FELLOWSHIP OF CATHOLIC SCHOLARS QUARTERLY

ARTICLES Remembering Pope John Paul II William E. May On Liberty of Conscience Anne Barbeau Gardiner The Knowledge Society Wolfgang Bergsdorf 28 On Testing the Test James V. Schall, S.J. NUMBER 1 BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS SPRING 2005 Culture and the Thomist Tradition After Vatican II by Tracey Rowland Daniel McInerny A Catholic Theology of Culture by Eric Borgman John Francis Kobler, C.P. BOOK REVIEWS Priest by Michael S. Rose John Adam Moreau The Roots of Science and its Fruits by Peter E. Hodgson Joseph M. De Torre An Introduction to the Love of Wisdom by James A. Harold D. Q. McInerny Getting it Straight eds. Peter Sprigg and Timothy Dailey Marie I. George Didache High School Textbook Series Leonard Kennedy, C.S.B. Same-Sex Attraction by John F. Harvey and Gerard V. Bradley Leonard Kennedy, C.S.B. His Excellency: George Washington by J.J. Ellis Rev. Michael P. Orsi Exegetical Commentary on the Code of Canon Law by University of Navarre Faculty of Canon Law Edward Peters Catholic for a Reason III Eds. Scott Hahn and Regis J. Flaherty. Daniel G. Van Slyke Our Lady of Guadalupe Manuela Testoni Boguslaw Lipinski Moral Issues in Catholic Health Care Ed. Kevin T. McMahon William E. May

ISSN 1084-3035 BOOKS RECEIVED Fellowship of Catholic Scholars P.O. Box 495 LETTER Notre Dame, IN 46556 (574) 631-5825 www.catholicscholars.org BOARD OF DIRECTORS Ralph McInerny, Editor [email protected] EX CATHEDRA Ralphy McInerny FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 1 Remembering Pope John Paul II Fellowship of by William E. May, Michael J. McGivney Professor of Moral Theology, Catholic Scholars John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family Scholarship Inspired by the Holy Spirit, in Service to the Church first met Pope John Paul II when, as Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, he gave a talk on the freedom of the acting person at The Catholic University of America about CONTENTS a year before he was elected Pope. He had come ARTICLES at the invitation of Jude Dougherty, Dean of the Remembering Pope John Paul II ...... 2 ISchool of Philosophy at The Catholic University where at On Liberty of Conscience ...... 5 that time I was teaching moral theology in the Department The Knowledge Society ...... 9 of Theology. Cardinal Wojtyla’s talk was profound, and after- On Testing the Test ...... 16 wards there was an opportunity for my wife Patricia and me BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS to meet him. He had the marvelous ability to look a person Culture and the Thomist Tradition in the eyes making him feel that he was the only person in After Vatican II ...... 22 the room, and his handshake was firm and strong. A Catholic Theology of Culture ...... 26 The next time I saw him was in October 1979 on his BOOK REVIEWS first visit to the United States as Pope John Paul II. I was Priest ...... 29 privileged to see him three times on this occasion, once at The Roots of Science and its Fruits ...... 30 a Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, then at a convocation An Introduction to the for academics from all around the United States held at the Love of Wisdom ...... 32 gymnasium of The Catholic University, and finally at the Getting it Straight ...... 37 Capitol Mall on Sunday, October 7, when he celebrated Didache High School Textbook Series ..39 Same-Sex Attraction ...... 41 Mass and gave one of the most powerful addresses of his His Excellency: George Washington .....42 entire pontificate, “‘Stand Up’ for Human Life!” Exegetical Commentary on At the academic convocation at The Catholic University the Code of Canon Law ...... 43 on Saturday, October 6 some individuals wore black arm- Catholic for a Reason III ...... 44 bands to protest John Paul’s opposition to the ordination of Our Lady of Guadalupe ...... 46 women. I was in the row behind Margaret Farley, a Sister Moral Issues in Catholic Health Care ....47 of Mercy teaching at Yale University. She and a colleague BOOKS RECEIVED ...... 50 thought it quite humorous to observe that the “M” in the Pope’s coat of arms stood not for “Mary” but for “machis- LETTER ...... 50 mo.” I did not appreciate this humor. MEMBERSHIP MATERS ...... 50 On Sunday, October 7 I took five of my children— BOARD OF DIRECTORS ...... 51 Thomas, Timothy, Patrick, Susan, and Kathleen—to the Mass on the Capitol Mall. My wife Patricia could not, un- EX CATHEDRA ...... 52 fortunately, come because of the flu, and our oldest son, Michael, then a student at Catholic University, was working at the time. Our oldest daughter, Mary Patricia, was study- Reminder: Membership dues will be ing at Harvard University, but she had been able to see and mailed out the first of the year and are hear John Paul II in one of his appearances in Boston and based on a calendar (not academic) year. was thrilled that she could do so. The Mall was packed and

2 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 the Pope gave an unforgettable homily on the pre- great honor of being chosen to be the lector at his ciousness of human life. In it he declared: “Nothing Mass. After the Mass John Paul II would then meet surpasses the greatness or dignity of a human person. with the commission, which was under the gov- Human life is not just an idea or an abstraction; hu- ernance of the Congregation for the Doctrine of man life is the concrete reality of a being that lives, the Faith, whose president all this time was Joseph that acts, that grows and develops; human life is the Cardinal Ratzinger, one of the finest priests and concrete reality of a being that is capable of love, gentlemen I have ever met. Each year he would give and of service to humanity….Human life is precious a dinner for the members of the Commission; he sat because it is the gift of a God whose love is infinite; through the meetings and listened intently to our and when God gives life, it is for ever.” discussions, and on the final day of our work (usually Sadly, however, some people walked out on his a Saturday morning) he would brilliantly summarize homily when he affirmed that marriage is an indis- the major ideas set forth in an address given to us in soluble union and that husbands and wives should be Latin. (Later a translation was provided; however, his generous in welcoming new human life and must be Latin is beautiful and in my opinion easy to read for “open to” it in their conjugal acts. anyone with a fair knowledge of Latin). I next saw Pope John Paul II in Rome on April October 4, 1988 was the thirtieth anniversary 10, 1986 when he gave an address to an International of our marriage. Thus that year my wife Patricia Congress on Moral Theology co-sponsored by the came with me to Rome for the meeting of the Pope John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage International Theological Commission. Cardinal and Family and by the Roman Academic Center of Ratzinger kindly invited her to the dinner he gave the Holy Cross (now the Pontifical University of for the Commission members and treated her as the Holy Cross). After his address the Holy Father his guest of honor, giving her flowers and a spe- met with the participants in this excellent Congress cial blessing. He also invited her to come with the devoted to a study of the theme “The Person, Truth, Commission to the Holy Father’s Mass that we and Morality,” and made each one of us feel as would attend that week. 1988 was the year that John though we were doing him a favor and not he us. Paul II issued his marvelous letter on August 15 enti- Later in 1986 Pope John Paul II appointed tled Mulieris dignitatem, “On the Dignity and Vocation me as a member of the International Theological of Women.” I had bought a copy of it earlier in the Commission. John Finnis of England and I were the week, and I asked Cardinal Ratzinger whether or not first laymen appointed to this body, which meets it would be appropriate for me to ask His Holiness annually for a week in Rome to study specific issues to autograph my copy when he greeted each of us either recommended by various Pontifical congrega- personally after the Mass. Cardinal Ratzinger told tions or councils or academies, or proposed by the me to go ahead, and I did, and I now have a copy members themselves. The meeting takes place the of this document with the signature, Joannes Paulus first week of October except for those years when PM II. Pat, the day before, had attended a Mass in St. a Synod of Bishops is held during that month, and Peter’s at which John Paul II had ordained Audrys then the meeting of the Commission is held in Juozas Backis of Lithuania, whom he had previously December. My appointment was for five years, from appointed apostolic nuncio to the Netherlands, as a 1986-1990; the Commission did not meet in 1991, bishop. Pat had a copy of the beautiful missals that but I was appointed for another five-year term in the Vatican prints for occasions of this kind. She asked 1992 and thus attended meetings from 1992 through the Holy Father to autograph her copy. He did not 1996. One of the greatest privileges given the mem- give her a full signature, but wrote in JPII PM. What bers of the Commission was the opportunity once souvenirs! Backis is now Audrys Cardinal Backis, during the week to come to the Apostolic Palace Archbishop of Vilnius Lithuania. early in the morning to participate in the Holy In 1987 there was Synod of Bishops devoted to Father’s private Mass in the beautiful chapel in his the theme, “The Vocation and Mission of the Lay apartment, and on two or three occasions I had the Faithful in the Church and in the World,” and for

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 3 some reason the Holy Father appointed me as a He then said, “You will find a way!” Somehow I did, “peritus” at this month-long event. For the first two and thus since August 1991 I have been teaching at weeks John Paul II came to the Synod Hall to listen this wonderful Institute. patiently to every bishop there give his views. The Another memorable meeting with the Holy bishops then met in “language” sections to formulate Father was in May 2000 when I was in Rome for major propositions. These were then revised to take two weeks to teach at the Pontifical University of the into account modifications suggested by some bish- Holy Cross. My wife was with me, and I had writ- ops and deemed acceptable by committees appointed ten to the Holy Father’s private secretary, Msgr. (now to review them. After these “propositions” had been Archbishop) Stanislaw Dziwicz, to see whether it approved, the bishops then met in full assembly with might be possible for us to attend the Holy Father’s John Paul II for final sessions. John Paul let the bish- private Mass. It turned out that this was possible, ops do their own work without any kind of arm and we had the great privilege of participating in his twisting, and he spent a lot of time attempting to see Mass, and I was again asked to serve as lector, and each bishop personally by inviting bishops to his resi- afterwards he warmly received us. dence for breakfast, dinner (pranzo at noon) or sup- The last time I saw John Paul II was on February per (cena) in the evening. He also cordially invited 23, 2003, during the meeting of the Pontifical the “periti” to dine with him, and I was so honored Academy for Life. I am not a member of the one evening, sitting right next to him. He made sure Academy, but that year I had given a paper on ex- that everyone there had a chance to speak to him, perimentation on human subjects to the members, and he did a great job of keeping the conversation and Bishop Elio Sgreccia, its vice-president, invited going and of injecting some humor into it. me to attend the audience the Holy Father granted On two occasions during my service on the to the Academy. This time John Paul II was confined International Theological Commission he also in- to a chair, but his voice was still strong and he gave us vited its members for “pranzo.” We split into two a marvelous talk and afterwards each of us was able groups of 15 theologians each (there were 30 mem- to come forward, shake and kiss his hand, and receive bers of the Commission), and he also invited the from him his loving look and a gift of the rosary. great and gifted persons, male and female, who pro- John Paul II was a most remarkable person. vided simultaneous translations of our discussions. His writings are among the most profound I have Cardinal Ratzinger, of course, came to these “pran- ever read, and I learn something new each time I zos” and he also was very good in making sure that read them. He had a fantastic personal charisma; everyone there had a chance to say something to the he was able to make everyone who met him feel at Holy Father. After a “pranzo” held during our meet- home; his love for people, especially the weak and ing in October 1989 John Paul II stopped me and the poor, was palpable. I remember one time when Msgr. Carlo Caffarra (at that time a member of the I was among several thousand in St. Peter’s Square ITC), the first president of the John Paul II Institute in the year 2000 on a very humid October day on for Studies on Marriage and Family in Rome, as the occasion of a world meeting of the Holy Father we were leaving his dining room. He asked Msgr. with families. Different families from throughout Caffarra, a wonderful theologian and marvelous gen- the world were presented to John Paul II, seated; he tleman now Archbishop of Bologna, how the new loved to take children in his arms and kiss them, and session of the John Paul II Institute in Washington, several times he reached down to lift from a wheel DC was doing—it had opened in August 1988. chair a small crippled child whom he would embrace Msgr. Caffarra told him that he thought it was off and bless especially. to a good start. The Pope then turned to me, looked He was without doubt the greatest champion me in the eyes and poked me with his index fin- of the dignity and preciousness of human life in our ger, saying, “And I want you to help the Institute in time and perhaps is unparalleled in the defense of Washington.” I said, “How can I, your Holiness, since human life in the history of the world. We will miss now I am at The Catholic University of America?” him. Requiescat in pace.

4 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 ARTICLES Lord Castlemaine’s Plea for Liberty of Conscience by Anne Barbeau Gardiner, young,” Castlemaine observes, “death was proclaimed Professor Emerita, John Jay College, C.U.N.Y. to the Concealer, and to the Discoverer a reward,” yet no Catholic betrayed the king. After the Restoration, oger Palmer, Lord Castlemaine, however, new laws were passed against Catholicism, so first published his Catholique Apol- that those who had helped the king escape—Carlos, ogy in November 1666. It was only Gifford, Whitgrave and the Pendrels—were now pun- a pamphlet then, when Samuel ished for those very beliefs that had “obliged them Pepys summarized it in his diary to save their forlorn Prince.” Castlemaine remarks Ron December 1st and noted that it was “suppressed that the more the crimes of the “Rebels” were for- and much called after.” By 1674, it was 600 pages gotten in the 1660s, the more the “faults” of former long and included all of Castlemaine’s replies to the English Catholics were remembered and their recent attacks printed against it by three spokesmen for allegiance buried in “Oblivion.” At the time of the the Church of England—William Lloyd, Pierre Du London Fire, he laments, the “whole English World” Moulin, and Edward Stillingfleet. turned on English Catholics and accused them of set- What made the Catholique Apology unique was ting the Fire, so that “we became...a by-word among that it was a work of pure anti-defamation at a time the greatest Enemies of the Nation.” when theological controversy was the order of the The signal loyalty of Catholics during the Civil day. As a layman, Castlemaine refused to “meddle” Wars was well known and sometimes acknowledged. in theology and chose instead to expose the false Castlemaine cites one Anglican who exclaims, in State accusations that caused Catholics to be deprived of of Christianity in England: “The English Papist...for their freedom of worship. Another unique feature his Courage & Loyalty in the last war deserves to be of this work was that his arguments were not from recorded in the Annales of Fame & History.” And he natural right, like those of Protestant Dissenters, but cites another who declares, in Surest Establishment of the from history. As a result of this work, Castlemaine Royal Throne: became the leading spokesman for religious liberty It is a truth beyond all question that there were a great among English Catholics and was much admired by many Noble, Brave, & Loyal Spirits of the Romish others participating in the same struggle, including perswasion, who did with the greatest Integrity, & James Duke of York—who had granted a full liberty without any other Designs than satisfying Conscience, of conscience to New Yorkers since the 1660s–and adventure their lives in the War for the King’s service; William Penn. Castlemaine would later serve on the & that several, if not all of those, were men of such council of James II in the 1680s, when this King Souls, that the greatest Temptations in the world could tried to bring to England the same freedom of reli- not have perverted, or made them desert their King in gion he had established in New York. the height of his miseries.” This paper will focus on Castlemaine’s plea based Yet after the Restoration, “all the wonderfull Duty of on his “Bloody Catalogue” of Catholics who suf- the English Catholiques” was set aside, and they were fered and died for two Stuart kings during the Civil left “not only in a far worse condition than the Rebels, War and Interregnum. He argues that Catholics but many of the Regicides also.” Du Moulin, a Canon not only rescued the standard at Edge Hill but also of Canterbury, kept reprinting a pamphlet in which helped Charles II escape from England in 1651: he charged the Jesuits with having been the actual “There were Priests, there were Trades-men, there Regicides. This charge, based merely on rumor, was were Labourers, there were old women, there were taken up as a serious matter by a parliamentary

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 5 ARTICLES committee. The Jesuits were supposed to have dis- and Compassion, we ought thus to be calumniated, guised themselves to infiltrate the ranks of the not only by my Adversary, but by every impertinent Independents and arrange the killing of the King. Scribler,” and whether “all mankind” should be “en- It was even alleged that Queen Henrietta’s confes- couraged to accuse us” by a “Manifesto” on the door sor had cheered at the king her husband’s beheading. of the House of Commons. He laments that after the And so, despite their proven loyalty, Catholics were London Fire, Parliament invited everyone to come now made the prime suspects in the death of Charles forward and freely accuse the Catholic minority. I. No wonder Castlemaine decided to write the In reply, William Lloyd said that Papists deserved Apology. no credit for their Civil War dead, since they had At the end of the original 1666 edition, he no choice but to hide themselves “under the Royal printed in red ink a list of the “brave Catholicks” of covert.” Besides, their services to the king were “not rank who had died in the Civil Wars fighting on to be ascribed” to their religion. Castlemaine retorts the side of the King, summoning all “Lords and that no “Necessity” forced us “to what we did.” To Gentlemen” of the Church of England to view “this prove it, he recounts how initially, when Sir Arthur Bloody Catalogue, which contains the Names of Aston offered the king his service and that of other your murthered Friends and Relations, who in the Catholics, Charles I refused, saying, by reason of their heat of Battail, saved perchance many of your Lives, Religion, he durst not admit them into the Army: for even with the joyful loss of their own.” Next to each the Rebels (that never omitted a pretence) would name he gave the battlefield on which the hero died. make use of it, to discredit him among the people. While Catholics had sung their Nunc dimittis at the Aston then traveled to London, offered his Restoration, he said, they were soon “grieved” to services to Parliament, and received a “formal have “our Loyalty called into Question by you,” “even Commission” from the “Cabal.” He was warmly at the instigation of our greatest Adversaries” who welcomed, Castlemaine explains, because Catholics had “murthered their Prince.” trained in war, of high rank, and of great estate could In response, Dr. William Lloyd sneered at the be useful. For one thing, neighboring Catholic “Bloody Catalogue” and declared that “a far greater princes would be more likely to look favorably on number of Protestants” had died for Charles I. Little Parliament’s conduct if it had such support. With wonder, Castlemaine replies in 1674, seeing that his “Commission” from Parliament in hand, Aston English Catholics are “not the hundredth part of the returned to King Charles I and now received from Nation.” He points out that the catalogue of Anglican him a “considerable Command.” From this point on, war heroes, called the Royal Martyrs, names no more Catholics hurried to the royal standard “from every than “212 Protestant Lords, Knights, Commanders Quarter” with so much “zeal” that the words Papist & Gentlemen” who died fighting for their king in and Cavalier became “synonymous”—“for there the Civil Wars. Yet his “Bloody Catalogue”of 1666 was no Papist that was not deemed a Cavalier, nor lists 190 Catholic men “of quality” who died in that no Cavalier that was not call’d a Papist, or at least “glorious quarrel.” In 1674, he not only reprints the thought to be Popishly affected.” list of 1666, but adds another list consisting of 17 In his answer, Dr. Lloyd alleged that Papists had names inadvertently omitted in the first catalogue, fallen off from loyalty when the king “declined” and thus bringing the total of Catholic “royal martyrs” to had addressed petitions to the “Rebels.” Castlemaine 207.1 In effect, English Catholics had lost nearly the denies this vehemently and dares his “Adversary” to same number of lords and gentlemen in defense of name “a Papist that was not for the King, even in the the monarch as the Church of England party had– worst of times.” When the royal party was gasping, 207 to 212. They were virtually on a par in terms of he contends, Catholics were “some with the King, war heroes, though Catholics were vastly outnum- some about dispatches, some in the Tower, some sold bered in the population. This, then, was the basis to the Islands.” And since they had “three times more of Castlemaine’s most touching plea for toleration: Estates sold” by those “Rebels” than anyone else, it is “Let the world then judge, whether instead of Pity a “frivolous accusation” to charge that Catholics flat-

6 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 tered and addressed them as “the Supream Power.” the whole World there’s no place where Perjury is After the king’s Restoration, Catholics were so so common as here...& how can it be otherwise ex- far from receiving any “advantage” for their loyalty, pected, when an Oath is the Test (& lately more than Castlemaine says, that they were maligned from ev- ever) of all things in Dispute among us.” This “forc- ery side “out of Envy” or “Revenge.” He notes that ing” of men to swear for “their own Profit,” causes Edward Hyde, Lord Clarendon (to whom the Apology “the Unprincipled to falter in the beginning, & hav- is dedicated) joined in this scapegoating and that Dr. ing once broken the Ice, like whores they come at Lloyd wrote to inflame the nation against them and last altogether hardned in their Impiety.” Once again, have “the Lawes put in Execution” to remove them Castlemaine argues that the very misconduct that from all “employment, let them have suffer’d never so English Catholics are accused of—here, taking oaths much for their Loyalty.” Lloyd argued that Catholics lightly—is prevalent in the English Protestant majority. did not deserve trust because they could be dispensed Thus, Castlemaine presents Catholics as scape- from oaths and were “lesse strict in private promisses goats: our enemies, he explains, are “perpetually charg- between man & man, than other Christians.” In re- ing us with the Crimes, that they themselves are guilty ply to this line of defamation, Castlemaine declares of in the highest degree imaginable.” In particular, that Catholics have refused the Oath of Allegiance they charge Catholics with rebellion and persecution, for reasons of conscience and have “severely suffer’d yet “in all Countries where the Reformed Religion in their Estates & Persons” for it. But Protestants have has bin preacht, as greate Rebellions have follow’d, taken this Oath again and again when graduated in as ever History mention’d. And as for Dissenters in the Universities; when admitted into Orders; when Opinion, Protestants have been superlatively severe Justices of Peace; when Parliament met; & in short to them, & no where more than in England....” This when any Dignity either in Church or State was con- charge, that Protestant Dissenters were treated worse ferred. Yet for all the often repetition of it, halfe the in England than in other places, such as France or Nation were in Rebellion against the King, directly Poland, was something that Milton noted in his work contrary to what they had sworne; Whereas on the of 1673, entitled, “Of True Religion.” other side, there was no Papist, that declared not for In one line of attack on the Catholique Apology, Dr. his Majesty, though they refus’d (as I said) the Oath. Lloyd argued that since popes could “depose Kings, In these lines we have a good example of Castle- & discharge Subjects of their Allegiance,” Catholics maine’s usual strategy in the Apology: first he will cite were “prone to Rebellion” and could not be trusted some misconduct of which his “Adversary” accuses as subjects. Castlemaine replies that the pope’s depos- the English Catholic minority, to justify their being ing power is not an article of faith, since no Catholic used so severely. Then he shows that Protestants are who has denied this power has ever been called a even more guilty of that misconduct, so that, heretic for it, or forced to “recant” before receiv- if judged by the same standard, they too would be ing the Sacrament, “which sufficiently prov’s .tis no severely used. part of our faith.” Even if some Catholics have be- Oaths were imposed on Catholics from the start, lieved that popes had such a power, there have been Castlemaine argues, because it was known that for far more who “rejected and censured” it, even en- them “a venial sin must not be done let the Advantage tire “Universities & whole Bodies of famous men.” be never so great.” Catholics refused the Oath of Therefore, why should “the Opinions of some of Allegiance because it was “framed” by an apostate our Divines” be turned into the “Doctrine of our Jesuit on purpose to “entrap” them and the Pope had Church”? After this, Castlemaine once again turns the declared in a Breve that it could not “be taken with tables. He demonstrates that Protestants, far more than a safe Conscience.” They had offered to compose an Catholics, have held a deposing power both in theory oath of allegiance which they could take, but this of- and practice. First theory: Luther said that “the force fer had been refused. The imposition of oaths to keep of Conscience & Necessity may drive them to take Catholics out of employment, however, had backfired weapons, & make a League in their own Defence” and ended up debauching English Protestants: “in against the Emperor; Zwingli wrote that “when

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 7 ARTICLES

Princes do against the Rule of Christ, they may they were permitted to celebrate Mass privately in be depos’d; and Calvin declared that when princes their homes, a “grace” they used, he insists, with “erect themselves against God” they no longer have “Moderation & Respect.” They were “fully con- “Authority” and are “unworthy to be accounted in tented” with this tiny measure of freedom and did the number of men.” As for practice, Castlemaine not envy Protestant Dissenters their “larger privi- argues that where popes had given away, by word leges.” But as soon as Catholics were allowed to wor- alone, two crowns since the start of the Reformation, ship, their enemies sounded the alarm and caused Protestants had deposed by word and deed at the toleration to be rescinded in 1673. Then the Test least seven monarchs—the “Soveraigne Princes of Act for public employment, with its oath against England, Scotland, Denmarke, Swedland, the United Transubstantiation, was swiftly imposed. Provinces, Transilvania, [and] Geneva.” And while The Catholique Apology has many other argu- the Church of England might seem to deny the “re- ments for liberty of conscience besides this plea bellious Tenets” of other Protestants, he adds, many based on the “Bloody Catalogue.” In another line Anglicans turned against Charles I in the 1640s be- of argument, Castlemaine argues that all English cause they “thought him a Papist,” and it was “com- Catholics have been tarred with the crimes of a few, mon” to hear Anglicans in the Interregnum say that as in the case of the Gunpowder Plot. He shows the if the Papists should “pervert” Charles II, they would Plot as an entrapment of a few Catholic men by Lord oppose his Restauration.” He notes that “this very Cecil and his agents, a Plot devised immediately after yeare [1674] .twas openly propos’d not by Laymen King James I proposed a toleration of Catholics. Even only (as all the publick Gazetts of Christendom though no other Catholics knew about the Plot, a proclam’d it every where) That Popery should by a collective guilt was imputed to them for generations positive Law be a Bar even to the [British] Crown.” thereafter. Englishmen still celebrate Guy Fawkes This law, proposed in 1674, was passed after the Day on November 5th. Sometimes, too, the Catholic Revolution of 1688 and has never been repealed. minority would be tarred with the crimes of foreign- And so, even though Catholics are always accused of ers who had no connection with them, as in the case wanting to depose kings, Castlemaine declares, “the of the St. Bartholomew Massacre. common quarel & feare is, that we are too zealous In yet another line of argument, Castlemaine for the Kings power & prerogative.” They are charged shows how, historically, there were precedents with disloyalty because they are too loyal to lawful for a “property right” to freedom of conscience. civil authority. Castlemaine exposes this line of defa- Constantine granted the Roman polytheists free- mation as insincere. dom of conscience because they were there first and What kind of liberty of conscience did English practiced the “old religion.” After his conversion, Catholics want as a reward for their loyalty in the Ethelbert tolerated the Saxon polytheists on the same 1640s and 1650s? According to Castlemaine, they grounds. Castlemaine’s point is that Catholics follow yearned for what they were briefly allowed by the “old religion” of England and have a similar his- royal edict in 1672, the only year of peace since the torical “property right” to freedom of conscience. Reformation. They desired liberty of conscience for Yet his line of argument based on the “Bloody all Englishmen, not just themselves, and were satisfied Catalogue” is undoubtedly the most touching of all, with a smaller measure of it than others: in part because some of the war heroes he lists are As for Liberty of Conscience, we never desir’d any his relatives and he knows the details of their deaths. particular Favour, but that every body should en- When Dr Lloyd denied that Lord Carnavon, who joy the blessing, even in an ampler manner than our stood at the head of the “Bloody Catalogue,” was selves. a Catholic, and alleged that this Lord had “refused a Priest” as he lay dying, Castlemaine replied with During the toleration of 1672, English Catholics indignation that Carnavon was related to him (on the received the “Liberty of our Chambers, which the Turk Herbert side) and he knew the details of his death never denyes any body in his Dominions,” that is, from a living eyewitness: this Lord had died “in the

8 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 armes of a Priest still alive, that belonged both to words, as in the story of Sir Arthur Aston’s posting to my Lords Relations & mine.” Moreover, he never Parliament and back to King Charles I, Castlemaine marched without a Priest; & as soon as he receiv’d shows the reader how deeply loyal the English his death’s wound he sent for his Brother in law the Catholics have been–against incredible odds–both to Lord Herbert, late Marq. Of Worcester, and desired their ancient religion and to their lawful king. And this him to tell the King, That he could do no more than is why, Castlemaine says, he cannot “in Justice omit the die in his Quarrel; and if he would grant him this plea of the Catholiques in the last age.” The blood they request, he would think his Majesty has sufficiently shed so freely for the late king surely calls for compas- recompenced him for his life, viz. That his Mother sion from his royal son. But even though he wanted to might have the breeding up of his Son, to the end as bring about a toleration of Catholics, Charles II was he sayd, that the Child might be also educated in the unable to do so. All he could do to show his ongoing Catholick Religion. sympathy with their “wounded cause” was to be rec- In this moving account of Carnavon’s last onciled to the Church of Rome on his deathbed. The Knowledge Society and Its Need for a Code of Ethics

By Wolfgang Bergsdorf role in earlier epochs. However, the constantly in- Professor of Political Science and creasing frequency in the use of the term “knowl- President of the University of Erfurt edge society” indicates the centrality that is due to Presentation for the 8th American-German colloquium knowledge in our pluralistic, affluent society that is, in the St. John-Center, Plymouth, Michigan on the one hand, troubled by fears stemming from the whole globalisation process and that is, on the evelopments in society and technol- other hand, full of high hopes from the very same ogy seem to be constantly in need phenomenon. Knowledge joins work and capital as of labels and at some point, a name the third source of wealth creation. Unlike the other for a particular epoch prevails over two sources, knowledge can be applied to itself and other competing terms. Nowadays thus become, as it were, an inexhaustible resource Dthe phrase “knowledge society” is on everyone’s lips. with the help of information technology. At least, Terms of this kind are always problematic because they this is what the euphoric pioneering thinkers of the single out one dimension from the complex multitude knowledge society are hoping for. of possibilities within the context of social conditions Moreover, the concept “knowledge society” has in order to attain the status of a label to designate a a further dimension, which can be interpreted as a particular period of time. Nevertheless, these labels great double promise. The centrality of knowledge as are necessary because they reduce the changes, which an ultimate resource fosters the illusion that the area are barely noticeable to contemporary consciousness of conflict between knowledge and the public do- during the passage of time, to one single common main can be removed. Modern societies have created denominator. The man who coined this particular the public sphere as a method of problem reduction label is the American sociologist Robert E. Lane who to give its members the opportunity to inform them- wrote about the “knowledge society” in 1966. His selves about everything in those areas where they colleague, Daniel Bell, adopted the term and popular- cannot form their own judgement from immediate ised it in his book on the post-industrial society.1) experience. A term like “knowledge society” by no means Knowledge, however, is the systematic effort to implies that knowledge did not play an important expand available knowledge with regard to both

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 9 ARTICLES breadth and depth and then to create links in all pos- ability on the part of the media user. Enlightenment sible areas. Knowledge needs internationality and can, therefore, be understood today as liberation from interdisciplinarity as much as lungs need air to breathe. the fetters of communication that are determined by The public domain needs both locality and region- external sources. The transparency of the media system ality. National media are the exception rather than and its regulation by means of minimal ethical stand- the rule. Regional and local media are the rule. The ards is therefore the primary demand of the recipient public is highly selective. There are indeed selection on the media producers. The technical modernisation criteria which determine what chance a subject has of of the media together with their globalisation process is becoming public. However, chance still plays a signifi- intensifying the tension created by journalistic practice cant role. On the other hand knowledge is systematic, on the one hand and by the demands of media ethics averse to any arbitrariness. Nevertheless, knowledge on the other. will always come up with something new if it has not The question that is now facing any one con- already created a new area. cerned with the media either as a consumer or as a A journalist, who recently wrote that boys had producer is this: will the market alone decide what is more information available to them at the end of the moral and what is not, or, in other words, will the only twentieth century than Voltaire, Kant and Goethe put message to reach the public be merely dependent on together, received high praise from a literary writer. viewing figures and number of copies sold? This con- This was, in fact, the Polish writer Adrzej Szczypiorski, cerns both the opportunities and limitations for the now deceased, who described the originator of this producers of media as well as for the consumers’ own comment with a certain amount of wily irony as responsible handling of the media. “shrewd” because this journalist announced his obser- Thus, these questions are in urgent need of being vation without any show of triumph. He drew atten- dealt with because our (almost) 20 years of experience tion to a truism that we lose sight of in our everyday with the dual system of broadcasting in Germany has confusion, but which, nevertheless, acts as a dangerous, planted seeds of doubt as to whether ‘market’ and qual- yet enigmatic warning. ity can be congruent values. We do, in fact, know much more today about the This topic should be developed in two stages. Firstly, world than 200 or 100 years ago. Science and technol- it must be explained what is meant by the expression ogy have caused an explosion in knowledge, the end “knowledge society”. Secondly, the question should of which is by no means in sight. 9 out of 10 scien- then be examined as to whether this knowledge so- tists, who have ever lived, are our contemporaries. The ciety needs different or even new ethical standards. In consequence of this is that the store of knowledge in this context, the following question deserves thorough the various disciplines doubles every 10 years. Thus, a investigation: can something like a special code of eth- daily edition of any quality newspaper you may care ics for journalists be justified or should the ethics of to choose contains more information than the aver- communication as have been known for thousands of age 17th century European would have had available to years be merely adapted to the communicators whose him throughout his whole life. No one would, how- number has been dramatically increased by technology? ever, dare to claim—not even the journalist who was praised by Andrzej Szczypiorski - that we are cleverer I. than our fathers, grandfathers or great grandfathers. However, we do know more than our fathers and n my opinion, this will be the most important ef- grandfathers and we have the ubiquity and omnipres- fect of the knowledge society: the rejection of ence of the media to thank for this knowledge. The Ithe relevance of everyday knowledge. Just as ex- ubiquity of the media is the reason why the media can perience in the sense of passed-on experience will claim more than ever before to be the central nervous considerably lose its significance, life has to become system of the up-and-coming knowledge society.2 a permanent process of relearning. We already know The wildfire multiplication of information op- today the standard greeting for people starting a career: portunities that are technically available demands a “Now forget everything that you learned at school or much greater amount of sovereign decision-making university”.

10 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 The globalisation of the markets and—as its pre- on the other. requisite—the globalisation of the information net- What concrete political significance this question works ensures, on the one hand, that the galaxy of has, was already indicated years ago in an interesting western knowledge is expanding at the speed of light investigation by George Gerbner and Larry Gross, two and, what is more, that this knowledge is available eve- American communication researchers who discov- rywhere. On the other hand, the rapid pace of change ered in their study on the presentation of violence on determines our sensitivity to time differences with television and the public’s concept of violence that regard to opportunities in the market so that nobody people who watch a lot of television (heavy viewers) can know today what s/he should know tomorrow in (more than 3 hours per day) were approximately ten order to succeed in economic terms. times more afraid of becoming the victims of violence The “new” element of the knowledge society does themselves than viewers who watched little or no not lie in a fundamentally altered quality with regard television.3 to modern mass communication, but rather in an al- Political scientists in America and Europe have tered quantity of information density confronting both found confirmation of this thesis regarding the reality- the individual journalist and the individual recipient. distortion effect of high television consumption. The However, a qualitative alteration can be seen in the willingness to commitment that extends beyond the re-individualisation of the mass media. The technical individual, to trust institutions and other people and possibilities of data compression, of digitalisation and even to participate in elections, decreases as the dura- of interactive access allow users of multimedia of- tion of television consumption increases. Robert D. ferings to increase dramatically their sovereignty as a Putnam claims: the more one watches television, the consumer. In future, everyone will be able to compile less trust one has in institutions and people - the more their own information, educational and entertainment one reads newspapers, the greater the overall trust programmes according to their own special require- becomes.4 ments and interests. If I may be so bold as to quote from our prince The new basic law of mass communication is that of German poets, the apt quotation for this state one person prints or broadcasts, but many read, hear or of affairs can be found in the Zahmen Xenien by see the same things. The new law of multimedia is that Wolfgang von Goethe: everyone will become their own programme direc- Many foolish words are spilled, tor, everyone decides for themselves towards which When written, preserved for never, particular subject matter they want to turn the limited Neither body nor soul will be killed, resource of their attention. Everything stays the same as ever. The essence of this new technology is that it will But place foolishness before our eyes, incorporate all other media and communication forms Its magical right is engraved on us, into itself. Data streams of all kinds, under the caption Our senses are held in ties, And the spirit remains enslaved in us. of computer highways, are coming closer together and include television, radio, telephone, PC and electronic Goethe’s warning of the enslavement produced newspapers. by the image does not lose its justification despite The exponential multiplication and the global the opportunities offered by the use of multimedia availability of the range of information and enter- that are now increasing at a tremendous rate. The ex- tainment products together with the necessity for ponential multiplication of television choice will be at selection are all sharpening our focus on this ques- the forefront for the current majority of multimedia tion: what is the nature of the information source users. Individuals will only be able to manage by se- and origin from which a social construction of real- lecting just those programs that meet their individual ity is achieved? A whole battery of open questions is interests. Multimedia will be able to read every wish concealed behind what seems to be a mere academic from the users’ lips, as it were, and provide them with question. One problem is, for example, the connection the programme that they would want the most, which between presentations of violence on television on the promises both an optimum and maximum of indi- one hand and criminality expectations of the public vidual information and entertainment.

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 11 ARTICLES

As the need to be entertained will be the main users, but also a gap between the younger generation motive for the future media users, the fans of action and the elderly. or science fiction films will be able to watch more For this reason, particular attention should be and more of the same thus, constantly learning more paid to the acquisition of competence in handling and more about what they already know. This results the whole multimedia product range. in an increased self-referentiality which Gerhard Part of the acquisition of media competence Schulze, a sociologist from Bamberg, named the must also be the laying bare of the fundaments of ‘Kasper Hauser’ syndrome. our cultural heritage, and that is the written word. Passive users of the new multimedia come close Our culture and also our religion live off the writ- to the totally isolated individual as far as communica- ten word. “You have to read, Celeste” Marcel Proust tion is concerned. They only encounter themselves reminded his housekeeper. Only by reading can peo- and have little reason to change this, if they start to ple encounter themselves, they can assure themselves feel comfortable with this situation over time or, in and develop self-confidence and trust towards others. other words, to stay in the “warmth within the sty Problems of orientation can only be dismantled in of one’s own ego” (Gerhard Schulze). Passive users of this way in the post-modern society. the new media will find it hard to look at the con- stantly enticing view beyond the confines of their II. own reduced plates. However, this also applies to a proportion of eophilia, in other words “curiosity” is (Otto active users, who use the new possibilities in a se- B. Roegele6 repeatedly draws our attention lective way and who frequently communicate with Nto this), as an anthropological fundamental each other via their computers. The communication constant, the most powerful motif of human commu- purpose is the main area of interest, the knowledge nication. Man is the only living creature that has the stocks of which can be expanded so enormously. ability to be conscious of his historical origins and Multimedia brings distant partners so close that they is capable of shaping his future. For this reason, he is actually seem to be within immediate proximity. This dependent on signals of stability such as the changing restructuring of close versus distant contact focuses of his reality of life. In modern pluralistic societies, on the main purpose and, simultaneously destroys the the task of informing citizens of that which could irrelevant aspects, which often provide that element be of importance for the formation of their opinions of surprise in personal, face-to-face communication. falls upon the media. Journalism is therefore prima- Firstly, multimedia will, however, confirm a rily the activity of a mediator. theory that we have previously known from the sci- Its task is therefore a public task. Its professional ence of communications: the knowledge gap theory. privileges, such as protection of sources and informa- Heinz Bonfadelli and Ulrich Saxer, the Swiss initia- tion rights are liberties that are perceived on trust. tors of knowledge gap research will be able to write Therefore, journalists have a greater responsibility for some interesting papers on this topic.5 the subject matter of their messages as the partners They have already discovered the following point for personal communication, because they hold a key regarding television consumption: television makes position in the network of the mass communication the clever, cleverer and the stupid, more stupid. Those system. The journalistic profession is specialised in who have an active intelligence will use the new mediation. It must see its ambition as being in the information and communication opportunities to establishment of information, orientation and public increase their head-start in knowledge. debate in the run up to a decision, as well as after Those who approach the new, perfected media a decision has been made. The more complex the more in a passive and self-orientated way will no reality, the greater the dependence of the consumer longer know more, but, will merely know more of of media messages on the correct administration of the same thing. In the foreseeable future, this knowl- his curiosity by the media in the areas that defy his edge gap will not only be a gap between the intel- immediate ability to make judgements. For this rea- ligent and the less intelligent, active and more passive son, the most important obligation of the journalist

12 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 is his efforts to maintain the accuracy and integrity traditions. We can learn the greater fact orientation of his information. Because the life span of the hu- and the organisation within the media of journalistic man being is limited, attention becomes the scarcest self-control from Anglo-Saxon journalism. The pro- of all resources. This results in the separation of the fessional self-conception of English and American important and the unimportant becoming a strict journalism is light years away from the customary obligation of the journalist, which is so frequently dominance of opinion in Germany and is orientated infringed upon in our post-modern society of arbi- towards the main task of the media system, i.e. that trariness. of supplying the public with reliable information. We The ethical basic rules that have been established Germans can learn from the French media organi- for the traditional mass media also apply on principle sation to what extent the quality of media content to the knowledge society. However, there are new is increased when the rift between literature and problems,…the responsibility of the chief editor or journalism, between academe and media is made of the director of a broadcasting institution that was narrower than it is in Germany. Screen presence is previously clear has melted away under the impe- very much less the prerequisite for bestseller success tus of the flood of information of digitalised data. in France. The idea and style counts for much more Hierarchies in the media have the function of filter- there than it does in Germany. We can learn from the ing and monitoring systems. Previously, news items Italian press how the traditional canon of education underwent several stages, at which the credibility of of a country—ignoring the zeitgeist—is passed on the source and plausibility of the news items were while using such carefully cultivated language, which checked before they were printed in the newspaper even bravely clings on to the subjunctive that is only or broadcast by a broadcasting institution. In our used by very sophisticated newspapers in Germany. digitalised world, the author alone decides on publi- Wolf Schneider, the former chief editor of cation in very small editorial stages. “Stern” magazine and long-time head of the Producers and recipients will be made much Hamburg Journalist School wrote in his reflections more reliant on their own discernment than in the on journalistic cardinal virtues to his students and previous media organisation and must determine colleagues in the register: themselves which information they either offer or “It is mainly these people who are scandal-hunt- accept. Both skills in handling the new technology ers by profession, who like to stylise themselves to and the competence to classify information provided the Fourth Estate. However, they do not regard pro- by this technology, as well as finally power of judge- viding the citizen with the optimum of information ment to come to terms with the subject matter of as their central task. They are the ones who do not the offerings the new technology will be in demand. want what most of their colleagues cannot provide: The training required to attain the aforementioned unsoiled information. skills, therefore mainly presents at first a huge chal- Where does this incapability to provide clear lenge to our traditional education system. information manifest itself? What is wrong with Today, it does not suffice to acquire knowledge, the majority of journalists—those who do not see the individual must rather develop the skill of or- themselves as the Fourth Estate, as scandal-hunters or ganising the available knowledge in order to use it as do-gooders and so should be able to provide the for his own purposes. This does not mean that an service to the citizen? extensive education should be abandoned. On the There are five things that they do not have: spe- contrary: he who exposes himself to the flood of cialist knowledge, knowledge of the world, mistrust, information without having a sufficient education is a backbone—and love towards their readers or listen- in danger of drowning in it. The educated will come ers.” 7 to terms with the sources of information, utilise it, The first four keywords are self-explanatory as select it and call upon it for a set objective. they are adaptations to journalism of the Christian Today it makes sense to raise one’s gaze beyond cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance, fortitude the limited horizons of national observation and to and justice. Only the fifth of Schneider’s journalistic occupy oneself with the advantages of other media cardinal virtues, the love towards the reader, listener

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 13 ARTICLES and viewer require some words of commentary. This III. virtue objects to journalists’ apathy towards the limited absorption capacity of the public. rfurt has a course-work examination system. He recognises the journalistic original sin of ar- The graduation mark is based on the study rogance both in the contempt of the recipients by work produced during the 6th semester, which journalists, which Schneider mainly pins down to in- E is calculated by means of credit points. comprehensible or complicated language and equally • After primary graduation, it is possible to achieve a in the assumed missionary role as in enthusiastic com- masters degree within three further semesters. mentary without specialist knowledge. He demands of • The way is then clear to complete a doctorate ac- journalistic texts that they should be written with the cording to suitability (two to three years). most unostentatious words available in clearly con- • There is a mentor system at Erfurt which ensures structed sentences. He thinks: individual supervision of every student by a lecturer “A journalist who wants to be read and also fulfil from the first semester onwards. his duty of information in this respect should either • The Erfurt “Studium Fundementale” is mandatory for write like Luther or Brecht, i.e. simply and tightly or teachers and students. This course acquaints students like Lessing, Lichtenberg or Büchner, brilliantly and from the very beginning with a multidisciplinary way transparently at the same time”.8 of thinking. This is a speciality that is only offered in Of course Wolf Schneider also knows that these Erfurt. The students learn that every object must be objectives cannot be achieved in the day-to-day work illuminated from many angles. Specialisation at too of a journalist, but the journalist must not lose his early a stage is avoided in this way. ambition towards this goal or at any rate the effort to • Much emphasis is placed upon internationality, not achieve clarity and transparency. just in the courses of study with a range of focal Christian cardinal virtues or even their adaptations points that extend even beyond Europe in historical relating to journalism offer instruments, by means of studies and linguistics. which reality can be seen as it is and this vision can • At least one semester should be spent at a foreign also be accomplished communicatively. Truth does not university during the course. This is not an obligation, just hover around somewhere. Truth is the manifesta- but certainly a target requirement. tion and recognition of reality. Josef Pieper teaches, • Acquisition of competence in a foreign language and “to live and work from truth that is seized in this familiarity in handling the new media is particularly promoted. way—therein lies the goodness of man, therein lies • The University of Erfurt wants graduates who have meaningful human life. Every one who desires to live learnt to look beyond the edge of the plate of their as a human being is dependent on the nourishment of respective subject of study in order to secure a broad truth. Even society lives from the truth that is publicly as possible opportunity of application. made present and kept present—and this applies of • Professionally-orientated events supplement the 9 course directly to publicists.” The presence of truth programme of study. Not least of all, practical work is only made possible by the order of language (Josef placements ensure that close contact between the Pieper). Order of language does not primarily mean course of studies and the professional world is formed. its formal perfection. This formulation is rather to em- phasise the necessity of speaking and writing in such Cultural sciences form the focal point of the a way that reality remains as far as possible undistorted University of Erfurt. The Faculty of Economics, Law and unabbreviated. and Social Sciences also follows the associated integra- Therefore: we do not need a new set of ethics for tive approach which goes beyond traditional courses the knowledge society, but a return to the cardinal in legal and economic studies. Students are not trained virtues applied to journalism, which do not demon- to be court judges or holders of a diploma in business strate anything other than basic demands that have administration in Erfurt. been tried and tested by common-sense for the civil Religious studies, for example, which is represent- interaction of people within society. ed by five professorships in Erfurt and is not a train- ing course for priests and teachers of religious studies

14 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 perceives itself as cultural studies and aims at teaching Summary established knowledge and practical experience in the evaluation and analysis of religions, religiously owadays, the phrase “Knowledge Society” is motivated movements on the one hand and intercul- on everyone’s lips. Robert E. Lane’s theory tural conflicts in modern societies on the other hand. of 1966, (which had been adopted and And these conflicts will increase significantly in the N st developed by Daniel Bell in his book on the post- 21 century. industrial society in 1973), sees knowledge, alongside Today’s economy demands qualified gradu- work and capital, as the third source of wealth crea- ates who possess key qualifications that have been tion. The store of knowledge doubles every ten years. taught in the way they are taught at Erfurt University. This wildfire multiplication of information opportu- Communication skills, the ability to understand and nities created by technology demands a great amount handle complex issues. Media and computer com- of sovereign decision-making on the part of the petence, language competence, teamwork skills and media user. The graphic media are especially liable to readiness to learn throughout life. These qualifica- affect their users in their role as conveyers of infor- tions lay the foundations to succeed in professional mation: television makes the clever, cleverer and the practice. stupid, more stupid. The University of Erfurt comprises three facul- It is therefore of great importance not only to ties. The philosophical faculty, the legal, economic consider how far traditional ethical demands on and social faculty and a newly designed faculty for journalists and other conveyers of knowledge are still educational studies. In addition to these, there is the valid but also to apply them to the ever increasing Max Weber College for Cultural and Social Studies, opportunities created by the new technology. The which awarded its first doctorates last year. A special example of Erfurt University shows how this can be centre is being set up for didactic learning and teach- done. ing research. Application orientated annex institutes will complete the University’s range of services. Endnotes The library must not be forgotten, the heart 1. Robert E. Lane, The Decline of Politics and Ideology in a of every academic university. The University and Knowledgeable Society, in: American Sociological Review, 5/1966 Research Library Erfurt with 700,000 volumes in p. 650 ff, cf also: Daniel Bell, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society, open access will be available to teachers and students New York 1973, p. 212-265 until midnight on workdays, which is also almost 2. cf.: Wolfgang Bergsdorf, Deutschland an der Jahrtausendwende, in: unique on the German university landscape. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, B1-2/2000, p.21 The University of Erfurt has over 105 professors 3. Georg Gerbner/Larry Gross among others: The Mainstreaming of America: Violance Profil No. II. In: Journal of Communications 30 who currently supervise 2,800 students. Erfurt is a (1980) p. 10 ff campus university with short paths and many contact 4. Robert D. Putnam, (ed) Gemeinschaft und Gemeinsinn, Sozialka- opportunities between teachers and students. pital im internationalen Vergleich, Gütersloh 2001 The Erfurt reform project should allay the fears 5. cf e.g.: Heinz Bonfadelli, Die Wissenkluft-Perspective. Medien of the Weimar Prince of Poets, who remarked in und gesellschaftliche Information, Constance 1994. Wilhelm Meister’s Apprentice Years: “The Germans Ulrich Saxer, Medieninnovation und Mediendistanz. In: Walter A. have the gift of making sciences inaccessible”. The Mahle (ed) Medienangebot und Mediennutzung. (AKM-Studien, University of Erfurt wants to achieve the new de- vol 31) Berlin 1989, p. 145 6. Otto B. Roegele, Verantwortung des Journalisten. In: Peter Schiwy, parture into the knowledge society by organising Walter J. Schütz (ed.), Medienrecht, Neuwied 1990, p. 337. curiosity for knowledge, whose true value is not least 7. Wolf Schneider, Über journalistische Kardinaltugend. In: Bertelsmann that it outlines our ignorance more clearly. Above Briefe, Juni 1955, pp. ff. all, the students of Erfurt should acquire the ability 8. a.a.O. (=same place), p. 53. to lead a fruitful life and pursue a successful career, 9. Josef Pieper, Berufsethos des christlichen Publizisten, unpublished whilst keeping the common good in sight by means lecture (Münster 1995), p. 19. of a character-forming, vocational and cosmopolitan course of study.

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 15 ARTICLES On Testing the Test On the Kind of “Work” Metaphysicians and Doctors of the Church Do by James V. Schall, S. J. wise or intellectual-wise, where you went to college. Georgetown University It may be a huge place like Michigan or NYU, a me- dium-sized place like Catholic University or Colgate, Commencement address delivered to the graduating class, or a rather small place like the hundreds of colleges Ave Maria College, Ypsilanti, Michigan, May 2005 scattered over the land, especially in the Midwest. “The apostle Paul states that God has placed apostles, Indeed, being educated at famous colleges may prophets and doctors in the Church.... He declares that be an impediment in many ways. Allan Bloom, in a there are different kinds of ministry and work, and that famous remark twenty years ago, said that the most the same Holy Spirit is manifested in a variety of gifts for unhappy people in our society today are those stu- the good of all....” dents in the twenty or thirty so-called best and most —John Baptist de la Salle (1719). expensive colleges. He thought them to be unhappy, because they were being educated, implicitly or ex- “Philosophy is merely thought that has been thought out. plicitly, with a philosophy that claimed it to be true It is often a great bore. But man has no alternative, ex- that there is no truth, a formula for despair if there cept between being influenced by thought that has been ever was one. You assume or are told that you are thought out and being influenced by thought that has not getting the best education in the world. Then you been thought out. The latter is what we commonly call find that that education, in turn, is based on nihilist culture and enlightenment today. But man is always in- fluenced by thought of some kind, his own or somebody premises. You will naturally think there are no alter- else’s’ that of somebody he trusts or that of somebody natives, since this education is “the best.” You will, if he never heard of, thought at first, second or third hand;’ you are logical, be left with nothing, with emptiness thought from exploded legends or unverified rumous; but as an explanation of all reality. Meanwhile, you have a always something within the shadow of a system of values mind that seeks to know all things, all that is. and a reason for preference. A man does test everything However, I am under no illusions about modern by something. The question here is whether he has ever liberal education or modern philosophy, for that mat- tested the test.” ter. In this world, I think, with Belloc in The Path to —G. K. Chesterton, “The Revival of Philosophy Rome, that, at best, we can only have a modest and —Why?” (1950). relative happiness. That is worth having no doubt, but not at any cost. A student can with little difficulty I. acquire a terrible education in any college, famous or infamous. Moreover, even in the best college, what- recent study in USAToday (7 April ever that is and if such there be, a student still has to ‘05) indicated that the percentage of allow himself to be educated. Not all do. He needs CEO’s of Fortune 1000 companies the virtue called docilitas, the capacity to be taught, who have graduated from the Ivy no easy virtue. He also needs to learn what is really League Schools is declining. Now, one important, what is true, even if it is not being pre- Acan expect to find well-qualified candidates from sented in whatever college curriculum he chooses to almost any college, small or large, famous or unher- engage himself. alded. Even a number of famous CEO’s, including The problem, mind you, is not so much that Bill Gates himself, are college drop-outs. So the first no ultimate truth is presented in the school of our point that I wish to make to you 36 graduates of this choice. Rather it is the pervading academic thesis, small college in Michigan is that, in a sense, it does implicitly or explicitly assumed, that all truth is pre- not make much difference any more, either career- sented, to recall Plato, as mere opinion or shadow. It

16 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 is presented as if, following Descartes, doubt were the read on Google, was about this very point. This short basis of certitude. I came across the following parody essay is not to be missed even if you did miss it while that catches some of this irony that truth as truth we in college or even in your middle or old age. Indeed, cannot hear in the schools we are likely to attend. It one of the main things that we gradually learn on goes: “Now I sit me down in school / Where pray- leaving college at twenty one or twenty two, as Plato ing is against the rule / For this great nation under intimated in book seven of The Republic, is not just God / Finds mention of Him very odd. // If Scrip- that we missed much already. Rather we learn how ture now the class recites, / It violates the Bill of much more we were not capable of learning until we rights. / And anytime my head I bow / Becomes a were older, with more experience. Federal matter now.” Your education, in this sense, is not ending today, Of course, these amusing lines refer more to gov- but just beginning. In the end, it is possible to know ernment control than to the school itself. But it must something of the truth of things. It is important even be said that the ideas that currently motivate the gov- if we have to find this truth outside the schools, as we ernment with regard to what students can hear were often do. I am not particularly an advocate of what is once but minority opinions someplace in academia. sometimes called “lifetime education,” of the notion Ideas, even bad ones, perhaps especially bad ones, do that we are always learners or students. I do not mean have consequences. This is why we must know the that we cannot always learn something new, but ma- difference between an idea that corresponds to reality turity means that we reach a point where we know, and one that does not. That too is an essential part, as Aristotle said in his famous discussion in the Parts if not the essential part, of any education. We should, of Animals, how to make our own judgments even in the end, be taught to be “judgmental,” to distin- about the wisdom of the wise. guish what is from what is not. As Chesterton once I am going to continue with two striking cita- remarked, the very purpose of the mind is to make tions from students I know, the one remark rather judgments. To use your mind to judge about nothing sharp, the other rather enthusiastic. Both are about is implicitly not to use your mind at all. It is to try to the sort of education a student is receiving. I will give yourself comfort by denying that you even have begin with the one most critical. It comes from a mind a young man I do not know personally, but with whom I have often corresponded via old-old fash- II. ioned letter or e-mail, that modern substitute for in- stant vision, that perplexing tool that makes it almost hough not ideal, I have long con- possible for a professor to teach at least something to sidered that a good education today anyone anyplace in the world. must be more in the nature of private The only thing I will suppress from this com- enterprise. Education is something ment is the student’s name and the university that every student has, to some extent, to this blunt and energetic student attends: “I can’t resist Tpursue by himself. I have little sympathy with stu- commenting on your last exhortation that I ‘keep the dents who know that they are receiving an awful place alive.’ Ha! This place will need more than me to education, especially in terms of truth, but do not do keep itself on life-support,” the student wrote.. anything on their own to counter-act it. That is what The NIHILISM that saturates this place, nay, I will my book, Another Sort of Learning, was really about, use a qualifier: the ‘debonair nihilism’ (Flannery to give some guidance to those lost in the nihilist O’Connor) that permeates this place—that tender, forests of modern academia. If you can read, you can warm emotion that says ‘there is no truth; yet, there be educated, even if education is more than reading. is a revolutionary truth’ at the same time. Of course, Indeed, the unlettered are not necessarily the unwise, that ‘revolutionary truth’ is always vague, always un- as Aristotle already indicated. defined, always confined to the realm of ideas, never The famous essay of Dorothy Sayers, “The Lost enfleshed. All I know is that it involves accumulat- Tools of Learning,” which anyone can easily find and ing a lot of community service hours, and repeating

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 17 ARTICLES the motto, ‘Men and Women for Others.’ Then, of prior inkling or unsettlement that she was missing course, we fill out the rubrics, carefully jotting down something. how many hours of service we have done.... When Secondly, the passage reminds us that we often will this revolution happen? Perhaps at the same time do not know what we are missing. If we did, we when Sancho Panza finally gets his promised island, would already take steps to find out. I have often had and when Don Quixote brings back the Golden Age. the experience of having students in a class where This young man hits pretty close, I think, to the heart we were reading together say, Plato, or Aristotle, or of the practical ideology that governs many universi- Augustine, or Aquinas. As an aging clerical professor, ties. There is “no truth,” but we work hard for the I know what wonder can be found in these sources. revolution to “improve” the man whose being is But one day, I recall, I was in the same situation as what we are free to define, however we choose to this young woman. Not only had I never heard of define it. Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, or Aquinas, but I had no Newman, in his Sermon Seven on Subjects of idea what they were about or how to go about find- the Day, to follow this young man’s perceived logic ing out about them. For this we do need teachers, or to its consequences, briefly observes, “The one pe- at least, as Yves Simon says in a marvelous passage in culiar and characteristic sin of the world is this, that A General Theory of Authority, find them useful. whereas God would have us live for the life to come, The fact is, thirdly, that we cannot know what the world would make us live for this life. This, I these ideas are about unless we have the good for- say, is the world’s sin; it lives for this life, not for the tune to be introduced to them, even if, unhappily, we next.” The problem is not that we cannot save our have to do it ourselves. Moreover, I think we should souls without also effectively loving our neighbor be, as my student said of his sister’s studies, a bit “en- in some concrete sense, which was the young man’s vious” of those who receive a better education than Burkean point about “enfleshed,” not vague, ideas. we do. There is nothing wrong with that “unrest” in The point is rather that, since we have no souls and our souls that arises from our being aware of how no truth to lodge in them, we have no grounded much we do not know. After all, this awareness is principle with which to oppose those who would, in the beginning of that Augustinian quest that we find revolutionary fashion, reconstruct us, even bodily, in when we begin to learn anything, namely, that one the image of man no longer fashioned in the likeness truth leads to another, that we are never fully satisfied of God, the real norm and measure of what we are. with what is in fact true because we sense that more A student in one of my classes, to come to the is true than we know. What is always points to its ori- second instance, told me that his sister had enrolled gin. And this is an experience that is an intrinsic part in a master’s program at St. John’s College in Annap- of our very experience of the truth, any truth. olis. I do not know where she went to undergradu- ate school or how she ever discovered the program III. at St. John’s. But I asked my student how his sister was doing there. He replied: “My sister is doing very began this address with two citations, one well. She has started the language component of her from John Baptist de la Salle, the sixteenth course work. She tells me daily that she could not century founder of the Brothers of the Chris- imagine the great feast of ideas that was laid out, with tian Schools. The great saint of practical edu- table set, and her having never known it was there. cation pointed out that it is all right that there She has made inroads on ideas and works that make Ibe a variety of talents and accomplishments among me—in a good Augustinian sense—envious.” us. We are not all to do the same thing. To recall I am quite fond of this passage. It does three very Plato, we cannot have a city in which there are only useful things. First it reminds us that it is never too philosophers, but no farmers or craftsmen or, yea, late. This young woman learned what ideas were after politicians. We are to rejoice that others can know she finished college. Yet, before this young woman and do what we cannot or do not. We all need a cer- learned what she was missing, she had to have some tain humility before the man who can fix our car.

18 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 And there must be a hierarchy of duties, some be faced whether we like it or not, whether we think are more important than others, but all, if they are about them ahead of time or not. But it is one of the real duties that must be done, are important. Without great things about human life that we can face them, denying the existence of frivolous things – and I am think about them. a defender of a world in which frivolity can also exist Moreover, as Chesterton again said, we do not – the least support the best and the best the least, and have a choice of being only influenced by good ideas. we all need “middling” things. While there may be The world is full of ideas that are not so good . We such a thing as a “vocation” to be a teacher or a pro- ought to know what these are and how they got that fessor, there is, I think, no “vocation” to be a student. way. This is why we study the “heretics,” as Chesterton That is, a student is always someone in preparation called them, why we study the history of philosophy for something else, for the myriad of things to be and political philosophy, as Leo Strauss remarked, as a done without which the world cannot go on. Like series of “brilliant errors.” We cannot know “errors” childhood which is supposed to end, so being a stu- unless we have a philosophy based on what is, on the dent is supposed to end. The day is to come when truth of things. I hope it is this latter that you have we are “educated.” This day does not mean that we begun to learn here during your four years at the end now know everything, but rather that we know how of which, as those of us who are much older than to go about judging and learning what we can know you see, you are still young, but no longer without, of what is. we hope, intellectual tools and the moral habits with The purpose of education, then, is that we be which to use them well. educated. That is, we are finally to achieve those We must, as Chesterton said, test things with habits and talents whereby we can judge and act something. We need to know the criterion or “test” on our own in this world in the light of our aware- by which things are rightly judged. Moreover, we are ness, as Newman said, that we are not only made for given minds in order that we make our souls luminous this world. The medieval guilds used to speak of the to ourselves. As Thomas Aquinas said in his famous “master-craftsman,” the man who had acquired the Commentary on the Metaphysics of Aristotle, (#15), “But artistic and craft habits and skills whereby he could above experience, which belongs to particular reason, now, on his own, produce fine works, masterpieces. men have as their chief power a universal reason by Analogously, this is where we are to arrive, as Plato means of which they live.” Notice that Aquinas said intimated in book seven of The Republic, at the point that it is by reason that we “live.” What a striking idea of being educated. In a kind of foreshadowing way, or phrase. That is to say, unless we illuminate our lives this is in part what your graduation here today is with thought about what is going on so that we are designed to teach you. aware of what we are about, we will not be living a My second citation was from Chesterton. This human life. We are indeed the rational animals, the be- year, your graduation year, I might note, is the one ings who proceed by using our minds. hundredth anniversary of the publication of Chester- ton’s Heretics, a book that I dearly love, a book that, in IV. its own amusing way, foresaw most of the aberrations that would come about and are still coming about in et me conclude. Little Sally is standing the century following its publication. behind Charlie Brown, who is comfort- “Philosophy,” he said, is merely thought “thought ably slouched in the bean-bag seat con- out.” This is already Socrates’s “examined life,” isn’t tentedly watching TV. She says to him, it? One of the blessings of your years of college life “‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ That’s is that it provides us with the quiet opportunity to Lmy new philosophy.” In the next scene, while Charlie think things out ahead of time, as it were. Whether continues to watch TV, she continues her explanation we like it or not, our lives will be confronted with with some determination, “Whenever someone says the great issues of truth, good, beauty, power, death, something to me, I just say, ‘What’s that supposed to suffering, salvation, eternity. Certain questions must mean?’”

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 19 ARTICLES

As you can imagine, Charlie thinks he must how to judge whether what you know corresponds make some response to this new philosophy. With a to that reality that is. kind of dull look, still watching TV, he replies, “I’m Let me leave you with the following eleven ob- glad you told me. Not I won’t say anything to you.” servations that you might take with you for the rest While Charlie sinks into the bean-bag in despair at of your lives: her logic, Sally responds, “What’s that supposed to mean?” 1) “God has placed apostles, prophets, and doctors As you leave here, I want to remind you that in the Church.” things do have meanings, that a meaning is merely 2) “A man does test everything by something. our way of saying what a thing is. Things have, in a The question here is whether he has questioned way, two existences, the one their own esse or being the test.” and the other our word that identifies what they are. 3) “What’s that supposed to mean?” The two are intended to go together. 4) “The unhappiest people in our society are those We read in the Prologue to John, that the Word students in the twenty or thirty best and most was made flesh. During your years here, as the great expensive universities.” John Paul II remarked in his Fides et Ratio, you 5) “Now I sit me down to school / where praying should have often asked yourselves what is the rela- is against the rule.” tion of word and flesh, not only in your lives but 6) “Of course, that ‘revolutionary truth’ is always in the divine Life. You are to study all that is, and vague, always undefined, always confined to the wonder, following my young student friend, why the realm of ideas, never enfleshed.” nihilist explanation is not the right explanation. 7) “The Word was made flesh and dwelt But unless you are aware that philosophy is amongst us.” thought “thought out,” you will not have taken the 8) “Men have as their chief power a universal trouble, though in truth it is more of a delight than reason by which they live.” a trouble, to think things out for yourselves. And it 9) “My sister has made inroads on ideas and works won’t be long before you become “envious” of those that has made me—in the good Augustinian who have taken this trouble. “What’s that supposed sense—envious.” to mean?” It is supposed to mean that what is is what 10) “This, I say, is the world’s sin; it lives for this life, we think about. You have been to college in order to not for the next.” have begun to find out both what things mean and 11) “Philosophy is merely thought that has been thought out.” 

20 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Annual Meeting

Friday, September 23–Sunday, September 25, 2005 Washington, D.C.

Highlights of the meeting: The participants will be welcomed by members of the Board, President Bernard Dobranski, J.D. and Program Chairman, William E. May, Ph.D.

Thomas Weinandy, OFM Cap, Staff Theologian of the Doctrinal Committee, USCCB. will keynote the conference with his address Vatican II Today: 40 Years Later.

Peter J. Jugis, D.D., Bishop of Charlotte, will celebrate the closing Mass.

Among the topics are: Gaudium et Spes Lumen Gentium Dei Verbum and Dignitatis Humanae

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 21 BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS Culture and the Thomist Tradition After Vatican II, by Tracey Rowland, New York: Routledge, 2003

Reviewed by Daniel McInerny, ern culture as an appropriate seedbed for Christianity. Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture But Rowland also takes these sources as sufficiently united in their positive prescriptions for a renewal of t the Chrism Mass of the archdiocese Christian culture so as to claim them as members of of Boston during Holy Week 2004, what she calls the “Thomist” tradition. Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley com- The form of Rowland’s overall argument bor- pared the Catholic Church in the rows from MacIntyre’s discussions, chiefly in Whose United States to “exiles in the midst Justice? Which Rationality? and Three Rival Versions of Aof Babylon.” Catholics, he declared, “find themselves Moral Enquiry, of “epistemological crises” within tradi- in a hostile, alien environment where the overriding tions. Put briefly, a tradition of inquiry finds itself in temptation is to assimilate, the cultural pull is to con- an epistemological crisis when it is no longer able to form to a dominant cultural influence that is incon- solve its problems with the conceptual resources avail- gruous with our faith and our destiny.” able to it. The resolution of such a crisis is only found Archbishop O’Malley’s assessment of the cultural when richer conceptual resources are discovered that situation of contemporary Catholics in the United are capable of resolving the tradition’s original prob- States serves as a neat summary of the central claim lems. In taking up these ideas one might expect that, of Tracey Rowland’s compelling new book, Culture like MacIntyre, Rowland has in mind an epistemologi- and the Thomist Tradition After Vatican II. For Rowland, cal crisis being suffered by the modern liberal tradition. not only in the United States but also in the entirety But no. It is rather the crisis of the Thomistic tradition of the West, the Church is at a crisis point in which it that is her concern, a crisis caused by that tradition’s must recognize that the cultural structures surround- “undeveloped account of the role of culture in moral ing it are either implicitly or explicitly inimical to formation” (p. 3). her mission. To think that the Church can accom- Rowland’s first two chapters are thus devoted to modate itself without compromise to the political, identifying the Thomist tradition’s epistemological economic, and other cultural forces that characterize crisis in regard to culture, a crisis that she sees as com- the post-Christian, liberal democracies of the West ing to a head in the aftermath of the Second Vatican is for Rowland a naïve and dangerous illusion from Council. The Council was popularly interpreted as an which Catholics must liberate themselves. The chief accommodation to, or an updating to meet the require- resource in this work of liberation is, Rowland claims, ments of, modern culture. The pitfalls of this popular the Thomist tradition, yet the ambivalence of this interpretation, according to Rowland, are a result of tradition vis-á-vis its attitude to modernity, she fur- the Council’s failure, most notably in Gaudium et spes, ther claims, has jeopardized its ability to serve as the to provide a systematic, theological hermeneutic of appropriate sign of contradiction to the times. culture in general, and of the Church’s relationship Rowland’s argument takes its principal inspira- to modern culture, in particular. Hence, in Chapter 1, tion from two distinct though not entirely disparate Rowland recounts how in various conciliar interven- sources: on the one hand, the moral and political tions and post-conciliar speculations an understanding writings of Alasdair MacIntyre, and on the other, the of the autonomy of culture came more and more to be Communio circle of thinkers who have been deeply stressed—yet in such a way that any internal relation- influenced by Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von ship between culture and the Church’s salvific mis- Balthasar, in particular, David Schindler, Kenneth sion became increasingly ambiguous, if not absolutely Schmitz, and William Norris Clarke. What unites severed. Rowland’s main target here is “extrinsicism,” these sources, for Rowland, is their rejection of mod- which absolutely severs the internal relationship be-

22 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 tween the Church and culture, making culture au- inner form or logic of modern liberal culture, in par- tonomous in the Kantian sense of being absolutely ticular its claim to theological neutrality (Chapter 5). self-governing. Extrinsicism is opposed to integralism, Chapter 3 draws heavily upon MacIntyre’s cri- which also severs any internal relationship between tiques of the emotivist ethos of bureaucratized, liberal the Church and culture, but which still reserves for the institutions. Chapter 4 rejects the liberal notion of Church the prerogative of dictating terms to the so- self-formation—i.e., what it means to develop oneself called secular order (p. 29). Both extrinsicism and inte- culturally—insofar as it defines itself against a Christian gralism are mistaken, on Rowland’s view, because both account of an “aristocratic” formation of the soul, one make the mistake of severing, as opposed to merely that is essentially normative and perfective in char- distinguishing, the order of grace from the order of na- acter. Here Rowland makes some nice distinctions ture, thus leaving the arts and sciences which comprise between the Christian, aristocratic form of self-for- the heart of secular culture essentially bereft of internal mation, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the formation by Christian theology. self-formation of the aristocratic liberal (MacIntyre’s It is not the case, however, that for Rowland “aesthete”), the bourgeois (“mass man”) liberal, and Gaudium et spes fails to provide any guidance for the the Nietzschean man’s quest for authenticity. Finally, understanding of the proper relationship between the in Chapter 5, Rowland argues against the modern Church and culture. For in assessing the treatment understanding of an extrinsic relationship between the of culture within post-conciliar magisterial thought Gospel and culture. Here she upholds an intrinsic re- in Chapter 2, Rowland praises John Paul II’s fre- lationship between the same by relying on de Lubac’s quent references to paragraph 22 of Gaudium et spes, account of the grace-nature distinction. Rowland which states that ‘only in the mystery of the incarnate follows de Lubac in warning that “the idea of a pure Word does the mystery of man take on light.” The nature” tends toward extrinsicism, the severance of the Christocentrism of this statement has, according to supernatural realm from the rest of culture. The order Rowland, deep implications for a proper understand- of grace is thus relegated to the level of one’s private ing of the autonomy of culture. “In effect, it means concerns, and the so-called natural order, which in- that, while the natural and social sciences and the arts cludes the domain of culture, is allowed to trundle may be ‘autonomous’ in the sense that they are not the forward as an autonomous machine of self-assertion, subject of ecclesiastical governance, they are not ‘au- control and manipulation (p. 109). The antidote, ac- tonomous’ in the sense of having their own frames of cording to Rowland, can only be found in the taking reference external to the theology of the Incarnation” on by social practices of a new form, the “form of (p. 37). It is precisely this distinction that has enabled love.” Such cultural transformation “would require a John Paul II to offer his trenchant critiques of liberal rejection of the autonomy of the spheres of culture in modernity, most especially in Evangelium vitae, to the relation one another, and in particular the idea of their point of referring to modern liberal culture as a “cul- autonomy in relation to theology. It would also require ture of death.” Rowland avers that “John Paul II’s pub- that priority be given to doxology over work, to being lications lend weight to the argument that Liberalism, over doing” (p. 107). like Marxism, may be construed as a ‘philosophical Part II of Rowland’s book is thus devoted to the system, an ideology, a program for action and for the hostility of contemporary culture to Thomist prin- shaping of human behavior’ which is hostile to theism ciples, a hostility Rowland believes the Thomist tradi- in general, and the Thomist tradition in particular” (p. tion has insufficiently attended to, let alone addressed. 49). Hence the “epistemological crisis” suffered by the tra- Rowland’s defense of the claim that contemporary dition in the face of liberal modernity and Nietzschean culture is deeply inimical to Christianity comprises postmodernity. What the Thomist tradition needs to Part II of the book. Each one of the three chapters of do in order to resolve its crisis, Rowland contends, is Part II focuses on one aspect of liberal culture: the ethos above all to learn from MacIntyre and to recover the of modern institutions (Chapter 3); liberal culture’s idea of “a narrative tradition and its associate concept understanding of self-formation (Chapter 4); and the of a tradition-constituted rationality” (p. 115). Only

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 23 BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS this idea will enable the Thomist tradition to affirm To begin with what is clear: Rowland believes both the sense of transhistorical truth so attractive in there is an intrinsic relationship between nature and Enlightenment conceptions of rationality, and the sense grace, between philosophy and theology. Each member of historical consciousness that marks the Genealogical of these pairs is to be distinguished, though not sepa- tradition inspired by Nietzsche, while still rejecting the rated, from the other. Hence Rowland’s claim that the errors that bedevil each of these rival traditions. realm of culture, however outside the reach of direct Chapter 6, accordingly, lays emphasis upon the ecclesial governance, is never completely autonomous ways in which authentic rational inquiry into truth is from specifically Christian formation. always embedded within the social practices of a liv- What is less clear, however, is to what extent ing tradition, and preeminently within Christianity. Rowland thinks that nature can effectively be appealed Chapter 7 then takes up the objection that such tradi- to philosophically, i.e., independently of appeals to tion-constituted inquiry undermines the traditional Christian revelation. Within the debates of our present bulwark of the Thomist conception of natural law, cultural institutions and practices, whether religious, namely, the self-evident grasp, by virtually all plain political, economic, artistic, can nature serve as a source persons, of the first principles of practical reason. of common ground—indeed, as a source of transcen- Rowland does not at all deny the importance of the dent principle—for those approaching issues from a self-evidency of the first principles of practical reason. plurality of often conflicting viewpoints? But she does argue against the new natural law theory In certain passages Rowland’s understanding of the held by what she calls the “Whig Thomists” (i.e., John grace-nature distinction seems to diminish the impor- Finnis and his followers), which attempts to accom- tance of the purely philosophical approach to the tran- modate Thomist natural law theory to liberal concep- scendent. She invokes, for example, de Lubac’s criticism tions of rationality. Her dispute takes special aim at the of the neo-scholastic conception of the relationship new theory’s incommensurability thesis, underscoring between nature and grace, “according to which the the diminished role the thesis accords to the erstwhile natural and the supernatural each constituted a com- architectonic good of religion, as well as the new theo- plete and distinct order” (p. 102). The point of the ry’s espousal of liberalism’s dubious idiom and rhetoric neo-scholastic construal of the distinction was un- about rights. doubtedly noble. It was to “facilitate general agreement The moral of Rowland’s narrative might then be between theists and atheists about the natural order. summed up this way: any account of Christian moral The two could work together on the front of ‘natural’ and intellectual formation is not complete without an or ‘humanist’ projects, while the more socially conten- account of cultural practices and institutions which tious supernatural aspirations could be relegated to the open themselves up to the transcendentals of truth, privacy of the individual soul.” But Rowland finally beauty and goodness and above all to the revelation agrees with de Lubac that the cumulative effect of the of Christ witnessed to by the Church. Genuine moral neo-scholastic construal of the nature-grace distinction and intellectual formation, in other words, must always is “‘a total secularization that would banish God not be seen as formation in Christian culture. Any such only from social life but from culture and even from account of culture, moreover, must be the fruit of a the relationships of private life’” (p. 102). tradition-constituted inquiry, inspired by the principles This is not the place to get into the niceties of de of Thomist philosophy and theology, which overcomes Lubac’s criticisms of neo-scholasticism on the grace- the deficiencies of both the liberal and genealogical nature distinction. But it is the place to question how, strains of modern culture. on the cultural level, the forces of secularism can be These central claims are unassailable, and contained if we do not have a language to speak to Rowland’s arguments for them are impressive in many liberal secularists that they actually have ears to hear. To respects. Yet one major strand of her narrative of epis- smudge the boundaries between philosophy and theol- temological crisis and dialectical resolution remains ogy, as Rowland likes to put it, would seem to demand ambiguous, and that is her account of the role of na- that secular interlocutors assent to propositions of faith: ture and of philosophy in cultural formation. no doubt a conversation stopper in most instances.

24 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 Now, Rowland is absolutely right that, ideally, nature that serves as the foundation of human culture cultural practices and institutions must be open to is made to be fulfilled by the graces offered to us by the transcendent, and ultimately be Christocentric in Christ through His Church. character. And there is no doubt that the best way to The issue of nature arises again, finally, in introduce a sense of the transcendent into culture is Rowland’s discussion of natural law. Here she ap- through the active participation of Christians in the provingly quotes Ernest Fortin’s view that “a Thomist central institutions of culture. But it is not always the theory of natural law requires ‘not only that the con- case that the best way for Christians to Christianize tent of the natural law be naturally known to all human culture is by explicitly invoking elements of Christian beings,’ but that it be known precisely as ‘belonging to revelation. Many cultural institutions in the pluralistic a law which is both promulgated and enforced by God societies of the West will simply not be influenced by as the author of nature’” (p. 144). Does this mean that direct evangelization. They will only be influenced by in order to grasp the obligatory reasonableness of an arguments that are philosophical in nature, and which elemental rule of justice, such as the rule against not by an astute exercise in dialectical persuasion open physically harming an innocent person, one must also up rival interlocutors to the transcendent principles have an understanding of God as a providential law- Rowland rightly judges to be the life’s blood of genu- giver, which is to say, a revealed understanding of God? ine culture. Such arguments will be a propadeutic to If so, then Rowland’s argument undermines the force the faith, not a direct transmission of it. of natural law as a common ground for rational discus- In another passage, Rowland addresses the sup- sion between Christian believers and non-believers. posed neutrality of philosophy. She claims that “one’s The ambiguity remains when Rowland later quotes philosophical standpoint cannot be neutral in relation David Schindler to the effect that “there can be a uni- to the claims of revelation, even though no specific versal appeal to ethics in the sense of natural law; how- reference to the claims of revelation need ever be ever, any such universal appeal must be oriented, in its made in the formulation of a philosophical virtue beginning and all along the way, to the concrete form ethic” (p. 127). What Rowland seems to be arguing is that the universal takes in the personal life of Christ the following: Insofar as we regard the material con- and the sacramental life of the Church” (p. 146). Again, dition of the Christian philosopher, then it is true to if the point of the passage is to confirm the point that say that his philosophical viewpoint is not neutral to the ultimate telos of the natural law is to be found in his faith. His philosophical inquiries will always be living the Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity, inspired and guided by the dogmas of his faith. But then it is an appropriate confirmation of the intrinsic insofar we regard a Christian’s philosophical stand- relationship between nature and grace. But if the point point formally, i.e., precisely as philosophy, then his of the passage is to say that the natural law cannot be philosophy will be neutral to the specific claims of appealed to without reference to the sacramental life of Christian revelation, in the sense of not being able to the Church, then the natural law as a force for cultural pass judgment upon them. What Rowland does not formation, at least within the pluralist cultures of the state firmly enough, however, is that philosophy can West, is neutralized. never be neutral to theism, i.e., a philosophical theol- Yet this request for greater clarification on the role ogy that we can come to know through the natural of nature and of philosophy in Rowland’s narrative is light of human reason. Nor will such philosophy be meant to appreciate by way of joining her effort to en- neutral to the transcendentals, considered as naturally gage contemporary culture with the Thomist tradition. knowable aspects of reality. It is because no human For second only to the witness of a new generation of intellect is neutral to the claims of theism and the saints, what the modern age most requires is a renewed transcendentals that conversation between conflict- sense that talk of the transcendent is not a mere matter ing viewpoints, sacred and secular, is possible within of subjective desire or of religious faith, but a discourse the various institutions and practices of culture. This that is available to all human intellects by nature. This does not to make culture autonomous, in the sense conception of nature is perhaps the greatest contribu- of making Christian revelation extrinsic to it. For the tion of the Thomist tradition to the question of culture.

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 25 BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS Schillebeeckx, Phenomenology, and Vatican II

A Review of Eric Borgman’s Edward Schillebeeckx: influenced by the pioneers of phenomenology: i. e., A Theologian in His History: Vol. 1, A Catholic Theology Edmund Husserl, Max Scheler, Rudolf Otto, and of Culture (1914-1965) Trans. by John Bowden. Martin Heidegger. The next generation of Catholic Reviewed by John Francis Kobler, C.P., intellectuals using this mindstyle included Dietrich author of Vatican II and Phenomenology: von Hildebrand, Edward Schillebeeckx, Karl Rahner, Reflections of the Life-World of the Church Jean Danielou, Yves Congar, and Karol Wojtyla. Some of these thinkers were also influenced by the thought ince 1985 I have been insisting that the of secular phenomenologists: e. g., Schillebeeckx by mindstyle used to express the teachings Merleau-Ponty and Rahner by Heidegger. of Vatican II is a fusion of Thomism and What these Catholic intellectuals have in com- phenomenology, of conceptualism and mon is the “Problem of Being in History (i.e., in the existentialism. The only other prominent dynamics of the concrete field of human conscious- Stheologian I know who entertains a comparable ness, whether individual or corporate). The start- opinion is Fr. René Latourelle, SJ, formerly head of ing-point for this inquiry, as Edith Stein mentions, the theology department at the Gregorian University is “The Fact of Our Own Being.” This is a renewed in Rome. A new book has now been published quest for a metaphysics via a philosophical anthropology. which lends credence to this position and its wider In Crossing the Threshold of Hope Pope John Paul historical Catholic context. I refer to Eric Borgman’s II spells out the religious implications of this new Edward Schillebeeckx: A Theologian in His History: Vol. 1, methodology: A Catholic Theology of Culture (1914-1965) Trans. by For contemporary thought the philosophy of religion John Bowden. (New York: Continuum, 2003). is very important—for example the work of Mircea Erik Borgman is a Dutch layman and member Eliade and, for us in Poland, that of Archbishop of the Dominican Third Order. As a former student Marian Jaworski and the school of Lublin. We are of Schillebeeckx, he is a great admirer of his former witnesses of a symptomatic return to metaphysics (the phi- teacher. The book is so meticulous in detailed per- losophy of being) through an integral anthropology. One ception that it can only be acknowledged as a labor cannot think adequately about man without reference, of love. While Borgman wants to see Schillebeeckx’s which for man is constitutive, to God. Saint Thomas reform and renewal program carried on, he does defined this as actus essendi (essential act), in the lan- not hesitate to criticize important facets of his guage of the philosophy of existence. The philosophy of teacher’s intentions in a serene and clear-headed religion expresses this with the categories of anthropo- logical experience. way. If anything, Borgman is more “progressive” than Schillebeeckx. himself. The philosophers of dialogue, such as Martin Buber Why am I focusing on Schillebeeckx as a classic and the aforementioned Lévinas, have contributed case of a 1960s European theologian using phenom- greatly to this experience. And we find ourselves by enology for his religious purposes? For the simple now very close to Saint Thomas, but the path passes reason that most Catholic intellectuals in Northern not so much through being and existence as through Europe had been using this variegated methodology people and their meeting each other, through the since the 1920s. Most American Catholics, how- “I” and the “Thou.” This is a fundamental dimension of ever, had little or no acquaintance with this style of man’s existence, which is always coexistence. thought or its implications. Perhaps the best known Where did the philosophers of dialogue learn of the early users of phenomenology were Erich this? Foremost, they learned it from their experience Przywara, Romano Guardini, Karl Adam, Edith Stein, of the Bible. In the sphere of the everyday man’s entire and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. These thinkers were life is one of “coexistence”—“thou” and “I”—and

26 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 also in the sphere of the absolute and definitive: “I” and to formulate Lumen Gentium, is a fusion of Casel’s “THOU.” The Biblical tradition revolves around this existential phenomenology with Aquinas’ theology “THOU,” who is first the God of Abraham, Isaac, of the sacraments. Thus, there are nine sacraments: and Jacob, the God of the Fathers, and then the God the well-known seven, the Church as the Sacrament of Jesus Christ and the apostles, the God of our faith.. of Christ, and Christ as the Sacrament of God. (I Our faith is profoundly anthropological, rooted can only assume he is speaking analogically here.) constitutively in coexistence, in the community Schillebeeckx advances his argument somewhat lyri- of God’s people, and in communion with this eternal cally by pointing out that God had truly become “THOU.”Such coexistence is essential to our Judeo- man in Christ and that He is pre-eminently a human Christian tradition and comes from God’s initiative. God, a Deus humanissimus. Yet more, a “humanization This initiative is connected with and leads to cre- of God” took place in Christ: “God himself is man” ation, and is at the same time—as St. Paul teaches— and allows himself to be known as God in the form “the eternal election of man in the Word who is the of a concrete human life. Christ, then, is the primor- Son” (cf. Eph. 1:4). dial sacrament of the encounter with God, a “hypo- What the Holy Father is describing here is man’s static sacrament,” the manifestation and revelation of internal “world” (lebenswelt) of experienced truths God, the supreme representative of mankind. In this and values which shape the religious culture of his type of incarnational spirituality Christ functions as life in the community of the Church. Since this psy- a concrete universal, the paradigm of a new humanity, chic complex constitutes a Christocentric anthropol- exemplifying the dynamic interaction of divinity and ogy, it necessarily has a sacramental structure, much humanity. like that described by Pope Innocent III in 1202. In Even though such stylistics were incorporated Lumen Gentium, for example, the Light of Christ is into the constitution Lumen Gentium, I find it hard posited as the sacramentum et res along with its inher- to believe that such a radical theological attitude shift ent grace-dynamis (res et non sacramentum) in order to originally inspired the mind of John XXIII when he discern those empirical religious human experiences convoked the council. In Humanae Salutis (1961) he (sacramentum et non res) which are compatible with wrote: “The Christian community is ... in great part the truths and moral values of Christ. What is pro- transformed and renewed.” Due to the Signs of the jected here in human consciousness is an eidetic vision: Times his major concerns were focused on the dan- i.e., a Transfiguration of Humanity or Totus Homo ger of nuclear war, the corruption of moral values by Phaenomenicus (the Whole Man as a phenomeno- atheistic materialism and the conspicuous consump- logical reality), as Paul VI said in his last talk to the tion by the wealthy, and the critical need to amelio- bishops at Vatican II. What the council fathers have rate poverty on a global basis. It seems, in short, that done here in an artistic, iconographical way is to project John XXIII was not looking for a great speculative the Church, the Mystical Body, as a Great People- development in Christian humanism but a down- Sacrament of Christ. to earth demonstration model of the Church as the In Schillebeeckx’s thought (as well as that of Good Samaritan trying to remedy the problems of a Vatican II) the theme of the sacraments as dimen- world in crisis. The Pope’s lasting heritage regarding sions or facets of mystery plays an important role. such issues is his final encyclical Pacem in Terris (1963), Although originally stimulated by Odo Casel’s phe- a phenomenological reflection largely the work of nomenological analysis of Greek mystery religions Pietro Pavan. and Christian liturgy, Schillebeeckx—more focused The above ideas were not the priori- on the bible and the church fathers—concluded ties of Northern European theologians, such as that the significance of the liturgy lay in the way in Schillebeeckx, who had been working with the which it pointed to something that lay outside the phenomenological tradition for over a half-century. ritual: i. e., the mystery of Christ is the primordial In their minds the Church was not “transformed and sacrament whereby all the other sacraments are un- renewed.” Its style of doctrinal and moral reflec- derstood. This style of reflection, essentially that used tions was locked into a neoscholastic conceptualism

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 27 BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS which modern intellectuals neither understood nor in Terris. Rather than seeing this document as an at- respected. Its rigid doctrinal and moral system made tempt to confront would problems in a creative way, little allowance for cultural adaptation and dialogical Schillebeeckx pointed to “the sanctifying tendency openness. The authority structure of pope and curia towards secularization in the church,” and a tendency needed to be more respectful of the local bishop’s au- of the world to become the church. However ambiguous thority. And certainly, a more open attitude had to be these ideas may be, they are rooted in a psychological developed regarding birth control and the decisions change in Schillebeeckx’s outlook on religion itself: of personal conscience. In such a socio-cultural con- Religion now is none other than the experience of the text theologians like Schillebeeckx were intent on depth-dimension of our life, but at the same time as a transforming the Council from being a handbook of relief of our existence-in-the-world. Religion is thus doctrinal statements into a great historical EVENT, a a depth meaning, a fine sense of the deepest and most liberating EXODUS leaving behind forever the an- silent in all things, in ourselves and in others: God’s tiquated authoritarianism and rigid conceptualism of ultimate presence which is a giving and getting, attrac- the past. tive, ever-active presence. Prayer is none other than the We are now into some very serious business on meaningful experience of this situation. a slippery slope. Schillebeeckx never appreciated the Spoken like a true phenomenologist... infectious dynamic of the Council as resident in its Toward the end of this first volume Borgman concrete documents. In his opinion the very com- makes a very good point: the biography of a theolo- position of the Council’s membership forestalled any gian has to be a biography of thinking, seeking and return to the theology of the past: 63% of the bishops finding God, of living-as-a-theologian, and one’s thought in existentialist terms whereas 37% thought own biography must take the form of a theological in essentialist terms. This had an important impact on autobiography. This type of biography can be implic- the achievements and meaning of Vatican II. In 1964 itly stated in one’s preaching, writing, or actions. In Schillebeeckx said: Schillebeeckx’s case his reflections on human expe- [T]his Council ... in all kinds of areas [produces] such riences would project his individual biography or openness that after it the church can begin to live at personhood. At Vatican II the Council’s group reflec- an accelerated pace: so much will burst out that—and tions on human experiences, both ad intra and ad this seems to me to be the wonderful thing about this extra, project the corporate biography or personhood of Council—in fifteen years it will already seem antiquated, the Church. In both cases the finalized hermeneutics though compared with the time before the Council serve as a mirror of the true image being reflected. it represents a greater step forward than to my knowl- In Vatican II’s case where human experience reflects edge any Council has ever taken [emphasis added]. the Glorified Christ, we have a Transfiguration of Schillebeeckx considered the main achievement Humanity. In Schillebeeckx’s case, due to his shifting of the Council to be the rediscovery of Christianity mindstyle, I have no firm grasp of his inner vision. as an EVENT. This insight regarding the salvation- Borgman gives us some hints about this when he historical character of the Christian faith—developed briefly discusses Schillebeeckx’s apostolate after the by theologians in the 1950s—became a living dyna- Council. In my opinion, however, his shift to theology mism in the Church by way of Vatican II. This dy- as a historical enterprise is a most precarious one. This namic, as a theology of culture, swept people up into shift does not betoken the technocratic hermeneutics the Council as a pastoral reality experienced by way of scripture studies but the philosophical hermeneu- of a new doctrinal sensitivity. tics of intellectuals such as Hans-Georg Gadamer. It was in this frame of mind that Schillebeeckx After the Council, according to Borgman, opined that the Council would stand or fall on what Schillebeeckx began to detach himself from his earlier was to become the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et theology due to his reflections on secularization and Spes. The bishops had finally gotten around to deal- the cultural dominance of pluralism. He got himself ing with the concrete pastoral problems which John enmeshed in the phenomenological problem of the XXIII had outlined in Humanae Salutis and Pacem “presence and absence” of God. While in the grip of

28 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 this rethinking of his starting-point, he not only aban- basic principle of hermeneutics: no single interpreta- doned the phenomenological teachings of his teacher tion exhausts the significance of texts, things, events or Dominicus De Petter, OP, but also the Thomistic happenings. This principle launches us into the Age of principles which had guided his thought up to the Dialogue (Relativism?) with a vengeance, and fore- Council. Eventually he ended up focusing on the bible shadows the Church as a democracy. In such a context within the ambit of biblical scholarship. Borgman Vatican II could easily be “the last of the Councils.” We seems to think that scriptural hermeneutics replaced must await the second volume of Borgman’s superlative the role that De Petter’s philosophy exercised on the biography to find out how such principles impacted on early Schillebeeckx. It may profit us to remember a Schillebeeckx’s mind and actions.

BOOK REVIEWS

Priest: Portraits of Ten Good Men I read these priests as both cha- lives we have loved and love today for Serving the Church Today, by Michael grined and humiliated by the sins being not only good priests but being S. Rose, Manchester, NH.: Sophia of disgraced priests. To a man they better prople than most of us. Cleric Institute Press, 2003. x + 185, soft- are convinced that those who have Lauer is kind but not touchy-feely cover $14.95 crashed and burned did so because and he is a tough guy about seri- both they and their superiors grew ous things. “The presentation of the Reviewed by John Adam Moreau, Ph.D, indifferent to their spiritual lives. Gospel message,” says he, “is not an Richmond, VA Repeatedly these 10 priests are, optional contribution for the Church. without sneering or self-congratula- It’s the duty incumbent on her by closed this fine book grateful for tion, convinced the ruin of the fallen the command of Jesus, so that people its power to humble and to in- priests is related to a fondness for can believe. It is the truth.”I rather Ispire and more than ever starkly comfort; avidity for career advance- liked to think of him growing into aware of the decline and confusion of ment in the church; to what one wise old age, puffing on a pipe, elbow Roman Catholicism of Rose’s priests calls a priest’s self- patches on his sweater, visited by ad- Author Rose is widely respected parody of himself; to having suffered mirers, called on to conduct retreats, for his pungent essays and for books too little; being too busy with nones- reading late into the night, playing such as Goodbye, Good Men, about the sentials, and to laziness and indiffer- his favoite CDs, hearing confessions. scandalous state of North American ence. That is, they were like many of Wrong. As I write this review I am as seminaries, and Ugly as Sin: Why They us laymen. I was when I got to that page—my Changed Our Churches from Sacred A compelling aspect of the book heart is in my throat. Fr Lauer died a Places to Meeting Spaces—And How We is how distinctive his subjects are in young man, of cancer, in mean digs, Can Change Them Back Again. their accomplishments and how in- saying mass in his bed almost to the The context I bring to this review is teresting and likeable they are in their end. From that page I went back to that of a WASP (white Anglo Saxon fine points and shortcomings.Fr Al- one of Rose’s themes. Rose writes:”It Papist) cradle Catholic,66, who as a bert E. Lauer, for instance, overcame has taken a series of formidable sex Tridentine Latin mass advocate has all sorts of obstacles in the Cincinnati scandals, unprecedented in modern joined with those who have circled slums and obstacles set up at diocesan times, to bring many of the well- the wagons in the face of liturgical headquarters. When his car conked meaning to their senses, to acknowl- and other wreckage since Vatican II. out for good one day he hitch hiked edge the stark reality. The priesthood Like many I tend to see the worst the rest of the way to visit the hospi- is more than worth defending. But in the current crisis of Roman Ca- talized. Before he could buy another it’s worth defending for what it is and tholicism. If these 10 priests do, they car he found that he was routinely ought to be.” Even knowing there disguise such unease by slogging and easily getting rides and so he are many splendid priests beyond through each day with a routine of never got another car.Father already Fr Lauer and Rose’s other nine, it is self-effacement,offering the sacra- had embraced poverty of the soul and obvious how over-all they are a scarce ments and trying to help their sheep rather than seeing him as a flake we breed amid the decline and confusion be good. recognize in him the priests in our of our belovedchurch.It won’t spoil

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 29 BOOK REVIEWS this book for you as a good read if I than his being an obedient priest. As The Roots of Science and its Fruits, give you some snapshots of some of I read Priests, I was surprised by many by Peter E. Hodgson, London: The the writer’s other chapters. Think of a of these men saying that often the Saint Austin Press, 2002. 222pp. priest who: empty of heart come home to Rome —Was run out of Princeton because because they are captured by “the Reviewed by Joseph M. De Torre, Univer- of his orthodoxy and who makes a beauty of Catholic worship.” I had to sity Professor Emeritus, Social and Politi- good case that college is the most think hard and stare earnestly at my cal Philosophy, University of Asia and the important chaplaincy nowadays. own habitual peevishness about New Pacific, Philippines —Was just one of two clerics sent Order liturgy ut it.There is consider- after the collapse of the USSR to able anecdoctal evidence on how very ittle did Aquinas suspect, when minister to Catholics in the Russian much marginalized, how very much he wrote In librum Boethii de Far East, in size larger than the USA. likeceremonial parsley many priests, LTrinitate in mid-13th century —Lives in the skin of a soldier be- even with the shortage, have come to that he was providing the “magic cause he once was himself a soldier. feel themselves to be inthe wake an formula” or theoretical formula- So he knows he must be aleader. He often ravaged liturgy and the gaggle tion of the scientific method for the is not a psychologist or sociologist, he of showoff laymen trotting around breakthrough in modern physics in says, but a priest. A priest who leads, thesanctuary.Light bulb time. Bingo! all its ever multiplying branches. In a he says, gives mlitary men the “love The very lives Rose’s priests lead lengthy discussion on the classifica- of Christ, the medicine of Christ.” automatically keep them from be- tion of all the sciences (q.5, aa. I and Such a leader, he says, helps Catholic ingmarginalized. We aren’t told what 3), he came to the conclusion that soldiers “understand the teachings of they think of present day liturgy and mathematics, applied to empirical the Catholic Church and assists them liturgial quarrels. Weonly know they observation and experimentation, was in every wayto accept those teachings believe and preach and teach what the the key to open the human mind to and to live by them.” church teaches about what happens all the secrets of the physical or “natu- —Was exiled to the sticks for his atmass and they ferventlty want their ral” world, namely what Newton orthodoxy and there revived physi- lambs to have that food. I conclude would later call “natural philosophy” cally and spiritually a despoiled par- that somemthing extra is happening in his epoch-making Philosophiae Nat- ish, and later in Detroit befriended and it is that when these good priests uralis Principia Mathematica (1687). a literally stinking street bum. As it say masstheir exceptionalness makes Aquinas was not however, alone in turned out the derelict had a history the liturgy beautiful to the people reaching this insight: his contempo- of performing opera and helped make they are serving.For us laymen, for raries Robert Grosseteste and Roger the pianist priest’s music program clergy, and especially for teenagers, this Bacon in Oxford were also on the exceptional. book is an implicit handbook onhow move in the beginnings of modern —Simply doesn’t pal around and get to be a priest. It also is a treatise on mathematical physics, with an earlier all folksy with his parishioners but why we laymen must be ever more pioneer in John Philoponus. Thus pours out himself in service to their vigilent in esteeming our priests, sup- science received a notable thrust in needs, screwups, joys, fears. porting them, understanding them, the following centuries with Rich- —Because he was a 7/24/365 chap- and obeying them when it is right to ard of Middleton, John Buridan and lain in Covington, KY, who never do so. Seen this way we can rejoice Nicolas Oresme in Paris, hence-for- went without wearing his collar, that there are men like the Domini- ward reaching up to Nicolas of Cusa, brought police officers into or back can, James Mary Sullivan, whohas no Leonardo da Vinci, Nicholas Coper- to the church. puzzlement about his vows. He says nicus, Johann Kepler, Tycho Brahe, —Balks at the slightest suggestion poverty, chastity and obedience have Gaileo Galilei, and so forth, in a daz- that a priest at mass should be a talk given him a happy life.We can rejoice zling escalation of discoveries. But not show host or anentertainment czar. also in Fr Eduard (yes, editor, that for nothing did Newton affirm that And, finally, who: spelling) Perrone, who tells a would- in the field of science, and its interac- —Finds it a curious idea that any be to notseek the priesthood if he is a tion with technology, “we are stand- priest would think his opinions “wimp.” He says of wannabe’s’: “This ing on the shoulders of giants”. would be considered more important is a time for fighters.” Two outstanding scholars of our time, Stanley L. Jaki and Peter E. Hodgson, have both of them based

30 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 their parallel works on the research of between the rise of science and Cath- quote, another important work ought the French historian of science, Pierre olic Theology, was not welcomed by to be cited, J. F. C. Hearnshaw (ed.), Duhem. In the book under review, the anti-clerical establishment of the Medieval Contributions to Modern Civi- Prof. Hodgson, a prestigious nuclear Third Republic, or by the rationalist lization (New York: Barnes & Noble, physicist from Oxford University and and secularists who dominated at he 1921). member of the Pontifical Academy of historiography of science and they saw The subtitle of the book under re- Sciences, reports: to it that his work was virtually ig- view explicates the title: The Christian “Duhem was born in Paris nored. Tragically, Duhem died in 1916 Origin of Modern Science and its Impact in 1861 and studied at the Ecole at the age of 55, leaving the last five on Human Society. The author tackles Normale. He soon established his volumes of The Structure of the World this central theme, which he has been scientific reputation by studies of in manuscript. The publishers and the demonstrating since the 70’s, in CH. thermodynamics and is widely secularists were determined to prevent 18: “How did Science begin?” known through his derivation of the their publication because they knew “Are there beliefs about the Gibbs-Duhem equation. He also had that it demolished their beliefs about world,” he writes, “that must be held a long standing interest in the his- the Middle Ages. There followed a before science can begin? Introspec- tory of mechanics, and was invited long battle, and it was not until 1954 tion suggests that the would-be sci- to write a series of articles on the that Duhem’s daughter Hél�ne and entist must believe that the world is subject. He followed the story from some of his friends finally succeed in interesting and that it is worthwhile the Renaissance back to its medieval forcing their publication. trying to understand it. For science roots, and became aware of a con- “Duhem is considered to be the to be possible, the world must behave tinuous development through the founder of the history of science, and in a consistent way, for otherwise Middle Ages. He studied the works in the years since his death there have what we find out one day world not of Leonardo da Vinci, and found that been many studies of the medieval sci- be true on the next. Thus it must be he obtained many of his ideas from ence by Alastrair Crombie, Anneliese rational and orderly, but not in the medieval thinkers. Delving into dusty Maier, Marshall Clagett, Edward same way as mathematics, for then manuscripts in the Sorbonne, he Grant, Ernest Moody and others that we would try to find out about it by found evidence of intense intellectual have substantially confirmed his work, pure thought. We need to believe that activity during the Middle Ages, and though naturally correcting it in some the order in the world is not unique; a leading part was played by the mas- details. it could be otherwise, so that to find ters of the Paris schools, particularly “Duhem also worked on the phi- out how it actually is we must make John Buridan and Nicholas Oresme. losophy of science and his book on experiments. These are some of the “Making use of the earlier work, The Aim and Structure of Physical beliefs it seems must be held before and taking into account the Catholic Theory is well known. He maintained science can begin. doctrine of creation, Buridan criti- that the principal task of a scientific “It is generally believed that cized Aristotle’s ideas about motion theory is to represent in mathematical modern science began during the and developed his impetus theory. terms and experimental laws as simply Renaissance, but the French physi- His ideas were widely published and and exactly as possible, while insist- cist-historian Pierre Duhem found strongly influenced the subsequent ing on the need for common sense to that there is a continuous develop- development of mechanics. provide assurance about the reality of ment going back much earlier, into “Duhem told this story in a series the world.” (pp. 82-83) the High Middle Ages. At that time of books: The Evolution of Mechanics For his part, Prof. Jaki, aside from the fundamental beliefs were those of (1903), The Origin of Statics (1905), his Uneasy Genius: The Life and Work of Christian theology, and it is notable Studies of Leonardo da Vinci in three Pierre Duhem (Matinus Nijhoff, 1984) that these beliefs are just those listed volumes (1906-13) and finally the ten has not failed to mention in his vari- above as necessary for the develop- monumental volumes of The Structure ous works the debt owed to Etienne ment of science. They believed that of the World (1906-59). All this was Gilson for the abundant scholarly the world is good and therefore wor- done in addition to his main activity evidence of the astonishing creativity thy of study because it was made by as a professor of physics. of the Middle Ages in all the branches God. The world is orderly because it “Duhem’s demonstration of the of learning, including modern science. shares His rationality, but it is not a importance of medieval thought, and And in addition to historians of sci- necessary order. They also believed particularly of the close connection ence mentioned by Hodgson in the that we must try to understand the

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 31 BOOK REVIEWS world, and then use our knowledge a long section on the development of science and technology without falling to improve our conditions of life. nuclear physics (his specialty) and its into the worship of either. “Thus people in the Middle Ages impact on society with its ethical and We can conclude the review of this had all the beliefs about the material cultural implications. This is followed very valuable book with a quotation world that are necessary for science by a section on “the philosophy of of John Paul II: to grow and develop. The most basic science,”,and a final one on “the “Scientists today often recognize the science is physics, and the most basic Church and Science”. need to maintain a distinction between problem in physics is the motion of One point I would like to take the mind and the brain, or between particles. A philosopher in Paris, John issue on is regarding the way Prof. the person acting with free will and Buridan, was thinking about the mo- Hodgson claims that Newton syn- the biological factors which sustain his tion of projectiles and why they con- thesized the rationalism of Descartes intellect and capacity to learn. In this tinue to move even after they have with the empiricism of Francis Ba- distinction, which need not be a separa- tion, we can see the foundation of that left the thrower. The Christian belief con. The fact is that Descartes had spiritual dimension proper to the hu- in the creation of the world from started discrediting the senses (em- man person which biblical Revelation nothing gave him the idea that in the piria) as they way for the mind to explains as a special relationship with beginning God gave the projectiles a contact reality, while Bacon (not to God the Creator (cf. Genesis 2:7) in certain impetus that remained in the be confused with Roger Bacon) re- whose image and likeness every man projectiles and kept them going. This garded the senses as the only avenue and woman is made.” is the concept that we now know as to reality. Newton was wise enough (cf. Genesis 1:26-27). momentum, and eventually Buridan’s to follow the Scholastic doctrine that Address to Pontifical Academy of Sci- idea became Newton”s First Law knowledge begins with the senses but ences, November 10, 2003. of Motion. Thus we see the detailed goes beyond into abstractions, both connection between the Christian mathematical (physics) and trans- An Introduction to the Love of Wis- beliefs about the material world and sensible (metaphysical). Newton’s dom: An Essential and Existential the origin of science. position moved Kant to criticize both Approach to Philosophy. By James A. “The ideas of Buridan and his pure rationalism and pure empiricism. Harold. Lanham, Maryland: University pupil Oresme spread to other uni- Be that as it may, the real scientific Press of America, Inc., 2004. versities and were familiar to the method, formulated by Aquinas as ex- Rennaissance scientists who finally plained above, ignored both Descartes Review by D. Q. McInerny, Professor succeeded in showing how motions (affirming the senses) and Bacon (af- of Philosophy, Our Lady of Guadalupe could be described mathematically in firming mathematics), and ensured Seminary, Lincoln, NE a consistent way. This culminated in the breakthrough of modern science. the work of Newton, who combined I have explained this point at length here is always a need for a the rationalism of Descartes with the in Contemporary Philosophical Is- good textbook which can empiricism of Bacon to develop his sues in Historical Perspective (Pasig Tbe used in an introductory theory of motion. With his three laws, City, Philippines: University of Asia course in philosophy, and Professor together with the principle of gravi- and the Pacific, 2001), Ch. 13. By James Harold’s An Introduction to the tational attraction, he showed how accepting both mathematics (rejected Love of Wisdom succeeds in meeting terrestrial and celestial motions can by Bacon) and empirical observation that need in many significant ways. be treated in a unified way, and the (rejected by Descartes), Aquinas had The book seeks to be comprehensive motions of the moon and the planets both secured the breakthrough in in its treatment of philosophy; it pro- calculated to high accuracy. This es- physics and the metaphysical knowl- vides the student with an impressive tablished science as a self-sustaining edge of the human person as the basis overview of the discipline as a whole, enterprise that is still growing today. for ethics. Thus, be secured the foun- but gives special emphasis to the fields As we do our scientific work, we can dation of the unique dignity of both of metaphysics and ethics. The guid- remember the origin of the beliefs on the human person and the nobility ing purpose of the book is to present which it is based.” (pp. 47-48). of the natural sciences at the service the fundamentals of philosophy, both Prof. Hodgson goes on to display of both the human person, without the ideas and the methodology, in a an impressive parade of scientists up falling into the subsequent scientism way that brings the discipline into to out time. Two dozen scientists are or “positivism” of the Vienna Circle. immediate contact with everyday life. reviewed quite in detail, followed by Thus, he reaffirmed the nobility of This is the mark of the author’s “ex-

32 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 istential approach.” One of the signal Being,” in which Professor Harold ing refutation. There is no argument. strengths of the book is to be found delineates the fundamental principles Systematically to doubt things that in the clarity and straightforward- of metaphysics. There are, in my view, one once accepted without doubt is ness of its style, a most happy feature, in this chapter and beyond, some not to demonstrate that those things and one which is not always to be rather serious problems that are inte- are in fact doubtful. More precisely, found, unfortunately, in philosophi- gral to arguments on which the book simply to deny that the self-evident cal writing. There are any number of centrally depends, and I would like, is such in no way demonstrates that topics in the book which are handled in the spirit of fraternal philosophi- the self-evident is anything other especially well, such as, for example, cal dialogue, address them here. If in than the self-evident. What we have Professor Harold’s treatments of the what follows I may at times appear to here is a situation in which a doubter principle of identity and of ethical get a bit overly rambunctious, it is not does nothing more than make public relativism. His critique of sociology is because I seek to be contentious sim- certain private mental exercises he has crisp and perspicacious. His detailed ply for the sake of being contentious. engaged in. presentation of two of the traditional Philosophy, after all, is serious busi- Descartes’ point of departure for proofs for the existence of God, the ness, and it should be take seriously, his methodological doubt is his al- proof from contingent being and and the ideas under discussion here most gratuitous contention that sense the proof from finality in nature (the are far from trivial, going to the very knowledge is untrustworthy. I say Third and Fifth Ways of St. Thomas) heart, as I believe, of what constitutes “almost gratuitous” because in this is in the main competently and even a sound philosophy. case he does at least make an attempt forcefully done. Professor Harold is willing to at- to offer something like proofs in sup- The “Dictionary of Terms” at tribute more worth, and success, to port of his contention. But they are the back of the book is a helpful ad- the philosophy of Rene Descartes anything but compelling. Indeed, they dendum, especially for students who than it deserves. A specific and, need- backfire on him, and end by showing are tyros in philosophy. Another ad- less to say, crucially important issue the essential trustworthiness of his dendum which would be of no little which is dealt with in the book is the senses, for he must rely on his senses aid to such students is an essay en- question of the real existence of the to show the senses are supposedly titled, “How to Write a Philosophy external world. Is there a real world unreliable. You cannot kick against Paper.” In it Professor Harold lays out there, or is it all in my head? The the goad. And as for Descartes’s out a sound set of directives for the real existence of the external world apparently serious concern over beginner, providing advice relating was, of course, one of the things Des- whether he was awake or dreaming, to the basic mechanics of writing a cartes brought himself to doubt. Pro- about which much has been made, good paper, but also, and more im- fessor Harold writes: “What Descartes there is no effort on Descartes’ part portantly, showing the student what it ends up destroying with his method- to employ anything like philosophic means to think philosophically. Each ological doubt is the absolute certi- demonstration to settle the issue. chapter in the book is followed by a tude we have of the objectivity of the One would have supposed that, if list of “Discussion Questions” which external world. Oddly enough, how- a person had serious doubts as to are particularly noteworthy for their ever much sympathy we have for St. whether, here and now, he was awake comprehensiveness and rich sug- Thomas’s position, it seems very dif- or dreaming, he would take pains to gestiveness. They are “challenging” ficult to refute Descartes’ argument.” resolve the doubt philosophically. For in all the best ways, provocative of In point of fact, what Descartes ends example, he might say: “Let me sup- genuinely productive lines of thought. up destroying with his methodologi- pose that I am dreaming right now. Through these question Professor cal doubt is nothing else than the What would follow, or what would Harold provides his readers with an philosophical efficacy of method- also have to be the case, if my dream- object lesson in the art of philosophi- ological doubt. He could properly ing were to be the case?” And then he cal inquiry. Students are invited to be said to have destroyed absolute would attempt systematically to work examine critically a wide variety of certitude regarding the objectivity out some satisfactory answers to that positions and points of view, not ex- of the external world only for those question. What success such an ef- cluding those proposed by the author who are prepared to deny that the fort might yield is itself an interesting himself. self-evident is in fact self-evident. It is question, but the point is Descartes Perhaps the focal chapter in the by no means difficult to refute Des- made no such effort. He simply poses book is the third, “The Basics of cartes, for he offers nothing demand- a question–How do I know I am not

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 33 BOOK REVIEWS dreaming right now?–and expects the philosophy at work. no real demonstration, then he leaves question to be accepted as reflect- What Descartes did, to free him- us without the critical certitude we ing a serious philosophical position. self from the prison house of doubt would need regarding the existence It is nothing of the kind. A question in which he had incarcerated himself, of an all good, non-deceiving God, is not an argument. The only proper was to appeal to divine assistance. and without that pivotal certitude response to the question is, How do He had to be assured that he was we could have no certitude, practical you know you are not awake right not a helpless pawn in the hands of or otherwise, of the existence of the now? The confusion should work a malign spirit, but rather that he external world. Cartesianism, as a phi- both ways. Arguments deserve argu- lived in a friendly universe which losophy, offers no relief for those who mentative responses, silly questions was the creation, along with himself, think that the reality of the external should be responded to with silly of an all good and benevolent God world constitutes a real problem. It questions. who could neither deceive nor be first manufactures the problem, then Professor Harold seems sufficiently deceived. Descartes had to call upon exacerbates it. Far from providing us persuaded by Cartesian reasoning to God for assistance, as the single anti- with an efficacious beginning for phi- allow him to aver that, “We only have dote against the poison of doubt. (It losophizing, Cartesianism spells the a practical certainty with respect to was concerning this point that Blaise end of all philosophy. As Etienne Gil- the existence of the external world.” Pascal accused Descartes of effectively son repeatedly and tellingly argued, A practical certainty, he explains, is using God as a deus ex machina, sim- the philosopher who begins with one with respect to which “a skepti- ply a means by which he attempted doubt inevitably ends with doubt. cal doubt is theoretically possible.” to salvage his philosophy.) But before And yet Professor Harold would Nonetheless, the certainty in question he could call upon God for assistance seem to believe that there is some- is just that, and one for which we can he had to prove that there was a God thing to be said in favor of the cogito. thank Rene Descartes. The supposi- to call upon. And here is the critical For him, among other things, it tion behind the claim made here is move in his philosophy, upon which, “demonstrates real existence,” and that Descartes succeeded in execut- by his own admission, the success or is a source “of a theoretical, abso- ing a critical move in his reasoning, the failure of that philosophy would lute certainty.” More generally, he a move that was intended by him absolutely depend. Everything rested acknowledges what he calls the “the to eradicate doubt and to restore to on the success of his attempt to reasonability of Descartes’ position.” him an external world that need no prove the existence of God. Actu- It must be stressed that Professor Har- longer be doubted. Let us recall that ally, he made two attempts, both of old takes great pains in the book to critical move. Descartes eventually which are to be found in his Medita- establish what he takes to be a sound came to see that the morass of doubt tions. One of them is his version of case for the real existence of the ob- into which he had plunged himself as the classical “ontological argument,” jective world, and that his favoring the result of the relentless application which finds its most powerful expres- of Cartesian reasoning is in no way of his method was something from sion in St. Anselm’s Proslogion.. The to be construed as a capitulation to which he was powerless to extricate other is very much like the ontologi- scepticism. But what does not seem himself. He needed outside help. He cal argument, in the salient fact that to be sufficiently appreciated is that had succeeded in doubting, among a both of them start in the same place: Cartesianism, rather than being a raft of other things, his own body, the in the mind of Rene Descartes. As remedy for scepticism, is a recipe for external world of course, and–rather philosophical arguments they fail, and it. He contends that, “It is this cogito amazingly, given the formidable with them Cartesian philosophy fails. (“I think”) which enables him [Des- mathematician that he was–even the Why do they fail? In a word, because cartes] to overcome his methodologi- seemingly perfect invulnerability of they do not demonstrate. Any true cal doubt and constitutes his reply to simple arithmetical statements. He philosophical demonstration must the skeptics.” But how might this be convinced himself that he could, with begin in the public arena, with data, so? All that the cogito “proves” is (a) a straight face, even doubt that 2 + facts, which are self-evidently true for the existence of Descartes, and (b) for 2 = 4, for how did he know that his all parties to the argument. Both of Descartes alone. Why should a purely mind was not being manipulated by Descartes’ putative demonstrations for subjective exercise impress any seri- a malign spirit, who was convincing the existence of God begin with an ous-minded sceptic, whose doubts, him that 2 + 2 = 4 when in fact 2 idea in Descartes’ mind, to which he if he enjoys reasonable psychological + 2 = 5. Thus the father of modern alone has access. If Descartes offers us health, are directed, not at his own

34 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 existence, but at the existence of ex- review, in what follows I will simply well. ternal things? I wrote “proves” rather set down several quotations from the –“On the other hand, this does than proves above to indicate that author and then offer brief responses not imply that St. Thomas’s assump- there is something deeply disconcert- to them. Each quotation may be tak- tion about the existence of the world ing, from both a psychological and en to be representative of patterns of is all that inappropriate, especially in philosophical point of view, in the thought that receive developed treat- those cultural circumstances where need that any person might feel to ment in the book. skepticism is not an issue.” convince himself, by argument, that –“The existence of the world I think it safe to say that St. he exists. The emperor is naked, and does not overcome Descartes’s meth- Thomas did not assume the existence the self-evident self needs no proof. odological doubt.” Descartes’ meth- of the world; he took it as self-evi- Anything can be doubted, just as any- odological doubt overcomes itself, dent. This historicist way of look- thing can be denied. The question is, in the sense that, as a method, it is a ing at things makes it sound as if St. Is it rational to do so? philosophical non-starter. The exis- Thomas’s unhesitant and eminently While there are many commend- tence of the world can rest easy. It is sane recognition of the real existence able things to be found in those parts under no threat; it need feel no obli- of the world was somehow culturally of the book that are dedicated to gation to overcome anything. conditioned, a reflex response pecu- ethical matters, certain obscurities and –“Rather, the claim is that be- liar to the citizens of the 13th cen- uncertainties which are found there cause the existence of the spatio- tury. And is it suggested that had St. could have been avoided, it seems temporal world is not grounded in Thomas lived in the 17th century he to me, by a more steady reliance on its essence it is not, strictly speaking, perhaps would have looked at things those modes of reasoning, and on the absurd to doubt its existence.” differently, and even have adopted the tried and true terminology, which On what basis is one entitled cogito? St. Thomas was no stranger to are associated with the classical way to make the (quite true) claim that the reality and dangers of scepticism. of doing ethics that comes out of the the spatio-temporal world is not And might we say, with Descartes in Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition. Eth- grounded in its essence? It is only by mind, that scepticism becomes an “is- ics, as we know, is a science which, comparing that world, and its mode sue” for a philosopher only when he given its subject matter, is able to gain of existence, with the existence of succumbs to it? only a certain degree of precision, not something whose existence is of an with regard to its first principles, to entirely different kind, that is, whose —“I am going to explain and defend be sure, but with regard to the appli- existence is grounded in its essence. the thesis that the soul is substantially cation of those principles to specific That kind of existence would, of distinct from the body.” cases. This being true, we should, in course, apply only to God, of whom The soul is not substantially dis- ethics, opt for the most precise ter- we know that His essence is “to be,” tinct from the body in the sense that minology available to us. The key or, to put it differently, that His es- it is an independent substance, with term favored by Professor Harold, sence and existence are one. But how the body being regarded as another “values,” around which his ethical do we come by such knowledge? independent substance. This was the thought is built, is freighted with an Only through revelation. That is the position taken by Descartes. A human ambiguity which hangs heavily over sort of knowledge which philosophy being is a single substance, composed his discussions despite his earnest and could never arrive at just as philoso- of the incomplete substances of body commendable attempts to dissipate it. phy, that is, through the exercise of and soul. The rational soul is the sub- He writes that “ethics is a discipline natural reason alone. The philosopher, stantial form of a human being; as grounded in values and principles then, just as philosopher, cannot such it establishes the human being’s known a priori.” Though certainly know that the spatio-temporal world individuality and unique identity. not intended as such, this is a formula is not grounded in its essence. For all If body and soul were distinct sub- which could easily serve the purposes he knows, as philosopher, the spatio- stances, then there would be, for the of a purely subjectivistic ethics. temporal world could be grounded in human being, insuperable problems Besides those treated above, its own essence, and therefore he has relating to individual identity. there are a number of additional is- no reason to doubt its existence. The sues raised by the book which merit ancient Greeks had no problem with —“Perhaps the animal soul is nothing extended discussion, but so as not an external world which was not but a certain property of the body, unduly to prolong an already lengthy only indubitably there, but eternal as without there being a substantial dif-

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 35 BOOK REVIEWS ference between the two.” description of an angelic rather than a things principally by attending to To assume that the animal soul human mode of knowing. All human those real existents that have essences. is a property of the body is in effect knowledge can be said to be by way The human mind, darkened as it is by to adopt the position of mechanistic of indirection, in that we come to the effects of original sin, shows itself materialism, a position that seeks to know the essences of things through to be all too adept at constructing discount immaterial reality (such as abstraction, an abstraction entirely essences that are no more than things the animal soul) and to reduce ev- dependent upon sense knowledge. of the mind. erything to matter. The animal soul is Professor Harold describes intellectual “When I come to see these ideas the substantial form of the body, de- intuition as “prior to sense experi- in my mind they are given to me as termining it as a live thing. (Professor ence,” and a priori knowledge as “not ideal and abstract and the being that Harold has the practice of employing independent of all experience, but grounds them is not given to me in the term “property” where “accident” merely of empirical, sense experi- the intuition of ideas. It is only on the would serve him better. All properties ence.” It is rather audacious to qualify basis of metaphysical reasoning that I are accidents, but not all accidents are sense experience with “merely,” in see that everything that exists must be properties. Property is a specific type that, without it, we human beings grounded in real being.” of accident. In any event, the soul would be incapable of the highest It would count as a critical mis- could be considered neither an acci- kind of knowledge. Sense knowledge emphasis to speak of ideas as “given” dent nor a property of the body.) precedes intellectual knowledge. Pace to us. What is given to the mind is Herr Professor Kant and all the other the data of sense experience, and —“If the logical positivists are right, dedicated members of the fraternity from that the mind actively conceives and all knowledge really is given to of philosophical idealism, there is ideas. It might be said that we give us by the senses, then philosophy not for us human beings any a priori our ideas to ourselves. The being that becomes subservient to the empiri- knowledge, if by that we mean, as did grounds our ideas is indeed not given cal sciences and in the end becomes Kant, that we have knowledge which to us in the intuition of ideas, for the disconnected from reality.” is not dependent upon sense knowl- being in question here is real being, As it turns out, on this point the edge. Nihil est in intellectu quod non extra-mental being, our knowledge logical posivitists have it right, for all prius furerit in sensu (“There is noth- of which does not begin, but ends, human knowledge begins with the ing in the intellect which is not first with ideas. The implication behind senses. In a very important respect, in the senses”) is not an empty slogan; the assertion that it is only through philosophy should be considered to it is the very foundation stone of all reasoning that we arrive at real being be neither subservient, nor superior, realist epistemology. (The “essence seems to be that we begin with ideas to the empirical sciences, for, as to structures” which are central to Pro- (which we gain through an intuition their beginnings, they find themselves fessor Harold’s thought are very much that circumvents sense knowledge), on precisely the same level. They reminiscent of Platonic Forms.) and end with real being. But this, both begin with sense knowledge. epistemologically speaking, is to have The surest way for philosophy to —“Rather he [the philosopher] goes the cart before the horse. We do not become disconnected from reality is into himself, into his own mind, to start with an idea, and then try to to begin with ideas, rather than with get at the general essence of the thing discover the real being that grounds things in the external world that he is studying.” the idea, i.e., the existent that the idea ideas represent, things our initial en- Reflective thought is one of the represents. It is real being which is the counter with which is through sense preeminent powers of the human in- proper object of the human intellect. knowledge. tellect, and no man could be counted That is what we confront, or what a serious philosopher who did not confronts us, immediately; then, in —“I claim that people can achieve a spend a lot of time turning over the response to real being, we conceive direct, intellectual intuition into the ideas nesting in his mind. But those ideas about real being. structure of these essences or natures. ideas, very much of the mind, do not Since all these essence structures are have their originating source in the —“Thus, things like peace and happ- known on the basis of an intellectual mind. The philosopher’s first, and ha- piness are realities that cannot be di- intuition, as opposed to sense percep- bitually repeated, regard must be for rectly willed as ends.” tion, they are all known a priori.” the external, not the internal world. If this is so, then it would appear This would seem to be more a He comes to know the essences of as if human action would have to

36 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 remain ultimately inexplicable. Con- cerning homosexuality, studies that of people who would profit from this cerning happiness in particular, if that have been published in professional book are health care providers. I was cannot be willed as an end, the very journals and books. It does not make amazed that a young doctor friend of possibility of living a moral life would claims about morality, nor does it mine, a good Christian, disputed my be put in jeopardy. advocate positions on public policy. claim that many homosexual practices However, as the authors themselves were harmful to one’s health. Appar- —“No person can directly see his observe, it is obvious that factual ently, this was not something that was own moral character.” “The author claims about homosexuality as sub- taught in medical school. A biologist asserts that we cannot rightly judge stantiated by research often indicate friend of mine, too, blew off the no- the moral standing of anyone else, moral and political stances that should tion that homosexuality carries with much less ourselves.” be taken in its regard. For example, it serious health risks. Again, he knew If these claims are true, it would if it were true that homosexuality is the “nice” gay couple. If he is open to seem that an efficacious examination harmless, “it would support the no- evidence, this book certainly provides of conscience would be rendered tion that government has no reason it—thirty pages of facts like “most nugatory. to penalize or otherwise disadvantage instances of anal cancer are caused by An Introduction to the Love of Wis- people who engage in homosexual a cancer-causing strain of HPV [Hu- dom is a book possessed of consider- behavior” (p. vii). man Papillomavirus] through recep- able virtues. That those virtues have The book is very readable, and the tive anal intercourse” (Dr. Andrew their effectiveness hampered by the authors are to be thanked for put- Grulich, p. 76) and “homosexuals ac- problems with which the book is ting the references right under the quired syphilis at a rate ten times that beset is a state of affairs that could be quotations, sparing us the need to be of heterosexuals” (Archive of Internal remedied, I would like to suggest, by continually searching for footnotes. Medicine, p. 77). In case you didn’t the insertion into the book of three If one was inclined to carp, there is a know, syphilis can cause “serious additional chapters. Chapters on the place or two where one might ques- heart abnormalities, mental disorders, philosophy of nature and epistemol- tion the comparison was being made, blindness, and death” if left untreated ogy would serve as immensely helpful e.g., one study speaks of 16% of HIV- (p. 77). lead-ins to the chapter on metaphys- positive homosexual men within a six I do not intend to comment on ics, and a chapter on philosophical month period failing at least once to every chapter. However, to give you psychology would be very beneficial inform an unaware partner of their an overall idea of the content, here in lending sharper focus and more HIV status. Is this failure rate peculiar are the myths that the book intends structural stability to the book’s treat- to homosexual men or to HIV-posi- to dispel: People are born gay; 10 ments of various ethical themes. tive promiscuous males in general? percent of the population is gay; ho- Overall, however, the authors are mosexuals are seriously disadvantaged fair-minded in their use of statistics. by discrimination; homosexuality is Getting it Straight: What Research Male homosexuality receives more healthy; children raised by homo- Shows about Homosexuality, eds. extensive coverage, but this is not sexual suffer no harm; homosexuals Peter Sprigg and Timothy Dailey, surprising since fewer studies have are no more likely to molest children Washington DC: Family Research been done on female homosexual- than heterosexuals. Council, 2004, 143pp. ity (which is less common, and poses Here are some of the points that fewer serious health risks). particularly caught my attention. The Review by Marie I. George, St. John’s This book is a needed eye-opener first chapter presents studies con- University, NY for many people. So often I hear cerning the causes of homosexuality. Christians reject the biblical con- I was glad to see a more nuanced etting it Straight: What Re- demnation of sodomy because of not position than usual concerning the search Shows about Homo- wanting to appear judgmental. They nature-nurture debate surround- Gsexuality does exactly what know some “nice” gay couple, and ing homosexuality. After the authors the title promises to do. Rather than feel who are they to speak against show that there is no convincing presenting us with the opinions of something that they do not really evidence so far of a “gay gene,” they pro- or anti- homosexual groups, it understand. This book will help such go on to consider a study concern- informs us of the contents of research people better understand the true na- ing the effects on sexual behavior of studies on a variety of questions con- ture of homosexuality. Another group increased or diminished exposure to

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 37 BOOK REVIEWS testosterone in the womb. This study ing if the same was true of some cases personal choice, and not just nature showed that female rats exposed to of homosexual orientation. The lat- and/or nurture, recognized for the a greater than ordinary amount of ter way of thinking runs counter to role it plays in a person’s homosexu- testosterone and male rats exposed the view of some conservatives who ality: “Debates over homosexuality to a less than ordinary amount were think it necessary at all costs to deny are often presented in terms of a false more likely to manifest homosexual that any genetic factor is involved in dichotomy--either a person is ‘born behavior (p. 14). However, as the homosexuality, for fear that then it gay,’ or a person ‘chooses to be gay.’ authors point out, human sexuality would have to be considered natural. The truth lies between these two involves a far greater psychological But this fear is unfounded, for just extremes. For the most part, people component than does the mating of because something is caused by genes, do not choose what sexual feelings or rodents. While another study con- does not necessarily mean that it is attractions they experience. Each of cluded that what was true of rats did natural, in the sense of being the de- us does, however, choose the sexual not hold for humans (p. 16), others sired state of the organism. Genes also behaviors in which we engage....” (p. indicated that human females with a cause diseases, such as cystic fibrosis. 34). While the authors could have chronic endocrine disorder that re- It is often the case that the same pointed out that “being gay” is gen- sults in their being exposed to more sort of human behavior is due to erally understood to indicate that a male sex hormones in the womb different underlying causes. Thus, it is person engages in homosexual acts, were more likely to have a homo- not surprising that in addition to the whereas “having a homosexual orien- sexual orientation (p. 15). It does not explanations above which emphasize tation” simply indicates that a person appear, however, that the exposure nature, there are other non-com- is attracted to members of the same to the excessive amount of male sex peting theories of why individuals sex, still, they are right on target in hormones directly determines ori- are same-sex attracted that focus asserting that a gay lifestyle is not entation. Rather, it results in the girls primarily on psychological factors. automatic, but ultimately a matter of in question being more aggressive in One theory is that normal sexual free choice. late childhood, with the result that development for males requires that One thing in chapter 1 which I they prefer male-typical activities and boys detach themselves from their found questionable is the view that male playmates, which in turn tends mothers and identify themselves with homosexuality would have died out to make them regard themselves as their fathers. “Overly intimate moth- if it was genetic, since those who different from other girls (p. 15). A ers plus a detached, hostile or weak engage in exclusively homosexual similar line of reasoning is presented father is beyond doubt related to the sex do not reproduce. For there exist by other researchers who think it development of male homosexuality” sex-linked diseases that affect male plausible that genes responsible for a (Daniel Brown quoted p. 26). An- offspring to a greater extent than child’s temperament increase the like- other type of theory notes the high female offspring, some of which gen- lihood that certain individuals experi- correlation between being sexually erally result in death before the age ence same sex attractions, e.g., a boy abused as a child and being homo- of sexual maturity (e.g., Duchenne’s who is physically weak, and of artistic sexual, and hypothesizes that there muscular dystrophy). These diseases temperament, may shun rough and is a causal connection. Yet another are passed on by a heterozygous fe- tumble boys’ play. This may lead him theory starts from an observed corre- male carrier who does not have the to regard members of his sex as unfa- lation between urbanization and ho- disease. I fail to see why the same miliar and exotic, which subsequently mosexuality. Living in an urban area could not obtain in the case of male becomes the basis for erotic attraction makes it easier to have contact with homosexuality. (p. 27). It is commonly thought that other homosexuals, and this in turn Chapter 1 got me thinking about there are diseases that result from the makes it easier to be aware of the gay why homosexuality correlates in- interplay of genetic disposition and lifestyle and to experiment with it. versely with belief in the afterlife mental states elicited by consciously Homosexuality also correlates with (see World Congress of Families On- perceived events (e.g., it is thought being more educated. One suggested line, 31 August 2004). This brought that some individuals are pre-disposed explanation is that people who go to to mind the epistle to the Romans to schizophrenia, but that its onset college tend to engage in more sexual which speaks of atheists turning to is triggered by extreme mental stress experimentation and be more liberal unnatural sexual practices. Having ensuing upon serious misfortunes), about sexual matters. recently read psychologist Paul Vitz’s and so it would not be not surpris- It was a breath of fresh air to see insightful book on the causes of athe-

38 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 ism, Faith of the Fatherless, I could not centre, life expectancy at age twenty male homosexual activity is neither help noticing that a common factor for gay and bisexual men is eight to healthy nor normal. The case of female offered to explain a number of cases twenty years less than for all men.” homosexuality has been less studied, of both atheism and homosexuality (Robert S. Hogg et al, quoted on p. but what evidence there is points in are an absent, distant, weak, or abusive 89) the same direction. People who want father. As troubling as the health risks to show compassion towards sexually Chapter 2 discusses which in- to homosexual individuals are, even active homosexual individuals need to dividuals should be categorized as more troubling is the number of in- tell them the truth about their lifestyle, homosexual: Should homosexuality nocent victims preyed on by homo- instead of looking benignly on behav- be determined on the basis of self- sexuals. One study found that 29% of ior that carries with it serious health identification, desire, or behavior or the children of homosexual parents risks and as well as being conducive of other? One can get really different have been molested by their parent, moral evil. figures for the number of homo- as opposed to 0.6% of children of sexuals in a population if one counts heterosexual parents (p. 112). Another people who have had a single isolated fact that has bearing on whether Introduction to Catholicism, A Com- homosexual experience. Whether one homosexuals should be allowed to plete Course and Our Moral Life in uses self-identification or behavior adopt children is the extremely high Christ, A Complete Course, both from as criterion, approximately 2.4% of infidelity rate among homosexuals in The Didache High School Text- men and 1.3% of women in America “committed” relationships. Moreover, book Series, Midwest Theological are homosexuals. Why is an accurate there is evidence that “monogamous” Forum: Chicago, IL, (2003), 380 and count of the number of homosexuals homosexuals are even more likely 326 pp. Cloth, $30 each. important? If 10% of the population than other homosexual to engage in were homosexual, it would constitute risky sexual behavior. How fair is it Review by (Rev.) Leonard Kennedy, C.S.B., circumstantial evidence that it was to entrust a child to gay parents, given The Academy of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom simply a normal natural variation. their increased likelihood of separat- Barry’s Bay, ON, Canada Chapter 4 discusses the numerous ing, dying prematurely, or engaging in health risks of homosexual activity. child abuse? he Didache, or The Teaching of Included are observations concern- The final chapter is also distress- the Apostles, was an anonymous ing mental health and addictions. It ing. Studies are cited showing that Tbut very important work is a curious and sad fact that a high “although heterosexuals outnumber written most probably before 100 A.D. percentage of homosexuals abuse homosexuals by a ratio of at least 20 It is not a large work, but it deals with drugs and alcohol. Homosexuals are to 1, homosexual pedophiles commit many matters such as Christian moral- also more prone to depression and about one-third of the total number ity, baptism, the Eucharist, prayer and attempt suicide more frequently. The of child sex offenses” (p. 126). This fasting, missionaries and catechists, the gay community generally attributes means that a homosexual is ten times Sunday observance, and the Last Days. these things to rejection by parents more likely to be a pedophile than a Christian dogma is not imparted as and by society at large, and there is no heterosexual. Compounding the trag- such, but is, of course, implied in sev- doubt that this is an important factor edy is that children who are sexually eral precepts. in many cases. However, these cor- abused by a person of the same sex The two books reviewed here are relations occur even in places where are more likely themselves to become two volumes of a four-volume high homosexuality is widely accepted, homosexual, creating a repeating school religion course which has such as the Netherlands. It is very cycle of abused-abuser. been named after this famous book unfortunate that political correctness Getting it Straight has performed of the early Church. The message in discourages researchers from investi- the important task of showing that this is that, as the early Didache gave gating the causes of the self-destruc- a negative verdict on homosexual the teaching of the Apostles, this new tive tendencies so widespread among activity is not merely an opinion pro- Didache continues that same teach- homosexuals. I fail to see how any moted by some on religious grounds, ing; it accepts all the teaching which objective person can continue to re- but is the conclusion any objective Christ gave to the Apostles to be safe- gard homosexual sex as a biologically person arrives at by looking at the guarded and developed throughout normal and healthy behavior upon facts. Getting it Straight provides over- the ages, the teaching authenticated learning that: “In a major Canadian whelming documented evidence that by the Magisterium of the Catholic

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 39 BOOK REVIEWS

Church. The two remaining volumes Archdiocese of Chicago. And one can- especially in the lower grades. Indeed, (The History of the Church: A Com- not do better than to quote from the it is true that this series would be ex- plete Course, and Understanding the back of each book the nature of the cellent for certain university classes. Scriptures: A Complete Course on Bible Series: “The focus of the Didache Series But, for the younger or the less intelli- Study) will be available probably by is to sufficiently present, in a manner gent high school students, adjustments the time this review is being read. that is both comprehensive and acces- can be made. But one will not find a There is no differentiation be- sible, the basic tenets of the doctrinal, better catechism series, or probably tween these books in relation to the scriptural, moral, and sacramental life one nearly as good. grades of high school. It is left to of the Church. Accordingly, the books Recently I wrote a book critical school authorities to decide which of this series rely on sources such as of the teaching of religion in some book is suitable for which grade. But Sacred Scripture, the Catechism of the Catholic elementary and high schools the Introduction will no doubt always Catholic Church, the lives of the saints, in Canada (The Catholic School in an be for grade nine. the Fathers of the Church, the General Age of Dissent, 2002). I had informa- The books are large, with strong Directory for Catechesis, and the teach- tion from parents and grandparents of binding and rich paper. They have ing of Vatican II as witnessed by the students, from teachers, from school- hundreds of pictures in color, half of pontificate of John Paul II.” board members, from school admin- them religious pictures. The titles of And a quotation from Cardinal istrators, from clergy, from teachers’ the chapters of the Introduction are George, Archbishop of Chicago, is unions, from catechisms, and from sex The Call to Holiness, Prayer, The reassuring: “These two books of the education books. There was also quite Trinity, The Church, the Blessed Vir- Series respond well to a request I a bit of literature on the subject already gin, Revelation, The Old Testament, made three years ago for high school in print which I was able into incor- The New Testament, The Sacraments texts that would set out clearly and porate in the book. (in general and in particular), Free- adequately the teaching of the Catho- Let me limit myself here to one dom (Sin, Grace, Conscience), The lic Church. They offer an approach Canadian province alone: Ontario. Moral Virtues, The Commandments to that teaching substantial enough There are about 350 fully-funded (in general and in particular), The to win the respect and interest of stu- Catholic public elementary and high Beatitudes. dents…I warmly recommend these schools in Ontario. Yet, in my opinion, The titles of the chapters of Our two books to high school teachers and which I know is shared by innumer- Moral Life in Christ are: Preliminary students, to those responsible for the able others, the teaching of religion Notions, Moral Theology, Freedom RCIA, and to all who serve in posi- in these schools, on the whole, is lam- and the Moral Act, The Moral Con- tions of lay ecclesial ministry.” And Dr. entable. Most of the students do not science, Ethical Norms and Law, Mo- Scott Hahn, who is on the Didache’s go to Sunday Mass. Most graduate rality and Action, Sin and Conversion, Editorial Board, writes: “…this Se- knowing very little of the faith. The The Ten Commandments and the ries should be a great asset to those schools have lost the connection with Eight Beatitudes, The Social Teach- concerned with teaching Catholicism the neighboring parishes which they ing of the Church, and finally each of in its richness and entirety. There is a used to have. The religion textbooks, The Commandments. definite need for textbooks that ad- especially the sex education textbooks, At the end of each chapter are equately present the Catholic Faith are severely criticized. Many parents special sections titled Vocabulary to young people. The Didache Series are willing to make great sacrifices to (explaining the technical words in responds to that need.” home-school their children rather than the chapter), Supplementary Read- Bishop Jerome Listecki, Auxil- send them to Catholic public schools. ings (sometimes dealing with a saint iary Bishop of Chicago, has written: I will illustrate, in regard to just one re- or other holy person illustrating the “I have had the privilege of using ligion textbook, how woeful the situa- topic), Study Questions, Practical this text in class and found it to be tion is, and illustrate how superior the Exercises, and From the Catechism (a thoughtful, concise, and timely. Stu- Didache Series is to Ontario textbooks. page or more of relevant quotations dents enjoyed the examples, and the It must be kept in mind that in from the Catechism of the Catholic moral content always reflected a fideli- Canada the religion textbooks, in- Church). Occasionally there is an Ad- ty to the Magisterium of the Church.” cluding the sex education textbooks, vanced Concepts section also. Some high schools may judge that are chosen (and usually published) The books in the Series have the the books are too complete or too dif- by the Canadian bishops. Now, the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur of the ficult for high school students, bishops have just published a grade

40 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 twelve textbook entitled In Search It is likely that the soft touch on with remaining gay is clinging to of the Good. It is the same size as the contraception is a result of the State- “a compromise identity” in order corresponding Didache Series book ment of the Canadian Bishops’ Con- to resolve emotional conflicts, but but is very different in many other ference made in Winnipeg, Manitoba, that facing an interior struggle for ways. Whereas the Didache has 13 in September, 1968, a statement growth and change is the only true pages on the Ten Commandments in which has never been revoked. It solution to the problem, a soul-sear- general and 150 pages on the Com- says that, under certain conditions, ing struggle because it challenges an mandments in particular, In Search of husband and wife may practice con- identity rooted in one’s earliest years. the Good has 4 pages on the Com- traception. The Statement was reaf- In the “science” of Canon Law, Msgr. mandments in general and no pages firmed by the bishops when Pope Cormac Burke explains what type or on them in particular. Whereas the John Paul II, in his encyclical Evange- degree of same-sex attraction invali- Didache has 27 pages on chastity, In lium Vitae reaffirmed the teaching of dates a marriage. Search of the Good has 2 pages, with Pope Paul VI in his earlier encyclical no mention of the specific forms of Humanae Vitae that contraception is (1) Dr. Kevin E. Miller explains that unchastity. Whereas the Didache has a intrinsically evil. Scripture teaches that homosexual 16-page chapter on The Social Teach- I contrast the Didache with a Ca- sexual activity is against the divine ing of the Church, In Search of the nadian counterpart to show the tre- law: “. . . arguments that Scripture Good lists 63 pages under the word mendous superiority of the former. does not condemn homosexual acts “political” in the book’s index, one (or even supports them) are unfound- indication that, in this book, social ed.” Father Benedict Ashley, O.P., ex- morality, important as it is, eclipses Same-Sex Attraction: A Parents’ plains the theology of sexuality and of personal morality by a wide margin, Guide, by John F. Harvey and Gerard marriage and shows why homosex- the personal morality which is the V. Bradley, St. Augustine’s Press, ual sexual activity is sinful. Dr. John foundation of social morality. South Bend, Indiana, 2003, 227 pp., Finnis shows that natural sexual inter- Advertising for In Search of the Good $25 (USD) course is not simply heterosexual but says that “strong connections with is also marital. “That is, it is sexually students’ daily lives” is “a key feature“ Review by (Rev.) Leonard Kennedy, C.S.B., complementary, and in every sexual of the book. But one is struck by the act is expressive—physically, emotion- lack of reference to some of the most his is a most sympathetic ally, and intellectually—of both the important aspects of students’ lives. and helpful book. Father essential marital goods: procreation, One can be frustrated looking for THarvey is the founder of and a friendship which is exclusive references to drugs; sexually transmit- Courage, a fully Catholic organization and permanently committed.” ted diseases, particular sexual matters for persons with same-sex attraction. such as pornography, masturbation, He has also founded Encourage, an (2) Cardinal Bevilaqua, Archbishop of fornication, or homosexuality; intrin- organization for the family or friends Philadelphia, before the Philadelphia sically evil actions; praying, or going of these persons. Professor Bradley is City Council, speaks against legisla- to Sunday Mass. in the Law Faculty of Notre Dame tion currently before the Council I must make a specific reference University, Indiana, and was for many which communicated “to the whole to the treatment of two extremely years the President of the Fellowship of society, but especially to our youth, important aspects of life which grade of Catholic Scholars. that extramarital and homosexual re- twelve students should be aware of: The book has four sections: lationships are the natural, moral, and contraception and natural family (1) Science, (2) Morality, (3) Law, legal equivalent of marriage and the planning; and abortion. The Didache is (4) Pastoral considerations. family. They endeavour to nullify the quite clear and thorough on Catho- fact that traditional, committed mar- lic teaching concerning these mat- 1. Dr. Jeffrey Satinover deals with riages and stable families constitute ters, whereas in In Search of the Good the causes of same-sex attraction and the foundation on which a lasting one might say that this teaching is shows that the causes of it can be and civilized society is built.” Cardi- damned with faint praise. The words multiple, and in particular that there nal O’Connor, Archbishop of New “birth control” and ‘contraception” is solid evidence against it being York, also speaks out on the same and “abortion” are not to be found in genetically determined. Dr. Joseph matter. Professor Bradley shows that the book’s index. Nicolosi holds that being satisfied judges and governments are changing

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 41 BOOK REVIEWS marriage from a clearly defined rela- His Excellency: George Washington, theory of a representative govern- tionship to something else only inci- Ellis, J.J. (2004) NY: Alfred A. Knopf. ment—Washington learned by expe- dentally connected with it, something Pp 278. BP. 26.95 rience. An early frustration with his left largely to the control of the par- English agent “Cary and Company” ties involved. He shows that the posi- Review by Rev. Michael P. Orsi, Ave over what he incorrectly perceived to tion that a right to same-sex marriage Maria School of Law, Ann Arbor, MI be an unfair consignment exchange based on the “equality argument” is between Mount Vernon’s tobacco invalid. Marriage is a type of friend- eorge Washington is perhaps crops and his directed purchases ship but “a unique type of friendship, the most enigmatic of our roused two of Washington’s primary specified by the capacity to engage in Gnation’s Founding Fathers. emotional needs—first to be in con- reproductive type acts, which is sim- There are three major reasons. First, trol and second his sense of justice. In ply unavailable to same-sex couples.” Washington, sensitive to his legacy, light of his personal financial setbacks instructed his wife, Martha, to burn and his frustration with Britain’s (3) Helen Hull Hitchcock sounds all of their personal abuse of colonial rights, a revolu- an alarm: “As the family goes, so correspondence after his death. tionary spark was inflamed in him. goes the world…Can we rebuild the Second, with a sense of his place in Although Washington’s actions were collapsing social institutions of the history, Washington continually edited scripted to be altruistic, and at times culture?…Where are our leaders, his reminiscences and official records. he no doubt believed them to be so, who may help repair the crumbling And, finally his apotheosis in the Ellis suggests that a good deal of self- moral structure of our world? Or is minds and hearts of his countrymen interest motivated him. Two examples it too late to prevent ‘calamity and caused truth and fiction to mix, mak- illustrate the point: Washington’s cal- disaster’? What can we do? Can we ing the real person fade in to the mist culated marriage to Martha, which help these families in trouble, heal of history. raised his status among the Virginia the broken hearts of parents and the In Joseph Ellis His Excellency, gentry; and his participation in the emotional anguish of their afflicted George Washington, much of the hagi- French and Indian War, which pro- children? Can we relieve their suf- ography is deleted. It is replaced with vided him with the opportunity to fering?” Alan P. Mediger, who is Di- the principles and real life situations enhance not only his public persona rector of Regeneration, a Christian which Washington used to fulfill what but his real-estate holdings in the ministry for men and women seeking he believed to be his personal destiny. western lands. to overcome homosexuality, writes A confluence of events, the driven- Washington had a firm belief from his own life experience when ness of his personality and his physi- that he was chosen by destiny for he says that to call oneself gay is to cal stature all lent themselves to the greatness. This for example, Ellis says, accept a false identity; it is to accept studied production of His Excellency, made him impervious to fear during one characteristic of oneself as the an honorific title and appropriate battles. To fulfill this role and enhance whole of oneself. And he describes description used for Washington from its required gravitas, Washington the elements of the life-change that the earliest days of the Revolution. continually worked on developing are required so as not to define one- While providing us with the causes Roman virtues to curb his strong self by one’s sexuality at all. And the and results of Washington’s monu- emotions and assumed a stoic char- parents also must undergo this change mental achievements, the book still acter which made him seem aloof. in thinking of their child. Finally, leaves us despairing of ever really Nevertheless, he was not an impracti- Father Harvey answers twenty-one knowing the Father of our Country. cal idealist. He met the world as it questions that parents of homosexual Perhaps admiring His Excellency and was and not how he wished it to be. persons ask, including which are the not George Washington is the best we This is especially obvious in his moral best books to read. can hope for and, in the end, it seems dilemma concerning his ownership to be what Washington wanted. This of slaves. Although he knew slavery being the case, Ellis nevertheless has was wrong—for economic reasons he done an outstanding job. did not release his slaves in his own What sets Washington apart from lifetime. However, for the sake of his the other Founders is that while they legacy he granted them manumission were for the most part men of let- upon his death. Alas, to his advantage! ters—schooled in Enlightenment Washington was gifted with a

42 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 prescient vision for America. He fore- Five volumes bound as eight, approx represented 24 authors, and the sec- saw the future greatness of America, 9,000 pages. List price US $1,200. ond (2000) drew on an impressive 36 especially in its westward expansion. Contact: www.wilsonlafleur.com or canonists. Similar works in Italian (29 He also anticipated the importance [email protected]. contributors) and Spanish (6 in one, of a strong central government for 11 for another, 22 in a third) could be the country to thrive. His advice to Review by Edward Peters, JD, JCD, cited. avoid foreign entanglements demon- Institute for Canon Law, Ann Arbor, MI, Prescinding, though, from strated his sense of realpolitik which www.canonlaw.info. whether every contributing author’s grew from his insight into human opinion on every canon in each of nature and how nations operate. Time eflected in the very name these works is entirely sound, and proved him correct on all accounts. of the Fellowship of notwithstanding the obvious achieve- It is fair to say that were it not for RCatholic Scholars is the ment that such pan-textual tomes Washington, the United States of idea that no single scholarly discipline undoubtedly represent, some in can- America as we know it would not represents the totality of the Church’s on law (perhaps especially those who exist today. contribution to man’s welfare, nor could look at their yellowing sets of America has always been deemed can an individual scholar within a Bachofen in eight volumes or Blat or the land of opportunity. George discipline speak comprehensively Coronata in five) quietly reminded Washington is the exemplar and for his or her field, let alone for the a new generation of canon lawyers maybe the embodiment of this be- Church. In canon law, recognition that the canonistics behind most of lief. He took his natural gifts of raw that many minds are needed to de- the norms in the 1983 Code were intelligence, strong will, physique, scribe the sweep of ecclesiastical not being adequately sounded by, in and bravery and used them to ex- legislation has been quietly gain- too many cases, a few paragraphs here cel as a warrior, gentleman, a living ing ground for decades. Once, say, or a couple pages there between the national icon, and the Father of our Bachofen, Cappello, Coronata, and boards of a thick monograph. Country. Through his example, he Jone, passed from the scene, no lone Onto this stage strides the stun- showed us how we as individuals and lawyers remained who could attempt ning Exegetical Commentary on the as a country can reach our potential the great multi-volume, pan-textual Code of Canon Law. through personal effort and talent. commentaries that dominated can- At five volumes bound as eight, Perhaps the greatest evidence of these onistics before the Second World encompassing approximately 9,000 beliefs can be found in his Last Will War. Instead, what began to appear in pages of commentary and apparatus, and Testament. Instead of setting up canonical circles were encouraging the Exegetical Commentary dwarfs all his family as an inherited aristocracy, experiments in scholarly collabora- other treatises on the 1983 Code. he divided up his estate into small tion. The pre-conciliar Dictionnaire de Moreover, an astounding 115 experts parcels so that his descendents would Droit Canonique and the Comentarios (hailing from some dozen nations) have to rely on their own merit to al Código de Derecho Canónico come directly contributed to this project, achieve success in life. The fact is that, readily to mind, as do some fa- more than triple the number authors after reading Ellis, one gets the sense mous canonical pairings such as contributing to any of the individual that he bequeathed to all future gen- Abbo-Hannon, Bouscaren-Ellis, and works mentioned above. Of course, erations these same possibilities. For Vermeersch-Creusen. however impressive, sheer quantity in this Washington shall always remain Since the Second Vatican Council, a commentary is not the dispositive “His Excellency” in the heart of his this collaborative methodology in factor in assessing its scholarly worth; countrymen. canon law (applied even to the draft- there is, of course, also quality. ing of what eventually became the I am not on the extremely short 1983 Code) has blossomed into list of beati who can claim (say, in Exegetical Commentary on the Code impressive coordinated efforts by the course of editing this massive of Canon Law, prepared under the teams of experts to produce respect- set) to have read the entire manu- Responsibility of the Faculty of able commentaries on the whole of script yet. Indeed, my present reading Canon Law, University of Navarre, the 1983 Code. The British com- schedule suggests eligibility for that English edition edited by Ernest mentary (1995), for example, used 15 fraternity only about the year 2012. Caparros, (Wilson & Lafleur / scholars to treat the revised law. The Instead, I begin an assessment of Midwest Theological Forum, 2004). first American commentary (1985) scholarly potential by examining the

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 43 BOOK REVIEWS

List of Collaborators for the Exegetical Commentary. it seems to avoid extended histori- Commentary. There one sees that Producing the English version cal treatments of topics. Those who something over half the authors are required more than six years of la- need that kind of information (and Spanish (see below), a fact that still bor, and even that speed was possible in complex cases the best canoni- left room for dozens of other can- only because the task of directing cal answers might well require such onists from throughout Europe and this project was accepted by one understandings) do best to master the the Americas. Generously scattered of the few men in the world today law as given us today with the help through the predictable designations who could carry it off, Dr. Ernest of resources such as the Exegetical of faculty members, moreover, one Caparros, emeritus of the Faculty of Commentary, and then follow the sees listed many Vatican officials, tri- Law, University of Montreal. With fontes supplied by the Legislator back bunal judges, sitting diocesan bishops, dual doctorates in canon and civil to Pio-Benedictine predecessors, and and officials of or consultants to many law, pentalingual, and with an as- even to decretal law where that is ap- particular churches. In short, academe tounding array of juridic publications propriate. and the chancery have come together and legal leadership positions to his The Exegetical Commentary is a in this work. credit, Caparros’ early commitment gift to the Church. These beautifully The plurality of Spanish contribu- to the project (even amid several printed and bound pages, offering tors to the Exegetical Commentary is other major canonical publications competent and faithful explanations explained thus: the present English he was overseeing for the Series of modern canon law, will be con- edition grew out of and largely rep- Gratianus) assured the many others sulted for centuries, inspiring others resents a translation of and updating who be would needed to bring this to deepen their own appreciation to the original Comentario Exegético al massive project to fruition of even- of and cooperation with the laws of Código de Derecho Canónico published tual success. And so it has happened. Christ and His Church. by the University of Navarre in 1996 The Exegetical Commentary is now (a project it took on in addition to complete; it rightly takes its place as Catholic for a Reason III: Scripture producing and continually updating the most extensive study of the 1983 and the Mystery of the Mass, edited its Código de Derecho Canónico Code of Canon Law available today. by Scott Hahn and Regis J. Flaherty. edición biling e y anotada, albeit in There remains but to sketch the Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Road only 2,000 pages.) But, notwithstand- straight-forward structure of the Publishing, 2004. Pp. xiv + 203, soft- ing Spain’s rich tradition in canonical work. Each canon is set out first in cover $15.95 sciences (second only to Italy’s) and Latin, then in English (using the despite the fact that Spanish remains Great Britain & Ireland translation, Review by Daniel G. Van Slyke, S.T.L., a primary reference language in but following mostly American spell- Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Theology at canon law, too few researchers outside ing). Rome’s vitally important foot- Ave Maria College, Ypsilanti, MI of Spain knew of its latest canoni- notes (fontes) immediately follow, cal accomplishment. The decision and unofficial but quite useful cross- his volume contains twelve to move the Comentario Exegético references within the 1983 Code are well-written and clearly or- into English assures, of course, a suggested. Then begins the scholarly Tganized essays or “chapters” world-wide distribution—and bol- comment (each article is signed). authored by a group of the most sters the claim I have made elsewhere Observations might run less than a energetic and talented lay catechists that English has become the lead- page if the material warrants no more, and apologists in North America. ing modern language in canonical but often cover several pages if such is Dedicated to elaborating the connec- studies. Finally, concerns among needed to paint a sufficiently detailed tion between the Mass and Sacred non-Spaniards that a mere transla- picture of the norm and its referents. Scripture, this collection follows two tion of the original Comentario Additional footnotes vary by scholar, previous Catholic for a Reason vol- would import excessively Iberian but they tend to be “European” in umes: the first, sub-titled Scripture issues or approaches into a treatise style, i.e., lighter and less frequent and the Mystery of the Family of proposed for universal consultation than North American lawyers are in- God, covering a broad range of top- were anticipated—and as far as I can clined to use. The actual commentary ics; the second, Scripture and the tell, were admirably resolved—by the is clearly ordered toward the great Mystery of the Mother of God, be- editorial decisions made in produc- task of applying canon law within ing, like the third, more focused. Nine ing the English text of the Exegetical the Church today and in that sense of the twelve authors who contribute

44 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 to this third volume also wrote for strates that, for the earliest Christians, example of the todah sacrifice” (74). the first and the second, so continuity “the Eucharistic parousia is a real He ends with a salutary observation characterizes the series. presence—Christ coming in power to on the link between thankfulness or Editors Scott Hahn and Regis J. judge” (44). gratitude and worship. Flaherty divide the topics very well; Edward P. Sri contributes the vol- For the first time Thomas J. Nash, there is little repetition among the ume’s first essay, entitled “A Biblical Stephen Pimentel, and Michael various essays, and they complement Walk through the Mass.” He uncovers Barber appear in the Catholic for one another splendidly. The tone is the scriptural roots and significance of a Reason series. Nash, a prominent pastoral, and the authors make their several familiar formulae in the Mass, member of Catholics United for the pieces accessible to contemporary from the sign of the cross and “The Faith (CUF), contributes a very fine readers with imagery, analogy, and a Lord be with you” to “Happy are chapter on “The Mass as Sacrifice,” warm, familiar style. Emmaus Road those who are called to his supper.” drawing especially from Hebrews Publishing lists the work among a Sri follows a rather forced historical and 1 Corinthians. In “The Eucharist series of titles dedicated to “form- theory of liturgical development by in the Apostolic Church,” Pimentel ing lay Catholics.” The projected linking the eucharistic prayers to the dwells for the most part on the cove- audience includes Catholics redis- Jewish todah sacrifice. His purpose is nantal dimension of the Eucharist. He covering or seeking to deepen their to demonstrate that the eucharistic also relates the sacraments of the New faith, along with Protestants showing prayers “stand in continuity with the Testament to the events of the Old by interest in the Catholic Church or biblical, Jewish tradition of thanksgiv- the use of typology, and addresses the having already entered it. While the ing” (12). Following Sri’s focus on allegorical and moral interpretation tone is consistently upbeat and posi- the Old Testament, Curtis J. Mitch of Old Testament passages. In “The tive, a more or less subtle response to continues the “biblical walk” by ad- Mass and the Apocalypse,” Barber Protestant criticisms of the Mass un- dressing “The Mass and the Synoptic indicates how thoroughly the book derlies several essays. Gospels.” Properly highlighting how of Revelation is imbued with images Scott Hahn’s pioneering ap- the synoptic Gospels link Christ’s Last and themes from the Mass, follow- proach and thought permeates this Supper to the Passover, Mitch also ing Hahn’s The Lamb’s Supper. “In collection. Four of the contributors simplifies his account by following the Mass,” Barber writes, “we are not are Hahn’s students, at least insofar a certain historical theory regard- merely imitating the heavenly liturgy as their formal theological train- ing the relationship between Jewish – we are participating in it” (117). ing includes an M.A. degree from ritual and the Eucharist. In this case, Sean Innerst, in “Time for Liturgy: Steubenville. Moreover, Hahn has de- mountains of debate concerning the Appointed Times in Judaism and voted considerable energy to explor- form(s) of Passover celebrations dur- Christianity,” illustrates how Christ ing the sacraments in books such as ing the first century are leveled in and Christian worship, especially in The Lamb’s Supper: The Mass as Heaven favor of a vision of the Seder meal the Holy Triduum, fulfill the yearly on Earth (Doubleday, 1999), Lord Have “during the time of Jesus” entail- cycle of feasts commanded in the Mercy: The Healing Power of Confession ing four cups of wine, that is really Old Testament. Curtis Martin, found- (Doubleday, 2003), and Swear to impossible to substantiate given the ing president of the Fellowship of God: The Promise and Power of the state of the evidence (24). Mitch is on Catholic University Students, begins Sacraments (Doubleday 2004). Despite firmer ground, and pastorally more “The Mass and Evangelization” by his popular style and predilection for helpful, when he goes on to emphasis elaborating how the Eucharist is puns, Hahn makes numerous insight- how Jesus changes the significance both the source and the summit of ful contributions to catechesis and of the Passover by placing himself at evangelistic efforts. He then digresses sacramental theology in these works. its center, and by establishing a new from the topic of the Mass to ad- The same can be said of his essay in covenant in his blood. In a chap- dress at length why Catholics do not this volume: “Come Again? The Real ter entitled “From Jewish Passover evangelize, and how to go about do- Presence as Parousia.” Here he pres- to Christian Eucharist: The Todah ing so. Kimberly Hahn, in the final ents the thesis that the “the Eucharist Sacrifice as Backdrop for the Last chapter of the volume, walks through is the parousia” (35). For the New Supper,” Tim Gray demonstrates how the Rite for Celebrating Marriage Testament authors, the Greek word broadly a concept such as todah or During Mass, expounding various can indicate presence as well as a dra- “thanksgiving” can be applied, argu- ways in which matrimony and the matic future coming. Hahn demon- ing that the Passover “is a concrete Eucharist illuminate one another.

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 45 BOOK REVIEWS

Two of the most impressive es- biblical scholars now confidently en- treatise on the Mass or a detailed says in the volume are contributed by trenched in the academy. Nonetheless, scholarly analysis of various biblical CUF president Leon J. Suprenant and the egregious lack of clerical contrib- passages relating to the liturgy. But familiar Catholic radio personality utors to this volume – with the ex- such observations do not vitiate the Jeff Cavins. Suprenant’s chapter, titled ception of Bishop Robert C. Morlino merits of the essays therein. “The Difference Jesus Makes: The of Madison, who writes a brief fore- This volume is a welcome and ef- Eucharist and Christian Living,” car- word – reflects a crisis of authority. fective resource for those seeking to ries much of the weight of traditional These lay apologists and catechists are understand and pray the Mass more concepts in the volume – including in fact taking on the office or respon- deeply, and indeed to more fully par- transubstantiation, sacramental effi- sibility of teaching which, according ticipate in it. Just about any well-dis- cacy ex opere operato, and the proper to the Second Vatican Council, “is posed Catholic or non-Catholic will disposition of the recipient. Engaging conspicuous among the principal walk away from this collection with the documents of the Second Vatican duties of bishops” (Christus Dominus a deeper appreciation for the mystery Council and various works by Pope 12) and of priests “as co-workers with of the Mass and its relation to Sacred John Paul II, Suprenant deftly ne- their bishops” (Presbyterorum ordinis Scripture. gotiates a number of topics that are 4). Sincere Catholics increasingly turn often radically interpreted by litur- to this prominent set of lay teachers Our Lady of Guadalupe. History and gists and theologians pushing their for the spiritual nourishment they do Meaning of the Apparitions, Manuela own agendas: the priesthood of the not get from many parish pulpits and Testoni. laity, active participation, the modes diocesan offices. of Christ’s presence, and the relation- Certainly these authors astutely Review by Boguslaw Lipinski, Ph.D., ship between the Mass and work avoid controversy. They charitably Harvard School of Medicine, Boston, MA in the world. The result is an inspi- gloss over the abuses and glaring bad rational essay that strikes a delicate taste that characterize the typical par- he author has done excel- balance between prayer and action. ish Mass and its accoutrements, along lent scholarly work on the “If we truly want to live authentic with the increasingly divisive debates Tapparitions of Our Lady of Christian lives,” Suprenant concludes, surrounding the revised liturgy, its Guadalupe, the “Queen of Americas.” “we do well to return, frequently and translation, and the environment of its I am particularly impressed by depth with much love and devotion, to the celebration. Yet the target audience of of her knowledge of historical docu- Source: Jesus, our Eucharistic Lord” this volume is often quite sensitive to ments on this subject. It is also of (137). Cavins’ chapter, “Suffering and the problems with the typical parish special importance that Manuela the Mass: The Great Exchange,” ad- liturgy. The beautiful truths expound- Testoni presented views of not only dresses “how Christ’s suffering can ed in these pages are sometimes flatly those who believe that the apparition transform our lives in the Mass” and contracted by the words or actions of was a historical fact, but those who give redemptive meaning to our own those conducting eucharistic celebra- do not as well. I have only reserva- suffering (158). Cavins beautifully tions. Listening to any call-in show tions about the author’s repeated integrates the story of human suffer- on Catholic radio, one quickly learns argument that the truth behind the ing with the fall of the first Adam in that a primary source of confusion apparition can only be attained by the Garden of Eden and the triumph and temptation vexing the faithful “objective” historical findings. Being of the second Adam in the Garden of who turn to the personalities repre- an experimental scientist, I do not Gethsemane, in a manner reflective of sented in this volume for answers is agree that any branch of a science, John Paul II’s catechesis on Genesis. precisely what happens in their parish especially a historical one, can deliver The contributors to this volume churches on Sundays. The collec- objective truth. Whether we like it or stay very close to the sources of au- tion might better serve its audience not, an inescapable conclusion is that thority: in addition to the Bible, each with the addition of an essay openly scientific ideas are constructs of our cites the Catechism at least once, and acknowledging and addressing such minds, and that they become objec- many draw from recent papal teach- problems, if only to provide solidarity, tive reality after we all agree on them. ings. Moreover, these authors make comfort, or even hope for improve- I am fully aware that this kind of phi- no claim to be a “second magiste- ment. losophy may lead to a very dangerous rium” or a “magisterium of scholars,” Catholic for a Reason III is not concept of relativism, but only when as do those radical theologians and the place to turn for a dogmatic we reject the notion that Truth is at-

46 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 tainable only by Revelation. tion of Our Lady, it is associated with Testoni decided not to include these The concept of Absolute Truth innumerable miraculous healings, so important findings in her book. is particularly relevant to the proper conversions and signs of Her love Should she do it, it might bring her, understanding the book under the re- and protection of Poland. Despite the and other skeptical readers, from the view. My impression is that Manuela lack of any historical accounts on the position of uncertainty to that of a Testoni is torn between the will to origin of the Black Madonna image firm believer that the event of 1531 become a scholar accepted and rec- and the means by which it arrived at at Tepeyac was a real albeit supernatu- ognized by her peers, and a believer Jasna Gora, its presence is considered ral phenomenon. in Almighty God. As to the truth by the believers as a supernatural sign behind the apparition of Our Lady from God. Moral Issues in Catholic Health of Guadalupe, this dichotomy led the However, for those who are still Care: Proceedings of a Symposium author to assume a middleground looking for a scientific proof of the Sponsored by The John Cardinal position. I understand that she might authenticity of the apparitions of Krol Chair of Moral Theology have been impressed, and even intim- Our Lady of Guadalupe I bring to Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, April 19- idated, by the well documented fact their attention a very important fact 21, 2002, Kevin T. McMahon, edi- that only 7 percent of leading ameri- only briefly mentioned by Manuela tor. Wynnewood, PA: Saint Charles can scientists ( members of the US Testoni in a description of a picture Borromeo Seminary, 2004, x+182 National Academy of Science) believe of Juan Diego presenting to the pp., paper 0-9753171-0-5. in a personal God. Yet none of them bishop flowers that he gathered at has ever disclosed what it is that they the command of the Madonna of Review by William E. May, Michael J. know, that the believer scientists do Tepeyac. The author says: “ The scene, McGivney Professor of Moral Theology, not. It is therefore obvious, and it is painted by Manuel Cabrera towards John Paul II Institute for Studies on unfortunate that it is not for Manuela the middle of the 1700’s is extraor- Marriage and Family at The Catholic Testoni, that “truth” delivered by sci- dinarily similar to that reflected in University of America. entists is determined by their personal the eyes of the image, discovered by system of belief. Thus, is the appari- means of electronic instruments at the ith a Foreword by tion of Our Lady of Guadalupe real beginning of the 1980’s.” It is unfor- Cardinal Justin Rigali, or not? tunate that the author did not devote WMoral Issues embraces The answer to this question can, more space for this so important phe- 10 chapters whose titles indicate in my opinion, be only found outside nomenon described in details in the its scope: Edmund D. Pellegrino’s of a scientific realm. First of all, as book by Francis Johnston that is, cu- “The Present and Future Importance accurately described by the author, riously enough, listed in Bibliography of Catholic Health Care in the unknown type of pigments, remark- of Testoni’s book under the heading United States”; Msgr. James J. able and unprecedented resistance of “ English-language Studies “(p.110). Mulligan’s “Catholic Identity and the the image to fading and destruction According to Johnston, starting from Rationale for the Ethical and Religious by time and various noxious agents, as early as 1929 a series of observa- Directives”; Eugene F. Diamond’s should be sufficient proof for the su- tions were made showing a scene “Post-Rape Medications”; Helen pernatural origin of the image of Our reflected in the eyes of Our Lady Watt’s “Ethical Problems in Assisted Lady on tilma. In addition, and per- depicting Juan Diego presenting Conception”; John S. Grabowski’s haps even more importantly, we have roses to Bishop Zumarraga. In 1956 “Contraception, Sterilization, to remember that amongst all ap- Dr. Lavoignet undertook examina- and Abortion and The Ethical and proved apparitions of Our Lady, in no tion of these reflection using oph- Religious Directives”; Richard M. case a permanent material record has talmoscope and concluded that Our Doerflinger’s “Experimentation on ever been made available for human- Lady’s eyes on the tilma behaved as Human Subjects and Stem Cell ity. The only other instance in which they were alive. Dr.C.Wahlig and his Research”; Debra Day-Salvatore’s is a similar inexplicable image of Our wife Isabelle, an optician, continued “Genetic Medicine: The Practice of Lady is that in Czestochowa, known scientific investigations of the reflec- Personalized Health Care”; Romanus otherwise as Black Madonna, that tions in the eyes of on the tilma and Cessario’s “Conditional Stewardship appeared in Poland over a half cen- concluded that “ the sacred image is of Life: A Moral Principle of John tury ago. Although this image was not truly a portrait from heaven “. It re- Paul II”; Andrew T. Putnam’s “Pain accompanied by a physical appari- mains a mystery for me why Mauela Management and Palliative Care”;

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 47 BOOK REVIEWS and Benedict Ashley’s “Organ autonomy to control his or her life, protocol proposed as “morally accept- Donation and Implantation.” an understanding at the heart of the able” insofar as use of Ovral seems Pellegrino addresses the forces culture of death. Mulligan emphasizes not to inhibit ovulation but rather threatening the extinction of Catholic that the understanding of the dignity to prevent implantation and thus to hospitals in the US, examines options of the human person operative in the act as an abortifacient. My difficulty for their survival, and evaluates these ERDs is grounded in Catholic faith may be due to ignorance, and I have alternatives. Among external causes in divine revelation. I wish he had, at the highest respect for Dr. Diamond, are economic viability in the market- least briefly, stressed that this teach- but I am seriously perplexed by his driven health care system operative ing is fully compatible with a sound logic. On the one hand, he admits today and a secularistic, relativistic philosophical anthropology that rec- that there is little evidence that use view of “bioethics.” Among inter- ognizes how radically human beings of Ovral in the preovulatory phase nal causes is a willingness of some differ from non-human animals. inhibits ovulation but on the other Catholic institutions to compromise Diamond takes up a critically im- hand recommends its use for this their principles and enter Faustian portant issue: the care to be given purpose. “mergers” with secular facilities in women who have been raped. He Watt’s essay is an excellent presen- order to survive. Options include notes quite properly that contracep- tation of the reasons why the Church being “realistic,” accommodating to tive measures to prevent conception teaches that human life can be rightly contemporary culture, and giving up can legitimately be used. A woman generated only in and through the on some principles on the one hand who has been raped is under no ob- conjugal act and why new “repro- and getting out of the work of health ligation to allow the rapist’s sperm ductive” techniques such as in vitro care to invest energy and money in to penetrate her ovum. The act cho- fertilization transform procreation to other good purposes on the other. sen here is definitely not to impede “reproduction,” treating a child, as Pellegrino rejects these as morally procreation resulting from freely least in the initial stages of its exis- and spiritually unacceptable. He ad- chosen genital sex (which is what tence, as a “product.” vocates providing care in accord with contraception is) but is rather an act Grabowski similarly presents reasons Catholic principles and argues that of legitimate self defense. Diamond why the Church teaches that contra- this can be done if we make creative likewise shows that one cannot use ception and contraceptive steriliza- adjustments, attract good laypeople means to “prevent” conception that tion violate the moral order and the faithful to Church teaching and com- in truth do not do so but rather act nature of marital love and self-giving. petent to do the work formerly done as early abortifacients, preventing the In presenting reasons why it is wrong by religious communities, organize implanting of life already conceived for married persons to contracept regionally, close some facilities, refur- in the womb. He concludes his essay he follows closely the reasoning bish others and focus efforts where with a “practical and morally accept- developed by John Paul II—that we are strong, perhaps emphasizing able rape protocol” (it is in fact the contraception by married couples long-term, palliative care etc. so-called “Peoria Protocol” although falsifies the meaning of the conjugal Mulligan seeks to explain the surprisingly Diamond does not note act as one of self-giving and distorts twofold purpose of the ERDs—(1) this) according to which it is morally the language of the body. This is, of to affirm the ethical standards flow- permissible, IF it has been deter- course, true, but I wish Grabowski ing from Church teaching on the mined that a woman in the preovula- had at least noted the long Catholic dignity of the human person and (2) tory phase of her cycle, to administer tradition—rooted in the Fathers of to provide authoritative guidance for Ovral as the “most effective contra- the Church, articulated in the Si certain issues in health care. He shows ceptive intervention in the dosage of Aliquis canon, and explicitly taught by clearly how the Catholic understand- two pills at the present time and two the Roman Catechism—that contra- ing of the dignity of the human in twelve hours.” However, earlier in ception is not only anti-love but anti- person is rooted in the very being of his essay Diamond cited experimental life and analogous to homicide. the human person as created in the data provided by the manufacturer Doerflinger’s essay on stem cell re- image and likeness of God and called of Ovral inferring that its use to search is a superb presentation of the to eternal life and how this under- suppress ovulation is “meager and truth that respect for human dignity standing differs profoundly from the inconclusive” and that its manufac- absolutely prohibits using human be- secularist understanding of human turer “does not claim such an effect.” ings as experimental animals, a truth dignity as rooted in the individual’s I thus find it difficult to justify the proclaimed not only by the Church

48 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 but at the heart of the Nuremberg teaching on euthanasia: human free- ments that cause suffering for patient Code developed in reaction to the dom, the moral good, and prudence, and family. He likewise shows how horrors of Nazi medicine and of good emphasizing the our freedom is or- palliative care differs radically from an medical ethics. As he shows, this truth dered to the truth about the human ethic of euthanasia. has been lost in the wake of Roe v. person, that the moral good requires Ashley is concerned with organ Wade, leading to demands to treat tiny respect and love for the good of hu- transplants from the deceased, and in human beings, those in the embryonic man life, and that prudence, a virtue his essay he provides a concise over- stage, as if they were guinea pigs. He characteristic of the person who loves view of the ethical issues that this also gives reasons to question seriously the truth and the goods perfective of raises, among which the most impor- President Bush’s decision to grant persons, is required if one is steadfast- tant is to make sure that a person is federal funds for research on stem cell ly to make true moral judgments and dead before one harvests vital organs lines already developed from aborted good moral choice. His essay is quite such as the heart. Ashley accepts the embryos. thoughtful; at times, however, there is view that an adequate criterion for Day-Salvatore’s contribution of- a tendency to “reify” virtues and to determining that a person has died fers an excellent overview of genetic speak as if a virtue “does” something, is the irreversible cessation of the medicine—the nature of chromosomal whereas it is, as Cessario well knows, functioning of the entire brain. Ashley disorders (Down syndrome, Turner the person who judges, chooses, and accepts this as the criterion because syndrome), monogenic (Down syn- acts, and the virtues, either divinely he is convinced that the brain is the drome) and polygenic disorders (spina infused or acquired by habitually central integrating organ accounting bifida), cumulative or somatic cell dis- making good moral choices, are qual- for the unity of one’s bodily life. He orders (cancer), etc. and the meaning ities or “habitus” of the person. rejects the claim made recently by Dr. of the human genome project. Putnam contributes a fine essay Alan Shewmon that this is simply not In the introduction to his es- on the nature and need today of pal- true and that another criterion must say Cessario focuses on recent papal liative medicine. In it he shows how be adopted. In my opinion Ashley teaching on euthanasia and then, most palliative care specialists can help both too peremptorily dismisses the evi- importantly, show that the moral un- patients and their families prepare dence and arguments advanced by derpinnings of Evangelium vitae (1995) for a good death and to help families Shewmon to falsify the “total brain had been brilliantly set forth by John afterwards. Providing a “good” death death” criterion. I know that at pres- Paul II in his great 1993 encyclical involves not only treating pain but ent the Holy See is closely studying Veritatis splendor. Cessario then centers also taking into account the psychic, this issue. on three themes governing Church spiritual and more emotional ele- This is helpful book. 

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 49 BOOKS RECEIVED LETTER

If you would like to receive a complimentary Figures Around the Crib: Preparing for Dear Dr. McInerny: copy of one of the books below in order to Christmas with Isaiah, John the Baptizer, review it for a future issue, please email your Joseph, and Mary, Rev. William F. Maestri, It has been brought to my attention request to Alice Osberger at osberger.1@nd. Alba House: New York, (2001), Paper, edu 144pp. that the obituary that was included in my memorial of Msgr. George Light on Light: Illuminations of the I Am: Eucharistic Meditations on the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the Mystical Gospel, Concepcion Cabrera de Armida, A. Kelly (Fellowship of Catholic Visions of the Venerable Anne Catherine Alba House, New York, (2001), Paper, Scholars Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 4, Emmerich, by Hurd Baruch, MaxKol 101pp. Winter 2004) did not mention that Communications (2004), 259pp. Paper. Have You Heard the Good News?: Reflections Msgr. Michael Wrenn funded and The Spirit of Jesus in Scripture and on the Sunday Gospels, Cycle A, Edward organized the 1999 colloquy in Prayer, James W. Kinn, Rowman and T. Dowling, SJ, Alba House: New York, Msgr. Kelly’s honor. My apologies Littlefield Publishing, Lanham, MD, (2001), Paper, 180pp. go to Msgr. Wrenn. I ask that the (2004) 231pp. Paper. Faith Facts: Answers to Catholic omission be remedied by publica- The Heretic, A Novel, William Baer, Questions, Vol. II, Eds. Leon J. Suprenant, tion of this letter. PublishAmerica, Baltimore, (2004), Jr. & Philip C. L. Gray, Emmaus Road 211pp., Paper. Publishing, Steubenville, OH, (2004), Paper, 186pp. Yours faithfully, Our Lady and the Church, Hugo Rahner, S.J., Zaccheus Press: Bethesda, MD, Daily Readings in Catholic Classics, (2004), 149 pp. Paper. Ed. Rawley Myers, Ignatius Press: San Patrick G.D. Riley Francisco, (1992), Paper, 332. Wauwatosa, WI 53222 Christian Courtship in an Over Sexed World: A Guide for Catholics, T. G. Morrow, Our Exploring the Catholic Church: An Sunday Visitor: Huntington, IN, 296pp, Introduction to Catholic Teaching and Practice, Paper Marcellino D’Ambrosio, Ph.D., Servant Publications: Ann Arbor, MI, (2001), EMBERSHIP ATTERS The Works of Mercy: The Heart of M M Paper, 136pp. Catholicism, James F. Keenan, S.J., Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group: Praying the Sunday Psalms: Reflections FCS Member Luz G. Gabriel, M.D. Lanham, MD, Paper, 128pp. on the Responsorial Psalms, Years A, B, C, published “What is the Roman Michael Goonan, SSP, Alba House, New Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Catholic Church’s Stance on the York, (2001), Alba House, New York, Day Care, Behavioral Drugs, and Other Paper, 204pp. Science of Psychiatry?” in the Social Parent Substitutes, Mary Eberstadt, Justice Review, March -April, 2005 Sentinel: New York, (2004) Cloth. 218 Rationality and Religious Experience: The issue #3-4 pp. Continuing Relevance of the World’s Spiritual Traditions, The First Master Hsuan Hua Peace Talks: Who Will Listen?, Fred Memorial Lecture, Henry Rosemont, Dallmayr, University of Notre Dame Jr., Open Court, Chicago, (2001), Paper, Press: Notre Dame, IN, (2004) Paper. 111pp. 288pp. No One Else Can Sing My Song, Edward The Triumph of Practice over Theory in J. Farrell, Alba House, New York, (2001), Ethics, James P. Sterba, Oxford University Paper, 204pp. Press: Oxford, (2005), Paper, 206pp. Figures Around the Cross: A Lenten Journey Morals and Politics, by Vittorio Hösle, from Death to Life, Rev. William F. Maestri, trans. By Steven Rendall, University of Alba House: New York, (2002), Paper, Notre Dame Press: Notre Dame, IN, 233pp. (2004), cloth, 1,016 pp. Healing: Questions and Answers for Those Caring for a Dying Loved One, Bob Who Mourn, Rev. Terence P. Curley, Fischer, MSN, RN, Alba House: New D.Min., Alba House: New York, (2002), York, (2001), Paper, 97pp. Paper, 109pp. The Rapture Trap: A Catholic Response Daisys Will Grow Anywhere: A (Victim to “End Times” Fever, Paul Thigpen, Abuse) Survivor’s Story, Elizabeth Ascension Press: West Chester, PA, (2001), Ammons, Xlibris, (2001), Paper, 520pp. Paper, 262pp.

50 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 BOARD OF OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS

OFFICERS PAST PRESIDENTS ELECTED DIRECTORS

President DR. WILLIAM MAY 2001-2004 2003-2006 DR. BERNARD DOBRANSKI John Paul II Institute DR. CAROL (SUE) ABROMAITIS (Ave Maria School of Law) 415 Michigan Avenue, PROF. STEPHEN BARR Loyola College 6225 Webster Church Road NE–#290 (University of Delaware) 4501 North Charles Street Dexter, MI 48130 Washington, DC 20017 9 Wynwyd Drive Baltimore, MD 21210 [email protected] [email protected] Newark, DE 19711 [email protected] [email protected] Vice-President REV. MSGR. WILLIAM B. DR. STEPHEN MILETIC DR. ELIZABETH MR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS SMITH FOX-GENOVESE (Family Research Council) St. Joseph’s Seminary, Franciscan University of (Emory University) 801 G. Street, NW Dunwoodie Steubenville 1487 Sheridan Walk Washington, DC 20001 201 E. Seminary Avenue 1235 University Boulevard Atlanta, GA 30324 [email protected] Yonkers, NY 10704-1896 Steubenville, OH 43952- 1763 [email protected] Executive Secretary REV. EARL A. WEIS, S.J. [email protected] REV. J. MICHAEL MILLER, CSB REV. MSGR. STUART W. Loyola University REV. PETER RYAN, S.J. University of St. Thomas SWETLAND, S.T.D. 6525 N. Sheridan Road 3800 Montrose Boulevard Chaplain and Director Chicago, IL 60626-5385 Mount St. Mary’s Seminary Houston, TX 77006 Newman Foundation at Emmitsburg, MD 21727- DR. JAMES HITCHCOCK [email protected] the University of Illinois at 7700 St. Louis University [email protected] Urbana-Champaign REV. STUART SWETLAND 6158 Kingsbury Drive Associate Professor at the St. John’s Newman St. Louis, MO 63112 University of Illinois at Foundation [email protected] 2002-2005 Urbana-Champaign 604 E. Armory Avenue 604 East Armory Ave. GERARD V. BRADLEY DR. J. BRIAN BENESTAD Champaign, IL 61820 Champaign, IL 61820 124 Law Scool University of Scranton fatherstuart@newman (217) 344-1184 x 302 tel Notre Dame, IN 46556 Scranton, PA 18510 foundation.org (217) 344-6606 fax [email protected] [email protected] msgrswetland@ REV. JOSEPH KOTERSKI, S.J. newmanfoundation.org Fordham University, Editor of FCS Quarterly Philosophy PROF. RALPH MCINERNY Bronx, NY 10458 Jacques Maritain Center [email protected]

714 Hesburgh Library PROF. GLENN OLSEN Notre Dame, IN 46556 University of Utah [email protected] 300 S. 1400 E. Room 211 Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0311 [email protected]

Extra copies of The Catholic Cit- izen: Debating the Issues of Jus- tice, edited by Kenneth D. White- head, Proceedings of the 26th Annual FCS meeting in Arlington VA, St Augustine’s Press, South catholicscholars.org Bend, IN are available.

FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005 51 EX CATHEDRA

TEXTUAL ATTRACTION

few weeks ago, my colleague Otto Bird is undeniably a Kleenex feel to the downloaded text. astounded me by plunking down on I have friends who carry around on their palm tops the luncheon table in the University the collected works of Aristotle with something of the Club a 1591 edition of St. Thomas proprietary attitude of Andronicus of Rhodes. Perhaps Aquinas’s commentaries on the epistles the person next to you on the plane is listening to a Aof St. Paul. It turned out that he was giving it to me. recording of Plato. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed. What doe sit all mean? (As we ask in Philosophy A little later I received from my daughter Cathy 101.) St. Thomas’s speedwriting is known as the litera as a birthday present an 1871 edition of Anthony inintelligibilis, the unreadable hand. And yet, all these Trollope’s Ralph the Heir, in beautiful condition. The years later, a 16th century printing of his commentar- novel is one of my favorite Trollope’s. ies on St. Paul is enshrined in my study. I will go on The common denominator here is the printed reading the text in the Marietti edition, I will go on book as artifact, as collectible, as a precious reminder consulting the electronic versions of Thomas, but it is of an earlier time. We live in an era when one can nice to run one’s hand over a book that is as much an with the flick of a few keys bring up on the screen artifact as an instrument. I once had put into my hands the text of any classic work and indeed sometimes at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana a portion of Thomas’s facsimiles of original manuscripts or printed editions. own manuscript of Book III of the Summa contra The primary point of writing is to be read and in gentiles. As a relic, I suppose it would be called third some possible world it matters little whether what is class. But try to get that kind of thrill from words on read is an electronic text or a printed page. But there your computer screen. ✠

Ralph McInerny

Fellowship of Nonprofit Organization Catholic Scholars U.S. Postage PAID Quarterly Notre Dame, Indiana Box 495 Permit No. 10 Notre Dame, IN 46556

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52 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2005