Pugio Fidei - the dagger of faith. The name is taken from the magnum opus of medieval Dominican orientalist Raymond Martini, which was the standard manual of the time for Dominican missionaries to the Muslims and Jews. The book and this website have the same mission, viz., to "take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph 6:17), and win conversions. "For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb 4:12).

Ho Logos tou Theou. Pugio Fidei's intent is to present the reader's intellect with Logos, understood both as Sacred Scripture and as the transcendent principle of rationality in the universe which is Incarnate in the Person of Christ, and to pray St. Augustine's prayer for the enemies of Logos: "Oh, if You would slay them with Your two-edged sword, that they be not its enemies! For thus do I love, that they should be slain unto themselves that they may live unto You" (Confessions, Book XII, Ch. XIV). Please God, divine grace may move their wills to interior conversion, whether from lukewarmness or a non-Catholic religion.

In this mission we would like to emphasize the following methodological principles:

(1) Making use of the prophecies of the unwitting and the hostile prophets. Caiaphas, the Jewish High Priest who condemned Jesus to death, stated, "'It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.' And this he spoke not of himself: but being the high priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation" (John 11:50-51). Similarly, the Talmud states in Yoma 9b, "Why was the Second Temple destroyed, seeing that the people were engaged in Torah, commandments and charitable deeds? Because at that time there was hatred without a cause." As Jesus Christ said, "They hated me without cause" (John 15:25). This was the approach of Raymond Martini: to draw out testimony to Christ from the most hostile of witnesses.

(2) Devotion to close, careful exegesis of texts, whether biblical or otherwise, Christian or otherwise, with a view to accurately presenting and directly engaging our opponents' positions. In this, we are part of a long, venerable Catholic tradition: the most systematic and penetrating exposition in existence of the doctrine of the Modernists is St. Pius X's encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, condemning Modernism; the most lucid summary of the doctrine of atheistic Communism is Pius XI's encyclical Divini Redemptoris, condemning Communism.

(3) Running into the breach. At one point in the Acts of the Apostles, Sts. Paul and Timothy "were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia" (Acts 16:6); a vision soon informed St. Paul that they were to preach in Macedonia instead. Similarly, we will fight the battle God wants us to fight, and engage the issue God wants us to engage, not following fancy but following the General who sends us where He sees fit. We will strive to be liberal with our talents, and share them freely with whoever has most need of them.

For whereas I was free as to all, I made myself the servant of all, that I might gain the more. And I became to the Jews, a Jew, that I might gain the Jews: To them that are under the law, as if I were under the law, (whereas myself was not under the law), that I might gain them that were under the law. To them that were without the law, as if I were without the law, (whereas I was not without the law of God, but was in the law of Christ), that I might gain them that were without the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak. I became all things to all men, that I might save all (1 Cor 9:19-22).

Ben Douglass
Ed Snyder
March 17, Anno Domini MMVII