"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Over the last month or so, I have been involved in quite a few online discussions about abortion and I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect upon a few of the interactions as several of them involved strange arguments and bewildering claims…
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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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Today Matt and I finish up last week’s recording by reading some listener mail.
S2E33: The State of the Podcast and Listener Feedback (Download)
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Time Stamps
04:31 – Remaining Season 2 episodes
13:10 – A new logo?
14:14 – Getting an audio engineer!
19:06 – Lewis Symposium
19:27 – “Hallow” deal
20:45 – Listener reviews
38:40 – Listener questions
It’s been a while since Matt and I got behind a microphone together. Today we bring you up-to-speed with what’s been happening in our lives. We had intended to also read some listener messages, but we ran out of time. We’ll do that in the next episode!
S2E32: “Season Finale” (Download)
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Time Stamps
01:21 – Drink and quote of the week
05:12 – The Ordered Liberty podcast
06:33 – Why we drink “on air”
11:17 – Taylor Swift
12:04 – Matt has moved to Michigan
15:18 – Preparation for “Till We Have Faces”
16:14 – Lord of the Rings update
17:20 – Free “Hallow” trial
19:30 – “The Beautiful Depths” podcast
21:17 – Recent interviews
24:07 – Losing my job
30:05 – Book winner
33:52 – G.K. Chesterton competition reminder
At the beginning of Season 2, I interviewed author Patti Callahan about her latest book, Becoming Mrs. Lewis. Now at the close of the Season, Patti returns to talk to Matt about her own podcast, Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis.
S2E30: “After Hours” with Patti Callahan (Download)
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Time Stamps
01:00 – Matt’s Introduction
02:47 – Drink and quote of the week
06:57 – Overview of “Becoming Mrs. Lewis”
10:37 – Joy, the false self and “Till We Have Faces”
19:39 – Lewis’ own journey
21:44 – Lewis, personal faults and Mrs. Moore
27:05 – What has happened since your last appearance here?
30:46 – How did this new podcast come about?
33:11 – Who will you be interviewing?
37:41 – Joy’s poetry
41:07 – What did you learn in the process of putting together the podcast?
43:40 – Will there be a movie of the book?
48:43 – How has this project transformed you?
49:56 – Patti’s talks at an upcoming retreat
54:16 – What else is on the horizon for you?
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….
Several times on Pints With Jack I have spoken about another podcast, “Unbelievable?”, hosted by Justin Brierley. Earlier in this Season I spoke about reading Justin’s book, remarking on the considerable number of C.S. Lewis quotations found throughout.
Following that episode, Justin and I connected on Twitter and I invited him onto the show to talk about C.S. Lewis, his faith, his podcast and his book.
S2E30: “After Hours” with Justin Brierley (Download)
If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe manually, or any place where good podcasts can be found (iTunes, Google Play, Podbean, Stitcher, TuneIn and Overcast).
Time Stamps
03:20 – Drink-of-the-week and quote-of-the-week.
04:44 – Justin’s faith journey
08:30 – What was the genesis of your show, Unbelievable?
12:08 – Who have been some of your most memorable guests?
13:37 – How do you stay so calm during the debates?!
17:07 – What motivated you to write your book?
19:11 – Why is God the best explanation of human existence?
25:05 – Why is God the best explanation of human value?
30:19 – Why is God the best explanation of human purpose?
35:03 – Why does materialism undermine reason?
39:25 – How can we come to understand who Jesus is through Lewis’ Trilemma?
42:45 – How can you defend the Resurrection with the “Minimal Facts” approach?
52:26 – What does it mean to live in the Christian story?
55:03 – Upcoming “Unbelievable?” Projects
58:55 – Competition Details