The passages in Bernard Cooke’s “The God of Space and Time” that stress the importance of the Church’s mission to carry on the work of Christ have made a deep impression on me. I don’t think many of Cooke’s ideas are new to me but the way he presents them I have found exciting and inspiring. I think it is the way that Cooke writes about the Mystical Body and the role of Christians in that Body that has touched me deeply.
Arts and Culture
Fr. Robert Lauder is a philosophy professor at St. John’s University and the author of “Pope Francis’ Spirituality and Our Story” (Resurrection Press).
The Presence of the Risen Christ
In “The God of Space and Time” (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960, pp. 208, $4.95) Bernard Cooke discusses how God in the Old Testament helped the Jewish People to grow in holiness as His people and distinguishes that relationship from the relationship that the risen Christ has with the Christian community.
Experience of Being the Mystical Body of Christ
In commenting on the doctrine that the Christian community is the body of Christ in the world, Bernard Cooke in his book “The God of Space and Time” uses as an analogy our human bodies. He points out that just as a man and woman in marriage “become one flesh,” Christ and his Church become one body.
A Personal Relationship With God
Re-reading Bernard Cooke’s “The God of Space and Time” has been an especially enjoyable experience for me.
Freedom is One of God’s Great Gifts to Us
I have a habit. How long have I had it? I am not certain. Did it start when I began to teach philosophy many years ago? I don’t think so because I can now recall having the habit even when I was a seminarian studying for the priesthood.
Human Person, Philosophy, And Theology
Many memories have come back to me during the pandemic. Some of these memories have been wonderful, some not so wonderful.
God As a Loving Lion
During the pandemic, all sorts of memories came back to me, some wonderful, some very sad. I received at least one important insight into myself. Often I am in high gear, involved with many projects, pressured to keep a number of commitments, trying to meet various deadlines. What I have discovered about myself is that I easily tend to be impatient. And I mean easily.
The Person as ‘Prayer’
I have been thinking about last week’s column that was devoted to the idea that the actions that a person performs reveal the identity of that person and also help to form and shape the identity of the person acting. The deeper the action, the deeper the effect. A vow has tremendous power to influence the lie of the person who makes the vow.
Making Yourself Available to God and Others
As I have mentioned previously in some of these columns, for much of my adult life I have tried to achieve some kind of unity, tried to allow what I believe to influence my reading, my research, my writing, my teaching, my preaching, even my recreating. In my case this has taken almost a lifetime of effort.
God, Love, Hate, and the Human Community
Often while discussing love and hate in philosophy classes at St. John’s University, I try to provoke a discussion by posing questions about what hating does to the person hating and what loving does to the person loving.