December 04, 2004
The J-Files
(Jimmy Akin)
Let's continue the cross-linking of my apologetics work from the Catholic Answers web site.
As most of y'all know, we publish a magazine called This Rock.
<hypnotism> SUBSCRIBE TO IT. . . . SUBSCRIBE TO IT . . . </hypnotism>
We also post it online, but delayed by several months so you still have to
<hypnotism> SUBSCRIBE TO IT. . . . SUBSCRIBE TO IT . . . </hypnotism>
The most recent two issues we have online are the July/August 2004 and the September 2004 issue. We publish monthly except for May/June and July/August, so you get ten issues a year when you
<hypnotism> SUBSCRIBE TO IT. . . . SUBSCRIBE TO IT . . . </hypnotism>
Okay, enough of that gag.
Here's the deal: Each month I publish a column in This Rock, and my column is called "Brass Tacks" (which is Cockney rhyming-slang for "facts" or, in some sources, "hard facts"--which is what I try to deliver in the column). I also sometimes write feature stories.
In the two most recent issues that are online, my columns form a pair.
In the first issue I talk about WHY CATHOLIC APOLOGISTS NEED TO LEARN MORE LANGUAGES, PARTICULARLY THE BIBLICAL ONES (AND HOW IT'S EASIER THAN YOU THINK).
In the second issue I follow up by MAKING RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LANGUAGE-LEARNING RESOURCES AND REFERENCE WORKS--a subject I am often asked about here on the blog.
In fact, you may notice a suspicious similarity between the second article and certain previous things I've written on the blog. Yes, it's true. Sometimes I get behind the eight ball on a deadline and will cannibalizeadapt things I've written elsewhere . . . all in a quest to deliver timely and quality material, of course! In this case the second article was a logical and much-needed follow-on to the first.
I normally don't have a feature story in This Rock, but it so happens that in the July/August issue, I do.
It's called THE LOSS OF MASCULINE SPIRITUALITY.
This article deals not only with gender relations and how they are rooted in human nature but also the impact of gender on spirituality and the negative consequences that can ensue when a church places an over-emphasis on either "masculine" or "feminine" spirituality. God made the masculine and the feminine mutually interdependent in humans biologically, and they are both equally necessary in us spiritually, as well.
Unfortunately, I diagnose the present situation of the Catholic Church as involving an under-emphasis on "masculine" spirituality, which results in some of the problems we have in the Church today. I call for a renewal of this mode of spirituality to compliment the "feminine" spirituality that we presently have (and will always need) in abundance.
For what it's worth, when this article came out many people locked on to it as an article of particular significance, and I got requests for electronic copies of it as well as requests for notification of when it was online.
Now I'm fulfilling the latter.
I am very particular about fulfilling my commitments. :-)
Have fun reading . . .
THE J-FILES.
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