The First Three Commandments (Loving God), Response to Immoral Authority, and the Tie between Philosophy, Art, and Christology

Published by Published on

1. Briefly summarize how the first three commandments call us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Mt. 22:37). 

In especially these three first commandments, we are called to renounce worldly beliefs/concerns/acts and, in their place, order our lives unto belief in God (John 15:13; Philippians 2:8 RSV). These commandments, as we have previously discussed, are concerned with living as true Christians. Insofar as we live with Jesus as Lord of our lives, recognizing and referring to Him as He truly is, and ordering our week (celebrating His death and resurrection) to resemble His mysteries, we truly live as “other Christs”. In this way we truly live in/for faith, hope, and love; with not just our hearts but also our minds and thereby with our entire being. Upon this full gift of life, we participate in the ultimate act of Jesus, “laying down one’s life” for our Friend and becoming “obedient to the point of death” (Matthew 16:25; Philippians 4:6-7). Via these actions, we have enacted the supreme act of Love and did so with faith in the hope of life.[1]

2. Describe the duties of citizens with respect to civil authority. How are citizens obligated by God to respond to directives of civil authority contrary to the demands of the moral order?

Human society cannot thrive without “legitimate authority”.[2] Authority is only legitimate when it seeks the common good via moral means.[3] If an authority moves contrary to these legitimizing factors, it undermines its own authoritative potency and ability. Whenever morality is breached, it is always at someone’s expense. Whenever it no longer serves the common good, it is at the expense of many. Therefore, it is rightful for the citizens to act against the breach of morality and/or lack of serving the common good.[4] If a government seeks to make its citizens obedient, then it must become the “servant of all” (Mark 9:35; cf. 1 John 3:16). 

3. Summarize how Ryan Topping says modernism and postmodernism have gone off track in regards to understanding creation, beauty, and art. Do you agree or disagree with his thesis? Why or why not? (Rebuilding Catholic Culture)

Modern art and philosophy sought to be liberated from the confines of dimension, purpose, and religiosity. As this liberation was accomplished, it was as a submarine freed from water, a plane liberated from the sky, or a building escaped from its foundation. This art, in its modern expressions, has been losing its appeal to its observers. This appeal is the tendency of a work to bring pleasure upon sight, which is beauty.[5] I agree with Ryan Topping's analysis of modernity’s effects. I find that art liberated from the expertise of previous artists, especially in the field of Architecture, is a start from ground-zero. Philosophy removed from Christ is little different than Satan’s desire for freedom from Creator as creation. Philosophy’s escape from Truth (Himself) and art’s escape from beauty (the result of God’s action) end in the same result, void of their intent, and purpose. 

I am afraid the loss of direction in modern art and philosophy is even more fundamental than the loss of direction. The phrase “where God is gone, man is going” finds an application. It is as a vine branch that losses its vine, because without Christ we have no harmonious and life-giving center. (John 15:5 RSV) Indeed, not only is there a loss in direction but also a loss of life. It stops art and philosophy’s growth in its tracks, and the darkness of death replaces the life it once had. In the effort to increase this life, without God, they utterly lost it. (Genesis 2:16-17)

FN: 

  1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 1994), 2087; _Catechism of the Catholic Church_, 2090.; _Catechism of the Catholic Church_, 2093. 
  2. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1897. 
  3. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1902-3. 
  4. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2242. 
  5. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae,  I, q. 5, a. 4, at New Advent, www.newadvent.org. 

I am a Theology major attending Holy Apostles College and Seminary. I am a Knight of Columbus and a Newman Ambassador for Pius XII Newman Center.

Most Viewed Posts

Psychological Therapies and Catholic Anthropology: A Comparative Analysis

Published by Published on
Image
Psychological therapy often faces stigma, to the point are some people are skeptical about its value or concerned it contradicts their faith. However, therapy is a powerful tool for addressing mental and emotional struggles, offering healing that goes beyond just the mind. While secular therapies, such as Freud's psychoanalysis, Adlerian therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy, can provide practical solutions, they often do not fully align with the Christian understanding of the human person. Catholic anthropology, which views humanity as a unified being of body, soul, and spirit in relationship with God, provides a more complete framework for healing. Secular therapies may help with emotional pain, but they typically overlook the spiritual and redemptive dimensions of human life. True healing, from a Catholic perspective, involves recognizing both our current struggles and our ultimate destination in communion with God. As Scripture teaches, authentic freedom is intertwined with...
Click Here to Continue Reading This Post

Law & Virtue: Freedom Refined for True Goodness

Published by Published on
Image
The Seven Virtues, Piero and Antonio Pollaiuolo and Botticelli Depicted from left-to-right: Fortitude ~ Temperance ~ Faith ~ Charity ~ Hope ~ Justice ~ Prudence If you have ever observed a significant amount of rhetoric on any contentious issue, then you would have observed an attempt to frame an objective reality subjectively, some ad hominem attacks, and even some conclusions/premises posed without evidence. This comes largely from the cultural inability to either form arguments or a disbelief in objective reality. However, more fundamentally, there is hardly ever a common definition of freedom. What is freedom, and do we have it? True freedom is the aspect of rational man to choose the good (according to the nature of a thing, in that it is some way desirable and that it has its essence in completeness or in that an action contributes or derives from the completeness of an act, thus an act not completely good is evil and it correspond to an imperfection in the actor and lacks being ...
Click Here to Continue Reading This Post

The Deeply Biblical Celebration: Part 1-The Start of Mass

Published by Published on
Image
The Mass is as old as the Eucharist itself. Extending back arguably to the feeding of the thousands, but definitely and sacramentally, to the Last Supper which is intimately united with Our Lord's Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Therefore/Thereby, the Mass is not only Biblical but is a living and perpetual extenuating of the essential/substantial nature of what scripture is and does. The next few posts will discuss not only the significance of the parts of the Mass and the words they use but also their intensely Biblical roots. In this post, let us look specifically at the first parts of the Mass. The Introductory Rites, as we call them, draw us to be one i.e the One Church, but most importantly one with God, and this movement is deeply scriptural. NOTE: the point of posts like this is to give you a guide to enter in Biblically into this mystery not so much to reveal a mystery but point toward it in a way that will allow the reader to be able to intentionally enter into it in a n...
Click Here to Continue Reading This Post