Jonathan Heaps
@jonathanrheaps.bsky.social
Director, Lonergan Institute at Seton Hall University // *The Ambiguity of Being: Lonergan and the Problems of the Supernatural* (CUA Press)
Pinned
CFP: "Belief: Still Today's Issue," The International Institute for Method in Theology's Spring Colloquium. March 6-7, 2026 at Marquette University.
Submissions due Dec. 1
Submissions due Dec. 1
If you were thinking of submitting a proposal to this but didn't get around to it by the deadline, I can extend it to *this Friday, Dec 12*
Actually, this happened one time before, when Bobby Chesney said he was reading A Canticle for Leibowitz & I emailed him an invitation to get coffee & talk about it, which he accepted, but that was just a glancing blow. This is a head on collision.
It finally happened. My hobby of listening to NatSec podcasts finally collided with my real job.
It’s come to this: “Catholic members of the US armed forces could in good conscience consider disobeying orders to attack Greenland if such orders were issued, according to Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the bishop responsible for the pastoral care of US military personnel.”
January 20, 2026 at 2:17 AM
Actually, this happened one time before, when Bobby Chesney said he was reading A Canticle for Leibowitz & I emailed him an invitation to get coffee & talk about it, which he accepted, but that was just a glancing blow. This is a head on collision.
It finally happened. My hobby of listening to NatSec podcasts finally collided with my real job.
It’s come to this: “Catholic members of the US armed forces could in good conscience consider disobeying orders to attack Greenland if such orders were issued, according to Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the bishop responsible for the pastoral care of US military personnel.”
Military archbishop: Troops could refuse orders on Greenland
Speaking to Britain's Sunday program on BBC, Archbishop Timothy Broglio reiterated that conscience could permit refusal of an unjust military order.
aleteia.org
January 20, 2026 at 2:14 AM
It finally happened. My hobby of listening to NatSec podcasts finally collided with my real job.
I’m willing to grant that feelings are not self-authorizing when it comes to value judgments, but also it’s just not coherent to make “rationality” your personality, then a priori exclude a whole class of data from your thinking
Working to suppress your emotional reactions to everything to perform an affected "rationality" is sicko anti-human shit. Emotions are part of being human, and it's no coincidence that everyone who does this is doing so to call evil good.
January 20, 2026 at 2:03 AM
I’m willing to grant that feelings are not self-authorizing when it comes to value judgments, but also it’s just not coherent to make “rationality” your personality, then a priori exclude a whole class of data from your thinking
R Reno declaring the insufficiency of liberty on the right. Dignitatis infinita grounding human dignity in liberty on the left.
![9. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the classical definition of a person as an "individual substance of a rational nature"[17] clarifies the foundation of human dignity. As an "individual substance," the person possesses ontological dignity (that is, at the metaphysical level of being itself. Having received existence from God, humans are subjects who "subsist"-that is, they exercise their existence autonomously. The term "rational" encompasses all the capacities of the human person, including the capacities of knowing and understanding, as well as those of wanting, loving, choosing, and desiring; it also includes all corporeal functions closely related to these abilities. "Nature" refers to the conditions particular to us as human beings, which enable our various operations and the experiences that characterize them; in this sense, nature is the
"principle of action." We do not create our nature; we hold it as a gift and we can nurture, develop, and enhance our abilities. By exercising](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:n2u4nx3fmuji5op4n4oaablb/bafkreidpthvaeivtrac6xb76a6zt4su42axenq4zhhydwmqnmm4uu44yqu@jpeg)
January 20, 2026 at 1:12 AM
R Reno declaring the insufficiency of liberty on the right. Dignitatis infinita grounding human dignity in liberty on the left.
Reposted by Jonathan Heaps
The natural endpoint of this administration's use of 18 USC 111
@perrystein.bsky.social update! New info on the FBI seeking search warrants for Renee Good's car.
"Law enforcement applied for a warrant to search Good’s car under a civil rights statute"
"as new facts emerged in the case," they applied for a warrant under an assault statute. It was rejected.
"Law enforcement applied for a warrant to search Good’s car under a civil rights statute"
"as new facts emerged in the case," they applied for a warrant under an assault statute. It was rejected.
January 20, 2026 at 12:52 AM
The natural endpoint of this administration's use of 18 USC 111
Reposted by Jonathan Heaps
The ideal number of likes is still 2–34
Couldn't care less if Thread has a billion users and Blue Sky has 1000. I just need a steam vent where I can release whatever dumb jokes and observations enter my brain without contributing to the financial success of Musk or Zuck. Give me 2-34 likes on every one of these and I'm good.
January 20, 2026 at 12:04 AM
The ideal number of likes is still 2–34
Someone check on @alanrozenshtein.com?
Happy one year anniversary to TikTok operating illegally in the US with no consequences
January 19, 2026 at 11:44 PM
Someone check on @alanrozenshtein.com?
Reposted by Jonathan Heaps
Happy one year anniversary to TikTok operating illegally in the US with no consequences
January 19, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Happy one year anniversary to TikTok operating illegally in the US with no consequences
I will also say this:
Lonergan thought that the way you Christianize modern culture is by having the Church reach up to meet its excellences & extend them, not by scrambling to oppose its many failings.
Lonergan thought that the way you Christianize modern culture is by having the Church reach up to meet its excellences & extend them, not by scrambling to oppose its many failings.
This is a good read & I recognize a lot of the narrative in my & my friends’ biographies.
I don’t agree with the concluding alternative (between an agnostic liberal Christianity & its conservative opposite), but I also recognize my boutique Catholic liberalism is… boutique. And hard won.
I don’t agree with the concluding alternative (between an agnostic liberal Christianity & its conservative opposite), but I also recognize my boutique Catholic liberalism is… boutique. And hard won.
I wrote a thing. It's extremely long.
January 19, 2026 at 11:08 PM
I will also say this:
Lonergan thought that the way you Christianize modern culture is by having the Church reach up to meet its excellences & extend them, not by scrambling to oppose its many failings.
Lonergan thought that the way you Christianize modern culture is by having the Church reach up to meet its excellences & extend them, not by scrambling to oppose its many failings.
This is a good read & I recognize a lot of the narrative in my & my friends’ biographies.
I don’t agree with the concluding alternative (between an agnostic liberal Christianity & its conservative opposite), but I also recognize my boutique Catholic liberalism is… boutique. And hard won.
I don’t agree with the concluding alternative (between an agnostic liberal Christianity & its conservative opposite), but I also recognize my boutique Catholic liberalism is… boutique. And hard won.
I wrote a thing. It's extremely long.
I'll Believe in Anything
A Critique of Post-Liberal Catholicism, in Two Parts
iridium.substack.com
January 19, 2026 at 11:08 PM
This is a good read & I recognize a lot of the narrative in my & my friends’ biographies.
I don’t agree with the concluding alternative (between an agnostic liberal Christianity & its conservative opposite), but I also recognize my boutique Catholic liberalism is… boutique. And hard won.
I don’t agree with the concluding alternative (between an agnostic liberal Christianity & its conservative opposite), but I also recognize my boutique Catholic liberalism is… boutique. And hard won.
@vienna_official
today we welcome his imperial highness archduke franz ferdinand to sarajevo. unity, stability, progress.
@pan_slav_posting
wild that austria thinks this is a good idea but ok
today we welcome his imperial highness archduke franz ferdinand to sarajevo. unity, stability, progress.
@pan_slav_posting
wild that austria thinks this is a good idea but ok
as a black comedy, someone should write a version of WWI leadup that has social media. Don't bother about incongruity of fitting 21st century social media tech into early 1900s. Just imagine what it would have been like
January 19, 2026 at 7:41 PM
Make Congress a Co-Equal Branch of Gov’t Again
Danish Parliament Deputy Speaker Lars-Christian Brask:
"If I could come with some advice, it would be for the Senate & House to start to take control of political power in America because with this erratic & mad behaviour, you have to ask the question, is the President capable of running the US?"
"If I could come with some advice, it would be for the Senate & House to start to take control of political power in America because with this erratic & mad behaviour, you have to ask the question, is the President capable of running the US?"
January 19, 2026 at 7:18 PM
Make Congress a Co-Equal Branch of Gov’t Again
Reposted by Jonathan Heaps
general winter remains an ally of the motherland (Minnesota)
it is -10 here today. I was supposed to go do a volunteer shift standing outside loading groceries into people’s cars to deliver to families stuck at home. just got a call not to come in because they have too many volunteers already. if you were wondering if the cold would stop us.
January 19, 2026 at 6:32 PM
general winter remains an ally of the motherland (Minnesota)
Being an incorrigible yapper is grounds for impeachment & removal & I won’t hear otherwise
I feel like we’ve forgotten that at least 1/3rd of the reason Andrew Johnson got impeached was his inability to shut the fuck up.
January 19, 2026 at 6:27 PM
Being an incorrigible yapper is grounds for impeachment & removal & I won’t hear otherwise
I feel like we’ve forgotten that at least 1/3rd of the reason Andrew Johnson got impeached was his inability to shut the fuck up.
January 19, 2026 at 6:23 PM
I feel like we’ve forgotten that at least 1/3rd of the reason Andrew Johnson got impeached was his inability to shut the fuck up.
Reposted by Jonathan Heaps
Reposted by Jonathan Heaps
"Cardinal Tobin said he was struck by voices in the Trump administration who seemed to be advancing a moral framework he described as 'almost a Darwinian calculus that the powerful survive and the weak don’t deserve to.'
'I would say that’s less than human'...”
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/u...
'I would say that’s less than human'...”
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/u...
Top Catholic Clerics Denounce U.S. Foreign Policy
www.nytimes.com
January 19, 2026 at 4:54 PM
"Cardinal Tobin said he was struck by voices in the Trump administration who seemed to be advancing a moral framework he described as 'almost a Darwinian calculus that the powerful survive and the weak don’t deserve to.'
'I would say that’s less than human'...”
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/u...
'I would say that’s less than human'...”
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/u...
FTR, the “we” here includes me. I also find this hugely difficult.
We seem to find it enormously difficult to say things like “I’m certain I don’t understand this completely, but I’d like to. I have both some questions, but also some hunches” and then just sit with that for as long as it takes.
January 19, 2026 at 3:42 PM
FTR, the “we” here includes me. I also find this hugely difficult.
Pretty morning here on our little corner
January 19, 2026 at 3:37 PM
Pretty morning here on our little corner
There’s a bit at the end of the Communist Manifesto where Marx/Engels are like “we’re gonna have to do some stuff that *look* like despotism, but trust us: it’s actually democracy, we promise” and I think about that a lot.
Or, I suppose, you can try to re-impose Christian values qua Christian, but if you’re doing more than just preaching the gospel—that is, if you’re coercing people—I have some questions re: how Christian your values are.
January 19, 2026 at 3:29 PM
There’s a bit at the end of the Communist Manifesto where Marx/Engels are like “we’re gonna have to do some stuff that *look* like despotism, but trust us: it’s actually democracy, we promise” and I think about that a lot.
This is a topic where I frequently see the distortions produced by residues of what had been, for better or worse, a predominating Christian moral framework resituated in a basically secular moral discourse.
“Forgiveness is good; the good is obligatory; you must forgive me,” says the victimizer.
“Forgiveness is good; the good is obligatory; you must forgive me,” says the victimizer.
there is a real lack of understanding of what “grace” is. grace is a gift. and like all gifts it should be received in gratitude. and that gratitude must include a sincere effort to repent and make recompense for what you’ve done. anything else cheapens the gift.
January 19, 2026 at 3:14 PM
This is a topic where I frequently see the distortions produced by residues of what had been, for better or worse, a predominating Christian moral framework resituated in a basically secular moral discourse.
“Forgiveness is good; the good is obligatory; you must forgive me,” says the victimizer.
“Forgiveness is good; the good is obligatory; you must forgive me,” says the victimizer.
Releasing this on MLK holiday is Good™️
NEW: Joint Statement by Cardinals Cupich, McElroy, and Tobin on “Morality of US Foreign Policy”: “We renounce war as an instrument for narrow national interests and proclaim that military action must be seen only as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy.”
January 19, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Releasing this on MLK holiday is Good™️
We’ll see what they end up going with, but the proposed del/subtitle of my forthcoming @commonweal.bsky.social piece was “things will get better before they get worse”
If the US system remains trapped in an endless knife fight between a party of good government and a party of nihilistic governance then Europeans need to accept that the US will no longer be a stable partner long after Trump is gone
I'd just like to point out that we spent an entire shipment of air defense interceptors' worth of money on new signs for a name change that isn't even legally the name of the DoD.
Ukraine is currently experiencing rolling blackouts from Russian strikes, btw.
Ukraine is currently experiencing rolling blackouts from Russian strikes, btw.
January 19, 2026 at 2:51 PM
We’ll see what they end up going with, but the proposed del/subtitle of my forthcoming @commonweal.bsky.social piece was “things will get better before they get worse”
Screenshot on the left is from my essay, “Being You.” It’s posted at www.jonathanheaps.com/being-you
January 19, 2026 at 2:20 PM
Screenshot on the left is from my essay, “Being You.” It’s posted at www.jonathanheaps.com/being-you