Garry Wills

[Lion_of_Narnia]

Goya assumes I have not read Wills-but I have. In detail. He really is not worth the fuss other than the attention the largely Catholic hating media gives him, including reinforcing Wills self-declaration of himself as a “Catholic”.

Really? Seriously? If a particular Jehovah’s Witness suddenly says Jesus really is, fully is God and the doctrine of the Trinity is true, does ANYONE consider them to be a JW anymore (let alone the Board in Brooklyn)??? How about if a Mormon says , “Naw, Joseph Smith was NOT a prophet and the Book of Mormon is NOT inspired scripture”, don’t you think anyone who knows anything about LDS doctrine will NOT say that person has separated themselves from the CoJC&LDS??? But somehow, when it comes to Wills or the late Mary Daley, or anyone else of this ilk, they can spout multiple heresies from a strictly Catholic perspective, yet be declared “a faithful Catholic”

 

[Goya]

Lion of Narnia;12895454]

Goya assumes I have not read Wills-but I have. In detail. He really is not worth the fuss other than the attention the largely Catholic hating media gives him, including reinforcing Wills self-declaration of himself as a “Catholic”.

I made no such assumption.

Obviously we have different reactions to reading him.

C’est la vie.

Really? Seriously? If a particular Jehovah’s Witness suddenly says Jesus really is, fully is God and the doctrine of the Trinity is true, does ANYONE consider them to be a JW anymore (let alone the Board in Brooklyn)??? How about if a Mormon says , “Naw, Joseph Smith was NOT a prophet and the Book of Mormon is NOT inspired scripture”, don’t you think anyone who knows anything about LDS doctrine will NOT say that person has separated themselves from the CoJC&LDS??? But somehow, when it comes to Wills or the late Mary Daley, or anyone else of this ilk, they can spout multiple heresies from a strictly Catholic perspective, yet be declared “a faithful Catholic”

Well, to the JW or Mormon who’s sensitive about how the outside world perceives his religion, it might be problematic.

…but to the genuine, truth-seeking JW/Mormon, I suspect they would want to hear the arguments and weigh the evidence for themselves, before passing their judgment. Often times the juxtaposition of the a position, helps us to understand the position better than the position, laid out in a vacuum, or in isolation.

…and again, as I stated before, Wills migrated ‘off the res’, over a period of some 50 years.

By way of analogy, I’d volunteer the case of Origen. Origen was extremely orthodox throughout most of his career, and is often cited as a Church Father. Yet towards the end of his career, some of his views were perceived as heterodox, if not heretical. Yet Origen is still read.

Now, clearly Wills is no Origen…however, the analogy still holds. Some of Wills’ writings can be beneficial to analyzing the faith from a variety of perspectives. For instance, one needn’t suffer Papal Sin, nor Why Priests?–but works like What Jesus Meant, What Paul Meant, St. Augustine, St. Augustine’s Memory (translations of Books 10 and 11 from Confessions, with commentary), and such, can, and imo, are likely to, be very helpful to one’s faith development.

…and even the former two (the one’s which stirred up the most controversy–those, and Why I’m still Catholic) can be, to the duly disposed, truth seeking, faith matured, Catholic. He discusses compelling, contemporary issues in those. It may be prickly going through them, but still can be beneficial–at least to the properly disposed, mature of faith, genuine, Truth-seeking Catholic.

Peace.