Around the Blogosphere . . .

• Benjamin Blosser begins his new blog, Ad Limina Apostolorum - "Musings by a doctoral student, patristics scholar, and inveterate Augustinian" by pondering the Manichean affiliations of his patron saint, and "vexing problem of fending off nicknames" for his new son.

  Benjamin Blosser is third in line of the 4-sibling Blosser clan, and the budding theology scholar of the bunch, pursuing his M.A./PhD in Historical Theology (with a focus in Patristics) at Catholic University of America, Washington D.C.

  The last time we saw each other, he mentioned to me that he'd been following Mark Shea's blog "religiously" for some time now, and this past weekend decided to jump into the fray. Let's welcome him to St. Blogs! =)

• Quotes from Monsignor Ronald Knox (1888-1957) applied to contemporary issues in the Church today, courtesy of Carl Olson ("Envoy Encore").

• The Old Oligarch shares some theological trivia with The High Stakes of Wielding Papal Magisterium. (By way of TS O'Rama).

• Once again, TS O'Rama (of the blog with the really long Latin name) "[spans] the Proverbial Globe to Bring You the Constant Variety of Posts."

• Good solid post by Bill Cork, providing a helpful clarification of the nature of his disagreements with The Passion and, more importantly, what the cross means -- or should mean, at any rate -- to Christians:

  Liberal Protestantism has preached a Jesus who is only a teacher. Liberal Catholicism has made him a teacher of nice pleasantries, and who is remembered in statues or "crucifixes" with an abstract cross and a figure of a bloodless, risen Jesus.

  But a Christianity that is true to the Gospel kerygma is centered on the bloodly, beaten form of the crucified Savior.