Since I am often asked for the written notes of my Emmaus Road Initiative talks, I have decided to post outtakes from my notes as occasional blog entries. When I do this, I will include a link to the free downloadable version of the talk and to the web-page where CDs of the talk can be ordered.
Below are three very brief outtakes from each of the the three Fall sessions of the Emmaus Road Initiative. As we master the relevant technologies, we may be posting short audio and video clips as well. If you are interested in our work, you can "subscribe" to the weblog and be notified when a new item is posted by clicking here.
This is from the September session of the Emmaus Road Initiative, on CD #1 in the series, entitled: "The Present Time."
The confusions which the “Rights Discourse” fosters are not exclusively cultural, moral and political. There are subtle but significant personal and spiritual dangers as well. Plato’s said that: “The regime in the city shapes the regime in the soul.” So it does.
Where the rhetoric of rights is the touchstone of social affairs and the cornerstone of jurisprudence, "each thing meets in mere oppugnancy." [Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida] Such a culture is spiritually toxic, especially for those trying to live a Christian life, for a social order based on constantly competing rights tends to foster an adversarial and defensive form of personal autonomy, corrosive of a shared sense of meaning and purpose, and in sharp contrast to the Christian vocation to participate in the Trinitarian Life of Self-Donation and the sacramental life of the ecclesial communion that is its earthly analogue.
- - - - - - - -
This excerpt is from the October session of the Emmaus Road Initiative, on CD #2 in the series, entitled: "Creation and Fall: Why Are We Here?"
Speaking of John Paul II’s decision to put emphasis on marriage and family, Monsignor Livio Melina of the Lateran University said:
"He understood that to overcome this crisis, it's not enough to repeat some moral norms. What was needed also and above all, was to deepen a theological anthropology, the foundation of Christian life."
The Emmaus Road Initiative is concerned with theological anthropology. In the interest of developing such an anthropology, we begin by asking about "hominization," the emergence of humanity. The question is: "When and how did humanity emerge?
The strangest and most obvious fact about the emergence of humans is this: "The first human who ever lived did not have human parents."
- - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
This is from the November session of the Emmaus Road Initiative, on CD #3 in the series, entitled: "What is Happening in History? -- History and Hope"
As the Australian theologian Tracy Rowland notes: “The possibilities for participation in the life of the Trinity can be either thwarted or enhanced by cultures which are more or less impervious or receptive to grace and the cultivation of virtue.” So, as I have said in previous sessions, culture matters. For not only the willingness to consider the Christian proposal but the ability to experience Christian truth is profoundly determined by cultural influences, most of which today predispose those exposed to them to a superficial and unappealing view of Christianity and blind them to its incomparable role in ennobling our lives and shaping our civilization.
Passing on Christian faith and thereby preserving what is best in our civilization is a moral responsibility. Like all moral responsibilities, it can be expected to meet resistance. But as Dante said in the Divine Comedy:
" . . . if, half friend of truth, I mute my rhymes,
I am afraid I shall not live for those
who will think of these days as 'the ancient times.'"
How many today share Dante’s concern for those who to come after us?
To order a CD of the November ERI session,
click HERE.
- - - - - - - -
To make a tax-deductible donation to our work,
click HERE.
Thank you for helping to make our work possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment