Cultural Conservatism And Transcendent Norms

Cultural Conservatism and Transcendent Norms

by W. H. Marshner

Cultural Conservative Policy Insights
721 Second Street N.E., Washington, D.C 20002
(202) 546-3004
Institute for Cultural Conservatism Policy Insight Number Two
April 7, 1988

Cultural Conservative Policy Insights is published by the Institute for Cultural Conservatism, a division of The Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, Inc, a non-profit tax-exempt educational organization. Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the view of the Institute for Cultural Conservatism or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress.

Earlier essays on cultural conservatism have pointed out that a body of Judeo-Christian ethical norms are at the heart of Western culture. We have not dealt with the religious and philosophical grounding of these norms. Their status as transcendent or divine truths has been left unexplored.

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The New Creatures And The New Politics

THE NEW CREATURES And THE NEW POLITICS

Dr. William H. Marshner

The Roundtable
1500 Wilson Blvd., Suite 502
Arlington, Virginia 22209
703/525-3795
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.— 2 Corinthians 5:17
Is there not a cause? – I Samuel 17:29

I am convinced that if ministers and other biblically oriented individuals understood “why” they should be involved in politics that they would more easily and effectively learn “how” to be involved.
This booklet “The New Creatures and The New Politics” by Dr. William H. Marshner, a member of the Council of 56 of the Religious Roundtable, is a veritable masterpiece from a scriptural and philosophical standpoint on the very important subject. It is a “must” reading for the person who really wants to have a basic knowledge on this vital matter.
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Belief and Public Policy: An Answer To “People For The American Way”

BELIEF AND PUBLIC POLICY: AN ANSWER TO “PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY”

by William H. Marshner

Family Policy Insights
VOL. V: Number 2
721 Second Street, N.E.Washington D.C. 20002
(202) 546-3004
February, 1986

Family Policy Insights is published by the Child and Family Protection Institute, a project of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, Inc., a non-profit, tax-exempt educational organization. Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Child and Family Protection Institute or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress.

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

In the public-policy debate on family issues, it so happens that religious beliefs and religiously based moral convictions are absolutely crucial to some of us who are parties to the debate. Should we be penalized for that fact? Should we have to play by different rules from other parties in the debate, whose views are more secular?
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The Structure Of Platonism And The Dogma Of The Trinity: Some General Considerations

The Structure of Platonism and the Dogma of the Trinity: Some General Considerations

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

FAITH AND REASON
Vol. XI, Nos. 3, 4
1985
Christendom College

For centuries the philosophy of Plato has deeply attracted religious thinkers. William H. Marshner offers here a fine analysis of the structure of Platonic thought. Mr. Marshner probes the difficulties raised by the Platonic doctrine of participation and Oneness when applied to the relations existing between Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the Trinitarian dogma.
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Lecture Notes: Reflections On Biblical Revisionism: R. Laurentin And The Infancy Narratives

Lecture Notes: Reflections on Biblical Revisionism: R. Laurentin and the Infancy Narratives

W. H. Marshner

Lecture Notes taken by W. H. Marshner on Raymond E. Brown
September 29, 1984

René Laurentin has written a long commentary on the infancy gospels. I will say in a moment why this has come to my attention.

In this century, Biblical criticism has won a large place for itself in Catholic scholarship. But now suddenly there is much talk about historical criticism as being barren, passe, wrong. This sudden revisionism is being hailed by many sorts of people (though not usually by scholars). When their different motives are examined, two types of revisionism emerge.

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The Immaculate Conception And Recent Ecclesiology

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION AND RECENT
ECCLESIOLOGY:

III. Mary, the Church, and Sinlessness

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

Christendom College
Front Royal, Virginia
1984

How does the grace of the Immaculate Conception illuminate the problems of ecclesiology? How does it clarify the new being to which we are called in the Church of God?

The purpose of this paper is to answer these questions with respect to a specific and crucial issue: the sinlessness of the Catholic Church, which is, as St. Ambrose put it, ex maculis immaculata. In order to address this issue, I must begin again with the original questions and summarize for the reader the pre-requisite clarifications which I have tried to bring to them in previous papers. Continue reading “The Immaculate Conception And Recent Ecclesiology”

The Morality Of Political Action: Biblical Foundations

The Morality of Political Action:
Biblical Foundations

An edited transcript of 3 lectures held June 22,
June 29 and July 6, 1983 at the Free Congress
Research and Education Foundation

William H. Marshner
Enrique T. Rueda

The Free Congress Research and Education Foundation
Officers and Board Kathleen Teague, Chairman Dr. Charles Moser, Treasurer Margaret Johnson, Secretary Dr. Robert J. Billings Senator William L. Armstrong William Marshner Michelle Laxalt
Foundation Staff
Paul M. Weyrich, President
Connaught Marshner, Executive Vice President
Eric Licht, Vice President for Operations
Laurie Ramsey, Vice President for Development
John Grecco, Comptroller
The Morality of Political Action: Biblical Foundations
Copyright © 1984—The Free Congress Research and Education Foundation 721 Second Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20002
Library of Congress Catalog Card No: 84-82044
First Printing Price $4.00

The Free Congress Research and Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt, research foundation, engaged in educational projects in two separate areas of concentration.
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Dignitatis Humanae And Traditional Teaching On Church And State

Faith and Reason (Fall 1983): 222-248.

Vatican II clearly holds that there is a rightful religious liberty which, within “due limits,” even objectively false religions ought to enjoy vis-à-vis the State. In what follows, I shall refer to this claim as the “basic holding” of the Declaration Dignitatis humanae, whose title I shall shorten to DH.^[1]
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Our Educational Philosophy

William H. Marshner

Christendom Magazine
Christendom College
1983

The College exists to produce the one thing it promises to its students: a Catholic education. The philosophy or theory of education which guides the College, therefore, emerges in the analysis of that one thing.

Let’s start with the noun, ‘education.’ And then let’s start with a guitar. A guitar has several uses: it can be used to make money, to make merry, or to kill time: it can be used as a solo instrument or as an accompaniment, for classical repertory, flamenco, blue-grass. or rock. In all these uses the guitar is ‘”good.” because all these uses are in line with its end. in line with what it’s for. By contrast, a guitar can be used as a club, and in that use it’s not so good. A billy-club is better. Brawling departs from what a musical instrument is for. Now take this distinction between a thing’s uses and its end, and apply it to the human mind.

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The Dogma Of The Immaculate Conception In Modern Ecclesiology: Prolegomena

THE DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION IN MODERN ECCLESIOLOGY: PROLEGOMENA

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

Christendom College
Front Royal, Virginia

What does the Immaculate Conception have to do with the mystery of the Church? How can it help us to evaluate some recent directions in ecclesiology?

These initial questions can be taken in two senses. (1) How does the definition of the Immaculate Conception illuminate the Church’s charism of truth? How does the papal deed of 1854 help us to evaluate certain recent theories of dogma, tradition and magisterium? (2) How does the grace itself of the Immaculate Conception clarify the “new being” to which all men are called in the Church of Christ? How does the Marian privilege serve as a criterion for an adequate ecclesiology?

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General Analysis of ‘Object’ in Thomistic Usage

General Analysis of ‘Object’ in Thomistic Usage^[1]

Teresius Zielinski, O. C. D.
Translated by W. H. Marshner

‘An object’ is defined as ‘that with which a faculty or habit deals by way of the act(s) proper to that faculty or habit’.^[2] Since faculties or habits, via their acts, may relate to an object in different ways, different sorts of objects and different roles of an object need to be discussed.^[3],^[4]

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The Case For A Two Amendment Strategy

THE CASE FOR A TWO-AMENDMENT STRATEGY

W. H. Marshner

Abortion and slavery, Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade: how many times have we used that analogy? We have used it for the moral light it sheds on the pro-life cause. May I suggest that it also sheds historical light?

I think it illuminates our political position.

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Mary: Redemption And Preservation

Mary: Redemption and Preservation

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

FAITH AND REASON
Vol. VII, No. 2
Summer 1981
Christendom College

The following analysis of Mary’s redemption attempts to clarify the Catholic understanding of how it can be said that a person conceived without original sin can be said to be redeemed at all. The importance of William Marshner’s technical treatment of this traditionally vexing question, including his use of modal logic, will be apparent to those who regard it as a chief function of theologians to defend and advance the Faith by precisely answering as many potentially devastating questions as possible. Thus, Marshner proceeds to eliminate false understanding of Mary’s redemption so that a proper understanding might leave the central doctrines of the Church less open to attack.

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The Right To Live!

THE RIGHT TO LIVE!

By W.H. MARSHNER

Published by:
Moral Majority, Inc.500 Alleghany Avenue
Lynchburg, Va. 24501
copyright 1981
Wm. H. Marshner
Wm. H. Marshner is professor of Theology at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia. He is a leading articulator of moral and social concerns, important to the ‘New Right’.

The pro-abortion forces and organizations in the United States suffered a bitter defeat in the summer of 1980, when the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Hyde Amendment. They suffered another defeat in the fall of 1980 when a powerful new force emerged in electoral politics, the pro-life and religious Right bloc.

Now the pro-abortionists are preparing their counterattack. A lavish campaign of full-page advertisements in major newspapers, paid for by Planned Parenthood, NOW and the ACLU, reveal the themes which these groups hope to use to demolish the pro-life cause.

The purpose of this booklet is to survey the counter-attack and to evaluate the themes and charges contained in it, as an educational service to all those interested in the abortion debate.

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The Historical Appropriateness of the Human Life Bill

The Historical Appropriateness of the Human Life Bill (S. 158):

Evidence From the History of Anti-Abortion Policy in the United States

W. H. Marshner

BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE SEPARATION OF POWERS OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
June 1, 1981

The Human Life Bill (S. 158) will be historically appropriate legislation if three claims can be established: (1) that scientific evidence indicating a significant likelihood that actual human life exists from conception was known to physicians and state legislators from the middle decades of the 19th century forward; (2) that the passage of anti-abortion statutes by those legislators in those decades was significantly influenced and motivated by such evidence; and (3) that the medico-moral and legal climate in which the 14th amendment was ratified was therefore a climate in which it was a settled conviction that the unborn human foetus, at every stage of gestation, was a human being entitled to protection of life, and hence a climate in which absolutely no conflicting right having the character of a privacy right of a woman to abort was conceded to exist by any court or any legislature, state or federal, in this country or in any Western nation.

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On The Text Of The Syllabus

ON THE TEXT OF THE SYLLABUS

Charles Maurras

Translated by W. H. Marshner
Originally appeared in Action française, May 15, 1906

Who is killing you?
Who is leading you?
-Rabelais

Among the various nonbelievers who joined together in the common effort of l’Action française, there were differences of opinion and tendency, to be sure. Yet their stance of seeking the public good, on the one hand, and the pains they took to avoid all preconceived ideas, on the other, have led them on (or led them back) little by little to a plain fact: here in this world (whether it be a question of things spiritual or things temporal, of the moral order or the material one) the views, interests, suggestions, and decisions of Catholicism match up point for point with the essential interests of the French nation and of the civilized world. I speak of interests understood as precisely as possible. I speak of Catholicism taken in strict definition. Continue reading “On The Text Of The Syllabus”

A Critique Of Marian Counterfactual Formulae: A Report Of Results

A CRITIQUE OF MARIAN COUNTERFACTUAL FORMULAE: A REPORT OF RESULTS

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

1979
Christendom College

This paper is devoted to refuting the so-called debitum hypotheticum or conditionatum. In general, a debitum is expressed by the claim that Mary, thanks to her connexion with Adam, was under a necessity to contract original sin; the debitum conditionatum is expressed by the claim that, thanks to the same necessity, she would have contracted original sin, if one or another condition had been fulfilled (e.g., if God had not preserved her).^[1]
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Why Liberal Arts At Christendom College?

Why Liberal Arts at Christendom College?

By W. H. MARSHNER

Christendom College
Office of Admissions
This pamphlet was published and distributed over several years at Christendom College. No exact date of publication is available.

♦ ♦ ♦ Our Educational Philosophy ♦ ♦ ♦

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A Logician’s Reflections On The Debitum Contrahendi Peccatum

A LOGICIAN’S REFLECTIONS ON THE DEBITUM CONTRAHENDI PECCATUM^[1]

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

Christendom College
1978
Reprinted from MARIAN STUDIES (1978)

The long-standing theological debate over whether Our Blessed Mother can be said to have had a debitum peccati begins and ends, it seems, with both sides admitting the truth of the following contrary-to-fact condition:

(A) If she had not been preserved, Mary would have contracted original sin.^[2]

The necessity of affirming this or similar counterfactuals is usually said to lie in the Church’s doctrine that Our Lady’s redemption was a “preservative” redemption. It is asked, what can “preservative” mean, if an assertion like (A) is not true?
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The Authenticity of the New Testament

W. H. Marshner

In order to examine Christ as the ultimate Revelation of God, and to prepare for a consideration of his teaching, purpose and divinity, one must establish the authenticity of the documents which give us our information about his life. And when one inquires about the authenticity, historicity or reliability of the New Testament. there are at least three different fields of research about which one might be asking. These are the textual, the literary or form-critical, and the theological fields.

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The Development Of Doctrine

The Development of Doctrine

W. H. Marshner

That which is enunciated by God and that which is proposed by the Church: dogma is both. As enunciated by God, dogma is the outcome of revelation in the strict sense; as proposed by the Church, dogma is the outcome of doctrinal development. ‘Doctrinal development’ is just the name for the process by which the Church reaches certitude that a given proposition, p, states exactly what God has said and hence may be proposed to the faithful as obligatory for belief. Thus a theory of doctrinal development is the obverse of a theory of revelation.^[1]

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The Defense of Dogma

W. H. Marshner

In today’s world especially since the advent of Modernism, it is insufficient to simply define the authority of the pope and leave the faithful to follow his teachings. It is unfortunately fashionable to deny that Church teachings are to be taken literally, fashionable in other words, to retain the precise wording of dogmatic formulations while interpreting them in purely symbolic or metaphorical terms. Therefore, a further defense is necessary, a defense which is at times technical, but nonetheless indispensable: it is the defense that Church teachings mean what they say. And in order to appreciate the ways in which dogma is under attack today—some of them quite subtle—and to meet those attacks, we must begin by taking special pains to be fully clear about exactly what dogma is.

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Criteria For Doctrinal Development In The Marian Dogmas: An Essay In Metatheology

CRITERIA FOR DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE MARIAN DOGMAS: AN ESSAY IN METATHEOLOGY

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

MARIAN STUDIES, Vol. 28 (1977)
University of Dallas
Irving, Texas 75061

Synopsis

As a critique of recent proposals by E. J. Yarnold, S.J., and R. E. Brown, S.S., to re-think the “meaning” of certain Marian dogmas, a method is proposed for establishing the sense and reference (hence verifiability conditions, falsifiability conditions, axiomatic connexions, and metalinguistic “properties”) of these and other dogmas. It is shown that such a method forms an integral part of a general criteriology for doctrinal development. At the outset, then, the possibility and necessity of such a criteriology is defended against certain “theological theories” of doctrinal development, especially that of K. Rahner, S.J. Finally, the relevance of Henri Bouillard’s problematic of “reconceptualization” to the here proposed method and general criteriology is evaluated. Several philosophical and theological issues closely related to the main thesis are handled in footnoted discussions.
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Towards A Relational Theory Of Our Lady’s Co-Redeemership

TOWARDS A RELATIONAL THEORY OF OUR LADY’S CO-REDEEMERSHIP

Prof. William H. Marshner

Prof. J. M. Alonso

Ex «Ephemerides Mariologicae» Matriti – 1977

Catholic theologians are agreed that the Mother of God, considered as «universal principle of intercession», plays a rôle in the subjective redemption (or redemption in actu secundo) of all those who in fact enter into this redemption. The question which divides counsels is her role in the objective redemption (or redemption in actu primo). Is she a factor in this redemption primarily or even exclusively because her fiat was a condition sine qua non for the Incarnation, or because her actions enter into the constitution of the objective redemption itself, being acceptable to God the Father not alongside the actions of her Divine Son but together with them per modum unius?

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Cultural Conservatism and Transcendent Norms

by W. H. Marshner

THE NEW CREATURES And THE NEW POLITICS

Dr. William H. Marshner

BELIEF AND PUBLIC POLICY: AN ANSWER TO “PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY”

by William H. Marshner

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

The Structure of Platonism and the Dogma of the Trinity: Some General Considerations

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

Lecture Notes: Reflections on Biblical Revisionism: R. Laurentin and the Infancy Narratives

W. H. Marshner

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION AND RECENT ECCLESIOLOGY:

III. Mary, the Church, and Sinlessness

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

The Morality of Political Action: Biblical Foundations

An edited transcript of 3 lectures held June 22, June 29 and July 6, 1983 at the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation

William H. Marshner Enrique T. Rueda

Our Educational Philosophy

William H. Marshner

THE DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION IN MODERN ECCLESIOLOGY: PROLEGOMENA

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

An Essay on Religious Democracy

Charles Maurras

General Analysis of ‘Object’ in Thomistic Usage[1]

Teresius Zielinski, O. C. D. Translated by W. H. Marshner

THE CASE FOR A TWO-AMENDMENT STRATEGY

W. H. Marshner

Mary: Redemption and Preservation

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE RIGHT TO LIVE!

By W.H. MARSHNER

The Historical Appropriateness of the Human Life Bill (S. 158):

Evidence From the History of Anti-Abortion Policy in the United States

W. H. Marshner

ON THE TEXT OF THE SYLLABUS

Charles Maurras

A CRITIQUE OF MARIAN COUNTERFACTUAL FORMULAE: A REPORT OF RESULTS

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

Why Liberal Arts at Christendom College?

By W. H. MARSHNER

♦ ♦ ♦ Our Educational Philosophy ♦ ♦ ♦

A LOGICIAN’S REFLECTIONS ON THE DEBITUM CONTRAHENDI PECCATUM[1]

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

The Authenticity of the New Testament

W. H. Marshner

The Development of Doctrine

W. H. Marshner

The Defense of Dogma

W. H. Marshner

CRITERIA FOR DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE MARIAN DOGMAS: AN ESSAY IN METATHEOLOGY

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

TOWARDS A RELATIONAL THEORY OF OUR LADY’S CO-REDEEMERSHIP

Prof. William H. Marshner

Prof. J. M. Alonso

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION AND RECENT
ECCLESIOLOGY:

The Morality of Political Action:
Biblical Foundations

An edited transcript of 3 lectures held June 22,
June 29 and July 6, 1983 at the Free Congress
Research and Education Foundation

William H. Marshner
Enrique T. Rueda

General Analysis of ‘Object’ in Thomistic Usage^[1]

Teresius Zielinski, O. C. D.
Translated by W. H. Marshner

A LOGICIAN’S REFLECTIONS ON THE DEBITUM CONTRAHENDI PECCATUM^[1]