Notre Dame Des Victoires

As I compose these words, I am preparing to leave for Rome, where I will attend the canonization Mass for John Henry Newman, and then for Oxford, where I will give a paper on Newman’s thought in regard to evangelization. Needless to say, the great English convert is much on my mind these days. As I read the myriad commentaries on the new saint, I’m particularly struck by how often he is co-opted by the various political parties active in the Church today—and how this co-opting both distorts Newman and actually makes him less interesting and relevant for our time. I should like to show this by drawing attention to two major themes in Newman’s writing—namely, the development of doctrine and the primacy of conscience. St. John Henry Newman did indeed teach that doctrines, precisely because they exist in the play of lively minds, develop over time. And he did…

Mientras redacto estas palabras, me preparo para partir a Roma, donde asistiré a la Misa de canonización de Juan Enrique Newman, y luego a Oxford, donde daré una conferencia sobre el pensamiento de Newman con respecto a la evangelización. No hace falta decir que el gran converso inglés está muy presente en mi mente en estos días. Al leer los innumerables comentarios sobre el nuevo santo, me sorprende especialmente la frecuencia con que es captado por los diversos partidos políticos activos en la Iglesia de hoy, y cómo esta captación distorsiona a Newman y en realidad lo hace menos interesante y relevante para nuestro tiempo. Me gustaría demostrarlo llamando la atención sobre dos temas principales en el escrito de Newman, a saber, el desarrollo de la doctrina y la primacía de la conciencia. San Juan Enrique Newman enseñó que las doctrinas, precisamente porque existen en el juego de las mentes…

I just finished my second dive into the Reddit AMA world. One of the most popular websites in the world, Reddit is a forum for all sorts of online conversations and presentations. The AMA (for Ask Me Anything) is a twenty-first century version of the medieval quodlibetal questions, during which a game theology professor would entertain any inquiry that came from the floor. Now, things are a bit cruder and more rough and ready on Reddit than they were in the universities of the Middle Ages, but you get the idea. When I engaged in the exercise last year, I received almost 12,000 questions and comments, making mine the third most commented-on AMA after those of Bill Gates and Jordan Peterson. This time, I’ve received over 15,000 comments and counting, making mine the second most commented-on AMA of the past year, just after Bill Gates and ahead of…