/lit/ - Literature

>>19389670
Obviously not! I'm a full-time civil servant. But I'm pleased that five of my short stories, none of which took more than about a week to write, have now been traditionally published, and as a direct result of those 'credits' I've secured representation to traditionally publish my first novel late next year. No great artist ever did it for money.

>>19259498
My favourite Catholic film is 'A Man for All Seasons', about the life of Thomas More, my favourite Saint. It was made by an agnostic director, but whatever your background, it's an excellent story of integrity under immense pressure. If that's the sort of thing you're into, then Malick's 'A Hidden Life' is a more recent movie similar in its themes; and if you wanted to round out a trilogy of 'Christian men sticking to their religious principle in the face of public pressure and death', you could finish these two off with the cinematic adaptation of 'The Crucible', even if that last film isn't strictly Catholic.

Bresson's 'Diary of a Country Priest' is good, but I prefer Bernanos' novel. Other films about priests include 'Leon Morin, Priest' and 'Calvary'. 'The Mission' is a good one for insight into the positive aspects of evangelism, as a group of Jesuits set up a Mission in South America. It's also based on a true story.

'Of Gods and Men' is another, more modern film, based on the real-life martyrdom of a group of Trappists a number of years ago.

'My Night at Maud's' is a good Catholic film from a layperson's perspective, as an introverted engineer with an interest in Pascal and Mathematics spends the night talking to a beautiful older widow.

Finally, though not explicitly Catholic, I'd be remiss not to mention Visconti's 'The Leopard', starring Burt Lancaster. A gorgeous, beautiful film, depicting the decay of the Italian aristocracy through the lens of an old Catholic family.

>>19163913
I respectfully disagree with your claims. No written scripture, no fixed birth date, no contextual evidence to aid dating anything that anyone agrees on, and the earliest texts that are recorded are after all Hebrew scripture had been codified along with most Christian writings. All texts were documented orally between 224 AD & 651 AD (Sassinid Empire). But it pisses off the Christians because it undermines their belief in a God-given religion by pushing a cultural-exchange narrative so it seems that the complete lack of ability to verify any facts whatsoever isn't a problem. So - Zarathustra preached a pure religion to the Jews & that makes everything that follows a corruption of Zarathustrian thought, rather than a complete God-inspired religion that the Sassinids corrupted to maintain a State Religion.

It's almost as if non-believers are incapable of believing that Hebrews & Christians could have a written codified text that influenced the cultures that they were in rather than the other way around. To admit that would probably be exceedingly difficult.

Now, it is true that some religions come very close to basic natural truths about the nature of God and his relationship with the creatures he has made. The Zoroastrian religion is one of these. The magi who came in search of the newborn King of the Jews were priest practitioners of this religion or something like it. So its teachings did dispose them to be open to the good news of the birth of the Saviour God of the Most Pure Virgin. The Avesta system may be best defined as monotheism modified by a physical and moral dualism, with an ethical system based on a Divinely revealed moral code and human free will. However, to claim Christianity is an offshoot of that religion, or was unduly influenced by it, would be false.

>>19163982
What I linked contains nothing of the five ways, nor was I attempting to prove Christianity is true to you. I was attempting to show you what Christianity TEACHES, since your previous posts show demonstrable gaps in your knowledge and a complete failure to grasp even simple theological concepts like a realm outside of time. Again, I urge you to look at 92-99 of the link I posted, just to see what Christianity actually teaches, and I would be more than happy to take you seriously and engage with you once you have done so, should you have any criticisms.