As an agnostic I'm not interested at all in these disputations from the pov of 'spirituality',

>Are you talkin' ta me?  I think that's a bit harsh, but I understand what you are saying.

but I do think they are very instructive in understanding intellectual history & how we got here from there & all that.

>That is all they were presented to do.

I'd put Mickey down as a Christian Rationalist & I have sympathy with that outlook.

>I don't think you should put down a man of the cloth, really.  And what you have sympathy with is your business.

 Your perspective seems to me to be more Ultramontane.

>Wazzat? 

I'm trying to get my head around the connections between the notorious cult apologist Prof. Ron Geaves & some elements within the RC Church.

>What are those connections you are trying to get your head around?  

You ever come across the thinking of Plinio Correa de Oliveira when you were in the monastery?

>No.  I left in 1976.  I never heard of him, but I will look him up on google.