Obsequium religiosum

How magisterial authority works

Today in class many of you had questions about degrees of magisterial authority, and what Church Council are all about.  This is not the topic of our current course, but in a way these questions could arise in every course, so we should try to work through them. We can get a good start in […]

One and Triune God

The Council of Florence

With this class we shoot forward about a thousand years in our story, from Nicaea to Florence. There is no way to sum up a thousand years of history, but this 20-minute lecture will give you essential background for reading the text of this ill-fated ecumenical event. The central topic is, of course, the filioque.  The […]

One and Triune God

The Council of Nicaea

Now that we have spent a while with the Gospel of John, we are ready to turn to the Church’s magisterial meditation on God’s revelation. We begin Arius, an Alexandrian priest who thought it impious to say that the Son of God is co-eternal with the Father. Our reading includes two small texts from Arius […]

Theology and faith

The universal call to theology

Today a friend asked me about the distinction between philosophy and theology. In the course of responding, I said what I have said before, namely that theology is what happens when faith gets to follow its own impulses. He then asked me, reasonably enough, whether it is not important to distinguish between faith and theology. […]