This is the free first hour, while the full interview is for paid subscribers. To hear the full interview, subscribe here for 4.95 a month with access to the archives. Note: There was a technical issue in terms of sound for the first 20 minutes, but this gets corrected. Fr. Chris Moody is a Greek…
How would Thomism possibly lead to Enlightenment Deism/Atheism? By: Jay In my twenties, I was completely invested in the fortified religio-philosophical system known as Thomism. Catholicism was a massive castle of argumentation that was impenetrable to any skeptical challenger that might bombard the system with (what I assumed were) futile attacks. I recall reading Umberto Eco…
Problems in Thomism By: Jay Dyer Part 1: God In disputes over the essence – energy distinction there is much confusion. I recently read through several more pages of God, History & Dialectic by Dr. Joseph P. Farrell and have come across some enlightening points that I hope will further the dialogues and debates. In…
By: Jay Dyer “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” -Romans 1:20 Almost a decade ago I was confronted with a challenge to my Augustinian and Thomistic…
By: Jay Dyer When Western theology attempts to understand and interact with Eastern Orthodox theology’s distinctions, it is generally dismissed as “Palamism” – some form of obscure, medieval Byzantine mysticism. Upon deeper reflection and the realization the Eastern Fathers all teach a distinction between essence and energy in God, in our watered-down ecumenical morass, it has become…
How did the West’s centuries-long journey from the Christian faith rooted in the tradition of the Church slide into atheism and outright theomachy, the war against God? In my twenties, I was … Source: How the West Became Atheist
By: Jay Dyer Assessing the problems in American public education and academia elicits standard responses that are generally trite and multitude. “Lack of funding,”, or “adequately trained teachers,” often round out the usual replies, yet system-generated solutions to the perceived problems are always external in nature (especially given the problems are themselves system-generated). The…
By: Jay Dyer There are numerous misunderstandings surrounding the subjects of Genesis, creation, evolution, science and theology, which muddy the primordial goo even further than it already was (if only it was real!). From reliance on naïve positivism and empiricism to assumptions and equivocations over terms, the standard debates on these issues are often ill-served…
By: Jay Dyer The appeal of anarchism is understandable, especially in our day of what seems to be spectacular corruption on the part of members of the establishment. In the online-fueled furor of Ron Paul’s libertarian surge in 2008, those left hanging in the wake of Campaign for Liberty’s ability to change nothing were looking…
By: Jay Dyer Appearing to conclude the Daniel Craig 007 reboots, SPECTRE has not just premiered to a no. 1 global status, but as could be expected, also gave quite a few insights into the nature of real geopolitics and espionage that only the Bond films can do. Here at JaysAnalysis, I had a suspicion…
Tim Kelly asked me back on to his podcast to discuss history, stagecraft, the Vatican, medieval philosophy and Thomism, hylomorphism, Aristotle and the medieval synthesis, nominalism and realism, the analogia entis, the Summas, scholasticism, the imperium, church history, Augustinianism, anthropology, Anselm and Ockham, Luther and Calvin, the scientific revolution and humanism, eastern theology, naturalism, Christopher…
By: Jay A philosophical thought for the day: One of the central, most basic and ancient questions of philosophy is that of the one and the many. In my undergraduate days, I spent a lot of time focused on this question, and to some profit. This question even transcended cultural barriers and mysteriously appeared in…
By: Jay Phaedo is the dialogue of Plato that concerns Socrates’ final words. The discussion revolves around a proposal by Socrates’ associates to defend his views of the afterlife and the immortality of the soul, followed by a counter argument by a Pythagorean, and a final rebuttal by Socrates before the recounting of his drinking the hemlock. A great read, the…
By: Jay The torture is about to commence, as we will soon be subjected to an endless barrage of dispensationalist and millennialist advertising and propaganda, as the Left Behind series makes its way to the big screen. A genius move by Nic Cage and the filmmakers, the ridiculous, utterly unbiblical films will make hundreds of millions,…
By: Jay Dyer I have written on scientism lately, and in the archives several more critiques of scientism and naïve empiricism (its presupposition) are available. The question then arises as to how are we to replace this bad, contradictory narrative of man’s “progress” with something better. Is there an answer elsewhere? Can claims of religious…
By: Jay Dyer When considering the question of “proofs” for the existence of God, the history of argumentation has often been lacking. The dialectical relationship of the empirical/materialist tradition debating with the idealist/Platonic tradition is a perennial feature of the history of western philosophy. Modern “New Atheists,” for example, are eager to pounce on flaws…
γνῶθι σεαυτόν By: Jay Certain snotty critics in a forum posted a criticism of my Thomism article, where I looked at the flaws in Thomism that led to, I believe, to Enlightenment scientism. That’s a good segue into the next topic I’d like to expand upon, integrating the recent articles and interviews I’ve done on the mystical, magic mirror theme. On top of…
Or, The Enlightenment rationalist laid bare By: Jay An interesting discussion/debate recently transpired. A friend who is a scientific “skeptic” discussed his dubious demeanor in terms of there being advanced secret technology for two reasons. First, such “conspiracies” are doubtful because they are “theories” and come from persons who want to promote a certain worldview (namely a conspiratorial…
All the best of Jay’s own articles, papers, essays, analyses and reviews of philosophy, history, geo-politics, theology, literature, and film are here. Jay’s Analysis has reached millions in a few short years. Subscribe to Jay’s Analysis for more! Philosophy, History and Literature: –Raping Nature: Wells’ Island of Dr. Moreau and Ritual Bio-engineering -H.G. Wells’ Time Machine and…
By: Jay Dyer Plato, Philo, Plotinus, Dionysius, Augustine, Basil, John of Damascus, Maximus the Confessor, Isaac the Syrian, John Scotus, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure and many others all profess a doctrine of divine exemplarism. This is Plato’s forms or universals or logoi as located in the divine mind or essence (depending on whether it’s Eastern or Western). The problem will be, however, whether this can work as an epistemic…
Critical Ruminations By: Jay Being a big fan of Eco, I like Eco’s critique of being. Not generic being, but the convertibility of being in Aquinas. I like being, too. In his The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas, Eco proposes that beauty cannot be convertible with being and that this is a defunct concept that fell the…
By: Jay Dyer “…The Divine Nature cannot be apprehended by human reason, and…we cannot even represent to ourselves all its greatness.” -St. Gregory the Theologian St. Gregory of Nazianzus is one of only two Doctors/theologians to be called “The Theologian” (if you’re a westerner), as was bestowed upon him by the Fifth Ecumenical Council. The…
By: Jay Dyer As is evident in conversations with both unenlightened Catholics and Calvinists (but especially Calvinists), the starting point of theology – the ordo theologiae is radically different. The West starts with the nature and “attributes” of God for the most part, which are attributes of God’s simple essence. This is clear in Berkhof, Hodge,…
By: Jay Dyer Basically, the argument is that in the reformed view of imputation, the “righteousness” Christ earns via His keeping of the law is *not a righteousness based on His divine energy (since that is denied in reformed theology). So there are two options for what this “righteousness” He merits in fulfillment of the…
N. writes: No offense Jay, but you are operating on multiple, severely flawed groundworks. For example: 1) Thomas never taught God was like a blob of jello such that ‘Father = Son’. That is a unfair cariacture of texts like ST 1-39. You are not accepting “Father is God” is what Thomas is saying, just…
By: Jay Dyer When Taylor Marshall and crew originally fussed about this, they were content to dismiss it as “Palamism” – some form of obscure medieval Byzantine mysticism. Now, after more reflection and realizing that the Eastern Fathers all teach a distinction between essence and energy in God, it’s now become an exercise in seeing…
