Under What Circumstances: #1

Is it acceptable to punch someone violently?

I'm not asking if it would be legal, I'm asking if there's a circumstance that would make it moral, or even obligatory, civil law aside. Note that the qualifier of violently is added to ensure we are not speaking of merely jovial and fraternal punches, which are a trivial case to my mind.

Let's play "construct the example" here. I'm not trying to argue for a non-Catholic ethic, and "punching people is intrinsically immoral" is an option, but I'm going to want a defense of that.

CAPTCHA

It's here.

I'm sorry. I know it'll create a mild annoyance. I had thought about doing it for quite some time, because I'm sick of dealing with foreign-language spam ads masquerading as comments.

Some of you might be wondering what I'm talking about because you've never seen said comments. That's because I clean them up completely.

The other option here is comment moderation, but IMHO the CAPTCHA is preferable because (a) I don't have to deal with Japanese porn, or whatever the heck is being advertised, and (b) comments will show up when they are made, not later.

Christian Unity ToC

Day 1 I introduced my reasons for the week, which included a desire to do something to contribute to the general projects and prospects of Christian unity. I linked a Peter Kreeft speech that day.

Day 2: Nate Hill--a guy I went to church with once upon a time--wrote a guest post on multiple types of unity--from person-to-God to ecumenism between religions.

Day 3: I offer a reflection on what Christian unity means in terms of unity of the Scripture and the Sacraments.

Day 4: Katie Stevens--another person I know from my old home church--gives a few of her thoughts on unity in action and in Christ, on her blog just me and who i am.

Day 5: I reflect on a brief bit of writing that N.T. Wright did on unity of action in the context of discussing the authority of the Scriptures, in his book The Last Word.

Day 6: A link to a 1974 document in which leaders of Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism made a concerted effort to see whey could agree on theologically.

Day 7: My old roommate Tyler Paradis wrote a guest post drawing on his experience as one of four leaders of an ecumenical worship and spiritual growth event at the University of Portland.

BONUS: From my one-time classmate (Philosophy of Religion, y'all) Kevin Johnston's blog Sola Nobilitas Virtus comes this post about unity of values in opposing the world's sins.

If any 'bonus posts' show up, they'll be added to the table of contents as well.

Small Layout Difference

I made a picture for our top and widened the blog a little. In the picture, Austin's on left, and I'm on the right. Enjoy.

Brief Semi-Correction and Credit

While Roger Pearse definitely played a role in my thought I realized on some rereading of a section of Mark Shea's By What Authority? that the bulk of the line of argument I gave as "theory #2" in the post on the Early Church was actually taken from Shea's description of such arguments as gathered from his Protestant brethren.

A Heralding of a New Type of Post

I'm going to start doing a thing here where I attempt to start a peculiar event known as a conversation. Using a Wikipedia article. Please do feel free to contribute. I shall cite a Wikipedia article and attempt to either comment on the subject myself or provide someone else's hopefully better comment on the subject. I was moved to do this now so that I could do it before Mike Schmitz went to the novitiate and would no longer be able to participate.

I ask that you at least consider, if you saw this on Facebook, responding here and not there; either way I will ask that you permit me the privilege of incorporating your response into the post (or Austin or Mike, should they want to make a post of their own of this type in the future.)

Now the general format will be as follows.

Wikipedia article link.

"Perhaps unwittingly bad quotation regarding subject of Wikipedia article."

Discuss.

After which you are permitted to discuss the subject with or without reference to whatever the heck I just said, because what I just said, as I just said, is likely to have been quite stupid.

This is discussion! It is not debate unless it is made so, but at any rate let it be Christian.

I intend to make these posts at least once a week. I hope I will embarass Austin into productivity and perhaps embarass Mike into posting one before he disappears into formation. Stay tuned! This post will come next in the line of Dan Lower postings.

Coming in 2008

In an effort to make sure I stay awake/aware at Sunday night mass I'll be doing a brief analysis of all the homilies I hear on Sunday night or the Monday morning after. I'll also be taking Suffering and Death and Christology as my theology courses, so there'll be some extra fun there. I'll let Xeirx add his piece as he sees fit.