020 :
10 Oct 2012

The New Translation: dumbing up or dumbing down? Part 3 Dr Anthony Lowes is not entirely negative in his evaluation of the new translation. In today's commentary he mixes in the positives with the negatives. In his overall assessment though he remains largely critical. [more]

019 :
04 Oct 2012

The New Translation: dumbing up or dumbing down? Part 2 The New Translation of the Catholic Mass doesn't exactly appear to be firing great enthusiasm around the world except from the predictable minority. In this second-part of his essay, Dr Anthony Lowes offers a general comment on the role of liturgy; takes a more detailed look at two elements of the new language; and ends with a criticism on the seeming intention of the entire exercise to say "up yours" to the liberals, feminists and progressives in the Church. [more]

018 :
26 Sep 2012

The New Translation: dumbing up or dumbing down? Part 1 The New Translation of the Catholic Mass doesn't exactly appear to be firing great enthusiasm around the world except from the predictable minority. In this three-part essay, Dr Anthony Lowes takes a more detailed look at some of the problems. [more]

017 :
21 Sep 2012

Conclusion to an extended reflection on the concept of hope... Dr Anthony Lowes ends his heartening series today with a Paschal's wager-type argument as to why we ought live in hope. Even if there should turn out to be no after-life, he argues, "then to have lived with provisional faith and hope throughout our earthly life, as though the God of infinite kindness and an immortal human existence beyond death were real, will in any case have brought its own rewards. It will have assisted in the living of a life that is more human, more psychologically secure, more dignified, more just and compassionate in its address to others and to the world which we have inhabited." [more]

016 :
20 Sep 2012

Part 2 of an extended reflection on the concept of hope... Today's essay by Dr Anthony Lowes is "theologically heavier" than yesterday's but is packed with a series of observations that merit quiet reflection and opening up in further conversation. You may enjoy Jürgen Moltmann's observation that the Middle Ages had a focus on the theological virtue of love, the Reformation on the theological virtue of faith, and the focus of the modern era should have been on hope. As Tony concludes though "one of the saddest religious scandals of the latter twentieth century is the way in which the Roman Catholic church, at least, has awakened briefly to the possibilities of hope and now is in very real danger of falling back once more into a conservative coma". ...Brian Coyne, Editor [more]

015 :
19 Sep 2012

Part 1 of an extended reflection on the concept of hope... In the discussion flowing from yesterday's editorial commentary I laid emphasis on the virtue of "hope" (rather than economic or political formulae) residing at the "success" of Western civilisation — or if not WC as a whole, the sort of lifestyle we have come to enjoy in the affluent, educated and socially sophisticated world. Without people in any community having some sense of "hope" (in a better future) life is depressing and ultimately becomes destructive. By more serendipity or God-incidence than planning on my part, Dr Anthony Lowes had submitted this lengthy reflection exploring the concept of hope in a deeper sense. In the opening pars of the essay he provides his own introduction. ...Brian Coyne, Editor [more]

014 :
11 Sep 2012

Two views of what the Church might look like in 50 years time: The Dystopian view... Which of these two scenarios Dr Anthony Lowes has posed yesterday and today is going to be closer to the picture in another 50 years time? There is, of course, a possible third scenario and that is from some triumphant return of 19th Century Catholicism with its Index of Forbidden Books and 90% participation rates of the adult baptized. But we leave that out, don't we, because even the present pope doesn't see that as likely but instead predicts a "smaller, purer Church". What Tony Lowes presents today is the bleak, dystopian scenario of that "smaller, purer Church" increasingly unable even to provide for its long suffering clergy in their old age. [more]

013 :
10 Sep 2012

Two views of what the Church might look like in 50 years time: The Utopian view... Dr Anthony Lowes commentary today is a two-part projection trying to imagine what the Catholic Church might look like in another 50 years. Today we present the Utopian scenario and tomorrow we'll present the Dystopian scenario. As pointed out in the forum, this scenario Tony Lowes presents might be compared to the situation we are looking at today and how unimaginable it might have been half a century ago [LINK]. [more]

012 :
23 Aug 2012

Defending the value of the concept of Trinity, Part 3... In this conclusion to his series on Trinitarian Theology Dr Anthony Lowes does more than simply "defend" an idea. He provides a rich but one of the most succinct summaries I have ever read of how Trinitarian Theology slowly emerged over the course of more than three centuries and came to be embedded as a core concept in Catholic thinking in both the East and the West. As he points out though, and if you keep reasonably current with developments in theological thinking, you might appreciate the debate is still not completely over a further seventeen centuries later. You'll find this an essay that is both sympathetic to the traditions of Catholicism that gave us the concept of a Trinitarian God but which is also sympathetic to the revisiting of how we Catholics express and think about our dogmas in the light of what was discerned at the Second Vatican Council. This series of commentaries is a "keeper" and worthy of quiet reflection over an extended period. Thank you to Tony Lowes for sharing it with us. [more]

011 :
16 Aug 2012

Defending the value of the concept of Trinity, Part 2... Dr Anthony Lowes most recent series of commentaries, "The church critiqued in the light of Trinity and Kingdom" generated some critique in response. In this new series Anthony argues "Trinitarian dogma may be thought of as lofty theorising, but it yields the most practical of fruits. And for this tangible richness, cannot be shrugged off with a superficial dismissal." Today we bring you Part 2 of his response and because of the delay since part 1 we begin by repeating the last section of Part 1. [more]

010 :
02 Aug 2012

Defending the value of the concept of Trinity, Part 1... Dr Anthony Lowes most recent series of commentaries, "The church critiqued in the light of Trinity and Kingdom" generated some critique in response. In this new series Anthony argues "Trinitarian dogma may be thought of as lofty theorising, but it yields the most practical of fruits. And for this tangible richness, cannot be shrugged off with a superficial dismissal.". [more]

009 :
06 Jul 2012

The church critiqued in the light of Trinity and Kingdom, Part 3... Dr Anthony Lowes in this concluding essay to his series comes to the heart of his critique of the structure of church. Quite coincidentally on our forum this morning [LINK] I was asking if we even need an institution. My own conclusion is that we do, but with the qualification that we need to define what sort of institution will serve us best. Dr Lowes' essay is essentially providing an answer to not only that question but also outlines how things go wrong if we don't have an adequate definition or understanding of what the structure is and what it is meant to be achieving. ...Brian Coyne, Editor [more]

008 :
29 Jun 2012

The church critiqued in the light of Trinity and Kingdom, Part 2... Last week's essay from Dr Anthony Lowes caused a bit of a stir in the reaction from Brian Pitts that we published on Wednesday but as I have argued in our forum at length HERE, I think the contributions from both Anthony and Brian are deeply valuable (and in fact not all that far apart in the core understanding of "Spirit" which was the basis of Brian Pitts' response). We have an institutional Church today in a crisis possibly exceeding the crises at the time of the Reformation or the Great Schism between East and West. If the Church is not to become some basket case like ancient Mayan or Egyptian Civilisations we need to go back to basics about some pretty fundamental things. I think that is what Anthony Lowes is attempting to do here in his critique of the structure of Church. ...Brian Coyne, Editor [more]

007 :
22 Jun 2012

The church critiqued in the light of Trinity and Kingdom... Now here is a commentary from Dr Anthony Lowes that will appeal to all readers of Catholica who were genuinely excited and energised by the different vision of Church that emerged out of the Second Vatican Council. Dr Lowes' field of academic interest has been the study of Trinity. In this series of essays he argues that we have to get back to a structuring of the believing and practicing community around the concept of "Trinitarian communion". [more]

006 :
28 May 2011

Bleak House Part 4 – with a bit of joy at the end! Dr Anthony Lowes ends his examination today of the bleak state the institutional church with nine dot point priorities of what needs to be done to return a bit of joy to this institution which played such an important part in shaping us and indeed Western culture. Our increasing view here at Catholica is that pigs might fly before any of it happens. What he writes about though might well be very important in shaping the Phoenix that arises from the burnt out ruins of the church that Josef and Karol built out of the excitement and hope of Vatican II. [more]

005 :
21 May 2011

Bleak House Part 3... The subject matter of Dr Anthony Lowes examination of the bleak state the institutional church today echoes so well with that short, 10 minute excerpt from Edward Stourton's BBC documentary, Absolute Truth, that we are including it again at the conclusion of the commentary. Where did this institution begin to run off the rails to the point where 86% of the flock in the educated parts of the world have simply walked out the door? [more]

004 :
14 May 2011

Bleak House Part 2... The events of the past week in Australia following the forced retirement of Toowoomba Bishop, Bill Morris appear to have been an enormous downer for the spirits of the majority in the Church in this country. In some senses this series from Dr Anthony Lowes examining the bleak state the institutional church today is perhaps the last thing we need today to lift ourselves out of the gloom. Part Two of his series today though does have an optimistic tone seeking to find ways in which we might re-articulate and re-relevance the foundational insights of Christ. Dr Lowes' suggestions today might be the basis for the opening of a vigorous discussion as to what is needed to breathe life back into the bleak house. [more]

003 :
29 Apr 2011

Bleak House Part 1... In this first part of a four-part series Dr Anthony Lowes examines the bleak state the institutional church is in today with massive disaffection in the pews, lack of priests and a huge drop in morale. It's a familiar theme to readers of Catholica but this perspective from Dr Lowes provides much food for productive thought as to what we ought to do about the crisis. [more]

002 :
11 Jul 2009

The Point of Pursuing the Notion of Trinity – Part 2... Whether we appreciate it or not, all of us model our lives and behaviours on paradigms — big canvas ideas that mould our thinking and which we learn from our culture, our religion, ideas planted in our minds and being passed down through our families, the heroes we learn about through our reading and study, as well as the big ideas that are fashionable in society in our present moment. Just think of all the paradigms driving the behaviours of so many individuals around the world in the last week at the passing of pop star Michael Jackson. In this two-part article (we published the first part yesterday) Dr Anthony Lowes is looking at the theological concept of Trinity and argues that for many it has become an esoteric idea trying to describe a God 'out there' or 'up there'. Consequently most people today probably spend very little time if any at all thinking about "Trinity" — or see it as having much relevance in their day-to-day lives. Along with other theologians he refers to in this theologically dense essay, he is arguing we need to grab the concept anew and not exclusively see it as a concept trying to describe the 'Being' of a God "out there" but it is a powerful tool through which we can understand our own 'being' and what it means to be a person aspiring to re-union and comm-union with God and with one another. There is a profound mystery or paradox to our own being: to be the perfect individual we cannot achieve it as an individual but only in relation (communion) with others. [more]

001 :
10 Jul 2009

The Point of Pursuing the Notion of Trinity – Part 1... Something a little bit different today — and a bit heavier to provide much food for useful reflection and comment. Dr Anthony Lowes sent this in to us for consideration a couple of weeks ago. In the wake of the decline in relevance of religion he argues we are in danger of effectively throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Most people probably don't spend much time thinking about the Trinity these days considering it a form of thinking that belongs in the past. In this two-part article, Tony Lowes argues we need to re-discover the real depth in Trinitarian thinking (and rescue the entire concept from the neanderthal sectors — those incapable of change even if the survival of their church or species depended on it — who seem to make us want to believe Trinity is a physical reality and we're all damned if we don't accept their dogmas on the Trinity [yes, you have our permission to smile])... [more]