Monthly Archives: September 2008

Heresy Doesn’t Develop

Posted on by

Here’s a nifty post from a blog I’d not seen before, Army of Martyrs.

It’s a commonplace of Roman Catholic theology that doctrine develops: that as time goes by and questions arise, new doctrines arise that answer the questions while remaining consistent with what was known before. Sometimes development is simply drawing out the implications of what is stated explicitly in Scripture; other times, it’s more like discovering that Newtonian physics is a special, approximate case of Einsteinian physics: there’s more going on than we realized. But either way, developed doctrine cannot contradict what went before.

The blogger at Army of Martyrs points out that heresy does not develop in the same way: being error, you can’t build a large structure on it that will stand of its own. Interesting thought.

The Ethics of September 11th

Posted on by

One statement of ethics I used to hear all the time is “If it feels good, do it!” I haven’t heard it recently, but I think that’s because our culture has internalized it so thoroughly that it goes without saying. I mention it because it highlights a basic principle of the human will: in any action a person takes, he is pursuing an end that seems good to him. And, ultimately, there must be some real good there. We do evil by pursuing some good in the wrong way, or at the wrong time, or in the wrong state, or out of due proportion. It’s not wrong to have enough money to live comfortably; but it’s wrong to steal it. It’s not wrong to have sex; but it’s wrong to have sex outside of marriage. It’s not wrong to eat ice cream; but it’s wrong to binge on it. It’s not wrong to talk; but it’s wrong to gossip. It’s not wrong to play poker on-line; but it’s wrong to do it on company time, or with the rent check. It’s wrong…but it seems good to us, it feels good, and we do it. And there’s just enough genuine goodness there that we can fool ourselves into thinking that it’s OK, despite the protests of our conscience.

Sin makes you stupid, as Mark Shea would say, and I often think that our sense of due proportion is the first thing to go. And the more the conscience is ignored, the more it is deadened, and the more it is deadened, the less a sense of due proportion we have.

So the men who flew the planes into the Twin Towers were pursuing an end that seemed good to them. Ultimately, there is some real good they were after, though I won’t presume to say what it was. But they had persuaded themselves that that tiny spark of true worth outweighed the enormous villainy of their means.

It felt good to them, and they did it.

How deeply wrong they were.

The Sunrise Lands, by S.M. Stirling

Posted on by

The Sunrise Lands is the latest (paperback) release in Stirling’s series about “The Change”. Short synopsis, for those who came in late: one day, all high technology, from steam engines and gunpowder on up, simply ceases to work. Civilization collapses. There are mass die-offs, and all manner of horrible things. New societies begin to coalesce, and fight for survival against nature and against each other.

At the end of the previous novel, A Meeting at Corvallis, relative peace has settled in the Pacific Northwest, and our heroes (those that survived) get to take a break. Twelve years pass. The son of Juniper MacKenzie, Rudi MacKenzie, is now a grown man, and the tanist of Clan MacKenzie. His blood sister, Mathilda Arminger, remains princess and heir to the throne of the Portland Protective Association. The various states that formed in the previous three books are generally prosperous. And weird things are beginning to happen….

In short, this is the book in which we begin to get an idea–no, that’s way too strong–this is the book in which we begin to get hints about why the Change occurred…and possibly, just possibly, begin to see those who caused the Change begin to make their presence known. I won’t say more than that.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It’s very clearly the first book in a set (of three, I presume) and so there’s lots of set-up and very little payoff. A lot happens, but there’s little suspense; the plot meanders forward, but it doesn’t really build to a climax.

On the other hand, it’s a pleasant enough ride; and there’s a lot about it to like. Stirling’s post-apocalyptic world is an interesting one, and the characters are fun. And given that it is the first book in a set, and given Stirling’s past performance, I’m more than willing to cut him some slack.

I have to say, I really like the treatment of religion in this book, which is amazingly realistic. From most books written from a more or less American viewpoint, you’d think that deeply religious people are either fruitcakes or hypocrites. In this book, we have realistic people whose religion is simply part of their lives. Some, naturally, are more devout than others, but most have some form of religious practice–just as most Americans do. More than that, Stirling plays fair. He has done his homework. This book is chock full of serious Roman Catholics who act, speak, and pray like serious Roman Catholics, including one of the principles, Mathilda Arminger.

Of course there are also a great many not-terribly-serious Catholics, especially when it comes to sexual sin; but I can’t argue that that’s unrealistic either.

I do have a qualm, and a complaint. The qualm is that while Catholicism is presented realistically, the “Old Religion” is presented as true, that is, true in the context of the world Stirling is building. (I don’t mean to imply that Stirling is a neo-pagan; so far as I know, he’s a somewhat lapsed Episcopalian, or was.) Of course, it’s possible that the scenes in which the pagan gods appear to take a hand are evidence of something else….

I didn’t expect anything different, though. So that’s a minor quibble. The complaint is about a brief mention of the Dominican order. In earlier volumes, the Lord Protector of Portland has set up his own version of the Catholic Church, with a nutcase as “pope”, and his own version of the Inquisition. Now, twelve years later, the “Church” in Portland has come back into communion with the Church of Rome under Pope Benedict’s successor, Pius XXIII and the Inquisition has been abolished…and it’s said that some of the Dominicans mourn its passing. Now, whatever might be said about the Inquisition as it really was (and the Pope has formally apologized for its excesses), the Inquisition in Portland in Stirling’s books is a wholly evil endeavour, and one that the Dominicans I’ve met (mostly on-line) would have had nothing to do with, much less look back with fondness on. But it was a passing moment, no more.