King Agamemnon’s apology to Achilles (see “Homer I” article), and the latter’s rejection of it, take place in an assembly of the Greek warlords who face almost certain defeat—death or enslavement—if they battle without Achilles. The warlords are willing to risk their lives for their civilization, but in a tribal...

Today’s lesson is from Homer, who, though perhaps not a philosopher, is yet philosophical in his portrayal of human existence. From Homer’s writing, we might define the human person as the being who lives out a call, or destiny, coming from the divine realm and requiring a response. A person...

What lessons can philosophy teach a Christian? Philosophy can mean reasoning out answers to abstruse questions, as one might suspect, but in our case it means the pursuit of Wisdom (philosophy is literally “love of wisdom”) by which we fulfill our human potential (Aristotle, Ethics I.7). Wisdom acquired brings in...

Pope Benedict claims that our worlds, both “first” and “third,” are in a crisis diagnosed as “the inability of Joy” and caused by another crisis, “the inability to love.” Is Pope Benedict claiming that parents no longer love their children, or children their parents? Or that friends no longer care...

God “gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish” (Jn 3:16), and yet, “God wants all to be saved” (1 Tim 2:4). Clearly Jesus came to redeem all people, but what about those who do not believe in Jesus because they have never heard of...