Critical analysis of Tomáš Halík's "Afternoon of Christianity"

Msgr. Prof. Tomáš Halík PhD, DD. is well known Czech theologian and priest. He is also strong supporter and promoter of modern theology. His talk by name "Afternoon of Christianity" is quite telling insight into present day insanity of Catholic intellectuals including not only himself, but very high-ranking clerics. You can watch his talk on the Youtube. It is about 30 minutes long and quite disturbing. I am going to address some key points of his talk.

1. Distorted view of history and relation of Christianity (Catholicism) and Enlightenment (secularism, liberalism, etc.)

First misconception of Msgr. Halík is that enlightenment is (natural) product of Christianity, a product of conflict between Catholics and Protestants. It is not. It is primarily a natural product or lets say consequence of Protestantism. It is important to make distinction between authentic Christianity - Catholic - and fake distorted Christianity - Protestantism. Those are not equals. It is not competition between two equals. It is no wonder that secularism has its origin in philosophies coming from protestant England, which influenced both French and American revolution. The idea of secularism as promoted by John Locke was intended only for coexistence (tolerance) of solely protestant sects. The Catholics (vulgarly referenced as Papists) and atheist or other religions had no right to exists in this system. Therefore as Protestantism started slow downfall (crumbling and watering down) of Christianity and enabled deism (first step towards agnosticism and atheism), then atheistic spin on secularism denoted the start of the end of the Christianity and Christianity guided civilization.
His other misconception is that current society adopted/absorbed and internalized christian ways. No. It rather runs on the trend of Christian civilization. However this trend fades off  with increasing speed.

2. Christians (incl. Catholics) need secularism and vice verse to serve as corrective measure

If Christ brought all necessary means for Salvation including his Church. We do not need an external principle, which is not part of his mandate or revelation, as corrective measure. It is dualism. Like saying the evil is necessary for the existence of good. It is not catholic.

3. The Christianity (especially Catholic Church) must search for new role in the secular world.

The mandate of Church is clear for all times Mathew 28:19-20: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
The idea of the Church in need to change her role in the World just because it became secular and pagan is modern nonsense. It is just cleverly disguised way of saying that "the Church must go with the times", which is old modernist battle cry as they demolish the Church.

4. The Church that must die in order to bear fruits

It is an insane extrapolation of the idea of individual Christian sacrificing his life for the faith in order to bear fruits for the Christ. If the Church as whole is destroyed, if it dies as a tree it can not bear the fruits anymore. Is this why modern theologians are on mission to destroy the Church?

5. The problem of "triumphalism"

Firstly Msgr. Halík reduces the role of Church militant to private spiritual struggle and overlooks the other dimension of the struggle. The struggle to evangelize according to the mandate of the Church (applicable both on individual Catholics and the Church as whole) to spread the faith. After all it is the One True Faith for salvation of all man.
Then he accuses Catholics in the Church militant to suffer from self-identification with the Church triumphant. According to him this lead to militant attitude towards others, who are "different" (meaning other religions, heretics outside and inside church). Like if Catholics were committing terrorist acts and suicide bombings against those people. This accusation is directed towards traditionalists, tradition minded and orthodox Catholics.
This accusation is false. Those Catholics have in mind also the Church triumphant, but they do not self identify with it nor interchange the Church militant with the Church triumphant.
What Msgr. Halík completly overlooks is fact that the Church triumphant is a part of the whole Church. It is nothing wrong to love the Catholic Church and be proud of its God given glory, splendor and beauty. It is like loving creation (nature) as expression of overflowing love for its creator (God), then why wouldn't you love the gem of creation the bride of the Christ and despised all cheap man made fakes and imitations.
It is important to note that the Gospel and its main message itself is utmost triumphalist message of all times. The message that the Jesus Christ has risen. The victory over death. It can't get more "triumphalist"!
His idea also denies the reality of the saints, who loved the God and his Church, while being humble about their own personal deeds.
He also ipso facto denies the Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (there is no salvation outside the Church).

He presents erroneous idea that the individual believer has no access to the sufficient knowledge of God, because he overlooks the fact that the Church has/provides all necessary means for salvation. This erroneous thinking leads him to the idea that believers and consequently the Church itself must look for ways to improve its understanding of God. This he backs by misinterpretation of the St. Paul, where St. Paul speaks about how we see God in the afterlife in contrast to this life.
Moreover he beliefs erroneously there are other legitimate ways of being Christian, than being a Catholic, than being a member of Christ's Church or any other ecclesiastical community whatsoever.

He presents a false humility in erroneous endless doubt as part of the Christian life, because he does not direct those on believer himself, but on the God and truths of the Faith. What would Msgr. Halík say on words of St. Alphonsus:

If you are tempted by the evil spirit against some truth of our holy faith do not stop to consider the difficulties suggested by the devil, but make an act of faith without delay and protest before God your willingness to lay down your very life for the truths of your holy faith. 
Liguori, St. Alphonsus. The Twelve Steps to Holiness and Salvation

6. The third path

The third path for the Church, as it is promulgated not only by Msgr. Halík, but sadly in some other forms by many high ranking bishops and even by the pope Francis, is equivalent of the fifth wheel of the cart.
What it is? The idea of "accompanying people". He speaks of two traditional ways pastoral and missionary. The pastoral is directed towards members of the Church and the missionary is to bring people outside the Church in. However what about the third way (accompanying people)? If the pastoral and missionary care of the Church cover all people (inside and outside the Church), for whom is it good for? It is utterly useless and superfluous construct.
What does it even mean "accompanying people"? Accompanying where to? On road to the Hell (on road different than path to the salvation)? Doesn't it lead the accompanying christian to the Hell too?
Msgr. Halik is more precise. He does speak about accompanying of "seekers". Those are people who are endlessly "seeking God", but can not find him. However we do not send "missionaries" to them. No, no! According to Msgr. Halík quote: "we accompany them on their path in dialogue for a while". and then ...
I don't know we ditch them? "This should be considered of equal value as missionary work" according to him. Seriously!? Yes, Msgr. Halík does realize the fact quote: "it requires a radical shift in the ecclesiology".

The ultimate Goal of neo-modernists

The plan for the future of the Church is according to Msgr. Halík alliance between (anti-christian) secularism and all Christians as they are coming to terms with one another via the ecumenical efforts. This plan of course includes keeping the secularism at the helm guiding them as they became increasingly immersed in pluralistic world and themselves become more pluralistic. "Other ways of being a christian will emerge".

What is therefore the idea of "Afternoon Christianity". It is the idea of revitalized new Christianity transformed by modern ideology, "pluralized", with a new role after present "noon crisis".

I can agree that Christianity is in period of crisis, but this is not "middle-age crisis". It is rather a period of illness when the body of the Christ is weakened. Before it can function effectively again the disease must be fight off by its immunity system. However what if Church at present suffers from some form of an autoimmune disease. Only miracle could save the Church in such case.

Should human rights always outweigh religious rights? (The Big Questions, 12/1/14)

Should human rights always outweigh religious rights?

Neither, because the idea of "rights" is flawed. It is bad philosophy, which in turn produces various problems and conflicts. An idea of "right" puts responsibility on others. "I have the right and now you have to do something." The order or any morality for that matter falls apart as consequence. In contemporary sense a right is whatever government says it is right. It is just as Christopher Ferrara eloquently puts it: "Modern society is atomized individual powerless against all powerful state." and "God gave us ten commandments not rights!" I strongly recommend you to watch all his talks about Christian social order, morality and law, the kingship of Jesus Christ and liberal secular state (on Youtube here).
Modern state claims for itself an absolute authority in regards to all things concerning social order (including morality). In consequence it leads to absurd praxis that morality is defined by democratic vote (by majority public opinion). This is utterly false and dangerous position to hold. For example if majority people would desire to exterminate Jews it would be permissible and moral since morality is viewed by prism of what is legal (or a legal right). In this construct of self-determined voted on national morality is everything subject to trends and whims of the society. In the framework of Lockean secularism based on religious indifferentism any moral argument holds no value as everything must be tolerated. That is why in The Big Questions any effort to justify upholding morality on grounds of secularism and pluralism is doomed to fail. Any religion or individual believer in conflict with this system is going to be struck down (that is the persecution they clumsily talk about in the video).
The idea of religious rights or freedom of religion is somewhat coming from the state is ridiculous. I have never seen any religious authority to check bill of rights, consult lawyer whether some religious truth is not in conflict with the law of the land. It is mentality of reversed order, where secular (agnostic) state is superior to religion (religious authority). This is one of the errors condemned by Bl. Pius IX.

What is necessary is to shift debate on the other side of the coin. It is necessary to abandon the right talk. This means I have a duty (a moral obligation) and you have a duty. The first duty in Christian framework is to believe in God. State has duty to protect the true religion of Christ the Catholic Church. If society orders itself around duties required by the God and the true religion of Catholic Church (not those schismatic and heretics like Church of England, countless protestants sects, etc.), no moral man would miss so called rights for a second. So I can say:

"I do not recognize any limitations established by law upon proclaiming or upholding truths of the Catholic faith, the only true religion, because my duties to the One true God supersede my duties to the state or any individual man."

"Moreover It is necessary to refuse safety blanket of religious freedom and other secular rights, which in practice serve as unspoken social contract to permit various immoralities violating natural or divine law in exchange for silence. Following example of St. Francis of Assisi, who returned everything to his father including clothes, it is time to return all secular rights to the state including religious rights, freedom of speech, etc. and embrace Christ without comforting chains of  lukewarmness forged by godless ideologies."

Do we really need Ecology encyclical?

When I heard about pope Francis dedicating his next encyclical on heavy topic of ecology and environment I thought first he must be nuts, because with so much turmoil going in the church he will pick the least important problem in the world. Like if not using green products would cost you your salvation. However after more thinking I realized that it is not entirely bad idea especially in light of pope Francis's focus on issues of poor people and poor countries.

It is one of the great errors in modern western society to replace primacy of care for salvation and humanity with care for environment, animals and inanimate Earth. By pressing on bogus problem of global warning various evil agenda is promoted - earth worship, eugenics and global government.

First let me briefly address the issue of global warming. If global warming and everything what those doomsayers claim is true, then any action at this point is meaningless, because we are already beyond the point of return. If not then any action is equally meaningless. So it makes no difference whether the global warming exists or does not.

The eugenics attempts to save humanity by killing it is one of problems which concerns poor developing countries in Africa and elsewhere. This Ecology encyclical gives pope great opportunity to condemn such attempts and such practices where the first world countries try to push on those countries contraception and abortion. There were also instances where they did that directly by secretly putting contraception into vaccine for those countries.

The other issue of global government or to be precise of global taxation using excuse of taxation for carbon emissions and the whole pressure to use expansive technologies with ecology in mind puts lot of burden on developing economies of poor countries. In result those countries are hammered down, by putting on them burdens from which rich countries buy themselves out or ignore them altogether anyway.

The final issue that touches not only on Africa, but in last hundred years even on the first world countries is idolatry of Earth, objects and living things in nature. This should be condemned and proper balance between protection of environment and utilization of natural resources for benefit of mankind should be drawn by the Church once and for all.

One last thing of lesser significance the idea of putting animal on same spiritual level with humans should be condemned as well. This touches on issue of vegetarians and vegans who do that for "sake of animals" and not for sake of fasting or as exercise in self-denial.

Modernism in the church and lack of faith is still the biggest issue of the day, but do we really need another Pascendi dominici gregis when we already have one.

Re: Does Enjoying Anime or Magna Conflict with the Holy Catholic Faith?

This post is answer to the blogpost Does Enjoying Anime or Magna Conflict with the Holy Catholic Faith? Unlike Nathan Barontini I have watched lot of anime, read manga mainly as easy to obtain and comprehend Japanese language material. I am going to focus on anime, but most things I will write about apply to manga (comics) too.

First in itself anime is not in contradiction to the faith. It is technique to produce content. As far as I know the primary motivation was to produce content cheaply.

In Japan there is industry producing dozens series each year, with various genres and target audience. Like in any tv production most of it is bad or average. Quality (script, characters, etc.) is one criteria how to measure "good" anime and other is whether the show is immoral or promoting immorality. When I say most of it is bad as in any tv production I am not distinguishing between those two criteria. I will focus on the morality and ideas presented rather than the quality of the content. Still there are rare gems, which are definitely worthwhile.

Picture from manga I've recently stumbled upon - Brother Falco (修道士ファルコ)

It is important to realize that Japan is deeply pagan culture unlike Europe or USA. This is visible in culture and consequently in anime. Superstition (amulets), divination, shrines to various animistic deities, Shintoism and Buddhism is not uncommon thing in anime. Some stories or character are based on folklore (i.e. nine-tailed fox). If anime tries to address some real world issue it will be most likely issue related to problems of Japan society.

Sexual morality

In my opinion the biggest danger in watching of anime especially for young people is in regards of sexual morality. I am not talking about explicit pornographic materials (hentai), but rather about erotic scenes or genres of anime. Harem and ecchi anime.

Ecchi is expression for soft-erotic scenes. Such scenes can vary in degree and quantity greatly. It is not genre per say. It is important to say that in series airing on TV nudity is censored.

Harem anime is male protagonist surrounded by multiple female characters or other way around - reverse harem. Speaking about harem seen one seen them all. Harem anime is lazy way to make an anime story. It is kind of emotional and sensual tease. The quality of these is usually pretty low even aside from the question of morality. Most light-novel adaptations fall in this category.
One can notice also kind of obsession with incest in those categories of anime. For example As Long as There's Love, It Doesn't Matter If He Is My Brother, Right is quite self-explanatory title.

Special genres playing on homosexual fantasies are Yaoi and Yuri. Yaoi anime portraits romance between males and Yuri between females. However those are not targeted for homosexuals. Yaoi is generally endorsed more by women.

Catholic Church and other religions in anime

A Certain Magical Index - To Aru Majutsu no Index 

What I find interesting on anime in general or better to say on Japanese authors in general is inability to grasp or portrait the Catholic Church and the faith in meaningful way. In many instances Catholic Church is used for its costumes and art as kind of stage setting. For example in To Aru Majutsu no Index the Church and various protestant communities are just fighting circles of mages (occult practitioners). Similarly in Fate Stay Night too Church is portrayed in this ridiculous way and main villain is a priest. In anime Hellsing Ultimate the 13th section Iscariot, a special secret paramilitary organization of the Catholic Church, plays key role in the story. Its purpose is to perform extermination of natural (heretics, unbelievers) and supernatural (vampires) enemies of the Church. More than offensive it is kind of ridiculous in todays atmosphere of tolerance, dialog and negligence among clergy, this concept of official Catholic group, which would be literally militant and believed strongly in no negotiation policy.
In this case it is not attempt to downplay the Catholic Church, but to make it more badass. I have to admit it does so successfully. Still in those instances the Catholic Church is used as stage setting, rather than attempt to downplay or slander the Catholic faith per se.

I know only one anime that is openly anti-catholic and really offensive. English title is Maria the Virgin Witch (Junketsu Maria in original title transcription from Japanese). If you get your hand on it, you should burn it. The Catholic Church is presented as enemy of common folks with homosexual priests, while "good" witches help poor people and evil Church burns them at the stake and references to St. Joan of Arc in the story make the whole thing even worse.

The Legend of Galactic Heroes - The Earth cult uses manipulation, brainwashing to achieve its goals. 

The Legend of Galactic Heroes another anime, very good in terms of quality, but it portraits religion and at one point it even openly criticizes it as obstacle to human progress. The sole religion existing in this fictional future universe is fanatical cult of planet Earth worshipers. This might by due to experience of Japan with dangerous cults. However it is not the entire point of the story (I think it was in one episode from more than 100), which was spewing ahistorical propaganda against the Catholic Church. I think it is still possible to enjoy it for what is it.

Now the good stuff

While I am not aware of any catholic anime per say. I have among my favorites some, which spoke to my catholic sense.

Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl)

While influenced by eastern understanding, I think this is the best portrait of hell and evil in man. The story revolves around web site provided by hell. Those who are full of hate can access this site at midnight and request services of hell provided by Enma Ai aka Hell Girl. She will quench their thirst for vengeance by sending hated person to hell for a price. The price is their own soul. Therefore the hell gains two souls in the process and is sole benefactor. Even if openly presented with this ultimate price those people still do it most of the times and suffer consequences in this life and in the next.

Saint Seiya (aka Knights of the Zodiac)

Combination of medieval knights, greek mythology and various eastern views. Not perfect in quality with fillers, its general overemphasis on power of friendship and "the force" like concept, but it is openly anti-relativism. It is also the only series where divine plays important role in battle against overwhelming powers of evil. The anime adaptation presents clear argument against Buddhistic view of morality (not in source manga). Strong emphasis on duty and hardships to walk path of righteousness. I consider it kind of the Lord of the Rings among anime.

There are many more decent titles, which are not harmful to faith. I have selected only two, which I consider more positive than just neutral in that regards.

Beyond anime and manga

While Japan produces countless anime and manga titles, it is not the only thing it does. There are some really good TV shows (TV drama in Japanese). I gave up on USA TV shows some years ago. Now it is only homosexual propaganda, silly sitcoms (Big Bang Theory), shock factor like Game of the Thrones and other depravities.

For example of good drama...
Monster Parent

Story about young, ambitious and successful female advocate. In order to forward her career she accepts personal request of her boss to help his old schoolmate. She is assigned into obscure education department handling issues between parents and schools. There she learns about so called monster parents who act over-protectively and nag teachers and school directors about banal issues. However she will eventually learn that things are not always so simple as they seem and that there are more important things in life than career and high paid job. Great drama about parents, teachers and children.

While I think it is very unlikely than you could actually lose faith just due to anime/manga, I think people should consider whether they want invest their time into watching tv in the first place.

Michael Coren left the faith!?

In response to The Vortex: Michael Coren

Honestly I didn't see that coming. I think that more than objective theological issues it is matter of succumbing to some vice or falling into habitual mortal sin. Otherwise how can someone who defended (even wrote a book) the Catholic Church as the One True Church do such thing baffles me.

New blog

I have decided to start new blog. I am going to post here commentaries on issues regarding faith and occasionally on other topics of interest (software engineering, Japanese language).