Uploaded June 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Peter Helland recently went to an annual prayer breakfast at Notre Dame University sponsored by the Sycamore Trust founded by an alumnus from the class of 52, Bill Dempsey. At the breakfast Father Bill Miscamble gave one of the key talks. Afterwards Peter had a conversation with him. He asked Father Miscamble, who is a history professor at Notre Dame if he could consider teaching the history of Orestes A. Brownson and his understudy, John Zahm. Brownson was a fierce and outspoken critic of Darwin's new teaching on evolution. Zahm later and surprisingly betrayed Brownson and embraced evolution. In fact Zahm wrote a book, "Evolution and Dogma" promoting theistic evolution. He even taught in his 1894 book that Augustine and Aquinas taught theistic evolution. The Vatican thought this was heretical and was going to put the book on the Index of forbidden books. However Notre Dame and the Vatican worked out a deal instead. Zahm was to publicly renounce the teachings in that book. Zahm never did publicly renounce the book and Notre Dame University kept alive his teaching of theistic evolution. In fact Father Miscamble insisted to Peter that Augustine did in fact teach theistic evolution. Peter completely disagrees with this and believes TE ultimately leads to the loss of biblical faith and to paganism. The answer in large part is homeschooling and the parents aggressively teaching children who they are in Adam with original sin and then by faith and baptism, that they are righteous in Christ the second or last Adam.
The other theme Peter touches on is that Zacchaeus who climbed the sycamore tree to see Jesus was a chief tax collector made rich by his misappropriation of the people's money. Many people in our culture are guilty of something similar. When Zacchaeus hosted Jesus for the night he also was brought to repentance by being with Jesus. Many, many people in our culture should also have their Zacchaeus-Jesus moment.
Peter Helland recently went to an annual prayer breakfast at Notre Dame University sponsored by the Sycamore Trust founded by an alumnus from the class of 52, Bill Dempsey. At the breakfast Father Bill Miscamble gave one of the key talks. Afterwards Peter had a conversation with him. He asked Father Miscamble, who is a history professor at Notre Dame if he could consider teaching the history of Orestes A. Brownson and his understudy, John Zahm. Brownson was a fierce and outspoken critic of Darwin's new teaching on evolution. Zahm later and surprisingly betrayed Brownson and embraced evolution. In fact Zahm wrote a book, "Evolution and Dogma" promoting theistic evolution. He even taught in his 1894 book that Augustine and Aquinas taught theistic evolution. The Vatican thought this was heretical and was going to put the book on the Index of forbidden books. However Notre Dame and the Vatican worked out a deal instead. Zahm was to publicly renounce the teachings in that book. Zahm never did publicly renounce the book and Notre Dame University kept alive his teaching of theistic evolution. In fact Father Miscamble insisted to Peter that Augustine did in fact teach theistic evolution. Peter completely disagrees with this and believes TE ultimately leads to the loss of biblical faith and to paganism. The answer in large part is homeschooling and the parents aggressively teaching children who they are in Adam with original sin and then by faith and baptism, that they are righteous in Christ the second or last Adam.
The other theme Peter touches on is that Zacchaeus who climbed the sycamore tree to see Jesus was a chief tax collector made rich by his misappropriation of the people's money. Many people in our culture are guilty of something similar. When Zacchaeus hosted Jesus for the night he also was brought to repentance by being with Jesus. Many, many people in our culture should also have their Zacchaeus-Jesus moment.
