My first post for this blog will essentially be an email i drafted to my friends, hoping to elicit some response. Here it is in its entirety.
after spending an hour engaging in conversation with a former-catholic buddhist and a former-jehova’s-witness secular-humanist at *$’s this morning, i decided that i need to write some books. here’s what i’ve come up with so far. let me know if you’d like anything written, or if you’d like to write one, so i can take it off my plate. which one should i write first???
Book Ideas
(1) The public square (and social grace) – the case for christianity to either be engaged in the public square or resign itself to cultural and religious insignificance. This is not simply a Re-hash of R.J. Newhouse’s work, though influenced by it – basing itself in the mandate of the Gospel as well as the impetus for cultural dialogue and evanglization as taught by the second vatican council.
(2) Religion is Good for the Human Person – the case for religious formation for all human persons – b/c it forms their worldview with an ethical sense of right / wrong, even if they do not believe. The case why such formation is even _better_ for those who believe. i.e. why i am a ‘better’ person b/c i have a religion
(3) Fides et ratio – part deux. The case for the continual intellectual pursuits of persons of faith – how it is essential that persons of faith use their intellect to “think through” their faith – so that their entire person – not just their spirit and their ’soul’ – but also their intellect is ‘conformed to the mind of christ’ – or – as st paul says ‘ the renewal of our minds’. A discussion of post-enlightenment religious reactionism is also part of the discussion, which fuels many anti-intellectual threads in post-enlightenment christianity, namely in protestant (and pseudo-protestant) strands as well as in the socially-driven catholic sphere.
(4) The Human Person – spirit, soul, body. Why we are a ‘quid unum’ of spirit, soul, body. Why the work of redemption is not just a matter of ’saving souls,’ but also the transformation of the body and mind and culture. – this plays out both in ‘heaven’ and in the final judgment, where every human person will not only be resurrected from the dead, but also receive the ‘resurrection of the body’ – before the final judgment. — all consequences of the Incarnation of the Divine Word, with homages to Plato, Aristotle, and Thomas Aquinas.
(5) The Incarnation, the Paschal Mystery, and the Sacraments – Why the single-most-important event that has occurred in human history is the incarnation, which laid the groundwork for the redemption brought about by the Paschal Mystery, and why the sacraments are the living re-presentations of the Paschal Mystery and the ‘living christ’ who comes to us during the celebration of His Mysteries, which we call the sacraments.
(6) The New Evangelization – the case for a renewed sense of evangelization of all peoples, particularly the peoples of europe, but localized in their eldest-daughter-colony, the United States. Emphasizing that the work of the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is far from over, indeed, a new impetus is required to re-christianize a culture that has forgotten its origins, not to mention its ultimate destiny.
(7) Mary and Peter – the Church as both inspired and hierarchical – as both disciple and apostle – as both prophet and teacher. Based heavily on the works of Hans Urs von Balthazar, this is a rendering of ecclesiology that allows one to see that their is indeed room for – and is required – both ‘new movements’ and ‘new expresions of the spirit’ as well as the triple-muneric-gift of the church. The interaction between religious orders, congregations, consecrated movements and those who have been gifted with the sacrament of Holy Orders.
