem hy eers ‘n paar treё terug voordat hy ‘n ontluikende ekumeniese missionêre paradigma se buitelyne trek. Ons leef nou in die era waar die Post-Moderne paradigma ontluik. Omdat die nuwe paradigma nog nie ten volle ontluik het nie, moet ons in ons na denke daaroor altyd weer die vorige paradigma in berekening bring.

Dis tog interessant dat die einde van die Moderne-Verligtings  era nie van die kant van die menswetenskappe gekom het nie, maar van die fisika. Dit het verdere momentum gekry met die twee Wêreld Oorloё en onder andere Karl Barth se Teologie van Krisus.

Die verligtings era is uitgedaag op al sewe hoof kenmerke:
1.    Die uitbreiding van rasionaliteit.
Objektiewiteit was ‘n mite. Metafore, simbole, rituele, tekens en mites, wat vroeёr nie as uitdrukkings van rationaliteit gesien is nie, word in die Post-Moderne tyd nie as irrationeel gesien nie.
2.    Die subjek-objek skema word verby gegaan.
In die hoog bloei van die Verligting is die fisiese wêreld gesien  as subjektief tot die menslike verstand en wil. So het die masjien die menslike slaaf vervang. Uiteindelik het ons tot die skokkende ontdekking gekom dat ons toe slawe van die masjien geword het. Ons het ‘n ernstige her-oriёntasie nodig.
3.    Die herontdekking van die Teleologiese demensie.
Die volgehoue liniêre redenering het uiteindelik selfs die skepping betekenisloos gelaat. Dit het net vir die bevooregdes oplossings gebied. Vir die wat minder bevoorreg is, het die noodsaak van visie verantwoordelikheid en nuwe moontlikhede ‘n behoefte gebly. Daarom het die Post-Moderne ontwaking inspirasie gebring vir hulle wat alle hoop verloor het.
4.    Die moderne ontwikkelings denke word uitgedaag
Die groot droom van die 20ste eeu was om ontwikkeling te bring aan die minderbevooregte mense en gebiede. Heellaas het dit die rykes ryker en die armes armer gelaat. Boonop het mense objekte geword en het die Noord-Suid gaping groter geword.
5.    Die Verligting het ‘n radikale skeiding tussen feite en waardes gebring
Hierdie droom was na Hirosjima ‘n nagmerrie. Ons feitelike bestaan het monsters voortgebring. Die Post-Moderne era het gelukkig nie subjektiwisme gekies nie, maar ‘n getemperde realisme wat waarde oordele insluit.
6.    Getemperde optimisme
Die Verligting het geglo dat alle probleme in beginsel ‘n oplossing moet hê.  Teen die einde van die Verligtings era het ons ontdek dat die horison van ons denke tog beperk is. In plaas van om in pessimisme te verval is daar ‘n nuwe soeke na betekenis in die lewe.
7.    ‘n Herontdekking van interafhanklikheid
Teenoor die Verligting wat geglo het dat elke indiwidu sy eie geluk sonder inagneming van ander mag nastreef ontdek ons nou dat ons nie sonder die ander kan leef nie.

Hierdie nuwe tyd dek die tafel vir nuwe uitdagings vir die evangelie en die sending van die kerk.  Om die buitelyne van ‘n nuwe missionêre era te trek.