archives

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

Pope Benedict XVI today defended his controversial predecessor, Pius XII, saying the wartime pope “spared no effort” to save Jews during the Holocaust. It marked the first time that Benedict has directly responded to charges that Pius XII remained aloof during the Nazi massacre.

Benedict said that many of the pope’s humanitarian initiatives were “made secretly and silently,” because “in that difficult historical moment, only in this way was it possible to avoid the worst and save the greatest number of Jews.”

The Peace Pulpit by Bishop Gumbleton	Sunday, September 14, 2008
Homily Archives

The passage we hear today from John’s Gospel is part of a conversation Jesus was having with one of the leading Pharisees, Nicodemus. Many of the Pharisees, you’ll remember, were opposed to Jesus, but Nicodemus came in the middle of the night because he had begun to be attracted to Jesus, so Jesus engages in this conversation.

At this point, Jesus says to Nicodemus: “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. And the Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert so that everyone who believes in him may have everlasting life in him. Yes, God so loved the world that God gave God’s only son so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost, but may have eternal life. For God sent the son into the world, not to condemn the world, but so that through him, the world might be saved.”

A Post for NCRcafe: Exit to Entrance
By Marie Schickel Rottschaefer
Vol. 2 No. 6 September 2008

WHAT IS A POST-AXIAL AGE FAITH? WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS?

A New Search

Belief must metamorphose into a credible hope for humanity in the twenty-first century. Because of the circular argument it embodies, the appeal to revelation will likely be supplanted. But as supernaturalism departs, this does not preclude a new search for life’s ultimate meaning, i.e. a new search for Ultimate Reality. I make a distinction between a search for the ultimate meaning of life and the supernaturalism of the axial age religions -- pagan gods and goddesses and the many indigenous religions of today and yesteryear with their beliefs in divine intervention in human affairs. The basis of ultimate meaning is a Supreme Being who is the source of our contingent being where contingent beings in the process of cultural evolution construct and modify their faith and moral beliefs. Arguments about the existence and nature of a Supreme Being have been in the conversation for eons. Advances in the relevant sciences, such as cosmology and astronomy, philosophy of religion (Confer, e. g., Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, J.L. Schellenberger, “The Wisdom to Doubt: A Justification of Religious Skepticism,” Cornell University Press, 2007), philosophy of science as well as technology will add significantly to this discussion.