Translation: The Only Sacred Language of the Church
Over 30 years ago, I wrote a piece on the importance of the Latin language as cultivated in the Middle Ages (more recently republished here). I still hold, without reservation, to the views I presented in that article. They concerned the importance of any classical language – that is, one no longer used in popular […]
E o Verbo se fez infante
Quando olhamos nos olhos de um infante, vemos alguém que vê coisas que nós não vemos mais. Os globos oculares são límpidos, livre de auto-reflexão, olhando para fora e vendo o mundo como realmente é, sem as nuvens de disfarce e interpretação, mesmo quando olhando para você (algo meio inquietante). Estudos recentes na psicologia infantil […]
And the Word was made an infant
When you look into the eyes of an infant, you see someone who sees something you are no longer able to see. The orbs are clear, free of self-reflection, looking outward at the world as it really is, unclouded by disguise and interpretation. This is true even when they are looking at you – a […]
Deste lado da glória (contra um equívoco eucarístico)
O nascimento do Cristianismo está, de modo irredutível, e – entre as religiões do mundo – de forma exclusiva, centrado em um evento. Trata-se, em primeiro lugar, não apenas de um ensinamento a ser aprendido, nem de um exemplo a ser seguido, tampouco de um preceito moral ao qual se deva aderir (várias outras religiões […]
The Nestorian Stele
After making my way from Beijing, Mount Tai, Qufu and Harbin in the east of China, I took a plane to one of the country’s former capitals, Xi’an. This was home to the massive translation project which taught Buddhism the Chinese language. That was in the mid-centuries of the first millennium A.D. I had come […]
Amor e união – apenas sinônimos?
Há uns 40 anos passei duas horas conversando em Kalady, Índia, com esse monge da Missão Ramakrishna. Eu havia estado doente por seis semanas antes desse encontro, de modo que estava mais magro e pálido que o usual. O monge era amável e muito disposto a conversar. Então, durante o chá, discutimos os méritos comparativos […]
The Past – behind us temporally, around us spatially
In a world that glorifies the future, treasures progress and tends to look down its nose at the past, we are presented with a literally astronomical paradox. Since the Age of Discovery and its disclosure of ancient cultures, along with the revelations of archaeology and paleontology in the last 200 years, knowledge of our chronological […]
O passado – atrás de nós no tempo, em volta de nós no espaço
Em um mundo que glorifica o futuro, que valoriza o progresso e que tem a tendência de desprezar o que veio antes, existe um paradoxo literalmente astronômico. Desde as viagens de descoberta a partir do século XV, e as revelações da arqueologia e paleontologia dos últimos dois séculos, o conhecimento do nosso passado cronológico tem […]
The Faux Humility of Arrogant Scientism
Carl Sagan (1934-96) Humility is easily the most basic of the virtues, as charity is the highest. They are similar, however, in one thing. Both must display their acts with a self-forgetfulness and spontaneity that is spoiled by any semblance of design. The words “I love you” ring hollow unless they emerge from the mouth […]
Things We Cannot Learn from the James Webb Telescope
For two of my adolescent years I was convinced I would become an astronomer. I even saved up over 200 dollars to buy a reflector telescope. Although other intrusive events of the 1960s soon diverted my attention – I ended up using the money to buy a guitar – I have remained a keen amateur […]