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Deep Thoughts from the Doghouse

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January 2015

January 07, 2015

You Must Be Full of Demons

“You must be full of demons!" It was something like that, anyway. “I’m not going...

December 2014

December 18, 2014

Of Brute Facts and Uncle Andrew

Yesterday I quoted the maxim "from nothing, nothing comes"; it's actually a philosophical principle that...

December 02, 2014

The Sacraments: What Christ is Still Doing

At RCIA a couple of weeks ago, our pastor made the comment that the Sacraments...

November 2014

November 25, 2014

On Praying for What You Really Want

Should I ask God for what I want? Is it arrogant to ask the Lord...

November 10, 2014

Oprah Winfrey and Catherine of Siena On Setting the World Ablaze

Some while back a FaceBook friend posted two quotes together: Oprah Winfrey: Know what sparks...

November 07, 2014

More Thoughts on Schism

Yesterday I made the somewhat cryptic comment, "But if we set ourselves against the Pope...

November 06, 2014

Athanasius was a Bishop, You Know

There's pattern of give and take I've been seeing over and over again in the...

November 05, 2014

Faith and Revelation, Mindmapped

I'm one of the members of my parish's RCIA program, and last week I had...

October 2014

October 26, 2014

An Apology to Weathervanes

I've often heard one politician or another described as a political weathervane: no matter which...

October 22, 2014

Jim Morrison, #synod14, and Living Life on the Hedge

I remember hearing a radio documentary about Doors frontman Jim Morrison many years ago. One...

October 19, 2014

Why the Synod Doesn’t Worry Me #synod14

Things seem to be quieting down now after last week's bombshell of a relatio document,...

October 16, 2014

On Protecting the Church from Sinners

I was praying Evening Prayer yesterday evening (the Feast of St. Teresa of Avila) and...

October 14, 2014

Troubleshooting and the Synod on the Family

The Synod on the Family is currently going on in Rome; many things are being...

October 08, 2014

Think About These Things

It's rare that one of the Sunday mass readings really resonates with me, but today...

October 06, 2014

The Method in Aristotle’s Madness

Today I'm continuing last week's discussion of Aristotle in response to Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry's post "How...

September 2014

September 24, 2014

Should Luke Trust His Feelings?

I was watching Star Wars with my kids during our vacation last summer, and repeatedly...

September 11, 2014

Black Tuesday is on Thursday This Year

Thirteen years ago, terrorist zealots killed over 3,000 people on U.S. soil. Today, their spiritual...

September 10, 2014

Nom Nom Nominalism

Every once in a while, on more philosophically inclined blogs, I read about the evils...

August 2014

August 31, 2014

When Prayer becomes Mortification

I first started praying the Liturgy of the Hours in the mid-winter of 2008, a...

August 12, 2014

Praying for the Islamic State

One of my friends at Patheos, Rebecca Hamilton, recently wrote a post about the monstrous...

August 10, 2014

What’s a Meme? Let me count the ways….

In last Tuesday's post I referred to an image with superimposed text as a "meme",...

August 06, 2014

In Mosul, Crown Him with Many Thorns

There's a fine old hymn I learned in college: Crown him with many crowns, the...

July 2014

July 23, 2014

Active Contemplation—Wait, What?

I've sometimes thought that Dominican contemplation is very active contemplation, because Dominicans are active contemplatives....

July 07, 2014

Why Marriage is Controversial

I first posted this on my old blog, a couple of years ago. I'm reviving...

July 02, 2014

I’d Fall On My Face and Worship

The other day I saw a blog post (I don't remember where) in which a...

June 2014

June 25, 2014

Sacrificing Your Idols

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote a while back about the role of sacrifice in the worship of...

June 18, 2014

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats—Or Does It?

Recently the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has been calling for an increase in the...

May 2014

May 28, 2014

The Long and the Short of Infinite Regressions

One of my favorite philosophy bloggers is James Chastek at Just Thomism. I find his...

May 14, 2014

Saints on Both Sides of the Stupid

Every so often I remind myself that in St. Catherine of Siena's day there were...

April 2014

April 17, 2014

The Peril of First Principles

It was in college that I first learned the peril of reasoning from first principles....