Video Meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

Going to the 20th century for theology is like going to a hospital for the food, or studying the Chemistry of the 13th century. Our age (the last two centuries or so, but mostly the last 50 years) is surely a golden age for technology and medicine- so much so that it is mostly unnecessary to study any of the medicine or technology that came before it. But the genius of theology belongs to The Church Fathers and the 13th century theologians-and we must live in the thought of that era if we want to see theological reasoning at its best. - commenter on Pontifications

Do not approach the mysterious words in the Scriptures without prayer and without asking help from God, saying: Lord, grant me to perceive the power that is in them. Deem prayer as the key to the insight of truth in Scripture. - St. Isaac of Syria

Possessing sentiment without being sentimentalist, its forays into emotion include the lamentation, the humorous, the humorous lamentation, and the embarrassingly humorous lamentation. For the Cowboy Poet the West is always lost, or being lost: the kids are moving away from the ranch, the cattle are dying, Geronimo's gone, and those damn city folk are moving in... - Kevin Jones of Philokia on a cowboy poet symposium

Story of a Soul is, in my opinion, the single most important Catholic Book of the Twentieth century. Despite the problems with the writing and with some of the ways Therese expresses herself, her radical re-visioning of the person of God is foundational to a true spirituality. Without it, you're still talking to the man with the long white beard. - Steven Riddle of "Flos Carmeli"

Must we not concede–as I think is important to point out (think about the implications of this)–that how grace works in us must be mostly invisible, i.e., unseen or unaccounted for by us? (Consider how often many operate according to the opposite notion: a kind of WYSIWYG approach.) - Fr. Martin Fox of "Bonfire of the Vanties"

Rahner’s way of using philosophical notions to examine and explain the content of faith is not St Thomas’. I might put it this way: St Bernard of Clarivaux didn’t approve of Abelard, but he might see his way to accepting St Bonaventure or St Thomas. And surely on the other side St Bernard could feel at home with, say, St Isaac the Syrian? There’s a good way to use philosophy in theology and a bad. (St Bonaventure is arm in arm with St Bernard in protesting the improper use of philosophy and pointing out the dangers of exalting reason above its proper sphere: just look at his Collationes In Hexameron! Nevertheless his writings are full of theology which is very philosophical, and it’s often on strictly philosophical grounds that he attacks the heterodox.) To my mind, in the past century or so the ones who have demonstrated the good way are more likely to be philosophers by profession than theologians. I’m thinking of people like Maritain or my teacher Jerome Sokolowski. The ones who exemplify the bad way tend to approach theology using bad philosophy or no (explicit or recognized) philosophy and condemn themselves to failure from the beginning. - commenter on Pontifications

I would mark the turning point in our understanding of the Lord near the turn of the 20th century, with the still quiet voice of a young French girl hidden away in a cloister of little importance in the small French town of Lisieux. This young girl, raised in the Jansenist, puritanical vein of the Church vouchsafed us all a glimpse of what God is really like, and her revelation, prophet-like received the endorsement of the Church first with her nearly unprecedentedly rapid canonization and then with her elevation to Doctor of the Church. She didn't invent anything new, but she showed in a new light what had been proclaimed since the time of Jesus...We understand Him now as we do largely because of the synchronicity of St. Therese of Lisieux, Blessed Dom Columba Marmion, and St. Pius X. Together the three of these, and probably a host of others, converged upon the vision of God the Merciful and loving Father. The Holy Spirit reawakened this knowledge in a very special way for all of us moderns. And we would do well to recall it frequently - Steven Riddle

Your character was formed at a very young age and you've been set in your ways ever since...Just remember...that Purgatory's a place of hope, not despair. - William Luse of "Apologia"

Why choose one when you can have both? I’ll take Schleiermacher AND Barth, Rahner AND von Balthassar, Tracy AND Schillebeeckx and all the rest.” As Allan Bloom says in his great book, The Closing of the American Mind, under today’s dictatorship of relativism “The principle of contradiction has been repealed.” - commenter responding to italicized on Pontifications

One of Rowan Williams’ finest essays to my mind is his essay on ‘Rahner and Von Balthasar’, tipped in favor, if I remember correctly, of von Balthasar because, in the main, of the way Balthasar’s theology is attentive esp to the tragic. The end of the essay has a terrific line that is applicable to much theological reflection and ecclesial practice...The gist of the remark by Williams is that ‘Von Balthasar’s greatest fear is that Rahner commits the most understandable but blasphemous error (in his account of a self already reconciled to God) namely, he presumes to love the world more than the Creator himself.’ - commenter on Pontifications

Concerning the von Balthasar-Rahner dichotomy and the difference in their method: I believe it is rather well known the extent to which literature, music, and art influenced von Balthasar’s more “poetic” theologizing; but i once heard that when Rahner was asked “What do you read when you aren’t reading theology or philosophy?” he replied “….Nothing….” Tis why I too find von Balthasar easier to love. - commenter on Pontifications