News and Classes

I haven't written or kept up with this blog in the past few months nearly as much as I wanted to. There has really been a lot that has gone on in my life since I've moved out here and that kept me from wanting to blog at all. I'm setting a new goal, however, to pick up where I left off and begin writing at least twice a week on here.

In looking at the calendar it appears that I have been out here for about 3 months. In some ways, it feels like it has been a long time. I've grown into school and my schedule. Things like the subway went from being a novelty to something I hate getting out of bed to do. In other ways, it doesn't seem so long ago that I came out here. No matter how settled I get here, it always feels like I'm at a home away from home. I'm looking forward to seeing you all again at Thanksgiving time. It'll probably be the first Thanksgiving that has meant much to me, to be honest.

About my classes... I have 4, like a normal undergraduate semester, but we spend a little less time in class than in undergrad. As far as difficulty, I can say that things are definitely taken up a level from undergrad. The reading, concepts,and discussions are often times much more academic than anything I have experienced before. In some senses, this is a breathe of fresh air. It is challenging, but in a good way. I can say that I don't feel as if the material goes over my head by any means and that I have probably learned more in this semester than I learned in 4 years of undergrad. I was really worried before I started getting grades back on midterms and papers, but it turns out I did pretty well on everything. That went a long way to make me comfortable with my current lot in life. I suppose I could say a bit about each of my individual classes, but first a word about studying theology at the grad level in general...

Theology is basically broken into 4 broad schools that are quite different. Historical theology is just what it sounds to be. The historical theologian studies how theology has progressed since the Ascension and looks into the major and minor schools and movements. It is history, plain and simple, and is perhaps of the most value for apologetics (which is so sorely needed), particularly in addressing Protestantism. This is the type of theology that Adam Horn is going into. Moral theology is the second major type. This type is quite self explanatory again. Moral theologians study the nature of morality and how to interpret and speak about specific acts, their consequences, and their relation to both man and God. Biblical exegesis is the third major school of theology. These are the theologians who study and interpet Scripture. They must be fluent in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. And finally, in my opinion the most important school of theology (wink), we have the Systematics. Systematic theology is an attempt to create a unified picture of existence and the Catholic faith through study of the nature of God. When you think of theology and take out specific questions of morality or exegesis you are usually left with things under the jurisdiction of the systematics (though by the nature of being systematic in theology, this school must include morality and Scripture as fundamental to the whole scope of theology).

My classes:

History and Method of Theology



This is Fr. John Galvin who teaches my History and Method class which is basically a broad overview of the history of Catholic and Protestant theology. We focus mostly on the different forms and approaches to Theology from the early Patristic period of the Church up until the current time. I have learned a lot from this class, but it is also extremely boring. Fr. Galvin, God bless him, is one of the driest men I have ever met. He lectures the entire class period. I must say, however, that he is an amazingly kind man. He spent a decent amount of time on the phone with me this summer answering questions and helping me register as my advisor was out of state. He remembered me and introduced himself on the first day of class and often comes up to chat about small pleasantries after class. He is a good priest and a very intelligent man.

Introduction to the Christian Moral Life

I'm always rolling my eyes about this class because it is straight up moral theology and I'm in Systematics. I suppose there could be a friendly rivalry between the two. That being said, I have learned an unbelievable amount from this class. We have focussed on St. Thomas (CUA appears to be a very Thomistic school) and the nature of man and God in this class. That has lead us to a thorough look into each of the cardinal and theological virtues as well as concepts like freedom, happiness, and conscience. St. Thomas is the most influential theologian in Church history and though he is the theologian that is most widely accepted as the greatest authority of Catholic theology, he is not the only one. There are people who look to Bonaventure or Don Scotus for their entire slant in theology. I now see that I am a hardcore Thomist and will be narrowing further and further in solely Thomist theology as I progress through school.

Dr. Mattison III teaches this class. He's a fairly young professor out of Notre Dame who gets really excited about being a moral theologian. He is quite orthodox and begins each class with a prayer (which still, because of my public school undergraduate education, seems so strange). He also sounds exactly like Conan O'Brien when he talks. If you closed your eyes during class you'd picture Conan going on about fundamental option theory, freedom for excellence, and Veritatis Splendor. I had an oral midterm with Dr. Mattison. I had to meet at his office and he grilled me on several topics we covered throughout the semester. I was initially nervous, but I ended up doing quite well. One of the biggest differences between graduate school and undergraduate is that the professors know exactly who you are and they take the time to be very available to you. They go out of their way to be friendly and personable, which seems especially true with the Masters students (as opposed to the seminarians). They are training future colleagues and you really are respected as a student and novice scholar which is intimidating and refreshing at the same time.

Theological Latin

I couldn't find a picture of my professor for Latin, Fr. David Thayer, but he looks a lot like the actor Brian Cox, only a lot more intimidating. This guy is old school in every sense. He yells if you aren't translating correctly. He'll make belittling comments to the students. He'll put you on the spot and then send you to the board in front of the whole class where he will continue to make you so nervous you consider dropping out of school and getting a job driving a truck. He stands outside O'Boyle Hall smoking a cigarette both before and after class. I have many middle-aged or older seminarians, brothers, and laymen in my class and he scares them just as much as those of us in our mid 20s. It's hilarious to watch other people at the board squirm because it just looks and feels too much like elementary school when Sr. Paula would all but get the ruler out of on me. It was really awkward the first few weeks of school when I would have to walk past him smoking to get to class. I was afraid to not say hello, but I was more afraid to look at him much less say anything. He'll say, "Good morning, Mr. O'Neill." And I say, "Morning Fr. Thayer. How are you?" "Fine," in the crabbiest voice imaginable. Haha.

Now, I must say, Fr. Thayer is really a very nice and funny guy. He jokes around in class quite a bit and after having him for a semester now I can tell that he isn't as mean as he appears (and I'm pretty sure he likes me. He's nicer to me than some of the others). He uses this all as a tool, I think, and is quite gentle underneath. That being said, he'll switch from joking mode to yelling about the ablative case in a matter of seconds. He's sarcastic and will let you just stand there looking like an idiot even when he knows you have no clue whether such and such verb is in the past perfect or pluperfect tense. Eventually you just start guessing and that only makes him more mad.

This class is tough. Latin isn't easy, especially for English speakers. The vocabulary is often similar, but English stresses word order. If you take any sentence in English and jumble the words up it makes no sense. Latin doesn't care about any of that. You can write the same sentences in 20 different ways and orders and it all means the same thing. Instead of using order to give meaning, Latin makes you know about 40 endings for every noun, verb, adjective etc. They all have to be in agreement and nouns are given different endings depending on how you use it. If the "sword" is the subject of the sentence it is in the nominative case and is "gladius" If it is the direct object it's in the accusative case and is "gladium." If you are talking about a sword as a matter of means it could be in the ablative case and be "gladio."

You get the point. The tough thing is that there are a handful of cases and several "declensions" where noun endings change and blah blah blah. It's difficult. The nice thing is that it is Pass/Fail and I passed my midterm and translations. I think I should be alright even though the class moves really fast. We have to be able to translate any of the New Testament and St. Aquina's Summa Theologica by the end of one semester, which is pretty intense.

Theological Functions in Philosophy

This is my best class. Monsignor Robert J. Sokolowski is one of the big boys here at CUA (the Philosophy department is even better than Theology). He's quite respected and well-known in the philosophical community and has written several widely used works on Hermeneutics, among other things.

He has more than a touch of Renner to him. Monsignor Sokolowski is perhaps one of the finest men I have ever had the pleasure of coming into contact with. He is the model Christian and academic. He is exceedingly smart, perhaps a genius, and yet is very humble and personable. He's charismatic and genuinely hilarious in a very understated way. It's hard to describe, but I imagine he exudes some of the same magic one would feel if they met C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien. If I explained to you the funny things that he says or the way he says them it would be lost, but suffice it to say that he is captivating. He's the only person I've ever met who opens one up to the Truth in such an effective way as Mr. Renner. And they both love to draw stick figure pictures to explain complex theological and philosophical concepts. Monsignor calls them his "phantasms." Haha. I wish a few of you could sit in on just one of his classes.

This class is more or less his work on the importance of what he calls the Christian Distinction and how Catholic theology and philosophy (and the errors in those fields outside the Church) can be completely understood in relation to the Christian Distinction. I'm sure I'll speak with some of you about it over a pint of plain when I get home, but the Christian Distinction is the radical transcendence of God from the universe. From that one point it is amazing how much of the universe can be understood.

I'm eternally grateful that all of my professors are very orthodox. For the first time in my life, I don't have to unlearn what I'm taught in class. Every one of them is a pretty amazing human being and teacher all around. This is the way Catholic education (and education in general) is supposed to be. It takes on such a vastly different form than everything else we are used to.

So anyway, as I said I'm going to keep this updated pretty regularly from now on. I've had a lot of interesting experiences out here. I hope to write some more about some of them and I intend to make sure I am writing about the ones to come. I'll be home in a week for Thanksgiving so don't be a stranger.

Dominus Vobiscum,

Taylor