Owner: The Sci Fi Catholic URL:http://www.scificatholic.com Join Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 20:17:20 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: The Sci Fi Catholic is dedicated to discussing the relationship between speculative fiction and religion. The site features book and movie reviews, essays, technology and archaeology news, and humor. Site statistics:Click here
Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray 2007-02-28 03:31:00 Has Oscar gone Wilde?The Picture
of Dorian
Gray by Oscar Wilde. Barnes & Noble Classics Edition: New York, 2006. Introduction and notes by Camille Cauti. ISBN 1-59308-025-5.Oscar Wilde is an enigma. Champion of the Aesthetics Movement, sharp-witted dandy, deathbed Catholic convert, and the original flamboyant homosexual, Wilde was by all, or at least most, accounts an immoral man, yet he left behind a small body of literature--particularly his fairy tales and his one novel--that appear to be deeply religious morality tales, though Wilde claims, right in the foreword to Dorian Gray, that art is neither moral nor immoral.Better people than I have tried to unravel the paradox that is Oscar Wilde. We'll talk about how Cauti does it and offer a few suggestions. We'll also ask for input from you, our readers.This novel is one of the great works of proto-sf that came out of the Victorian era (see the website of Jess Nevins for a compilation). Victorian England has come under the eye of sf a
March/April Issue of Biblical Archaeology Review Received 2007-02-28 02:27:00 Biblical Archaeology
Review is to serious Near Eastern archaeologists was Andrew Lloyd Weber is to serious music critics. Everyone likes to make fun of it but secretly enjoys it.The magazine is, unfortunately, the only one of its kind. It publishes articles by serious scholars, but is generally poorly edited and as a result is frequently rife with errors. Besides that, the editor-in-chief, Hershel Shanks, seems to think he's an old-fashioned muckraker. Though the interested lay reader will get information about the latest archaeological finds, which is the magazine's purpose, he'll also get Shanks's latest personal crusades and archaeologists' latest personal grudges or vendettas. Arguably, that's good; it exposes the reader to the field, warts and all. At the same time, its narrow biblical focus guarantees the reader will not get a well-rounded view of the field, though he will get perpetually interesting information.More on this later after I've actually read it.
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, April
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The Burning Bush: Reflections from Wyoming Youth Retreat 2007-02-27 05:17:00 These are the thoughts that distracted me while people were giving their testimonies on Saturday. I pass them on so they can distract you, too.Note that the burning bush has seven tiers with the Eucharist in the monstrance on top. If I recall correctly, a sevenfold mountain in ancient Mesopotamia was a symbol of deity. On river plains over there, they didn't have a lot of mountains, so they sometimes built their own--ziggurats, holy mountains sacred to various deities.If my memory isn't faulty, the ancient historian Herodotus described the famous ziggurat in Babylon, Entemenanki, "the Temple at the Base of the Universe," as having seven tiers, each painted a different color. Some believe Entemenanki may have been the inspiration for the Tower of Babel described in Genesis. The Tower of Babel, of course, is the ultimate representation of man's attempt to reach Heaven on his own terms rather than on God's.One of the speakers mentioned this weekend that Pope John Paul II referred to C Read more:Burning
, Reflections
, Wyoming
Blog Address Switched 2007-02-27 02:49:00 Right now as I'm posting this, the blog is down because we are switching over to the new address.After it's back up, either today or tomorrow, I'll inform everybody. Blogger tells me that the old stuff should redirect to the new stuff, so none of your links will be dead, but I'll try to let you know anyway (so I get a higher Technorati ranking).
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Anglicans becoming Catholic 2007-02-26 04:07:00 I just turned The Albert Mohler program on the radio and he's talking about the possibility of the Anglican community coming back into communion with Rome. The Anglican Church has a lot of revision to do if that's to happen, but hopefully it will become a reality in the near future. Mohler is so constantly concerned with the conservative/liberal divide that I think he may be missing the issue, and especially forgetting that high Anglicans are very close to Catholic
ism in much of their thinking already.Lord, we pray that you heal the division between Catholics and Anglicans and bring the Anglicans back into communion with your Church.
Final Warning: Site is Moving 2007-02-26 03:57:00 Don't forget, The Sci Fi Catholic, if all goes well, is changing its official hosting address to www.scificatholic.com tomorrow at exactly whenever I get off work+back from the gym+have dinner. I will try to send notices to everyone I know of who's linked us so your links don't die. As for anyone with a subscription, don't worry--I'll switch over the FeedBurner address, too, but if you're not getting our feed, let me know so I can fix the problem.
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, Moving
A Prayer (inspired by Wyoming Youth Retreat) 2007-02-26 03:29:00 Lord,I dedicate my entire life to you.Take all my work, resting, and leisure.May my hobbies and enjoyments reflect your goodness and purity,And never consume me with idleness.Inspire us to answer your call to our vocations.Fill your Church with dedicated and holyPriests, Religious, dedicated singles, and married people.Lord, teach us to pray.May our lives be characterized by prayer.Lord, teach me to esteem others as better than myself.In disagreements and arguments, may I remain humble and charitable,And give honest consideration to others' opinions.May I respect the opinions of my elders as thoughts coming from thoseWiser than myself.Blessed Mary Ever Virgin,Pray for the Church that she may be pure,That her children may be orthodox in belief and behavior.Lord, make us hunger for your sacraments.May we grow closer to you through frequent confession and communion.May our participation in sacramentals also draw us closer to you by reminding usOf your grace and goodness.Lord, protect us Read more:Wyoming
, Prayer
New Anthology of Catholic SF 2007-02-26 00:08:00 I just discovered this post from Dust of the Time on a new anthology of Catholic
science fiction, dealing specifically with how future events and technology and so forth might relate to faith. Check out the interview with the editors.
Read more:Anthology
Wyoming Youth Retreat 2007 2007-02-25 23:08:00 Oh, man. Traffic's hit the floor. I guess that's what I get for not posting for a couple of days.But I'm back. Wyoming
Youth Retreat (formerly Youth 2000, and don't ask me why it's changed) was a blast. This was my second year attending, but last year I was a catechumen. Unable to go to confession or take communion, I was actually kind of surly by the time the retreat was over. But this year, I'm on a high.The retreat lasted from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon and consisted of daily Mass, daily rosary, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, lots of prayer, and a number of excellent talks from excellent speakers. A Franciscan Friar of the Renewal gave a number of talks and also processed the Sacrament on Saturday night. That priest is a wonderful man, full of wit and wisdom; he could have been a stand-up comedian if he hadn't become a friar and priest. Another priest, originally from France and now, I think, from Illinois, also gave some excellent and very challenging t
Day 2 of Lent and Fun Stuff 2007-02-23 02:54:00 Finally. I have finally won Thy Dungeonman 3.I know, I know. You haven't had a real post out of me for a while, and I've even read, like, two and a half books since my last review. Don't worry, I'll have another one soon.But not this weekend, because this weekend is...YOUTH 2000. That means a bunch of crazy graycloaked Franciscan friars are coming over here to Wyoming to host a big eucharistic retreat, and I'm going to be there all weekend, and it's going to be awesome. Why, this year, I even get to take communion, since I'm now actually Catholic. I'll tell you all about it when I get back. And I'll let you know if I managed to turn the post-Youth 2000 Chinese buffet into an annual event.
Ash Wednesday and Blog Tour Day 3 2007-02-22 00:30:00 It is the first day of Lent in the Western tradition, beginning a time to reflect on the year, remember the mercy of God, and do penance in preparation for the celebration of Easter. This is a special time of year for me, particularly, since just last year Lent meant gearing up for my induction into the Church. In particular, that involved participation in the Scrutinies, a set of scripture readings read at Mass for the benefit of the Catechumens, intended to inspire soul-searching in preparation for the sacraments of initiation.Ash Wednesday
involves marking a cross of ash on the forehead, in rememberance of our mortality. Sometimes the ash is made with the burnt remains of the palm fronds from last year's Palm Sunday.Don't forget to check out Where the Map Ends. Since we're all about books here, take a look-see at the books page, which has an extensive list of Christian (presumably mostly Protestant) sf/fantasy authors and their work.Ash WednesdayProudly bringing more Protestants Read more:Tour Day
What is the Heart of Christianity? 2007-02-21 19:54:00 This was the title of a recent socratic club debate I went to between Dr.'s Gary Ferngren and Marcus Borg. Both professors at Oregon State University.Dr. Ferngren, arguing for traditional evangelical Christianity
, argued five major points make up the heart of Christianity. These points are: A diagnosis of what is wrong with the world: sin, The story of God’s love and his provision for the human race, The confession that Jesus Christ is the son of God and savior of the world, a promise that there is life after death, Christianity is a living faith that speaks to our hearts as well as our heads.Dr. Borg, arguing as a member of the Jesus Seminar for the historical Jesus point of view argued that at the core of what he calls Christianity lie three basic premises: At the heart of Christianity is a robust affirmation of the reality of God, the reality of the sacred, the reality of the spirit. At the heart of Christianity lies the Bible and Jesus, these are the two primary sources of revel Read more:Heart
Phat Tuesday and Blog Tour Day 2 2007-02-21 00:49:00 Today is Phat Tuesday
, the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. This day is also known as Carneval, "Farewell to Meat," or as we like to say it here, "Hasta la vista...meat." In other words, it's a day to finish off all the stuff you aren't going to eat during Lent, like meat. So for dinner, I'm having some leftover microwaveable chicken wings, a quarter pound of hamburger, sixteen slices of lunchmeat, and a leftover steak. Ugh. I'm feeling kinda...woozy.But while I'm chowing down, pop on over to Where the Map Ends. You can see he has a page dedicated to cool artwork.See below for the rest of your blog tour. And add to that list Nicole.
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Christian Science Fiction/Fantasy Blog Tour Day 1 2007-02-20 00:58:00 Welcome to The Sci Fi Catholic. We're dedicated to discussing the relationship between speculative fiction and religion. If you've never been here before, have a look around. We love angry, confrontational comments so much, sometimes we write our own. This article and this news item have gotten good plugs from other bloggers, and I'm fond of this review.But enough about us. Have you been to Where the Map Ends? If not, why not? Check out the awesome stuff there. This website is all about Christian
sf, and it's got cool graphics, too. In particular, notice the extensive advice for aspiring writers. Some of the suggestions are unusual and unusually cool. For example, this site directs you to, among other things, random map-generating software for lazy writers who like much of their world-building done for them. Whatever happened to the good old days when writers sketched their ideas on legal pads?Okay, okay. I'm not convinced all of that is healthy. I mean, do your own homework. But Read more:Tour Day
, Science
, Fiction
, Fantasy Blog
, Fantasy Blog Tour
Movie Review: Equilibrium 2007-02-18 06:01:00 Big Brother, most of us have heard of the concept. It's why we have things like Civilian Rights. The very idea of the government super-imposing upon our emotions, feelings, thoughts, and actions is preposterous in this society. It's why the Patriot Act caused a big controversy, it's also why other espionage throughout history have been of issue. Deep down, every human knows that their emotions, feelings, thoughts, and actions, their senses make them human beings. Now what if all that was taken away by a daily dose? This is exactly what happens to the characters in a movie that came out in 2002 called Equilibrium. The name of the movie states quite accurately what society was, equilibrium, status quo, be just like everyone else. The movie opens with the idea of a third world war in the twenty first century. The world would not be able to handle a fourth world war thus man had to eradicate the cause of war, man's emotions. The idea being that if man rid the world of a Read more:Movie Review
Notice about Domain Name 2007-02-18 03:52:00 Having our address redirect traffic from www.scificatholic.com to Blogspot is messing up our Technorati rankings and settings and probably causing other havoc I don't even know about yet. This is a notice to anyone who has been so kind as to link us at dgddavidson.blogspot.com that I'm going to have to host the blog at www.scificatholic.com.I think most everything will redirect, but if you've linked to specific posts, those links might die. I know this is a nuisance. Sorry. I'll be sending out a corrective to at least one listing, and everyone else, I just ask that you redirect your links. I expect this will cause an initial drop in traffic, but I think it will be better in the long run.I'm not going to make the switch during the blog tour or without due notice, so expect the move next Sunday or Monday at the latest. Don't forget you can always reach us through www.scificatholic.com, so that link will remain good.
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February Christian SF/Fantasy Blog Tour 2007-02-18 03:24:00 I've just received some final info about this months' blog tour. Don't forget it begins on Monday, February
19, and ends Wednesday, February 21, so check in here on those days for cool stuff on our feature blog and an intro to a bunch of Christian
speculative fiction blogs!
Read more:Fantasy Blog
, Fantasy Blog Tour
Saturday and Sunday Posts 2007-02-17 17:10:00 The Sci Fi Catholic has come down with a cold of galactic proportions and may not put up the previously mentioned movie reviews, and certainly won't put up more than one of them. I may be able to drag myself out for a film this evening, and I hope to have a book review up sometime this weekend. Oh, and incidentally, Pan's Labyrinth is playing here after all. Either it just got here or I missed it before. One way or the other, it preempted Ghost Rider and Bridge to Terabithia.
Read more:Saturday
, Sunday
For shame! 2007-02-17 05:09:00 My earlier post on Thomas Moore's The Loves of the Angels included a creative commons photograph from Flickr. I failed to properly attribute the photograph. It's by Ruth L. I discovered this while looking for a photo for the next article (down below) that you're all about to read. But at least this correction gives me a chance to plug the post on Moore, which is probably one of my best.
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Thoughts on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal 2007-02-17 04:15:00 Picture by idivilayil.I wrote this essay a year or more ago after observing, and worshipping with, Charismatics of a few sects in a few places and reading a smattering of literature. This is not based on any sort of broad survey. This is not meant as a criticism of Charismatics in general or any specific Charismatic in particular, but as a discussion of dangers to which I believe Charismatics are prone. My views may be heavily influenced by John MacArthur, Jr.'s The Charismatics: A Doctrinal Perspective, with which I am in only partial agreement. Scripture quotations are from the New American Bible.In her short story “Samaritan,” Connie Willis depicts a future in which the Catholic
Church and mainline Protestant sects have banded together to form a single, monolithic, vague, wishy-washy church. In the story, the reason for the sudden cooperation between sworn enemies is self-defense against the Charismatics. This is hardly realistic or believable, but speculation is the right of t Read more:Renewal
Claw of the Conciliator and Old Testament Space Opera 2007-02-16 04:12:00 Much as I hate to admit it, The Sci Fi Catholic isn't the only game in town. I keep forgetting to blogroll my doges over at Claw of the Conciliator and Old TestamentSpace
Opera. These blogs are awesome and I simply insist that you all take a look.In particular, note that Claw has a series on faith and sf/fantasy. His series is a bit different from ours. He examines what authors are of what faith traditions, and we examine how religion informs your reading of sf and vice-versa. Or at least we will if our series ever gets off the ground.That's all for now. I'm going to keep gradually adding to the blogrolls, and I invite all of you to check out the additions as they come.In the meanwhile, I've changed the ending to this short story, like, three times, but now I'm sure I've got a good one, and I can cut out some of that nonsense in the middle. Back to the ol' Word document....
Update... 2007-02-16 04:07:00 I'm sorry this isn't much of a post. As you may be able to tell, I've been playing with the blog again. You can see by the little orange button to the right that you can now subscribe to our feed more easily, and you can see from the list of buttons at the bottom of the post that there's a bunch of other neat stuff you can do, too. Cool beans!
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Keith Strohm: Take Your Place 2007-02-15 01:17:00 Here's a great blog for you to check out. He blogged us, so we blog him. Keith
Strohm is a dedicated neoCath and sf fan, just like your truly. Go check out his blog and tell 'im The Sci Fi Catholic sent cha.Take Your Place
Thomas Moore's Loves of the Angels and Christian Sexual Ethics 2007-02-02 05:31:00 Photo by Ruth LPoint your browser in the direction of a free copy of ThomasMoore
's The Loves of the Angels
, which as far as I can tell is in the public domain.According to a few sources, such as The Catholic Encyclopedia, Moore's beautiful poem was a scandal when it first came out, but so it goes.In yesterday's post, we discussed the issue of chastity, which should be the goal of our personal sexual lives and the goal of sexual education. Today, we are discussing how to form the conscience on this subject. That brings me back around to Ireland's greatest poet.Some time ago, inspired by C. S. Lewis's suggestion that fourteen-year-old boys read Spencer's The Faerie Queene to develop a healthy sexuality, I put together a list of books I thought could bring about a similar effect, including Paradise Lost, Solomon's Song of Songs, Bone, and I'd like to be able to add Acorna: The Unicorn Girl, but Anne McCaffrey, unfortunately, seems unfamiliar with chastity.Some Catholics to whom Read more:Christian
, Sexual
, Ethics
, Sexual Ethics
D. G. D. Davidson: Marathon Man 2007-03-02 19:54:00 I used to be quite proud that I still had all my useless body parts in place. Appendix: right where it belongs. Tonsils: still in the back of my throat. Wisdom teeth: fully developed and fully erupted, baby.Well, so much for the wisdom teeth. My squarish, masculine lantern jaw (why are you laughing?) decided to have a little growth spurt in my early twenties, and to make a long story short, if I wanted the rest of my molars to remain intact, the wisdom teeth had to go.I got them out this morning. As I write this, my face is still numb. I'll tell you one thing--I am never going to an "Olde Fashioned Dentistry" again. Turns out their wisdom teeth-removing equipment consists of a doorknob and a sturdy piece of twine. But by far the worst part of the surgery was when he drilled into a healthy root while asking over and over, "Is it safe?"No, not really. But I did do it with local anaesthetic only, so you can rest assured that your Sci Fi Catholic is no sissy. Plus he wanted t Read more:Davidson
, Marathon
Former Canadian Defense Minister Wants to Halt Global Warming with...UFOs? 2007-03-02 03:39:00 Um...I'm not even sure if this is real.But in case it is, Physorg.com has a news article claiming that former CanadianDefenseMinister
Paul Hellyer has argued that extraterrestrial technology is mankind's last best hope to stop global warming. He suggests that some governments, presumably the American, "come clean" (pun presumably intended) and reveal the secret alien pollution-reversing technology they're letting languish in Arizonan Air Force bases.Well, The Sci Fi Catholic is flabbergasted, to say the least. I'm all for sf, of course, but let's keep it in the books and movies, shall we? Now here's the big question: Has the esteemed Mr. Hellyer read too much science fiction...or too little? Does sf remove one's grasp on reality or give a firmer grasp through a constant reintroduction to real vs. unreal? Does this question actually have anything to do with Hellyer or is he suffering from some other problem?Perhaps more disturbing than Hellyer's comments are the comments at Ph Read more:Former
, Global
Comments Feed 2007-03-02 03:36:00 You'll notice on the sidebar, up at the top with our FeedBurner and Technorati stuff, there's a new link, through which you can subscribe to the HaloScan comments feed for this site. That link's always been around, it's just been previously hanging out at the bottom where you couldn't find it. If you're one of our posts subscribers, I highly recommend you become a comments subscriber too so you can get the whole story.But to make comments, you still have to come to the site and visit us first-hand. Don't deprive your hosts or fellow readers of your thoughts!
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Boneville.com added to Sci Fi Blogs 2007-03-05 04:32:00 I want you to notice that we've added Boneville.com, the official blog of comic author/illustrator Jeff Smith, to our "Sci Fi Blogroll." Considering my mild Bone addiction, you may be surprised it's taken this long.Notice the March 2 entry, which shows a young man who won a Jeff Smith sketch in an auction. It's hard to make it out very well, but the sketch looks like one of the cutest and most charming images I've seen of Thorn and Fone Bone. Now why won't Smith do some cover art like that?
Read more:Blogs
Cameron's Pseudoscience Documentary 2007-03-04 20:23:00 James Cameron
is known for directing a few good sf films, particularly The Terminator and Aliens. He's still making science fiction, but now he's claiming it's real science.Cameron's latest fakeumentary is actually old news recycled. A number of ossuaries (bone boxes) discovered in Israel some time back have an interesting set of inscriptions: Mary, Joseph, (possibly) Jesus, Judah, and another that has been interpreted, on shaky ground, as Mary Magdalene.Cameron's show claims this is Jesus, his parents, his wife, and his son.The folks at Biblical Archaeology Society were kind enough to give me a set of links to news items on the issue, and so I pass them on to you. The New York Times has a decent article.The Jerusalem Post has an interview with Dr. Amos Kloner, who first excavated the tomb, and who thinks the claims of Cameron's documentary are bogus.Towers Online reports on an interview Larry King had with Dr. Albert Mohler, a Southern Baptist much opposed to Cameron's clai Read more:Documentary
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