Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Salutaries and Notables

* Today is the memorial of Cyril of Alexandria, who arguably is second only to the Apostle Paul as the most influential theologian in Christian history. I have a post linking to resources here. From one of his letters to Nestorius:
Confessing the Word to be made one with the flesh according to substance, we adore one Son and Lord Jesus Christ: we do not divide the God from the man, nor separate him into parts, as though the two natures were mutually united in him only through a sharing of dignity and authority (for that is a novelty and nothing else), neither do we give separately to the Word of God the name Christ and the same name separately to a different one born of a woman; but we know only one Christ, the Word from God the Father with his own Flesh. For as man he was anointed with us, although it is he himself who gives the Spirit to those who are worthy and not in measure, according to the saying of the blessed Evangelist John.


* Tomorrow is the memorial of another Doctor of the Church, Irenaeus of Lyons. From his Demonstration:
This then is the order of the rule of our faith, and the foundation of the building, and the stability of our conversation: God, the Father, not made, not material, invisible; one God, the creator of all things: this is the first point of our faith. The second point is: The Word of God, Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, who was manifested to the prophets according to the form of their prophesying and according to the method of the dispensation of the Father: through whom all things were made; who also at the end of the times, to complete and gather up all things, was made man among men, visible and tangible, in order to abolish death and show forth life and produce a community of union between God and man. And the third point is: The Holy Spirit, through whom the prophets prophesied, and the fathers learned the things of God, and the righteous were led forth into the way of righteousness; and who in the end of the times was poured out in a new way a upon mankind in all the earth, renewing man unto God.


* I missed it, but the 25th was the 476th anniversary of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. The Augsburg Confession, of course, is an important Lutheran document.

* Fr. John Tucker has an excellent homily on being judgmental at "Dappled Things".

* Alejandro continues discussion of a paper by Pruss on naturalistic vs. theistic explanations at "Reality Conditions".

* The Carnival of Bad History is up at "Frog in a Well", with some excellent posts.

* Elie Wiesel reviews FEAR: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz. (HT: Cliopatria)

* ADDED: Janet Stemwedel has an interesting post called Reason, tradition, and scripture...in science?. The position taken reminds me of Duhem's Pascalian view of science.