Category: Philosophy
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The Dog, Butterfly, and Owl
One day, as Dog was walking around his big green yard, a Butterfly landed on his nose. Dog squinted. “Hello friend,” Dog said. “How are you today?” Butterfly fluttered her wings nervously. “Hello. I am not feeling so well today. My friends and I must travel a great distance and we fear the Great Owl…
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A Theology for the Homeless (from a Philosophy for Dogs)
In graduate school, I wrote a master’s philosophy thesis on the concept of animal souls, ethics, psychology, and other related things. One of the most outstanding things I discovered during the writing process is that many philosophical and theological authorities attest to psychological continuity between humans and non-human animals. (Yes, even Aquinas! [i]). Basically, what…
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Calling of Devotion: Discerning the Charisms of Franciscan Spirituality
Introduction My wife and I have been discerning a call to religious life — that is to say, we’re currently discerning a call to a religious and spiritual way of life in one of the Church’s Third Orders. Before my wife and I married, we discerned the possibility of a religious and spiritual way of…
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The Judgments of Conscience
I’ve enjoyed reading about the life of St. Thomas More, in, Saint Thomas More: Selected Writings (New York: Vintage Spiritual Classics, 2003). What I enjoy about this book, besides the excellent editing work of John Thornton and Susan Varenne, is the preface to the book, written by the Jesuit, Joseph W. Koterski. In the preface,…