Giovanni Bellini's St. Francis

 

Giovanni Bellini, St. Francis, c. 1430 (image from Web Gallery of Art)

According to Sebastian Smee, this painting of St. Francis of Assisi "is regarded by many as the most beautiful painting in America" (it is in the Frick Collection in New York).  The painting shows the saint in a Tuscan setting that resembles the mountain where he fasted for 40 days, but plants and animals (including a donkey, a heron, a rabbit, and sheep) are present throughout the work.  Smee observed that this masterpiece has "a minty freshness, as of vegetable patches at dawn or tulips breaking through frost, and on a spiritual level, a sense of dazzling profusion and potential, like the heart of a person at morning prayer."

Views of Evolution

Because it provides an explanation of our origins, the scientific theory of evolution has provoked a variety of reactions.  Some have denied it, some have accepted it, and some have extended it beyond its domain.  A brief summary of some key positions:

Young-earth creationism: Evolution did not occur.  God created the universe in six days, and humans are descended from Adam and Eve.

Theistic evolution:  Evolution is an acceptable scientific explanation, and God doesn’t intervene with the material process.  “God, eternally foreseeing all the products of evolution, uses the natural process of evolution to work out his creative plan,” according to Avery Cardinal Dulles [1].  Pope Benedict proclaimed, “We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary” [2].

Intelligent Design: Evolution can explain some aspects of life, but not all.  God produced irreducibly complex organs that a sequence of small random mutations, under the laws of evolution, could not produce.

Teleological evolution: Evolution is an acceptable scientific explanation, and it has a purpose.  According to Cardinal Dulles, “Biological organisms cannot be understood by the laws of mechanics alone. The laws of biology, without in any way contradicting those of physics and chemistry, are more complex. The behavior of living organisms cannot be explained without taking into account their striving for life and growth” [1].  Evolution is a process that is not complete; God activates new classes of life within that process; and through it God will unite the whole universe in Himself.

Neo-Darwinism:  Evolution not only explains the origin of life but also shows that God does not exist and the universe has no purpose.  

1. Avery Cardinal Dulles, "God and Evolution," First Things, October 2007.

2. Pope Bendict XVI, homily, Inauguration Mass, April 24, 2005, https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/homilies/2005/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20050424_inizio-pontificato.html.

Maybe it's a Puma

A large feline was sighted on the University of Maryland campus earlier this week. The first reports said it was a cougar. Turns out it is probably a breed of cat called the Savannah, which is extremely large. Here is an excerpt from the email the University sent Friday evening:

The markings and size of the feline do appear consistent with a type of cat called a Savannah Cat. This is a hybrid of a Domestic Short Hair cat and a Serval, which is a larger African feline. Savannahs can grow to be as large as 35 pounds and can be a great deal larger than normal domesticated cats. They have been referred to as the Great Danes of the cat family.

The cat was still on the loose last night.

For some reason I'm reminded of a Smothers Brothers routine about pumas.

Gopher tortoises

On Sunday the Washington Post had an article about gopher tortoises and how developers in Florida were given permits allowing them to build over the animals' holes without moving them, essentially burying them alive. Fortunately, no more such permits are being issued.

On that topic, if it's October, it's time for the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival, which is always the third Saturday of the month (this year that's October 20 and 21). We raced a lot of gopher tortoises there when I was a kid.

The End of the Season

In this part of the country, even though the kids have been going to school for at least a week (depending on the county) Labor Day marks the end of summer in one very definite way: it is the last day that community and public outdoor pools are open.

So we went to the pool today: it was perfect weather - sunny and warm and dry. The pool was crowded, and Colleen played with a girl who lives in our neighborhood and saw one of her friends from school. Then it was time to come home and put away the swim stuff until next summer.

I'll miss swimming, but Sunday evening basketball at the school will be starting soon!

Without a Bell

I'm going through a stack of old magazines and found the following from the May 2004 issue of First Things. It is cold here in Maryland today, and I found it pleasant to think of nicer days ahead.

Without a Bell

God comes to us without a bell:
God’s spell
is cast by larks and honeybees
in trees.
Their chorus, praising field and brook,
spells out His book—
one pious men may overlook,
expecting bells to say, He’s here!
But nature makes the gospels clear:
God’s spell in trees spells out His book.

Ralph C. LaRosa