Free Republic

Pope Benedict XVI may try to "save eros," in the first encyclical of his papacy, Chicago's Cardinal Francis George told the Chicago Sun-Times. George expects the new pope will try to explain that erotic love, eros, and unconditional love, agape, are both inherently good in God's eyes in his encyclical titled "Deus, Caritas Est," Latin for "God is Love." An encyclical is a pope's most authoritative document, a pastoral letter circulated to the universal church. Letter talks about Christ The cardinal has not yet seen Benedict XVI's encyclical, which is expected to be released by the Vatican within days, but...

WARNING: Chances of a tsunami set off by Augustine called small, but real. HOMER -- With Augustine Volcano rumbling, scientists and government officials have finally agreed on what series of events will be necessary to evacuate the Homer Spit and other low-lying coastal areas in lower Cook Inlet. Disputes over the likelihood of a tsunami from an Augustine eruption -- even doubt over whether such a wave reported in 1883 ever occurred -- had a half-dozen public agencies and scientific groups at loggerheads last winter. But those differences got hammered out in meetings this week, as tremors on Augustine have...

I posted this as the Geology Picture of the Week, but I felt that it's "newsworthy" enough for the Activism side. Geology Picture of the Week, December 18-24, 2005: Augustine Volcano Erupts (Alaska)

Here's a couple pictures of Augustine from ground level or air. I seem to remember that the late Kraffts (famous and somewhat reckless volcano photographers) did some nuee ardente photography on the slopes of Augustine. However, they were unsatisfied with the results, so later on they went to Mount Unzen in Japan, and a larger-than-expected nuee ardente incinerated them. If you play with fire... 1986 Eruption A nuee ardente heads downslope On a quieter day

Homer, Alaska - Scientists from the Alaska Volcano Observatory are keeping a close eye on a sleeping giant tonight. That's because the Augustine volcano 60 miles outside of Homer appears to be re-awakening. In Homer, geologists set out a new instrument to monitor the volcano. That instrument is a television camera which is now providing live images you can see on the webcam, images of Augustine. KTUU recorded this image a few hours ago while it was still light out. As you can see, the volcano looks quiet. There is no steam emanating from the summit. But tonight no one...

AUGUSTINE VOLCANO (CAVW#1103-01-) 59.3633°N 153.4333°W, Summit Elevation 4134 ft (1260 m) Current Level of Concern Color Code: YELLOW Previous Level of Concern Color Code: GREEN AVO has detected important changes in earthquake activity and ground deformation at Augustine Volcano in southern Cook Inlet. These data are consistent with renewed volcanic unrest. AVO is therefore raising the level-of-concern color code from green to YELLOW and will continue to monitor activity closely. There is no indication that an eruption is imminent or certain. Beginning in May 2005, there has been a slow increase in the number of earthquakes located under Augustine Volcano....

"It is Augustine who gave us the Reformation." So wrote B. B. Warfield in his assessment of the influence of Augustine on church history. It is not only that Luther was an Augustinian monk, or that Calvin quoted Augustine more than any other theologian that provoked Warfield's remark. Rather, it was that the Reformation witnessed the ultimate triumph of Augustine's doctrine of grace over the legacy of the Pelagian view of man. Humanism, in all its subtle forms, recapitulates the unvarnished Pelagianism against which Augustine struggled. Though Pelagius was condemned as a heretic by Rome, and its modified form, Semi-Pelagianism...

ROME, MAY 2, 2005 (Zenit.org).- ZENIT is reprinting this message that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) sent to a meeting of the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation in August 2002. The group was meeting in Rimini, Italy. * * * "The Feeling of Things, the Contemplation of Beauty" By Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger Every year, in the Liturgy of the Hours for the Season of Lent, I am struck anew by a paradox in Vespers for Monday of the Second Week of the Psalter. Here, side by side, are two antiphons, one for the Season of Lent, the other for...

In that book, Joseph Ratzinger describes how he prefers Augustine to Thomas Aquinas, "whose crystal-clear logic seemed to me to be too closed in on itself, too impersonal and ready-made." Anyone familiar with Augustine and Aquinas would at least pause to reflect on this remark from a man characterized in the press as an inquisitor, rottweiler, enforcer. Augustine is the more mystical personality, closer in some ways to the "new age" impulses of our times. In the writings of Augustine, arguably the most complex mind Christianity has produced, the exercise of deep faith carries with it the possibility of what...

Pelagius: To Demetriasby Deacon Geoffrey Ó Riada Introduction A Brief Life of Pelagius The Letter to Demetrias History and Text Content and Analysis Conclusion Endnotes Bibliography Introduction Few churchmen have been so maligned as Pelagius in the Christian West. For nearly 1,500 years, all that anyone has known of the British monk's theology has come from what his opponents said about him — and when one's opponents are as eminent as Augustine and Jerome, the chance of getting a fair hearing is not great. Consequently, it has been easy to lay all manner of pernicious heresies at Pelagius's doorstep. Only...

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Senate on Saturday convicted the state controller of using state equipment for her 2002 re-election campaign, but dismissed two other counts that could have led to her removal from office. Senators voted to issue a censure -- an official reprimand -- against Kathy Augustine after convicting the two-term Republican on a 14-7 vote -- the minimum two-thirds majority needed. Augustine, the first state official impeached in Nevada history, was in tears after the other counts were dropped.

On Plato, the Early Church, and Modern Science: An Eclectic Meditation By Jean F. Drew God, purposing to make the universe most nearly like the every way perfect and fairest of intelligible beings, created one visible living being, containing within itself all living beings of the same natural order. Thus does Plato (d. 347 B.C.) succinctly describe how all that exists is ultimately a single, living organism. At Timaeus20, he goes on to say: “There exists: first, the unchanging form, uncreated and indestructible, admitting no modification and entering no combination … second, that which bears the same name as the...

The Purpose of the Sword A review of Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World, by Jean Bethke Elshtain All Christian writing on war leads back through Aquinas and Augustine to Paul's famous remark in Romans (13, 4) that all power is from God, that the Emperor "beareth not the sword in vain." We can reach pretty much the same conclusion in Aristotle who tells us that coercion is added to the law when it (the law) is not in public being observed by those with disordered souls (1180a22). Augustine saw no problem...

St. Augustine, Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church (354-430), wrote the City of God, where he describes the fight between the sons of light and the sons of darkness as the axis of History. His thinking established the foundation for Christendom and Christian Civilization. Comments of Prof. Plinio: Reading the works of St. Augustine is one of the greatest pleasures a man can have. The Confessions is a wonderful and highly edifying book from many points of view. In it, St. Augustine describes the moral abysses of pride and sensuality into which he had fallen and narrates how he...

On August 24, 410 A.D., the Visigoths, led by Alaric, sacked Rome. For the people of late antiquity, August 24 was even more traumatic than September 11 was for us. Rome, the capital of the greatest empire the world had ever known, was plundered by barbarians, people Rome regarded as uncouth and inferior. In North Africa, these events prompted a Christian bishop to start writing about the lessons Christians should take away from the destruction of Rome. The result was a book that is every bit as relevant for our day as it was for his: The City of God...

Augustine's account of his early life of wrongdoing would not shock very many in America today. His sins in the fourth century are the same grave transgressions suffered by far too many of us in the 21st century. Sic faciunt omnes — concupiscence of the flesh, renunciation of the Catholic Faith and the embracing of modernism (heresy). [1] What would shock many in America today would be the transformation he made from sinfulness to Sainthood, and not without a tributary of tearful petitions from his holy mother, Monica, to God, the Father of Mercy. As a beloved Son who imitated...

The Life of St. Morgan of Wales AKA Pelagius   Early Life and Education St. Morgan of Wales is more commonly known by his Latin name Pelagius Britto -- indicating his association with the sea and Celtic British origins. He was born around 360 A.D. in South Wales in Bangor-is-y-coed or Caerlleon-ar-wsyg near the Severn estuary. He came from a Christian romanized Celtic background, the son of a decurion. Morgan received a Latin education and was taught Holy Scriptures, inheriting the Celtic tradition which had links with the Church of Gaul and the Eastern Church. An emphasis was placed on...

A Treatise on Grace and Free Will By Aurelius Augustin, Bishop of Hippo; Addressed to Valentinus and the monks of Adrumetum, and completed in one book. Written in A.D. 426 or A.D. 427. In this treatise Augustin teaches us to beware of maintaining grace by denying free will, or free will by denying grace; for that it is evident from the testimony of scripture that there is in man a free choice of will; and there are also in the same scriptures inspired proofs given of that very grace of God without which we can do nothing good. Afterwards, in...

Augustine's "just war" theory continues to guide the West.The fall of Rome in 410 was a calamity of staggering proportions to the citizens of the Roman Empire. Civilization itself had been shaken to its foundations. So it was viewed by Augustine, from his vantage point on the North African coast. But he worried not so much about the empire as about the threat of a backlash to Christianity. Hadn't critics warned for years that Christians' pacifism would weaken the empire? Didn't this confirm the fears that Christianity was too other-worldly for its followers to be responsible citizens of the state?...

Since man is dead in trespasses and sins, he is completely dependent upon God's initiative. "There is none that seeks after God; all have turned aside, there is none that does good, not even one." Such is the prognosis of man, man apart from God. But in grace, it pleased God to reach down, to condescend to man, to command life unto him, just as he commanded light by the word of his power, "Let there be light." God makes himself known to man, through the mediatorship and redemption wrought by his Son, applied by the Spirit. Evidently, not everybody...