MetaCatholic

A few things that have caught my eye in the last few days, all linked, intriguingly by words beginning with “H”.

• Chris Tilling attempted a definition of heresy, to which John Hobbins responded. Chris seeks to link it to doctrinal statements that deform acting or living rightly, and not just thinking rightly about God and God’s engagement with the world. John seeks to stir the pot a bit by reflecting on heresy as something which fails to take the whole of scripture (including the messy and downright nasty bits) seriously. Both posts are thought-provoking.
• At the opposite end of the scale from heresy, we have humility, and Suzanne has a fascinating post linking humility before scripture with maintaining ambiguities in translation, building on Iyov’s observations. This generated a lot of hermeneutical reflection in the comments, and of course Suzanne quests after a Holy Grail of translations. But perhaps humility may indeed be the cure for heresy, which seeks to disambiguate our understandings of God.
• David Congdon has been exploring some problems in ecclesiology (which question I’ve been noting in some of my recent posts on the 39 articles). His latest post is on the sociological homogeneity of the typical congregation, against the heterogeneity that a catholic church ought to exhibit.
• James McGrath drew my attention to what is in fact an old story, but one I’d never come across before: the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide, a chemical that in its liquid state can kill you if you accidentally inhale it, in its gaseous sate can inflict severe burns, and in its solid state can cause severe tissue damage. It is a brilliant hoax, because every piece of factual information is quite true, and absolutely misleading. (It’s home page can be found here.) It is a timely warning to those who live by the latest scientific or health scare in the papers.