Category Archives: Pantheism

The Church has won whole nations and cultures by reason and faith united in the Logos, Jesus Christ

The Amazon Synod has displayed a bewildering array of images representative of various values and aspects of indigenous cultures. Some images, such as a woman suckling her own baby as well a fawn, evoke a sense of eco-religion that has many Christians confused about the kind of dialogue the Church is seeking with the world right now.

Yet its worth stepping back from the particulars of these controversies to consider that the Catholic Church has a stronger view of creation than either the native spiritualism of eco-religion or the skeptical materialism which our contemporaries toggle between today.

I want to suggest that the rising secular fascination with eco-religion is, in fact, an unexpected byproduct of a scientific materialism that mistakenly excludes belief in God. The scientific method is brilliant at arriving at an understanding of material things under set conditions, but it is often reductive. The method itself cannot exclude God, but many scientists, or those who claim to be scientific, are quite insistent, with Pierre-Simon LaPlace, that they have no need of that hypothesis called God. And perhaps, in a very limited sense, this is true. They come to a certain understanding of the material world without ever considering metaphysical causation, or God. But as they look for larger explanations for how all the material parts fit together, the way they see how all the parts fit together will eventually sound religious.

Thus it is not uncommon for a person today to sit with two contradictory views: on the one hand they will regard the natural world to be of infinite value. For some, the fawn will be even more valuable than a human child suckling at her mothers breast; and yet at the same time they will also believe the created world is the result of haphazard chance without any intelligent directive agent which we could call God. This contradiction is almost unbearable for the animal who is religious by nature. And so the philosophical materialist and the religious naturalist will, in a certain respect, eventually, call out to each other in a secular world.

The ancient pre-socratic materialists theorized that all the different kinds of things that make up the world were reducible to one elemental thing such as the element of fire, water, or air. This turns out to be something similar to thinking the world is reducible to atomic particles and chemical elements. The trouble is that this just doesnt explain what things are and it doesnt really tell us why the world exists at all. Some late pre-socratics thus considered that Divine Intelligence resided in the particles of the material universe, a view well on its way towards pantheism. Give materialism a long enough run and it will become bad religion.

Yet it was a happy accident of history that the pre-socratic materialists finally gave way to the likes of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. These thinkers made a cosmic metaphysical leap in thinking about causality. They no longer searched for some elemental cause in the material universe, but desired to know the transcendent uncaused cause of all things, which they sometimes called Supreme Being, or the Summum Bonum or the Final End. Their philosophical innovation was to see that the material world had a cause outside of itself which must be intelligent. They arrived at a better answer to the the pre-socratic question. The pre-socratics had asked how the things of the world could be reducible to one thing. But its impossible to look at cabbage, squirrel monkeys, gray whales, sand, orchids and claim that all of these are reducible to the same thing. The better answer is that all of these things have unique natures which are not really reducible at all except in one way they all exist as the things that they are. The great advance was to see that the common thing wasnt something material or elemental, but that what all of these things shared was existence. Its from this insight that they reasoned that since all things share existence in common, then their supreme cause must be existence itself. In this way these great philosophers arrived at the classical metaphysical distinction that while the nature of all things have a share in existence, Gods nature is existence itself. Its with that more metaphysically serious foundation that the Church was able to dialogue much more fruitfully because reason was not pressing at full tilt towards bad religion but was, in fact, walking toward the one true God.

Today we find ourselves in the midst of a great focus of energy on nature which lacks a coherent account of what the created world is, and lacks any real understanding of the transcendent provident uncaused cause of all that exists. Environmentalism is thus driven by alternating poles of hope and fear of man and natures fierce powers. On the materialist side, everything that exists has arisen out of chance, error, conflict, force, and energy, and is susceptible not to Gods commands, but only to ours. Nature here is something which we must command lest nature command us. The flipside is that nature is more like a demi-god which threatens destruction, and must be pacified with idols and sacrifices just as the ancient Bablyonian creation myths imagined.

To the gnostic hiding beneath the materialist, there is the world that we see which is chaotic and the cause of all evil and suffering, and a world which we do not see which is pure and good, free from all decay and suffering, pristine. The gnostic seeks to take back the world of light and leave behind the dark matter polluting it, and this can be seen in much that goes by the name of eco-religion.

So the Catholic Church has the challenge of engaging not just indigenous cultures, but a secular view of creation which is contrary to her own. A dialogue with eco-religion under the cover of indigenous culture taps deeply into the way the materialist yearns for religious naturalism. Yet I fear that some Synod Fathers do not know how to make this dialogue fruitful without falling into the very confusions about creation that dominate our secular world. The Church has always won whole nations and cultures not by correlating values, but by reason and faith united, proclaiming the unknown God as the Logos revealed in Jesus Christ upon which the whole body of the world depends. This must be the heart of the missionary impulse which rightly takes up a dialogue with culture for the salvation of souls.

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Catholicism has a stronger view of creation than both eco-religion and materialism - Catholic Herald Online

The Amazon Synod has been full of scandal. It started when the opening ceremony in the Vatican garden was full of earth worship and what appeared to be idol worship happening right in front of the pope with his blessing. One doesn't have to be an art major to recognize ancient fertility goddesses.

The ensuing outrage that occurred among traditional Catholics went unanswered by Rome. In the face of this silence, unidentified Catholics took matters into their own hands and walked into the church next to St. Peter's where the images were displayed and removed them and threw them into the Tiber.

This is exactly what the prelates who refused to explain themselves to the faithful deserved. The responses given to questions about the idols were completely incoherent. Life Site News reported,

In response to a question from LifeSite at Fridays synod press briefing, Paolo Ruffini, president of the Amazon synods information commission, reiterated that he believed the unclothed pregnant female statue, which indigenous people also carried in procession into St. Peters Basilica and has appeared frequently during the synod, represents a symbol of fertility and life.

Pachamama, or Mother Earth is a pagan idol. Period. There is no argument otherwise. It is the same fertility goddess to which ancient cultures sacrificed children. This is not a depiction of Mary the mother of Christ, as some have claimed. And if it were supposed to be, it would still be a scandalous depiction, violating the Church's standard of modesty and stripping Mary of her dignity by removing her clothes. Depicting Mary as a different race is common and acceptable. Depicting her as a naked fertility goddess is not. But even the bishops don't claim it is the Virgin Mary.

Bishop David Martnez de Aguirre Guinea of Peru tried to explain it, badly.

I got A's in Art History. This thing is a pagan fertility goddess. Prostrating before carved images of fertility goddesses is not Catholic. Catholic images depict real people who lived holy lives to remind the faithful of the goal of finishing this life well and of what awaits us in heaven. Icons are the visual history of the faith, a constant reminder of all the saints alive in heaven and their lives of sacrifice here on earth. Catholics do not worship images of saints.For more on that see the difference between veneration and idol worship.

The group that took the idols and tossed them into the river issued a statement.

Because we love humanity, we cannot accept that people of a certain region should not get baptized and therefore are being denied entrance into heaven.It is our duty to follow the words of God, like our holy Mother did. There is not second way of salvation.

Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat!

The group referenced a statement that has been widely attributed to the head of the Amazon Synod, Bishop Erwin Krautler, "I have not yet baptized an Indian, and I also will not do it." This statement has not been denied by Krautler. Baptism is a key sacrament in the Catholic faith and the Church teaches that one cannot enter heaven without it.

The Catholic Church has been thrown into a state of total confusion since Pope Francis ascended to the seat of St. Peter. His silence and the silence of Church leaders on crucial issues of the faith have created chaos and division between the left-wing and traditional Catholics. George Neumayer wrote a terrific opinion piece in The Spectator that is a must-read relating to these issues.

The poster captures the sheer obnoxiousness of the popes ecological kick. What a dismal devolution Rome has suffered under him. What will he do next? Turn the Pantheon back into a pagan temple? Why not? If Amazonian pantheism is a religious experience worthy of Catholic respect, why not revive ancient paganism, too? Perhaps the popes next synod can rehabilitate Nero.

The far left, neo-marxism taking over the Catholic Church has reached a boiling point and the faithful appear to have had enough. We have been watching bishops dither around, excusing themselves from investigations when it comes to sexual abuse, refuse to answer legitimate questions about the change in the death penalty teaching, divorce, and now idol worship. They're out of their minds. It's time for action. Congratulations to the brave souls who acted in the footsteps of Christ who took a whip and drove the unclean things out of the house of God. Father Mark Goring has posted a great video about what has occurred saying he is surprised it hadn't happened sooner.

Megan Fox is the author of Believe Evidence; The Death of Due Process from Salome to #MeToo. Follow on Twitter @MeganFoxWriter

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Faithful Catholics Throw Amazonian Idols Displayed in the Vatican into the Tiber River - PJ Media

ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - Cardinal Raymond Burke is warning that the Amazon Synod isn't about local evangelization in the Amazonbut aboutrevolution inthe wholeChurch.

During an interview with Italian media published Monday, the former head of the Vatican's highest court is decrying the"dishonest attitude" in masking the true nature ofthe synod.

"The Synod is presented as being for the pastoral care of the people to be evangelized in the Amazon, but the German bishops state clearly that the goal is to revolutionize the whole Church," relates Burke. "Even the bishop of Essen, Monsignor Franz-Josef Overbeck,said very recently that after the Amazon Synod 'nothing will ever be the same again'in the Church."

Burke's words are supported by similar remarks from the Vatican's head liturgist, Cdl. Robert Sarah. In an interview also published on Monday, Sarah remarkedthatusingthe synod as a "laboratory for the universal Church" would be "dishonest and misleading."

"To take advantage of a particular synod to introduce these ideological projects would be an unworthy manipulation, a dishonest deception, an insult to God, who leads his Church and entrusts him with his plan of salvation," assertedSarah.

He exclaimed, "I am shocked and outraged that the spiritual distress of the poor in the Amazon is being used as a pretext" to support such projects as ordaining married men, creating women's ministries and giving jurisdiction to laypeople.

Asked duringMonday's interview about the synod's emphasis on "appreciating different cultures and religions," Burke warned that thisapproach is alwaysineffective and maycause a missionary to lose his faith.

"If a missionary starts with the sole intention of appreciating whatever culture he finds,then we can be sure there will be no evangelization, it's more likely that these missionaries will end up losing their faith," cautioned Burke.

"We are in a profound crisis," related Burke, when asked why he andBp. Athanasius Schneider of Astana, Kazakhstan, on Tuesdayissuedan appeal for prayer and fasting. They did sowith the intention that the heresies in the synod's preparatory document called the Instrumentum Laboris would be rejected.

"According to the profoundly mistaken view of the Instrumentum Laboris, Christ and the cosmos are one and God also reveals himself in other circumstances. This view is closely connected to pantheism. Therefore it is a cult of the natural world," Burke clarified.

When asked about the apparent"decline in vocations," Burke revealed thatthose pushing the so-called "new Church" are turning away vocations in order to justify the ordination ofmarried men.

"Those who are promoting a 'new Church'do not want vocations, they discourage them in order to justify their own position which attacks celibacy," asserted Burke. "It is no coincidence that the religious institutes, perhaps with young congregations and many vocations, are the ones being particularly targeted at the moment."

Vocations still exist, said Burke, but what is lacking in many places is "an apostolate for vocations and prayer for vocations."

Celibacy that's being attacked by the synod, explained Burke, actually freesapriest to give himself completely to God and to fully live out hispriesthood. At the same time, he discounted the falsehood that evangelization is best done by simply "doing good and being good."

The priest is called to celebrate the Eucharist, to offer himself as victim for the salvation of souls, to give himself totally to Christ. This is what is essential, all the other priestly activities teaching, assisting the faithful in difficulty, charitable work, even the defence of the Indians are a consequence and even if they were unsuccessful, this would not take anything away from the ministry.

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Cdl. Burke: Revolution Is the Goal - Church Militant

Pope Francis celebrates Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Holy Saturday, April 15, 2017. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

The group, concerned about evils and the current situation within the Church, will meet for a prayer vigil near the tomb of St. Peter on Oct. 5

Lay faithful from across Italy are expected to gather in a piazza near St. Peters basilica next week to pray for the Church as she faces a catalogue of challenges, oneswhich the event organizers have included in a prayer list.

Recalling Cardinal Joseph Ratzingers words in 2005 excoriating the filth in the Church, and his later words on the terrifying sin and persecution from enemies within the Church, the organizers wish to draw attention to the extent of the current evils ranged within the body of the Church and to urge the faithful to pray for her.

The Church is living through her Passion, one of the vigils organizers calledFather Giuseppewrote in a letter to Vaticanist Marco Tosatti that was later reported in the Italian dailyIl Tempo.

Titled Lets Pray for the Church!, the prayer vigil is scheduled to take place at 2.30pm on Oct. 5, in Largo Giovanni XXIII an open space, usually the location for media on special occasions, at the far end of Via della Conciliazione, the central boulevard leading to St. Peters Square(the event has aFacebook pagehere). The Pan-AmazonSynod runs Oct. 6-27 at the Vatican.

The organizers point out that Benedict wished to remind the faithful that there are men in the Church who are not of the Church, do not belong to her, and who indeed work more than anyone else for her destruction. And they warn that such people will one day become the majority, according to St. Pauls prophecy in his Second Letter to the Thessalonians.

We, a group of Catholic friends, both lay and consecrated, therefore want to pray together with all those who wish to join us as close as possible to the tomb of St. Peter, where the popes, with few exceptions, have always desired to reside, they explain in their publicity.

Referring to Benedicts comments above, they also stress the initiative is not an anti-Pope Francis event because the origins of the current challenges long pre-date his election. Even the last two years of [Benedicts] pontificate were, for believers, ones of intense suffering, wrote Father Giuseppe, and the obstacles placed in his path by declared or hidden enemies were evident to all.

The organizers and participants will be asking for 10 graces during the prayer vigil. These include praying that those involved clerical abuse scandals not be promoted but removed from leadership positions; that the deposit of faith not be adulterated; that the Church be courageous in preaching the Gospel; and that she avoid acting like sociologists, political scientists, climatologists and logists of every kind.

They will also call on the Lord for the grace so that the non-negotiable principles are taught and the inviolability of life upheld, that love for Creation not be confused with paganism or pantheism, and that people are reminded that ones country is a mother for each person but defense of identity has nothing to do with nationalism or other aberrations.

The organizers will also pray to listen to the cry from the church in Africa and Eastern Europe, for Chinese Catholics, and the persecuted throughout the world.

The public prayer vigilis meant as a sign of hope, says Francesco Agnoli, one of the events participants. In the midst of so much confusion, there is a small flock in addition to some cardinals that is calling for an end to the storm.

October 5, 2019 in Rome, largo Giovanni XXIII, 2:30pm

Lets Pray for the Church!

It was Good Friday 2005, and then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would soon become Pope, declared these unmistakable words: How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him!... (Stations of the Cross, IX station).

Once he became Pope, Benedict XVI travelled to Fatima. During an inflight press conference, on May 11, 2010, he told journalists who had asked about the Virgins message: The sufferings of the Church come precisely from within the Church, from the sin that exists in the Church today we are seeing it in a truly terrifying way: that the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies outside, but arises from sin within the Church.

As cardinal and as Pope, Benedict wanted to remind us that there are men in the Church who are not of the Church, who do not really belong to her, and who indeed work more than anyone else for her destruction; the villains and hypocrites who are in the Church, St. Augustine said in De Civitate Dei [The City of God], will one day become the majority, according to the prophecy of St. Paul in the Second Letter to the Thessalonians.

We, a group of Catholic friends, both lay and consecrated, therefore want to pray together with all those who wish to join us as close as possible to the tomb of St. Peter, where the popes, with few exceptions, have always desired to reside. We are asking God for these graces:

Email: ottobre_5@yahoo.com

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Lay Faithful to Gather in Rome to Pray for the Church on Eve of Amazon Synod - National Catholic Register

Dennis Andrew doesnt participate in human or animal sacrifices - in fact the retired engineer is really normal.

To put the lie to myths perpetuated by some TV series and films, the retired engineer, cheesemaker and author has written a book entitled I am Druid.

We have fire festivals but not sacrifices, he said.

Knowlton Church and earthworks - a ruined Norman church between Wimborne and Cranborne which stands inside a late Neolithic Henge constructed in 2,500 BC - was the ideal place to meet so that he could explain his beliefs.

Knowlton is one of my favourite places; I sense things here. You can feel ancestry calling, its a spiritual place, said Dennis, who said he has been a Druid for most of his life.

My mother was a Christian and my father a pagan.

So what does it mean to be a Druid?

We dont have a corporate authority - there is no book of Common Prayer. It is a faith not a religion. We worship the divine in nature. Everything in nature is a temple. There is a god in a bird or a tree.

He added that Druids dont tell people what to believe and that they celebrate diversity.

Im as happy in a Christian church as in a Hindu temple, Dennis said. I feel thankful that in this country people are free to explore their faith.

He is a member of Dorset Grove, which numbers between 40 and 60 Druids. They meet at Knowlton Church eight times a year to celebrate - twice at the solstices, twice at the equinox and four times on cross quarter days.

Anyone can come to these rituals, he said. We dont preach or evangelise.

In addition they meet every fortnight in woodland areas.

We are modern druids, which means that our culture goes back no more than 250 years. In fact up to 50 years ago, there were Christian Druids such as Sir Winston Churchill.

Druidic membership extends to a cross section of society.

We have bankers, nurses, ex police officers and shop workers, he said.

If you want to know the definition of the five isms of Druidry - Animism, Pantheism, Polytheism, Monotheism and Dualism, just read Denniss book, I am Druid, which is available from Gullivers Bookshop in Wimborne as well as from http://www.iamdruid.tk.

Report and photos by Marilyn Barber

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Dennis Andrew from Poole says 'I am Druid' - Somerset Live

Pantheism and Unitarian Universalism: A harmonious match

Unitarian Universalism is based on the shared values of the Seven Principles, such as peace, democracy, tolerance and justice. However, it does not promote any particular answers to the ultimate questions about human existence is there a God or gods? Are our souls separate from our bodies? Do we have personal afterlives? Is the Universe a projection of a collective consciousness?

Most people need answers to ultimate questions, and most UUs add in these answers from some other source, such as Humanism, Buddhism, Paganism, Christianity and so on.

Scientific Pantheism is extremely compatible with the Seven Principles of UUism. If you love nature and are science-minded in your outlook, you may find that it provides a nice complement to UUism.

Many World Pantheist Movement members belong to Unitarian Universalist congregations and some are UU ministers. They tell us that perhaps a third or a half of Unitarian Universalists are probably strongly sympathetic to Pantheism.

The essence of Pantheism is a profound reverence for Nature and the wider Universe and awed recognition of their power, beauty and mystery. Some Pantheists use the word God to describe these feelings, but the majority prefer not to, so as to avoid ambiguity.

From this feeling flows the desire to make the most of our present life in our bodies on this earth, to care for nature, and to respect the rights of humans and animals in general. We choose to focus on the vibrant and urgent here and now, rather than on invisible realms, spirits, deities or afterlives.

We feel that Nature and the wider Universe are the most appropriate focus for our deepest reverence, rather than supernatural beings or afterlives. We believe that everything that exists is a part of Nature and tend to be skeptical of supernatural phenomena.

We believe that mind and body are an inseparable unity, and so we do not expect personal survival after death. Instead we look forward to a natural persistence of our time on earth, in the actions and creations we leave behind, memories people hold of us, and recycling of our elements in Nature.

Many people who have these feelings dont call it Pantheism they may call it atheism plus wonder and awe, they may call it religious humanism, spiritual humanism, religious naturalism or some other variant, or they may not have a name for it.

A related tendency often found in Unitarian Universalist congregations is Panentheism. Panentheists hold that God is present in and throughout nature and humans, but also transcends them and is much greater than them. By contrast Pantheists consider that God is identical with Nature and the wider Universe, and use the term (if at all) primarily to express their own feelings towards Nature.

Basically Panentheism is a form of belief in a creator God, while Pantheism is not. Panentheism is fully compatible with traditional Christianity, Islam and Judaism, but Pantheism is not.

The two organizations complement each other neatly. World Pantheism shares the values of the UU Seven Principles. We are strongly committed to religious freedom, separation of church and state, religious tolerance and the teaching of science free from religious interference. We filed afriend-of-court brief in the US Supreme Court case, opposing the under God wording in the Pledge.

We have collected more signatures for UNESCOs Manifesto for Peace and Non-Violence than any other US voluntary organization.

We are signatories of the Earth Charter. We endorse and greatly expand on the Unitarian Universalist seventh principle Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. Active care for the environment is a central part of our ethic, along with human and animal rights. We aresaving rainforest via EcologyFund faster than any other religious or environmental group.

Many Unitarian Universalists, including ministers, are members and friends of the World Pantheist Movement. WPM members who belong to UU churches in some cases run courses on pantheism or pantheist services or regular small group meetings of pantheists. The WPM offers manyresources for Unitarian Universalists interested in pantheist services or groups.

Unitarian Universalism is a context where you meet sensible sociable tolerant people with varying religious philosophies for shared spiritual exploration and social action. But Unitarian Universalist congregations are focused more on broad spiritual exploration and social justice, and UUism in itself does not offer answers to lifes ultimate questions. Many people need both a social context AND a belief context in order to feel comfortable with their place in the universe.

With its special focus on Nature and Naturalism, World Pantheism can be considered as one of the main flavors of Unitarian Universalism, such as UU Buddhism, Religious Humanism, Unitarian Universalist Paganism and so on. If you consider yourself an atheist or humanist with spiritual feelings and a deep love of nature or if you are a pagan who enjoys nature-oriented celebration but does not believe in the literal reality of gods, spirits and magick then World Pantheism may be the spiritual context you are looking for.

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Unitarian Universalism and Pantheism World Pantheism

Anthony Kronman thinks that Christianity contains the seeds of its own undoing. A born-again pagan and former dean of Yale Law, Kronman argues that the Incarnation, which seems to link God with the world in unimaginable intimacy, ends up separating us from God.

Kronmans critique, presented in the opening chapters of his mammoth Confessions of a Born-Again Pagan, turns on the Christian understanding of gift and gratitude. God saves by giving the infinite gift of his Son, and that infinite gift demands a return of perfect thanks, as limitless as the gifts of love he bestows upon us.

At the same time, Christianity insists that we are wholly incapable of offering a fitting return gift. In fact, the very thought that we might be able to make an adequate return is an act of pride, humanitys original sin. To imagine that we can smooth over the asymmetry between divine Giver and human recipient only adds to our misery. Christianity evokes the desire forand demandsinfinite gratitude, only to frustrate that desire.

In this respect, Christian gratitude functions differently than does gratitude in social life. I cant make a gift of equal magnitude to repay my parents for what they have given me, since they have given me life itself. But I can make a return of equal value with a gift of comparable value to those who follow me. I can pay it forward, partly by having children of my own, and so balance the books with Mom and Pop.

Christian gratitude also differs from gratitude in the other Abrahamic religions. Ancient Israelites knew they were infinitely less powerful than Yahweh, yet he had bound himself by covenant, which put the Israelites in the position of being able to complainas they often didthat their partner had forgotten them or was neglecting his duties. The Incarnation raises the stakes, rousing intense feelings of dependence on Gods undeserved love while eliminating the possibility of a satisfying response.

Unrequited gratitude stirs us to rage, envy, and rebellion. To preserve the primacy of Gods gift, theologians make God vanish into a faceless Kantian transcendental. As God retreats from the world, we take over his earlier role as creator and savior. Christianity gives birth to humanism, then to nihilism, a contempt for this world that arises from wistfulness for an other world that, we eventually learn, never existed. Beyond Christianity and nihilism lies paganism, Kronmans Spinozist pantheism.

Theres an internal contradiction in Kronmans account of gratitude. He distinguishes sharply between entitlement and gift, linking the former with rights and the latter with undeserved love that reveals our abysmal dependence. Armed with rights, I can argue for fair treatment. Love, however, has no arguments at all. I have no claim on anyones love and no right to complain that Ive been deprived of what is mine if I dont get it. Its a peculiar idea of love: Does my wife have no grounds for complaint if I have an affair? And it contradicts what he says about gratitude: If a gift is an expression of love, how can it impose any obligation of gratitude? Where does the giver get his arguments?

Beyond that, the Christianity Kronman describes isnt the Christianity taught by generations and practiced by millions. According to Kronman, God cannot have a body or a face. Orthodox Christians confess that God has shown himself in the human face of Jesus. In Kronmans Christianity, the idea of analogy between God and creation is a brief Augustinian aberration; in fact, however, analogy is a central theme of theology from the patristic age to the present. Kronman writes of the psychologically unbearable demand that we acknowledge our complete dependence on God, but for Christians its so easy a yoke that its not a burden at all.

Kronman stresses again and again that the central meaning of the cross is that I can never measure up to [the gifts] he has given me. He cites no theologians to support this characterization, and no wonder. Its flat wrong. Jesus bears burdens. The cross is, in David Bentley Harts lovely phrase, a gift exceeding every debt. Its the Sons perfect human return of thanks.

To assume that we have to respond to God with an equal gift is already to resent that God is the source of being. Kronman claims to show that the unbearable burden of Christian gratitude produces envy toward God. In reality, Kronmans account begins from envy, from the Nietzschean dictum, There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He. And, as a born-again pantheist, Kronman can say what Nietzsche couldnt: I am He.

Peter J. Leithart is President ofTheopolis Institute.

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Gratitude So Burdensome? - First Things

Milosz's poems suggest that he leaned towards Lithuania's mix of magic, pantheism and Christian mysticism. He was especially close to his maternal grandmother,Jozefa, who spent hours in prayer. Milosz later learned that her piety was blended with superstition.

Writing his first poem at 13, he published approximately 25 books, ending withAbout Journeys Through Time, a book of essays. Three other books were issued posthumously, includingNew and Collected Poems: 1931-2001, which was reprinted in April 2017.

Milosz was highly regarded for his many prose works, such as his autobiographical novel,TheIssaValley, his spiritual biography,The Land ofUlro, his reflections on literature,The Witness of Poetry, and his collection of essays refuting totalitarianism, The Captive Mind, which, he said, originated in a prayer.

Milosz wrote prose and poems about the devastation he experienced during invasions by Czarist and Soviet Russia as well as by Poland and Germany. He lived through both world wars, and afterward, his homeland was carved up and given over to the Soviets. Then, in the1990s, he witnessed the rise of the Solidarity Movement and the fall of the Soviet Union.

Through it all, he was sustained by his wife, brother, friends and faith. AsFranaszekquotes from one of Milosz's essays: "Had it not been for the Catholic faith and [being] able to pray in adulthood, I would have perished. I believed that I have a place in God's agenda, and I asked for the ability to fulfill the tasks awaiting me."

Milosz was friends with luminaries like Thomas Merton and Pope John Paul II, the latter of whom corresponded with him. Another friend, Lech Walesa, said that Milosz's poems inspired the Solidarity Movement. Ultimately, Milosz won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980 for clearly expressing "man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts."

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Staying power: a poet's place in God's agenda - National Catholic Reporter

In this post, I am going to consider the necessary property of God. God is often claimed to be philosophically necessary, with all other created things deemed to be contingent. I am going to challenge this prevailing idea.

First, let us consider what both terms (necessary and contingent) mean.

As mentioned, God is deemed to be necessary the fundamental foundation to reality. What might we understand by a logically necessary entity? As wiki explains:

The concept of a metaphysically necessary being plays an important role in certain arguments for the existence of God, especially theontological argument, but metaphysical necessity is also one of the central concepts in late 20th centuryanalytic philosophy. Metaphysical necessity has proved a controversial concept, and criticized byDavid Hume,Immanuel Kant,J. L. Mackie, andRichard Swinburne, among others.

Metaphysical necessity is contrasted with other types of necessity. For example, the philosophers of religionJohn Hick[2]andWilliam L. Rowe[3]distinguished the following three:

While many theologians (e.g.Anselm of Canterbury,Ren Descartes, andGottfried Leibniz) considered God as logically or metaphysically necessary being, Richard Swinburne argued for factual necessity, andAlvin Plantingaargues that God is a causally necessary being. Because a factually or causally necessary being does not exist by logical necessity, it does not exist in all logically possible worlds.[4]Therefore, Swinburne used the term ultimate brute fact for the existence of God.[5]

To me, there is a distinct potential, here, of confusingthe map with the terrain. We love to use logic and words as means to describe reality, but this does not mean they necessarily (no pun intended)arereality. After all, Christian philosophers have tried to use this technique to logic God into reality and existence, to much controversy.

Lets grant God as necessary, for the sake of argument. He is a necessary entity, existent in all possible worlds (itself a controversial idea).

Okay, so we have a necessary God with necessary properties. One must really assume that his properties are also necessary otherwise the term God as being necessary is really meaningless. We then get to some form of classical theism (the properties of which I roundly criticise in my ebookThe Problem with God: Classical Theism under the Spotlight) whereby God has the necessary ideals of perfect, or maximal, power, knowledge and love.

If God, then, as a necessary being, has necessary properties, and these properties necessarily cause a decision to create in a particular way the most perfect (since all of Gods decisions must be perfect) way then Gods decision to produce this world must also be necessary. It was the perfect choice (I cant, given the constraints on God in this way, see him being able to produce all or multiple versions of creation unless these be seen as perfect in some way) to create this world.

God, in his necessary perfection, chose to create this world. And remember, without time (before the creation of spacetime) any decision to create would not be temporal or deliberative (since deliberation takes time) and would thus be instantaneous (for want of a non-temporal term). Therefore, it really does look like creation springs necessarily from a necessary god.

Ergo, this universe is also necessary.

I cannot think of a way that the universe is contingent upon God since it would exist simultaneously with God. There would be no spacetime, so God would exist in not even a temporal sense, and the universe would coexist as a necessary extension of Gods properties.

This universeisevery possible world. Or, if there are multiple worlds within the perfect creation scenario, thentheyexist in every possible world.

In a sense, arguably, if you have a necessary God, you have some form of pantheism or panentheism where the created is merely a sort of necessary extension of God.

I will formalise this into a syllogism in my next post.

Read more:
This World as Philosophically Necessary - Patheos (blog)

Etymology: pan[Greek ] + theos[Greek] = ALL is GOD

Pantheism: Everything is Connected, Everything is Divine

Pantheism essentially involves two assertions: that everything that exists constitutes a unity and that this all-inclusive unity is divine. Alasdair MacIntyre, Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Pantheism 1971

The belief in or perception of Divine Unity Michael Levine,Pantheism: A non-theistic concept of deity

Pantheism the belief in the divine unity of all things is consistent with some of the earliest recorded human thought. But modern day pantheism goes well beyond the wonder of our pre-historic ancestors. Today, it is much more a tangible resultant of the action and reaction between Science and Religion than the ghost of speculations past. Discover the history of Pantheism, from 3500 year old Vedic poetry to our current scientific quest for a Theory of Everything, here.

Pantheism.com is a place for freethinkers worldwide, providing information, news, groups, and connections to those who in any way relate to a philosophy of oneness. Celebrate your views, discuss the nature of Nature, learn about the history and flavors of Pantheism (there are many!), find or start a local event, and in general, hang out with fellow travelers. Click to learn more about the people who keep the lights on around here.

Organizations:

Universal Pantheist Society, est. 1975 by Harold Wood

World Pantheist Movement, est. 1998 by Paul Harrison

Ayahuasca Pantheist Society, est. 2003 byRegis A. Barbier

The Paradise Project, est. 2004 byPerry Rod

Spiritual Naturalist Society, est. 2012 by DT Strain

Writers and Doctrines:

Biopantheism, by Poffo Ortiz

Panmeism, by Guyus Seralius

Not Two, by Waldo Noesta

Fays of Life, by Fay Campbell

Evolution of Consent, by William Schnack

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