Search results

Editorial FAITH Magazine November-December 2009'The Christian picture of the world is this, that the world in its details is the product of a long process of evolution but that at the most profound level it comes from the Logos. Thus it carries rationality within itself." (Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Ratzinger, God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald. Ignatius 2002 p. 139)

If we could eavesdrop on Jesus' conversation with Moses and Elijah on Mount Tabor what would we hear? Luke uses a very specific Greek word 'exodus' to refer to their topic of conversation. This word is a highly loaded word, referring to the liberation of the people of Israel from Egypt. At their feast of the Passover, the Jewish people 'remember' this event in a way which is not simply a recalling of the event to memory. Rather its is a...

In this Year of Faith we are summoned to re-evangelise the People of God, starting with ourselves, as a prelude to evangelising the world once again. To "evangelise" means to announce good news. Jesus Christ is The Good News of God for mankind whom the angels proclaimed to poor shepherds at the first Christmas. So to evangelise means to announce Jesus Christ to the world.In our words and in our living witness we must proclaim him as...

The Christian revolution that made our world Dominion: The making of the Western Mind by Tom Holland, Little, Brown, 594pp, £25.00reviewed by Richard Whinder This is an important book: a work by a bestselling author which attempts an objective overview of the history of Christianity and its influence on the Western world. It represents a considerable achievement, and it deserves to be read. Almost everyone will find something new in these pages, while committed Christians will find their fait...

The Scandal Of The Cross“To the Jews a scandal, to the Greeks foolishness, but to those called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (I Cor. 1:23f.) So St. Paul described the reactions of hearers to his preaching of Christ crucified. Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ” has called forth the same reactions in our day. Many who had not even seen the film...

The theology of John Duns Scotus places Christ at the centre of a universe ordered by love. Christ is presented as the basis of all nature, grace and glory – the most perfect model of humanity. He is at the beginning, the centre and the end of the universe.In this writer’s opinion Scotus has been greatly misjudged and misunderstood. The learned Jesuit, Father Bernard Jansen, once wrote that “rarely has the real figure of an...

Edward Holloway FAITH Magazine November-December 2009The joy, the inspired enthusiasm, with which the first Christians proclaimed the Incarnation of Christ and the tidings of great joy that it held for all the peoples is known to us as a matter of history, but it has become a fact of past history rather than modern history. Today, when Christian civilisation hangs in tatters, when the Catholic Faith of the nations has been rent with heresies...

Since we have become very familiar with attributing the title 'Priest' to Christ, it may come as a surprise to find that Christ is never explicitly called a priest in any of the books of the New Testament except the Letter to the Hebrews. In the Gospels the term 'priest' always refers to the Old Testament institution of priesthood.[1] The title High Priest is always in a context of opposition to Jesus.[2] In the letters and Revelation...

George Cardinal Pell FAITH Magazine September-October 2010Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, responds to two questions we posed. He explains how the primacy of Christ is a crucial part of the Church's response to today's challenges and traces its implications for seminary formation.The primacy of Christ in creation was crucial to the aims of John XXIII and the Council fathers. One passage in particular of Gaudium et Spes...

Editorial FAITH Magazine January-February 2008Honouring the Letter and the Transcendence of GodLast October, on the first anniversary of their robust reply to the Pope’s Regensburg lecture, Islamic leaders issued another “Open letter”. As an attempt to reach out to the Pope and other Christian leaders in order to find common ground, made on behalf of all the main Islamic schools, this latest open letter is unique in the...