Levavi oculos meos in montes

"This is no cave!" -- Princess Leia  One facet of Cardinal Newman's perception in regard to Ideas and development of doctrine is that we who are downstream from the theologians and philosophers are given a language and a kind of mythology associated with that language, and these things comprise the tools we are able to use or sometimes transcend.     This seems to tie in a bit with what Bishop Varden said about generations in regard to the reception of Vatican II .   The first generation is in the middle of the event, the second generation is trying to consolidate or dispute that legacy, and the third generation is sometimes baffled by the preoccupations of their elders.   But they are still holders of the legacy the thing has left.   They have to decide what it is going to mean to them -- what is ephemeral, situational, and what is durable.     For example -- an example that comes to mind after reading various takes on Ne...

“I have not used ‘magic’ consistently, and indeed the Elven-queen Galadriel is obliged to remonstrate with the Hobbits on their confused use of the word both for the devices and operations of the Enemy, and for those of the Elves. I have not, because there is not a word for the latter (since all human stories have suffered the same confusion). Their 'magic’ is Art, delivered from many of its human limitations: more effortless, more quick, more complete (product, and vision in unflawed correspondence). And its object is Art not Power, sub-creation not domination and tyrannous re-forming of Creation. The 'Elves’ are 'immortal’, at least as far as this world goes: and hence are concerned rather with the griefs and burdens of deathlessness in time and change, than with death. The Enemy in successive forms is always 'naturally’ concerned with sheer Domination, and so the Lord of magic and machines; but the problem: that this frightful evil can and does arise from an apparent...

There was a recent commentary by Massimo Faggioli at Commonweal called Vatican II at Napa .   In the context of a somewhat critical look at the Napa conference, the article referenced the talk given by Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim , who is as Faggioli says  one of the most interesting figures in a European Catholicism that is emancipating itself from the dominance of the French, Belgian, and German conciliar theology. Here is the written version of Bishop Varden's talk .   Here is what he calls a brief antiphonal response of his to Faggioli's article.     Here is his conference on the Creed , which is as he notes the main feature of his attendance at the conference.... I think the comments on Vatican II were part of a panel he participated in ?   There are a few things that came to my mind when I was reading through this interchange. One is the civil tone between two Catholic thinkers who come from very different contexts.  ...