Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia is pictured following an interview in Rome in October 2012 (CNS photo).
Posted on 07/10/2013 1:54:20 PM PDT by NYer
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia is pictured following an interview in Rome in October 2012 (CNS photo).
Marcus Aurelius held absolute power in a corrupt age. Yet despite that, he chose to seek what is true and right and lasting; and he disciplined his own life accordingly. In the context of his time, he was a just man and a moral ruler. He achieved that dignity of character by giving his heart first to the pursuit of wisdom, and only then to Rome. He had a brilliant mind, but he had no love of intellect purely for the sake of intellect. Rather, he had a special disgust for intelligence without moral purpose.
Abp. Chaput then goes on to make "three simple points:
Here’s my first point: The more secular we become, the less we care about the true, the right and the lasting. And here’s the reason: We don’t really believe they exist. Or we simply don’t care.
The word “philosophy” comes from the Greek words philia, which means love, and sophia, which means wisdom. In an earlier age, philosophy fed man’s nobility; it involved the love and pursuit of wisdom. Academic philosophy today is a shadow of its historic dignity in the Western tradition. It’s an ailing discipline because it has collapsed into either postmodern skepticism or materialistic scientism, and neither has any place for wisdom or love. The postmodern cynic rejects the search for higher, permanent truths about the human person as a kind of ideological power grab. And the materialist philosopher rejects the search because it demands going beyond what we can confirm in a laboratory.
As a result, our idea of “wisdom” has shriveled down to mean, at best, a kind of common sense based on experience; and at worst, a cheap and clever irony.
Real wisdom grows from the moral memory of a culture. The more we debunk and reinterpret the past according to some political or social scientific agenda, the less coherent our memory becomes, and the more irrelevant wisdom like the Bible seems. This results in a kind of rootlessness, a self-imposed amnesia, and it undermines our whole moral vocabulary. It also leads us to see and judge everything in terms of its utility, right here and right now. What’s useful and productive is judged good. What isn’t is judged bad.
Read the entire lecture at the First Things "On the Square" blog.
In January 2012, Pope Benedict addressed U.S. bishops from Baltimore, Washington and the Archdiocese for the Military Services during their ad limina pilgrimage to Rome, telling them, "It is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States comes to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres. The seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly appreciated at every level of ecclesial life. Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms: the freedom of religion."
Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/pope-benedict-xvi-vs.-secularism/#ixzz2Yg71BOHR
WRONG! REAL Wisdom comes from God but the CC is so secular/so worldly it makes them ignorant to the things of God.
1 Corinthians 2:13 - "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual"
The word “philosophy” comes from the Greek words philia,..
Colossians 2:8 - "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
The Vatican/RCC is so filled with error and their 'subjects' eat up their deception/teachings without a thought which has left them open for deception which leaves them void of TRUTH/God's Word/His WAY and ETERNAL LIFE.
The Church also knows, with Sirach, that “to fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Why? Because God is the source and meaning of our lives, and humility in God’s presence, which is just another name for “fear of the Lord,” is the sign of a sane person—a person who understands the real nature of creation, and humanity’s holy place in it.
That's a very powerful statement. By "error", I presume you are referring to church doctrine. For the benefit of visitors, it would be helpful if you could cite some of these errors, along with your justification for why they are wrong. Many thanks.
“He was the last of the Five Good Emperors, and is also considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers.”
“Although, before becoming emperor, Marcus Aurelius followed the lenient line of the emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, he is listed among the persecutors of Christians along with Nero, Domitian and Decius. Henry Wace attributes his severity as emperor to rivalry between the rising teachers of Christianity and the professors of the school of Stoicism to which the emperor belonged, to a personal bitterness to which he gave expression in his Meditations, and to the occurrence of natural calamities that the populace attributed to the anger of the gods against those who denied them and that the Christians saw as signs of the end of the world.[258”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius
“From its founding, Stoic doctrine was popular with a following in Greece and throughout the Roman Empire — including the Emperor Marcus Aurelius — until the closing of all philosophy schools in AD 529 by order of the Emperor Justinian I, who perceived their pagan character as being at odds with the Christian faith.”[3][4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+1&version=NIV
They have been cited for years. And I already debunked two of his statements - 2 isn’t enough for you where ONLY ONE SHOULD BE? It’s your problem so I would think so.
If teaching is defying God’s Word and it’s OK by you - why are you concerned about ‘visitors’? Check for errors before posting an article. But that would be hard for anyone who doesn’t hear and obey HIS WORD but ‘into’ a worldly secular organization that ‘acts’ religious with all it’s pomp while being nothing like JESUS and the apostles but more like the Roman army who crucified HIM and left Him on The Cross.
I can only warn you and give you some of my time - I can’t make you accept TRUTH as that has to come from you and a willing heart.
God Bless Archbishop Chaput and his ministry to the truth.
Thank-you for this wonderful posting.
How sad when Christians attack other Christians.
You take telling the truth attacking? It’s no wonder so many of void of it, IT offends them. Paul experienced the same...”Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?”
God condemns those who hold to philosophy which is the wisdom of men...
You high-five those same condemned philosophers...
No one is attacking other Christians...The attack is against the false teaching of your religious leaders...
Wrong.
Your opinion not mine.
I am right and stand by it.
Your opinion.
God Bless Archbishop Chaput.
These attacks from the “sola scripture” posters shows the ERRORS of it.
God Bless Archbishop Chaput.
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