Summa Contra Gentiles, Book II: XXXVI Solution to the Fallacy of an Eternal World by Creationism I

From Contemplating History

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 7 March 1274), was a Doctor of the Church, Philosopher, Theologian, Jurist, Dominican Friar, and Priest. Known as Doctor Angelicus "Angelic Doctor," and the Doctor Communis "Universal Doctor" his writings serve as a defense and proof of the validity of Christ's authority over all. The Summa contra Gentiles (also known as Liber de veritate catholicae fidei contra errores infidelium, "Book on the truth of the Catholic faith against the errors of the unbelievers"). The Summa contra Gentiles consists of four books. The structure of Saint Thomas's work is designed to proceed from general philosophical arguments for monotheism, to which Muslims and Jews are likely to consent even within their own respective religious traditions, before progressing to the discussion of specifically Christian doctrine.

Book II is dedicated to the Creation (in other words, the physical universe, everything which exists). Whether you are a history enthusiast, a student of religion, or simply curious about the impact of the Roman Catholic Church on the world, this playlist is designed to provide an informative and engaging journey through its captivating past. Subscribe to the Contemplating History channel for more educational content and immerse yourself in the rich tapestry of history.

An Atheist Debates a Catholic AI Apologist

The Holy Rosary

Tuesday, the Sorrowful Mysteries, in Latin with Cardinal Burke.

The Simple Fashion Clue That Unlocks Tudor Portraits | How Women’s Hoods Date Their Portraits

From History Calling

DID YOU KNOW that a single detail of Tudor fashion can help us date a portrait of a Tudor woman with surprising accuracy? In this video from History Calling, I uncover the fascinating story of women’s hoods at the Tudor court and how these striking fashion choices act as a simple yet powerful dating tool for portraits. The story begins in the reign of Henry VII when his wife, Elizabeth of York and his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, the matriarchs of the Tudor dynasty, were painted wearing early forms of the English gable hood. These angular, architectural headdresses so named because they resembled the gable end of a house, covered up the hair and sported long lappets, coming down the face and over the shoulders, with a veil at the back and decorative billiments on top. As the dynasty progressed, the gable hood remained dominant at court, famously worn by Catherine of Aragon and Jane Seymour, while the arrival of the French hood, closely associated with Anne Boleyn, signalled a dramatic shift toward continental elegance and the increasing exposure of women’s hair. Hoods were never just fashion though. They reflected international influence, political affiliation, personal identity and shifting ideals of beauty at the Tudor court. For Anne Boleyn, a French hood highlighted her upbringing and political leanings. When she wanted to emphasise her Englishness though, she reverted to an English gable hood, including at her execution. For Jane Seymour, an English hood separated her from her predecessor. For Anne of Cleves, her Germanic hood highlighted what an outsider she was. For historians and art experts today, the evolution of the hood functions as a fashion marker which provides a timeline that helps us place portraits within a specific decade. Spotting whether a sitter wears the stiff gable hood or the softer, rounded French hood can instantly narrow down the date of a painting. This fashion code, however, has its limits. By the beginning of Elizabeth I’s reign, hoods were falling out of fashion, giving way to elaborate ruffs, ornate hairstyles, and jewelled accessories. Still, for over half a century, these headdresses remained the defining symbol of Tudor women’s fashion. Join me as I trace the journey of the Tudor hood, from Elizabeth of York to Elizabeth I and show how this one fashion detail unlocks the hidden history of women’s portraits. As well as telling you what dates certain hoods come from, I’ll also discuss how French hoods were constructed and use many drawings by Hans Holbein the Younger to illustrate the evolution of the Tudor hood. By the end of this video, you’ll be able to spot these changes yourself and perhaps even date a Tudor portrait at first glance!

"What Makes Environmental Projects Successful or Unsuccessful?" Timothy R. Raub, PhD (Geosciences Heritage Institute)

From The Society of Catholic Scientists

The Saints Behind Shakespeare’s “St Crispin’s Day” Speech

The Battle of Agincourt was fought on the Feast of Ss Crispin and Crispinian, who happen to be Patrons not of soldiers, but of cobblers, curriers, tanners, and leather workers.

From Aleteia

By Philip Kosloski

Sts. Crispin and Crispinian were the first "band of brothers," who fought bravely on the battlefield of the soul.

One of the best known passages in Shakespeare's Henry V is an epic speech of bravery, sacrifice and brotherhood. In the play King Henry rouses his soldiers' spirits with a profound speech before the  Battle of Agincourt on October 25, 1415.

The speech makes several references to "St. Crispin's Day," the traditional feast of Sts. Crispin and Crispinian. What's interesting are the underlying connections between the speech and the actual saints honored on St. Crispin's Day.

The feast day of October 25 honors the martyrdom of two men who were persecuted for the Christian faith during the reign of Roman Emperor Maximian Herculeus in 286. They were shoemakers by night and preachers of the Gospel during the day. The local governor discovered their activities and quickly ordered their execution. After trying to drown them, the governor sent both to the emperor, who had them beheaded.

Typically the Church celebrates the feast day of a martyr on the day of their death, recognizing the heroic sacrifice that won for them a victorious crown in heaven. In his speech, King Henry encourages the soldiers to associate the feast day of St. Crispin with the scars and wounds they will suffer during the ensuing battle, signs of the sacrifices they will make and the victory that will be won on the battlefield. Looking back as old men, Henry tells his soldiers, those who survive will throw a banquet for their neighbors on the eve of the feast,

And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian."

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,

And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."

A further connection between the saints and the speech occurs later on. King Henry rallies his soldiers' to stand together as a "band of brothers" (a phrase that inspired the popular book and mini-series of the same name).

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be rememberèd,

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother ...

According to a popular tradition, Sts. Crispin and Crispinian were twin brothers who were martyred together. Some scholars dispute the claim, but even if that tradition is unfounded, the two men could join in the words of King Henry and say to each other, "For he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother."

Sts. Crispin and Crispinian were the first "band of brothers," who fought bravely on the battlefield of the soul, conquering their inclinations and standing fast in the face of persecution. They are great models for us and hopefully someday we will be able to show them our own battle scars, representing the many sacrifices we made on earth to receive the victorious crown of eternal life.

The Vatican Is Turning St Peter’s Basilica Into a Strip Mall

James Martin Wants More Priests Like Him and a Lot of Bishops Agree

He's never really getting punished, is he?

Archeologists Investigate a 1,000-Year-Old Sunken Viking Fortress

From Chronicle – Medieval History Documentaries

On 2nd October 1263, King Hakon Hakonson stepped ashore at Largs to command his 900 Norwegian warriors against a force of 500 mounted Scottish knights. The calamitous events that followed at the Battle of Largs changed the future course and identity of a fledgling Scottish nation forever. But this film reveals that although Viking power retreated from Scotland’s shores, they never truly left. Evidence of their assimilation into the villages they first terrorised and then colonised is now coming to light. Marine archaeologist Professor Jon Henderson rediscovers the incredible story of the last days of the Vikings, painting a vivid picture of Scotland and the brutal men who came over the North Sea in longships.

Traditional Catholic Morning Prayers in English | July

Traditional Catholic morning prayers to help start your day in a godly way! The month of July is dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. May our devotion to the salvific action of the Precious Blood of Christ increase more fervently this month. We've included the Memorare of the Sacred Heart and litany of the Sacred Heart. Begin your July with daily morning prayer. This video is a compilation of many traditional morning prayers Catholics say, and should not be considered a replacement for those who have an obligation to pray the Divine Office morning prayers.

The Antichrist Is Already Here — and He’s Not Who You Think (Ven. Fulton Sheen’s Warning)

From Totus Catholica

Everyone is watching for a monster. The horns, the fire, the mark of the beast, a villain so obviously evil you would spot him across a crowded room and run. But Archbishop Fulton Sheen warned that the Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers. The most dangerous figure in human history will not look dangerous at all. He will look like the answer to every problem you have ever had. Sheen said the deceiver comes disguised as the great humanitarian, talking peace and prosperity and plenty, not as a way to lead you to God, but as ends in themselves. This pattern is ancient. Long before anyone used the word Antichrist, it was already carved into Israel's history: Daniel's little horn, and a tyrant named Antiochus who took the title Epiphanes, meaning God made manifest, stopped the daily sacrifice, and set up the abomination of desolation in the very place where God was worshiped. In this video: • Why the Antichrist will not be an obvious monster, and why that is the whole danger • Fulton Sheen's warning about the great humanitarian and the counterfeit church • How Daniel's little horn and Antiochus Epiphanes foreshadow the final deceiver • Why the word antichrist never appears in Revelation, only in the letters of St. John • Why the Eucharist is how you learn to recognize a forgery ⏱ CHAPTERS 0:00 The Antichrist Everyone Is Watching For 1:20 Sheen's Warning About the Great Humanitarian 2:07 Daniel's Little Horn and Antiochus Epiphanes 3:13 Beliyaal: The Hebrew Name for the Adversary 3:51 The Man of Lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2 5:42 Fulton Sheen and the Counterfeit Church 6:43 How to Recognize a Forgery: The Eucharist 📖 SCRIPTURE REFERENCED • Daniel 8 and 11: the little horn, a ruler who magnifies himself above every power on earth and speaks great boastful words. • Daniel 7: in the Church's traditional reading, the parallel little horn points beyond Antiochus to the final Antichrist himself. • Daniel: the abomination of desolation set up in the place where God was worshiped, after the daily sacrifice was stopped. • 2 Thessalonians 2: the man of lawlessness who takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God, working false signs and lying wonders. • The letters of St. John: the only place in Scripture where the word antichrist appears, and where he says that already many antichrists have come. • 1 John 4: test the spirits to see whether they are from God. ⛪ FROM THE CHURCH FATHERS & THE CATECHISM • Hippolytus (3rd century), On Christ and Antichrist: the deceiver seeks to liken himself in all things to the Son of God. He appears as a lamb, though within he is a wolf. • St. Cyril of Jerusalem (4th century), Catechetical Lectures: this figure seizes power not by open cruelty at first, but by pretending to be good, kind, and full of wisdom. • St. John Chrysostom (4th century): declined to identify St. Paul's restrainer with certainty, a model of the Church's refusal to label confidently. • CCC 675: the final trial of the Church is a religious deception, a pseudo messianism by which man glorifies himself in the place of God. 📜 SOURCES & FURTHER READING • Archbishop Fulton Sheen on the Antichrist as the great humanitarian and on the counterfeit church: a religion without a cross, without a world to come, a faith emptied of sacrifice but still full of comfortable, familiar words. • The Hebrew word beliyaal, meaning worthlessness or lawlessness, which hardened over time into a title for the great adversary. • Philo recorded the Roman emperor Gaius attempting to install a giant statue of himself inside the Jerusalem temple around the year 40. • Several early Reformers identified St. Paul's man of lawlessness not with a future individual but with the office of the papacy. The Catholic response is careful distinction, not anger: the Church has always resisted naming any living person or office as the Antichrist. • The community at Qumran wrote of a final war against an adversary they named Belial, trusting that the great hand of God shall overcome Belial and all the angels of his dominion. 🔗 EXPLORE MORE 🌍 Website: https://totuscatholica.org/ Rosary Guide: https://totuscatholica.org/rosary ✉️ Contact: https://totuscatholica.org/contact 🔍 Examination of Conscience: https://catholicexaminationofconscien... 📚 Free eBooks: https://buymeacoffee.com/totuscatholi... 👥 Become a Totus Insider: https://buymeacoffee.com/totuscatholi...

Top 7 Articles That Explore the Truth Behind Passion Relics

No! Neither a ship nor a forest (Voltaire) could be built from the Relics of the True Cross.  They are just tiny slivers of wood from the Tree of Life.

From Aleteia

By Philip Kosloski

Are the relics of Jesus’ Passion authentic? Could a ship be built from relics of Jesus’ cross?Local legends state that there were a handful of local people who knew where the true cross was hidden and had passed down that information to their families over the centuries. One, a man named Judas, felt compelled to tell St. Helena where the relics of the true cross were buried.

In addition to the cross of Christ, it is also believed that St. Helena found the “title of the cross,” upon which was inscribed, “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews.” She also reportedly discovered the nails of the true cross that were driven into the hands and feet of Jesus.

Since the time of St. Helena, there have been numerous other relics of the Passion that have shown up. Are they authentic?

Here is a list of 7 articles on Aleteia that explore these relics and ponder the truth behind them. Click on the titles below for more information.

1. Are the relics of Christ and the Apostles authentic?
   The mortal remains of Sts. Peter and Paul, pieces of Christ’s cross, the stairs that Jesus climbed during his Passion … Over hundreds and hundreds of years, millions of pilgrims from around the world have visited Rome to pray before these and other relics. But, are they authentic? This question, which has been the focus of significant debates throughout history, is being addressed by the documentary The Footsteps of Jesus in Rome, presented in the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See. The documentary is a 46-minute film that explores, with previously unpublished images, the origin and stories of the numerous relics of Christ and his Apostles located in the Eternal City.
2. 8 Incredible relics from the Holy Land that St. Helena might have found
   Besides the cross, title and nails, tradition claims St. Helena found the crown of thorns that was placed upon the head of Jesus during his Passion and his tunic that was stripped from his body. Not only that, Helena is the one who brought from Jerusalem to Rome the “holy stairs” that led to the palace of Pontius Pilate. Outside of these relics associated with the passion of Jesus, Helena is also credited with bringing back relics of the “holy crib” and even some hay from the manger where Jesus was laid when he was born.
3. New data questions finding that Shroud of Turin was medieval hoax
   In 2017, Casabianca submitted a Freedom of Information request to the British Museum and was allowed to see the data. “Our statistical analysis shows that the 1988 carbon 14 dating was unreliable: the tested samples are obviously heterogeneous, and there is no guarantee that all these samples, taken from one end of the sheet, are representative of the whole fabric. It is therefore impossible to conclude that the shroud of Turin dates from the Middle Ages,” Casabianca explained in an interview with a website called L’Homme Nouveau. Casabianca said his work will help find answers beyond the research of the American chemist Raymond N. Rogers, who debunked the 1988 dating, because he had only the data published by Nature to work with. Rogers maintained that the three Shroud test samples used in 1988 were cut from an outer edge on a piece of the cloth added later as a repair because of frequent handling of the Shroud in public veneration.
4. Virtually visit the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme: See relics of the Passion
   The basilica has undergone several renovations. Its current appearance dates back to the 18th century. During the restoration in the 15th century was found the “Titulus Crucis,” the sign placed on the cross of Jesus, with the inscription chosen by Pilate. The text is written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin characters: “I. NAZARINVS RE[X IVDAEORVM].” Today the relics are kept in a chapel accessed by an uphill corridor, a symbol of the ascent to Calvary. In the reliquary are kept three fragments of the “True Cross,” two thorns from the Crown, a holy nail and the “Titulus Crucis.” Over time, fragments of the grotto of Bethlehem, the Holy Sepulchre and the scourging pillar, the Good Thief’s cross and the phalanx of St. Thomas’ finger have been added.
5. Could a large ship really be built from all the relics of the True Cross?
   Wanting to test the claim and see if it was true that all the relics of the true cross would build a massive ship, a French independent scholar named Charles Rohault de Fleury tracked down every surviving relic and published a scientific study in 1870 entitled Mémoire sur les instruments de la Passion. After calculating the weight of the cross that Jesus would have carried, he estimated that the volume of the cross would have been 10,900 cubic inches. De Fleury then compared that number with the total volume of all the true relics of the cross. He discovered that all the relics in the world amounted only to 240 cubic inches. Surprised by the number, de Fleury multiplied the number by 10 to cover any relics that were destroyed or in private hands. Even after that, 2,400 cubic inches was not even close to the original volume of the cross.
6. What kind of wood was the Cross of Christ made of?
   Perhaps not many people dwell on the issue today, but at various times in the history of Christianity, people have sought to explain where the cross of Christ originated. Some of the legends that have sprung up are imaginative, and often carry spiritual meaning related to salvation history. In 1910, James Charles Wall, a British ecclesiologist, collected some of these legends in his book Relics Of The Passion. “When the world rang with the news that the Holy Cross had been discovered, and everyone was asking for details, according to the working of each individual mind, there arose these questions among others,” he wrote. “Of what wood was it made? Where did it grow? In which locality budded forth that plant …?”
7. These relics of Jesus’ crown of thorns can be found in Italy
   The thorn is said to have been brought to Recco by Fabiano and Giulio Ageno, ship captains returning from the Crusades. It was then placed in a reliquary on an altar in the church. The thorn measures about 1.8 inches long, and is very thin. The feast of the Holy Thorn is celebrated on Easter Monday. However, the reliquary is put on public display on other specific occasions as well.