Excellent essay. Bad popes, bad priests, and even bad Catholics do not invalidate the Catholic Church. What we need more than ever us a Biblical Worldview, all the other worldviews have failed us.
Dr. Kwasniewski’s post is a timely and provocative encouragement to carefully consider Morello’s book, which, in my opinion, contains profound insights.
Hopefully, Morello’s published work is only beginning, and will even mature with time. Unfortunately, he writes at a time when theological and philosophical thought has undergone an intellectual ossification that makes a measure of open-mindedness and intellectual nuance among readers a very rare thing.
I am a Pelican+ premium subscriber. I am supposed to have a Pelican Passport to your articles on Substack as a part of my subscription. Yet every time I attempt to take advantage of the full features of your Substack, among others, I am asked to upgrade to a paid subscription. I wrote to your former CEO about this situation (apparently I am not alone) and I replied to him that Substacks that I follow are all under the same email as my Pelican+ account. He promised to look into it but nothing has been done. Would you please let me know what else I am expected to do in order to get full use of my “Passport”. Thank you.
Thanks, Denise. You are right that you should have full access to the Substack. I've alerted admins to this and they tell me they have rectified it. Anyone else who has this trouble may write to team@piouspelican.com
I see a self-confident band of inherently hazy lazy cliche'd terms unabashedly trotted out to do duties for which they are constitutionally unfit. (Perhaps it's that I be a crypto-'Cartesian', in spite of myself, living a life which is no life at all, and 'no true Scotsman' fallacies be damned.)
Morello's manifesto against the modernist imperium is cogent, forceful, and rips like shrapnel.
However, his prescription of Christian Hermeticism as a remedy to wake up from it's spell, is a drug whose content label I keep reading over and over again to understand the active ingredients...and feeling like it's all...well, all too esoteric and gnostic. I'm all for Platonic re-enchantment but we can do it without the mushrooms, astrolabes, and hocus pocus
There is in this an acceptance of mediaeval and renaissance occult practice, and Morello's "Christian Theurgy" is not the orthodox Christian belief or practice he claims it to be.
I think there is definitely need for that further clarification. Presenting Morello's claims without an explainer could lead some into confusion about where to draw the line between what is True Catholic metaphysics and what is pagan hermeticism. If Morello's views are orthodox, they certainly confuse that line. I very much appreciate his efforts to escape the box of modernity but an uncareful Neoplatonic metaphysics will only bring about more problems than it seeks to solve. In charity.
I think you will need to do just that, and do so convincingly to the casual observer, in order to retain credibility.
There is too much of a sense of an archaeologism in all of this, as condemned by Pius XII in Mediator Dei, which comes across about as convincingly as the Moderinst use of said same to produce the Novus Ordo. Yes, lots buy in...
Thanks for this, I ordered the book.
Excellent essay. Bad popes, bad priests, and even bad Catholics do not invalidate the Catholic Church. What we need more than ever us a Biblical Worldview, all the other worldviews have failed us.
Dr. Kwasniewski’s post is a timely and provocative encouragement to carefully consider Morello’s book, which, in my opinion, contains profound insights.
Hopefully, Morello’s published work is only beginning, and will even mature with time. Unfortunately, he writes at a time when theological and philosophical thought has undergone an intellectual ossification that makes a measure of open-mindedness and intellectual nuance among readers a very rare thing.
Thank you, Bruce, I agree completely.
Dr. Kwasniewski
I am a Pelican+ premium subscriber. I am supposed to have a Pelican Passport to your articles on Substack as a part of my subscription. Yet every time I attempt to take advantage of the full features of your Substack, among others, I am asked to upgrade to a paid subscription. I wrote to your former CEO about this situation (apparently I am not alone) and I replied to him that Substacks that I follow are all under the same email as my Pelican+ account. He promised to look into it but nothing has been done. Would you please let me know what else I am expected to do in order to get full use of my “Passport”. Thank you.
Thanks, Denise. You are right that you should have full access to the Substack. I've alerted admins to this and they tell me they have rectified it. Anyone else who has this trouble may write to team@piouspelican.com
I see a self-confident band of inherently hazy lazy cliche'd terms unabashedly trotted out to do duties for which they are constitutionally unfit. (Perhaps it's that I be a crypto-'Cartesian', in spite of myself, living a life which is no life at all, and 'no true Scotsman' fallacies be damned.)
Morello's manifesto against the modernist imperium is cogent, forceful, and rips like shrapnel.
However, his prescription of Christian Hermeticism as a remedy to wake up from it's spell, is a drug whose content label I keep reading over and over again to understand the active ingredients...and feeling like it's all...well, all too esoteric and gnostic. I'm all for Platonic re-enchantment but we can do it without the mushrooms, astrolabes, and hocus pocus
What's wrong with crystals ?
There is in this an acceptance of mediaeval and renaissance occult practice, and Morello's "Christian Theurgy" is not the orthodox Christian belief or practice he claims it to be.
That is a false statement, and we can prove it to be false.
I think there is definitely need for that further clarification. Presenting Morello's claims without an explainer could lead some into confusion about where to draw the line between what is True Catholic metaphysics and what is pagan hermeticism. If Morello's views are orthodox, they certainly confuse that line. I very much appreciate his efforts to escape the box of modernity but an uncareful Neoplatonic metaphysics will only bring about more problems than it seeks to solve. In charity.
Morello's work is characterized by great depth and clarity. For those who wish to read his replies to critiques:
https://www.traditionsanity.com/p/snuffing-the-pyre-a-reply-to-michael
https://onepeterfive.com/to-achieve-clarity-to-avoid-scandal-some-statements-on-christian-re-enchantment/
I also recommend the interview mentioned in the article:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBVGtqVAes4
I think you will need to do just that, and do so convincingly to the casual observer, in order to retain credibility.
There is too much of a sense of an archaeologism in all of this, as condemned by Pius XII in Mediator Dei, which comes across about as convincingly as the Moderinst use of said same to produce the Novus Ordo. Yes, lots buy in...