The Christian Vanguard

The Tome of Leo is a letter written in AD 449 by Pope St. Leo to St. Flavian, who was Bishop of Constantinople. Why was this letter sent? After the Council of Ephesus, there arose a new heresy spewed by a monk named Eutyches who taught that after the incarnation, Christ only had one nature, and not two natures (divine and human). Eutyches was condemned by the Bishop, but another "council" was held in defense of Eutyches' teaching and condemned Bishop St. Flavian. This council became known as the Robber Council, which is an invalid council . So, St. Flavian appealed to his brother bishop Pope St. Leo and the letter is the reply. You can read it here .  The letter is significant for a few reasons. First, it is significant because it is a defense of orthodox teaching on the two natures of Christ. It was so profound, that this letter was appealed to in the next Ecumenical Council, the Council of Chalcedon, which did finally and authoritatively lay to rest the teaching of...

Few months ago, I bought some shoes. Nice shoes. Almost $300 dollars. Johnston and Murphy. Bought two shoe brushes with them, and some socks. Didn't think I'd need them, but I'm glad I bought them anyway. Nice lady who sold them to me, who could obviously tell I didn't have a pair like this before, showed me how to take care of them, polishing them for me, the movements to make, having me do it in front of her, what to do in cases of damage, all that. So now, I do that with some regularity. I don't always wear them, I might wear them for Mass or something, but I'll always clean them. And there's something very nice about it. There's something of a ritual to it that speaks to my inner man. I think many rituals are like this. For old school cholos, it was pressing ones pants to highlight the crease. For many boy growing up, it was seeing their dads shave and being taught how to shave. Learning how to tie a tie. How to start a fire. How to hunt. A passin...

I have a friend who is mentally disabled. She is functional, socially at least, but is not one to securely hold a job. She has, in the past, made me very uncomfortable. Not for any inappropriate reason. So for example, we were at a mutual friends birthday party, doing karaoke, and I sat next to her after doing an awesome rendition of Johnny Cash's " Boy Named Sue " and she goes, "You're really cool." And I mean, I guess she didn't mind the silence in the room that followed that. I gave an awkward smile, said thank you, and avoided eye contact. On the ride home friends commented on my being uncomfortable . And I was like, yeah that's weird, she's weird, but she's slow, so I mean, I guess we have to put up with it. And she would contact me and my friends, asking when the next time we were all going to hang out, and we were always kind of evasive. Was it mean? If you had asked me at the time, I may have been evasive on that as well. I think I...

The following is an essay I had to submit for my British Empiricism class.  John Locke is a cornerstone of empiricism. This essay will examine the foundations and justifications of his empiricism and its limits. In contradistinction to his empiricism, we will consider some rationalist critiques from Rene Descartes and some possible responses, and further responses to his project in general. A classical way of summarizing the empiricism of Locke is as follows: all simple ideas originate in experience. This will be analyzed into its parts. Experience here specifically means sensation and reflection (II.1.2). Sensation is the observation of external sensible objects, and reflection is the observation of the internal operations of our minds (II.1.2). Observation of external sensible objects would be things like soft, bitter, and hot (II.1.3). Operations of the mind are things like doubting, thinking, willing, and reasoning (II.1.4) Ideas are the objects of the understanding (I.1.8) ...