I have read up to and through the last chapter of Kasper’s The Gospel of the Family, where he famously proposed that divorced and remarried Catholics be admitted to communion. Up to this last chapter, what I have found is that Kasper doesn’t fit the wide-eyed liberal monster image that seems to emerge from various news stories I have read about him. He’s well grounded and, in the best sense, unoriginal when it comes to marriage. In the last chapter, of course, there will be a lot to talk about it.
But before I get down to it, I want to say a word about how I blog. There are two kinds of blogs on Catholic thought. One kind is represented by Edward Feser’s brilliant blog, which presents carefully thought-out and polished pieces that are more or less short journal articles. The other kind is what you find here: I blog to share my thought process with people who enjoy being involved in the process.
Back in 2011, I wrote a blog for one year titled “A Year With Ratzinger“. I read everything I could get my hands on by Ratzinger and put my impressions and thoughts up on the blog; friends left comments, and we had a conversation. Later, I learned that a philosophy professor from Texas devoted an entire lecture at an important conference to refuting one of my Ratzinger blog posts. I only know because an acquaintance happened to be in attendance.
The professor was probably right in his critique. After all, I just tossed up a few thoughts to start a conversation; I didn’t research and work them through carefully. But (a) it would have been nice if he would have left a comment on the blog sometime before he critiqued me publically, and (b) he was treating my blog as though it were Edward Feser’s.
Over the next few posts, I’m going to wade into a controversial matter and “think out loud” on this blog. You are not getting my final, nuanced position right away; you are joining me as I get to know the issues. Please take it in that spirit, and if you think I’ve gone off the reservation then for land’s sake leave a comment before you give a public lecture about it.
