Coffee Bowl Browsing (in breve)

It's like going on a drunken spending spree with all your credit cards, then giving the bills to your children and telling them that they have to live in poverty in order to pay for your partying.

Citizen journalism is not new. . .before the advent of Professional Journalism we managed to chronicle the human story of adventure and invention w/o too many problems.

Heh, I was wrong.  The NYT violates its pro-B.O. narrative and criticizes The Won for his sloppy response to the oil spill disaster. 

Ten of the dumbest (and false) things said about the new AZ anti-illegal immigrant law. 

Americans are smart enough to properly distinguish between legal and illegal immigration.  By large majorities we support the former not the latter. 

Follow HancAquam ------------>

A new HancAquam sponsor

HancAquam is pleased to announce that Rocky the Squirrel and Starbucks 

have teamed up to sponsor Coffee Bowl Browsing!

Coffee Bowl Browsing

Holy Father urges careful catechesis with the introduction of the new English translation of the missal.   Yea, let's not repeat the huge mistake made with the 1970 translation and drop it on regular Catholics like a millstone.

Two part interview with Dutch Catholic psychologist on the role of his profession in sex abuse scandals.  Good stuff.  Part one and part two.

The Anchoress explores the possibility of suspending the statute of limitations on ALL sex abuse allegations in NY.  Predictably, howls of lamentation and preemptive excuse-making emanate from all the usual suspects.  Apparently, only the Catholic Church should be forced to confront its history of abuse, cover-up, and neglect. 

New non-narcotic pain-killer developed using chili peppers.  This is good news for me as someone who suffers from cluster headaches!  Narcotic pain meds like hydrocodone and morphine really don't work for me.  OTC's are OK, but they cause G-I upset. 

The Closing of the Muslim Mind:  looks like an interesting book.  One of the persistent questions in the history of science is why the modern scientific method/technology happen so successfully in the Christian West but not in the Muslim/Hindu/Buddhist East.  One answer:  the philosophical traditions of the religious east are all anti-materialist, or hostile to the body.  If you think that the material world is evil, you are less likely to study it systematically.  For the Christian West (esp., the Catholic West), God reveals Himself in His creation. . .so, science is the natural companion to theology in discerning God's presence in creation.

On the use of citizen journalists in combating the media narrative that Tea Partiers are violent and racist.  The easy availability of video cameras and the accessibility of the internet have all but rendered our Media Betters useless.  

Will the Gulf of Mexico oil spill be B.O. Katrina?  No.  CNN/NYT/etc. would never allow that to happen.   

Gordon Brown's re-election looks doomed.  I was recently asked by a cheeky friar, "What does 'bigot' stand for?"  Brown is gone on Thursday.  Ha.

Euro Zone under serious threat of collapse.  Note that all of the so-called PIGS nations (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain) are big government nanny states with massive entitlement budgets. 

Ummmmmmmmm. . .make a wish?

Poster boy for beating adulthood eating disorders.

Exploring your creative side. . .art, design, sculpture, video, etc.  After the philosophy Ph.D. I want to get a M.F.A. in creative writing and then another one in painting.  I'll be 75 by then and ready to retire!  :-)

Follow HancAquam ------------>

I dunno why. . .

I don't know why I think this is funny. . .but I crack up every time I see it.

Two quick updates

Liguori recently informed me that the Beatitude Rosary I wrote for my second prayer book will not only be published as a separate pamphlet but it will also be translated into Spanish! 

Also, many thanks for the recent activity on the WISH LIST.  My father emailed me yesterday to report that one book has already safely arrived in Mississippi. 

Follow HancAquam ------------>

Coffee Bowl Browsing

Without a word of opposition from our Feminist-in-Chief, the U.N. gives Iran a seat on its Commission on the Status of Women.  Next on the U.N. agenda:  giving Mexican drug cartels seats in the AZ, CA, NM, and TX legislatures.  

Jeff Jacoby asks, "Why aren't democratic dissidents as well-known in the free world today as the dissidents who challenged the Soviet empire were in the 1970s and 1980s?"  He wants to make them famous:  CyberDissidents.

Roger Simon notes, "The real reason liberals accuse Tea Partiers of racism is that contemporary American-style liberalism is in rigor mortis. Liberals have nothing else to say or do.  Accusations of racism are their last resort."  Unfortunately for the Libs and the victims of real racism, the left's constant siren call of racism has reduced the accusation to little more than a vigorous sneeze.

Law professor who helped write AZ's new anti-illegal immigration law debunks most of the hysterical nonsense of the opposition.  A hint when discussing the new law with an opponent:  ask him if he has read the law.  I've yet to talk to anyone who has.

NYT is most like the Roman Catholic Church:  "The Times, of course, does not claim to speak infallibly in its judgments on current events. (Neither does the pope.) But to the truly orthodox believers in the Times, its editorials carry the burden of liberal holy writ."

The authors of the vile anti-Catholic memo published by the UK's foreign service are suspended and sent "diversity training."  Oh, the irony.

NJ Court says that bloggers aren't journalists. . .I take that as a compliment.  Thank you.

On the existential beauty of Godzilla. . .in haiku.

How long have you been alive? 

Aight. . .here's your Cute Pic for the day. 

Follow HancAquam ------------>

Insomnia report

My insomnia is starting to make me crazy.  I slept about three hours last night and none of those hours were good.  

I've tried everything short of massive doses of horse tranquilizers.  You name it, I've done it:  herbal, pharmaceutical, behavioral, dietary, psychological/spiritual, mechanical, and mystical.  I wake up around 3.00am and cannot go back to sleep. 

I blame philosophy.

Follow HancAquam ------------>

Coffee Bowl Browsing

Another courageous bishop ousts CCHD from his diocesan coffers.  Why they haven't all done this is beyond me.

WashPost confuses B.O. and Malcolm X. . .or did they?

Final Vatican approval for the new English translation of the Roman Missal has been given.  Now, we wait for a year or so for the bishops' conferences to publish it for general use.  Of course, the new missal will cause much garment rending and teeth gnashing among our Liturgical Betters.  Expect lots of "creative editing" from Fr. Hollywood.

Bizarre claim of the day by Aussie bishop:  priests who molested boys and teens didn't know that they were violating their vows.  OK.  Then why did they keep their molestation a secret?  Do I need to say how beyond stupid this is?

The destructive power of narcissism at work in politicians:  Charlie Crist to run as an independent in FL senate race.  Basically, Crist will lose the GOP nomination b/c he endorsed B.O. porkulus scheme.

The L.A. Times book prizes. 

A video on how seminarians are screened.  This piece focuses on psychological testing.  It's important to keep in mind that testing is not predictive; it is basically a way of detecting serious personality disorders.  Anyone who has survived a novitiate can tell you that testing does nothing to screen out everyday weirdnesses, ordinary and annoying social quirks.

Using pics of sacred persons to deter public urination. . .we need these in Rome!

Anti-Christian pagan Memorial Day celebration. . .note the carnival events. 

Follow HancAquam ------------>

Let's disobey God!

4th Week of Easter (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Podcast

Jesus puts to rest any question about the source and summit of our salvation, any question about the only means available for achieving a face-to-face audience with God the Father: “Whoever believes in me…whoever sees me…everyone who believes in me…anyone who hears my words…whoever rejects me…does not accept my words…I did not speak on my own…the Father who sent me commanded me…what I say, I say as the Father told me.” There can be no question that Jesus himself is the exclusive path to our redemption; he is the only salvific show in town. If we want to spend a little more time unpacking this teaching, we can note the passion with which Jesus teaches. John writes that Jesus “cried out and said.” We can note that Jesus explicitly says that he and the Father are one; that believing in him is the same as believing in the Father; that as the Word sent by the Father, accepting or rejecting his words determines one's place in the light or one's condemnation to the darkness. We can note that Jesus says he is teaching nothing more or less than what his Father has told him to teach; and we can note that he makes this startling claim: “I know that [the Father's] commandment is eternal life.” If the Father's commandment is eternal life, why must we believe in Jesus? Isn't it enough that God has commanded us to live with Him in eternity? It would seem that God's commandment can be thwarted by our refusal to believe.

For the sake of argument, let's assume that we want to refuse to obey God's commandment of eternal life. How would we go about about doing this? Jesus points out two ways to be disobedient: 1). we can hear his words, accept them, but fail to observe them, or 2). we can hear his words and reject them. When we hear his word but fail to live them, we are not condemned because, as Jesus says, “. . .I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.” When we hear his words and reject them, we condemn ourselves according to his word; that is, his words stand as our judge and we are condemned to darkness because the Father, Jesus, and his words are all one. Lest we think that we can hear his words, accept them, fail to obey, and then escape the consequences, we must remember that God commands us to enjoy eternal life. Jesus says that he will not judge our disobedience. Why? Because our refusal to live out the words we have heard and accepted is itself a judgment, and we remain in darkness despite having glimpsed the light. There is nothing more he needs to do than to allow us to live in the eternal night we have chosen for ourselves.

Why would anyone, having heard and accepted his words and knowing that God has commanded us to live eternal lives, why would anyone see the light of Christ and choose the darkness of disobedience? Well, there's the false sense of freedom that comes with making such a choice. There's the inordinate love of the transient things of this world. There's the desire to indulge our destructive passions—anger, revenge, hatred, greed. And then there's the obstinate refusal to believe, the persistence of voluntary doubt—willful disbelief. Like the child who closes her eyes and believes she is invisible because she cannot see, we choose darkness because we believe it hides us, protects us from judgment, nurtures our liberty. In fact, we are never more in danger than when we walk after dark.

Jesus speaks these words of hope: “I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.” Though we may foolishly choose eternal night, we do not have to remain there. His coming among us is the dawn of salvation, our eternal healing from all the wounds that would drive us into hiding. All we need do is accept the medicine of his words and follow behind him, doing right now everything he did back then.

A few updates. . .

Scuba Becky has been back at work now for two weeks.  No problems so far. . .Deo gratis!  Your prayers have been much appreciated by mom, me, and our whole family.

Still no word on how my summer plans can be salvaged.  I will have to make a decision soon.  It looks like my Religion & Science course will have enough students to make.  The American literature course will not.

The WISH LIST has been update.  I changed my shipping address to my parents' place in Mississippi, so shipping will be domestic rather than international.

My thanks for all the emails of concern about my family in Mississippi. . .no one from our neck of the woods was hurt by the recent tornadoes in the delta. 

Update on the Apple Cider Vinegar cure:  I continue to get an energy boost, but the help it gave me with my insomnia has dissipated.  One caution if you try this. . .wait at least three hours after a meal before drinking.  It can cause G-I upset.

I am working on a few posts from the Suggestions List I solicited recently.  Be patient and keep checking back.

Podcast download numbers have been good. . .good enough to encourage me to continue recording and posting links to my preached homilies.  Thanks for the business!

Follow HancAquam ------------>

Coffee Bowl Browsing

"Many feel the sting of racism in new law". . .OK, but remember:  "feeling racism" is not evidence of actual racism any more than "feeling rich" is evidence of actual wealth.

And yes, there is a danger that the new anti-illegal immigration law in AZ will be used to racially profile individuals.  No fair-minded person can support this kind of abuse.  But it is an abuse.  If we stop enforcing any law that might be abused, we will descend into anarchy.

B.O. appoints another big DNC donor to the bench.  

Ross Douthat spanks Cartoon Network over their easy surrender to Islamo-fascism.

B.O.'s own actuary outlines nine serious problems with ObamaCare.  No, you can't keep your doctor; and yes, premiums will rise.

Yet again our Government Nannies are trying to legislate the basic lessons of good manners.  Tell me they aren't trying to find a substitute for the family structures they have worked so hard to destroy.

Good news in Hungary:  the socialists were outed from power in recent elections.  Let's pray that the center-party that won isn't a nationalist monster.

Ruth Gledhill on the vile anti-Catholic memo circulated in the U.K.'s Foreign Service office:  "What this document illustrates is that repulsive sense of entitlement we sometimes see in the over-educated young and privileged, combined with a taken-for-granted anti-Catholic prejudice that does still persist in our nation, more than a century and a half after the restoration of the hierarchy." You have to wonder if this memo would have caused a stir at all if it hadn't been released to the bishops' conference.

Militant atheist convicted of "anti-social behavior" for leaving offensive tracts in an airport chapel.  I'm surprised he was convicted given the general anti-Christian culture of the U.K. elites.  However, I don't think Christians should be cheering this conviction.  Laws like this one are always double-edged.

Funny announcements from airline captains and flight attendants.   I once heard on a Southwest flight:  "Federal law requires all passengers to obey the instructions of uniformed flight personnel.  Don't pay any attention to the naked ones.  They tend to lie."

Follow HancAquam ------------>

On not resolving the mystery

4th Week of Easter (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Podcast

If you are a fan of mystery novels, you know all too well the temptation to start the latest who-dun-it by reading the last chapter first. By sneaking a peek at how the author resolves the mystery, you then feel free to start at the beginning. Literary purists disparage this habit as a sin against the genre; it's cheating; it's a crime worthy of having your library card revoked! The whole point of reading a mystery novel is to enjoy the tension of not knowing who-dun-it, living with the suspense that the clues produce along the way. If you are not willing to put in the work of trying to figure out the mystery, you should probably stick to romance novels, or science fiction and leave the perils of solving puzzles to braver, stronger souls. Among the souls who gather before Jesus at the Portico of Solomon are those who would skip to the end of the mystery and cheat themselves of an adventure. They plead with him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus, the author and main character of creation's greatest mystery, replies, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. . .The Father and I are one.” So, if Jesus has revealed the mystery, if he has already shown them how the story ends, why are they in suspense? Why do these weak souls continue to demand that he end their suspense? Simply put, they know who he is, but they do not believe in him. They have knowledge of his identity, but they do not trust in his ministry.

Here's the thing we need to know about mystery: mystery is not about not knowing; it's not about being ignorant of the relevant facts. You can have all the facts, the critical skills to interpret these facts, and the will to put them all together to form a reasonable conclusion. But even with a reasonable conclusion in mind, with all the facts neatly lined up to support you, you can still have a mystery to contemplate. So, if mystery is not about being ignorant of the facts, then what is it about? Note again what Jesus says to the crowd, “I told you [who I am] and you do not believe.” Knowledge is not enough, knowing is not sufficient to relieve the tension we experience when confronted by the unknown. To understand the mystery of who Christ really is, we must first believe; we must transcend facts, logic, experiment, and evidence, and submit ourselves to the dangerous adventures to be found in trusting Jesus at his word, trusting his work among us: “The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. . .The Father and I are one.”

It would be too easy at this point to dismiss the art of believing without evidence as a fool's game, a trick to trick the gullible. But dismissing belief as irrational misses the point of what it means to experience mystery. William Blake, the great British Romantic poet, wrote: “Rational truth is not the truth of Christ, but the truth of Pilate.” While Pilate pretends to want a reasonable answer to his question about the nature of truth, all the while hiding his disbelief behind self-righteous suspicion, Christ, the Truth made flesh, stands right in front of him. Pilate has the facts, but he doesn't believe the truth that the facts report. And, like Pilate, those in crowd gathered before Jesus, those tortured by suspense, they know the facts, but they do not believe. And because they do not believe, they cannot hear the voice of their shepherd. They are both blind and deaf to mystery. Their suspense will be eternal.

For those who know the facts about who Christ is and put their trust in the revelation of his words and deeds, the mystery he presents produces joy rather than suspense, hope rather than anxiety. There is no temptation to skip to the end of the story because his word is enough, “I told you [who I am]. . .The Father and I are one.” We don't resolve this mystery, we live it.

Follow HancAquam ------------>

Coffee Bowl Browsing

From Reason.com:  "For lefties not versed in the ways of the world, Republicans are standing up for Goldman because they support laissez-faire capitalism and unfettered free markets. Inconveniently for that thesis, Goldman has given more than twice as much money to Democrats as to Republicans in this election cycle."

The fearless irreverence of Comedy Central. . .yea, not so much.  If Catholics declared fatwahs and carried out jihads, we wouldn't be having all these media infidels dissing the Holy Father.  Also, I think the "Let's All Draw Muhammed Day" is a very bad idea. 

Legit ethical questions about medical research, informed consent, and the cultural differences btw scientists and test subjects.  Informed consent is The Bedbug of human-trials research. 

Instapundit gets it exactly right:  "Worry about carbon footprint is for the little people: BBC lectures us incessantly on climate change. So why did their bosses make 68,000 domestic flights in two years? I’ll believe it’s a crisis when the people who keep telling me it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis." 

Damien Thompson comments on the sick Labour gov't memo that proposes that the Holy Father launch his own condom brand while visiting the U.K. in September.

The "N-word" is spotted at a Tea Party rally. . .well, sort of.  Also, a great video.

Fr. Z. notes that the Holy Father is planning to issue an apology for the clerical sexual abuse scandals.  He rightly claims that the media will yawn and demand more.  There will be resignations, etc.  However, personnel and policy changes will not eliminate sexual abuse in the Church.  Why?  Because human beings are sinful creatures.

I gotta have one of these:  an antique vampire-killing kit!  Once you are kitted with the Zombie-killing chainsaw machine gun, you need to think about the Other Undead Meat, right?

Various analytical takes on the Legend of the Super Pigeon.  NB.  none of these flying rats live in Rome, but we do host millions of their dumber cousins.

B.O.'s porkulus money is being used for one good public works project at least.

36 Rules of Life: "My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance."

Follow HancAquam ------------>

Tornado in Dixie

Poor ole Mississippi catches hell from tornadoes this time of year.

Pray for these folks, please. 

My parents live well north of the damage area. . .closer to TN.  Our extended family lives in Sunflower Co., which is in the northern part of the delta.

The Impeccable Logic of the Superhero/Circus Non Sequitur

Coffee Bowl Browsing

Deconstructing the myths of judicial stereotypes

Interview with dissident priest about the new archbishop of L.A. brings joy to the hearts of faithful Catholics everywhere!

Labour gov't expresses predictable elitist-lefty contempt for the Holy Father:  proposes in a planning document for the pope's UK visit that BXVI bless a SSM and launch a papal brand of condoms.

A quick look at the new AZ anti-illegal immigration law. . .no, it doesn't require everyone to carry proof of legal status; no, it doesn't legalize racial profiling; no, it doesn't create a police state.  What it does do is empower state police to enforce existing federal immigration law. . .something the current occupant of the White House seems loathe to do.

Law prof speculates on why Crdl. Mahony opposed the AZ law using terms like "Nazi" and "Communist."

Fascinating article on how the Nazi regime (the actual Nazi's) in Germany fabricated a pedophile-priest scandal in order to silence Church opposition to the demonic agenda.  I don't see any parallels at all to the current media frenzy. . .nope, none at all. 

"So long as boomers make decisions in the media, we'll be stuck with documentaries extolling the 1960s counterculture. . ." and the sad manifestos of dinosaur dissidents sinking in the tar pits of their failed ecclesial revolution.

On the inherent dangers of yard-work in an alternative universe.

A story in pics:  a plane, a bear, and some duct tape.  Redneck engineering my father would be proud to claim as his own.

Follow HancAquam ------------>

Life's little ironies. . .

 Oh, the irony. . .

I just an email from the Liguori marketing folks informing me that my second prayer book is featured in a magazine ad.

The magazine?

America. 

Follow HancAquam ------------>

What I Learned on the Psych Ward

One of the early lessons I learned as the Team Leader of an adolescent psych unit is that teenagers crave limits.  They hate limits.  They push and push and push. . .but, in the end, they want to know what's right and what's wrong.

My first shift staff and I could always tell when another shift had been lax in enforcing the milieu's routine.  The kids would be hyperactive, demanding, and making frequent visits to the time-out room at the staff's direction.  A few questions here and there and we would discover that a new staff member on another shift had bent the rules, or a PRN nurse had tried to undermine the authority of the staff, etc.  

Like clockwork, one of the kids would "go off."  A fight would break out, or someone would start beating the wall of his/her room, etc.   When verbal re-direction didn't contain the acting out, staff would physically intervene with a "take-down" and remove the kid to the special care unit to cool off.  In order to discourage other episodes of acting out, additional staff from the adult unit would arrive and help us to settle things down.  In a very short time, the unit was back on track and all was well.

In our Team Leader meetings we would discuss this phenomenon at length and all agree that the maintenance of milieu routine was vital for unit safety.  Despite this, some staff--nurses and therapists mostly--continued to bend the rules, disrupt routines, and reveal treatment team plans for discharge and visits.  In other words, they were the parents who could not say "no" and mean it.  Their inability to stand up to the limits-pushing by the kids endangered the unit and our patients' successful treatment. 

Another lesson I learned early on:  do not hire education, psychology, sociology, or social work majors for milieu staff positions.  They tended to see themselves as Messiah figures who would save the kids by just listening to them and trying to understand them.  Of course, the kids manipulated the living daylights out of these suckers.  Instead of hiring self-anointed saviors, I hired business majors and athletes--people who understood the need for rules and discipline but who also encouraged the kids to do their best given their circumstances.  It also helped to have four or five 300 lbs. football players around when our gang members decided to "get buck."

Follow HancAquam ------------>

Liturgical Abuse, or Let the Church say, "Make it new!"

In the early 20th century, the American crypto-fascist ex-pat poet, Ezra Pound, issued a three word manifesto that came to define the modernist movement in poetics:  "Make it new."  Reacting to what he saw as the calcified conservativism of formal verse in the West, Pound urged poets to strike out into unexplored poetical territories and bring to the art of the image and line the perpetual revolution of novelty for novelty's sake.

Pound's orders were faithfully followed by his loyal troops and the hydra-headed monster of modernist poetry laid waste to traditional versification.  The influence of his revolution of novelty was not limited to the arcane practices of poets.  Novelists, dramatists, artists, musicians, dancers, architects, all heard the call of "make it new" and went about deconstructing centuries of subtle, complex beauty with the fierce simplicity of the single, powerful image. 

As any Catholic who has witnessed the dissolution of our faith's liturgical heritage can attest, Pound's revolution had no respect for the Church or her treasures.  The central document outlining the Second Vatican Council's plan for liturgical renewal, Sacrosanctum concilium, was snatched by Poundian revolutionaries in the Church and used to dismantle the 500 year old tradition of worship in the Catholic faith.  Pope John Paul II, and to a much greater degree, Pope Benedict XVI, have mitigated, if not yet entirely reversed, the lasting damage done to the liturgical heritage of the Church by insisting on the organic development of liturgy and the need to read the Council documents with a hermeneutic of continuity.   What remains of the Novelty Revolution lies mostly in the misplaced creative efforts of priests and religious who, for whatever reason, see it as their vocation to make sure that the Church's worship remains "relevant" and "up to date." 

By placing relevance and novelty above organic development and continuity, liturgical Poundians ignore the historical and ecclesial nature of the liturgy and privilege their subjective cultural assessments above the real spiritual needs of their charges.  The widespread phenomenon of liturgical abuse is an insidious form of clericalism that encourages those with clerical power to use that power to inflict their private preferences, political agendas, and ideological quirks on congregations powerless to stop them.  Though Catholics have seen a dramatic decline in liturgical abuse in the last twenty-years, abuses still occur, and in some places, abuses are the norm.

Liturgical abuse comes in three varieties:

1).  a misplaced emphasis on the immanent at the expense of the transcendent

2).  the elevation of the purely intellectual at the expense of the affective/experiential

3).  an emphasis on the local at the expense of the universal

(NB.  there is absolutely nothing wrong with the liturgy expressing the immanent, the intellectual, or the local.  The problem is an emphasis on these aspects at the expense of their balancing opposites.)

Immanent vs. transcendent

In reaction to the over-clericalization of the medieval liturgy, Poundians worked hard to redirect our liturgical attention to the presence of the divine among us.  Initially a necessary reform, this redirection quickly became a foil for all-things-transcendent.  The most notable example of this abuse is the almost-disappearance of the notion of the Mass as a sacrifice.  In order to displace the over-hyped role of the priest, Poundians turned the Mass into a communal meal, distributing the larger portion of the priest's role to the community and making Mass all about bringing the community together.  We still see this happening in the unnecessary use of communion ministers; the priest refusing to use to presider's chair; folksy language used to replace liturgical language; and the illicit use of gender-inclusive language.

Intellectual vs. affective

Many older Catholics lament the demise of traditional devotions after Vatican Two.  In an effort to bring our undivided attention back to the celebration of the Mass, Poundians waged war against devotional practices.  Seen as private, affective luxuries, devotions were railed against as willful acts of rebellion against the need to build community through individual "active participation" in the Mass.  Modernist innovations in the secular arts always required some knowledge of the theory that produced the art.  Pollock's paintings only make sense if you understand what he is trying to do in the context of traditional painting techniques.  Poundian liturgical revolutionaries were quick to dismiss criticisms of their innovations with ringing calls for more catechesis--more education would somehow diffuse the overwhelming discomfort most Catholics felt when confronted with disruptive, alien liturgical practices.  We still see the intellectual being privileged over the affective in abuses like monologues on the meanings of liturgical symbols; an insistence on equating stark, barren sanctuaries with "noble simplicity"; the deconstruction of traditional church architecture as a way of embodying ideas about the nature of community; and the dumbing down of liturgical language so that immediate cognitive understanding trumps the more profound experiences to be found in elevated language and ritual.

Local vs. universal

As part of the effort to undermine a universally told story about the faith, Poundians began emphasizing the need for more and more local options in the celebration of the liturgy.  Citing the Council's call for inculturation, the "Make it new" crowd attacked the notion that our liturgical worship connects us to a historically-bound narrative of God's Self-revelation; in other words, their novelty revolution would not tolerate a liturgy that privileged tradition as the clearest lens through which the Church understands her historical relationship with God.  Building on the growth and spread of subjectivity and relativism, the Poundians latched onto a rarefied notion of the local church ("this church-community") and opposed it to the universal Church as the most authentic expression of catholic identity.  This move allowed them to argue for more and more specificity, more and more idiosyncratic innovations in how the liturgy was celebrated at the parish level.  It quickly became commonplace for parishes to be identified by their "worship-style," and even Masses celebrated at different times within the same parish were described in terms of style.  This abuse is most clearly seen in so-called ethnic parishes where attempts are made to accommodate the dominant culture of the parishioners (Latino, African-American, Vietnamese) at the expense of the universal story of our faith. (NB. not all cultural accommodation is necessarily an abuse; abuses are always perversions of allowable uses.)

Liturgical Poundians are on the decline.  Like their counterparts in literature, the excesses of novelty for novelty's sake have proven that the revolution has no underlying principle of restraint, no intrinsic limits.  What counts as "new" is itself subject to the whims of those deemed avant-garde enough to define the term.  Poundians have been rightly criticized for becoming staid, predictable, and highly orthodox in their privileging of a late-20th century liturgical aesthetic. Anyone who has clashed with a professional liturgist knows that the principles they espouse are as plastic as they need to be to justify the preferred worldview of the liturgist.  Rubrics, magisterial documents, liturgical law, tradition, all form a  repugnant canon to those who see it as their sacred ministry to shape the liturgical lives of the less enlightened.

Though it is not entirely clear that young Catholics will embrace the ancient liturgical tradition of the Church in large numbers, what is clear is that the age of experimentation is over.  Novelty for the sake of novelty is an exhausted project.  Deo gratis!

Follow HancAquam ------------>

Atheist-turned-theist, Anthony Flew: RIP

One of the most prominent atheists-turned-theists in the 20th century, Anthony Flew, has died.

Prof. Flew was an exemplary philosophical critic of theism during his decades of intellectual toil.  He was widely respected by theists for his charitable argumentation and willingness to debate w/o the P.R. fireworks of rabble-rousers like Dawkins and Hitchens.  Like most British philosophers of his generation, he wrote with startling clarity, precision, and careful attention to the ideas of his opponents--again, in stark contrast to the New Atheists.

Late in life he came to embrace the existence of God based on the so-called "fine-tuning argument."  Though he did not espouse any particular form of sectarian theism, he noted in his last book, There Is a God:  How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind,* that, if pressed, he would be comfortable with a deistic understanding of Christianity (something like 19h century Anglican-Unitarianism, perhaps?).

Young theistic philosophers and theologians should be encouraged to study his early atheistic work with an eye toward honing their skills in answering sensible objections to basic theistic arguments.  

May he rest in peace. 

* Be sure to read the review comments on the Amazon site.  You will get a taste of the venom spewed by atheists who felt betrayed by Flew's conversion.  The god of reason that atheists claim to honor is little in evidence.

Follow HancAquam ------------>