What's the point of the Assisi Event?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Stefan Gillies on October 29, 2011 at 14:58

This statement from the Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI in Assisi...
"Yet I do not intend to speak further here about state-imposed atheism, but rather about the decline of man, which is accompanied by a change in the spiritual climate that occurs imperceptibly and hence is all the more dangerous. The worship of mammon, possessions and power is proving to be a counter-religion, in which it is no longer man who counts but only personal advantage."

Ties in with something I was reading on Fr Robert Barron's 'Word on Fire' blog,

"...atheists have come rather aggressively out of the closet. Following the prompts of Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Bill Maher, and many others, they have found the confidence to (excuse the word) evangelize for atheism. They are no longer content to hold on to their conviction as a private opinion; they consider religion dangerous and retrograde, and they want religious people to change their minds.
This fervor has led them, sadly, to employ a good deal of vitriolic rhetoric, but this is a free country and their advocacy for atheism should not, of course, be censored. But it should be a wake-up call to all of my fellow religionists. We have a fight on our hands, and we have to be prepared, intellectually and morally, to get into the arena.
Most of the new atheists employ variations of the classical arguments of Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud, namely, that religion is a pathetic projection born of suffering, that it is an infantile illusion, that it is de-humanizing, etc.
How well do Christians know the theories of our intellectual enemies? Can we identify their blind-spots and the flaws in their logic? Have we read the great Christian apologists -- G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, Ronald Knox, Fulton Sheen -- and can we wield their arguments against those who are coming at us?"

Back on the subject of peace and justice I found this unofficial translation of the note on the reform of the international financial and monetary systems in the context of global public authority, released Monday by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace an inspiring read with solid proposals for a global way forward...

 

read it here

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Celia Blackden on January 18, 2012 at 16:01

Thanks for your thoughtful reply, Stefan. I have had limited time to Connect, but might be able to do more this year.

Best wishes. Celia

Stefan Gillies said:

This statement from the Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI in Assisi...
"Yet I do not intend to speak further here about state-imposed atheism, but rather about the decline of man, which is accompanied by a change in the spiritual climate that occurs imperceptibly and hence is all the more dangerous. The worship of mammon, possessions and power is proving to be a counter-religion, in which it is no longer man who counts but only personal advantage."

Ties in with something I was reading on Fr Robert Barron's 'Word on Fire' blog,

"...atheists have come rather aggressively out of the closet. Following the prompts of Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Bill Maher, and many others, they have found the confidence to (excuse the word) evangelize for atheism. They are no longer content to hold on to their conviction as a private opinion; they consider religion dangerous and retrograde, and they want religious people to change their minds.
This fervor has led them, sadly, to employ a good deal of vitriolic rhetoric, but this is a free country and their advocacy for atheism should not, of course, be censored. But it should be a wake-up call to all of my fellow religionists. We have a fight on our hands, and we have to be prepared, intellectually and morally, to get into the arena.
Most of the new atheists employ variations of the classical arguments of Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud, namely, that religion is a pathetic projection born of suffering, that it is an infantile illusion, that it is de-humanizing, etc.
How well do Christians know the theories of our intellectual enemies? Can we identify their blind-spots and the flaws in their logic? Have we read the great Christian apologists -- G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, Ronald Knox, Fulton Sheen -- and can we wield their arguments against those who are coming at us?"

Back on the subject of peace and justice I found this unofficial translation of the note on the reform of the international financial and monetary systems in the context of global public authority, released Monday by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace an inspiring read with solid proposals for a global way forward...

 

read it here

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion