Well, I don't usually share a lot of personal stuff here in the community, but you may be wondering what's going on with me, so I thought I would give a couple of updates.
The insurance adjusters are going to be taking stock of the damage in our home, which will eventually lead to a ballpark estimate on when it will be habitable again. The good news is all my books survived, and all of our irreplaceable personal or sentimental items also survived. No losses that a check from the insurance company can't fix. Once there's nothing else I can do but wait, I will make the trip over to the Philippines to join my family.
In the meantime, it looks good for our grandson to be getting his visa to come to the US this month, and while there are a few hoops to jump through still, in God's timing, this might all come together at about the same time, and then we will all come back to a newly renovated home, whenever it's ready. Hopefully that will be by the end of this month, but it very well might not be. (And as if that wasn't enough travel, I'm supposed to go to a conference in Oxford in August).
Thankfully, I worked ahead and recorded the podcasts for July, so those are "in the can" as they say. (That means finished and ready to go, not that I recorded them in the bathroom, though the acoustics might be good there). On that note, the podcast series on The Heresies has a new episode coming out on Wednesday, then three more episodes, I think, and then a wrap-up/conclusion episode. From there I'm going to back to the lesser-known (but still important) Church fathers - the ones Mike didn't do in his seasons - and after that we will begin a longer series on the Doctors of the Church.
As far as the community here, and The Journey (Saturday Bible Study), it looks like the return date for that will depend on when we get back into our home (and when I have access to my books). So your prayers are appreciated for all the travel and logistics, and I can say I'm really longing for the day when my family is together under one roof again.
In the meantime, feel free to post here - talk amongst yourselves - and I will chime in as I get the opportunity to check the feed. I hope you're having a great summer (I hope it's more relaxing than mine!). Ciao!
Here's a short (about a minute) video I took going around the Holy Column in the church of Santa Prassede. This is the column that Jesus was tied to when he was scourged by Pontius Pilate. They don't always have the barrier down, so you usually don't get to see it from all the way around. I wanted to get video of the whole thing all the way around because I ran across a note in an ancient document that said that those who made a pilgrimage (at that time to the Holy Land, since it was still in Jerusalem) could visit the Holy Column, and could see marks left from the hands of Jesus where he gripped it as he was being whipped. I assume that this is pious legend, but I figured since the column has that dark & light marble, maybe there's a place where the dark parts look like hands. I did not see it, but if you do, let me know!
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
Here is our next set of texts - as we get into John chapter 6, we first encounter Jesus feeding the multitudes - in this case 5,000 families!
Now, as you know, there is also an account o Jesus feeding 4,000, and so you may also know that some scholars might speculate that these are just different versions of the same story that circulated and were handed down orally, until they were written down. Even the fact that both stories occur in the same gospel would not stop that kind of speculation. So I thought the first question I would have to ask was whether the Church fathers thought this was one event or two - BUT (and you see where this is going) I forgot that Jesus himself makes reference to two separate events (in Matthew 16 and in Mark 8) so there is no question for the Church fathers - these are two separate events. So it seems that Jesus performed this sign (miracle) of the feeding of the multitudes on two occasions. It's not just one event told two different ways, and it's also ...
My voice was still recovering from a bad cold, so not sounding my best, but this was a great conversation about pilgrimage, for the Jubilee year - more of this coming in other interviews! (FYI, I think I was the third of three guests that day, so you will have to fast forward to find me)
It seems that one way or another we need to talk about different kinds, or different levels of heresy. What I have been calling heresy vs. heterodoxy, others call heresy on fundamental doctrines vs. heresy on less fundamental doctrines. In other words, Heresy with a capital H (over fundamental doctrines like the Trinity and christology) are the kinds of heresies that move one outside the boundaries of what Christianity is, and that's because the very definition of Christianity is defined according to these fundamental doctrines. To refuse to sign the Creed at the Council of Nicaea in 325, or the Council of Constantinople in 381 - and indeed to reject any of the contents of the Creed today - means that a person is NOT a Christian.
So are the non-chalcedonians, such as the miaphysites (including St. Gregory of Narek, and today's Coptic Christians) - are they heretics? Well, like it is with a lot of things, that depends on your definition of heresy. If you include in your definition of ...
