Good Morning Servus and DL!
Servus, you said: “I have his translations of De Controversiis, Doctrina Christiana, etc., and it's terrible. There's loads of typos, even in the Contents page … his translation is trash but is there anything intentionally misleading?”
DL, you said: “I honestly think it's amateurish incompetence and laziness … this book falters because Grant simply doesn't appear to be a good Latinist … I question if there's also a factor of it being an independent publisher problem … I noticed this with E. Michael Jones's book Logos Rising, where he basically abuses certain sources to the point where entire sections are basically paraphrasing other works, something that I remember being a big no-no in my college history courses.”
Okay gentlemen, I’m going to stick with my theme of authority versus authoritarianism.
When you really think about it, Grant and Jones are just as rogue as the SSPX or any other independent outfit. They would have the public believe that they are acting under the authority of the Church, that they are Nihil Obstated and Imprimatured and congratulated out the wazoo.
But let’s be clear. To be “sent” by the novus ordo to do its dirty work, is not to be sent by God or by Christ.
These authors have zero authority from the Church, zero credentials from the Church, zero accountability to the Church, and therefore zero worth, if we compare their odious slop with the limpid works of St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Alphonsus, and every other true Catholic author.
I purchased one and only one book scrawled by EMJ, The Jєωιѕн Revolutionary Spirit. That taught me a lesson. DL, you have nailed it!!!! I remember writing papers in college and grad school. I had reams of yellow legal pads filled with quotes and jotted down thoughts. Later I took those tools to the writing process and produced quality work. You have written nothing at all, if all you produce is a regurgitation of your naked research. But that’s what Mr. Academia does. He serially commits the atrocious crime of publishing abhorrently bad writing.
Now he would never have gotten away with this business in the days of the hierarchy. His work would have been scrutinized; and if it failed to meet the standards of the Church, he would have been told not to publish. Had he published anyway, his work would have wound up on the Index, and no one would have read it.
But the case of Grant is more serious, even grave. He is producing works that relate directly to faith, doctrine, and morals; and which therefore come under the direct purview and authority of the hierarchy. When have the Popes and the Bishops ever allowed a self-proclaimed lay “Latin scholar” to set up his own shop and disseminate shoddy attempts that pose as authoritative translations of saintly, scholarly, and magisterial works?
This was the sole province of priests! And they published not a word without a microscopic scrutiny of their work, without an authoritative ratification via Imprimatur. The work Grant is doing falls directly under the authority of the hierarchy to teach, defend, and preserve the Faith from all error and imprecise language.
Grant is a rudderless, “headless” cowboy, prancing around a Wild West saloon with a gun and holster. He is his own authority, or worse – he is a tool of the false hierarchy that couldn’t care less what someone says or writes, provided he does not say or write in defense of the Faith. Grant could roll out a scroll of imprimaturs from the false hierarchy, and he would still never be anything more or less than an entrepreneur, who has sent himself.
Because remember, for all his translations of saintly and scholarly works, there are his other convenient "ministrations" on countless blogs and podcasts, wherein he strives to keep the novus ordo propped up. I don't think it would be unreasonable to assess his "good works" to be no more than the sliver of truth necessary for evil to be palatable.
"Oh look! Ryan is sooooooooo traditional! Look how he pores over the old texts. Look how he studied Latin! He must then be correct about everything! Let us never even think of abandoning the novus ordo, for if we do, then we abandon the Church."
The same can be said of Ripperger and every other pseudo-trad wolf peddling the novus ordo in one sheep costume after another.
Grant is the unfruitful consequence of the authority problem. These perverse novus ordos have no ecclesiastical authority, they are not in Holy Orders, and they have defected from the Faith. But because they wear the lipstick and warpaint of affected authority, they succeed to honor, credibility, and lucrative exploits in the world.
The novus ordo media boys make believe they are under authority, are ratified by the “hierarchy,” are in good standing with their “local ordinary,” blah blah. They come to you with the novus ordo good housekeeping seal.
They are rogue.
They are incompetent.
They are not of God.