Said quote:
"in Pascal and in the whole Augustinian stream of Christian thought, you find this idea of a mind in profundity; of a mind folded back in the intimacy of itself which is touched by a sort of unconsciousness, and which can develop its potentialities by the deepening of the self. And that is why the grammar of Port Royal, to which you refer, is, I think, much more Augustinian than Cartesian."
Hi I’m a Protestant and I have a question about baptism and how it’s understood in the East. I understand the logic behind Augustine’s theology of baptism as a washing away of your original sin which prevents the child from going to hell if it dies as a baby. But I’ve been told that’s not the official view of the Eastern church and there is no requirement that you believe it and I guess even some Pope’s and other high level clergy in the Catholic Church have tried to distance the Catholic Church from the view. So if you’re not of the same view of baptism as Augustine then what’s the theological understanding for baptism for Eastern Christians? Obviously Jesus told us to do it so we do it but has there been a strong explanation for what the purpose is besides Augustine’s theory? The best idea I could think of is that it’s the formal ceremony for admittance into the Church.
My first question is about how Bishops are selected. What is the process for the selection of Bishops and does it differ at different levels? For example how is an auxiliary Bishop for somewhere like New York or Los Angeles or Chicago get selected? How does that process differ from someone who is the Bishop of an average diocese like in Arkansas or North Dakota or West Virginia? Then how does that differ from the process for the selection of a Bishop of a major diocese like New York, Boston, DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Seattle? At each of these levels do the processes differ across different countries? So would the system for selecting all the types of bishops be different in the US, Mexico, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Poland, the Philippines, Australia, or Portugal? Is there some sort of committee that looks for qualified candidates and does something like a job interview before sending a list to the Pope who then makes the final pick? How does such a candidate get found? Can a priest put his own name forward as a candidate or does he have to get nominated by someone else?
My second question is about baptism. I understand the logic behind Augustine’s theology of baptism as a washing away of your original sin which prevents the child from going to hell if it dies as a baby. But I’ve been told that’s not the official view of the church and there is no requirement that you believe it and I guess even some Pope’s and other high level clergy have tried to distance the Church from the view. So if you’re not of the same view of baptism as Augustine then what’s the theological understanding for baptism? Obviously Jesus told us to do it so we do it but has there been a strong explanation for what the purpose is besides Augustine’s theory? The best idea I could think of is that it’s the formal ceremony for admittance into the Church (at least in the broader sense since Protestant baptisms are considered valid under Catholicism).
Hello, I would like to know if you guys new any good defense of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints that actually addressed non-Reformed Augustinian and monergistic critics (like Augustinian Roman Catholics and Lutherans) instead of dealing only with Arminian one.
Cheers!
Anyone here know of any books that do a good job guiding readers through the contours of the whole controversy between Augustine and Pelagius? Preferably something that gives more context on all of their writings than what you'd find in a general church history overview. (But I'm also not looking for PhD monographs or anything THAT technical.) I'm wanting something to supplement my own reading of the primary sources as I go, and that might be useful if I were to ever teach a class/small group specifically on the topic.
Were there ancient forms of baby formula? Did their babies eat solids before ours do?
When it comes to contemporary Christian philosophy and theology, I see plenty of Thomists but very few Augustinians. Why is this?
From what I gather, Aristotelians/Thomists/Christian Neoplatonists generally hold to the idea that universals and forms subsist in God's intellect. The problem is that there seem to be multiple distinct forms, and they seem to be distinct in mind-independent reality (eg. the form of a dog and the number two). This, of course, would entail a plurality within God and deny divine simplicity. The only way out is to say that the forms are not really distinct.
If we're going to say that the form of a triangle and the form of a dog are not really distinct, then how can we still be realists about universals? A Scotistic formal distinction seems to provide a way out, but most Thomists seem to want to avoid that.
So that leaves me with two questions:
- How do A-T's account for a multiplicity of forms subsisting in the divine intellect?
- Why are there the distinct forms there are? Why is there the form of a dog? Why is there circularity?
Hi I’m a Protestant who’s looking into becoming Catholic and I have a question about baptism. I understand the logic behind Augustine’s theology of baptism as a washing away of your original sin which prevents the child from going to hell if it dies as a baby. But I’ve been told that’s not the official view of the church and there is no requirement that you believe it and I guess even some Pope’s and other high level clergy have tried to distance the Church from the view. So if you’re not of the same view of baptism as Augustine then what’s the theological understanding for baptism? Obviously Jesus told us to do it so we do it but has there been a strong explanation for what the purpose is besides Augustine’s theory? The best idea I could think of is that it’s the formal ceremony for admittance into the Church (at least in the broader sense since Protestant baptisms are considered valid under Catholicism).
Hi I posted the following question on the main Catholic subreddit recently and was hoping that I could get an Eastern Catholic perspective on it as well. I copy and pasted the text below.
Hi I’m a Protestant who’s looking into becoming Catholic and I have a question about baptism. I understand the logic behind Augustine’s theology of baptism as a washing away of your original sin which prevents the child from going to hell if it dies as a baby. But I’ve been told that’s not the official view of the church and there is no requirement that you believe it and I guess even some Pope’s and other high level clergy have tried to distance the Church from the view. So if you’re not of the same view of baptism as Augustine then what’s the theological understanding for baptism? Obviously Jesus told us to do it so we do it but has there been a strong explanation for what the purpose is besides Augustine’s theory? The best idea I could think of is that it’s the formal ceremony for admittance into the Church (at least in the broader sense since Protestant baptisms are considered valid under Catholicism).
Hi I posted the following question on the main Catholic subreddit recently and was hoping that I could get an Eastern Catholic perspective on it as well. I copy and pasted the text below.
Hi I’m a Protestant who’s looking into becoming Catholic and I have a question about baptism. I understand the logic behind Augustine’s theology of baptism as a washing away of your original sin which prevents the child from going to hell if it dies as a baby. But I’ve been told that’s not the official view of the church and there is no requirement that you believe it and I guess even some Pope’s and other high level clergy have tried to distance the Church from the view. So if you’re not of the same view of baptism as Augustine then what’s the theological understanding for baptism? Obviously Jesus told us to do it so we do it but has there been a strong explanation for what the purpose is besides Augustine’s theory? The best idea I could think of is that it’s the formal ceremony for admittance into the Church (at least in the broader sense since Protestant baptisms are considered valid under Catholicism).
