Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Quodlibet - [don't] ask us a question!

The following post was first published on 30th January 2007. Between then and 21st March 2009 we published fifteen 'quodlibets'. Then we had the year of St Paul, the year of the priest, and other things came along to fill the pages of Godzdogz. In the meantime a lot of questions came in and we want to turn now to answering those. Over the next few months we hope to publish a couple of quodlibets each week. Please don't send us any more questions for the moment - it may be that your question has already been tabled by someone else - we will let you know when we have cleared the backlog.

We would like to add a new feature to the 'study' section of Godzdogz: a virtual quodlibet. The quodlibet, roughly meaning whatever it pleases, was a form of teaching employed in the medieval university at which questions on any topic which pleased the audience were put to a teacher. These questions and answers were sometimes written up and published, most famously in the Quaestiones de quodlibet of Thomas Aquinas.

We hope that this will be a valuable, interactive element to add to our blog. We invite you therefore to propose questions which you feel we might be able to answer - whatever it pleases you to ask. From time to time we will research answers to your questions and post them here.

7 comments:

  1. I was wondering if its possible to publicly ask these questions in the comments box (for those of us who are exceedingly bashful) or if you insist on the email through the gmail account.

    Either way, thank you for giving us the opportunity to ask the question.

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  2. Sure, ask the question this way if you are bashful.

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  3. Your thoughts on evolution. If we evolved, as Dr Dawkins and others would have it, what of the soul? From a Xn perspective which incorporates an evolutionary understanding, how does the human sould fit in with this perspective? Does just appear in the first Homo Sapien, if this is the case, did the Homo Sapiens progenitors also have rational "human" souls, or merely animal souls, such as those informing all other animals.

    Yours in Christ
    Br Mannes.OP (Oz province)

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  4. Dear all,

    bashful, I am. But i hope my question will be found here, so long after the first post.

    What constitutes spiritual reading?

    Does it have to be scriptual? the Fathers of the church? Can you read simone weil, primo levi, elie wiesel spiritually, considering they were all written with this as part of their examination of huamn nature? How about Oscar Romero? Leonardo Boff, or controversially Jon Sobrino? Again, they aim to lead us to greater understanding - can we devote our prayer time to uderstanding how God speaks through these servants? Moltmann, bonhoeffer and guiterrez also have valuable insights, can we include these? JP II, benedict XVI? St. Dominic? St. Anthony Claret? Blessed Damien?

    Okay, so point made. What texts do you think constitute spiritual reading? or is that a personal choice, guided by the spirit? What do people pray with - alongside and in no way superceding, the Bible?

    excellent
    thanks

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  5. Dear all,

    I readthe other blogs again. Now I know that the world out there likes things to be just so. No fluffy edges. I like fluffy edges, but to accomodate others:

    Scriptural reading: I mean that which you would spend time reading with in prayer. Something that you can struggle with, perhaps convinced that it holds a truth. Something that opens a window, lets in the light and breaths fresh air.

    fluffy enough?

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  6. I was wondering if you could go over the stages in becoming a dominican priest- from the clothing onwards. I tend to get a bit confused as to what you do and when.

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  7. Shouldn't the black and white dog be a border collie (herding God's flock) rather than a dalmation (eating the sofa)?

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