Ratzinger was trying to get out of the Kant trap, while rejecting Thomism

Fred,

 I agree. Ratzinger was trying to get out of the Kant trap, while

 rejecting Thomism, and this because of his surrender to reductive

 science. I read the piece you sent. It is so much like thousands of

 other pages he wrote - bouncing from one confused modern philosopher

 to another, juxtaposing them, and ending up with nothing. It draws

 forth the image of a man slushing through a swamp futilely searching

 for clean and refreshing water, while 200 feet away there is a hill

 offering an artesian spring of pure, living water. Most disturbing,

 however, is the fact that he always comes across as believing that all

 this is a necessary and worthwhile endeavor. There is not even any

 honest sign of desperation. That, to me, is what is really scary about

 him. He should be weeping and loudly crying out for help.

 Great article  I agree with most of it.

 Good tracing back beyond even Ockham of Kant and Hegel to heretical

 Platonism. I agree that Ratzinger was a Hegelian and Teihardian , but he

 was

 moving away from Kantianism from which comes Hegel  both of which come

 from

 Ockham and as you traced all the way back to heretical Platonism.

 I think Ratzinger was a confused thinker attempting to get out of the

 Kant

 trap who never was able to  get out of the H and T trap as was Sheen.

 Sheen and Ratzinger it appears too me were attempting to be orthodox

 Catholics despite deeply flawed philosophy whereas Francis is not making

 an

 attempt to be orthodox.

 In link read where Ratzinger say one can't  put praxis ahead of doctrine

as

 does Francis and  the Marxist Hegelians.

 Please read the link below.

 Fred

Four years before his death, St. Augustine wrote a book titled Retractions, in which he systematically tried to correct any errors in his previous works. At one point I had this book from the library and read some of it, and somewhere commented on it. But I cannot find those comments (they might have been in an email). Much of his retractions concerned his thinking immersed in Platonism and Neo-Platinism. I do remember being critical, because I did not think that he had truly freed his thinking from these errors. I also remember that this focused especially on the question of God's omnipresence, and that he still was infected with Neo-Platonism in this regard. This in turn means that he did not truly comprehend the Thomistic teaching in regard to creation ex nihilo, and the distinction between substantial and accidental being. And this in turn entails that his thinking in regard to God's omnipresence was still infected with a kind of pantheistic gnosticism. 

As has been said, St. Augustine did not have a philosophy (especially metaphysics and ontology) worthy of his theology. Because of the complexity of this subject, I have never had much desire to deal with St. Augustine and his role in the subsequent history of Catholic thought. One thing is clear - those who reject Thomistic metaphysics also follow a train that leads back through people like Joseph Ratzinger, de Lubac, von Balthasar, Bonaventure, and St. Augustine. All of this "softens" that absolute distinction which must be made between God and His creation, and of course leads to all sorts of false mysticism and other errors.

As for Joseph Ratzinger and what he said at Regensburg, he subsequently refuted the notion that he himself embraced what he quoted from the Emperor Paleologus, stating that his (the Emperor's) words in regard to Islam "do not at all express my thoughts". There is no way I can envision him standing up to Islam. He does indeed believe that Christianisty is a religion in which God possesses a specific "Nature" (as opposed to the "Voluntarism" of Allah); but as explored in my writings, he also believes that from any human standpoint and approach to God, this must be expressed in terms of" contradictories" (explored in my article The Quintessential Evolutionist). Any embrace of Benedict XVI of Thomas, especially of his theology and metaphysics, is therefore an illusion. 

Hope these meager comments help.

                                                                                                      

You wrote somewhere of the ancient forebarer of Kantian philosophy. Can you send me a link or tell where to look. Also, have you read any of Fr. Most's books. He shows why St. Augustine has caused so many problems partly because he didn't know Greek and because he agrued in conflicting ways to his own positions when arguing with different heretics. I also think as you do Platonism (which Augustine held) without the Church modify it leads to many problems. What is your take on Augustine? 

This link shows Benedict pointing to Thomism, but as you say he is a confused thinker unlike Francis who is a pure Modernist.

Thanks,

Fred

It seems possible because Pope Benedict XVI was to some extent at war with leftist liberal theorists of whom Francis appears to be a disciple and their ally Islam before his resignation?

English professor Louis Markos in his book Lewis Agonistes shows that Nominalist liberal theorists of whom Francis is apparently a disciple and Nominalist Islam are at war with reason and analogy in knowing God.

Their denial of philosophic Thomistic Analogical Realism which underpins the infallible Catholic doctrines as well as traditional art and literature with transcendent truths which is conveyed in material images reveals that they are Nominalistic Modernists.

Markos says liberals of the Enlightenment mind set believed only in materially observable “facts” and denied the existence of “transcendent truths in material images” be it philosophy, art, literature or God.

Postmodernist liberals such Michael de Certeau who Francis called the "greatest theologian for today" took it a step forward by proclaiming that not only is God dead, but language is dead. They believe that words have no meaning.

Liberal theorist's thought in history brought humanity Communism and Fascism with their violence against human life. Lenin and Castro were Enlightenment men and Hitler was a follower of the proto postmodernist Nietzsche. Pro-choicer are also followers of Nietzsche’s will to power.

Nominalist Islam showed its alliance with Nominalist liberal theorists when they firebombed and shoot bullet holes through Christian churches in West Bank, killed an Italian nun and threatened to bomb the Vatican with a suicide attack when Pope Benedict XVI gave the September 12 called FAITH, REASON AND THE UNIVERSITY. MEMORIES AND REFLECTIONS. In that talk he said:

“The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God’s nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality.”

“Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God’s will, we would even have to practise idolatry.”

The pope in the lecture countered this anti-analogy theories which ultimately deny transcendent truth by saying:

“As opposed to this, the faith of the Church has always insisted that between God and us, between his eternal Creator Spirit and our created reason there exists a real analogy, in which unlikeness remains infinitely greater than likeness, yet not to the point of abolishing analogy and its language (cf. Lateran IV). God does not become more divine when we push him away from us in a sheer, impenetrable voluntarism; rather, the truly divine God is the God who has revealed himself as “logos” and, as “logos,” has acted and continues to act lovingly on our behalf. Certainly, love "transcends" knowledge and is thereby capable of perceiving more than thought alone (cf. Eph 3:19); nonetheless it continues to be love of the God who is “logos.” Consequently, Christian worship is “spiritual” worship in harmony with the eternal Word and with our reason (cf. Rom 12:1).”

Pray Francis, Islam and liberals be converted to Pope Benedict's philosophical teaching on Thomistic analogy and reason which is the underpinning of Catholic infallible teachings of the Eternal Word.

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as for the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.