Your Faith is in Vain, Dr. Crossan

http://web.mac.com/jayscottnewman/iWeb/jayscottnewman/Random%20Thoughts/E2D3DB9F-A04D-4452-870A-C8726A20A81F.html ^ | February 25, 2007 | Fr. Jay Scott Newman

[NYer]

The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ
by Piero della Franscesca,
c. 1463-65

The Discovery Channel will announce this week the completion of a new documentary called “The Jesus Family Tomb”, produced by none other than James Cameron of Titanic fame. The program narrates the discovery in 1980 of a burial spot in Jerusalem that contained 10 ossuaries (boxes of bones) which some have claimed hold the mortal remains of, among other, Jesus, his mother Mary, and his disciple Mary Magdalene. This sort of thing is by now sadly familiar to a world in which The DaVinci Code is taken for serious history and theology. What is sadder still, however, is this that documentary trots out for one more scandal an ex-priest named John Dominic Crossan, who is now thankfully retired from teaching at DePaul University in Chicago. Crossan is infamous for his work with a group of unbelieving scoffers who call themselves (without irony) “The Jesus Seminar”. During the new Discovery Channel embarrassment, Crossan once again makes the tired and tiresome declaration that if the bones of Jesus were found and were established beyond all doubt to be the authentic bones of Jesus, his faith would still in no way be changed. Sigh.

 

So much for Dr. Crossan; now let’s hear from St. Paul the Apostle: “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain...And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in sins...If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.” (1 Cor 15. 14, 17, 19) Scoffers and unbelievers are nothing new, and St. Paul answered them long before John Dominic Crossan lost his faith.

 

This new television show will doubtless grab a headline or two, and if your children or friends ask for your answer to the question about the possibility that the bones of Jesus are in a box in Jerusalem, respond with the words of the Teacher of the Nations:

 

“In fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Cor 15.20-23) “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10.9-10)

 

Pity poor John Dominic Crossan, and pray for him to find what has been lost: saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[NYer]

Fr. Scott has done a masterful job of producing a blog. Please drop by for a visit.

[Carolina]

Listen to his conversion story here from EWTN's Journey Home with Marcus Grodi.

[steve8714]

Crossan works for Jesuits..what do you expect?

[Dajjal]

http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061192029/The_Jesus_Family_Tomb/index.aspx

"This discovery is potentially the last nail in the coffin of biblical literalism"
— John Dominic Crossan

[Barney59]

Did you also notice, to the right of that quote, the list of MOST VIEWED ITEMS on the HarperCollins site? It's somewhat telling...

Most Viewed Books on Site:
1. The Jesus Family Tomb
2. Black Girl/White Girl
3. How to Make Love Like a Porn Star
4. The Shape Shifter
5. Everything Is Illuminated

[Barney59]

What's your point?

Jesuits are Catholics and Christians.

Please elaborate/quantify without speculation.

Thanks

[steve8714]

Jesuits follow their own path.
Jesuits take pride in challenging the orthodox.
Jesuits hire professors for theology departments who are not orthodox.
Crossan is certainly one of those.
DePaul is a Jesuit, not a Catholic, university.

[dangus]

The point is that the Jesuits are exceedingly tolerant of heresy, blasphemy, apostasy, and pedophilia. I know... I went to a Jesuit university, known as the most conservative one in the nation. I transfered into there , but did take some "Freshman" courses:

Theology: Studied Nietzche, a good but pointless novel called "Il Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)," and Augustine's Confessions.

Freshman Composition: assignments included defending an abortion clinic.

Ethics, taught by an avowed atheist.

But, hey, the Student Union would deliver pizza on campus with a free condom.

O, yeah, and the new academic building was named after Sen. Pat Leahy.

[dangus]

Jesuit Alumni in the U.S. Senate:

PRO-ABORTION:
Sen. Robert Casey (Holy Cross)
Sen. Richard Durbin (Georgetown)
Sen. John Kerry (Boston College)
Sen. Pat Leahy (Georgetown)
Sen. Bob Menendez (Saint Peter's)
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (Loyala, MD)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Georgetown)
Sen. Jim Webb (Georgetown)
Sen. Hillary Clinton (Georgetown)

PRO-LIFE:
Sen. Jim Bunning (Xavier)

[Campion]

DePaul is a Jesuit, not a Catholic, university.

DePaul is not a Jesuit school. It was founded by the Vincentians (hence the name, after St. Vincent DePaul), but seems to be run mostly by the lay board of trustees, most/all of whose members are liberal Chicago Democrats.

Loyola University of Chicago (about 5 miles north of DePaul) is the Jesuit university in Chicago.

Crossan the Apostate is a former priest of the Servite order. (He's been laicized and is married.)

You can blame the Jesuits for many things, but John Dominic Crossan and DePaul University aren't two of them.

[dangus]

I just discovered something:

Mike Dukakis taught at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA.
Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton attended Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
John Kerry (the only Catholic, even nominally, in the group) attended Boston College.

If Hillary gets the nomination, it will mean that every Democratic nominee except Al Gore since 1984 and until at least 2012 was affiliated with a Jesuit University.

[Campion]

Hillary! went to Wellesley, and met Bubba at Yale Law.

She never went to Georgetown. Bubba did.

[old and tired]

What's your point?

Except for Fr. Fessio and the guy who took Mother Angelica's place, the Jesuits pretty much need to be suppressed.

[steve8714]

I went to Loyola for a year and we all thought they were Jevvie also. Many order-run schools are quite proudly heterodox. Sisters of Loretto are quite famous for that here in STL.

[Antoninus]

Jesuits are Catholics and Christians.

Some Jesuits are. Others are working to destroy the Church from the inside. There is a special place in H#ll for such individuals, complete will mill-stones for the neck.

[Antoninus]

Jesuits follow their own path. Jesuits take pride in challenging the orthodox. Jesuits hire professors for theology departments who are not orthodox. Crossan is certainly one of those. DePaul is a Jesuit, not a Catholic, university.

If that's the case, then the order should be disbanded immediately and placed under interdict.

In truth, the Jesuits of old would have denounced the frauds parading around today as Jesuits (with few exceptions). Here's a piece I wrote not long ago attacking just this kind of blather--that a university can be Jesuit without being Catholic--which appeared in a student newspaper on a Jesuit college campus (Boston College). Enjoy!

Originally posted here

There are supposed to be no points of contradiction between the teachings of the Catholic Church and the "ideals" of the Jesuit order. Where such points of conflict exist, the latter is supposed to give way to the former, as lies give way to Truth. If certain Jesuits insist on holding fast to "ideals" which contradict those teachings of the Church deemed to be infallible, then those individuals have separated themselves from the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

And where, exactly, do the editors get their definition of the "ideals" of the Jesuits? Here's a quote from the original Jesuit, St. Ignatius Loyola. I would encourage BC students to read it and then tell me where, exactly, Ignatius is making "compassion and understanding" of heresy an "ideal" of the Jesuits:

"The heretics have made their false theology popular and presented it in a way that is within the capacity of the common people. They preach it to the people and teach it in the schools, and scatter pamphlets that can be bought and understood by many; they influence people by their writings when they cannot reach them by preaching. Their success is largely due to the negligence of those who should have shown some interest, and the bad example and the ignorance of Catholics, especially the clergy, have made such ravages in the vineyard of the Lord. Hence it would seem that our Society should use the following means to end and cure the evils which the Church has suffered through these heretics."

Ignatius then gives suggestions for his Jesuits to fight the heresies then raging in 16th century Spain. Students at BC might be surprised (given the dreadful amount of anti-Catholic propaganda that masquerades as history filtering into classrooms at ostensibly Catholic universities) that Ignatius didn't suggest violence, censorship, or any form of legal coersion. Instead, Ignatius argued that heresy was best fought by learned men and clergy teaching solid catechesis in universities which were unwaveringly loyal to Catholic doctrine.

The letter, in its entirety, may be read here: http://www.georgetown.edu/centers/woodstock/ignatius/letter34.htm

That is the TRUE Jesuit ideal from the primary Jesuit. "Compassion and understanding" are to be used to help the erring heretic see the light of Truth, not to confirm him in his error or enable her to imagine herself as righteous in the eyes of Almighty God while continuing to wallow in grotesquely sinful behavior. There is absolutely no compassion in enabling sin, nor is there understanding in condoning the propagation of vile behaviors.

[Campion]

Not sure why my namesake's religious order, the Society of Jesus, is being bashed on a thread about an apostate ex-Servite who formerly taught heresy at a university founded by the Vincentians.

Can't we make this the Franciscans' fault, somehow? ;-)

(I'm kidding, I like the Franciscans a lot, cf my tagline.)

[Campion]

Many order-run schools are quite proudly heterodox.

But not all, thanks be to God.