July 13, 2026 Contemplative Prayer and Secular Mindfulness: Same Practice, Different Destination? Silent sitting, attention to the breath, a quiet mind — Catholic contemplative prayer and secular mindfulness can look identical from the outside. What actually distinguishes them isn't technique but what the practice is for. school Spiritual Theology
July 11, 2026 Near-Death Experiences and Catholic Teaching on Death and Judgment Reports of tunnels of light and encounters with deceased relatives are often taken as vindicating an afterlife in general. Whether they vindicate the specifically Catholic account of death and judgment is a much narrower question. school Eschatology
July 8, 2026 Synodality and the Scope of Infallibility: What Actually Can and Can't Change The synodal process has revived a very old question in a new form: how far does the Church's structure of authority actually extend, and what, precisely, is it capable of changing? school Ecclesiology
July 5, 2026 Reversal or Development? The Catechism's Change on Capital Punishment In 2018, the Catechism began calling the death penalty 'inadmissible.' Whether that's a legitimate development of doctrine or a genuine reversal is one of the sharpest live disputes in Catholic moral theology today. school Moral Theology
July 1, 2026 IVF and Gene Editing: Why the Church Draws the Line Where She Does Both technologies promise real goods — a child for an infertile couple, a cure for an inherited disease. The Church's objections aren't to the goods themselves, but to specific means she judges incompatible with human dignity. school Moral Theology
June 25, 2026 Did Virtual Mass Ever Satisfy the Sunday Obligation? During COVID, millions of Catholics watched Mass on a screen instead of attending in person. Whether that ever fulfilled the Sunday obligation turns on a distinction most livestreams never explained. school The Sacraments
June 15, 2026 Predestination, Free Will, and Why the Prosperity Gospel Gets Grace Backwards The Church has never resolved how grace and free will fit together — but she has been unambiguous that grace is never a wage owed for enough faith or effort, which is exactly what the prosperity gospel gets wrong. school Grace
June 1, 2026 "Dare We Hope That All Men Be Saved?" The Balthasar Debate Von Balthasar's famous question split Catholic theology between those who see it as a legitimate hope and those who see it as a dangerous softening of a hard truth Scripture and tradition insist on. school Soteriology
May 20, 2026 Did Jesus Exist? What Historical-Critical Scholarship Actually Says Mythicism gets outsized attention online. Mainstream secular scholarship — including its most skeptical voices — treats Jesus's existence as one of the least contested facts in ancient history. school Christology
May 12, 2026 Evolution, Creation, and Laudato Si': Where the Church Actually Stands The Church has no quarrel with evolutionary biology as such — and Laudato Si' has drawn fire from both sides of the environmental debate for saying so with consequences attached. school Creation & the Supernatural Order
May 1, 2026 Does Modern Cosmology Make the First Cause Argument Obsolete? The Big Bang, quantum vacuum fluctuations, and multiverse theory are often said to have retired Aquinas's argument from causality. The argument being retired usually isn't the one Aquinas actually made. school God: His Existence & Attributes
July 13, 2026
Contemplative Prayer and Secular Mindfulness: Same Practice, Different Destination?
Silent sitting, attention to the breath, a quiet mind — Catholic contemplative prayer and secular mindfulness can look identical from the outside. What actually distinguishes them isn't technique but what the practice is for.
school Spiritual Theology
July 11, 2026
Near-Death Experiences and Catholic Teaching on Death and Judgment
Reports of tunnels of light and encounters with deceased relatives are often taken as vindicating an afterlife in general. Whether they vindicate the specifically Catholic account of death and judgment is a much narrower question.
school Eschatology
July 8, 2026
Synodality and the Scope of Infallibility: What Actually Can and Can't Change
The synodal process has revived a very old question in a new form: how far does the Church's structure of authority actually extend, and what, precisely, is it capable of changing?
school Ecclesiology
July 5, 2026
Reversal or Development? The Catechism's Change on Capital Punishment
In 2018, the Catechism began calling the death penalty 'inadmissible.' Whether that's a legitimate development of doctrine or a genuine reversal is one of the sharpest live disputes in Catholic moral theology today.
school Moral Theology
July 1, 2026
IVF and Gene Editing: Why the Church Draws the Line Where She Does
Both technologies promise real goods — a child for an infertile couple, a cure for an inherited disease. The Church's objections aren't to the goods themselves, but to specific means she judges incompatible with human dignity.
school Moral Theology
June 25, 2026
Did Virtual Mass Ever Satisfy the Sunday Obligation?
During COVID, millions of Catholics watched Mass on a screen instead of attending in person. Whether that ever fulfilled the Sunday obligation turns on a distinction most livestreams never explained.
school The Sacraments
June 15, 2026
Predestination, Free Will, and Why the Prosperity Gospel Gets Grace Backwards
The Church has never resolved how grace and free will fit together — but she has been unambiguous that grace is never a wage owed for enough faith or effort, which is exactly what the prosperity gospel gets wrong.
school Grace
June 1, 2026
"Dare We Hope That All Men Be Saved?" The Balthasar Debate
Von Balthasar's famous question split Catholic theology between those who see it as a legitimate hope and those who see it as a dangerous softening of a hard truth Scripture and tradition insist on.
school Soteriology
May 20, 2026
Did Jesus Exist? What Historical-Critical Scholarship Actually Says
Mythicism gets outsized attention online. Mainstream secular scholarship — including its most skeptical voices — treats Jesus's existence as one of the least contested facts in ancient history.
school Christology
May 12, 2026
Evolution, Creation, and Laudato Si': Where the Church Actually Stands
The Church has no quarrel with evolutionary biology as such — and Laudato Si' has drawn fire from both sides of the environmental debate for saying so with consequences attached.
school Creation & the Supernatural Order
May 1, 2026
Does Modern Cosmology Make the First Cause Argument Obsolete?
The Big Bang, quantum vacuum fluctuations, and multiverse theory are often said to have retired Aquinas's argument from causality. The argument being retired usually isn't the one Aquinas actually made.
school God: His Existence & Attributes