In this post I will conclude my reflections on the just released declaration of the Roman Catholic Church’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on “Dignitas Infinita” (Human Dignity). Below is the outline of the document. Today I will address the bolded point #4. Presentation Introduction 1. A Growing Awareness of the Centrality of Human Dignity 2. The Church Proclaims, Promotes, and Guarantees Human Dignity 3. Dignity, the Foundation of Human Rights and Duties 4. Some Grave Violations of Human Dignity Conclusion Some Grave Violations of Human Dignity Under this heading Dignitas Infinita a ..read more

Today I will continue my reflections on the just released declaration of the Roman Catholic Church’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on “Dignitas Infinita” (Human Dignity). In part one I commented on the Introduction and point # 1. I will take up points #2 and #3 below. Presentation Introduction 1. A Growing Awareness of the Centrality of Human Dignity 2. The Church Proclaims, Promotes, and Guarantees Human Dignity 3. Dignity, the Foundation of Human Rights and Duties 4. Some Grave Violations of Human Dignity Conclusion The Church Proclaims, Promotes, and Guarantees Human Dignity The ..read more

In the March 31 episode of CBS’s Face the Nation, Roman Catholic Cardinal Gregory Walton of Washington DC spoke of President Joe Biden as a “cafeteria Catholic.” The Cardinal explained to the audience that cafeteria Catholics pick and choose which church teachings to believe and practice based on expediency and preference. Walton hastened to add that Mr. Biden is “sincere,” which to my mind strains credulity. For I can’t square flagrant disobedience and direct contradiction of the Church’s clear teaching with sincerity. What stands out in the cafeteria Catholic mentality is the lack of a spiri ..read more

I shall have more to say later…but I wanted to announce that my new book The Choice: Should the Church Affirm LGBTQ+ Identities and Ways of Living? is now available in paperback and Kindle. It will soon also be available in AI audio. You can read the first 6 pages of the Introduction on Amazon.com. More later ..read more

My new book, The Choice: Should the Church Affirm LGBTQ+ Identities and Ways of Living? will be published and available within a week from today! Here is what my good friend Rubel Shelly said about it: Ron Highfield has made a significant contribution to the present-day discussion of LGBTQ+ claims by a tight focus on the work of Karen Keen. Highfield’s The Choice is a careful and erudite analysis of Keen’s work that uncovers a species of argument being offered from many quarters. First, he lays bare Keen’s postmodern substitution of feeling and rhetoric for Scripture and sound reas ..read more

Today I want to recommend two books devoted to a topic that has increasingly occupied my mind of late: Rubel Shelly, Male & Female God Created Them: A Biblical Review of LGBTQ+ Claims. Joplin, MO: College Press, 2023. PP. 426. Rubel Shelly, The INK is DRY: God’s Distinctive Word on Marriage, Family, and Sexual Responsibility. Joplin, MO: College Press, 2023. PP. 182. The Revolution Before 2010, I thought most authors advocating the Christian legitimacy of LGBTQ+ identities and ways of living were liberals or progressives located in such mainline denominations as the United Church of Christ ..read more

Dear friends: I am excited about an innovation in Artificial Intelligence! My book Rethinking Church has just been rendered audible via AI. Though I am sure we all would love to hear books read by their authors, AI technology cuts production costs by 95%! And it comes close to sounding like a real voice actor. So many people these days tell me that they do not have time to sit down and read a book, but they do listen to podcasts and audible books. Listen to the free audio sample by following the link above or simply going to Amazon.com and searching for the book. I am in between series at the ..read more

Introduction In their last conversation, the professor and the seminarian concluded that modern academia’s 250-year effort to rationalize faith has failed miserably. Academia’s obsessive desire to avoid believing anything false led it to apply standards appropriate only to mathematics and (perhaps) logic to the Bible. Of course, no theological scholar attempted to translate the Bible into mathematical terms. But the historical and literary methods critical biblical scholars developed aimed to approximate the ideal of mathematical certainty as closely as possible. And they do not limit their ef ..read more

Introduction Today we listen in on the fifth conversation between a recent seminary graduate and one of his former professors. The previous conversation centered on clarifying the critical standard academia uses to test knowledge claims. Taking mathematics and logic as the ideal sciences, academia measures all other endeavors to secure knowledge by the ideal of clear, exhaustive, and absolute knowledge. In sciences other than mathematics, however, this ideal is unattainable and can be only approximated to one degree or another. Not only so, the level of success in approximating the ideal is al ..read more

Introduction This post is part four of a multipart conversation between a recent seminary graduate and one of his former professors. In part three, the seminarian outlined the view of the Bible and the Christian faith he learned in church. Today, he will attempt to recreate the steps by which he came to doubt the Bible and the traditional faith. Setting: Since their last conversation, the seminarian and the professor discovered that they both frequent a little coffee roaster near the seminary. They plan to meet at 10:00am Wednesday. Seminarian: Hi professor. Have you been here long? Professor ..read more