Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 56
February 14, 2015
Love and the Skeptic
(Photo: us.fotolia.com | © Masson)
I wrote this article about eight years ago, and it first appeared in the May/June 2007 issue ofThis Rock magazine (now called Catholic Answers Magazine). It was one of three articles on the theological virtues and apologetics, the other two being "An Apologetic of Hope" (Oct. 2006) and "Why Believe? An Apologetic of Faith" (Dec. 2007). Consider it a Valentine for all those who believe and all those who are skeptical.
Love and the Skeptic | Carl E. Olson
"The greatest of these," wrote the Apostle Paul, "is love" (1 Cor. 13:13). Many centuries later, in a culture quite foreign to the Apostle to the Gentiles, the singer John Lennon earnestly insisted, "All we need is love."
Different men, different intents, different contexts. Even different types of "love." You hardly need to subscribe to People magazine or to frequent the cinema to know that love is the singularly insistent subject of movies, songs, novels, television dramas, sitcoms, and talk shows—the nearly monolithic entity known as "pop culture." We are obsessed with love. Or "love." With or without quotation marks, it’s obvious that this thing called love occupies the minds, hearts, emotions, lives, and wallets of homo sapiens.
Yet two questions are rarely asked, considered, contemplated: Why love? And, what is love? These aren’t just good questions for philosophical discussions—these are important, powerful questions to use in talking to atheists and skeptics, for the question of love will ultimately lead, if pursued far and hard enough, to the answer of God, who is Love.
What is This Thing Called Love?
One man who spent much time and thought considering the why and how of love was Pope John Paul II. "Man cannot live without love," he wrote in Redemptor Hominis, his first encyclical. "He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it" (10).
That is a statement both St. Paul and John Lennon could agree with, for it states something that is evident to the thoughtful person, whether Christian or otherwise: I need love. I want to love. I am made for love.
But what is love?
"Casablanca": Love, Truth, and That Cosmic “Hill of Beans”
Casablanca: Love, Truth, and That Cosmic “Hill of Beans” | K. V. Turley | CWR
The 1943 classic offers a deep portrayal of love and the struggle to do what is right in the face of passion and temptation
This Valentine’s Day, there are movie theaters both sides of the Atlantic, in London and Washington DC, showing a film that for many is deemed to be amongst the most romantic ever made. (No, I'm not talking about that movie.) This famous film may be, however, a deeper exploration of the meaning of love than audiences at first imagine. And, as marriage is being attacked from all sides, Casablanca is worth revisiting.
Casablanca is more than just a movie. It is now a legend, almost a myth. Its world is as unreal to us today as, surprisingly, it was to audiences when it was released in 1943. Its background of espionage and world war was always more fantasy than it was historic. It is a hyperreality of sorts, with global conflict providing the backdrop for the deep emotions and the love triangle at the movie’s center.
Timely theme, timeless message
Watching it now, one is struck by how timely its themes remain, how modern its dilemmas, and above all how timeless its message: You cannot do right by doing wrong.
For all its legendary status, it is a movie that was “thrown together” rather than crafted with any foreknowledge—or even much of a plan, for that matter. Its genesis was the 1939 stage play, Everybody Comes to Rick's, by the then-husband and wife team of Murray Burnett and Joan Alison. The play was a moderate success, enough for it to catch the eye of Hollywood, which was always hungry for properties to turn into movies. Warner Brothers bought it and then turned it loose to its contract scriptwriters, as happened with so many other literary properties. In this case it was first with the Epstein brothers, who added some much needed levity; then it was sent over to Howard Koch, who put in the various political messages (such as they were) before it was bounced back to the Epsteins for some more light relief—and then back to Koch, and so on.
Did they think they were making a classic that would still be viewed some 70 years later? No, probably not. The creation of a 1940s Hollywood production line, Casablanca was just another movie, with little (so it appeared) to set it apart from anything else then in development.
The same lack of any sense of import was true also of the casting of the film's stars. George Raft, not Humphrey Bogart, was the first choice for the male lead. But Bogart was one of Warner’s’ contract stars and Warner had to find something for him to do, so he was eventually attached to the project. Unlike today, when some movie stars are barely willing to make one film a year, screen stars were then just another studio commodity and, like everyone else on contract, were expected to earn their money.
The other star, Ingrid Berman, was desperate to act in Casablanca, but not because of the movie; she was just desperate to escape into the fantasy world of film and away from an unhappy marriage in New York City. And, like Bogart, she was not a first choice; she wasn’t even really a “choice” as she was under contract elsewhere and only at the last minute was reluctantly loaned to Warners. In the end, both she and Bogart did what they had to do; they were distant with each other throughout, both distracted by unhappy home lives, with little by way of friendship between them when the cameras stopped rolling. Whatever chemistry did exist was confined to the screen, and was as fantastical as the movie’s sub-plot of the fabled exit papers needed to escape from Casablanca.
The other actors—Claude Raines, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet and Paul Henreid—turned up with varying degrees of interest, and did what they always did: gave first rate performances. All were essentially character actors, some of the best around, and they appeared in countless films. Thus, they had the advantage of steady and lucrative work but with none of the associated problems or projected fantasies that afflicted the leads. The film’s director, Michael Curtiz, was a Hungarian immigrant who churned out numerous films, some better than others, for Warners. A friend of the producers, Curtiz was an inevitable choice as director, if considered so on the basis of being a safe pair of hands. So, as the cameras rolled, it was just another movie on the slate, with a budget and a schedule to keep.
The central drama
The movie’s plot is simple enough.
February 13, 2015
Circling the New Geocentrists: An Interview with Karl Keating
Circling the New Geocentrists: An Interview with Karl Keating | CWR
A new book by the founder of Catholic Answers addresses the scientific mistakes, theological errors, and conspiracy-minded promoters of geocentrism
Karl Keating is founder and senior fellow at Catholic Answers (www.catholic.com), the country’s largest apologetics and evangelization organization, and the author of several books of apologetics, including Catholicism and Fundamentalism and What Catholics Really Believe. His most recent book is The New Geocentrists (Rasselas House, 2015). He spoke recently with Carl E. Olson, editor of CWR, about the book.
CWR: Your new book, The New Geocentrists, takes on a topic you’ve followed and addressed for many years. First, what is geocentrism? Second, when and why did you first become interested in it?
Keating: Just as heliocentrism is the theory that the Sun is the center of our planetary system, so geocentrism is the theory that the Earth is the center. Geocentrism is the ancient understanding, best known in the formulation given by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy. The Ptolemaic theory was modified substantially in the sixteenth century by Tycho Brahe. Most modern geocentrists adhere to a variant of the Tychonian theory.
My interest in geocentrism goes back to my university days. I took a course in the history of science from Prof. Curtis Wilson, then and until his death in 2012 considered the top American expert on Johannes Kepler, who started out as Tycho’s assistant.
In Wilson’s course we took the ancient observational data, worked through the calculations, and discovered that, as observations became ever more precise, the Ptolemaic and Tychonian theories failed to account for the movements of the celestial bodies. It was this failure that led Kepler to develop his three laws of planetary motion, and it was this course that sparked my interest in geocentrism.
CWR: Why the need for a book-length treatment of geocentrism and its main proponents?
February 12, 2015
Chesterton in Love
Chesterton in Love | IPNovels.com
St. Valentine’s Day is coming up this weekend, and thoughts of love are in the air. Now, he may not be the first figure to spring to mind when thinking of romance, but here he is anyway: G.K. Chesterton. He was an incurable romantic, and spent years of his life wooing his wife, Frances—long after he was married to her, in fact. Here is a collection of poetry snippets and anecdotes, drawn from Joseph Pearce’s biography, Wisdom and Innocence.
“Here ends my previous existence. Take it: it led me to you.”
—G.K. Chesterton, writing to his fiancée Frances
God made you very carefully,
He set a star apart for it,
He stained it green and gold with fields
And aureoled it with sunshine;
He peopled it with kings, peoples, republics,
And so made you, very carefully.
All nature is God’s book, filled with His rough sketches for you.
—Poem written for Frances Blogg by G.K. Chesterton
Continue reading at IPNovels.com.
Remarriage, Repentance, and Reaching Young Adults
People sing during a Mass for young adults at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York in December 2011.(CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)
Remarriage, Repentance, and Reaching Young Adults | Bill Maguire | CWR blog
Changing the Church's teaching about Communion and remarried Catholics would create a major obstacle to the catechesis and evangelization of young people
Having spilled some ink on the topic of civilly divorced and remarried Catholics and after closely examining the vast body of definitive Magisterial teaching on the subject, the following is clear to me: Civil remarriage is always an objective grave evil if the first marriage is valid; consequently, the reception of Eucharistic communion and the sacrament of Reconciliation is not possible unless there is repentance and a firm purpose of amendment, which means separation or in cases where this is not possible — i.e., where there are children born from the second union — the commitment to live in complete continence.
The Church’s definitive teaching is unambiguous on this point and cannot change — that is, cannot change without at the same time undermining both her competence and authority to speak about marriage and family in the first place. Thus, I would like nothing better than to move on to the real question at hand: What pastoral approaches can the Church develop as effective means to bring about the conversion and repentance of civilly divorced and remarried Catholics — i.e., separation and/or complete continence — so they are able to once again be admitted to the sacrament of Reconciliation and Eucharistic communion?
After all, the theme for last year’s Extraordinary Synod on the Family was: “The pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelization.” It would seem that two constitutive components of the Church’s mission to evangelize include: (1) the effort to persuade us to accept and conform our lives to the truth and beauty of God’s will; and (2) the effort to call us to repentance, to change those areas of our lives that contradict God’s will.
As Mary said at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). Or as Jesus himself said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mk 4:17).
With the publication of the Lineamenta for this year’s Ordinary Synod on the Family — which includes the rejected paragraph of the Relatio Synodi on the possibility of communion for the civilly divorced and remarried (n. 51), plus questions which call for yet further exploration of the topic — it seems, however, it is precisely these two components of evangelization (persuasion and repentance) that are off the table.
Now available: The "Beloved" Marriage Preparation books, DVDs, kits
New:
Beloved Couple's Kit - Marriage Preparation (Edition: Book/DVD Combo)
Available February 12, 2015.
This Couple’s Kit for Marriage Preparation includes everything a couple needs to experience the full power of Beloved— the 6-DVD set plus two Couple’s Guides for Marriage Preparation.
About Beloved:
You’re in love. You’re reasonably compatible. There’s a thrill and romance you enjoy. You want to spend the rest of your lives together. Getting married seems straightforward enough. But…
What if marriage is more than that? What if God has woven into the very design of your humanity a purposeful need and desire to unite you with another, creating something mysterious and holy? What if your marriage is designed to be a vital part of God’s work in the world?
In 12 sessions, Beloved explores the true meaning of marriage and how to live it out together. Here you’ll discover the deepest spiritual, emotional, and practical realities of marriage through Scripture, Tradition, and Church teaching. You’ll see firsthand how to experience the wonder, mystery, and joy of this sacrament—from that first “I do” through the rest of your lives.
This Couple’s Guides included in this kit will work with the accompanying videos to help you discover:
The Meaning of Marriage for You Personally
How Your Marriage Fits Into an Eternal Story
The Truth About the Bonds and Commitment of Love
God’s Plan for True Spiritual and Physical Intimacy
How to Communicate and Resolve Conflict
The Importance of Healing and Forgiveness
Tools for Protecting Your Marriage
Informative and inspirational, Beloved will prepare you to live out the Sacrament of Marriage profoundly, so that your love story is drawn ever more into the greatest love story of all… God’s own love for us.
This kit includes:
One set of the Symbolon: Beloved - DVDs
Two copies of the Symbolon: Beloved Couple's Guide - Marriage Preparation -- view sample pages here.
Related Products:
Beloved - DVDs - DVD
Beloved Couple's Guide - Marriage Enrichment - Paperback
Beloved Couple's Guide - Marriage Preparation - Paperback
Beloved Leader's Kit - Complete - Book/DVD Combo
Cardinal Arinze offers a beautiful reflection on consecrated life
San Francisco, February 11, 2015 – Since 2015 has been deemed the “Year of the Consecrated Life” by Pope Francis, this work by Cardinal Arinze is a very timely one - for this year, and for any time. A reflection on the consecrated life, the book Radical Discipleship
represents a beautiful way for faithful Catholics to participate in this Church-wide theme and celebration by coming to a deeper understanding of the consecrated life.
Radical Discipleship illuminates the vocation of the consecrated state and its presence in the Body of Christ, beginning with a brief look at its origins in Scripture and the early Church. The work then reflects upon the following:
• The different forms this radical life takes
• The population of consecrated persons in the Church today
• The recognition that the consecrated life has received from the Church
• The vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience taken by all consecrated persons
• Community life as it pertains to consecrated life
• The prophetic aspect of the consecrated life
• The impact of the consecrated state on the Church community and on society
Alongside these fascinating topics, Cardinal Arinze addresses some of the problems faced by consecrated people, and how these difficulties have led some to abandon this vocation. In examining the struggles specific to the consecrated state, the Cardinal seeks to encourage other consecrated persons to persevere in their vocation. He further calls the entire Church to support the consecrated life and those who have dedicated themselves to Christ in this way.
Although filled with substantive information, even the most involved sections are presented in an engaging, readable and reflective style. The book is not, as the Cardinal explains, “a dissertation based on deep research on the theology and canon law on the consecrated life”. Radical Discipleship is rather a reflection, written for consecrated people, other laity and clergy alike, and offers wonderful material for thought and prayer. It is Cardinal Arinze’s hope that his work will make the consecrated life “better understood, loved, lived and promoted”.
About the Author:
Cardinal Francis Arinze grew up in Nigeria, became the youngest Bishop in the world, and the first African Cardinal to head a Vatican office, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. His biography, God’s Invisible Hand, was published by Ignatius Press, as were his books The Layperson’s Distinctive Role, and Meeting Jesus and Following Him.
Review copies are available for this book. To request a review copy, please contact: Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press at (239) 867-4180 or rose@ignatius.com
Product Facts:
Title: RADICAL DISCIPLESHIP: Consecrated Life and the Call to Holiness
Author: Francis Cardinal Arinze
Release Date: January 2015
Length: 111 pages
Price: $11.95
ISBN: 978-1-62164-010-3 • Softcover
Order: 1-800-651-1531 • www.ignatius.com
February 11, 2015
"Fifty Shades..." and the Sexual Objectification of Women
"Fifty Shades..." and the Sexual Objectification of Women | CWR Staff | Catholic World Report
An interview with Catholic talk show host and author, Teresa Tomeo, about the disturbing "Fifty Shades of Grey" phenomenon
Teresa Tomeo is a syndicated Catholic talk show host and a motivational speaker with thirty years of broadcasting experience in both the secular and Christian media. She is also the author of several books, including Noise: How Our Media-Saturated Culture Dominates Lives and Dismantles Families, Newsflash: My Surprising Journey from Secular Anchor to Media Evangelist, and Extreme Makeover: Women Transformed by Christ, Not Conformed to the Culture. Her daily morning program, Catholic Connection, is produced by Ave Maria Radio and syndicated through the EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network.
In August 2012, Tomeo wrote a CWR article, “Grey is the Devil’s Favorite Color”, about the dangerous and degrading appeal of the Fifty Shades of Grey novels. The three best-selling books by E. L. James have now been published in 52 languages and have sold over 100 million copies worldwide. A major motion picture based on the first novel opens this weekend.
Tomeo recently spoke with CWR about the books and movie, why they are appealing, and why that appeal is so troublesome.
CWR: Why are so many woman attracted to the Fifty Shades of Grey novels, movie, and overall story? What are they looking for?
Tomeo: As a woman I have asked myself the same question: “What are they looking for?” I keep going back to the refrain in a popular 1980's country tune: women are looking for love in all the wrong places. There is a desire there, a natural desire to have a strong man lead. But because we have lost a sense of who we are—male and female made in God's image—we have confused sex with love, and now to the extreme of violent sex.
The good news in all of this is that the Church has the answers. We just need to be able to articulate them in a way the secular world can understand. That is why I always try to show evidence from non-religious sources; evidence that supports what we know to be true according to natural law.
CWR: Many defend or dismiss the degrading, even violent, practices depicted in the books and upcoming movie as simply “fun” between “consenting adults”. How do you respond to that sort of statement?
February 10, 2015
Love as Magic vs. Love as the Center of Life
Love as Magic vs. Love as the Center of Life | Roger Thomas | IPNovels.com
It doesn’t take much perception to see that in modern culture, romantic love is considered magic. Not merely “magical”, in the sense of a pleasant poetic attribute of a relationship, but actual magic, in the full sense that any true magician ever used the term. This is never articulated in any structured alchemical framework, but the assumption is there, woven into the romance novels and movies and songs: romantic love is an external force that acts upon parties, affecting them in ways over which they have no control. The phraseology used to describe parties under the influence of romantic love is nearly identical to that once used to describe people affected by spells. People are “smitten”, “entranced”, “overcome”, and “besotted”. This force is seen as irresistible, as something “bigger than both of us”. And, just like a spell or enchantment, this force is considered to have the ability to change people.
Raised as I was in our culture, I once bought into a lot of this, uncritically accepting this outlook because it was the only one presented to me. The stories I read and watched, and the poetry I listened to (mostly set to music), all reinforced the unexamined assumption that the mystical emotional force known as romantic love had the power to imbue existence with meaning and purpose, fulfill life, and actually change people.
The older I’ve grown and the more I’ve seen of life, the more I’ve seen that this outlook is shallow and detached from a realistic comprehension of human nature. But of all the magical powers attributed to romantic love, I’m coming to think that the most dangerous and deceptive is the idea that it will, of its own right, change a person. I’m not denying that romantic emotions like tenderness and affection can be catalysts for change. They can encourage and direct choices, and make it easier for a human will to make necessary changes to accommodate the beloved. But ultimately the decision to change, and the moral effort to effect that change, must rise from the will. No emotional tempest, no matter which direction it pushes us, can override our wills.
It seems to me that the false idea that romantic love can change people is the source of much disillusionment and bitterness. If I’m walking around thinking that I don’t have to put any effort into a relationship because, hey, love will keep us together, then I’m going to resent any suggestion that I should work to change myself for the sake of my beloved. Or if I try to change, under the impression that it’s really not all that difficult, I’m going to be disappointed and frustrated when the emotional wind dies (as it always does), leaving the sails of my will empty and forcing me to row the rest of the way. If things are going well at work and my wife is pleasant and the baby is being cute and happy, it’s easy to turn down the invitation to a night of cards with the guys to stay home. But if there are rumors of layoffs and the baby is teething and my wife is cranky and exhausted, doing the loving thing is going to take an effort of raw will. I will have to choose the proper action, unassisted by and possibly in opposition to how I’m feeling.
It would seem that this simple reality would be so obvious as to be undeniable, but again, the stories we tell ourselves have a powerful ability to shape how we interpret our experiences. Valentine’s Day is approaching, when what was once the feast of a Christian saint has been coopted to do homage to the illusory magic of romantic love. We will again fill our minds with stories of how hardened corporate magnates (or flighty playboys, or professional street gamblers, or whomever), some with a history of perverse and manipulative relationships, are magically transformed into faithful and responsible monogamists by the sheer power of romantic love. When this is the litany which is recited nonstop, how does one deal with the bitter reality that romance, of itself, changes nobody?
One way of dealing with it is to tell ourselves better stories.
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