Fr Andrew Pinsent, Author at Catholic Herald

Fr Andrew Pinsent

Where do we find inspiration? Start with relationships

November 05, 2020

Inspiration is important to every kind of human knowledge, art, and practical skill, but what is it?

September 29, 2020

“Providence” is from a word that means “to foresee,” conveying the notion that God directs the cosmos and human affairs with wise benevolence. In a providential cosmos or life, time is not simply a succession of moments, like the ticking of a clock, but takes on an organic direction, as if marking progress or growth

Faith is not blind trust: it’s consent to what has been revealed

September 11, 2020

Some definitions of faith are highly negative: “blind trust, in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence” is how Richard Dawkins describes it in The Selfish Gene. Needless to say, this definition is entirely his own and not from any Catholic theological source. What, then, is faith in a theological sense? In

Why love is inseparable from sacrifice

August 21, 2020

What is love? One challenge to finding an answer is that “love” covers a diversity of dispositions. The phrases “I love chocolate” and “I love you” use the same verb, but loving a person is, one hopes, something more durable and substantive than a love of chocolate. Such examples underline that loving persons is the

‘As a physicist, how can you accept the Assumption?’ Here’s my answer

August 14, 2020

As a physicist and a priest, I am sometimes asked how I can accept miracles. My response is: “Why not?”

Aristotle was the father of virtue ethics, but Aquinas transfigured the field

July 17, 2020

The virtues, which are dispositions to do what is good, have recently enjoyed a remarkable revival as a topic of academic interest, if not necessarily in practice. This revival has been a response, in part, to a renewed sense that ethics involves more than simply the determination of right actions. We also assess persons ethically

Desiring heaven: Hope is the most natural of the theological virtues

June 26, 2020

What is hope? Clearly it is something good that anticipates a good future, combined with confidence in overcoming the challenges of attaining this goal. As one of the three theological virtues of the life of grace – faith, hope, and divine love – hope is about desire for the greatest good, namely heaven. What, then,

The meaning of everything: Grace

May 29, 2020

What is grace? In everyday language, grace means a freely bestowed gift, worthy of admiration and associated with the idea of blessing, beauty and salvation. As a special divine action, grace is also an unmerited gift from God. The Bible and Catholic liturgy overflow with references to grace, and theology has a complex taxonomy of

How to tell Christ from Antichrist

April 18, 2019

Why is the Risen Christ still wounded? In the Gospel of John, the Apostle Thomas states that he will not believe in the Resurrection, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side” (John 20:25). Eight

Fatima at 100: Can a scientist take Fatima seriously?

May 11, 2017

The question in the headline implies that the expected answer is “no”, but as a former particle physicist, my response is “Why not?” Contrary to a common prejudice, a scientific perspective does not rule out miracles, and the event at Fatima is, in the view of many, particularly credible. As regards miracles in general, the

Fatima at 100: Can a scientist take the Miracle of the Sun seriously?

May 11, 2017

A scientific perspective does not rule out miracles. We must remain open to exploring the unexplained

Miracles boldly go where Star Trek can’t

July 20, 2016

Does the attempt to explain away miracles prevent us from fully embracing the love of God?

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