Marriage Today

Marriage Today

Thinking of You

In March 2018, I wrote a slightly-long article on the history of Christianity...
Revised and Expanded - History of Christianity in a Post-Modern Age
You may wish to read it and review it here:https://todayquestions.blogspot.com/2018/03/revised-and-expanded-history-of.html
However, my emphasis today is two fold:
1) the 3rd anniversary of the passing away of a great Christian philosopher
American Bishop Robert Barron wrote also about the influential Christian philosopher René Girard when the latter passed away in November 2015 - Here: https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/article/ren-girard-church-father/4982/ 
Girard wrote volumes on mimetic desire; Things hidden since the foundation of the world; violence and the Sacred; and The Scapegoat. His most significant book is probably "I See Satan Fall Like Lightning". He was interviewed by Robert Peterson here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNkSBy5wWDk&t=190s

2) The continuing, and sometimes confusing, rise of Islam against Christianity in much of today's world which has not escaped the observation of a number of scholars especially in the land that produced the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Arabic Sahara that produced Salafism - On the latest problems, Fr. Rafic Greiche, Pastor of St. Cyril Melkite Catholic parish in Cairo and a great pastor who attracted the youth to church was interviewed by KTO French TV here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8igMw62ytQ&t=849s Fr. Greiche said that some 80 churches were burned in Egypt and some 2 million Muslims became atheists after being under the illusion given by the Muslim Brotherhood - These represent an opportunity for attracting them to the Truth of Christ and helping them as well as other Egyptians with moderate education...We can also discern a regional struggle on the leadership of Sunni Muslims in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi; a U.S.-based journalist thought to be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood by Saudi Prince Mohamed bin Salman and his followers in their embassy in Istanbul; an instance that Recep Tayyip Erdogan the Islamist leader of Turkey (a base of the international Muslim Brotherhood) could not ignore in order to publish Turkey's condemnation of the Salafist Mohamed bin Salman as both Turkey and Saudi Arabia vie for the regional leadership of the world's Islamic Sunnis...It comes as Trump has increased sanctions imposed on Iran that also affected European countries in trades they have had with Iran and caused much late disruption in the Islamic Republic of Shiite Iran; the long-endured enemy of Saudi Arabia and Sunni Islam.  To complicate things, on November 11, Trump, Putin and Erdogan will meet in Paris to mark 100 years since the end of World War I...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/05/trump-to-meet-putin-and-erdogan-during-first-world-war-ceremonies
Back to the topic, please read me here:In September 2006, Pope Benedict XVI gave a lecture at the University of Regensburg on reason and modernity (see the text here: https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg.html). There, Professor Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) exposed militant Islam. Speaking about reason and modernity, he gives the historical debate between the Christian Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Muslim Persian around 1393 on the subject of Christianity and Islam. Edited by Professor Adel Theodore Khoury, a Melkite Catholic priest and professor at Munster University, the seventh conversation cites the emperor's point: "Show me just what Mohammed brought, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."  Professor Ratzinger continues quoting the emperor "God is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably (according to reason) is contrary to God's nature." This was one courageous move by Benedict XVI as he sensed the increasing Islamic terrorism after 9/11.  One Muslim author, Aref Ali Nayed, recorded a reply to the pope and critiqued not only Pope Benedict but Arab Christian specialists on Islam such as the Jesuit professor Fr. Samir Khalil Samir (see it here: http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/misc/commentary_on_benedict.php). It is clear from recent reports that:1) Muslims are multiplying much faster than Christians - especially in Islamic countries where there is much ignorance and low health standards (particularly for women and children) to receive adequate care.2) Europe and the West in general have lost or are on the verge of losing their Christian roots due to increased atheism, two World Wars, and the Sexual Revolution while Muslims there increasingly identify with their Islamic Sharia or at least pray their prayers in streets if need be. In October 2017, the Jesuit scholar Fr. Henri Boulad gave a homily in France in which he denounces the silence and fear of Christian French people and reminds Europeans of the Christian roots of Europe (here in French: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kukeX4kkHxE&t=104s) 
To avoid much blood-spilling, prayers are needed and good deeds too for the needy. I am reminded here by the Epistle of St. James "For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." (James 2: 26)...