Thomist Tacos for the Soul

Philosopher of Virtue | Josef Pieper (1904-1997): "
Click above for the original article. Once in a while I'll highlight mentionable thomists.

Josef Pieper was born on May 4th, 1904, in the small Westphalian village of Elte, Germany. At that time not even a local train connected the isolated spot in the middle of the heath with other towns of Westphalia; whoever wanted to reach the next station had to cross a river in a small ferry-boat. Pieper's father was the only teacher at the only school of this village. Josef Pieper went to the Gymnasium Paulinum in Münster, one of the oldest German schools, which has existed for more than eleven hundred years. His son took up that tradition as a pupil of that old institution, the buildings of which, however, were completely destroyed during World War II.

A teacher at the Gymnasium Paulinum, a priest, convinced Pieper to read the works of Thomas Aquinas. 'At that time,' Pieper wrote, 'I was foolishly fond of Kierkegaard, whom we used to devour, my friends and I, naturally without quite understanding him; and it was this paternal friend and teacher, who directed me – with a sort of violent, ironical, and humorous intensity – to St. Thomas' Commentary to the Prologue of St. John's Gospel. Being a youngster of eighteen, I set about reading this work and, in fact, finished it, of course, again without understanding"

Godblogcon

Even though adaptability and christianity have at times been seen as mutually exclusive (and with good cautious reasons), there are ways that we can learn from adapting to modern technological marvels and conveying old truths through new means. Well, like the printing press of old now we have an amazing medium for disseminating information: blogs. Although a bit overdue, this conference is definitely on the right track in addressing crucial blogging issues. Here is the information below:

August 3-5, 2006 La Mirada, California. New media is transforming the way ideas are transmitted. Come join Christian bloggers and pre-bloggers (everyone else!) to fellowship,network, and discuss the explosive potential for the new media in politics, the Church and our personal lives. With an emphasis on unity-in-diversity, GodBlogCon 06 promises to be enriching, stimulating, and fun. (To see a PDF detailing this year's plenary panels click here or click here to see the rest of the speakers / program.)

Biola > Summer 2006 : Biola Connections: "The D-Word
Has Doctrine Become the New Dirty Word?
by Holly Pivec"

In his book A Generous Orthodoxy (Zondervan), Brian McLaren makes a piercing assessment of evangelicals. He says they have focused on having all the right doctrinal beliefs, but they lead lives that, often, don’t match those beliefs.

He sums up their mindset like this: “[O]ne could at least be proud of getting an ‘A’ in orthodoxy even when one earned a ‘D’ in orthopraxy [the application of doctrine to one’s life].”

Many Christians think McLaren is on to something.

A lot of evangelicals affirm doctrines they don’t really believe, according to Dr. Gregg Ten Elshof, chair of Biola’s undergraduate philosophy department.

“It's not that they disbelieve what they affirm,” Ten Elshof said. “It's just that they have no real belief either way. What they affirm has nothing to do with the way they live."

Dr. Richard Flory, an associate professor of sociology at Biola, calls the problem “an intellectualized Christianity, where it stays in your head and doesn’t work itself out on the ground.”

This can be seen in some churches, according to Dr. John Hutchison. Hutchison is chair of the Bible exposition department at Biola’s seminary, Talbot School of Theology. He said: “There’s been a disillusionment with churches who pride themselves on teaching very orthodox doctrine, yet you don’t necessarily see a difference in their members’ lifestyles.”