Maddison Reddie-Clifford
@mcliff.bsky.social
PhD Candidate University of Notre Dame Australia
Theology Philosophy and History nerd.
Translator
Theology Philosophy and History nerd.
Translator
What the devil is going on with American Catholic theologians? @catholickungfu.bsky.social and @jonathanrheaps.bsky.social I keep seeing social media posts that are making me worry that a bunch of theologians over there are trying to create a new Anti-Modernist crusade!
February 18, 2026 at 1:29 AM
What the devil is going on with American Catholic theologians? @catholickungfu.bsky.social and @jonathanrheaps.bsky.social I keep seeing social media posts that are making me worry that a bunch of theologians over there are trying to create a new Anti-Modernist crusade!
The first real lesson taught by God to man after the banishment from the Garden recorded in scripture is collective responsibility. "Yes, you are your brother's keeper." Individualism is a sin directly rebuked by God. It is in this that I see the divine condemnation of the spirit of capitalism.
January 22, 2026 at 9:25 AM
The first real lesson taught by God to man after the banishment from the Garden recorded in scripture is collective responsibility. "Yes, you are your brother's keeper." Individualism is a sin directly rebuked by God. It is in this that I see the divine condemnation of the spirit of capitalism.
Your a Lonergan man, of course you are being too modest! Everything has a theology, it is a consequence of Gnooseological concupiscence!
I just finished a draft of the chapter on theology for my philosophy of the university book project. I have a feeling that a lot of Christians are going think I'm being *way* too modest and everyone else is going to be scandalized by how assertive I'm being on the discipline's behalf.
January 22, 2026 at 1:54 AM
Your a Lonergan man, of course you are being too modest! Everything has a theology, it is a consequence of Gnooseological concupiscence!
They even seem to unashamed of their strange kinks and fetishes for people who claim so loudly to only like missionary...
For a political movement looking to delegitimize the field of gender studies, they sure provide a lot of evidence for its contemporary relevance
why
January 21, 2026 at 4:00 PM
They even seem to unashamed of their strange kinks and fetishes for people who claim so loudly to only like missionary...
I must confess the wait for my phd marks is beginning to drive my anxiety... I feel like a defence would have been better if only because it would remove the typical Australian waiting...
January 20, 2026 at 4:42 PM
I must confess the wait for my phd marks is beginning to drive my anxiety... I feel like a defence would have been better if only because it would remove the typical Australian waiting...
Surely this needs to be grounds for impeachment?
He's demanding control over a sovereign nation because they didn't give him THE NOBEL PRIZE. Why the actual fuck do we have a 25th Amendment?
January 19, 2026 at 8:09 AM
Surely this needs to be grounds for impeachment?
Reposted by Maddison Reddie-Clifford
This is correct but I think forgets that the right has made basically an alt-academy in the US with its own conferences and journals and societies. They’re happy to glom onto regular institutions for credibility. I don’t know how we solve this; Academe is very decentralized.
January 18, 2026 at 1:59 PM
This is correct but I think forgets that the right has made basically an alt-academy in the US with its own conferences and journals and societies. They’re happy to glom onto regular institutions for credibility. I don’t know how we solve this; Academe is very decentralized.
Mmm, so we have the first Trumpian Reichskirche bishop here?
There were bishops in Vichy France with more courage than this
January 19, 2026 at 8:07 AM
Mmm, so we have the first Trumpian Reichskirche bishop here?
@jonathanrheaps.bsky.social
I swear you must be my internet interlocutor who most has me go, "this would be so much easier over a drink at a pub" or perhaps in a formal scholastic disputation!
I swear you must be my internet interlocutor who most has me go, "this would be so much easier over a drink at a pub" or perhaps in a formal scholastic disputation!
December 10, 2025 at 8:36 PM
@jonathanrheaps.bsky.social
I swear you must be my internet interlocutor who most has me go, "this would be so much easier over a drink at a pub" or perhaps in a formal scholastic disputation!
I swear you must be my internet interlocutor who most has me go, "this would be so much easier over a drink at a pub" or perhaps in a formal scholastic disputation!
The problem with scientists is that most of them are materialist empiricists and ideological about it!
The problem with theology is that not enough of its practitioners think they’re scientists.
December 10, 2025 at 8:33 PM
The problem with scientists is that most of them are materialist empiricists and ideological about it!
Working on getting a paper together
The Ignatian Thomists were given several names. Platonic Thomists, Augustian Thomists, Cartesian Thomists, Kantian Thomists, Transcendental Thomists.
I settled on Ignatian Thomism by asking the question of why rather than what they were doing.
The Ignatian Thomists were given several names. Platonic Thomists, Augustian Thomists, Cartesian Thomists, Kantian Thomists, Transcendental Thomists.
I settled on Ignatian Thomism by asking the question of why rather than what they were doing.
December 10, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Working on getting a paper together
The Ignatian Thomists were given several names. Platonic Thomists, Augustian Thomists, Cartesian Thomists, Kantian Thomists, Transcendental Thomists.
I settled on Ignatian Thomism by asking the question of why rather than what they were doing.
The Ignatian Thomists were given several names. Platonic Thomists, Augustian Thomists, Cartesian Thomists, Kantian Thomists, Transcendental Thomists.
I settled on Ignatian Thomism by asking the question of why rather than what they were doing.
I found a trove of my phd cut-offs today.
I feel like I need to write a Rahner Vs Lonergan paper sooner rather than later.
But Ignatian Thomism first!
I feel like I need to write a Rahner Vs Lonergan paper sooner rather than later.
But Ignatian Thomism first!
December 9, 2025 at 4:10 PM
I found a trove of my phd cut-offs today.
I feel like I need to write a Rahner Vs Lonergan paper sooner rather than later.
But Ignatian Thomism first!
I feel like I need to write a Rahner Vs Lonergan paper sooner rather than later.
But Ignatian Thomism first!
Got the email today that my phd is now with my external markers. And that while they hope it will be marked within six weeks, I should be prepared to wait six months...
December 9, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Got the email today that my phd is now with my external markers. And that while they hope it will be marked within six weeks, I should be prepared to wait six months...
My PhD begins its slow journey to external readers tonight.
So now I simply need to wait on the time delay of the holiday season for my fate to be known.
So now I simply need to wait on the time delay of the holiday season for my fate to be known.
December 3, 2025 at 3:26 AM
My PhD begins its slow journey to external readers tonight.
So now I simply need to wait on the time delay of the holiday season for my fate to be known.
So now I simply need to wait on the time delay of the holiday season for my fate to be known.
I must confess I still do not like the push on gender inclusive language in academic writing. I often find it jarring when moving from French or German to English, and meaning can change when talking about distinctions of type.
Human person/being has ontological consequences that i can not mean.
Human person/being has ontological consequences that i can not mean.
December 1, 2025 at 8:45 PM
I must confess I still do not like the push on gender inclusive language in academic writing. I often find it jarring when moving from French or German to English, and meaning can change when talking about distinctions of type.
Human person/being has ontological consequences that i can not mean.
Human person/being has ontological consequences that i can not mean.
With the latest war crime revelations, surely we are at the point where serving US military will need to hang "for the good of the service"?
I mean machine gunning survivors in the water is an especially heinous crime.
Just make sure to hang everyone up the chain of command too.
I mean machine gunning survivors in the water is an especially heinous crime.
Just make sure to hang everyone up the chain of command too.
November 30, 2025 at 6:04 AM
With the latest war crime revelations, surely we are at the point where serving US military will need to hang "for the good of the service"?
I mean machine gunning survivors in the water is an especially heinous crime.
Just make sure to hang everyone up the chain of command too.
I mean machine gunning survivors in the water is an especially heinous crime.
Just make sure to hang everyone up the chain of command too.
If your metaphysics are not your prayer, and your prayer is not your metaphysics, and if you are not engaging in prayer/metaphysics in every thing you think, say, or do, are you really living a life of authentic life in the Lebenswelt
My therapist doesn’t let me get all professory too much but today she was feeling generous or something because I was allowed to explain the cosmic hierarchy of being at some length. I am a normal person worried about everyday things. Such as: how the cosmos is organized.
November 25, 2025 at 5:49 AM
If your metaphysics are not your prayer, and your prayer is not your metaphysics, and if you are not engaging in prayer/metaphysics in every thing you think, say, or do, are you really living a life of authentic life in the Lebenswelt
Reposted by Maddison Reddie-Clifford
ah yes, everyday voices such as Alan Dershowitz and Dana Loesch
"elevate charismatic figures such as Alan Dershowitz"
-____________-
-____________-
November 25, 2025 at 3:39 AM
ah yes, everyday voices such as Alan Dershowitz and Dana Loesch
At Friday drinks last week, I was arguing with a Gilsonian Thomist about a distinction between three meanings of body, using the German Korper and Leib as analogues to the Scholastic Materia Prima, and Materia Secundus, to justify why my theology's telos of "Man 'like' Angels" is not monophysite.
November 24, 2025 at 3:58 PM
At Friday drinks last week, I was arguing with a Gilsonian Thomist about a distinction between three meanings of body, using the German Korper and Leib as analogues to the Scholastic Materia Prima, and Materia Secundus, to justify why my theology's telos of "Man 'like' Angels" is not monophysite.
I will once again reiterate my public desire to distinguish between integralists and Integrists...
The tendency to not make this distinction clear has enabled too many fans of the Action Francaise to claim ownership of the theological renewal of some of their bitterist enemies.
The tendency to not make this distinction clear has enabled too many fans of the Action Francaise to claim ownership of the theological renewal of some of their bitterist enemies.
Integralists seem to make the (frankly quite intuitive) mistake of thinking that cultures & societies sublate, & so order persons.
Lonergan, at least, presses the more correct, but less-intuitive position that it’s the other way around: normatively, persons sublate & order society/culture
Lonergan, at least, presses the more correct, but less-intuitive position that it’s the other way around: normatively, persons sublate & order society/culture
lol. amen!
I’ve gotten…obsessed with the social order question in part because I think (writing it now) Ratzinger’s habilitation is actually contributing quite intentionally towards a vision of social order (but not in an integralist way. integralists just get order so wrong)
I’ve gotten…obsessed with the social order question in part because I think (writing it now) Ratzinger’s habilitation is actually contributing quite intentionally towards a vision of social order (but not in an integralist way. integralists just get order so wrong)
November 24, 2025 at 3:51 PM
I will once again reiterate my public desire to distinguish between integralists and Integrists...
The tendency to not make this distinction clear has enabled too many fans of the Action Francaise to claim ownership of the theological renewal of some of their bitterist enemies.
The tendency to not make this distinction clear has enabled too many fans of the Action Francaise to claim ownership of the theological renewal of some of their bitterist enemies.
I wish more of these scholars would actually examine the early Christian movements before making the judgement about who is doing the special pleading...
While, yes, we must give creedence to what individuals claim as their identity, we can also acknowledge when they claim it falsely!
While, yes, we must give creedence to what individuals claim as their identity, we can also acknowledge when they claim it falsely!
Some scholars claim left-wing Christians are special pleading when they deny that fascist groups parading under the name of Jesus are truly Christian. That charge assumes an uncritical trust in self-description that serious analysis should, at a minimum, trouble.
The Christian right for decades has fear-mongered that federal agents (under Dem presidents) would "criminalize" Christianity and literally prevent them from worshipping.
Now that Trump's stormtroopers are doing it ... crickets
Now that Trump's stormtroopers are doing it ... crickets
November 17, 2025 at 5:47 AM
I wish more of these scholars would actually examine the early Christian movements before making the judgement about who is doing the special pleading...
While, yes, we must give creedence to what individuals claim as their identity, we can also acknowledge when they claim it falsely!
While, yes, we must give creedence to what individuals claim as their identity, we can also acknowledge when they claim it falsely!
Reposted by Maddison Reddie-Clifford
She's very clearly trying to be the Marine Le Pen to Trump's Jean-Marie, and has made a smart bet on the utter credulity of a large swath of the pundit class.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is standing up to Trump on the Epstein files, but she's also urging Dana Bash to interview outspoken antisemite Nick Fuentes. She wants to push Trump aside for something even worse.
Marjorie Taylor Greene Apologizes for Her ‘Toxic Politics’
Greene’s comments come as she is embroiled in a public feud with Trump over his refusal to release the Epstein files.
time.com
November 16, 2025 at 10:00 PM
She's very clearly trying to be the Marine Le Pen to Trump's Jean-Marie, and has made a smart bet on the utter credulity of a large swath of the pundit class.
Does anyone know of there are papers on the influence of merkavah on Catholic mysticism? Not wanting to have to learn another language just to find sources!
November 16, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Does anyone know of there are papers on the influence of merkavah on Catholic mysticism? Not wanting to have to learn another language just to find sources!
PhD formally submitted yesterday... time for nervous breakdown today!
November 14, 2025 at 1:59 PM
PhD formally submitted yesterday... time for nervous breakdown today!
And another example of why the United States is the most terrifying entity on earth and a dangerous place of monsters to avoid.
y’all, just last night I quipped about the cumulative effects of exposure to content as a form of rhetorical manipulation, and I provided the example of JD Vance’s transformation toward Nazism over the last eight years
like, is that illegal speech for a college instructor now?
like, is that illegal speech for a college instructor now?
"The professor will no longer be able to teach a class on diversity after she showed students a diagram that included the 'Make America Great Again' slogan as an example of white supremacy."
November 14, 2025 at 1:29 AM
And another example of why the United States is the most terrifying entity on earth and a dangerous place of monsters to avoid.