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Catholic

2025-05-21T09:44:59-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Have you heard of Greta Thunberg?

Last updated on: May 21, 2025 at 9:44 am By Jack Hartjes

I was chatting with an old acquaintance up in St. Cloud. She’s from England and would like to go back for a visit but was wishing there could be a way of going there other than by plane. I responded, “I’m so excited about Greta Thunberg!” She said, “You’re the first person I’ve talked to who knew who Greta Thunberg is.” I’ve written about Greta Thunberg before, here. She is probably the world’s most reported-on climate activist at the moment.... Read more

Ecology

Uncategorized

2022-06-20T07:12:53-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Conversion of an Angel: Some Corporations Show it can be Done

Last updated on: June 20, 2022 at 7:12 am By Jack Hartjes

Writing about corporations is a strange way to honor labor – unless it’s about a hope that corporations may turn to the good side. Walter Wink’s interpretation of angels justifies connecting such religious terms as angels and conversion with economic institutions. You can find my presentation and minor criticism of Wink’s view of angels in a series of posts here, here, here, and here. In several books[i] about the New Testament’s “powers” language, Wink assures us there really are such... Read more

Economics

Uncategorized

2019-08-30T09:04:41-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Amazon Fires, the Churches, and the Coming Amazon Synod

Last updated on: August 30, 2019 at 9:04 am By Jack Hartjes

Religion News Service published an article on the different ways churches are responding to the fires in the Amazon rainforest. Beyond the simply ecumenical and purely political issues, it prompts some thinking about the relation between Church and state. That’s a theme I explored in a series on the regime of dictator Augusto Pinochet and the response of the Catholic Church. Chile’s bishops ultimately abandoned the mode of exhorting and enunciating general principles and pursued actions that included networks of... Read more

Ecology

2019-09-06T17:00:32-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

RCIA and the Promise and Perilous Challenge of Baptism

Last updated on: September 6, 2019 at 5:00 pm By Jack Hartjes

Celebrations of Grace: The Sacraments of the Catholic Church, Part 12 A lengthy babysitting assignment has this grandparent’s mind on things far away from my next intended topic, RCIA, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. (So writing is going slower than usual.) And yet there’s a connection. Babysitting and parenting are all about facing the future with welcoming and, to be honest, trembling arms. So is Baptism. Baptism changes the Church just as a baby born changes a family.... Read more

Liturgy

Sacraments

2019-08-19T21:56:34-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Jeremiah for a Homilist – If Only!

Last updated on: August 19, 2019 at 9:56 pm By Jack Hartjes

“Jeremiah ought to be put to death,” the princes said to the king. The priest-homilist at the church I visited yesterday explained why. Jeremiah was preaching defeatism instead of practical military strategy: Don’t align yourself with Egypt in hopes of salvation from the Babylonians. You can surrender and still be God’s people. This priest also helped us deal with a really hard passage in Scripture, yesterday’s Gospel. Jesus has come to bring, not peace, but fire: A household of five... Read more

Uncategorized

2025-02-19T12:05:48-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, Atomic Bomb, and a Strange Connection

Last updated on: February 19, 2025 at 12:05 pm By Jack Hartjes

Today is the feast day of St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, priest, missionary, founder of monasteries, publisher, amateur radio broadcaster, prisoner, and martyr. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 10, 1982, and declared a martyr of charity. He is the patron saint of drug addicts, political prisoners, families, journalists, and the pro-life movement. Pope John Paul declared him “the patron saint of our difficult century.” He died at Auschwitz on this day in 1941. Born January 8,... Read more

History and Religion

Uncategorized

2019-09-06T16:59:40-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Baptism Guarantees that the Church will Always Change

Last updated on: September 6, 2019 at 4:59 pm By Jack Hartjes

Celebrations of Grace: The Sacraments of the Catholic Church, Part 11 Baptism takes away Original Sin. It confers sanctifying grace. It conforms a person to Christ and makes one a member of the Church. Baptism seems to be a great sacrament for an individual person. I believe it, but there’s something missing that is equal or maybe even ahead of that in importance. Baptism is a great blessing for the Church. Crossing the threshold Baptism is a liminal sacrament. It’s... Read more

Sacraments

2019-08-09T21:37:27-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Lamentation, Repentance, and Amendment

Last updated on: August 9, 2019 at 9:37 pm By Jack Hartjes

One of the things the Church should be able to teach the secular world is how to lament one’s sins. The Church believes in both sin and lamentation. This is actually the perfect time, when the Church’s sins are so great, for the Church to demonstrate that lesson. But now I’m thinking about two anniversaries we observe this week: the first and second (and only so far) uses of atomic weapons as an act of war. America desperately needs to... Read more

Uncategorized

2019-08-10T20:35:59-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Story of a Journey of Much More than Souls

Last updated on: August 10, 2019 at 8:35 pm By Jack Hartjes

On Souls, Reincarnation, and Journey of Souls, Part 3 Christianity tells the story of a journey. So does Michael Newton in books like Journey of Souls, where he presents what he learns about souls from clients under hypnosis. The Christian story is a good one. I’ll explain in Part One what I mean by that and how the Journey of Souls story doesn’t measure up. The Christian journey is through Earth’s time and space. This is a setting with its... Read more

Reincarnation

Souls

2023-04-15T06:32:33-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Real Presence, or When is Jesus’ Presence Ever Not Real?

Last updated on: April 15, 2023 at 6:32 am By Jack Hartjes

Celebrations of Grace: The Sacraments of the Catholic Church, Part 10 I was walking through the vestibule of a local Lutheran church and peering into the sanctuary. (The word “sanctuary” means interestingly different things for Lutherans and Catholics; but see below for that.) As I was saying, I was walking, along with the church’s pastor, and peering, and I noticed a lighted sanctuary lamp. In Catholic churches that lamp signals the real presence of Christ in the tabernacle. I wondered... Read more

Eucharist

Liturgy

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