/lit/ - Literature

>>10203254
REMINDER that Peterson is a Lutheran crypto-Gnostic and is spreading interpretations of the Bible that are deliberately de-mystified.

>>10163687
>inability to control desires
>implying this exists

>>10147070
Good news my brothers! I have received word from St. Gabriel that Based Benedict will save Western Civilization on the next full moon, but only if you type "BLESS YOU BASED BENEDICT"

>>10126173
>implying we don't deserve worse

Distributionism when?

>>10033659
What a total fucking joke you are. You'll be cast into the everlasting fire along with all the rest of the atheists, when Christ comes again in glory. "Aesthetic value"? You make me vomit. Crawl on your hands and knees and beg a priest to give you the Eucharist, then I'll take you seriously.

>>9968602
Yes, but there is only one correct Choice.

There is no escape for the atheist.

>>9934151
This. Everyone needs to realize that Francis, and his buddies Marx, Schonborn, etc., aren't some bad new turn for the Church. More than anything, they're a last gasp. These guys are the ass end of the Vatican 2 generation of priests and bishops, and they're trying as hard as they can to ram through the most heterodox, "open" interpretations of the council as they can before they all die. Many men younger than them in the clergy came up through John Paul and Benedict, and they are far more conservative. The whole reason Francis and his cabal are going all-out is because they know this is their last chance.

But if we hold the line now, and weather the storm, brighter days are ahead.

>>9907629
But you must believe, Anon. You must accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. That's the only way any of any of this makes any sense. Don't forget about people who doubt, like >>9907673 . And, moreover, don't worry about whether you've convinced themo or not; rather, answer them for your own sake. All the way back to Saint Paul, Christians have maintained a real, genuine belief in the Resurrection, and the divine power of Christ. This is what makes the Catholic Church so great, and what allows it to endure. The Church has not forgotten that Christ is Risen. This offends and shames so many people, but the Church proclaims it anyway. Even when everyone who is "sensible" declares it superstition and delusion, you must proclaim that Christ is Risen. Without it, nothing the Catholic Church does makes sense. With it, everything the Catholic Church does snaps into focus. It's the skeleton key that unlocks the entire millennia-long history of the Church. The truth of Christ's Resurrection makes sense of everything in Catholicism, even the puzzling, baffling things.

>30
>Grad student/retail salesman/writer
>"Jesus of Nazareth" by Pope Benedict XVI

And for the last question, I'd say that thanks to /lit/, thanks to my own personal life changes, and thanks to being in grad school, I'm deeply devoted to reading truly great literature now. I appreciate it a lot more now than I did even in my early to mid 20s. I feel like I sort of "leveled up" when I hit 27 or so, if that makes any sense. Also, I bring a much stronger religious sensibility to my reading than I used to, because in that same time period I've become a much more devout Catholic than I used to be, despite being born into the faith.

>>9875184
My dream is to make a living as a writer, and create great art. I actually write plenty right now, but I haven't gotten much published so far. My dream is to write masterpieces. Maybe I've written a few already, we'll see.

>>9863881
When capitalism belches and rolls over and dies the Church is going to be waiting for the survivors with food and blankets and the Rosary.

>>9797700
You mean the Gospels where Christ institutes the Church upon the head of Peter, and also initiates the Eucharist, which is his literal body and blood?

>>9762995
Don't worry, his writings will live on and shape the Church for centuries to come. Actually, on that note, maybe some works for OP to read are Benedict's "Jesus of Nazareth" books.

It sounds like Nietzsche just never got touched by the Holy Spirit. Assuming he really means what he says when he doesn't understand how a German could be Christian.

The dirty little secret of Christian preaching is that, far from bringing earthly peace, if you genuinely follow and proclaim the Gospel you're bound to stir up quite a bit of trouble. Secular authorities (and nearly all authorities are secular, especially these days) don't take kindly to some of the stuff in the Beatitudes or the idea that people can be the subjects of a king whose kingdom is "not of this world."

Christianity faithfully followed can seriously stir up some shit. That's what that passage means. It's great.

>>9624998
I have not read Girard, but I'm thinking I need to. He seems deeply interesting.

I'll get to him when I'm done with Benedict's "Jesus of Nazareth" books. Thanks for the recommendation.

>>9604981
The Miracle of the Sun doesn't make me "happy." It fills me with fear and joy, as do all miracles.

If you read your Benedict XVI you'd know that the two cannot be separated. Just as Christ completes the Law and the Prophets, the New Testament completes the Old.

OP, all I'll do with my writing is try to convince you of the truth of Christianity. That would, indeed, make you feel less alone. I suspect you're not interested in that, though.

>>9309055
It is pretty cool, I'm not going to deny that.

The trick is to remember that the aesthetics don't exist just because. Everything has a reason for being the way it is in Catholicism. That's part of why the aesthetics are so powerful. They're purposeful.

All these quotes structured like this have caused me to drill down to the real problem with atheist/theist dialogue. Atheists begin from the proposition that God doesn't exist, right? So they say "Why didn't God do this?" "Why hasn't God done this?" They put forth these ideas that seem logical and straightforward to them, and they press them onto God. On the other hand, theists proceed from the idea that God exists. They don't have to question God's existence, he's really real and actually present in the universe (or outside it, as it were). Therefore, to them, asking why God doesn't do such-and-such is a strange question, because it's like asking why your friend or your neighbor or some politician hasn't done such and such. Why hasn't Merkel done this? Why did Bono do that? The answer is that we can't always fully answer. We can deduce things logically, and we can hazard guesses, but we can't answer definitively because we can't peer into their minds. It's the same with God. There are other ways God could have done things than the way he did them. Why didn't he do them those ways? We can postulate answers, but at the same time we can't know for certain, and we never will--at least, not until we meet God face to face.

That's the dynamic I see with theist questions vs atheist questions. Theists treat God as a real, actual entity, and as such, are willing to admit that he may have reasons and motives they can't fathom.

>Even if you live such a life, sincere confession aught to fix things, right?

But IS your confession sincere? That's what he's getting at. If you truly believe in Christ, and believe in the Church, then you will follow their commands, and if you do follow their commands it will lead you to not do the things he talks about. If you keep doing those things, how good a Catholic are you, really? Does God really live in your heart, and affect your actions?

"By their works ye shall know them," after all.

>>9142639
>Ratzinger

You should also check out Ratzinger/Benedict's "Jesus of Nazareth" books. They're great.