WikiIndex?

Recently I was discussing and lamenting with friends the proliferation of heretical books written by individuals calling themselves Catholic or at least purporting to have expert knowledge of the Church or Christianity in general. I read a lot and my friends read a lot. We’re inquisitive people and have at least a little ability to discern works that are in accordance with orthodox teachings and those that are not. The vast majority of people in the Church lack such a foundation and are easily lead astray by dreck by the likes of Dan Brown, Gary Wills, and John Shelby Spong.

Once upon a time, the Church maintained a list of books that Catholics ought not read, called the Index. It’s impractical in this age of mass communication for the Church to maintain such a list. However, a queriable database of books that have been given an imprimatur and/or nihil obstat would be nice. Speaking of this useful service with my friends, an idea occurred to me.

What if we created a wiki with information about popular theological books? I lack the time to set something like that up, but I’m sure someone else could do it. Somewhere in this vast blogosphere is an individual or group with the time and know-how to set up a WikiIndex. Please spread this meme if you’d like to see this idea come to fruition.

Update: I’ve discovered that the software used to create Wikipedia is open source. Woohoo!

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About Funky Dung

Who is Funky Dung? 29-year-old grad student in Intelligent Systems (A.I.) at the University of Pittsburgh. I consider myself to be politically moderate and independent and somewhere between a traditional and neo-traditional Catholic. I was raised Lutheran, spent a number of years as an agnostic, and joined the Catholic Church at the 2000 Easter Vigil. Why Funky Dung? I haven't been asked this question nearly as many times as you or I might expect. Funky Dung is a reference to an obscure Pink Floyd song. On the album Atom Heart Mother, there is a track called Atom Heart Mother Suite. It's broken up into movements, like a symphony, and one of the movements is called Funky Dung. I picked that nickname a long time ago (while I was still in high school I think), shortly after getting an internet connection for the first time. To me it means "cool/neat/groovy/spiffy stuff/crap/shiznit", as in "That's some cool stuff, dude!" Whence Ales Rarus? I used to enjoy making people guess what this means, but I've decided to relent and make it known to all. Ales Rarus is a Latin play on words. "Avis rarus" means "a rare bird" and carries similar meaning to "an odd fellow". "Ales" is another Latin word for bird that carries connotations of omens, signs of the times, and/or augery. If you want to get technical, both "avis" and "ales" are feminine (requiring "rara", but they can be made masculine in poetry (which tends to breaks lots of rules). I decided I'd rather have a masculine name in Latin. ;) Yeah, I'm a nerd. So what? :-P Wherefore blog? It is my intention to "teach in order to lead others to faith" by being always "on the lookout for occasions of announcing Christ by word, either to unbelievers . . . or to the faithful" through the "use of the communications media". I also act knowing that I "have the right and even at times a duty to manifest to the sacred pastors [my] opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church, and [I] have a right to make [my] opinion known to the other Christian faithful, with due regard to the integrity of faith and morals and reverence toward [my and their] pastors, and with consideration for the common good and the dignity of persons." (adapted from CCC 904-907) Statement of Faith I have been baptized and confirmed in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I, therefore, renounce Satan; I renounce all his works; I renounce all his allurements. I hold and profess all that is contained in the Apostles' Creed, the Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. Having been buried with Christ unto death and raised up with him unto a new life, I promise to live no longer for myself or for that world which is the enemy of God but for him who died for me and rose again, serving God, my heavenly Father, faithfully and unto death in the holy Catholic Church. I am obedient to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. That is, I promote and defend authentic Catholic Teaching and Faith in union with Christ and His Church and in union with the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of St. Peter. Thanks be unto Thee, O my God, for all Thy infinite goodness, and, especially, for the love Thou hast shown unto me at my Confirmation. I Give Thee thanks that Thou didst then send down Thy Holy Spirit unto my soul with all His gifts and graces. May He take full possession of me for ever. May His divine unction cause my face to shine. May His heavenly wisdom reign in my heart. May His understanding enlighten my darkness. May His counsel guide me. May His knowledge instruct me. May His piety make me fervent. May His divine fear keep me from all evil. Drive from my soul, O Lord, all that may defile it. Give me grace to be Thy faithful soldier, that having fought the good fight of faith, I may be brought to the crown of everlasting life, through the merits of Thy dearly beloved Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Behind the Curtain: an Interview With Funky Dung (Thursday, March 03, 2005) I try to avoid most memes that make their way 'round the blogosphere (We really do need a better name, don't we?), but some are worth participating in. Take for instance the "interview game" that's the talk o' the 'sphere. I think it's a great way to get to know the people in neighborhood. Who are the people in your neighborhood? In your neighborhod? In your neigh-bor-hoo-ood...*smack* Sorry, Sesame Street flashback. Anyhow, I saw Jeff "Curt Jester" Miller's answers and figured since he's a regular reader of mine he'd be a good interviewer. Without further ado, here are my answers to his questions. 1. Being that your pseudonym Funky Dung was chosen from a Pink Floyd track on Atom Heart Mother, what is you favorite Pink Floyd song and why? Wow. That's a tuffy. It's hard to pick out a single favorite. Pink Floyd isn't really a band known for singles. They mostly did album rock and my appreciation of them is mostly of a gestalt nature. If I had to pick one, though, it'd be "Comfortably Numb". I get chills up my spine every time I hear it and if it's been long enough since the last time, I get midty-eyed. I really don't know why. That's a rather unsatisfying answer for an interview, so here are the lyrics to a Rush song. It's not their best piece of music, but the lyrics describe me pretty well.

New World Man He's a rebel and a runner He's a signal turning green He's a restless young romantic Wants to run the big machine He's got a problem with his poisons But you know he'll find a cure He's cleaning up his systems To keep his nature pure Learning to match the beat of the old world man Learning to catch the heat of the third world man He's got to make his own mistakes And learn to mend the mess he makes He's old enough to know what's right But young enough not to choose it He's noble enough to win the world But weak enough to lose it --- He's a new world man... He's a radio receiver Tuned to factories and farms He's a writer and arranger And a young boy bearing arms He's got a problem with his power With weapons on patrol He's got to walk a fine line And keep his self-control Trying to save the day for the old world man Trying to pave the way for the third world man He's not concerned with yesterday He knows constant change is here today He's noble enough to know what's right But weak enough not to choose it He's wise enough to win the world But fool enough to lose it --- He's a new world man...
2. What do you consider your most important turning point from agnosticism to the Catholic Church. At some point in '99, I started attending RCIA at the Pittsburgh Oratory. I mostly went to ask a lot of obnoxious Protestant questions. Or at least that's what I told myself. I think deep down I wanted desperately to have faith again. At that point I think I'd decided that if any variety of Christianity had the Truth, the Catholic Church did. Protestantism's wholesale rejection of 1500 years of tradition didn't sit well with me, even as a former Lutheran. During class one week, Sister Bernadette Young (who runs the program) passed out thin booklet called "Handbook for Today's Catholic". One paragraph in that book spoke to me and I nearly cried as I read it.
"A person who is seeking deeper insight into reality may sometimes have doubts, even about God himself. Such doubts do not necessarily indicate lack of faith. They may be just the opposite - a sign of growing faith. Faith is alive and dynamic. It seeks, through grace, to penetrate into the very mystery of God. If a particular doctrine of faith no longer 'makes sense' to a person, the person should go right on seeking. To know what a doctrine says is one thing. To gain insight into its meaning through the gift of understanding is something else. When in doubt, 'Seek and you will find.' The person who seeks y reading, discussing, thinking, or praying eventually sees the light. The person who talks to God even when God is 'not there' is alive with faith."
At the end of class I told Sr. Bernadette that I wanted to enter the Church at the next Easter vigil. 3. If you were a tree what kind of, oh sorry about that .. what is the PODest thing you have ever done? I set up WikiIndex, a clearinghouse for reviews of theological books, good, bad, and ugly. It has a long way to go, but it'll be cool when it's finished. :) 4. What is your favorite quote from Venerable John Henry Newman? "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt." 5. If you could ban one hymn from existence, what would it be? That's a tough one. As a member of the Society for a Moratorium on the Music of Marty Haugen and David Haas, there are obviously a lot of songs that grate on my nerves. If I had to pick one, though, I'd probably pick "Sing of the Lord's Goodness" by Ernie Sands.

16 thoughts on “WikiIndex?

  1. Tom Smith

    “I do not trust 2000 years of church tradition, but the Bible. I do not trust scripture because it was assembled by a group of men, but because it is authored and maintained by the Almighty.”

    But if scripture was written a generation after Christ died, what was it based on? Oral tradition, perhaps? Catholics believe that the Catholic Church was founded at the Pentecost. That’s before the Bible was written. Our doctrinal traditions of the time went into the writing of the Bible. So it’s not so nuts to think that the Bible doesn’t necessarily include all of them, since there’s been a development in the understanding of truth.

    And how can you say that God authored scripture? He certainly ensured it would be error-free, but I can’t agree that God wrote it. And I certainly can’t agree that God “maintained” scripture, simply because that would mean every medieval (Catholic) monk who transcribed scriptures was infallible as well.

    One can’t pretend that the 1611 KJV just came straight down from heaven leatherbound. That’s simply a blatant denial of history.

    “I know I sound pretty flippant, but sometimes you just gotta put the protest back in protestant.”

    Well, if you really wanted to put the “Protest” back in “Protestant”, you’d have to be protesting the toleration granted to Catholics by the Diet of Speyer in 1529.

    (Sorry, that last bit was really flippant of me.)

  2. Curt

    1) It is an authoratative religion. 2) It *would* be useful to know if something was in or out of bounds, especially if it irked you but you were unsure why. Not everyone has the time or inclination to be a legal beagle on Cannon Law.

  3. Funky Dung

    “Shouldn’t it be enough to say that, if there is no such paragraph at the beginning of the book, the person is expressing his own ideas and not necessarily advancing the teachings of the Church?”

    Not necessarily. There are a few scenarios when that’s not enough.

    1) The book went to press without an imprimatur (but is nonetheless orthodox).

    3) The book was not written by a Catholic. There are some excellent Protestant authors that are worthy of attention from Catholics.

    4) The book isn’t explicitly theological. I suspect that historical books don’t go through the same review process.

    5) The book is fictional.

    Also, there is no database I know of that lists all the books that have been approved. It’d be nice to have a place to go where people could discover good books that otherwise might not have crossed their paths.

  4. Funky Dung

    Even if one is “in the Word”, there is still a problem, and it may be far worse than any within the Catholic Church (in regard to heterodox and heretical books). There are lots of false teachers who have interpreted Scripture to suit their needs. Private exegesis is a breeding ground for heresy. The Church maintains the Deposit of Faith and ensures doctrinal purity. Faithful Catholics are encouraged and urged to read the Bible thoroughly and often, but we must check what we think we’ve learned from Scripture against 2000 years of Sacred Tradition. I do not trust Scripture because Scripture tells me to. I trust Scripture because I trust the Church that assembled the canon of Scripture.

  5. sibert

    I do not trust 2000 years of church tradition, but the Bible. I do not trust scripture because it was assembled by a group of men, but because it is authored and maintained by the Almighty. History has given much evidence of errors in the church, awful sins commited by popes, harboring of Nazis by priests, etc. This does not make the church eveil, but full of fallable humans.

    Essentially all exegesis is private exegesis and eventually you end up relying on some other human’s interpretation. We have souls and minds provided to us and while we are not simply responsible for ourselves (we are held accountable for our brother’s walk as well) we will be damned or saved by our own choices.

    Of course, it was “heresy” that birthed the vital and growing branch called the protestant church. The law given to the Jews in the OT is pretty thick, but Jesus said that the Scribes and Pharisees made it even more so and unaccesible to people searching for truth. I think in some ways the Catholic Church has done the same. Not only must you obey scripture, but now you must obey every obscure church father, inspired hermit, and papal bull uttered in the last 2000 years. I know I sound pretty flippant, but sometimes you just gotta put the protest back in protestant. I still love you guys and ask His blessings for you.

  6. John

    I have not read all that much theology, but some of the Catholic writings i have read have had a little paragraph inside the front cover saying that the teachings within the book are accepted as cannonical by the Church (or possibly just by a Bishop, but I think most Bishops probably know enough to make the right call).

    Shouldn’t it be enough to say that, if there is no such paragraph at the beginning of the book, the person is expressing his own ideas and not necessarily advancing the teachings of the Church?

  7. sibert

    If you read your Bible and disqualify those statements that disagree with it then reading unorthodox books can be a constructive process. It can expose you to ideas that will stretch you in ways you hadn’t considered. If you are not grounded in scripture and therefore are unsure about certain theologies, then unorthodox books probably will pull you off track. The Bible is the ultimate standard. Catholic theology has complicated the matter by injecting hundreds of other sources and placing them on par with scripture (I know several of you may disagree). Lots of other material can be good and God works through those books too, but there is nothing like scripture. The Bible should be the only textbook and everything else read in light of that. You don’t have to be a legal beagle on canon law, just be in the Word. I still love all my Catholic brothers though!

  8. Funky Dung

    People can read whatever they please so long as they know what’s orthodox and what is not. The point of the wiki I described would be to have reviews of theological books (much like those on Amazon) in a searchable database.

  9. Tom Smith

    The 1529 Diet of the Holy Roman Empire was held in Speyer. There, the Diet upheld the 1524 ruling that Catholicism and Lutheranism would be respected in each town they had been established in. Several Lutheran princes at the Diet protested the toleration of Catholics, and so acquired the name “Protestant”.

    I just think that’s one of those interesting little farts of history, where something seemingly inconsequential, namely the changing of common parlance from simply “Lutheran” to “Protestant”, became a nearly 500-year thing.

  10. Funky Dung

    Theo, think of similar issues in the sciences. The textbooks in schools shouldn’t be filled with lies, half-truths, distortions, or gross errors. We don’t want students to be misinformed or confused do we?

    There is a certiain doctrinal purity to be maintained in the sciences. It is true that there is room for discussion on many issues, but there is such a thing as “junk” science. Likewise, there are theological issues which are open for discussion, but there is also junk theology. The Church is authoritative on these issues. If you don’t accept that authority, fine. You’re not the intended audience for such an index. Faithful Catholics who don’t desire to be mislead by Catholics-In-Name-Only are.

  11. sibert

    Tom,
    I must admit my ignorance and humbly ask you to explain the import of the Diet of Speyer in 1529. I am obviousely not as astute a student of history as you, please enlighten me. Thanks in advance.

  12. Pingback: I've Been Workin' on the Wiki.. @ Ales Rarus

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