Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Papal Address at University of Regensburg
"Three Stages in the Program of De-Hellenization"
While nobody will be turned away from Sunday night's meeting if they have not read the Pope's lecture, it will give greater context to Sunday night's presentation from Caleb Bernacchio. Thanks to Paul Cat for providing the link.
While nobody will be turned away from Sunday night's meeting if they have not read the Pope's lecture, it will give greater context to Sunday night's presentation from Caleb Bernacchio. Thanks to Paul Cat for providing the link.
Presentation Tonight on Stem Cell Research, Human Cloning and Theology of the Body
From Julie Orr:
Hi Philip,
Thank you for keeping me informed about The Parousians. You are doing great work at educating and encouraging young adults in the Catholic faith.
Would you please let everyone know that tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Walk-On's near LSU, Dr. Rob Chasuk will be giving a presentation on Stem Cell Research, Human Cloning and Theology of the Body - it should be excellent! Please encourage everyone to come.
Thank you!
God bless,
Julie M. Orr
Respect Life Coordinator
Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge
Christian Formation Secretariat
Marriage and Family Life Dept.
Hi Philip,
Thank you for keeping me informed about The Parousians. You are doing great work at educating and encouraging young adults in the Catholic faith.
Would you please let everyone know that tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Walk-On's near LSU, Dr. Rob Chasuk will be giving a presentation on Stem Cell Research, Human Cloning and Theology of the Body - it should be excellent! Please encourage everyone to come.
Thank you!
God bless,
Julie M. Orr
Respect Life Coordinator
Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge
Christian Formation Secretariat
Marriage and Family Life Dept.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Caleb Bernacchio Presents on Faith, Reason, and Jihad
This Sunday Caleb Bernacchio will give his last presentation before he leaves for the Angelicum in Rome. He will be discussing the themes of Pope Benedict's recent lecture in Regensburg concerning Islam and the role of faith and reason in religion. We will be meeting at Ryan Hallford's house at 8:00, all are welcome.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Paul Cat's New Blog
Alive and Young
Founding Parousian Paul Cat has graduated, and is now serving as Director of Religious Education Apprentice at The Parish of the Resurrection in Wilmington, Delaware. His new blog promises to be a favorite stop for Parousians everywhere.
"Alive and Young is a site dedicated to discussing the topics of sex, religion, and politics. My chief qualificaion for starting such a blog is that I have no qualifications to discuss such topics as sex, religion, and politics."
Founding Parousian Paul Cat has graduated, and is now serving as Director of Religious Education Apprentice at The Parish of the Resurrection in Wilmington, Delaware. His new blog promises to be a favorite stop for Parousians everywhere.
"Alive and Young is a site dedicated to discussing the topics of sex, religion, and politics. My chief qualificaion for starting such a blog is that I have no qualifications to discuss such topics as sex, religion, and politics."
F-Bomb Nietzsche: Blah Blah Blah
Founding Parousian Paul Catalanotto offers this original piece to the Parousians blog:
In Joyful Wisdom, Friedrich Nietzsche has a mad man running about town asking and proclaiming “Where is God? … I will tell you, we have killed Him, you and I! We are all His murderers! … God is dead! God will remain dead! And we have killed Him!” and says in more statement than question “Must not ourselves become Gods” (Nietzsche, JW 167-8). It is appropriate because not only does he kill God in his own life, but he is also driven mad by syphilis and signs his last letter “the Crucified One,” making his madman seem more prophetic of himself than of the society about which he wrote (Kreeft, Unbelief).
Although he does not become clinically mad till the later stage of his life, it is clear from a number of his writings that madness ran deep in his veins for many years (Hollingdale 25). Some might call it genius, while others just plain madness. The difference from madness and genius might only be a small step apart but still they are separate from one another and should not be confused. A genius is a person who is a master of a particular field and knows the spirit of the rules and the exceptions to the rules, while a mad person thinks the rules are the exceptions and he or she confuses fantasy with a reality.
There is a danger in living in a fantasy such as Nietzsche did. When I speak of fantasy, I do not mean imagination. Imagination by nature is something necessary for a healthy mind: it helps to produce something outside of a person’s self – like a poem or prayer. Where as fantasy turns the individual inward to the ego: it is a delusion and foolery to the self. Dorothy Sayers writes in Mind of the Maker that the “imagination works outward steadily increasing the gap between the visioned and the actual … Few writers of crime-stories become murders – if any do, it is not a result of identifying themselves with their murderous heroes” (Sayers 144), while fantasy to Sayers is the “blurring [of] the boundary between the visioned and the actual … so that the child who has fantasized himself a murderer ends by becoming a Loeb or a Leopole” (Sayers 143-4). Sayers argues that an individual cannot live in the imagination; however, the individual may spend a life time living a fantasy and not know it because their fantasy has become real and has to be played out to the last possible end: insanity. So, imagination is the product of the sane mind and to live always in a fantasy, as did Nietzsche, is the product of the insane mind.
How is it known that Nietzsche in fact was living in fantasy and not merely playing with his imagination? Simply put, when people are playing with their imagination, they know they are using it, and if they are not readily conscience of their using it then it becomes apparent after they have stopped imagining (day dreaming). With fantasy, it is the opposite. The person living in a fantasy does not know he or she is living a fantasy and usually does something drastic to prove that his or her fantasy is the state of the world. David Koresh did not merely imagine himself to be Christ come again; he really believed himself to be Christ in his fantasy. Tolkien did not think himself to be Frodo. As stated earlier, those who are mad think the rules are the exception, and Nietzsche thought himself to be the exception to reality.
Yet, Nietzsche did not have any choice but to play out his fantasy to its absolute end, so his end – regardless of health – would have resulted in the same: insanity. He removed God from his life then followed by the removal of friends and family, the only thing he had left was his mind, which he eventually lost also (Lichtenberger Chapter 1.). His call for radical individualism left him with nothingness and madness, which left him stuck at the crossroads, unable to go down any road for each road had already been traveled, and being, by default, unable to choose left his mind and will useless and frozen. “Madness may be defined as using mental activity so as to reach mental helplessness; and [Nietzsche had] nearly reached it” on his own: it was only his health that finished it for him (Chesterton 43).
Strengths, Weaknesses, and Dangers
Any person who casually reads Nietzsche might find him or herself being both repelled and drawn to his writings simultaneously. On the first level, the reader would be repelled because they know better and can see what Nietzsche is trying to say and may even experience a physiological repulsion at what Nietzsche is saying. On the other hand, the casual reader is drawn to Nietzsche for several reasons. First, he writes with a passion found in few writers since Augustine of Hippo and Pascal. All three writers display a bold honesty in their writings, which speaks not only to the reader’s mind but also to the reader’s heart. Each writer is able to capture the restlessness and wretchedness of the human person; however, Augustine and Pascal find rest and greatness for humanity in God, while Nietzsche is only able to capture the restlessness and wretchedness of the human soul and is unable to find it rest.
A second strength in Nietzsche’s writings is found in not what he says, but how he says it. In this area he is reminiscent of the sirens in Greek mythology from Homer’s Odyssey. The sirens sought to lore boats to crash upon the rocks using their song; like wise, Nietzsche lures his readers into his fantasy by a writing style consisting of strong lyrical prose bordering poetry. The best example of his writing style is found in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, where his character Zarathustra delivers powerful speeches in a poetical form to the public.
Nietzsche’s use of metaphors and images further strengthen his arguments. With the use of images and metaphors it allows, according to Dr. Peter Kreeft, the contemplative imagination to be used. The contemplative imagination is what Kreeft describes an “intuitive understanding;” it allows ideas and thoughts to enter into the mind and heart without being censored; this is one explanation of the power of music, art, and poetry (Kreeft Imagination). That is, the imagination gives meaning before reason.
Moreover, Alasdair MacIntyre argues that the Weberian, Marxist, and Nietzschen “vision of the world cannot be rationally sustained; it disguises and conceals rather than illuminates and it depends for its power on its success at disguise and concealment” (MacIntyre 109). Nietzsche’s writing style can be very dangerous because he hides his arguments well. When each of his strengths are combined it hides his arguments in a way that is not at first noticeable to the casual reader, and tied together with his other natural tendencies of deliberate contradiction and not adhering to any logical form, it can easily leave the reader confused and unsure about much of what Nietzsche says.
One example of many contradictions found in Twilight of the Idols is how Nietzsche addresses reason; he says, “’Reason’ is the cause of our falsification of the evidence of the sense” (Nietzsche TWI 46). Then in the following section he says that scientific-knowledge is to be trusted; however, scientific-knowledge is only trustable because it has been deduced and found reasonable and trustworthy by means of reason. If Nietzsche’s logic is to be followed, science itself is nothing more than the “falsification of the evidence of the sense[s]” and should not be trusted (Nietzsche TWI 46). Still his confusion speaks to the heart and mind and might produce a confused heart and confused mind in the reader, which would leave life nothing more than “sound and fury symbolizing nothing” (Shakespeare 92).
Nietzsche’s biggest weakness lies in his arguments, if what he writes can be called arguments. Leila Haaparanta writes, “Few arguments can be found in Fredrich Nietzsche’s philosophical work” (Haaparanta pg 490). He argues less and makes bold accusations and claims averaging what seems nearly every page. Sadly, it is not certain if Nietzsche’s claims are true or not from his texts, because he fails to support most of his claims with proof. For example, in The Anti-Christ he says, “Wherever the influence of the theologian extends value judgment is stood on its head, the concepts ‘true’ and ‘false’ are necessarily reversed” (Nietzsche AC. 132), while in Twilight of the Idols he claims that the present morality of humanity is not what it has always been. He claims that man was at a time amoral and better for being without morality. However, Nietzsche cannot support either of these claims. He cannot say that truth has been otherwise and that man has been anything other than moral. It is erroneous to speak of the morality of prehistoric society when there is no evidence of prehistoric morality. Sadly, Nietzsche’s arguments are based solely on assumptions, and any elementary logic student knows that an argument based solely on assumption and claims can hardly be called an argument, and the conclusion can only be called an assumption derived from assumptions.
In the end, Nietzsche is more rightly called a composer of claims and not an ethicist. The claims he makes are addressed at the society in which he lived and can reveal a good deal about protestant Germany, and his writings can easily be used more as social commentary than as ethics books and are more of a wakeup call for those who call themselves Christian.
Bibliography
Chesterton, Gilbert K. Orthodoxy. Garden City: Image Books, 1959.
Haaparanta, Leila. “A Note on Nietzsche’s Argument.” The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 153. (Oct., 1988), pp. 490-495.
Hollingdale, R.J. Twilight of the Idols and The Anti Christ. By Friedrich Nietzsche. Trans. R.J. Hollingdale. London: the Penguin Group, 1990.
Kreeft, Peter. “The Imagination.” Keble College, Oxford. 1991.
Kreeft, Peter. “Pillars of Unbelief – Nietzsche.” National Catholic Register. (Jan-Feb., 1988).
Lichtenberger, Henri. The Gospel of Superman: The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Trans. J.M Kennedy. Edinburgh: Morrison & Gibb Limited, 1910.
MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue. 2nd ed. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Joyful Wisdom. Trans. Thomas Common. New York: Fredrick Ungar Publishing Co. 1960.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Twilight of the Idols and The Anti Christ. Trans. R.J. Hollingdale. London: the Penguin Group, 1990
Sayers, Dorthy L. The Mind of the Maker. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1941.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. The Pelican Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Orgel. New York: the Penguin Group, 2000.
In Joyful Wisdom, Friedrich Nietzsche has a mad man running about town asking and proclaiming “Where is God? … I will tell you, we have killed Him, you and I! We are all His murderers! … God is dead! God will remain dead! And we have killed Him!” and says in more statement than question “Must not ourselves become Gods” (Nietzsche, JW 167-8). It is appropriate because not only does he kill God in his own life, but he is also driven mad by syphilis and signs his last letter “the Crucified One,” making his madman seem more prophetic of himself than of the society about which he wrote (Kreeft, Unbelief).
Although he does not become clinically mad till the later stage of his life, it is clear from a number of his writings that madness ran deep in his veins for many years (Hollingdale 25). Some might call it genius, while others just plain madness. The difference from madness and genius might only be a small step apart but still they are separate from one another and should not be confused. A genius is a person who is a master of a particular field and knows the spirit of the rules and the exceptions to the rules, while a mad person thinks the rules are the exceptions and he or she confuses fantasy with a reality.
There is a danger in living in a fantasy such as Nietzsche did. When I speak of fantasy, I do not mean imagination. Imagination by nature is something necessary for a healthy mind: it helps to produce something outside of a person’s self – like a poem or prayer. Where as fantasy turns the individual inward to the ego: it is a delusion and foolery to the self. Dorothy Sayers writes in Mind of the Maker that the “imagination works outward steadily increasing the gap between the visioned and the actual … Few writers of crime-stories become murders – if any do, it is not a result of identifying themselves with their murderous heroes” (Sayers 144), while fantasy to Sayers is the “blurring [of] the boundary between the visioned and the actual … so that the child who has fantasized himself a murderer ends by becoming a Loeb or a Leopole” (Sayers 143-4). Sayers argues that an individual cannot live in the imagination; however, the individual may spend a life time living a fantasy and not know it because their fantasy has become real and has to be played out to the last possible end: insanity. So, imagination is the product of the sane mind and to live always in a fantasy, as did Nietzsche, is the product of the insane mind.
How is it known that Nietzsche in fact was living in fantasy and not merely playing with his imagination? Simply put, when people are playing with their imagination, they know they are using it, and if they are not readily conscience of their using it then it becomes apparent after they have stopped imagining (day dreaming). With fantasy, it is the opposite. The person living in a fantasy does not know he or she is living a fantasy and usually does something drastic to prove that his or her fantasy is the state of the world. David Koresh did not merely imagine himself to be Christ come again; he really believed himself to be Christ in his fantasy. Tolkien did not think himself to be Frodo. As stated earlier, those who are mad think the rules are the exception, and Nietzsche thought himself to be the exception to reality.
Yet, Nietzsche did not have any choice but to play out his fantasy to its absolute end, so his end – regardless of health – would have resulted in the same: insanity. He removed God from his life then followed by the removal of friends and family, the only thing he had left was his mind, which he eventually lost also (Lichtenberger Chapter 1.). His call for radical individualism left him with nothingness and madness, which left him stuck at the crossroads, unable to go down any road for each road had already been traveled, and being, by default, unable to choose left his mind and will useless and frozen. “Madness may be defined as using mental activity so as to reach mental helplessness; and [Nietzsche had] nearly reached it” on his own: it was only his health that finished it for him (Chesterton 43).
Strengths, Weaknesses, and Dangers
Any person who casually reads Nietzsche might find him or herself being both repelled and drawn to his writings simultaneously. On the first level, the reader would be repelled because they know better and can see what Nietzsche is trying to say and may even experience a physiological repulsion at what Nietzsche is saying. On the other hand, the casual reader is drawn to Nietzsche for several reasons. First, he writes with a passion found in few writers since Augustine of Hippo and Pascal. All three writers display a bold honesty in their writings, which speaks not only to the reader’s mind but also to the reader’s heart. Each writer is able to capture the restlessness and wretchedness of the human person; however, Augustine and Pascal find rest and greatness for humanity in God, while Nietzsche is only able to capture the restlessness and wretchedness of the human soul and is unable to find it rest.
A second strength in Nietzsche’s writings is found in not what he says, but how he says it. In this area he is reminiscent of the sirens in Greek mythology from Homer’s Odyssey. The sirens sought to lore boats to crash upon the rocks using their song; like wise, Nietzsche lures his readers into his fantasy by a writing style consisting of strong lyrical prose bordering poetry. The best example of his writing style is found in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, where his character Zarathustra delivers powerful speeches in a poetical form to the public.
Nietzsche’s use of metaphors and images further strengthen his arguments. With the use of images and metaphors it allows, according to Dr. Peter Kreeft, the contemplative imagination to be used. The contemplative imagination is what Kreeft describes an “intuitive understanding;” it allows ideas and thoughts to enter into the mind and heart without being censored; this is one explanation of the power of music, art, and poetry (Kreeft Imagination). That is, the imagination gives meaning before reason.
Moreover, Alasdair MacIntyre argues that the Weberian, Marxist, and Nietzschen “vision of the world cannot be rationally sustained; it disguises and conceals rather than illuminates and it depends for its power on its success at disguise and concealment” (MacIntyre 109). Nietzsche’s writing style can be very dangerous because he hides his arguments well. When each of his strengths are combined it hides his arguments in a way that is not at first noticeable to the casual reader, and tied together with his other natural tendencies of deliberate contradiction and not adhering to any logical form, it can easily leave the reader confused and unsure about much of what Nietzsche says.
One example of many contradictions found in Twilight of the Idols is how Nietzsche addresses reason; he says, “’Reason’ is the cause of our falsification of the evidence of the sense” (Nietzsche TWI 46). Then in the following section he says that scientific-knowledge is to be trusted; however, scientific-knowledge is only trustable because it has been deduced and found reasonable and trustworthy by means of reason. If Nietzsche’s logic is to be followed, science itself is nothing more than the “falsification of the evidence of the sense[s]” and should not be trusted (Nietzsche TWI 46). Still his confusion speaks to the heart and mind and might produce a confused heart and confused mind in the reader, which would leave life nothing more than “sound and fury symbolizing nothing” (Shakespeare 92).
Nietzsche’s biggest weakness lies in his arguments, if what he writes can be called arguments. Leila Haaparanta writes, “Few arguments can be found in Fredrich Nietzsche’s philosophical work” (Haaparanta pg 490). He argues less and makes bold accusations and claims averaging what seems nearly every page. Sadly, it is not certain if Nietzsche’s claims are true or not from his texts, because he fails to support most of his claims with proof. For example, in The Anti-Christ he says, “Wherever the influence of the theologian extends value judgment is stood on its head, the concepts ‘true’ and ‘false’ are necessarily reversed” (Nietzsche AC. 132), while in Twilight of the Idols he claims that the present morality of humanity is not what it has always been. He claims that man was at a time amoral and better for being without morality. However, Nietzsche cannot support either of these claims. He cannot say that truth has been otherwise and that man has been anything other than moral. It is erroneous to speak of the morality of prehistoric society when there is no evidence of prehistoric morality. Sadly, Nietzsche’s arguments are based solely on assumptions, and any elementary logic student knows that an argument based solely on assumption and claims can hardly be called an argument, and the conclusion can only be called an assumption derived from assumptions.
In the end, Nietzsche is more rightly called a composer of claims and not an ethicist. The claims he makes are addressed at the society in which he lived and can reveal a good deal about protestant Germany, and his writings can easily be used more as social commentary than as ethics books and are more of a wakeup call for those who call themselves Christian.
Bibliography
Chesterton, Gilbert K. Orthodoxy. Garden City: Image Books, 1959.
Haaparanta, Leila. “A Note on Nietzsche’s Argument.” The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 153. (Oct., 1988), pp. 490-495
Hollingdale, R.J. Twilight of the Idols and The Anti Christ. By Friedrich Nietzsche. Trans. R.J. Hollingdale. London: the Penguin Group, 1990.
Kreeft, Peter. “The Imagination.” Keble College, Oxford. 1991
Kreeft, Peter. “Pillars of Unbelief – Nietzsche.” National Catholic Register. (Jan-Feb., 1988)
Lichtenberger, Henri. The Gospel of Superman: The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Trans. J.M Kennedy. Edinburgh: Morrison & Gibb Limited, 1910.
MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue. 2nd ed. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Joyful Wisdom. Trans. Thomas Common. New York: Fredrick Ungar Publishing Co. 1960.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Twilight of the Idols and The Anti Christ. Trans. R.J. Hollingdale. London: the Penguin Group, 1990
Sayers, Dorthy L. The Mind of the Maker. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1941.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. The Pelican Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Orgel. New York: the Penguin Group, 2000.
Parousians Recognized on Bill Cork's Built on a Rock
Bill Cork's Built on a Rock plugs Parousians
Bill Cork, the Director of Young Adult & Campus Ministry for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, welcomed the Parousians to the blogosphere last Wednesday. We apologize for the late notice, and encourage everyone to check out this incredibly thorough Catholic blog.
He writes:
"The Parousia has arrived ... er, no, the Parousians.
The Parousian Post--LSU students, including at least one who heard me give an impromptu talk about Cajun history at a Compass gathering in Lafayette. Welcome to the blogosphere, Toby and Co.!"
Bill Cork, the Director of Young Adult & Campus Ministry for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, welcomed the Parousians to the blogosphere last Wednesday. We apologize for the late notice, and encourage everyone to check out this incredibly thorough Catholic blog.
He writes:
"The Parousia has arrived ... er, no, the Parousians.
The Parousian Post--LSU students, including at least one who heard me give an impromptu talk about Cajun history at a Compass gathering in Lafayette. Welcome to the blogosphere, Toby and Co.!"
Friday, September 15, 2006
The Parousian Guard Announced
Resisting the temptation of having formal officeholders following a president or chairman model, we are proud to announce the Parousian Guard, our student leadership at LSU for 2006: chiefly Tobias Danna, Ryan Hallford, Emily Byers, Liz Johnson, Juliette Lapeyrouse, and Philip de Mahy. Father Bryce Sibley will continue to serve as our spiritual advisor. Please pray for our leaders as they continue to shine the light of Truth to the university.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
JPII's Intercession for Beth Reed
The Parousians are continuing to pray for Beth Reed, our 22 year old friend and pentecostal convert who has been suffering from tumors on her brain and near her spine which have caused her to lose her hearing and much of her motor skills. Her husband Joey called me last night with a glimmer of hope. Beth was not raised with a deep love for Pope John Paul II, and her motivations for converting were not centered on his writings or life of holiness. She respected him, but only for the very little she knew about him. On Monday night Beth had a dream where she and Joey were invited to sit at a banquet table next to the late Holy Father. She told him what was wrong and what she was scared of, and he promised to pray for her. This is the first time she has ever dreamt of him. Just a dream or a small consolation, we don't know. But Joey is asking that when we pray for Beth, that we offer our prayers through the intercession of John Paul the Great.
"Mary: Immaculate and Ever-Virgin" Class Tonight
"Mary: Immaculate and Ever-Virgin" will be presented by Father Chris Romaine at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Denham Springs tonight at 7pm. The class is a survey of Marian Doctrine and a vision of Mary’s place in the Mystery of the Church as depicted in the paintings of the great masters of art. We will meet at Christ the King and leave as soon as the evening mass lets out (6:30ish, but we will be gone by 6:35.) Look for Luke Ordogne, Caleb Bernacchio, and Toby Danna.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
New Column From Emily Byers Tackles Genocide in Darfur
Sudanese genocide is our problem - Opinion
Parousian Emily Byers continues to advocate the personalist ethic of defending the dignity of human life in the pages of the Daily Reveille, this time in regards to the crisis in Sudan.
Parousian Emily Byers continues to advocate the personalist ethic of defending the dignity of human life in the pages of the Daily Reveille, this time in regards to the crisis in Sudan.
Apologist/ Catholic Blogger Mark Shea Recognizes Parousians Again, and an Introduction to the Parousians for All Our New Visitors
Catholic and Enjoying It!
A day after Mark Shea picked up Parousian Emily Byers' strong pro-life apologetic, the popular Catholic cyberculture guru links to the Parousian homepage offering the following words:
"Check out the Parousians!
No, they are not from the planet Parousia.
No, they are not from the capital of France.
They are gung ho young Catholics and a sign of hope for our world."
We know people pay attention to Mark Shea, and we will try to live up to his confidence in us as a sign for hope. For the newcomers viewing our blog for the first time, we are a fledgling philosophical and literary society for Catholics geared to viewing the culture through the eyes of The Faith. In the next month, original pieces from several Parousians will be posted on the blog. We are unofficially present at LSU, trying to work out the details of becoming an academic club but maintaining our Catholic identity. We are currently attempting to launch other chapters at colleges in Louisiana, and hopefully at more universities down the road. Part of our vision is to distribute a smart magazine exploring the ideas we discuss at college campuses across the country. Feel free to contact us if you can help us (we are poor colege students with a big and worthy vision) or if we can help you (start a group, anything, just ask).
Many thanks to Mark Shea for plugging our little Parousians. Father Bryce Sibley's retired blog used to champion the efforts of the faithful at LSU. It is good to have another friend in the Catholic blogosphere.
Below is the text from our first post. If you want to get a feel for who we are, please read on:
"In January of 2006, eight LSU students began to discuss the ideas that really matter. All loyal Catholics with a desire to learn, we leaned on each other's background in disciplines across the liberal arts and sciences to seek a comprehensive worldview where the faith and the culture met head-on, hoping to know the times and what we ought to do. A sort of informal philosophical and literary circle emerged, much akin to the Inklings, except perhaps in the way of brilliance. May the reader judge with charity. Still, we persisted. The Parousians were born, and this blog will contain our ponderings and pontifications. Please forgive us for thinking out loud, but at least there are some in this wayward generation who still choose to think.
Why choose the Parousians as our moniker? The Parousia is the Greek word for arrival, and all of us are at least hoping to get there. In extended Christian circles, it refers to the second coming. While we are not expecting the apocalypse in our lifetime, we figure we best be ready for it anyway. God has His way of bringing down the proud, and it reminds us to be humble. Kings and kingdoms fall, and one day each of us will be judged. And "Lord, come quickly" should be every Christian's prayer. More specific to our circle, the Catholic sees the Parousia at the moment of consecration when the bread and wine become the Body and the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus arrives everyday in the flesh. It is this sacramental view of life that teaches us how to see our culture.
Our heroes include the Chesterbelloc and the Inklings; St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine and St. Therese; Walker Percy and Flannery O'Connor; Thomas Merton and Fulton Sheen; Dorothy Day and Russell Kirk; Cardinal Newman, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Alasdair MacIntyre, Wendell Barry, Eric Voegelin, Whit Stillman; Jim Stoner,LSU political theory and constitutional law professor, and Chris Baglow, theology professor at Holy Cross in New Orleans; the writers at Godspy; Father James Schall, Father Clifton Hill, Father Jason Labbe, and Father Bryce Sibley, as well as any other priest or religious who cares enough to write us or come hang out with us; Mother Teresa; Popes John XXIII, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI. Our heroes are more talented than us, and they have already made the world a better place. Please bear with us as we attempt to imitate them."
A day after Mark Shea picked up Parousian Emily Byers' strong pro-life apologetic, the popular Catholic cyberculture guru links to the Parousian homepage offering the following words:
"Check out the Parousians!
No, they are not from the planet Parousia.
No, they are not from the capital of France.
They are gung ho young Catholics and a sign of hope for our world."
We know people pay attention to Mark Shea, and we will try to live up to his confidence in us as a sign for hope. For the newcomers viewing our blog for the first time, we are a fledgling philosophical and literary society for Catholics geared to viewing the culture through the eyes of The Faith. In the next month, original pieces from several Parousians will be posted on the blog. We are unofficially present at LSU, trying to work out the details of becoming an academic club but maintaining our Catholic identity. We are currently attempting to launch other chapters at colleges in Louisiana, and hopefully at more universities down the road. Part of our vision is to distribute a smart magazine exploring the ideas we discuss at college campuses across the country. Feel free to contact us if you can help us (we are poor colege students with a big and worthy vision) or if we can help you (start a group, anything, just ask).
Many thanks to Mark Shea for plugging our little Parousians. Father Bryce Sibley's retired blog used to champion the efforts of the faithful at LSU. It is good to have another friend in the Catholic blogosphere.
Below is the text from our first post. If you want to get a feel for who we are, please read on:
"In January of 2006, eight LSU students began to discuss the ideas that really matter. All loyal Catholics with a desire to learn, we leaned on each other's background in disciplines across the liberal arts and sciences to seek a comprehensive worldview where the faith and the culture met head-on, hoping to know the times and what we ought to do. A sort of informal philosophical and literary circle emerged, much akin to the Inklings, except perhaps in the way of brilliance. May the reader judge with charity. Still, we persisted. The Parousians were born, and this blog will contain our ponderings and pontifications. Please forgive us for thinking out loud, but at least there are some in this wayward generation who still choose to think.
Why choose the Parousians as our moniker? The Parousia is the Greek word for arrival, and all of us are at least hoping to get there. In extended Christian circles, it refers to the second coming. While we are not expecting the apocalypse in our lifetime, we figure we best be ready for it anyway. God has His way of bringing down the proud, and it reminds us to be humble. Kings and kingdoms fall, and one day each of us will be judged. And "Lord, come quickly" should be every Christian's prayer. More specific to our circle, the Catholic sees the Parousia at the moment of consecration when the bread and wine become the Body and the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus arrives everyday in the flesh. It is this sacramental view of life that teaches us how to see our culture.
Our heroes include the Chesterbelloc and the Inklings; St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine and St. Therese; Walker Percy and Flannery O'Connor; Thomas Merton and Fulton Sheen; Dorothy Day and Russell Kirk; Cardinal Newman, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Alasdair MacIntyre, Wendell Barry, Eric Voegelin, Whit Stillman; Jim Stoner,LSU political theory and constitutional law professor, and Chris Baglow, theology professor at Holy Cross in New Orleans; the writers at Godspy; Father James Schall, Father Clifton Hill, Father Jason Labbe, and Father Bryce Sibley, as well as any other priest or religious who cares enough to write us or come hang out with us; Mother Teresa; Popes John XXIII, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI. Our heroes are more talented than us, and they have already made the world a better place. Please bear with us as we attempt to imitate them."
The Catholic Church in Tanzania Presented by LSU Swahili Professor
LSU Swahili professor Deo Tungaraza will speak with the Parousians this Sunday night about the similarities and differences in Catholic life in his native Tanzania and the United States, with thoughts on devotional practices and university life. The meeting will be at 8 pm at Ryan Hallford's house (4463 Tupello St). All are invited to attend.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Popular Catholic Blogger Links to Emily Byers' Pro-Life Column
Catholic and Enjoying It!
Mark Shea's blog is the first stop in cybersurfing for many Catholics, getting an average of 2711 hits a day. Shea links to Parousian Emily Byers' defense of the sanctity of human life with the title "Hope for the Future." Thanks to Mark Shea for supporting Emily. We encourage all our friends to frequent his blog.
Incidentally, a link to the Parousians blog was found on the comments beneath the link to Emily's column. For all who are new to The Parousian Post, thank you for visiting. Emily Byers' column will be posted on the website regularly, as will the responses in the letters page to her column. We hope to have more features in the coming weeks, but we are still very much a work in progress. Please keep us in your prayers.
Mark Shea's blog is the first stop in cybersurfing for many Catholics, getting an average of 2711 hits a day. Shea links to Parousian Emily Byers' defense of the sanctity of human life with the title "Hope for the Future." Thanks to Mark Shea for supporting Emily. We encourage all our friends to frequent his blog.
Incidentally, a link to the Parousians blog was found on the comments beneath the link to Emily's column. For all who are new to The Parousian Post, thank you for visiting. Emily Byers' column will be posted on the website regularly, as will the responses in the letters page to her column. We hope to have more features in the coming weeks, but we are still very much a work in progress. Please keep us in your prayers.
Update on Beth Reed
Beth has been moved to Shreveport where she will have surgery to remove one of her brain tumors next week. Her husband Joey tells me that since she has been bedridden and deaf, she has spent her quiet time praying for the people praying for her. Please continue to keep this 22 year old convert in your prayers.
Invitation from Angela Miceli
Political Science Instructor and Parousian Angela Miceli invites students to join the St. Paul Apologetics group at St. Agnes Catholic Church downtown. Meetings are on Saturdays from 11:30 am to 1 pm. The group moves through the catechism article by article weekly.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Thanks to Everybody Who Posted on Emily Byers' Column
Argument for Plan B has many flaws - Opinion
Thanks to everybody for rallying around our own Emily Byers' outstanding pro-life apologetic in the Reveille. If you have not read the column yet, or if you would like to join the chorus of praise for such a stellar effort, then follow the link above. Stay tuned for more Emily Byers on Wednesdays throughout the fall semester.
Thanks to everybody for rallying around our own Emily Byers' outstanding pro-life apologetic in the Reveille. If you have not read the column yet, or if you would like to join the chorus of praise for such a stellar effort, then follow the link above. Stay tuned for more Emily Byers on Wednesdays throughout the fall semester.
Tobias Danna's Response to Grace Juneau's Letter
Letters to the Editor - Opinion
Parousian Tobias Danna's response to Grace Juneau's attack on Emily Byers' column was published in Friday's Reveille. Danna's letter unedited for space appears below:
In her column "Argument for Plan B has many flaws," Emily Byers offered a logical case to reconsider Plan B distribution and abortion in general. Grace Juneau, an intelligent and successful college debater, challenged Ms. Byers' rhetoric in a fashion worthy of a final speech in an elimination round. As a former college debater for Southeastern Louisiana University, I appreciate Ms. Juneau's bravado - I often tried similar tactics when I knew I was losing an argument on my case's key points. Knowing that this is not a game of academic forensics, but a real life battle to persuade hearts and minds lest serious personal and social devastation occur (advocates on both sides of the issue predict this if the other side prevails), let me offer my evaluation of the merits of the two arguments.
Ms. Byers' argument that life begins at fertilization is simple text book biology. The zygote is the beginning stage of human life, and not the separated sperm and egg. Ms. Juneau offers a reductio ad absurdam argument that by Ms. Byers' argument, masturbation is also the destruction of human life because sperm are potential life. What she misses is that Ms. Byers is not addressing the merits of preserving potential life, but life that already exists - a living human being at the earliest stage of life. Sperm is not human life, as humans (including zygotes) have 46 chromosomes and sperm only have 23. Zygotes grow, take in nutrition, have cellular activity, and sperm do not. Some of the college co-eds Ms. Juneau refers to are surely not the most hygienic folks, but I am willing to bet none of them ever discovered a baby in a sock or rag after putting off cleaning for too long.
Likewise, zygotes have their own unique DNA which is other than that of the mother's, indicating a person other than the mother. The question then becomes does anyone have the right to do whatever she chooses with her child's body. Of course, this is intolerable. Laws concerning the liberty for any woman's uterus should have the same boundaries as the laws concerning Susan Smith's hands: do whatever you want with them, but society cannot allow you to kill other people for the sake of your convenience.
If this was a college debate round, Ms. Juneau would lose for several reasons. She does not clash with Ms. Byers' main points, but dances around them. She does not provide a solution for the main question Ms. Byers asked and answered, namely when does life begin. Finally, she opens herself up to a moral critique, as she dismisses the Nazi comparisons when Plan B proponents are using the same rationale of ignoring the dignity of human life that they found inconvenient. An experienced debater like Ms. Juneau knows when the facts aren't there, you still have to fight out the debate for your side relying on your sophistry.
But this issue is too important to both sides for it to be dictated by emotionally driven arguments rather than truth. The fundamental question, answered many times but dismissed by a society that finds the truth too hard, is still does life begin at fertilization, and if not, then when.
Respectfully,
Tobias Danna
Sr., Political Theory
Parousian Tobias Danna's response to Grace Juneau's attack on Emily Byers' column was published in Friday's Reveille. Danna's letter unedited for space appears below:
In her column "Argument for Plan B has many flaws," Emily Byers offered a logical case to reconsider Plan B distribution and abortion in general. Grace Juneau, an intelligent and successful college debater, challenged Ms. Byers' rhetoric in a fashion worthy of a final speech in an elimination round. As a former college debater for Southeastern Louisiana University, I appreciate Ms. Juneau's bravado - I often tried similar tactics when I knew I was losing an argument on my case's key points. Knowing that this is not a game of academic forensics, but a real life battle to persuade hearts and minds lest serious personal and social devastation occur (advocates on both sides of the issue predict this if the other side prevails), let me offer my evaluation of the merits of the two arguments.
Ms. Byers' argument that life begins at fertilization is simple text book biology. The zygote is the beginning stage of human life, and not the separated sperm and egg. Ms. Juneau offers a reductio ad absurdam argument that by Ms. Byers' argument, masturbation is also the destruction of human life because sperm are potential life. What she misses is that Ms. Byers is not addressing the merits of preserving potential life, but life that already exists - a living human being at the earliest stage of life. Sperm is not human life, as humans (including zygotes) have 46 chromosomes and sperm only have 23. Zygotes grow, take in nutrition, have cellular activity, and sperm do not. Some of the college co-eds Ms. Juneau refers to are surely not the most hygienic folks, but I am willing to bet none of them ever discovered a baby in a sock or rag after putting off cleaning for too long.
Likewise, zygotes have their own unique DNA which is other than that of the mother's, indicating a person other than the mother. The question then becomes does anyone have the right to do whatever she chooses with her child's body. Of course, this is intolerable. Laws concerning the liberty for any woman's uterus should have the same boundaries as the laws concerning Susan Smith's hands: do whatever you want with them, but society cannot allow you to kill other people for the sake of your convenience.
If this was a college debate round, Ms. Juneau would lose for several reasons. She does not clash with Ms. Byers' main points, but dances around them. She does not provide a solution for the main question Ms. Byers asked and answered, namely when does life begin. Finally, she opens herself up to a moral critique, as she dismisses the Nazi comparisons when Plan B proponents are using the same rationale of ignoring the dignity of human life that they found inconvenient. An experienced debater like Ms. Juneau knows when the facts aren't there, you still have to fight out the debate for your side relying on your sophistry.
But this issue is too important to both sides for it to be dictated by emotionally driven arguments rather than truth. The fundamental question, answered many times but dismissed by a society that finds the truth too hard, is still does life begin at fertilization, and if not, then when.
Respectfully,
Tobias Danna
Sr., Political Theory
Masturbation is Murder Misrepresentation
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - Opinion
LSU debater Grace Juneau "rebuts" Emily Byers' opposition to abortion in the Reveille. This is actually a common pro-abortion argument.
LSU debater Grace Juneau "rebuts" Emily Byers' opposition to abortion in the Reveille. This is actually a common pro-abortion argument.
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