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L'Osservatore Romano published this English translation of the presentation of the Ratzinger Prize by Pope Benedict XVI to an old friend of mine from my Notre Dame days, Jesuit Patristics scholar Brian Daley, S.J., earlier this week, whose book on eschatology (The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology) in the first several ( Read more... )

I thought that this was an interesting reading of some of Benedict's thinking with regard to his comments in Benin last month, and his thoughts toward "liberation theology," broadly understood. The Lonely Liberation Theology of Benedict XVIby John L Allen Jr on Nov. 20, 2011 NCR Today ( Read more... )

Too funny. I've always thought that writing a snarky guide for reporters writing about Catholicism or religion in general might be a fun, sort of "reverse" form of making clear some points that are popularly confused, or are just favourite old bigotries that people like to repeat for the entertainment and self-righteousness value. So it's great ( Read more... )

As usual, it's always interesting to keep an eye on World Youth Day, even after passing the threshold age of "youth" invited! In particular, I was struck by this CNS article featuring some quotations from Pope Benedict, who as Professor Joseph Ratzinger, was one of the professors instructing my Doktorvater in his own graduate studies. Ratzinger ( Read more... )

I actually remember having the thought. It was the spring of 1994 and I was taking Richard McBrien's Ecclesiology course at Notre Dame, which was hugely significant for me in connecting Vatican II and the contemporary Catholic Church with the patristic roots of the Church - all the ancient sources of Christianity that I had been reading and ( Read more... )

It's been the usual whirlwind with end-of-the-semester business. My students with their term papers for the Experience of Grace course have been asking for last-minute meetings, and those have been great fun for me as I get to glimpse previews of what they are doing with the various books that they selected for their more independent project. I ( Read more... )

This last week or two has been distinctly pleasurable for me on an academic level. The Mardi Gras holiday gave me a bit of extra time, after the grading chores and such were done, to engage in reading that wasn't directly linked to prepping for my classes. Chapters from Michael Burleigh's Sacred Causes: The Clash of Religion and Politics, from ( Read more... )

An idea for future development: I'm reading chs. 9-10 in Ratzinger's Jesus of Nazareth right now in preparation for class tomorrow. In ch. 9, he's talking about the texts of Peter's confession of Jesus as Messiah/Christ and the Transfiguration, and the connected texts in the gospels about Jesus' prediction of the Passion, with Ratzinger mentioning ( Read more... )

As I was wrapping up some laundry earlier this evening, I turned on the television, suddenly thinking that maybe I might just catch the tail end of a Notre Dame football broadcast, if in fact there was one today (since I haven't consulted the schedule, I don't even know that for sure). It was a little later than NBC usually schedules such things, ( Read more... )