Category: Catholicism

Mary, the New Eve

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It is a common misconception that, when people convert or revert to the Catholic Church that they only do so when they fully understand all of the Church’s doctrine. This certainly was not true for me. I had come to the point of recognizing that Sola Scriptura made little sense and that Christ founded a visible Church. However, there were many of the Catholic Church’s teachings I didn’t really understand. For me, most of these difficulties surrounded the person of Mary. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the Catholic fascination with the mother of Jesus…

All this started to change when I discovered Biblical Typology and started to see Mary pre-figured in the Old Testament. I have written before about how Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant and how this helped me to understand Mary’s Holiness. I have also written about how Mary is the Queen Mother and how this aided my understanding of her as intercessor. Today I would like to write about another very important parallel which I discuss in the talk Mary & The Early Church. Once I began to see Mary as the New Eve I began to see the significance of Mary in the story of Salvation History…

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Bad Islamic Apologetics

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I was in an apologetics discussion group and someone posted the following:

I told the members of the group that I didn’t like this line of argumentation. Several people responded by saying that since the Qur’an claims that there are no contradictions within its pages, the passages cited above were clear evidence that the book is not of divine origin.

In reply, I explained that they were interpreting the Qur’an in a way which forced a contradiction and then declared it to contain contradictions. I pointed out that they would never accept a Muslim exegeting the Bible in this way.

Even without digging into the context of these passages from the Qur’an, it seemed immediately obvious to me that the statements could very easily be harmonised by simply recognising that “first of” can mean “foremost among”. This would mean that, according to the Qur’an, Moses declared himself to be foremost among the believers of his time and Muhammad made the same claim for himself in his own generation. Interpreting the passages in this way eliminates the contradiction.

There are many apparent contradictions in the Bible, but careful exegesis can show this not to be the case.  If you wouldn’t accept bad methodology when interpreting the Bible, you shouldn’t force it on the Qur’an….

Tuesdays With Morrie

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Today I’ve been tidying up my room and trying to do a bit of a purge of all the junk which one somehow incessantly accumulates. Appropriately enough, as I was going through my bookcase, I came across is Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. It recounts the story of Mr. Albom’s visits to see his former college professor during the last months of life. It’s a pretty short book and, while I don’t agree with all the content, it does retain a special place in my heart. In particular, the opening chapter still makes me “mist up” a little…

The last class of my old professor’s life took place once a week in his house, by a window in the study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its pink leaves. The class met on Tuesdays. It began after breakfast. The subject was The Meaning of Life. It was taught from experience.

No grades were given, but there were oral exams each week. You were expected to respond to questions, and you were expected to pose questions of your own. You were also required to perform physical tasks now and then, such as lifting the professor’s head to a comfortable sport on the pillow or placing his glasses on the bridge of his nose. Kissing him good-bye earned you extra credit.

No books were required, yet many topics were covered, including love, work, community, family, aging, forgiveness, and, finally, death. The last lecture was brief, only a few words.

A funeral was held in lieu of graduation.

Although no final exam was given, you were expected to produce one long paper on what was learned. That paper is presented here.

The last class of my old professor’s life had only one student. I was that student.

Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie (Chapter 1 – The Curriculum)
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