Highlights

T(H)INKER

On Scepticism

"Do we have any knowledge about the external world, or are we going to be always plagued by scepticism?" This is one of the questions that Theory of Knowledge seeks to answer. In the ancient world Sceptical thinkers focused on the problem of sensation. In our own day, Sceptics have tended to focus less on the problem of sensation and more on the conditions for understanding and ordering the deliverances of sense. We offer a slide presentation on this issue which forms part of a simple introductory course on the Theory of Knowledge given to young professionals.

refresher

Personal Sin

God became man so that we might be born again as children of God, a status which man lost through sin. The present time has witnessed an unprecedented loss of the sense of sin in not a few societies. "The loss of the sense of sin is ... a form or consequence of the denial of God: not only in the form of atheism but also in the form of secularism. If sin is the breaking off of one's filial relationship to God in order to situate one's life outside obedience to him, then to sin is not merely to deny God. To sin is also to live as if he did not exist, to eliminate him from one's daily life... The restoration of a proper sense of sin is the first way of facing the grave spiritual crisis looming over man today. But the sense of sin can only be restored through a clear reminder of the unchangeable principles of reason and faith which the moral teaching of the church has always upheld." (JOHN PAUL II, Reconciliatio et Poenitentiae, no. 17). We offer you a presentation used in a class about personal sin.

BOOKMARK

A website that's all about the early Christians

The website www.earlychristians.org offers a wealth of information about the life of the early Christian communities, the persecutions, the expansion of Christianity, the acts of the martyrs, the Fathers of the Church, and the Catacombs, among other topics. It also contains related documents, videos and audio files that can be downloaded. It offers lists of books and films related to the world of early Christianity, and audio files of the acts of the early martyrs and the situation of Christianity during the first four centuries. The website also has a special section for the Pope’s discourses on the early Christians and related documents.