Here and There

• Something to look forward to in the new year, the release of a new book by the prolific Edward Feser: Aristotle’s Revenge: The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science. (See link for table of contents).
• The Brilliant and Profoundly Catholic Daredevil, Bradley J. Birzer. The American Conservative 12/11/18. Not sure if I'd herald it as "the single most positive portrayal of the Catholic Church in our present culture" -- other television shows and movies have dealt substantially with Catholic themes -- but I did appreciate the series and the serious attention with which it regarded its subject matter (even for a comic book character).
• The Ignorant Hounding of Roger Scruton, by Douglas Murray. The Spectator UK 11/8/18.
• Memo to the Left: You'll Never Be Roger Scruton Cool, by Stephen Hayward. Powerline 11/9/18.
• Vox populi, vox Dei was never a Catholic doctrine. The first cry of the people recorded in the New Testament was “Crucify him!” I expect it will be the world’s last cry too. - Anthony Esolen, Catholic Thing 11/10/18.
• A Searcher Discovers Thomas Aquinas , by Thomas J. White, O.P. and Hope Kean (The Public Discourse) :

  St. Thomas’s philosophy of nature, metaphysics, understanding of the human person, epistemology, logic, and ethics make sense even independently of divine revelation while being deeply compatible with it. He also articulates an understanding of revelation that assimilates his realistic philosophical approach to the world. Of course, it’s not that you can just read Aquinas and then never have to read anything else or that he provides a system resolving every problem. He does not offer a system but insights into the structure of reality that you can see are true. ... Aquinas is a deeply grounded philosophical realist, a deeply grounded theological realist, and a mystic; it’s a very powerful combination.

  [Excerpted from a longer interview with Fr. Thomas Joseph White, OP. It appears as one of sixteen interviews with converts in Mind, Heart, and Soul: Intellectuals and the Path to Rome, edited by Robert P. George and R. J. Snell].
• I am late to the game -- at least in terms of becoming aware and reading up on once-famous theologians falling into disrepute on account of moral failings, predominantly of a sexual nature. Most recently Karl Barth (circa. 2017) and John Howard Yoder (circa 2015). Wrestling with such revelations, Tobias Wingright ponders "I Was John Howard Yoder's Graduate Assistant. Should I Still Use His Work?", while Dr. Matthew Emerson weighs in on "What do we do with Karl Barth?"
• Via Rorate Caeli, news of the passing of philosopher Robert Spaemann. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.