Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Milton is Puritan, Shakespeare is Catholic?

Via TeaAtTrianon: Another book hinting that the Bard might have connections to Catholics.

Heh. Michael Wood's miniseries already made those connections. Youtubelink

He had several relatives who were known Catholics, according to Wood.
But many of his plays have Catholic influences, which is explored in Joseph Pearce's miniseries on EWTN Mp3 links here.

as for Milton: he wasn't just a revolutionary: his stress on individual conscience, and good works had a big influence on American Christianity.

Yale has a course in Milton for your listening pleasure.

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Related item: the Anchoress points out how the Pope's words to an atheist have been mistranslated to mean a subtle difference in theology.


“Nunblogger” Sister Anne Flanagan, a Daughter of Saint Paul, saw issues too, and since she reads Italian well, she has become a piecemeal translation that offers clarity:
If “everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them,” is the Pope saying that there is no such thing as objective truth, or objective right or wrong? This is where it is really, really helpful to know Italian: “Ciascuno di noi ha una sua visione del Bene e anche del Male. Noi dobbiamo incitarlo a procedere verso quello che lui pensa sia il Bene” is more literally (and helpfully?) translated as “Each one of us has his/her own vision of the Good or even of Evil. We must encourage him/her to move toward that which he/she sees as the Good.” The Pope is not leveling the difference between truth and untruth, right and wrong: he is saying that we all have a duty to encourage people to pursue the Good, knowing that the true Good will not fail to manifest himself, even if “through a glass darkly.”
Sounds like CSLewis.

"A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere -- 'Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,' as Herbert says, 'fine nets and stratagems.' God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous." – Surprised by Joy


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