Correspondence
Required reading We enjoyed Heather King's "Serving the Smelly Poor" [October 11 ] so much that we are not only subscribing to your magazine but thrusting that issue into the hands of all who walk...
...Wrong case "Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei...
...In this sense, then, I see little difference between the pope's view of the world in Evangelium vitae and that expressed in the cornerstone document of the church's recent social teaching, Gaudium et spes, which hails the advances of modern science and technology and the aspirations of developing peoples, but also warns ominously against systemic atheism, abortion, euthanasia, slavery, and other violations of human dignity...
...MICHELE AND FRANK SCHLOEGEL Kansas City, Mo...
...Its purpose is to teach monotheism...
...CHARLES E. CURRAN Reading Genesis In his second comment on the PBS series "Genesis," Frank McConnell objected to the mix of expert and nonexpert participants [October 25...
...Ei is a dative singular that can appropriately be translated "unto her" and "upon her" in the first and second clauses, respectively...
...thomas o. mitchell Wilmington, N.C...
...The author replies: The very paragraph and sentence of Evangelium vitae (28) cited by Faustin N. Weber well illustrate my thesis that the document contrasts the "culture of life" and the "culture of death," and involves a "we versus them" approach...
...In fact, John Paul II is extraordinarily positive in his tone, positive about advances in modern science, praising those elements in society that have taken a stand for life, praying for and believing in the resurrection of the world, even while forcefully condemning a moral relativism that leads to the creeping acceptance of euthanasia, capital punishment, and abortion within our society...
...The corrrect form of the sentence when it is used to pray for one person, using ei in both clauses, can be found in the Missale Romanum...
...I invite people simply to skim the document to see if it squares with Curran's characterization of the church as being "in mortal opposition with all in society who disagree with its position and who foster the culture of death...
...They tie together because belief in the one and only God of the first account is necessary so that humans will believe in the value of the second account and pay attention to its lessons...
...The pope's own assessment of the state of things is that we live in times of "lights and shadows" (28...
...The text reads: "This situation, with its lights and shadows, ought to make us all fully aware that we are facing an enormous and dramatic clash beteen good and evil, death and life, the 'culture of death' and the 'culture of life.' We find ourselves not only 'faced with' but necessarily 'in the midst of this conflict...
...While it is true that Evangelium vitae insists on the universal validity of moral norms, to describe the document as exemplifying a "we versus them" approach is more reminiscent of Associated Press newsbites than of the reflections of a theologian of Curran's caliber...
...As for reconciling Genesis's two accounts of creation, each describes creation for a different teaching purpose, The first, from the Priestly text, affirms there are no other gods but the one God of creation...
...In the article, however, the word ea (probably the ablative case) is used in both places, incorrectly...
...The second account, from the Yawhistic text, tells of the creation of human nature...
...Perhaps Bill Moyers or the producers were trying to inject new perspectives by mixing in some nonexperts, since a new paradigm rarely, if ever, emerges from experts indoctrinated in the traditional theories...
...As part of his evidence, Curran says that John Paul II's encyclical Evangelium vitae assumes a "church against the world" position, contrasting the "culture of life" with the "culture of death"-a dichotomy inconsistent with the incarnational view of the world and grace assumed in recent social teachings such as the pope's recent United Nations address...
...I find it interesting that he does not characterize these as times of "darkness...
...That's how the last sentence of the "Subvenite" quoted in David Loxterkamp's touching reminiscence of his mother [October 25] should have read...
...Required reading We enjoyed Heather King's "Serving the Smelly Poor" [October 11 ] so much that we are not only subscribing to your magazine but thrusting that issue into the hands of all who walk through our door, telling them there is an article here that is a must...
...Curran oversimplifies In his article "Two Traditions" [October 11], Charles E. Curran oversimplifies differences between church documents, arguing that the church's sexual teachings develop within a "classicist" tradition, while its social teachings are historically sensitive...
...To say there exists a "culture of death" is also to read the signs of the times...
...MARILYN KRAMER Wausau, Wis...
...We are all involved and we all share in it, with the inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life...
...Its purpose is to teach of the God who loves and guides us, who intercedes in human affairs: to teach of a personal but transcendent God...
...faustin n. weber Montgomery, Ala...
Vol. 123 • November 1996 • No. 20
