Christ is Risen!
After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from...
View ArticleOn the Other Hand, Newsweek’s Christ. . .
. . . looks like he has trouble rising from bed, let alone rising from the dead. Yes, folks, it’s this year’s Newsweek cover story on Christianity for Holy Week. This year the honors fall to deeply...
View ArticleDid Jesus Have a Wife?
TV and news services are now humming with this story. A new fragment of a second-century (probably Gnostic) Gospel has been discovered, mentioning Jesus’ “wife.” Calling Dan Brown! Cue all the...
View ArticleGreat Stuff Going On . . .
Over at Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s place, in regard to the Gospels and myth, a discussion resurrected partly because of all the pre-Christmas interest in the historicity of the infancy narratives. My...
View ArticleHilarious Horus Video
Or: find out which ancient god Jesus was really copied from. Or not. Those brilliant Lutheran satirists have struck again. I thought this might be a nice warm up for the new movie Noah, and the related...
View Article“Borne Back Ceaselessly into the Past . . .”
This is the second installment in my series about myth. (See here for the first one: “It’s Exactly the Same Story!”). In this one I’ll try to define myth in preparation to looking at the Biblical...
View ArticleWhat is the Rite of Footwashing all About?
Pope Francis has once again arrested the attention of the world with another rogue footwashing — this year at a Rome center for the disabled. After the traditional Chrism Mass at a packed basilica...
View ArticleJesus’ Wife Makes A Comeback
A week or so ago, the news surfaced that testing on the famous papyrus fragment mentioning “Jesus’ wife” indicated it was ancient and not a forgery. Now today, we learn that the long-shelved...
View ArticleDistortions are Abundant in the “Jesus’ Wife” Documentary
Amid growing evidence that the controversial scrap of papyrus involved is a modern forgery (see here), the Smithsonian Channel is continuing with plans to air the long-delayed documentary “The Gospel...
View ArticleDr. Faust Goes to Eucharistic Adoration or, How the Black Mass Was Cancelled
Yes, I really, really enjoyed writing that headline. After Harvard President Drew Faust announced that while she wasn’t canceling the “Black Mass” event, the student club would be holding it solely on...
View ArticleHas the House of the Holy Family in Nazareth been Found?
Today (March 25), the feast of the Annunciation, is the day the Church celebrates the moment when the Word was made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Today the hearts and minds of Christians all...
View ArticleYes, The Holy Family Really Were Refugees (Part I)
President Trump’s refugee ban has brought the subject of refugees into Catholic internet commentary in a big way. I have been stunned by some of the arguments going around by anti-refugee people who...
View ArticleYes, the Holy Family Really Were Refugees (Part II)
My interest in writing about this was sparked in good part by the recent refugee situation, but it is a subject I have been studying for quite some time on my own; in fact, I hope to eventually turn...
View ArticleYes, the Holy Family Really Were Refugees (Part III)
In my last installment, I wrote about the Holy Family suddenly breaking off their flight at Ashkelon, and traveling to Hebron, where they “remained hidden” for six months. Why might they have gone...
View ArticleJesus, the Adulterous Woman and the Death Penalty (Part I)
Read Part II here Read Part III here The Problem A statement by Pope Francis has once again attracted controversy in the past few days – and this time it actually is a question of substance, based on a...
View ArticleJesus, the Adulterous Woman and the Death Penalty — Part II
When I first began researching this subject in the Fathers, I didn’t quite know what I would find. I wanted to gather quotes to show their interpretation of Jesus writing on the ground. But I found a...
View ArticleJesus, the Adulterous Woman and the Death Penalty — Part III
I was preparing to put up this third installment when the news about Pope John Paul I broke, so this is coming later than I had planned. [Part I] [Part II] The point of the objection raised by Edward...
View ArticleThe Perils of Pope Francis, Part I: A Lesson in Multiplication
I have been meaning to write this for some time, but many things intervened. At any rate, here it is, probably long overdue. Not long ago LifeSite News came up with a compendium: The ABCs of Our...
View ArticleDoes God Lead us into Temptation?
Pope Francis suggests that “lead us not into temptation” is not a good translation of the words in the Our Father. The news cycle has again been thrown into chaos. The internet has again erupted. It...
View ArticleBart Ehrman and Infancy Narratives — Part I
Read Part II here. Nothing is more predictable in the press than the race, every Christmas and Easter, to see who can throw the most doubt on the historicity of the Gospels. Much of it is recycled...
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