tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2502249719401400438.post8467314656646794670..comments2023-05-02T03:58:09.879-06:00Comments on Metaphysical Catholic: Fideism: Blind Faith as HeresyMetaphysical Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09004142095206002993noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2502249719401400438.post-61546282805387966302015-03-24T13:26:17.088-06:002015-03-24T13:26:17.088-06:00I have no view of semantic implications. People i...I have no view of semantic implications. People imbue words with meaning for many reasons - culture, experience, education. I often define words as I use them in writing so people know what <b>I mean</b> when I use the word. I do that for clarity, not to tell anyone what to think or how to define words. Metaphysical Catholichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09004142095206002993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2502249719401400438.post-28944141920873535782015-03-24T10:42:41.385-06:002015-03-24T10:42:41.385-06:00I stumbled (or was guided) into the following pass...I stumbled (or was guided) into the following passage in St John Cardinal Newman's Essay...on Grammar of Assent this morning:<br />Our great internal teacher of religion is, as I have said in an earlier part of this Essay, our Conscience [Note 1]. Conscience is a personal guide, and I use it because I must use myself; I am as little able to think by {390} any mind but my own as to breathe with another's lungs. Conscience is nearer to me than any other means of knowledge. And as it is given to me, so also is it given to others; and being carried about by every individual in his own breast, and requiring nothing besides itself, it is thus adapted for the communication to each separately of that knowledge which is most momentous to him individually,—adapted for the use of all classes and conditions of men, for high and low, young and old, men and women, independently of books, of educated reasoning, of physical knowledge, or of philosophy. Conscience, too, teaches us, not only that God is, but what He is; it provides for the mind a real image of Him, as a medium of worship; it gives us a rule of right and wrong, as being His rule, and a code of moral duties. Moreover, it is so constituted that, if obeyed, it becomes clearer in its injunctions, and wider in their range, and corrects and completes the accidental feebleness of its initial teachings. Conscience, then, considered as our guide, is fully furnished for its office. I say all this without entering into the question how far external assistances are in all cases necessary to the action of the mind, because in fact man does not live in isolation, but is everywhere found as a member of society; I am not concerned here with abstract questions.<br />Although St John didn't comment here on on an essential issue, his words led me to wondering about the your view of the semantic implications of Spiritual vs mystic vs psychic, For my part I greatly prefer to use the term Spirtual because I associate it with the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, and the Comforter.<br />Similarly, I prefer the term Contemplation (and Adoration) to meditation or even Prayer, because I thinks it implies communion with the Divine Trinity, beyond the Praise, Thanks, and Supplication of Prayer.<br />Eschator83Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2502249719401400438.post-53533203649998139052015-03-23T08:08:58.773-06:002015-03-23T08:08:58.773-06:00Many thanks for calling this Decree to my attentio...Many thanks for calling this Decree to my attention. It sounds far more like Pope Benedict's writing than John Paul II, doesn't it? It concerns me greatly that so much contemporary philosophy is atheistic, and taught by atheists or agnostics. Although I think priests do need to understand philosophy better so they can counsel people who are troubled by it, it seems to me more important for Church scholars to publish both effective refutation and also more clear and consistent statements of Church views.<br />I try hard to believe all Catholic publications, but some seem inconsistent.<br />Eschator83Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com