Mid-Term Update

As today was my first day of classes after our ten day break I thought I would give you all a brief update on the status of my classes at the (roughly) halfway point of the semester.

German: The class is still painfully slow, but I've been getting up early everyday to study German on my own with the aid of the Rosetta Stone CD-ROM (generous gift of Fr Gerald). This has been helpful and I think I will make some good progress, but it is frustrating for me inasmuch as I am used to studying grammar much more formally (as in Latin).

Ancient Political Philosophy: Having finished Plato's Republic, we have moved into the first book of Aristitle's Politics. One of the highlights of book one is Aristotle's famous assertion that "man is a political animal." That is, man is by nature designed to live in community with others.

Natural Philosophy: In this class we have been reading Aristotle's Physics for a few weeks already and are neck deep in his doctrine of matter and form. In fact, the paper assignment for this class is on that very topic. Simply put, the fact that change is a reality, that things do change from being one thing into being another, shows quite conclusively that all natural things (excluding God and angels) are composed of matter and form. If one denies that things are composed of matter and form one must also deny the existence of real change. The existence of change is thus the death blow to strict materialism.

Ecclesiology: City of God: We are almost finished with book XIV of this monumental work of St. Augustine. Having already argued that the worshipping the pagan gods (demons) gains happiness neither in this life (bks I-V) nor in the next (bks VI-X), St. Augustine has now almost completed his discussion of the origins of the City of God and the City of Man (bks XI-XIV). He has dealt both with the fall of the angels and with the fall of man, devoting considerable time to the mysterious question as to how a good will, whether human or angelic, could choose an evil act. I have all but decided to write a paper on this, in part because of the importance of the subject, but also in part because it's something I've thought and written about before. As such it will require less time and work, thus leaving me more free to devote myself to a paper on the Atonement, my real interest, for another class.

Synoptic Gospels: Jesus of Nazareth by Josepf Ratzinger has occupied most of our attention in this class so far. I read today the first half of chapter 9 on St. Peter's confession of faith. Once again, as he does in literally every chapter, Ratzinger looks at the event through the lens of the sacrificial death of Christ on the Cross. The recurring theme in this book is, such and such an event can only truly be understood in light of Jesus' sacrificial death on the Cross. I couldn't have asked for a better term paper assignment for this class. We are to write on the mystery of the atonement. What did Jesus do on the Cross? The question is immensely important, one might even say crucial, and affects one's understanding of almost every aspect of the Faith. I am looking forward very much to writing this paper, focusing especially on Ratzinger's understanding of the atonement.

Prophets: Instead of meeting twice a week for 1:15 each time, this class has evolved a once a week affair at varying times. The class is taught by the President of the Institute who has many other things on his plate so we get shuffled around a bit. Right now we are wrapping up Jeremiah and embarking on Ezekiel. It has been quite a whirlwind tour.