1) Today Brad's blog (May 19, 2007) reports: "Robert Koons, professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, and Right Reason blogger with Francis Beckwith (Baylor professor who resigned as president of the Evangelical Theological Society when he became a Roman Catholic a few weeks ago) says that he is crossing the bridge from Wittenberg to Rome. (No, Beth, I have no desire to take a dip in the Tiber with you. The company would be good but the water is too cold.) "
Beth: Anscombe...Chesterton...Copleston...Dorothy Day...Dulles...Endo...Geach...Guiness...Hopkins...Howard...Kreeft...
Mahler...Maritain...Newman...Tolkein...Vermeer...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_converts
Beckwith...and now Koons.
How long will it be before Ralph Wood
http://www3.baylor.edu/~Ralph_Wood/bio1.htm goes swimming? What a wise and precious man he is! He's already been wading for a while under the Canterbury bridge. Is it just too hot in Texas, so that is why everyone is cooling off in the Tiber? And what about Jay and Jan? Sigh. Though they're way north of Texas, they've been residents of Canterbury for nearly 30 years now, almost all of them in the same parish, until the recent Troubles. Will the ECUSA conflagration force them to seek sanctuary in Rome?
Ah, Brad, according to Yahoo weather it is 79 degrees right now in Guam, and I expect you are enjoying some cool ocean breezes. No wonder you're so content! : ) Things can get downright scorching elsewhere, even here in Eugene! (But, as Steve would say, maybe I what I need is a stronger dosage of estrogen.) Meanwhile, I continue to splash my feet in Latin waters, (precisely because the company there is so compelling!) while always remembering that baptismal water originates from Christ's own pierced side.
I first encountered Koons through his Western Theism class notes at the Philosophy of Religion Hub http://startthinking.homestead.com/philrel_hub.html. Then every so often I would run into him at Leadership University http://www.leaderu.com/. HIs website has been listed on bibliographies for several of my own classes. http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/philosophy/faculty/koons/ I greatly respect him as a Christian scholar.
2) A comment on Koon's blog:
"I think God is doing something. There seem to be these huge shifts every 500 years. 1000 - East and West split. 1500 - Protestants split. Is it happening again now? Are we seeing the beginning of God's people finally coming back together in a visible way? What a great time to be alive! Congrats!"
Posted by: Tiber Swim Team 2007 May 18, 2007 6:42 PM
Beth: I've long maintained that God "broadcasts" simaultaneously on Three Channels. From about @ 500-1500 humanity was tuned in to the Father Channel. Then from @ 1500 -2000 we were tuned in to the Son Channel (the Reformation.) Since then we've been tuned in to the Spirit channel (Pentecostal-Charismatic movement). From my perspective, the splits happened when certain groups began receiving a "new" Voice and thought that it was
THE true Voice. The East-West split was just that: a split between two languages and cultures, not picking up a new "Channel."
However, I agree with "Tiber Swim Team 2007" that this is a great time to be alive. We are like Abraham, who saw the promise from afar: God is indeed gathering His people back together in a visible way. Chiasm isn't just a literary device!
3) "A Lutheran's Case for Catholicism" by Robert Koons http://utexas.edu/cola/depts/philosophy/faculty/koons/case_for_catholicism.pdf
Beth: I quickly skimmed this and intend to give it more attention once the Youth Garage Sale and the Senior Banquet are over. Koons clearly articulates the very things that have bothered me, and in good analytic fashion holds them up for examination:
(R)= Roman Catholic; (L) = Lutheran.
"Justification (R) = the whole process by which sinners are reconciled, redeemed, and made fit for eternal life. Includes sanctification and glorification.
Justification (L) = the process by which a sinner is reconciled to God, including the forgiveness of sins and the crediting to him of Christ’s own righteousness. Excludes sanctification and glorification, which are, however, inseparable effects of it.
Grace (R) = God’s supernatural assistance, poured into the believer’s heart, enabling him to possess the supernatural virtues of faith, hope and love.
Grace (L) = God’s favor and forgiveness, undeserved by the sinner
Faith (R) = the supernatural ability to believe what God has revealed through the Scriptures and the Church. Does not include hope and love (although it finds its natural completion in them).
Faith (L) = the supernatural ability to trust in God for one’s salvation. Includes hope and an attitude of trust and reliance in God.
For a long time now I have been persuaded that Christ's virtues are infused into us, not simply just imputed on to us. That alone puts me at odds with much of Protestantism. I am eager to read what Koons has to say.
4) Tomorrow's Lectionary reading: John 17: 20-26
20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
