Why does the Church authorize four Gospels? Of course there were many other versions, and some of them, surely, contained useful details. And, on the other hand, if we could not be permitted to read a dozen, why not one comprehensive story, which would avoid confusion and discourage the sneers of skeptics who search the texts for discrepancies?
Imaginary Conversation between an imaginary philosopher—let’s call him Socrates—and an anonymous Pontifex Maximus of Republican times—let’s call him Frank.
The end of a war often is the nastiest part. Look at the Afghanistan fiasco just over two years ago. Or the helicopters lifting off from the U.S. Embassy in Saigon in 1975, followed by the exodus of the Boat People…. Which is why the Ukraine War, as it enters its final phase, could get nasty.
One systemic problem, which the reformers tried to correct, (without conspicuous success) is the oversimplified syntax and avoidance of complex sentences. The English translation is childish and simplified–a series of simple sentences, which lack the dignity and grandeur of the Latin
Latin is not a magic bullet that will kill the demons destroying Christendom. But it is a fact that so long as the literate classes of Europe and North America were brought up learning Latin, writers knew how to write clearly and effectively, and even ordinary people who had studied 4 years of Latin were more open to logical argument, more interested in truth than educated people are today
Then it should be obvious to all that clarity, one of the rhetoricians’ requirements for good prose, is particularly important in translations of Scriptures and liturgies. Another primary requirement, correctness, is related to clarity, because languages with prescriptive rules are less ambiguous than languages where “I say potayto, you say potahto,” and where a majority of speakers do not know the difference between relative clauses introduced by which and those introduced by that.
Ronald Reagan won the presidency in 1980 with much help from pro-lifers. They expected him to appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices who would overturn the anti-constitutional Roe v. Wade decision, which had aborted all state laws, including those that had legalized abortion.
In this brief episode, Dr. Fleming explains a method he recently used to deliver some of the best turkey breast he’s ever had. He also holds forth on green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, and pecan pie.
Latin has been the language of the Western Church for roughly 1500 years, but it has also been the language of western Christendom, by which I mean the Christian civilization that incorporated the best of the Greek and Latin pagan traditions, Christianized them, and created that great glory we call the Dark Ages or the Middle Ages, but which we should call the Christian Age, the age of Dante and St. Thomas.
The Central Regime Establishment now is pushing Nikki Haley as the alternative to Trump. Ron DeSantis has fallen from favor for not doing well in the polls, not backing the Ukraine War, and not being charismatic. Ed Kilgore in the New Yorker is typical, “Haley Is on the Brink of Croaking DeSantis.”
