CADRE Comments

The Copenhagen Post recently ran a story entitled Horoscopes bigger than Jesus that I found rather interesting because of some underlying implications in the article. The article reads: Astrology sites on the internet [sic] are more popular in Denmark than traditional religious websites Over 13,000 Danes check their horoscopes every day on the internet [sic], according to the nation’s largest search engine, Jubii.dk. That number makes astrology more popular than any other religion - at least on the internet [sic]. And considering the figure does not include those who use the traditional method of checking their horoscopes in the daily newspaper, the true number of 'church of astrology' members could be far greater. 'Denmark is following the international trend that shows astrology is the most popular religion on the internet,' Kirstine Munk, religion researcher at the University of Southern Denmark, told MetroXpress newspaper. 'Christianity comes in second place....

1. The Pope's Call to Return to Christian Humanism Catholic WorldNews, in an article entitled European universities play key role in reviving Christian humanism , reports that Pope Benedict XVI is calling on the universities to help revive Christian humanism in Europe -- a continent steeped in secular humanism. Pope Benedict XVI met on Saturday, June 23, with a group of professors and administrators of European universities, and told them that they would play a critical role in helping European society through a "massive cultural shift." Europe today, the Holy Father said, suffers from "a certain social instability and diffidence in the face of traditional values." He said that Europe, where Christian humanism developed, needs to recover from the effects of a newer trend in humanism that aspires to build a new culture separate from the old Christian foundation. The great universities, the Pope said, were built on "the conviction that faith and reason are me...

I am presently reading through Francis Schaeffer's How Should We Then Live? , subtitled "The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture". In this book, Schaeffer examines the way in which cultural worldviews have led to the rise and decline of various civilizations. The second chapter tackles the Middle Ages and the lessons about world views to be learned from that history. In addition to the book, Schaeffer has also produced a video series by the same name. While I find the book very interesting, he has made a statement which I think may lead to some confusion about the views of St. Thomas Aquinas. Specifically, Schaeffer says: Aquinas's contributions to Western thought is, of course, much richer than we can discuss here, but his view of man demands our attention. Aquinas held that man had revolted against God and thus had fallen, but Aquinas had an incomplete view of the Fall. He thought that the Fall did not affect man as a whole but only in part. In his view...

One of my favorite books on Christianity is actually three books: The Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy . The Trilogy consists of three of Schaeffer's works in one volume: The God Who Is There , Escape from Reason and He Is There and He Is Not Silent . Recently, I have been reading another Schaeffer book, How Should We Then Live? , subtitled "The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture". In this book, Schaeffer examines the way in which cultural worldviews have led to the rise and decline of various civilizations. The first chapter tackles the fall of the Roman Empire and the lessons about world views to be learned from the history of ancient Rome. In addition to the book, Schaeffer has also produced a video series by the same name. Yesterday, I learned that that the first tape of the video series is available on the Internet here . The series, as is common for Schaeffer's works, assumes that the reader/viewer has a working knowledge of history and philosophy sin...