Philosophers, Prophets, Rival Popes

 Saints Pontian and Hippolytus were adversaries in the Church of the 3rd century.   Hippolytus went so far as to separate from the Catholic Church and become an antipope, because of what he regarded as the laxness of the current pope.

Pontian was one of the popes during the anti-papacy (there were about 5, all saints and martyrs.   He was sentenced to the mines along with Hippolytus, and the two became friends.   Both eventually died and were canonized.

They seem like good patrons for our troubled times.  I wonder if Pope Francis and Archbishop Vigano will rejoice together in heaven?   

Here are the links for today.   I journalled "in the night watches". 

Since I'm sitting with Aidan and very tired after neither of us sleeping much, I'll write out my Bee University links listed above, at least so far, as of 10 am.   

I woke up thinking about Truth and whether Seifert's logic dilemma on Amoris Laetitia could be encapsulated by the principle of non-contradiction.   After rereading, it seems maybe yes, maybe no.   I tracked down the references within AL 303.   One was to the synod's relatio finalis and that in turn led to Pope John Paul II's Familiaris Consortio.  

Seifert's point is that the justification for a state of objective sin as "what God Himself is asking" opens the door for a thorough revision of moral doctrine.   There is nothing in the rule that would not apply equally to unmarried sexual relationships, homosexual ones, or indeed pedophilia or to professional hitmen.    The only difference is a kind of sentimentality and probably an implicit reliance on the secular "consent among adults" ethic, though he doesn't discuss this part at all.  He wants to stay zeroed in on the logical element.  

The part I was thinking about is the point he doesn't dwell on, probably taking it for granted that his fellow theologians already took a basic logic course.   That is, that truth can't contradict truth.   Or to put it the way I was thinking it, the principle of non-contradiction trumps papal statements as such.    IT regulates them, in fact.    This is not private judgment -- this is basic Church doctrine.   The judgment part comes in when you try to decide if AL303 does in fact contradict moral tradition, or if there is some sort of reconciliation process, some way to hold them together under a bigger thing.   

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After I read these things, I turned to my email and X, and read some articles listed at BU, mostly focusing on this one:

https://whatweneednow.substack.com/p/between-philosophy-and-prophecy

It is about the role of journalism in today's culture, by Christopher Altieri,  comparing the journalist to the prophet and the philosopher -- not saying that they are the same thing, but saying that in certain respects they are all undertaking the same types of questions. They are concerned with reading the signs of the times and going behind what is happening to deeper "What" questions -- at least, if you are going by the type of philosophy described by Eric Voegelin, a political philosopher: 

 In The New Science of Politics: An introduction, the great 20th century political philosopher Eric Voegelin put the matter this way: 

As for the subject matter, it is nothing esoteric; rather, it lies not far from the questions of the day and is concerned with the truth of things that everyone talks about. What is happiness? How should a man live in order to be happy? What is virtue? What, especially, is the virtue of justice? How large a territory and a population are best for a society? What kind of education is best? What professions, and what form of government? All of these questions arise from the conditions of the existence of man in society. And the philosopher is a man like any other: as far as the order of society is concerned, he has no other questions to ask than those of his fellow citizens.

Altieri points out that these are all "what" questions, or can be reframed that way, and in that regard, philosophy's inquiries are targeted in a way compatible with the inquiries of the journalist.

I do not know what I think about Voegelin's thoughts, but the topic is interesting especially since bloggers are a kind of journalist.