Men of the people, like the shepherds, men of the popular tradition, had everywhere been the makers of the mythologies. It was they who had felt most directly, with least check or chill from philosophy or the corrupt cults of civilisation, the need we have already considered; the images that were adventures of the imagination; […]
But in the riddle of Bethlehem it was heaven that was under the earth. There is in that alone the touch of a revolution, as of the world turned upside down. It would be vain to attempt to say anything adequate, or anything new, about the change which this conception of a deity born like […]
But while all have realized that it was a stable, not so many have realized that it was a cave. Some critics have even been so silly as to suppose that there was some contradiction between the stable and the cave; in which case they cannot know much about caves or stables in Palestine. As […]
Auf den Wiesen vor Wundersdorf spitzt sich die Frage nach der Gestaltung des Krippenspiels langsam zu und nimmt grundsätzliche Züge an. Dabei stellt sich heraus, daß diese Schafe sogar dichten können – in Englisch! Die Schriftauslegung Ein Sketchlet zum Dritten Advent 2011 für vier Schafe, beliebig viele Schafstatisten und Hochwürden Pfarrer Conrad Kneif […]
It might be suggested, in a somewhat violent image, that nothing had happened in that fold or crack in the great grey hills except that the whole universe had been turned inside out. I mean that all the eyes of wonder and worship which had been turned outwards to the largest thing were now turned […]
Similarly, you cannot suspend the idea of a new-born child in the void or think of him without thinking of his mother. You cannot visit the child without visiting the mother; you cannot in common human life approach the child except through the mother. If we are to think of Christ in this aspect at […]
Gestern war übrigens ein Hochfest. Ein Marienfest. Mariä Erwählung, bzw. das „Hochfest der ohne Erbsünde empfangenen Jungfrau und Gottesmutter Maria“. Nun, das war in unserem Pfarrbrief auch so vermerkt (anders als am 4. Dezember die Hl. Barbara, aber das nur am Rande). Nur, wer als berufstätiger Gläubiger an diesem Hochfest eine Messe besuchen wollte, der […]
When I was a boy a more Puritan generation objected to a statue upon my parish church representing the Virgin and Child. After much controversy, they compromised by taking away the Child. One would think that this was even more corrupted with Mariolatry, unless the mother was counted less dangerous when deprived of a sort […]
Also, ich weiß ja nicht, ob die Insel für den Protestantismus noch zu halten ist! Nach dem erfolgreichen Papstbesuch, dem genialen Schachzug, äh, dem großherzigen Hilfsangebot „Anglicanorum Coetibus“ und nachdem man hört, in Großbritannien gingen mittlerweile am Sonntag mehr Menschen in die Messe als in einen anglikanischen Gottesdienst, ja, nach all dem kommt jetzt der […]
If the world wanted what is called a non-controversial aspect of Christianity, it would probably select Christmas. Yet it is obviously bound up with what is supposed to be a controversial aspect (I could never at any stage of my opinions imagine why); the respect paid to the Blessed Virgin. [Wenn die Welt einen nichtumstrittenen […]