Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly
articles President’s Letter...... Dr. Bernard Dobranski The Origin of Atheism according to Milton, 30 Dryden, and Swift...... Anne Gardiner Number 1 Hermeneutics Revisited...... Leo J. Elders, S.V.D. Spring 2007 Rationality and Will as the Path to God: The Lecture of Benedict XVI at the University of Regensburg...... Fr. Joseph M. De Torre Leo Tolstoy and the Catholic Church...... James Likoudis Not Everybody Loves Raymond...... Edmund J. Mazza
Book Reviews The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins...... Robert E. Hurley, M.D. Behind the Scenes at Galileo’s Trial . by Richard J. Blackwell...... Jude P. Dougherty The Future of Europe: Reform or Decline . by Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi...... Jude P. Dougherty La Constitución de los Estados Unidos y su Dinámica Actual by Robert S. Barker...... D. Q. McInerny Aristotle and the Rediscovery of Citizenship by Susan D. Collins ...... Leo J. Elders, S.V.D. James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights . by R. Labunski...... Rev. Michael P. Orsi Salvation is from the Jews: The Role of Judaism in Salvation History from Abraham to the Second Coming . by Roy H. Schoeman...... Brian Van Hove, S.J. The Virtue Driven Life. by Benedict J. Groeschel, C.F.R...... Reverend Brian Van Hove, S.J. A Farewell to Ronald Lawler, O.F.M. Cap.: Friend, Founder and Freethinker . by Michael Aquilina and Kenneth Ogorek, eds...... Glenn Statile
ISSN 1084-3035 Flannery O’Connor and Edward Lewis Wallant: Two of a Kind . by John V. McDermott ...... Dr. Clara Sarrocco Fellowship of Catholic Scholars P.O. Box 495 Books Received Notre Dame, IN 46556 (574) 631-5825 Of Interest www.catholicscholars.org Obituary J. Brian Benestad, Editor [email protected] Ex Cathedra...... Brian Benestad FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 President’s Letter
Fellowship of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese Catholic Scholars Scholarship Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Rest in Peace in Service to the Church
Contents t is with great sorrow that I share the news of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese death on Articles Tuesday, January 2, 2007. As many of you The Origin of Atheism according to Milton, Dryden, and Swift...... 2 know, Professor Elizabeth Fox - Genovese Hermeneutics Revisited...... 8 was actively involved in the Fellowship Rationality and Will of Catholic Scholars for many years, including as the Path to God...... 14 I Leo Tolstoy and the Catholic Church...... 20 distinguished service as a board member. In addition, Not Everybody Loves Raymond...... 23 she was the recipient of the Fellowship’s Cardinal Wright Award in 2003. Book Reviews Among her numerous scholarly accomplishments The Language of God...... 25 was delivering the 2003 Charles E. Test Lectures at Behind the Scenes at Galileo’s Trial...... 26 Princeton University’s James Madison Program in The Future of Europe...... 27 La Constitución de los Estados American Ideals and Institutions. Those lectures on Unidos y su Dinámica Actual...... 28 the historical and moral foundations of marriage will Aristotle and the Rediscovery soon be published in book form as “Marriage on of Citizenship...... 31 James Madison and the Struggle Trial.” for the Bill of Rights...... 32 Please join us in prayers for her husband and Salvation is from the Jews: The Role of Judaism in Salvation History...... 33 family at this most difficult loss. I also invite you The Virtue Driven Life...... 34 to read the moving tribute to her written by FCS A Farewell to member Robert George, the McCormick Professor Ronald Lawler, O.F.M. Cap...... 35 of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Flannery O’Connor and Edward Lewis Wallant: Two of a Kind...... 37 Program at Princeton University, as it appeared in National Review Online, entitled “The Story Books Received...... 38 of a Well-Lived Life.” All of us in the Fellowship Of Interest...... 39 benefited from Betsey’s wise counsel through the letter...... 39 years, and she will be greatly missed. Requiescat in Ex Cathedra...... 40 pace. ✠
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FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 Articles The Origin of Atheism according to Milton, Dryden, and Swift
by Anne Barbeau Gardiner making, while the Maker gave thee being?” One Professor Emerita, John Jay College, C.U.N.Y. cannot make inferences from what is seen to what is unseen, he suggests, and call the result knowledge. He ilton, Dryden and Swift agree proceeds to offer, instead of the Creation by God’s that atheism is a turn from the Word in which Milton believes, another ultimate supernatural to the material as origin of angels: they were “self-begot, self-rais’d” by the source of ultimate reality. But their “own quick’ning power” at a time appointed by where Milton sees atheism as Fate, using the substratum of their “native Heav’n” to Marising from false doctrine, Dryden and Swift see it as build up angelic bodies. Thus he gives them, instead arising from politics. In Paradise Lost, Milton depicts of the Creation, a purely materialistic account of atheism as rooted in a denial of the Creation, a denial their origin. In the key passage he repeats the word which results in a false belief in self-creation. On the know twice: other hand, Dryden—even while still a Protestant— We know no time when we were not as now; shows atheism as the result of parliament meddling Know none before us, self-begot, self-rais’d with Christian belief and making a central doctrine By our own quick’ning power, when fatal course Had circl’d his full Orb, the birth mature of the faith a matter decided by votes. Swift also lo- Of this our native Heav’n, Ethereal Sons. (5:856-63) cates the origin of atheism in England in the secular government’s meddling with religion, but he accuses For all his emphasis on knowing, Satan’s myth of self- an English monarch of having virtually established creation under Fate requires even more faith than atheism. All three deplore the rise of atheism, but belief in the Creation, for the rebel angels do not from different perspectives. recall this self-begetting either. Satan receives wild applause when he argues that since sensory experience is the only way to knowl- Milton: Atheism as Denial edge, his followers will not know that God is supe- of the Creation rior to them in power until they challenge him, “by proof to try / Who is our equal” (5:865-6). When he n Paradise Lost, the angel Raphael says he will calls his angels “Sons of Heav’n possest before / By recount the war in heaven by “lik’ning spiritual none,” Satan also implies that they do not even know Ito corporal forms,” for “what if Earth/ Be but if God was in heaven before them. Throughout the the shadow of Heav’n” and the two be “Each to temptation, his epistemology is consistent: knowing other like, more than on Earth is thought?” (5:572- requires remembered sensory experience. 6). Milton’s angels are not pure spirits, but creatures The loyal angel Abdiel retorts that Satan does in made of ethereal matter, hence similar to humans. fact know that “by his Word the mighty Father made We find that the fall of the angels into atheism is the / All things, ev’n thee, and all the Spirits of Heav’n” exact prototype of the fall of Eve. (6:836-8). Here he echoes St. Paul, who says that The rebel angels are lured into atheism by Satan the Creator is “clearly perceived” in what he made, persuading them that sensory experience is the only so that those who reject him are inexcusable: “Ever way to knowledge. Since they were not observers since the creation of the world his invisible nature, of their own Creation and have no recollection of namely, his eternal power and deity has been clearly the event, he urges, they can not know it: “who saw perceived in the things that have been made. So they / When this creation was? Remember’st thou / Thy are without excuse; for although they knew God, they
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 Articles
did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless Just as he persuaded his angels that they were begot- minds were darkened” (Rm1:20-1; italics mine). Fur- ten from heaven’s substratum at the fated time, so he ther, Abdiel warns that when Satan and his angels are persuades Eve that she is a product of earth and can punished, they will then “know” who “created” them raise herself to higher rank by claiming autonomy and who “can uncreate” them (5:894-5). Milton al- and eating divinity-producing food. ludes here to Moses’s warning to Pharaoh before each After eating the Fruit and seeing no change in plague that he will “know” who is Lord by experienc- herself, Eve resolves with blind faith to come back ing the punishment foretold. and eat from the Tree each day so as to “grow mature Although Satan deceives his followers, he him- / In knowledge, as the Gods who all things know” self knows and admits to himself that he was created. (9:803-9). This, of course, is an attack on the Mass, On his way to Eden, he reflects that God “deserv’d with allusions to the eucharistic hymns of Fortuna- no such return / From me, whom he created what tus, who praises the Tree of Calvary for producing I was” (4:42-3). Thus his epistemology is a cover for divine fruit of the altar. As a radical Protestant, Mil- his envy of the Son, whom he refuses to accept as the ton depicts the Catholic Sacrament as an attempt at new King of the angels. In vain does Abdiel argue that self-divinization parallel to the angels’ rebellion. all angels, including those of highest rank like Satan, Thus, at the dawn of the Enlightenment, Milton are exalted by their nearness to God in the person of warns that to make sensory perception the only way their new King. Satan seduces his angels into prefer- to knowledge will lead to the growth of atheism, ring the hierarchy of the ancien regime and into ac- which for him is next door to idolatry and Catholi- cepting him, a fellow-angel, as their ruler instead of cism. The epistemology which ensnared the rebel the Son of God. This is why Milton calls the fallen angels and Eve will also bring the English, he fears, angels “Atheist crew” and “faithless”(6:370, 897), and into the toils of unbelief. the Son himself calls them “Godless” (6:811). In the seduction of Eve, Satan offers the same Dryden: Atheism and path to atheism which he had offered the rebel angels. At first, Eve refers twice in one sentence to the Cre- the Test Acts ation, in her amazement at hearing the serpent speak: is he not, she asks, one of the “Beasts, whom God ike Milton, Dryden sees atheism as a turn on thir Creation-Day / Created mute”? He replies from the supernatural to the material for the that he acquired speech by his own act and thus was Lsource of ultimate reality. But he thinks that self-raised to a higher level “than Fate / Meant” him the atheism of his times originates in politics, espe- (9:687-90). Then, to persuade her that sensory percep- cially in parliamentary votes about a crucial Chris- tion is the only way to knowledge, he informs Eve tian belief. For fourteen years, from 1673 to 1687, that she has never actually seen anything being created Dryden complains about parliament having meddled in Eden. What she has seen is the earth bringing forth with the Christian Eucharist by enacting a sacra- everything, and the “Gods” producing “nothing.” She mental Test for public office. Although the Test (with should therefore trust her senses and conclude that its oath against Transubstantiation) was mainly anti- everything around her, including the “Gods,” arose Catholic, Dryden consistently deplored it for more from the earth: than a decade while he was still a Protestant. And what are Gods that Man may not become In the 1673 prologue to Amboyna, a satirical play As they, participating God-like food? about Holland written during the third Anglo-Dutch The Gods are first, and that advantage use War, he writes: “monarchies may own religion’s On our belief, that all from them proceeds; name, / But states are atheists in their very frame.” I question it, for this fair earth I see, That states, or republics, are atheistic is a barb aimed Warm’d by the Sun, producing every kind, not just at Holland, but also at the pro-Dutch party Them nothing... (9: 716-22) in England, later to be named Whig, that was try-
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 ing to weaken the monarchy and bring in a republic. to a local fashion. Again, the second Test was pushed This party was responsible for the Test Acts of 1673 through by Whigs. It required a declaration against and 1678, and it was the party that both Dryden and the Mass as idolatry as the prerequisite to taking one’s Swift saw as filled with atheists. seat in the House of Lords, where many Catholics Dryden dedicates Amboyna to the Catholic Lord had remained since the Reformation. This was the Clifford, and for good reason. The new Test Act penultimate step before a final Test excluding Catho- was passed on March 20, 1673, and soon after, Clif- lics from the crown, which would be part of the Act ford had to resign as Lord Treasurer. In his dedica- of Settlement of 1689. While the Tests of 1673 and tion written in the few short weeks between the 1678 were repealed in 1827, the Test of 1689 still Treasurer’s resignation and his tragic death on August stands. Dryden thinks that by enacting such Tests, 18, Dryden refers scathingly to the Test, lamenting parliament has usurped authority over the Christian that “by the iniquity of the times,” public servants religion and might someday vote to exclude it alto- like Clifford “must either quit their virtue or their gether from England: it’s hard “to know” how long it fortune.” In saying this, the poet also glances at James will vote to “continue” our “own Worship” here “at Duke of York, who had given up his public offices home.” too, in preference to abandoning his religion. Not only is the Test atheistical, Dryden claims, Besides being enacted by the pro-Dutch party in but the man who pushed through both Test Acts was England, the Test also derived from Holland, where himself an atheist and a man of “open lewdness.” In it had been used as an economic form of discrimina- an apostrophe to the earl of Shaftesbury, leader of the tion since the Synod of Dort in 1619. Dryden ex- Whigs, Dryden exclaims, “Religion thou hast none.” plicitly attacks the sacramental Test as Dutch in Act 1 Yet Shaftesbury has brought in a new doctrine of of Amboyna, when he shows the Hollander Harman infallibility into England—the infallibility of parlia- saying to the Englishman, “ O my sworn brother... mentary votes on Christian doctrine. He has main- to whom I have received the sacrament, never to tained that “the Multitude can never err” and set “the be false-hearted.” Even though he had taken the People in the Papal Chair” (86-87). And so, parlia- sacramental Test as security for his alliance with the ment is now speaking for almighty God: “Almighty English, this Hollander would later torture and kill Crowd, thou shorten’st all dispute; / Pow’r is thy them for the sake of a trade-monopoly. Here Dryden Essence; Wit thy Attribute! (91-2) This, for Dryden, shows that an atheist can easily pass a sacramental Test amounts to the virtual establishment of atheism. and make it an instrument of deception. More subtly in Religio Laici (1682), Dryden again Nearly a decade later, Dryden attacked the Test attacks the Test by declaring that difficult points in again in The Medall (1682), a satire written dur- Christian doctrine are not to be meddled with by ing the panic of the Titus Oates Plot, a plot devised profane men who are ignorant of Church history. and fomented by the Whigs to exclude the Catholic They must be left to the learned few who strive to Duke of York from the crown. Again, Dryden linked maintain continuity with the Church of former ages: the Test to atheism: “For ‘tis not likely we shou’d higher Soar / In Search The common Cry is ev’n Religion’s Test; of Heav’n than all the Church before” (437-8). The Turk’1s is, at Constantinople, best; Finally, after his conversion to Catholicism, Idols in India, Popery at Rome; Dryden devotes over half the lines of The Hind and And our own Worship onely true at home: the Panther (1687) to attacks on the Test. Here, espe- And true, but for the time; ‘tis hard to know cially in Part III, he incorporates all the arguments How long we please it shall continue so. against those statutes that had been raised by Angli- cans, Dissenters, and Catholics before and during the The Common Cry is ev’n Religion’s Test refers to the reign of James II (1685-1688). Through the Hind, he clamor of the House of Commons in 1678 to bring excoriates the sacramental Test as a touchstone that in the second Test Act. Dryden shows that such po- lets atheists pass easily into public office: litical meddling with the Christian religion reduces it Your answer is, they [Catholics] were not dispossess’d,
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 Articles
They need but rub their mettle on the Test By real presence in the sacrament, To prove their ore: ‘twere well if gold alone (After long fencing push’d, against a wall,) Were touch’d and try’d on your discerning stone; Your salvo comes, that he’s not there at all: But that unfaithfull Test, unfound will pass There chang’d your faith, and what may change . The dross of Atheists, and sectarian brass: may fall. (2:30-5) As if th’experiment were made to hold For base productions, and reject the gold: To deny a central doctrine under political pressure Thus men ungodded may to places rise, rather than suffer martyrdom, he says, is tantamount And sects may be preferr’d without disguise... . to the end of a church, for “what may change may (3:734-43). fall.” This end is heralded, too, by the atheists who are As in Amboyna, the Test is “unfaithful” in that it al- coming out of brothels in 1687 to join the Church lows men known to be “ungodded” to receive the of England in her fight to uphold the Test against Anglican sacrament kneeling and take the oath King James: against Transubstantiation. Such men have no scruples Ev’n Atheists out of envy own a God: about abusing the Sacrament as a step to political And reeking from the Stews, Adult’rers come, power. Like Goths and Vandals to demolish Rome. Dryden returns to the Dutch association with That Conscience which to all their Crimes was mute, the Test in 1687. Twice in the span of fourteen years, Now calls aloud, and cryes to Persecute.” (3:1212-16.) he portrays the Dutch East-India merchants as athe- ists who can pass religious tests in pagan lands to se- Here Dryden explicitly calls the Test Acts a per- cure a trade-monopoly. In his play Amboyna, an Eng- secution in which atheists are happy to join with lishman rebukes a Dutch merchant for having offered Anglicans. Thus, for a decade and a half, Dryden public “sacrifice” to the “idols”of Pegu for the sake of consistently sees the Test as arising first from a pro- trade. In reply, the Dutchman calls the English “fools” Dutch atheistic party and then being defended by for refusing to take this Test for their profit. Dryden atheists who infiltrate the Church of England to join makes the same point in 1687 when he writes that her in overthrowing the king. The rise and growth the Dutch apostatize in Japan: of atheism in England in the 1670s and 1680s is, in They run full sail to their Japponian Mart: Dryden’s view, rooted in parliament’s meddling with Prevention fear, and prodigal of fame the Christian faith. Sell all of Christian to the very name; Nor leave enough of that, to hide their naked shame. (2:572-5) Swift: Atheism and Erastianism
By the phrase, selling “all of Christian to the very wift agrees with Dryden that modern atheism name,” the poet alludes to the Fumie Test in Japan, comes from political meddling with the Chris- the trampling of the crucifix once a year for the right Stian religion. However, he blames a king, not to trade. This act of trampling was interpreted by parliament, for having made disastrous changes, and the Japanese (who knew nothing of iconoclasm) as a he is a strong defender of the Test as the last bulwark denial of the Christian name. against the establishment of atheism in England. Also in The Hind and the Panther, Dryden through In Lilliput (i.e., the little Whore), we learn that the Hind accuses the Church of England of having belief in Divine Providence was once the Test for been corrupted by accepting the Test and relying on public office, but a certain King decided arbitrarily to it for her security. She was a long time silent about make rope-dancing the new Test. This is connected the mystery of the Real Presence, but parliament fi- to the ruin of the Church in Lilliput, symbolized by nally forced her to speak when she accepted the Test the desecrated Temple in which Gulliver is lodged. and denied the ancient doctrine: We learn later that rope-dancing was introduced The Test it seems at last has loos’d your tongue. by the very same king who imposed Little-Endian- And, to explain what your forefathers meant, ism and made Big-Endianism illegal. The minister
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 Reldresal informs Gulliver that everyone admits that “the faith of Christians is not as a grain of mustard Big-Endianism, which is still practiced in Blefuscu seed in comparison of theirs [that of atheists], which (Gallican France), is the “primitive” way of worship. can remove such mountains of absurdities, and sub- And so, a single Lilliputian King by edict made the mit with so entire a resignation to such apostles.” “primitive” Church’s worship irrelevant—and Swift Like Dryden, he makes Holland the paradigm of the sees the “primitive Church” as the true form of atheist state, declaring that “they have no religion, Christianity. By the time Gulliver arrives in Lilliput and are the worst constituted government in the in 1699, the Big-Endians are “incapable by Law of world to last.” (Remarks). He depicts the Dutch mer- holding Employments,” alluding to the Test Acts of chants in Gulliver’s third voyage as willing to deny 1673 and 1678 which excluded Catholics from pub- their Christianity for a monopoly of Japanese trade lic employment for their belief in a Real Presence and as even more eager than the Japanese to perse- at Communion. As a high-church Laudian, Swift is cute Christians by imposing the Fumie Test. Swift appalled by this renouncing of the “primitive” view joins Dryden, too, in associating atheism with the of Communion. Whigs, as when he says: “I do affirm, that of every Swift wants the Church of England to be inde- hundred professed atheists, deists, and socinians in the pendent in religious matters, while being supported kingdom, ninety-nine at least are staunch thorough- in other respects by the state. He explains that a secu- paced Whigs.” And he charges Bishop Gilbert Burnet lar state can go ahead and enact “canon and eccle- with treating “atheists, deists, freethinkers, and the siastical laws, and oblige all men to observe them like enemies to Christianity” as his friends only be- under pain of high treason,” but none of these laws cause they are all of “Whig principles in church and are real. For in the same way he himself can “take a state” (Preface to the Bishop of Sarum). turnip, then tie a string to it, and call it a watch, and Swift sees the Whig bishops of his day as putting turn away all my servants, if they refuse to call it so politics above religion and letting the government too” (Remarks 85-93). He draws a clear line between decide Church doctrine. This is Dryden’s view, too, the political and the ontological, urging that political but the difference between Dryden and Swift is that establishment does not bring the Church of England the former believes the Test is a persecution, while into “being.” Swift sees it as a last bulwark against the establish- In the third voyage, Swift again shows how athe- ment of atheism. In his sermon “On the Trinity,” ism arises from politics. He depicts Laputa (i.e. the where he attacks Pierre Bayle’s claim that atheists are Whore) as a flying island detached from the ground more virtuous than Christians, Swift warns, “God and provides a map of the ground below dotted with forbid we should ever see the times so bad, when church spires. This is an allusion to St. Paul, who calls dangerous Opinions in Religion will be a means to the Church the “ground of truth.” We learn that the get Favour and Preferment.” This is the nightmare spires below are the greatest danger to the “under scenario he presents in Gulliver’s fourth voyage. surface” of Laputa—under surface because it has no In this final voyage the atheists are the rulers, and foundation—if that state should decide to crush its they have only one topic of discussion in parliament: citizens below. The rulers of Laputa are so immersed how to exterminate the Yahoos on the island. The in mathematics and astronomy that religion is never atheists are depicted as horses because of the tradi- on their mental horizon, and they also infect the tion dating back to St. Augustine of interpreting the learned men of Balnibarbi below with their mate- biblical verse, “Be ye not as the horse, which hath no rialism, so that the Academy of Lagado is filled with understanding,” as a warning against atheism. John those who are trying to reduce arts and sciences to Donne has an entire sermon on this verse as apply- matter operated on by chance. ing to atheists. In Houyhnhnmland, the horses came In his view of atheism, Swift sometimes re- to power generations earlier by a violent revolution, sembles Milton, and sometimes Dryden. Like Milton, a great “hunting” of the Yahoos, who turn out, after Swift shows that it requires even more faith to be the all, to have been European Christians. And so, by disciple of an atheist than to follow the Son of God: the help of tyrant kings, governments detached from
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 Articles
the ground of truth, or a coming violent revolution, about the origin and rise of atheism. But while Mil- Swift fears that atheists will triumph in England in ton associated atheism with a denial of Creation and the end and abolish Christianity. His works show him a counter-revolutionary turn to hierarchy, sacraments, as almost obsessed with fear of this eventuality. and Popery, Dryden and Swift associated it with At the dawn of the Enlightenment, then, Milton, Whigs, low-church Protestantism, and governments Dryden and Swift wrote with passionate conviction meddling in matters of Church doctrine. ✠
Hermeneutics Revisited
by Leo J. Elders s.v.d. Among Christians the various senses of Holy Professor, Rolduc Seminary, Kerkrade, the Netherlands Scripture were studied in biblical hermeneutics. The Protestant Reformation contributed to the need for ermeneutics is the art of explaining hermeneutics insofar as in its view the Tradition and and interpreting juridical, philo- the Magisterium of the Church were no longer ac- sophical and religious texts and ceptable criteria for understanding the Word of God. rulings. But nowadays the word is However, it is only in the nineteenth century that often given a broader signification, the problem of how to really understand texts (Ver- namely,H the actualization or re-creation of events or stehen) was examined under its different aspects. Our ideas of bygone times. To do so one has to place one- knowledge would be marked by our individuality. self in the situation of people who lived in another So, in order to understand others, and other texts, period of history or belong to a different culture, and we must be aware of our own limits. According to this requires a psychological adaptation. In another Schleiermacher we must resort to the comparison sense of the term hermeneutics is a universal method of a text with analogous texts (called the grammati- which allows us to understand man in his historic- cal method), and, secondly, to the use of conjectures, ity. It is presented as a prolongation of Heidegger’s which rely on psychological analysis. Schleiermacher existentialist phenomenology. considered religious feeling central for understanding Hermeneutics as the art of interpreting texts texts. He meant a sort of vague awareness of the uni- originated in Greece. The desire to review critically verse in its monistic unity. the myths of their religious universe led the Greeks According to Gadamer, Schleiermacher attached to elaborate allegorical explanations. The Sophists so much importance to hermeneutics, because in drew attention to the importance of one’s subjective his time people became aware of living at a certain point of view in any attempt at understanding others. distance from past periods of history. This trend was The different discourses of Gorgias on Helena were expressed in philosophical terms by Hegel who meant to show that personalities and events can be taught that the prevalent ideas of a historical period considered from different points of view. The term are manifestations of what he called the spirit of such hermeneutics first appears as the title of a treatise of a period. Aristotle, which however does not examine modes of A new chapter in the history of hermeneutics interpretation of texts, but aims only at elaborating was written by W. Dilthey, who in his historicism as- the rules for the formal and scientific use of language. serted that it is essential to consider the ideas, trends, The Stoics resorted to allegorical explanations of historical facts and persons in the context of their traditional myths and of religious rites: the one de- culture. Each historical period has its own center and ity, the Logos, deploys its power in different forms, its significance lies in itself. If so, it seems impossible which came to be venerated as divinities. for a person in his subjectivity to get to know others.
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 As is obvious, this theory easily leads to relativism. tor. But it has been objected against his view that One has to acquire a sympathetic knowledge of the forms of understanding are intrinsically different, different aspects and go from these partial apprehen- such as understanding art, history, science. As a mat- sions to a provisional grasp of the whole, which, in ter of fact Gadamer does not want to depend on the its turn, will shed more light on the parts. According sciences, and defends an historical type of knowledge to Dilthey life itself has a hermeneutical character. at the level of the Geisteswissenschaften. He follows He looked for the manifestation of an historical and Hegel insofar as his view is that of a re-incarnation of personal life. One may object to this theory that the the past on the basis of a congeniality of minds. We sciences and philosophy study things and, as such have must attempt to understand our own position, being no immediate relationship with texts, whereas in and contingency and so interpret the world. Dilthey’s view everything is subject to an historical The hermeneutics of Gadamer raises the ques- and more subjective approach. The universal is sacri- tion of how to understand our finitude and how to ficed to a great number of perceptions of individual interpret our experience of the world. It demands beings. from us that we analysze ourselves and that we have Turning now to contemporary views of the art some vague understanding of the other, a pre-com- of interpreting and understanding ancient texts as prehension, which later on is deepened and enriched. well as people living in different cultures, the influ- This hermeneutics is based on a dialogue with one- ence of the phenomenology of Husserl must be self in the context of one’s language: it is an activity mentioned. Things are relative to our consciousness of the practical intellect, and total certitude cannot be in the sense that our personal situation and pre-his- reached. It is, however, possible to enlarge our hori- tory affect our observations. In this way the objec- zon, to wait and let things exercise their influence on tive world of the sciences is in reality nothing better us: time brings us truth, and truth “becomes” in the than an expression of the subjectivity of the scientists. temporal becoming and development of things. As is Pure objectivity is no longer possible. In his existen- obvious this theory is closer to the thought of Hegel tial phenomenology Heidegger went beyond this than to that of Aristotle. According to Gadamer we view. Initially he stressed the role of the historicity are all marked by prejudices, from which we cannot of our being and our manner of thinking, but later free ourselves: we belong to a certain tradition and he argued that language has a central role : to under- live in a certain environment and time. He believes stand is a dialogue which takes place in the context that his hermeneutics is universally valid, since every- of a language. Being unveils its secrets in language. thing can be expressed in the spoken language, which However, Heidegger’s problem is that in reality conveys a general understanding of reality. thought is prior to language: although after our ini- Gadamer’s theory presents some positive aspects tial acquisition of the first concepts and principles and may help destroy false certitudes. However, its language becomes a great help to further develop our starting point must be rejected, as Habermas says: for understanding, it is nevertheless the reflection, ex- above this compassionate sympathy for things, criti- pression and instrument of thought. cal reason can and must transcend and judge histori- H.G. Gadamer chose as his starting point the cal becoming. In fact we have universal concepts second form of Heidegger’s hermeneutics. He raises which allow us to leave behind the predominantly the question of how understanding is possible and subjective and to grasp the universal hidden under tries to discover what is common to the different the subjectivity of our partner in dialogue with us. ways of understanding. To understand is never a sub- The questions raised by Gadamer’s hermeneutics are jective action in respect of a given object, but is the particularly important for our understanding of the exercised actuality of the object in our understanding Bible and Catholic doctrine. (Wirkungsgeschichte); in other words, it is the con- Another point must be stressed: philosophical sciousness of the meaning and value for ourselves of concepts and theories are underpinning his theory the object and its influence on us. This means that all of the art of interpretation. As a matter of fact each forms of understanding have a common denomina- method of interpreting the Bible uses some philo-
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 Articles
sophical views. Spinoza is considered by some the writ grows with the one who reads it. The sacred text founder of modern exegesis. He holds that all prob- was written under the inspiration of the same Spirit, lems must be resolved by our human efforts. In the who leads the Church on her pilgrimage through the Age of Reason the leading minds saw an unbridge- ages. able gap between simple historic texts and the field But it has defined many dogmas as definite where reason is active. Human thought is limited to truths. However, during its pilgrimage on earth the what it can grasp. However, in historicism history Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, may stress in a is identified with reality, and its protagonists are no novel way certain aspects of the treasury of the faith, longer aware of a trans-historical dimension, while in without ever abandoning what she acknowledged the words of Mircea Eliade the originality of Chris- as having been revealed. The First Vatican Council tianity is precisely that history is transformed into a declared that the dogmas of the faith must be un- theophany. derstood in the same way as the Church defined In fact authentic exegesis must look for the and accepted them. But over the course of time the deeper truth hidden under the literal expression of Church may discern more than it had initially been the text. But our interpretation must also take into aware of. There is a homogeneous development in account that the doctrine contained in the text is a the Church’s understanding of the contents of revela- point of departure of the development of Christian- tion, an understanding which may be promoted and ity. As St. Gregory writes, the divine writer grows helped by its contact with changing times and peo- with inspiration of the same Spirit, who leads the ple. In this sense a certain hermeneutics may be use- Church on her pilgrimage through the ages. ful, insofar as it makes Christians understand better Although divine revelation took place in history, the conditions under which divine revelation came it cannot be reduced to an historical process. The to us. Church believes that revelation, which was given at Hermeneutics is also important when we try to precise moments of history, whether by mental or communicate the doctrine of the faith to our con- oral revelation, in visions or in historic events and temporaries. A difficulty sometimes put forward is persons, contains a message, a doctrine. This mes- whether formulas of the past can still give answers sage consists of determined logical truths, grasped to our questions and present solutions to our needs. by the prophets and apostles, and later expressed in Revelation should be interpreted in such a way as to the creeds of the Church. Although there has been become meaningful for modern man, and be adapted progress in the understanding of this divine revela- to the understanding of people in different cultures. tion, the Church of the twenty-first century has In the twentieth century the hermeneutical not yet become aware of all that is contained in it, method and its claim that it can overcome the dis- although in the course of time the Magisterium has tance between the doctrine of the faith as taught by defined many dogmas as definite truths. During its the Church of all times and the changing ways of pilgrimage on earth the Church, guided by the Holy thinking of the people gained some actuality, but the Spirit, may stress in a novel way certain aspects of the problem was not unknown to Christians of the first treasury of the faith, without ever abandoning what ages. Some of the Fathers at Constantinople objected she acknowledged as having been revealed. The First to the introduction of the homoousios in the text of Vatican Council declared that the dogmas of the faith the creed, since they considered it a novelty. But the must be understood in the same sense the Church majority of the Bishops felt that what the term said, defined and accepted them. But in the course of time expressed the true sense and implications of biblical the Church may discern more than it had initially revelation about the Son of God. been aware of. There is a homogeneous development The statement of Vatican II on man’s freedom of in the Church’s understanding of the contents of religion provides another interesting example: in the revelation, an understanding which may be promoted nineteenth century Pope Pius IX declared that peo- and helped by its contact with changing times and ple are not free to choose just any religion, but that it people. As St. Gregory the Great writes, the divine is their duty to profess the Christian faith. However,
10 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 Vatican II issued a declaration stating that man is free allegorical understanding of the history of Israel and to choose and to profess his religious views. What at its cult prescriptions, a problem facing the Christians first sight looks like a blaring contradiction can be was that of a certain ambiguity of what is taught in shown to be in harmony when one considers closely the New Testament, such as Jesus' position on the what the Magisterium of the Church intended to Law of the Old Testament. He was criticized for not declare. A political or human authority may neither always observing it, while he himself said that he had forbid people to have their own ideas nor can it not come to change one iota of it. The New Testa- oblige them to embrace a certain religion. But on the ment writings show a certain pluralism: Paul and other hand, it is an imperative duty of people to seek James coexist, as do Matthew and John. There is a the truth about themselves, the world and its Maker certain pluralism as to how to regard civil society as and to be open to the good message of the Church, well as the relation of Christians to Israel. of which the mission is confirmed by amazing signs. Contrary to the Gnostics, Christians accepted the It is clear, then, that the art of hermeneutics is help- Old Testament in its entirety, as Jesus and the Apostles ful in understanding statements which at first sight had done. The God, whom they adored, was its au- may seem to be contradictory. As our last example thor and so Christians could look for the presence of has made clear in this particular case, hermeneutics the person and teachings of Jesus in the Hebrew Bi- consists in examining a statement or a doctrine in ble, as Justinus did in his Dialogue with Tryphon, trying its historical context and in verifying what its au- to explain the prophecies of the Old Testament. But thor intended to say, and, if needed, comparing the the precise relationship between the literal, historical texts with what is considered the accepted doctrine sense and its christological interpretation was not yet of the Church and approved theology. Knowing the explained very well. The Letter of Barnabas proposes circumstances under which a certain doctrine was a simple allegorical interpretation of the precepts of formulated, can be quite helpful. the Law. Hermeneutics may also play a role in jurispru- Against the Gnostics, St. Irenaeus insists on the dence: certain laws or rules must be interpreted, literal sense of the Bible which, he writes, is the especially when their original formulation is ambigu- sense taught and guaranteed by the bishops of the ous. Well-known are the amendments to the Ameri- universal church, the successors of the apostles, and can Constitution. One tries to stay close to the origi- in particular by the church of Rome. The canon of nal intention of the Founding Fathers. inspired books was established. The apostolicity of But most important is the role of interpretation the texts, their use in the liturgy and catechesis, their in our dealings with Holy Scripture. The time of the acceptance by the various churches and universal use, redaction of its various books stretches over a period were the criteria for insertion in the canon. Around of some 1100 years and the original languages in this time a theory of the different senses of Holy which the texts were written were Hebrew, Aramaic, Scripture began to take shape, a theory which would and Greek. Its different books were composed in receive its definite form from St. Thomas Aquinas: widely differing social and political situations. More- the allegorical meaning of a text is the relation it has over different literary genera are used, with which with Christ and central dogmas of the faith; the mor- one must be acquainted for a correct understanding al sense of a text is its significance for our Christian of their message. life; finally there are texts which may be understood It is not surprising that already at the very begin- as referring to our life in heaven; their sense is ana- ning of the Church biblical hermeneutics developed. gogical. Questions arose concerning the observance of the Many Fathers of the Church insisted on the spir- ritual laws of Judaism, the salvation by faith in Christ, itual sense of the Old Testament. St. Jerome notes that the meaning of the history of Israel for Christians. we must understand its text spiritually. Having men- The Old Testament is interpreted allegorically by tioned the truth of the historical events we must un- St. Paul, in the Letter to the Hebrews and later very derstand what is written in a spiritual way. Accord- extensively by Origen in Alexandria. Besides this ing to St. Augustine the Old Testament is revealed
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 11 Articles
in the New, while the New Testament is hidden in of reading are sometimes proposed. Some scholars the Old, covered by a veil. He even writes that the insist on the need to apply the distinction between spiritual understanding of the Bible is our Christian an historical approach to Jesus and a theological freedom. According to Gregory the Great everything study. They seem to reduce exegesis simply to an in the Bible must be understood allegorically and historical study, but this is wholly insufficient, since applied to our moral life. While the Christian authors to understand the Bible we need a interpretation and masters in Alexandria favored allegorical exegesis, in faith: what the sacred authors wanted to say goes the exegetes of Antioch insisted on the literal sense always beyond mere historical facts. The historical of the texts. The opinion of Theodore of Mopsues- critical approach examines the genesis, composition, tia that in the Old Testament nothing is said clearly and authorship of the text, e.g. Moses’s authorship of about Christ, was condemned by the Fifth General several books of the OT, the genesis and composi- Council. tion of texts, the question whether events recounted Everyone in the Middle Ages agreed that the are historic, the reality of miracles etc. In particular Old Testament has a spiritual sense. For Christians the reality of miracles is rejected: what is described what God revealed to us includes also indications for cannot be verified. Next the scholars try to deter- our personal life and the literal sense of the text is mine what made the evangelists or authors of the not the only reason why Scripture has been given to text resort to the description of such miraculous us. St. Augustine expresses this conviction with the events—apparently since they did not experience any words: “We have heard the fact, let us now seek the need for a critical observation of things. Some apply mystery.” As the Creator of the world God can order the linguistic method to the analysis of biblical texts. things and events in such a way that they refer to the Furthermore there is a materialistic way of reading realities of the faith and of grace. This means that the the Bible and a psychoanalytic approach. history of Israel as described in the Bible now stands In our Christian exegesis and hermeneutics we in a new light: it refers to Christ, carries indications must proceed within the context of the doctrine for our moral life and refers to the fulfilment in of the faith and be guided by the Tradition of the heaven. We bow our heads in deep reverence before Church. The central and profound sense of the Bible the Sacred Text, of which the wisdom far surpasses is indicated by the doctrine of the faith. The Bible our understanding. proposes at the same time a history at the level of However, the development of modern philology, human life and unveils also truth about God and his of text criticism and better knowledge of past his- designs. For this reason the historical-critical method torical circumstances, brought about a revolution in cannot penetrate to the full sense of the text. Herme- the hermeneutics of the Bible: the so-called historical neutics can be helpful for the interpretation of the critical method of analyzing texts considered itself as biblical text in its historical environment and so can the true method for understanding the sense of the be of help, but the more profound understanding will texts. The new method yielded many results, but also be obtained by a meditative reflection on the exegesis numerous dead ends, adventurous hypotheses, and of the Church Fathers and the saints as well as by the carried with it a certain secularization of the text. knowledge of the doctrine of the faith. ✠ Moreover, the new interpretations became so hyper- “Rhetorik, Hermeneutik und Theologiekritik,” in Kleine Schriften, Bd 1, Tübingen technical that non-specialists felt lost, not knowing 1967, 113-130. what the purpose of all of it was. In the historical The so-called hermeneutic circle. Cf. Gesammelte Werke V (1924), 317 - 334; p.331. His book Wahrheit und Methode, 1961, is the most important study on the question after critical method the study of the Bible is carried on Heidegger. Wahrheit und Methode4, XIX; XXIV; 161. apart from the tradition of the Church, from dog- “Der Universalitätsanspruch der Hermeneutik,” in Hermeneutik and Dialektik. Festschrift matic theology and liturgy. To give an example, the Gadamer, Tübingen 1970, 73-103. In Exechiel I, 7, 8: “...divina eloquia cum legente crescunt.” artful and “scientific dissection” of the prophecies of See Quaestiones quodlibetales VII, q. 6, a. 1, 2 & 3. In Isaiam prophetam, prol.: PL 24, 20 B. Isaiah leaves little space for meditation on the overall Enarr. in Psalmum 105, n. 36. message of the author(s). In Ezechiel. II, 2, 15. In Ioann. Evangelium, tr. 50, n. 6. In the line of this scientific approach several ways See Concilium 1980, October 1980.
12 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 Rationality and Will as the Path to God: The Lecture of Benedict XVI at the University of Regensburg
by Fr. Joseph M. de Torre, Ph. D. The cardinal said: “I wish you [Muslims] peace, tran- quility and joy in your hearts, your homes and your Introduction countries. These good wishes echo those which His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI expressed personally “I believe that here we can see the profound harmony be- at the beginning of Ramadan to the diplomats ac- tween what is Greek in the best sense of the word and the credited to the Holy See from countries with Mus- biblical understanding of faith in God. Modifying the first lim majorities, to those from other countries that are verse of the Book of Genesis, John began the prologue of his members and observers of the Organization of the Gospel with the words:” “In the beginning was the ‘logos.’” Islamic Conference, and to representatives of Muslim communities in Italy.” At the end of the message the he core of the famous lecture of Bene- cardinal summed it up by stating that “(T)he world dict XVI on September 12, 2006, from has need, and so do we, of Christians and Muslims which the above quotation is taken, who respect and value each other and bear witness was the meaning of rationality as the to their mutual love and cooperation to the glory of right use of reason in the universe of God and the good of all humanity.” Two days later in Thuman consciousness and experience, as it took place his Sunday Angelus message, the pope said: “I am de- in the encounter of Greece and the Bible. lighted to send cordial greetings to Muslims through- In the course of the lecture, he traced the histori- out the world, who during these days are celebrating cal process of the rise of the obscuring of reason by the end of the month of the Ramadan fast. I wish all the rivalry of the will marked by voluntarism. serenity and peace!” .. .In this context, the pope made a reference to a In view of the fact that the Regensburg lecture recent book, recounting the dialogue of a Byzantine relates the eclipse of rationality by voluntarism, the Orthodox Emperor with a Persian Muslim theo- author wishes to present the following remarks on logian, about the use of reason (logos) in discussing these issues taken from his book, Generation and De- religion or faith. This dialogue took place in Con- generation: A Survey of Ideologies, published in 1995 by stantinople in 1393, when the city was under siege Southeast Asian Foundation, Inc. by the Ottoman Muslim Turks, who in fact captured This is a sequel to my article, “Historical Perspec- Constantinople fifty years later. The Emperor was tive on the Phenomenon of Religion: A Phenom- trying to show the need to employ reason alone in enological Enquiry into Fideism, Traditionalism and favor of religion and peace rather than violence and Rationalism, in the Context of Secularism” in the war. He then quoted, out of context, some passages September 2006 issue of UNITAS. of the Koran, to apparently justify violence. This passage of the pope’s lecture provoked an- gry reactions from some Muslims, which the pope The Rise of Rationalism or swiftly went on to pacify by once again manifesting the friendliness and respect of the Church for Islam, Enlightenment and the Backlash quoting Vatican II Declaration Nostra Aetate, which of Romanticism still maintains the same stand of the Church, as John Paul II made always abundantly clear, too. On Oc- hen the “Goddess Reason” was en- tober 20 last, Cardinal Paul Poupard, prefect of the throned at Notre Dame at the height of Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue sent Wthe French Revolution, the Enlighten- a long message on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI to ment, or alleged triumph of the “light” of reason over all Muslims on the occasion of the end of Ramadan. the “darkness” of faith, reached its apotheosis. But it
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 13 was almost immediately drowned in the blood-bath of The Socratic Revolution the Terreur, and swept away by the onrushing Roman- ticism of the new faith in the “human spirit”’ ushered ocrates then rose to rebellion against the Soph- in by absolute idealism. ists, and his disciples Plato and Aristotle found, It was a revived Lutheran rebellion against all each in his own way, the solution to the dead- “sophistry” or “reason,” against all “rules” and authori- S lock of the Pre-Socratics. For Plato the role of reason ties other than personal and subjective faith, once was to rise to the “ideas” from their reflection or again asserting itself, first with Rousseau, and then participation in sensible things, while for Aristotle the with Herder, Goethe, Hegel, Schelling, Coleridge and ideas were the result of “abstracting the essence of all the Romantic poets, musicians, novelists, painters sensible things.” Knowledge, therefore ,begins in the and political revolutionaries. It was an age of intense senses and ends in reason. At the same time, however, and explosive feeling of freedom, and a counterrevolu- both Greek thinkers acknowledged a Reality beyond tion against all the “conservative” stabilities of reason. and above reason, confronted with which human It spawned the first modern ideologues of anarchism, reason was like an owl facing the sun. such as Stimer, Proudhon, Bakunin, and Herzen. Greece, Israel and Islam The next dramatic confrontation, took place in China and Greece Hellenic Alexandria, where the cultural encounter between Jerusalem and Athens occurred and the ver since the ancient Greeks discovered the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek. Here the power of logos to understand physis (nature), Jewish scholar Philo of Alexandria first tried a synthesis Eand the ancient Chinese discovered the power of natural reason (Plato’s Timaeus) and supernatural of discursive reason to bring the yin and yang into biblical revelation (Creation and the Word or Logos). harmony, reason has been fighting a constant battle to Thus Neo-Platonism began (all things emanate from assert itself over and against all other powers whether the One and return to It), and developed through below it (like “nature,” senses and emotions), or above Plotinus, Proclus and Porphyry, from Byzantium to it (like “supernature,” “spirit,” aesthetics and mysti- Syria. cism). The Mutazilite Muslim theologians from the 6th The first two dramatic confrontations took place century inherited it, together with all Greek science, th about the same time in the 6 century B. C., one in and tried again a synthesis of reason (Neo-Platonist China and the other in Greece. In the former, the Aristotelianism this time) and faith (the Koran this naturalism of Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism (wu wei time). They were vehemently opposed by the fun- = “do nothing,” i. e. bend before nature like the bam- damentalist Mutakallimoun or Ashorites. The contro- boo branch, and do not try to manipulate it with your versy raged on for centuries, with the fundamentalists mind, or it will break you), was opposed by the ratio- prevailing in the end, when the rationalism of Aver- nalism of his disciple Kung Fu Tzû (Confucius), for roes with his double-truth doctrine (one “truth” for whom the cultivation of reason (propriety) through reason and another for faith) provoked their backlash. education was the way for man’s happiness by civiliz- ing him. The Rise of Christianity Meanwhile in distant Greece, Parmenides and Hera- clitus entered into an epoch-making contest which his intra-Muslim conflict, which mingled would lead to a crisis of “truth” and its replacement with, and eventually crystallized into the split with convenience, utility or success, by the Sophists. between Shi’ites and Sunnites, (the latter led Parmenides stood for a radical rationalism that denied T up to now by Al-Ahzar University in Cairo) flared all value to the senses while Heraclitus countered up as well concurrently among Christian theologians with a radical empiricism denying all value to reason. from around the 9th century onwards, when the ra- This dilemma prompted the Sophists to despair of the tionalism of Scotus Erigena and later Berengarius of “truth” and turn to the more “practical” pursuit of Tours led to conflicts with the faith. By the 11th cen- happiness. tury, Peter Damian was leading the party of the “anti-
14 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 dialecticians” who maintained that philosophy may The Struggle with Islam lead to rationalism, and rationalism to heresy. Ac- cording to them, Christ did not choose his Apostles through Reason and Love from among philosophers, but from among simple uneducated men. So, no need for reason, but only for y that time, the sporadic wars between Chris- faith. They also cited in their favor the devastating tians and Muslims had been going on for effects of the two great rationalistic heresies of the Bcenturies, culminating with the Crusades. Just first centuries of Christianity, namely Gnosticism and as Francis of Assisi and Raymond Lull, Aquinas un- Arianism and revived the famous saying of Tertullian: derstood that the only real way to solve this problem “credo quia absurdum,” in other words, fundamentalism was again through reason and love namely by the full and fideism again. employment of metaphysics (the “first philosophy”) in the service of divine revelation in order to show to The Christian Gnosis be presented (This is unclear) to non-believers first as a Summa Contra Gentiles, subtitling it “On he vigorous reaction of the “dialecticians” the Truth of the Catholic Faith Against the Errors of came up in full force during the same 11th the Infidels.” Tcentury, with the monumental work of An- What he intended was to demonstrate by pains- selm of Canterbury, who opposed the “credo quia absur- taking logical argument that the objections of non- dum” with the Augustinian “credo ut intelligam” and believers to the Catholic Faith could be refuted “fides quaerens intellectum.” Once he had established philosophically (i.e. with and by reason, not by faith), the absolute primacy of faith over reason, removing thus clearing the way for the positive presentation of any trace of pagan gnosticism (reason above faith) he the faith as more in continuity with reason. It is in revived the Christian Gnosis of Justin, Irenaeus, Ori- this sense that reason would be “before” faith, not in gen, and Clement of Alexandria, as well as of Augus- the sense that reason could “prove” the faith. This is tine, namely a reason humbly receiving the divine how the Magisterium of the Church explained this revelation by faith, but then trying as much as pos- point when rejecting the errors of fideism and tra- sible to understand it rationally. He wrote his three ditionalism (in the 19th century), and stating that the masterpieces (Monologium, Proslogion and Cur Deus method of Aquinas and Bonaventure did not per se Homo?) as a practical demonstration of how much lead to rationalism, as was mentioned in chapter 3 of human reason can understand divinely-revealed mys- Generation and Degeneration: A Survey of Ideologies. teries not in order to show that they are understand- able enough to be believable and to be a real “revela- The Rise of the Enlightenment tion” to our reason. In this way also, reason would be able to refute the criticisms of non-believers by evertheless, a Gnostic rationalism that puts exposing their errors, as contrary not just to faith but reason absolutely above faith is always a to reason as well. Nvery real temptation. The term itself began This approach won the noble and powerful mind to be used after the advent of the Cartesian confine- of Thomas Aquinas, two centuries later. One of the ment of “faith” to the will, after having, so to speak, reasons that moved him to join the recently founded expelled it from “reason.” Thus the harmonious con- Dominican Order of Preachers was their astonishing tinuity of faith and reason of Augustine, Anselm and success in converting the Albigensians back to the Aquinas was shattered, just as the concept of a secular Church by employing the method of friendliness and pax philosophica began to replace religious faith as the reason. Deep piety and abundance of doctrine pleas- cohesive force for peace in national and international antly communicated, in contrast with the previously life and diplomacy. Thus began the gradual secularist used counterproductive method of coercion and relegation of faith to the private conscience and its repression. Man is by nature rational and free, and removal from public life, all in the name of “reason,” he must be handled accordingly, just as God himself as the light to dispel the alleged “darkness” of “su- does. perstition and fanaticism.” The Enlightenment and
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 15 Articles
the French Revolution were the cultural and political Beyond this is the realm of God’s freedom, in virtue of consequences of this rationalism. It also affected the which he could have done the opposite of everything interpretation of the Bible, subjecting it to rationalis- he has actually done. tic criticism, leading to a “liberal” Christianity wide- This gives rise to positions which clearly approach spread among Protestant theologians, which provoked those of Ibn Hazn and might even lead to the image the fundamentalist backlash, and it began the trend of a capricious God, who is not even bound to truth among Catholic theologians to attempt “recasts” of and goodness. God’s transcendence and otherness are Catholic theology in terms of modern philosophi- so exalted that our reason, our sense of the true and cal systems without sufficient discrimination and due good, are no longer an authentic mirror of God, whose consideration for the primacy of faith. This was the deepest possibilities remain eternally unattainable and case of, for example, Hermes, Günther, Lamennais, hidden behind his actual decisions. Frohschammer and, more recently Modernism, Teilhard As opposed to this, the faith of the Church has de Chardin and the “theology of liberation.” always insisted that between God and us, between his In objecting to these rationalistic positions, the eternal Creator Spirit and our created reason there exists a real analogy, in which unlikeness remains in- Church was, of course, not rejecting modern phi- finitely greater than likeness, yet not to the point of losophy en bloc, but one again asserting the primacy abolishing analogy and its language (cf. Lateran IV). of faith, and the need for human reason not to erect God does not become more divine when we push itself as supreme arbiter of truth. It is in fact more him away from us in a sheer, impenetrable volun- reasonable to believe what God has revealed, and then tarism; rather, the truly divine God is the God who try to understand it as much as it is possible, than to has revealed himself as logos and, as logos, has acted equate the use of reason with radical skepticism and and continues to act lovingly on our behalf. Certainly, systematic incredulity. love “transcends” knowledge and is thereby capable of perceiving more than thought alone (cf. Ephesians The Rise of Voluntarism 3:19); nonetheless it continues to be love of the God who is logos. Consequently, Christian worship is “logic his is how Benedict XVI summarized this is- latreía”—worship in harmony with the eternal Word sue in the Regensburg lecture: and with our reason (cf. Romans 12:1). This inner rapprochement between biblical faith T and Greek philosophical inquiry was an event of de- Today we know that the Greek translation of the Old Testament produced at Alexandria—the Septuagint—is cisive importance not only from the standpoint of the more than a simple (and in that sense perhaps less than history of religions, but also from that of world histo- satisfactory) translation of the Hebrew text: It is an in- ry—it is an event which concerns us even today. Given dependent textual witness and a distinct and important this convergence, it is not surprising that Christianity, step in the history of Revelation, one which brought despite its origins and some significant developments about this encounter in a way that was decisive for the in the East, finally took on its historically decisive birth and spread of Christianity. A profound encounter character in Europe. We can also express this the other of faith and reason is taking place here, an encounter way around: This convergence, with the subsequent between genuine enlightenment and religion. From the addition of the Roman heritage, created Europe and very heart of Christian faith and, at the same time, the remains the foundation of what can rightly be called heart of Greek thought now joined to faith, Manuel II Europe. was able to say: Not to act “with logos” is contrary to God’s nature. We have discussed the God-like power of the In all honesty, one must observe that in the late human person which the Greeks called logos and the Middle Ages we find trends in theology which would Romans ratio, namely that rationality which enables sunder this synthesis between the Greek spirit and the its possessor to open up to infinite reality. We also Christian spirit. In contrast with the so-called intel- saw how the Aristotelian orthos logos (recta ratio) was lectualism of Augustine and Thomas, there arose with expanded by Aquinas to include the openness to a Duns Scotus a voluntarism which ultimately led to the supernatural revelation from God. And we also saw claim that we can only know God’s “voluntas ordinata.” the “unreasonableness” of a rationalism dogmatically
16 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 closed to that possibility. immutable order of justice (DIKE) was highly devel- But it was Aquinas himself who called the human oped by the Greeks, particularly Plato and Aristotle, will the queen of all human faculties, not absolutely perhaps due to the fact that they were constantly af- speaking but in relation to activity or operation. flicted by tyrannies, and were searching for a perfect While reason is the light of man, the will is his mo- constitution (set of laws) which would enshrine that tor. The will is guided by reason as its control tower, perpetual and transcendent arbitrary will of an indi- but it is the will itself that has to do the landing. vidual man, group or class, and which would guaran- And the will is also open to infinity in its capacity to tee the freedom of the citizens. choose. Man is never satisfied with what he has or is. The Romans also had a very advanced juridical He always wants more. order with their motto: Servi legum sumus ut liberi esse This sovereign power of the will can lead and possimus, “We are slaves of the law so that we can be free.” has actually led to the degeneration of voluntarism in The term lex (law) comes from the verb ligare, to ethics and its co-relative legalism or legal positivism in bind. This binding of the law whereby acts are direct- the philosophy of law, namely the placing of the will ed to their own end or goal is the order to end or to above reason and even beyond reason, to the point of the common good, made by reason, which conditions obliterating it. the attainment of freedom of movement, just as the The classical Socratic tradition, with its centrality observance of the set of rules governing car driving on logos, was singularly free from voluntarism. It was and traffic movement enables the driver (i.e. makes even criticized for its almost complete reduction of him free) to reach his chosen destination. morality to moral knowledge, rather than practice. On the other hand, we can observe the opposite ten- Law and Happiness dency in Israel, with its view of the sacredness of the Law (both moral and ritual) as a manifestation of the aw is opposed neither to freedom nor to love, omnipotent will of God. This was one of the most if love is understood as the natural tendency to profound differences between Athens and Jerusalem. Lthe good. In fact, law makes both freedom and We also mentioned the attempt of Philo of Al- love possible, because no freedom is possible without exandria to bridge the gap between those two great the movement toward possession and enjoyment of cultures and subsequent recurring conflict between the good (love). But no love is possible without jus- rationalism and fideism in Jewish, Christian and tice (there is no charity without order: charity is not Muslim settings. It is easy to see the connection of sentimentality), and no justice is possible without law. voluntarism. The repudiation of reason leads logically Law is thus the vehicle of love, and love secures the to a breakdown in communications, and a usually freedom of the individual and thereby his happiness violent struggle for power, and a stronger will, and (rules and discipline are the condition for liberation), thus the bolstering of political absolutism (see chap- precisely to the extent that it is geared to the attain- ter 18), and the suppression of individual freedoms ment of the common good. and rights. Law is and will always be the condition for love and happiness, while anarchy (literally: no govern- The Rise of Legalism ment, i. e. no direction to the end) i. e. the negation of law, is the substitution of egoism for love. When law is s explained in The Roots of Society, without ignored or disregarded, personal preference and favor- a juridical order no justice is possible, and itism, with consequent injustice, become the domi- Atherefore no freedom, because then “might nant forces of a disintegrating society. is right:” the individual will of the most powerful While general ethics studies human acts as ordained (material strength) tends to replace the “ordinance of to their end, which is the happiness and good of the reason for the common good, made by him who has agent, social ethics studies the same human acts or- care of the community, and promulgated,” which is dained to their end through their ordination to other how St. Thomas Aquinas defines law. men. A right always has a social projection. Individual The concept of law (NOMOS) as reflecting the rights cannot be isolated from their social projection.
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 17 Articles
The object of social ethics is justice, which is the has produced also in the 20th century a terrifying ruling principle of the relations among men, and the amount of innocent victims of abortion and infanti- means to liberate man from his egoism, by making cide. him think of others (what is due to others from us: Finally, I have discussed at length in The Human- our duties) rather than of himself. ism of Modern Philosophy the radical modern version Legal Positivism of voluntarism in Arthur Schopenhauer, and its sub- Juridical or legal positivism is the absorption of mo- sequent influence in revived totalitarian versions of rality into legality as a result of rejecting the natural “might is right.” law. While it had its forerunners in the ancient Soph- ists (Protagoras, in the 5th century B. C., absolutized Conclusion man with his famous statement “Man is the measure of all things”), whom Socrates challenged for their s noted in the Introduction above, the core inconsistent relativism and skepticism (they stated of the Regensburg lecture was the mean- that “we cannot be sure of anything” without the Aing of rationality as the right use of reason slightest (insecurity!), the voluntarism of Ockham and (logos) in the universe of human consciousness and the political Averroes of Marsilius of Padua in the experiences, as it actually occurred in the encounter 14th century paved the way for the full-blown legal of Greece and the Bible. positivism of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), who in This essay has tried to show also, following the his famous Leviathan, absolutized the state, whose pope, how religion is necessarily opposed to violence, laws would determine what is morally right and and linked to the pursuit of peace, namely the Jewish wrong. Subsequently, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) Shalom, the Greek Irene, the Roman Pax, and the paved the way for Georg Hegel’s (1770-1831) even Muslim Salam, in chronological order. more radical absolutizing of the state, by grounding This peace, however, is linked to the transcendent “theory” (pure reason) in “practice” (practical reason), God and the communion of man to Him through thereby separating the juridical order from the moral the rationality of man’s communion of mutual love order. According to Kant, with the exception of the in freedom, seeing God as the Infinite Being, undi- natural right of men to freedom, there is no other vided unity and plurality, the fullness of truth or ad- right but positive or civil right. So the ultimate foun- justment to reality, the boundless good and sublimest dation of right is the positive law, based on customs beauty and harmony. of people (or on history, as Savigny and Stahl would The essay has tried to show the deviations of later say): right has nothing in common with moral- rationalism, voluntarism and legalism. The combina- ity, for morality is natural but purely “formal” (with- tion of these three deviations from the right logos out any “material” content), while right is always open to infinity, as explained by Benedict XVI, has spelled out with a “material” content—the right to contributed to foster a sort of blind secularism, un- something. able to see the transcendent God. Science as such, This deification of the state has lead to the most is not opposed to God, but a scientism enclosed in appalling crimes witnessed by humanity in the no- quantity without perceiving quality. To overcome torious 20th century dictatorships, while the parallel this scientism is the task of all religions and the basis deification of society at the expense of other men, for interreligious dialogue and mutual friendliness. ✠
18 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 Leo Tolstoy and the Catholic Church
by James Likoudis and was attracted by “the idealism of non-violent . President Emeritus, Catholics United for the Faith (CUF) anarchism.” (See The Catholic Worker Movement: In- tellectual and Spiritual Origins by Mark and Louise n the present Catholic/Orthodox theologi- Zwick (Paulist Press, 2005). Interestingly, a sad feature cal dialogues taking place as part of the con- of Tolstoy’s life (he had written so much on marriage temporary ecumenical scene, the Primacy of and family life including a work on “Family Happi- supreme authority and universal jurisdiction ness”) was his own marriage. The English writer A.N. possessed by the Bishop of Rome as Succes- Wilson would declare Tolstoy’s married life (he had sorI of Peter is regarded on both sides as indisputably married Sonya Behrs who bore him 13 children, six the greatest dogmatic obstacle to the long-hoped for of whom died young) as one of the unhappiest in the Reunion of the Churches. Among the Russians and history of great literary figures. It was inevitable that other Slav Orthodox the “Sobornost” ecclesiology of his radical religious and social views as well as mun- the philosopher and theologian Alexei Stepanovich dane conflicts over his will, property and book rights Khomiakov (1804-1860) has been looked upon as a would cause dissension with his wife and children. powerful weapon for the refutation of Catholic doc- His apostasy from historical traditional Christian- trine concerning the infallibility of the Pope and the ity may be traced in a series of works: My Confession role of the Papacy as the Church’s center of visible (1879); Critique of Dogmatic Theology (1880); his own unity. In Khomiakov’s classic Essay “The Church is 1881 translation of the Gospels wherein he (like the One” (probably written before 1850 but first pub- American Thomas Jefferson) eliminated all Christ’s lished in 1864, four years after his death) he treated miracles); What I Believe (1883-1884); and The King- the question of the Church’s infallibility in an origi- dom of God is Within You (1894). When he was ex- nal manner, and his own provocative view would communicated by the Russian Orthodox Church in soon become influential in the leading Russian 1901, he replied with his 1902 Appeal to the Clergy, theological academies. The great Russian philoso- excoriating them. Already in 1855 he had written pher Vladimir Soloviev would expose serious defects in his diary: “A conversation about divinity has sug- in Khomiakov’s ecclesiology in his “Russia and the gested to me a great idea…the founding of a new Universal Church,” but he was not the only literary religion…the religion of Christianity but purged giant to do so. Another critic was the unbeliever Leo of dogmatics and mysticism; a practical religion not Tolstoy. promising future bliss, but giving bliss on earth.” Few will question that the world’s greatest novel- Tolstoy’s adogmatism (rejection of all Christian ist is Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) noted for such classic dogmas to be replaced by naturalistic humanism) masterpieces as War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and led to a religious nihilism which was to influence a Resurrection. The great Russian composer Tchai- large number of Russian poets, critics, novelists and kovsky had no hesitation to state, “Tolstoy, in my philosophers constituting a new “intelligentsia” who opinion is the greatest of all the writers the world in their condemnation of the entire Russian politi- has ever known.” As a moral philosopher Tolstoy is cal and socioeconomic system prepared the way for famous for his ideas on pacifism, anarchism, and non- the radical Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Writing at violent resistance which were especially expressed in the beginning of the Revolution the Italian Catholic his work The Kingdom of God is Within You (1893)- theologian Aurelio Palmieri who was well versed in ideas which would influence such 20th century lead- Russian theological literature and Tolstoyism wrote: ers as the famous Indian lawyer Mahatma Gandhi, “Count Leo Tolstoy became the legislator, the the American minister Martin Luther King, and the torchbearer, or rather of the irreligion of adog- Catholic Dorothy Day who read Tolstoy in her youth matism. He devoted the last years of his life to a
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 19 Articles
ruthless war against Christianity. By terms he strove believe them both.” (in his “The Kingdom of God Is to deform the content and the teaching of the Within You”). Gospels, to sneer at and repudiate the fundamental theses of Christian dogmatics; to launch the most However, in his rationalistic polemics against violent invective against the clergy; to nullify or the divinity of Christ and in his denial that Christ deny the supernatural and moral influence of the had founded an “institutional Church” there can also Sacraments of Christian life. The religion of Tolstoy be found a remarkable testimony by Tolstoy which effaces all the characteristic features of Christian would actually favor the Catholic view of Church revelation. Under the pen of Tolstoy and his dis- Authority against the “new theologians” who were ciples Christianity was stripped of its supernatural followers of the famed Russian lay-theologian Alexei brilliancy. [Giving expression to] the anarchical and Khomiakov. These Slavophiles (the party of fervent mystical tendencies of the Russian soul,… the sac- Russian nationalists who were anti-Western and anti- rilegious work of Tolstoy was continued by a small Latin) were adamant in maintaining what Vladimir legion of brilliant men who believed that their Soloviev would call their “anti-Catholic Orthodoxy.” facile pens gave them the right of passing judgment, as censors and critics, on the divine wisdom of the With their fierce rejection of the supreme and uni- Crucified Lord…Tolstoy and his school promoted versal authority of the Pope, they followed Khomia- a radical socialism with mystical anarchistic tenden- kov in vainly attempting to safeguard the infallibility cies and imbued with a hatred against historical of the Church by diffusing it in the “totality of the Christianity.” (“The Church and the Russian Revolu- Church.” Khomiakov’s “definition of the Church” tion,” The Catholic World, August 1917; p. 580). was grounded in his “Sobornost” ecclesiology em- phasizing the Church as a communion of love based It was his literary rival Dostoyevsky who rightly on the conciliarity (or collegiality) of all its members. saw that Tolstoy was promoting, in effect, a Christian- Tolstoy perceived this ecclesiology to be novel, vague, ity without Christ. Tolstoy’s religious thought, more- obscure, and frankly incoherent, and scored Kho- over, is not without signifcance in our post-modern miakov and his school for their sharp deviation from world which is deeply infected with the view of the traditional understanding of the Church’s infal- non-resistance to evil. libility that had been held by both Catholics and the Needless to say, the Catholic Church was con- Greek and Russian Orthodox. demned equally with the churches of Byzantine “Astonishing are the attempts of the new theo- Greek and Russian Orthodoxy for their supersti- logians…In order to find some new supports for tions and “idolatry.” Excepting papal authority and the doctrine of the Church, Khomiakov and his infallibility, he observed, “Does Catholicism preach disciples ground the definition of the Church not anything different from the Russian Church?.” He on the hierarchy but on the union of all believers, regarded both as “institutions not only alien to, but on the flock…The Catholic Church acknowledges as the chief of the hierarchy the Pope and its devel- directly hostile towards Christ’s teaching” For Tolstoy, opment involved necessarily the infallibility of the as for many Protestants and neo-Modernists today, Pope. The Greek Church was able not to recognize Christ the infallibility of the Pope, but she had to recog- “could certainly not have established the Church, nize the infallibility of the hierarchy itself. All these that is, the institution we now call by that name, Churches maintain themselves only by the avowal for nothing resembling our present conception of of the infallibility of their hierarchy…It is the only the Church- with its sacraments, its hierarchy, and impregnable foundation. And behold these new especially the claim to infallibility- is to be found theologians who wish to destroy this unique foun- either in Christ’s words or in the conceptions of dation, thinking to replace it by a better. the men of his time…The Trinity, the Mother of The new theologians say that the divine truth God, the Sacraments, Grace, and so forth …have is not in the infallibility of the hierarchy, but in the no meaning for men of our day…The Sermon union of all believers, united by love; that divine on the Mount, or the Creeds. It is impossible to truth is accessible only to men united by love, and
20 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 that such a Church is defined only by faith and then all that any man can say of this assembly is that union in love, and the accord of its members. This it is very desirable to be a member of it if it exists, reasoning is excellent in itself. Unfortunately, one that is, to dwell in love and in truth; but that there can not deduce any of the dogmas which theology are no external signs by which one could account professes. These theologians forget that in order to oneself or anyone else, a member of, or excluded accept any dogma whatever, it is necessary to recog- from this holy assembly, since no external institu- nize holy tradition which is clearly explained in the tion can correspond to that conception..” (in his decrees of an infallible hierarchy. If one renounces The Kingdom of God Is Within You) the infallibility of the hierarchy, one can no lon- ger affirm any dogma and there is not left a single Tolstoy rejected the very concept of an infallible proposition which can unite all believers. The af- visible Church but those Orthodox seeking to pre- firmation of these theologians who pretend to rec- serve the infallibility of the Church’s episcopate were ognize decrees which express the faith of all non- astute enough to appreciate the organic coherence divided Christians but deny the decrees of dissident and logical consistency of the Catholic position that Christians-- is quite inexact, for there has never it was the Church’s possession of the Petrine ministry been the complete union of all Christians…The of the Pope which provided an external sign or vis- union of believers in love is a general conception ible mark serving to identify clearly the unique hier- on which no belief or dogma common to all Chris- archy of bishops which transmitted unerringly across tians can be based. The result is that the work of the the centuries the orthodox Faith by the power of the “new theologians,” if they are truly logical, results in Holy Spirit [the Spirit’s gift of infallibility]. destroying the unique and fundamental foundation of the Church, the infallibility of the hierarchy. And It is ironic that Leo Tolstoy, a rationalist unbe- in its place is left only a mystical conception from liever, noted the Achilles’ heel of Khomiakhov’s which can spring no belief, much less a religion.” protestantizing and democratist Sobornost theology (“Critique of Dogmatic Theology,” French edition, which rendered null the infallibility of the teach- 1909). ing Church. In doing so, he echoed the thought of those Russians (like Vladimir Soloviev and Princess Tolstoy perceived that the revision of the doctrine Elizabeth Volkonskaya) and other Orthodox seek- of Church infallibility by Russian Slavophiles who in ing union with Rome who quickly realized that the their polemics against Catholics sought to diffuse the positive elements of “Sobornost” (conciliarity/ col- teaching authority (and therefore the infallibility) of legiality) were not only reconcilable with Papacy but the Church among all believers only made a mock- indeed demanded the supreme authority of the Pope ery of Church authority itself. He had the insight for its effectiveness in the life of the Church. As the to observe that every Christian dogma ultimately Second Vatican Council would teach so clearly, there depended on the infallibility of the Church, and that is no such thing as the collegiality of bishops with- the undivided unity of the Episcopate acclaimed by out the latter’s hierarchical union with the Roman the Fathers of the Church was unintelligible without Pontiff, the visible head of the Church as established the Papacy. In addition, if Christ had indeed founded by Christ. (See Lumen Gentium, #21-23; and its Ex- an infallible Church, that Church must bear external planatory Note, #3). ✠ signs identifying the one historical Church which possessed the infallibility of its Divine Founder. In James Likoudis is author of a comprehensive work dealing Tolstoy’s words: with Eastern Orthodox objections to the Catholic Church, “Khomiakov’s definition of the Church, which has The Divine Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and had some vogue among Russians, does not improve Modern Eastern Orthodoxy: Letters to the Greek matters, if we recognize with Khomiakov that the Orthodox on the Unity of the Church ($27.95) Orthodox is the one true Church…If we admit which is available from the author, PO Box 852, Montour the idea of a Church in Khomiakov’s sense- that is, Falls, NY 14685 as an assembly of people united in love and truth- Also see his website www.credobuffalo.com).
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 21 Articles Not Everybody Loves Raymond (or Regensburg) by Edmund J. Mazza, PhD Jews—manifested itself in more legitimate fashion Assistant Professor of History and Political Science, in an increasingly serious drive to convert the Jews Azusa Pacific University of western Christendom by the force of reasonable argumentation.” Again, one is left to conclude that larmed Muslims were not the only anyone promoting a homogenous Catholic Europe ones to express outrage over a misun- is automatically guilty of “attacking” Jews, even if his derstanding of Pope Benedict XVI’s approach involves an appeal to reason, rather than the recent address at the University of sword. Regensburg, predictably, so did the Chazan is not alone in his criticism of medieval Aeditors of the New York Times. Citing, “There is more Dominican and Franciscan missionary efforts towards than enough religious anger in the world,” the Times non-Christians. Jeremy Cohen, in his work, The Fri- in its September 16th editorial accused the Pope of ars and the Jews, takes matters a step further by pos- “fomenting discord between Christians and Mus- ing a new mendicant theology against the Jews: “The lims” because he recounted the “brusque” words of prime concern of this book is with the hitherto medieval Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologous’ unappreciated substance of the friars’ attack upon the dialogue over faith and reason with a Persian Muslim. Jews, the basic ideas and theological considerations (The Holy Father has since repeatedly stated that the that underlay their anti—Jewish activities and polem- emperor’s choice of words was not his own.) Ulti- ics. I shall argue that the Dominicans and Franciscans mately, the Times branded Pope Benedict a “doctrinal developed, refined, and sought to implement a new conservative” whose “greatest fear appears to be the Christian ideology with regard to the Jews, one that loss of a uniform Catholic identity, not exactly the allotted the Jews no legitimate right to exist in Euro- best jumping-off point for tolerance or interfaith pean society.” dialogue.” If we understand the Times correctly, one The main force of Cohen’s case lies in his analy- is left to conclude that anyone promoting “a uniform sis of the famous “Barcelona Confrontation,” a debate Catholic identity”—medieval or modern—is de facto between Dominican Friar Paul Christian and Rabbi “intolerant.” Moses Nahmanides in 1263, and in Cohen’s critique One encounters this same misunderstanding of of the Pugio Fidei (Dagger of Faith), a missionizing Catholic overtures to dialogue in current scholarship manual for friars preparing to engage Jews written of the Middle Ages. It has become commonplace in by the Dominican Friar Raymond Martin. Based on medieval studies to speak of the “the development his analyses, Cohen comes to the conclusion that the of a dangerous exclusionist tendency” or “formation mendicant orders believed that thirteenth-century of a persecuting society” in Catholic Europe of the Jews following rabbinic tradition had broken from twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Robert Chazan, for the classical Judaism of the Old Testament, thereby example, author of Daggers of Faith sees a connec- making themselves “heretics,” and losing their right tion between the anti-Jewish violence surrounding to be “tolerated” in contemporary medieval society. the First Crusade and the efforts of Dominicans and While Chazan disagrees with “Cohen’s assertion Franciscans to make Jewish converts a century-and- of a new theological view regarding Judaism and the a-half later; he claims that although the Church Jews implicit in the missionizing campaign,” he does officially repudiated mob violence and forced con- agree “with his sense of deteriorating Jewish circum- version, yet the same “desire to provide a more ho- stances and of an ecclesiastical—or more narrowly mogeneous Christian environment by removing the mendicant—role in this deterioration.” Actually, Co-
22 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 hen and Chazan narrow their focus even further and Council clarified the Church’s position on this point single-out one mendicant in particular, the Domini- by stating that only those who know that the Catho- can friar (and Catholic saint) Raymond of Peñafort: lic Church is necessary for salvation and still refuse “Raymond and his school developed that approach to enter it, are guilty of the infidelity of which Ray- into an organized and aggressive Christian mission mond speaks. to the Jews very much a novelty in medieval Europe. Neither did Raymond mount his missionary Raymond of Peñaforte was not satisfied with simply effort to the Jews and Muslims because he saw “no ridding Europe of contemporary Judaism; he com- place for them in Christendom.” In his summa he mitted himself to making contemporary Jews believ- goes out of his way to condemn the use of violence ing Christians,” or, as Chazan writes: “Almost cer- in the service of Christian religion: “We ought, tainly the financial and personnel support reflected in moreover, as with Jews, so with Muslims, use rational the Pugio Fidei flows from the missionizing circle at arguments and sweet words, rather than severities…” the hub of which sat the active and influential Ray- Raymond continues by warning that Jews and Mus- mond of Penyafort.” lims are not to be “compelled” to become Christians So it would seem not everybody loves Raymond. and those Christians who do so are “not pleasing Why not? Because he (almost single-handedly) God.” launched an unprecedented campaign of preaching This is essentially the same argument which to the unconverted, one that utilized the force of the Pope cites, the medieval Christian argument of argument—and the sacred books of Jews and Mus- Manuel II: “God is not pleased by blood, and not lims themselves—instead of arms. In this, Raymond acting reasonably is contrary to God’s nature. Faith is was very much like the present pontiff, Pope Bene- born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead dict, who in his address at Regensburg cited both the someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and Qur’an (Surah 2, 256) and Greek philosophy: “‘Not to reason properly, without violence and threats…” to act reasonably (with logos) is contrary to the nature It was thus that Raymond, after resigning his mas- of God’…It is to this great logos, to this breadth of ter generalship of the Dominican order, went about reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue establishing schools for equipping friars for dialogue of cultures.” It was in this same vein that Raymond in Arabic and Hebrew throughout Spain and North pressed his brother Dominican, St. Thomas Aquinas, Africa, in such cities as Tunis, Jativa, Murcia, Valencia to compose his celebrated Summa Contra Gentiles, in city, and Barcelona. an effort to invite educated Muslims into religious And yet, whether it is the modern pontiff, or the dialogue by means of rational arguments. medieval Peñafort, contemporary intellectual elites Raymond was himself the author of a summa, still view any representative of an organization with the Summa de casibus, a manual for confessors to use exclusive claims to absolute truth as incapable of in administering the sacrament of God’s mercy. In it, tolerance or dialogue. As István Bejczy writes: he outlines the Church’s theology of sin and repen- The enlightened philosophers, who laid the foun- tance, and although he composed it to assist repen- dations of liberalism and democracy, are often tant Christian sinners, significantly, he includes Jews hailed as the men who introduced the notion of and Muslims in the same category of fallen humanitas tolerance as a means of guaranteeing maximum in need of pardon and redemption. Far from brand- freedom to the individual members of society… ing them “heretics” for following Talmudic Judaism, The Middle Ages, on the other hand, have no repu- as Cohen alleges, Raymond in his summa is at pains tation for tolerance, the lack of which is usually to point out that “heretics” comprise a different cat- attributed to the influence of a powerful Church egory of sinner altogether: “We have spoken above of that was able and willing to suppress all major de- viations from the exclusive truth it was convinced it Jews and Muslims, who by their infidelity dishonor possessed. God: now we are treating of heretics, who by their deviation from our faith in God sin more greatly” Yet, as Bejzcy goes on to cite, it was none other (Emphasis mine). Of course, the Second Vatican
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 23 Articles
than Raymond of Peñafort, Cohen’s “evil genius age to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not behind mendicant intolerance” who set forth in his the denial of its grandeur—this is the program with revision of the Church’s canon law, a clear definition which a theology grounded in Biblical faith enters of “tolerance”: into the debates of our time.” Bejczy explains the Permission is taken in three different ways. First, danger inherent in the West’s Enlightenment view of when something is allowed that is not forbidden by rationality: “Admitting the relativity of our truths, we any law…Second, when something is indulged that should be reluctant to condemn the acts of our fel- runs counter to human rules…The third type of low human beings that differ from our own—that is permission occurs when lesser evils are permitted the basic idea of our so-called tolerance. An idea that so as to prevent greater ones. This is called the per- makes us morally defenseless if outright evil shows missio comparativa, and it does not excuse from sin. up.” One thinks of C. S. Lewis’ remark concerning It should, however, be called tolerantia rather than Britain’s battle against Hitler’s Germany: “What was permission. the sense in saying the enemy were in the wrong un- less Right is a real thing which the Nazis at bottom This medieval notion of tolerance explains why knew as well as we did and ought to have practiced?” in the same passage from his summa on sin cited Ironically, by condemning Pope Benedict’s use above, Raymond can maintain that Jewish and Mus- of a medieval author and his “Catholic” notion of lim forms of worship have already been rendered reason and dialogue, the Times is throwing away the either fulfilled or erroneous by the coming of Christ only true remedy to the escalating sectarian violence and his Church, and yet in the same breath condemn it so fears. Bejczy sums it up well: as sinful their forced conversion or molestation. Such a definition of tolerance balances both the Church’s Medieval authors never doubted that they pos- recognition of absolute truths and the individual’s sessed the absolute truth, but they developed the right not to be coerced in the practice of his or her concept of tolerantia as a way of getting along with non-Christian religion. The subject of medieval the untrue. Medieval authors were never morally Christian heretics is a separate discussion for which defenseless against outright evil and condemned it wherever they believed to find it, but still they we lack space in this article, but even in this instance, advocated not to interfere with it if this seemed to it suffices to quote John Kemp’s observation, that it be opportune. Obviously we do not have the same was again, none other than “Raymund of Penafort, enemies as medieval people. Still, with regard to the advisor to the Pope [Gregory IX], [who] insisted that question of how to handle the enemies we do have there be no death penalty for heresy. But his advice without going to the extremes of tyranny and in- was not heeded…” ertia, the medieval doctrine of tolerance contains a We may conclude, therefore, with Pope Benedict, lesson for our age as well. that the modern world has much to gain from a re- appraisal of the Christian philosophy of the Middle What a different world it would be if the US and its Ages and its practical application to modern moral allies had adopted a “medieval” stance of tolerance dilemmas and dialogue. As the Holy Father expressed toward the “evil axis” regime of Iraq and if Muslim it: “The West has long been endangered by this aver- zealots had adopted the same posture toward the US sion to the questions which underlie its rationality, and Israel? ✠ and can only suffer great harm thereby. The cour-
24 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 Book Reviews
The Language of God: A Scientist and the elucidation of DNA. A fas- methods of creation, whether or Presents Evidence for Belief, Francis cinating account of the discovery not we understand those methods, S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Free Press; of the DNA code glitch responsible Concise, very readable chapters 294 pages, Hardcover, $26.00 for cystic fibrosis comes next, fol- deal with atheism, agnosticism, Reviewed by Robert E. Hurley, M.D. lowed by the even more astonishing creationism and intelligent design illumination of the DNA sequence worldviews, dismissing atheism his book is not only an of the entire human genome and the and agnosticism as untenable, par- excellent human genome support the latter data provides, not ticularly for a scientist purportedly Tprimer from someone who only for evolutionary theory, but for willing to examine all the evidence. knows the territory, but a concise, meaningful research on a variety of Atheism must be considered a form thoughtful and thought-provoking human diseases. of blind faith, adopting as it does a integration of scientific and theolog- The second half of the book belief system that cannot be defend- ical-philosophical approaches to the (Part Three) opens with the author ed on the basis of pure reason. Most what and why of human existence. questioning why, with evolution agnostics have not considered all the The author is a physician, chem- theory so overwhelmingly supported evidence for and against the exis- ist and one of the country’s leading by scientific evidence, general public tence of God and those who have geneticists. He was the head of the support for its conclusions is lacking. taken the time to do so have found Human Genome Project when the First, evolution is counterintuitive themselves unexpectedly converted. 3.1 billion pairs of letters of the because the complexity and diver- Creationism and intelligent design human genome code were finally sity of life forms appear to require positions in the modem era have deciphered after years of painstaking a supernatural designer. Second, the fallen victim to confusion often research by more than two thousand incredibly long periods of time in- generated by failure to define. terms scientists in six countries. He makes volved are difficult to grasp. ‘Third, accurately so that both tend to be the case that belief in God is an en- evolution appears to contradict cer- used in a restricted sense, making tirely rational decision and that the tain scriptural texts, e.g. the creation them vulnerable to attack. synthesis of spiritual and scientific narrative in Genesis. But the over- The penultimate chapter is a world views is not only eminently whelming complexity of evolution- brief explication of “theistic evolu- reasonable, but, in fact, necessary, ary processes may even be an ally tion” which the author espouses since science is without the right of faith since this very intricacy can and which he considers elegant tools and therefore powerless to an- add to our limited insight into the evidence for the master plan of the swer profound questions about why incomprehensible power and capa- same Almighty who caused the we and the universe exist. bility of the omnipotent and om- universe to come into being and set An interesting introduction niscient designer. 0mnipotent De- its physical parameters just precisely includes the silly assertion by a signer and evolution are definitely right to allow creation of stars, plan- prominent evolutionist to the ef- not mutually exclusive concepts. As ets, heavy elements, and life itself. fect that belief in evolution demands for scriptural text difficulties, literal This theistic evolution position, atheism when the fact is precisely interpretation problems have been espoused by a variety of scientists the reverse, and it outlines the addressed by others currently and and thinkers, including Pope John counterproductive conflict between in the past, including, as Dr. Col- Paul II, provides for an intellectu- shallow spirituality and equally shal- lins notes, St. Augustine. I think Dr. ally rigorous and satisfying synthesis low materialist positions. The first Collins’s remark on page 158 that between the spiritual and scientific four chapters consider, among other the evolution controversy reaches realms in which we find ourselves topics, Dr. Collins’s brief autobio- into the very heart of both faith and in the twenty-first century. Dr. graphical account of his transition science is a bit overstated in view of Collins considers such a synthesis from “childish atheism,” the problem the fact that, though it may reach important because both shallow of pain, the origins of the universe, into the heart of science, it certainly science, denying the spiritual realm, the advances of science in the mod- does not reach into the heart of faith and shallow spirituality, denying the ern age, the origins of life on earth, in any meaningful way. After all, a God-given tools of science, deny mounting evidence for evolution- Being unlimited in any way, who, of elements of the truth. ary theory, Gregor Mendel’s work course, must necessarily be a spirit, “Making personal sense of the pointing to the existence of genes, is not going to be limited in His evidence,” and deciding which, if
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 25 Book Reviews
any, religious faith is true occupy the most studied events in the history of agreement with the truth and not last chapter and seem to introduce Western culture. The past four cen- contrary to Sacred Scripture. Yet in some incongruity with earlier as- turies have produced vast amounts 1616, shortly before Galileo pub- severations about the importance of commentaries as well as countless lished his Dialogue Concerning the Two of a rational approach to the truth. interpretations and evaluations by Chief World Systems, the Copernican However, crisp insights are also to physicists, astronomers, theologians, teaching was condemned. It is to be be found here, for example, evidence philosophers, churchmen, histori- remembered that the heliocentric for and significance of the resurrec- ans, and even playwrights. Almost theory not only challenged a literal tion. Dr. Collins closes with appeals 60 books were written about the interpretation of the Bible but also to believers and scientists to repair to trial from 1633-1651 alone, and the Ptolemaic/Aristotelian concep- the common ground of the truth. one has yet to learn how many have tion of the universe that supported Bioethical questions generated by been published since. Given the vast the traditional Biblical interpretation. advances in DNA and cell replication amount of literature produced just On February 26, 1616, in the pres- research are dealt with in a 37 page within the past 50 years, Richard ence of Cardinal Bellarmine, Galileo appendix, but some of Dr. Collins’s Blackwell is almost apologetic for was served an injunction issued by formulations in this area are superficial bringing out yet another volume. the Holy Office demanding that he as might be anticipated from—as he He is the author of numerous books abandon his defense of Copernican- acknowledges–a layman in that field. and articles, including Galileo, Bellar- ism, “nor henceforth to hold, teach His conclusions regarding in vitro mine and the Bible (1991), and is the or defend in any way, either verbally fertilization, preimplantation genetic translator of A Defense of Galileo the or in writing” the heliocentric view diagnosis, somatic cell nuclear transfer, Mathematician from Florence (1994). of the universe. Given Aristotelian artificial contraception and altered This adds to his already impressive standards regarding the nature of nuclear transfer-oocyte assisted repro- stature as a chronicler of the famous demonstration, Galileo could not gramming (ANT-OAR) are highly event. prove that the earth revolved around influenced by an “end justifies the Behind the Scenes is divided into the sun. Bellarmine clearly under- means” approach. These opinions do two parts. The first part provides an stood the difference between a hy- not comport with Catholic principles, informative overview of the ele- pothetical explanation and a demon- though ANT-OAR continues to be ments that led to the trial of 1632. stration and evidently had no trouble debated in Catholic theological circles. The second part consists of three with Galileo’s defense of the helio- With aforementioned caveats, appendices, i.e., Blackwell’s transla- centric view as an hypothesis. Appar- ‘’The Language of God” is a conver- tions of three behind-the-scenes ently a modus vivendi was worked out sationally written work directed to a documents that shed some light on to that effect. In fact, proof awaited broad audience with little technical the episode. It is difficult to say pre- the first part of the 19th century background. Dr. Collins has provided cisely when l’affaire Galileo actually when astronomers for the first time a valuable service for anyone wishing began. Copernicus promulgated his were able to measure the parallax of to apprehend the intelligence sup- heliocentric view of the universe the stars. Galileo was aware of the porting rational integration between as early as 1510 although publica- proscription and in an effort to gar- spiritual and modem scientific pur- tion of his complete work, On the ner support for his theory without suits. Revolution of the Celestial Spheres, had directly promulgating a prohibited to await 1543, the year of his death. view produced his Dialogue. The Behind the Scenes at Galileo’s Trial. For the greater part of a century discussion takes place among three Richard J. Blackwell, Notre Dame, ecclesiastical authorities made no parties, with Salviati defending the IN: University of Notre Dame Press, official condemnation of a doctrine heliocentric view, Simplicio the 2006. pp. xiii+ 245. that seemingly contradicted Sacred Ptolemaic view and Sagredo open- Reviewed by Jude P. Dougherty Scripture. From Patristic times it was mindedly commenting on each point Dean Emeritus acknowledged that Sacred Scripture made by Salviati. The literary device The Catholic University of America had to be interpreted at several lev- was a transparent defense of Galileo’s els, the literal meaning being only own view and was seen as a viola- ithout doubt “l’affaire one. In fact, Antonio Fosearini, a tion of the injunction prohibiting the Galileo,” as Descartes Carmelite priest, in 1615 argued that espousal of the Copernican view. Wcalled it, is one of the the Copernican doctrine is both in In the years after his trial and
26 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 condemnation, Galileo remained The Future of Europe: Reform or earlier in life. In the end, govern- convinced that his downfall had Decline, Alberto Alesina and Fran- ments delivered what the people been caused by a plot against him cesco Giavazzi, Cambridge, MA: asked.” The result: protectionism and by his enemies. Evidence of a plot The MIT Press, 2006. pp. x+ 186. regulation in every sector. may be lacking, but he certainly $24.95 cloth. Chapter headings suggest the had enemies. His sharpest oppo- Reviewed by Jude P. Dougherty scope of the volume: “Europe and nent was Christopher Schneiner, Dean Emeritus the United States; Two Different an astronomer, who fell out with The Catholic University of America Social Models,” “Handling a Mul- Galileo 20 years before his trial over tiethnic Society,” “Americans at the issues of priority of observa- his is primarily an eco- Work: Europeans on Holiday,” “Job tion and interpretation in regard to nomic treatise, but lurking Security, Job Regulation, and 14 sun spots. Schneiner wrote personal Tbeneath the economic are Million Unemployed,” “Technol- attacks before and during the trial. unmistakable philosophical and cul- ogy. Research and Universities,” and Blackwell provides a translation tural factors. The decline addressed “The Judicial System and the Cost of Schneiner’s “Prodromus pro is the relative economic decline of Doing Business.” sole mobile” as an appendix to the of Europe compared with the Immigration is recognized as a present volume. Galileo’s foremost economies of China and the United major problem. The tiny strait of Gi- critic was Melchior Inchofer, S.J, a States. Europe is rich and will not bralter that could easily be bridged theologian with no background in become poor in the near future, but separates Europe from 210 million astronomy or science, who was in the authors, Alesina and Giavazzi, North Africans whose average per a position to do him harm as advi- predict an economic decline rela- capital income is approximately sor to the Holy Office. Blackwell tive to other countries, a decline eight percent of that of their neigh- devotes forty percent of the volume they take to be the consequence of bors in Europe. The magnetic appeal to Inchofer’s, A Summary Treatise flawed social and economic policies. is obvious as many risk their lives to Concerning the Motion or Rest of the They ask the blunt question: Should make the crossing from North Af- Earth and the Sun, in which it is briefly Europeans care? “Should a middle rica and beyond to seek a better life shown what is and what is not to be class Frenchman be bothered if a in Europe. Many who seek to im- held as certain according to the teachings middle class tourist from Korea in migrate come not only from Africa of Sacred Scriptures and the Holy Fa- Paris will soon be able to afford but from the Middle East. Most are thers. If the evidence does not sup- items out of reach for the French Muslims who share a way of life that port a plot in Galileo’s sense, Black- themselves?” is increasingly difficult to integrate well’s account provides a scenario The jointly authored volume within Western culture. Alesina and for a spellbinding novel. English- addresses what its authors call a Giavazzi do not deny the need for speaking readers can be grateful for “culture of stagnation,” wherein immigration, given a European birth the author’s translation of Inchofer’s job stability and security are valued rate below replacement levels, but behind-the-scenes document. The above all. In their view, Europe of they advocate selective immigration story leaves enough latitude for the the l960s looked like a model to be in the interest of social cohesion. reader to draw his own conclusions. imitated. With its rapid growth and The authors are particularly Although scholars both acquit and cohesive societies, Europeans were severe when they compare work- condemn the Church, the underly- among the most successful people ing hours put in by Europeans with ing issue remains: what constitutes a in the world. But economic suc- those of their American counter- demonstration? cess carried a downside, inordinate parts. They also see a wide gap when demands placed on weak govern- it comes to technology research and ments. We are reminded that the give the United States the edge in late 1960s was a period of political high tech firms, including aircraft, turmoil. “From universities to facto- pharmaceuticals, computers, TCL ries, Europeans demanded less work equipment, and medical and optical with equal pay, labor regulations instruments. They speak to the brain against firings, free education and drain as Europe exports many of free health care for every one, and its brightest students to the United generous pensions to be enjoyed States and colorfully point out that
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 27 Book Reviews
“the brightest students from India visits to Peru, and in September, taken place in constitutional law Dennis - and from Central Europe fly over 2002, he conducted a much-lauded thinking in this country over the p. 29, right hand column, 6th line, last word is Paris on their way to Boston, Chi- conference on the Mastery of Con- past two centuries, and it is replete cago, and California.” stitutional Law, at the Catholic Uni- with instructive and thought-pro- government and it should have a comma followed Attractively written, the book versity of Lima. From 1984 to 1996 voking commentary. by a quotation mark (on his fax, it looks like a period) is the result of serious research un- Professor Barker served as the Presi- There are three prominent ************************ dertaken by the authors over many dent of the Committee on Consti- features of the U. S. Constitution. p. 31, last paragraph, last 3 lines, 4th line from the years. Alberto Alesina is the Ropes tutional Law of the International First, it is not merely a declaration bottom, he wants to change Professor of Political Economics at Federation of Lawyers. of principles, a set of theories as "this book" for "it" Harvard University; Francesco Gia- La Constitución de los Estados to how best to run a country, but ************************ vazzi is Professor of Economics at Unidos y su Dinámica Actual (The rather a real juridical document, p. 31, 2nd to last line, he wants the line to read "an Bacconi University. Although they United States Constitution and Its laying down definite legal norms. It write as economists, they are not Present Day Dynamics) is, as de- is a working body of law. Second, English translation of the book might soon." oblivious to the political cleavage scribed by the author, a collection the Constitutional is a vehicle for ********************* between European citizens and their of conference papers and published judicial review. Beginning with leaders. The multiculturalism favored articles which he has written over the landmark case of Marbury vs. by the ruling elites, given the pro- the past fifteen years. The various Madison (1803), handed down by a pensity of Brussels to edge into more items, composing the eleven chap- Court presided over by Chief Jus- and more areas that affect daily life, ters of the book, are well selected tice John Marshall, the Constitution has driven home the perception that and arranged, and the volume dis- was established as a means by which something has gone awry in Europe. plays a unity and coherence which the judicial branch of the govern- The former prime minister of Spain, is not always found in collections ment, through its interpretation of Jose Maria Aznar, whom the authors of pieces which have been com- the Constitution, determined which quote, may have it right when he posed separately. The result is a book enactments of the legislative branch said the Europeans should rediscover which provides us with a nicely were, and were not, to be allowed their “Christian roots and cultural focused, informative, and stimulat- to stand as law. It was in the Mar- values, and set aside the enormous ing account of the U. S. Constitu- bury vs. Madison decision, Profes- error of multiculturalism, a failed tion. The author’s own background sor Barker writes, that “for the first experiment.” as an historian gives added weight time the Supreme Court explicitly to the short but pointed history of declared that it was the final and La Constitución de los Estados Uni- the genesis of the Constitution that definitive interpreter of the Consti- dos y su Dinámica Actual, Robert he provides. The greater part of the tution.” The third prominent feature S. Barker. Lima, Peru: Associación book is dedicated to recounting the of the Constitution is that it estab- Peruana de Derecho Constitucional, development in the interpretations lishes the principle of the separation 2005. pp. 221. which have been given to the docu- of powers–executive, legislative, Reviewed by D. Q. McInerny ment since it legally went into effect and judicial–which proved to be in 1789. a stroke of political genius on the obert S. Barker is a law- Each of the eleven chapters part of the framers, and accounts, yer and historian who is a of the book is deserving of a close perhaps more than anything else, for RProfessor of Constitutional reading, but I think four of them are the general stability the nation has Law at Duquesnes Universtiy. He worthy of special attention: Chap- enjoyed since its founding. has spent a good deal of time in a ter VIII, “The Constitution and It is to the Constitution that number of Latin American countries the Protection of Human Rights”; we owe the principle of federalism, over the course of his career, begin- Chapter IX, “Freedom of Expres- the principle which stipulates that ning in his student days when he was sion: Basic Principles and Current authority is not to rest exclusively a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama Questions”; Chapter X, “The Teach- either with the central government, from 1967 to 1969. Since complet- ing of Constitutional Law.” The nor with the individual states, but ing his own professional studies, book’s final chapter, “Human Rights: is be shared by both spheres. This he has been a visiting professor at 200 Years of Constitutional Experi- principle of shared authority would universities in Argentina, Guatemala, ence,” represents an insightful over- seem to have been maintained in and Mexico. He has made several view of the developments that have practice with fair consistency over
28 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 the years, but an observer such as past four decades or so, and we now wold vs. Connecticut (1965), of a Robert Nisbet, who once wrote of live in an era of an activist Supreme “right to privacy.” Interestingly, that “the Leviathan-like presence of the Court. Professor Barker describes the “right” was not discovered in any national government,” would not be current situation: “Things have so of the actual words to be found in alone in claiming that the govern- devolved that there has been a steady the document, but rather in a kind ment in Washington has over the increase in the number of constitu- of ethereal suggestiveness emanating years managed to garner for itself tional decisions. This phenomenon from some of its words, as carefully a degree of power and influence is perhaps the most significant con- selected and perspicaciously inter- which the framers neither envi- stitutional development of our era, preted by the discerning judges. sioned nor desired... .The initial because it both reflects and promotes And thus a new constitutional commission given to the delegates the idea that the most important guarantee is brought to light. Pro- who convened in Philadelphia in the political questions are, in the final fessor Barker offers the comment summer of 1787 was to revise the analysis, judicial questions.” As the that, though a doctrine of privacy Articles of Confederation, for it had result of the activism of the Court, might be properly made use of as a quickly become evident that, as they we now have a situation where, “Just commendable means of protecting stood, they were no longer adequate about every article and section of the “those rights traditionally honored to meet the needs of the new politi- Constitution has been defined, rede- by civilized societies, there exists the cal entity called the United States fined, or amplified over the years.” danger that a right to privacy can of America. But what actually came One item that has received a be used, as in Roe vs. Wade, to justi- out of that meeting was an entirely large amount of attention by the fy, in the name of the human rights new document, the Constitution as Court is the First Amendment clause of the powerful, the radical negation we now know it–surely one of the that prohibits the establishment of an of the most basic human rights of most impressive pieces of political official state religion. What is peculiar the powerless.” When that “right literature ever composed. But, once about the interpretations that the to privacy”was appealed to in the it had been completed, its ratification Court has put upon the “religion 1973 decision, by way of justify- by a majority of the individual states clause” is that they at times show ing the legalization of abortion on was anything but a foregone conclu- something like complete oblivious- demand, the Court, in its decision, sion. In the end, it was the promise ness to the stipulation that follows offered to the world a spectacular to add to the document a delinea- hard upon the no-establishment display of illogic for, after declaring tion of specific rights belonging to prohibition, which mandates that no that it was not possible to say when citizens that turned the tide in favor laws shall be established that prohibit human life began, it then effectively of ratification. It was not for any lack the free exercise of religion. The fact ruled that life cannot be said to of concern for human rights on the of the matter is that many of the in- begin with conception. part of the framers that had decided terpretations of that clause contained Professor Barker offers his read- them against making any explicit in recent decisions have to them a ers some telling commentary on statement about them. They thought distinctly anti-religious stamp. The that fateful case. “The Roe vs. Wade such a statement unnecessary be- irony here should not go unnoticed. decision,” he writes, “demonstrated cause, first, basic rights were already We have a Court that is supposedly that the ‘right to privacy,’ having being honored, and, second, they concerned with guaranteeing that no juridical foundation in the text, were explicitly guaranteed by the all citizens should be treated equally, nor in the historical context, of the individual states. In any event, what but that concern does not seem to Constitution, is a juridical inven- we now know as the Bill of Rights extend to citizens who want freely to tion, and both its substance and was drawn up, and ratified in 1791. exercise their religion. application depend necessarily on The history of the U. S. Su- Not a little creative imagina- the subjective preferences of the preme Court is particularly interest- tion has been shown by our activist judges.” In that decision, he argues, ing for the fact that in its early years justices in the definitions, redefini- the Court “ ‘constitutionalized’ an it was not a particularly dynamic tions, and amplifications to which action (abortion) which at that time institution, and over the greater part they have subjected the Constitution. had been uniformly condemned of its history it made relatively few Perhaps the most signal instance of throughout the course of civilized decisions. But things have changed this was the discovery within the history.” The Supreme Court, “ dramatically in that respect over the Constitution, announced in Gris- under the pretext of protecting
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 29 Book Reviews
fundamental rights, authorized the interesting examples of this in Myer description of how constitutional systematic negation of the most vs. Nebraska (1923), and Pierce vs. law is now being taught in our law fundamental right of the most vul- Society of Sisters (1925). In the first schools can be summarily character- nerable of persons–the unborn.” case German-speaking litigants chal- ized as the politicization of law. We What we see in that, and in so lenged a Nebraska state law that pro- have a situation where a majority of many other, of the Court’s recent hibited public instruction be done in the law professors are promoting an decisions (i.e., those handed down any language but English. The Court ideological agenda that is very much since 1960) is, according to Profes- ruled in their favor, declaring the in tune with the mind-set that fosters sor Barker, a consistent penchant Nebraska law to be unconstitutional. an activist judiciary. Given the very for not simply declaring a law to be This decision could be said to have large number of cases that have been unconstitutional, but for engaging been guided by reasoning which is decided in recent decades by the in activity that does not properly entirely in accord with the tradi- Supreme Court, it would be impos- belong to the Court, but rather to tional Catholic view which holds sible to deal with all of them within the legislative branch of the govern- that the primary responsibility for the scope of what is typically a two- ment. It is an altogether remarkable the education of children is invested semester course in constitutional law, thing, when you stop to think about in parents, not in the government. so a process of strict selectivity has it, what the Supreme Court did in The decision is memorable for its to take place. This is understandable, the year 1973: with the stroke of a ringing pronouncement, “The child but a problem arises as a result of pen, it obliterated anti-abortion laws is not a mere creature of the state.” In the criteria according to which the that were in effect in all fifty of the the second case, Pierce vs. Society of selections are made; the cases chosen United States, laws which had been Sisters, the Court declared unconsti- for study tend to deal with a narrow established, after due deliberation, tutional a law enacted in the state of range of issues, issues which reflect by the elected representatives of the Oregon that mandated that all chil- the political interests of the selec- people. So much for democracy as dren from the ages 8 to 16 must be tors. The upshot is that many of the vox populi! Professor Barker recalls educated in the public schools. The textbooks used in constitutional law the words of Justice Byron White, unambiguous purpose of the law was courses provide students with a de- of happy memory, one of the two to eliminate Catholic schools in that cidedly imbalanced understanding of dissenting judges in Roe vs. Wade. state. Today Oregon enjoys the dubi- the Constitution. Another problem Having described the decision as ous status of being the one state in relating to law school education is an instance of “raw judicial power,” the Union that has given its citizens the abandonment of the time-hon- Justice White wrote that the Court, the opportunity to avail themselves ored Socratic method in dealing in acting as it did, was “arrogating of the wonderfully oxymoronic op- with cases, a manner of teaching, to itself the authority to govern the portunity of doctor-assisted suicide. Professor Barker argues, that is best country without any established There are today two schools of suited to the development of those authorization to do so.” Could we thought regarding the interpretation “qualities of analysis, synthesis and perhaps say that in this decision the of the U. S. Constitution, the conser- critical acumen which are demanded Court itself was acting unconstitu- vative school and the liberal school. by our juridical tradition.” The So- tionally? The conservative school advocates an cratic method has been replaced by Taking them all in all, the de- interpretation which attempts faith- the lecture, where the professor is cisions delivered by the Supreme fully to embody the “original intent” free to expound his personal political Court over the past four decades of the framers; the liberal school, for theories uninterrupted. are at best non-traditional, and at its part, fosters interpretation which The spirit of judicial activism worse positively anti-traditional, is meant to reflect contemporary at- which now prevails, Professor Barker in character. This is most clearly titudes. The liberal approach, which contends, has created a new and seen in the interpretation that the is now in the ascendancy, can be said profoundly anti-juridical attitude in Court has been giving to the “due to represent an essentially historicist the Supreme Court. The Constitu- process” clause of the Fifth Amend- mode of thinking, and reveals as well, tion is no longer being regarded as ment. Earlier courts had interpreted so it seems to me, the definite influ- a code of juridical norms–which is this clause in ways which were very ence of the de-constructionist man- precisely what its framers intended it much consonant with traditional ner of approaching and interpreting to be–but as an instrument for engi- views. Professor Barker cites two a written text. Professor Barker’s neering political and social change.
30 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 Specifically with respect to the deci- his country’s constitution, could not anthropology and teleology needed sions the Court has made apropos of help but benefit much by reading it. for their defense. She finds the begin- the “religion clause,” we witness not And with that in mind, one hopes nings of such a return in the work of only a pronounced lack of desire on that an English translation of this Alasdair MacIntyre, Amy Gutmann, its part to settle difference between book might soon be made available. Michael Sandel, and William Galston, secular and religious interests, and, among others. more significantly, a lack of desire Aristotle and the Rediscovery of She believes that many contem- to assume a stance of governmental Citizenship. Susan D. Collins, New porary authors who are positively neutrality with regard to religious York: Cambridge University Press, disposed to Aristotle, no matter how questions, but an out-and-out ju- 2006. pp. 193.Cloth, $70.00 different their interpretations, remain ridical hostility toward religion. And Reviewed by L.J. Elders, Rolduc Semi- unified by a number of unexam- with respect to the Court’s intense nary, Kerkrade, the Netherlands ined liberal presuppositions. Collins concern for human rights–certainly acknowledges that it has been the commendable in itself–Professor he book owes its title to achievement of the liberal state to Barker makes the apposite observa- the author’s conviction that create a framework in which diverse tion that “the complete realization Twithin the contemporary pursuits of the good are accommo- of human rights cannot be achieved Western world we have lost sight dated, but regrettably the liberal state solely through the action of govern- of the principles that support the fails to be an inspiring force in the ment; it requires a morally respon- social and political order we take for cultivation of civic virtue. Collins sible society–of which the govern- granted, the foundational principles provides an excellent survey of the ment is only a part.” necessary to secure our individual moral and social virtues as described The book contains three appen- liberty. Collins argues that Aristote- by Aristotle in the Nicomachean Eth- dices. The first is an article written lian moral and political theory was ics and in Book III of the Politics. by an Argentinian lawyer, Rosana eclipsed by the success of modern Throughout her account she reminds Moretti de Troglia, which provides liberalism and the resulting attach- the reader that man is a social and an interpretation of the U. S. Consti- ment to Hobbes, among others. political animal, a view that stands tution in which, among several other Aristotle’s view that man is a social in disagreement with contemporary interesting observations, the author and political agent who freely elects individualism. Aristotle may be taken notes that the concept of natural law, his mode of governance is con- as an antidote to contemporary treat- which very much guided the work trasted to the liberal concept of the ments of individualism vs. the com- of the framers, is scarcely referred state, one conceived as an associa- mon good, insofar as he discusses acts to today. She cites the confirmation tion of rights-bearing free agents. in which a person deliberately and hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas Aristotle’s polity requires virtue in unjustly chooses his own good over as a case in point of how the mere the citizenry. In her discussion of that of another. Collins’s summary of public advocacy of the natural law contemporary liberal theory, Col- the virtues as found in Aristotle ends is considered sufficient reason for lins challenges John Rawls’s reduc- with some valuable pages on educa- keeping a man off the Supreme tion of “justice” to “fairness.” She tion. Court. The second appendix is an doubts that his doctrine of fairness The book is well written and article written by José F. Palomino will work as long as one does not presents a solid and largely com- Manchego, Professor of Constitu- accept a higher notion of the good, plete treatment of Aristotle on the tional Law at the University of San a higher criterion, i.e., one normally virtues, but it does not examine the Marco in Lima, in which he pro- associated with religious faith. Given anthropology underlying Aristotle’s vides a particularized account of the that religion has traditionally played understanding of virtue and its re- influence of American constitutional a role in shaping moral and politi- quirement for human perfection. The thought in Peru. The third appendix cal life, it is questionable that in its author displays an admirable acquain- is the U. S. Constitution, in Spanish. absence modern liberal philosophy tance with the relevant literature, In sum, this is a very valuable can supply the principles needed both with respect to liberal doctrine book. The average American, who to support the political order that and the teachings of Aristotle. The tends not to be overly burdened has secured our liberties. Hence, text is superbly edited, and the index with a knowledge of his country’s Collins’s recommendation that we facilitates discussion. history, much less of the contents of return to Aristotle for the neglected
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 31 Book Reviews
James Madison and the Struggle for of binding the thirteen colonies for anteed by the amendments and the the Bill of Rights. R. Labunski, R. internal matters and commerce with federal government is their overseer (2006). NY: Oxford University Press. foreign nations. To aid in the pas- for enforcement. Is it possible that his pp. 264 BP $28.00. sage of the Constitution, Madison great antagonist Patrick Henry was Reviewed by (Rev.) Michael P. Orsi, proposed that the concerns of the more prescient in his fears and objec- anti-federalists, especially in Virginia tions to the new order the Constitu- ames Madison and the Struggle for and New York, be addressed through tion created? Also, Labunski treats the Bill of Rights is the latest in the process of amendment provided only lightly Madison’s understanding J the “Pivotal Moments in Ameri- for in Article V of the Constitution. of republican government in Feder- can History,” a series published by He believed that this would placate alist Paper 10. This omission really Oxford University Press. Its author the dubious and expedite the ratifi- diminishes any insight into Madison’s Richard Labunski, a political scien- cation of the new government. The political philosophy since Madison’s tist and lawyer, chronicles the events remainder of the book, for the most concern for minority rights and the that led to the adoption of the first part, deals with the maneuvers of tempering of greed for the common 10 amendments to the Constitu- Henry to thwart ratification of the good are essential to understanding tion (The Bill of Rights) in 1791. Constitution and later the Bill of his hopes for how the new govern- The book concentrates on two key Rights, which he held to be inad- ment would operate. figures—James Madison, represent- equate protections against tyranny, Gordon Wood, in Revolutionary ing the federalists (pro-Constitution and Madison’s counter-moves for Characters What Made the Founders party) and Patrick Henry, represent- their passage. Different (2006), tries to deal with the ing the anti-federalists (anti-Consti- There are two deeper issues that issue of the two Madisons—the fed- tution party). Henry, the Governor of the book touches on but unfortu- eralist and the states’ rights champi- Virginia, feared that the newly cre- nately does not develop. The first on. He accurately describes Madison ated federal government, designed at has to do with Madison. Labunski as an idealist who saw the new gov- the Philadelphia Convention in 1787 portrays him as one of the foremost ernment basically as a disinterested and ratified in 1789 would encroach proponents of federalism during this referee among the states that would on the sovereignty of the states and crucial era of nation building. Yet, protect against mere self-interest and the individual liberties of the people. after his dual ratification victories he promote the common good of all With the abusive monarchies of became a staunch anti-federalist. For the states and their citizens. Wood Europe fresh in their minds, the instance, Madison abhorred the ag- maintains that Madison believed anti-federalists especially wanted to grandizement of the federal govern- that peace and growth could best prohibit the new government from ment through Hamilton’s banking be achieved if the federal govern- directly taxing the citizenry and from policies and the development of a ment facilitated commerce among forming a standing army. To this end strong executive branch under Wash- the states and dealt collectively with they pressed for a second convention ington and Adams. Was there a latent foreign powers. In his mind, the which would clarify any ambiguity power in the Constitution to do this? federal government would act as a as to the extent of federal power. In Hamilton, after all, found the loop- super-judiciary which could impose truth, they were trying to derail the hole by which he broadly construct- economic sanctions on recalcitrant ratification of the Constitution. On ed the Constitution based on the states. He also believed that the the other hand, the federalists held words that Congress had the right to Constitution would insure state sov- that any powers not specifically given make all laws “necessary and proper” ereignty and avoid the replication of to the federal government were re- to carry out its delegated powers. the fiscal-military super-nation states tained by the states. Secondly, the Bill of Rights, as Madi- that were developing in 18th century Madison, at first failed to see a threat son understood it, was designed to Europe. to the states. He feared that a second curtail the possible hegemony of the The issue regarding the appli- convention would upset the frag- federal government over the states. cation of the Bill of Rights to the ile agreement that had been struck After the Civil War, the Fourteenth states, as noted earlier, was quite a among the delegates in Philadelphia. Amendment’s “Due Process Clause” secondary development. As early He believed that the document ap- all but reversed the Bill’s original as 1833, Chief Justice John Mar- proved by the delegates there, if not intent. The states are now held re- shall confirmed that only the fed- perfect, at least achieved the effect sponsible for the protections guar- eral government was bound by it.
32 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 Labunski, in his epilogue, briefly context of Madison’s insight into salind Moss, Paul Schenk, and Roy sketches how Supreme Court deci- government, the book’s importance H. Schoeman all appeared on the sions applied the First Amendment is diminished. It does an injustice to Eternal Word Television Network. freedoms of speech (1925), press Madison. Robert Novak is a well-known (1931) and religion (1947), as well journalist in his own right. as the Fourth Amendment’s search Salvation is from the Jews derives and seizure (1962), and the Eighth Salvation is from the Jews: The Role from this newer wave to strengthen Amendment’s cruel and unusual of Judaism in Salvation History from the ranks of Hebrew-Catholics who punishment (1962) provisions to Abraham to the Second Coming, Roy celebrate orthodox Roman Ca- the states. Certainly the Supreme H. Schoeman, San Francisco: Ignatius tholicism and faith in Jesus Christ. Court’s arrogation of power was Press, 2003, Pp. 392. Paper edition Schoeman gives us a stimulating well beyond the ken of any of the $17.95. Index. account of the relationship between founders and certainly contrary to Reviewed by Reverend Brian Van Hove, Catholicism and Judaism and shows Madison’s intent. Madison’s idea S.J. how they are not separable. He also of the states’ prerogatives over the tells of his dramatic conversion in federal government is clearly seen hose of us who are older re- the firm tradition of “surprised by in the Virginia and Kentucky Reso- member Monsignor John M. joy.” Happily he places this account lutions, which rejected the Alien TOesterreicher’s 1952 book at the end of the book; otherwise, and Sedition Acts (1798). These Walls are Crumbling: Seven Jewish the reader would sob and be unable acts gave the federal government Philosophers Discover Christ. The seven to go on reading. power to limit personal freedoms, European philosophers are Henri This is a speculative work, especially of speech and press dur- Bergson, Edmund Husserl, Adolph which bypasses both “supersession- ing a time of national crisis. The Reinach, Max Scheler (whose eth- ism” and “separate but equal” or Adams administration enacted these ics was the subject of Karol Józef “dual-covenant” theories of Old laws fearing an invasion by France. Wojtyła’s doctoral dissertation), Paul and New Covenants. Schoeman Madison (Virginia) and Jefferson Landsberg, Max Picard, and Edith asks, “Do the Jews continue to have (Kentucky) vigorously set forth the Stein. Jacques Maritain wrote the a role to play in salvation history principles that a state could reject a foreword to Walls are Crumbling. following Christ, that is, between federal law. They held that the Con- Himself a disciple of Bergson, Mar- the first and the Second Coming?” stitution was only an arrangement itain’s wife Raïssa and her mother (p. 67). He locates the answer to this between the central government were also Catholics of Jewish heri- question in eschatology. Survey- and the states. Therefore it was the tage. This explains why the Maritains ing the post-Holocaust abandon- right of each state to decide which spent the war years at Princeton. ment of the traditional notion of laws were constitutional and which Jean-Marie Lustiger, the former God by some Jewish thinkers (Elie laws it would obey. Interestingly Archbishop of Paris, seems to be the Wiesel, Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, enough, when George Washington last of the great European converts. Richard Rubenstein) and by liberal saw the damage this theory posed In North America, distinguished Christian thinkers (John Shea, Paul to the union he asked Patrick Catholics of Jewish background van Buren), he goes on to affirm Henry to refute the proposition, included Karl Stern, Herbert Ratner, the ancient God of Abraham, Isaac, which he did. Tellingly in the end, Ronda Chervin, Michele Murray, and Jacob. He says, “We know that the tables were turned with Henry Elias Friedman, Arthur Klyber, and the Jews had a unique and central defending the Constitution and Hannah Klaus. The Dominican Third role to play in salvation in bringing Madison seemingly subverting it. Order (Lay) Community of Saint about the first coming; is it possible, This book’s failure lies in not re- Martin de Porres in New Hope, as St. Paul intimates in Romans, vealing Madison’s political philoso- Kentucky represented the younger that they also have a central role to phy. Labunski’s emphasis on the generation as the “California Jew- play in the Second Coming? And if mechanics of the passage of the ish hippies who found Christ in the so, and if suffering is the coin that Constitution and the Bill of Rights Catholic Church.” Their press re- brings heaven to earth, could the is really only part of the story. We printed the works of Israel Eugenio special, particular, and extreme suf- have, in effect, only half the book Zolli (1881-1956). Bob Fishman, Joni fering that was imposed on them in the title promises. Without the Seith, Michael Ross, David and Ro- the Holocaust be part of that role?”
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 33 Book Reviews
(pp. 166-167). Schoeman surveys them and shows ing to indicate a favorable time for The alternative to the superses- how these anti-Christian strains it. Nor does he take up the Dispen- sionism and covenantal duality he eventually fed into the Shoah. Some sational Theology of the Evangelicals proposes is “that as the Old Cov- of the personalities who fostered who believe the rapture will not be enant was brought to fruition by theosophy, spiritualism and gnostic possible until Israel is restored fully. the New at the first coming, so will ideas were among the most popular The final chapter speculates that the New Covenant be brought to writers in Germany in the early the historical rejection of the Gospel fruition by the Old, by the return of twentieth century. In the end, in- by the Jews was the means whereby the Jews at the Second Coming” (p. sane pseudo-scientific theories may God made that same Gospel avail- 353). Schoeman does not propose a have cost Germany the war. able to the Gentiles. When the full timetable for the Second Coming, As to Hitler, this is the spiritual number of Gentiles has come into but he brings forth sources which status of that man: “There are many the church, then “all Israel will be suggest it is near. indications that Hitler’s relation- saved” (p. 322). The phenomenon of Schoeman has his critics. However, ship to the satanic was intentional, so many Jews entering the church no competent ecclesiastical authori- explicit, and extensive. No less an today leads him to see not a rejec- ty ever ruled against his speculation, authority than the current chief tion of Judaism but its fulfillment and he remains free to think and exorcist of Rome, Father Gabri- in Christ. He refers to St. Paul who write on the subject as he sees fit. ele Amorth, stated that ‘certainly “intimated” that the last days will see Other topics explored include Hitler was consecrated to Satan.’ A a widespread conversion of the Jews. the difference between the terms book that extensively details Hitler’s Today the number of Jewish converts “Holocaust” and “Shoah.” Elie Wi- explicit involvement in Satanism, is increasing, and “Messianic Jews” esel claimed to be the first to have written by a respected academic (who are Protestant Christians) are chosen “Holocaust,” but Ernst Lud- historian, was praised by Rev. Law- appearing in the towns and cities of wig Ehrlich, the European director rence Gesy of the Vatican Commis- Israel. (p. 352-353). Schoeman con- of B’nai Brith, led a movement to sion on Cults as ‘a masterpiece of cludes by saying, “Thus, the current change the terminology away from historical research.’ A final, macabre wave of Jewish entry into the Church “disaster as expiation” to “disaster as confirmation was given by Hitler’s may be among the most important disaster.” choice of one of the most signifi- things going on today, or indeed, in Again, the Nazi ideology against the cant dates of the year in Satanism the history of the world” (p. 353). Jews was not “applied Christianity” to commit suicide—April 30, the but “applied Darwinism,” accord- pagan Feast of Walpurgis Night” ing to Schoeman. He says the roots (pp. 232-233). The Virtue Driven Life, by Benedict J. of the Nazi genocide do not lie Schoeman quotes Cardinal Groeschel, C.F.R., Huntington: Our in Christianity, though this by no Lustiger that “the fundamental root Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, means excuses any form of tradi- of anti-Semitism on a spiritual level 2006, Pp. 156. Paperback $12.95. tional anti-Semitism in Christian is hatred of Christ” (p. 248). It was Reviewed by Reverend Brian Van Hove, S.J. countries. Rather, the Nazi geno- not lost on the Nazis that each Sun- White House Retreat, Saint Louis cide of the Jews lies in the science day the Christian got up early to of eugenics, fashionable from the worship “The Dead Jew.” Lustiger on’t let the title of Father 19th century and well before the believes that Hitler’s anti-Semitism Benedict Groeschel’s newest Hitler era. The American Birth had its roots in the Enlightenment, Dbook mislead you. Catholics Control League, predecessor to not in Christianity (p. 250). Post- might think that he is sparring with Planned Parenthood, promoted eu- Shoah anti-Semitism periodically the Baptist minister Rick Warren. genics and euthanasia and American surfaces with special virulence in Warren, founding pastor of the Sad- eugenicists were admired by Ger- the Islamic world where Hitler dleback Valley Community Church man National Socialism. Margaret is strongly admired and emulated in southern California, wrote a best- Sanger once wrote, “Our only real today by a number of Islamisists. seller, The Purpose-Driven Life: What enemy is the [Catholic] church” (p. Nowhere does the author try to On Earth Am I Here For? (Grand 190). prove the Second Coming is close. Rapids: Zondervan, 2002). It sold The occult roots of the Nazi He suggests elements drawn from twenty-five million copies. Written ideology are well known, but history and theology are coalesc- in a devotional style of forty chap-
34 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 ters, perhaps Warren’s theology is to closer to values and the affirmation ity, has an excellent presentation of Evangelicals what St. Ignatius’s “First of characterand virtue. (pp. 14-16) the four loves we first learned about Principle and Foundation” theology Christopher Peterson and Martin so long ago from C.S. Lewis. Groe- is to Catholics. Seligman espouse a positive psychol- schel explains that the absence of Wrong. Groeschel is not re- ogy of human strengths, almost a storge in our contemporary society sponding to Warren. Rather, he is contemporary reorientation toward has led to a selfism that is destruc- casting into semi-popular language the Greek virtues. We can deduce tive. Storge was not mentioned by the a serious point that Pope Benedict from this that psychology finally pope in his first encyclical, probably XVI made at Regensburg University left behind B.F. Skinner and his be- to avoid confusion. But the decline in September 2006. He could not havioristic model. Paul Vitz wrote of loyalty to a greater group (fam- have done this intentionally because about the happy event in his “Psy- ily, country, church, community, the book was finished before the chology in Recovery” (First Things, troop, cause) explains the difficulty pope arrived in Bavaria. March 2005). Groeschel is very for the newer generation in making Reason (or Logos) and our much cheered that this newer trend any commitment. This insight alone Greek philosophical inheritance in psychology reverses the negativity makes The Virtue Driven Life worth may not be shed without peril to of the past, when people were told buying. the Faith itself. Jews and Catholics they were merely victims. This trend The more illuminated our prob- understand this because of their replaces that with something so good lems become, the more there is hope two-source theory of Revelation and positive (p. 148). to solve them with the twin resourc- (Scripture and Tradition), whereas The Virtue Driven Life owes es of faith and reason. Evangelicals and Muslims do not. much to Cardinal Newman. Be- The Reformation doctrine of Sola sides personal anecdotes, we get an Scriptura, and the absence in Islam abundance of quotations from John A Farewell to Ronald Lawler, O.F.M. of any principle of secondary causal- Henry Newman. After Newman, Cap.: Friend, Founder and ity, does not equip Evangelicals or the author quotes most often Pope Freethinker, Muslims to appreciate the impor- John Paul II, especially from Cross- Michael Aquilina and Kenneth Og- tance of tradition. That is what the ing the Threshold of Hope. Groeschel orek, ed., Emmaus Road Publishing pope reemphasized at Regensburg. frequently cites The Catechism of the (2005) The Catholic genius addresses and Catholic Church and sprinkles biblical Reviewed by Glenn Statile transforms the best of Greek wisdom references throughout the text. The St. John’s University (including newer secular learning questions for meditation and little and technology, for that matter). The boxed quotations may not be helpful o refer to Father Ronald original concept of “virtue” derives for the reader. Along with the prayers Lawler as a freethinker might from Athens, not Jerusalem. in the appendices, their inclusion Tseem at first blush to be a Father Groeschel writes a lot. signifies that the author intends this contradiction in terms. He was noth- His books often contain anecdotes, to be a meditation book. Especially ing if not faithful to the Church that but his choice of them is rich and to young readers, the Afterword is an he so dearly loved. But just as there sometimes very moving (e.g. pp. admonition to get going and develop exists an authentic freedom in the 125-126). The story of the beginning tough personal virtue. truth, of which the Catholic Church of his vocation is told as an anec- The first part of the book treats is arguably the duly ordained custo- dote (pp. 141-143. His professional the classical cardinal virtuesprudence, dian here on earth, there also exists background in psychology emerges, justice, temperance and fortitude. an authentic type of freethinking in but he never presents psychology These Greek ideals can be re-ex- which a wholly unified intelligence as an ersatz religion. He keeps it in pressed in Christian terms. Yet we and free will combine to engage the its place as a helping tool for life (p. need more than reason and the bottomless mystery of truth to the 118). In fact, the author hides nei- natural virtues, so the second half of full extent of our finite and grace-. ther the failure of psychology during the book deals with the supernatu- assisted powers. As just such a free- the last century nor the collapse in ral virtues—faith, hope and charity. thinker, in full alignment with the our country of hope in psycho- “They are special gifts of God so that truth, it is only fitting then that Fa- analysis. The author demonstrates the soul may be saved.” (p. 130) ther Lawler be honored with a Fest- that psychology is lately edging Chapter 7, which discusses char- schrift which allows his many friends
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 35 Book Reviews
and former colleagues to honor this correct doctrine, ex corde ecclesiae, that Cuomo’s actual acts carry the humble servant and fervent soldier of so that all might know the extent weight of his willing and his hopes. Christ. to which the Church is one, holy, The former governor simply cannot The aptly titled The Great Life: Catholic, and apostolic. The themes sever will from action upon a whim Essays on Doctrine and Holiness in touched upon all deal with issues that would exonerate him from Honor of Father Ronald Lawler, O.F.M. close to the heart of Father Ronald moral culpability while at the same Cap. is a collection of essays in honor himself: the sacraments, public life, time lobbying to perpetuate the of the renowned co-founder of the education, marriage and the fam- political principle of choice that he Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. ily, and catechesis. As in various claims to personally abhor. As in the Father Lawler, who died recently in journals and newsletters dedicated case of the murderous Macbeth, the the Fall of 2003, was a man of many to the likes of G.K. Chesterton former governor has been reminded talents, not least of which was the and Christopher Dawson, which of the need to fit the word (or will) legacy of friendship whose favor so almost always feature a forgotten to the action and the action to many sought to return in the form literary cameo of the great man’s the word. Game, set, and match to of a contribution to this book. While own work, this book also features a George. Unfortunately, we seem to I myself never had the pleasure of wonderful piece from Father Lawler live in a political climate in which a meeting Father Ronald, I was very himself, which examines the ecu- fellowship of Catholic scholars is a pleased to read that it was he who menical question “Has Christ Only necessary antidote to the spiritually headed the Institute for Advanced One Church?.” My immediate and pathogenic devotion of many of our Studies in Catholic Doctrine at non-scholarly reaction to this es- leading Catholic politicians. Saint John’s University in New York say was how much more generous It might seem to some of his from 1982-1988, the university in attitude was Father Ronald than many admirers that everything that where I now teach. Perhaps Father myself in regard to alternative ex- Scott Hahn writes is vintage Scott Lawler’s greatest achievement can pressions of the Church in exile. At Hahn. His contribution to this be measured in terms of his cre- the same time he does not mince book entitled “The Paternal Order ative involvement in what became words, and does not yield an inch in of Priests: An Open Letter to the The Teaching of Christ, a catechetical regard to non-negotiable commit- Clergy on their Continuing Educa- blockbuster whose spiritual capital ments that still stand in the way of tion” does not reverse this trend. will continue to be drawn upon by full communion. Both his writing and his bravura Catholics for generations to come. People with various interests public performances always seem to The twenty essays which will obviously be drawn to some possess the Midas touch by which comprise the book are no mere essays more than others. Three of the golden core at the heart of paean to the muse of hagiographi- my favorites are the following. every conceivable Christian subject cal reminiscence. Nevertheless, the The essay by Robert P. George is revealed by a master teacher. His reader will find a good deal about entitled “Moral Issues, Political essay is presented in the form of an the personal and professional life of Candidates, and the Vocation of open letter to the clergy. And just Ronald Lawler within its pages, both Public Service” is a particularly as Saint Augustine once addressed systematically: such as in the beauti- trenchant piece. I especially enjoyed his congregation as coepiscopi mei, or ful biographical Preface by Mike George’s hard-hitting but respect- fellow bishops, Hahn invites those Aquilina, the moving and highly ful demolition of Mario Cuomo’s who share the gift of fatherhood personal Foreword by Archbishop feeble attempt to walk the gauntlet with him by means of their meta- Donald Wuerl, and the concluding between his allegedly Catholic per- physical priesthood to continue to “Lessons From a Great Man” by sonal commitments and his per- seek the knowledge that authen- Robert Lockwood; as well as more versely anti-Catholic public stances tic fatherhood demands. To those sporadically, in anecdotes that are on moral issues without getting entrusted with a fatherhood that interwoven throughout the various summarily scalped. As to Cuomo’s is more universal than that which essays. For the most part however claim that his efforts to preserve results from an act of biological these essays are a celebration of Fa- abortion as a legal right do not co- begetting, he urges the following. ther Lawler in that they continue incide with his hopes that this right “Roll up your sleeves, open your his lifelong pursuit of disseminating is not exercised, George argues books, get down on your knees and
36 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 pray.” (p. 58) Continuing education ily units provide the fleet without style and in substance, the fiction of is not just for adults, it is also for which no victory is possible. Flannery O”Connor and Edward those who follow in the footsteps of It is most often the case that Lewis Wallant leads to a conver- Melchisidech. the fact that a person will be missed gence seldom seen in literature.” Another of the many fine essays is expressed in the most literal of The three themes shared by in the collection is that offered by terms. As Catholics we are all keen- these writers are: 1) man’s quest Father Kris Stubna on “The Chal- ly aware of the literal dimension for satisfaction of the soul, 2) the lenge for Catechesis in the New which plays a part in any testimo- mystery of man’s being and reason Evangelization.” Those of us who nial to the truth. But as the richness for his existence and 3) the neces- teach or who have taught catechism, of scripture attests, there are other sity of suffering. O’Conner’s Wise or remember once being taught the non-literal ways by which the indi- Blood and Wallant’s The Tenants of tenets of the faith in the dimness of vidual soul is engulfed in the mys- Moonbloom reiterate the neces- our fading memory, may recall that tery which surrounds the invitation sity of suffering for redemption. In what was and remains of the utmost to join in the eternal banquet of the both O’Connor and Wallant, the pedagogical importance for success- Lamb. The life and work of Father Holocaust becomes the “singular, ful catechesis was and is the ecstatic Ronald Lauder was a multi-layered philosophical view. . .on the nature manner by which what is believed attempt to bring the richness and of man in all its complexity - in this by the Catholic community is com- the fullness of truth to the people case man at his worst.” municated. The catechism is not a of God. What comes through in Dr. McDermott compares and calculus, and the life of faith is not a this testimonial to a great man is contrasts the methodology used set of equations in search of an un- the debt of love shared by so many by both Wallant and O’Connor in known variable. It provides people who, although not accountants by presenting their themes. He exam- with an opportunity to enter into training, so dearly want to balance ines their mutual use of allegory, a vibrant encounter with the living the books. parables, biblical allusions, symbols, Christ and a challenge to reori- real and romantic imagery and, of ent society so that the hunger for course, the use of the grotesque an authentic education in the faith Flannery O’Connor and Edward with its exaggeration and violence. will not be undermined by various Lewis Wallant: Two of a Kind. John However, not to leave the reader on forms of cultural obfuscation. The V. McDermott. University Press of this note of raw realism, Dr. Mc- family unit, so aptly described as the America, Inc. Lanham, MD 2005. Dermott also examines the writers domestic Church, should serve as 92p. (Paper) $20.00. use of humor and compassion. Mc- both the starting point and breed- Reviewed by Dr. Clara Sarrocco, Dermott writes: “Both O’Conner ing ground for the new springtime Adjunct Professor, Institute of Religious and Wallant have a dry exquisite whose promise first came to light Studies, St. Joseph Seminary, Yonders, sense of humor. . . . [They] tell us in those first and long ago days of NY, Editor of Book Digest we must remember there are others aggiornamento. Michael Novak, a who have pain equal to own own.” lifetime ago, reminded us in his one ecognizing their shared In his painstaking study of the and only novel that the silt satu- concerns with universal works of O’Connor and Wallant, rated banks of the Tiber are silvery Rhumanity, John McDer- two of a kind who never met, John in hue. Now is the time, despite the mott titled his new book, Flannery McDermott leaves the reader with tumultuous setbacks of the Enlight- O”Connor and Edward Lewis Wal- the insatiable desire to read all their enment, to return to a once golden lant: Two of a Kind. And two of a books he [McDermott] has scru- age. While Rome remains the flag- kind these two writers truly are. pulously examined. Nothing better ship and the cradle of the faith, fam- As Dr. McDermott points out: “In can be said of an author.
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 37 Books Received Of Interest
If you would like to receive a complimen- he 2007 University Faculty for n memory of Franciscan Friar tary copy of one of the books below in Life conference will take place Simon Scanlon, longtime edi- order to review it for a future issue, please at Villanova University, June tor and publisher, The Way of St. email your request to Alice Osberger at T I 1-3. Among its featured speakers are Francis has established the annual [email protected] Helen M. Alvare, Associate Professor of Simon Scanlon Writing Awards open If there are books you know of that should Law at Catholic University’s Columbus to all. be reviewed, let Brian Benestad know at School of Law and David L. Schindler, • Applicants submit an original es- [email protected] Dean of the John Paul II Institute for say or feature-length article (1500- Studies on Marriage & Family. 2000 words). This entry must not The Image and Likeness of God in Bermard Thanks to generous support from have been previously published or of Clairaux’s Free Choice and Grace: Re- the Our Sunday Visitor Institute and presented in any form. Subject: any flections both Philosophical and Theo- Ave Maria Law School, registration theme dealing with the influence and logical, Luke Anderson, O.Cist., Author House: Bloomington, IN (2006), Paper, for the conference is only $60, which relevance of Franciscan life, spiritual- 241 pp. includes a wine and cheese reception, ity, history, etc. to our world today. continental breakfast, refreshments Must to oriented to a general reading Prayer in Newman, Giovanni Velocci, C.SS.R., Newman House Press: Mount between sessions, lunch, and the con- public, not an academic audience. Pocono, PA, (2006), Paper, 94pp. cluding banquet on Saturday evening. Profiles, essays, poems, human interest Accommodation is available in guest stories, interviews, etc. are acceptable. The John Paul II Life Guide: Words to Live apartments on Villanova’s campus. Published examples in The Way can By, Ed. by Ellen Rice, St. Augustine’s Press: South Bend, IN (2006), 106pp. Paper proposals are due April 2nd. be used for reference. To propose a paper, contact: • Submissions must be typed, dou- Absolute Revelation and Universal Religion, Professor Jeanne (Heffernan) Schindler ble-spaced, with 1” margins. Entries Joseph Pandiappallil, European University Studies, Department of Humanities. should be submitted electronically, Villanova University. as e-mail attachments. (MS Word is Series XXIII Theology, Peter Lang: 800 Lancaster Avenue. strongly preferred.) As an alternative Frankfurt am Maim, (2006), Paper, 443 pp. Villanova, PA 19085 . form of submission, test can be typed Jesus the Christ and Religious Pluralism: or email: directly into the body of the e-mail. Rahnerian Christology and Belief Today, [email protected]. If this method is used, it is under- Joseph Pandiappallil, Crossroad Publish- stood that The Way will not be re- ing Company: New York, (2001) Paper, 208 pp. ✠ sponsible for electronic alterations of format and content. Receipt of your The Pope, the Council, and the Mass: An- he Catholic Education Insti- submission will be acknowledged by swers to Questions the “Traditionalists” Have Asked, James Likoudis and Kenneth D. tute, established by Fr. John return e-mail. st Whitehead, Emmaus Road: Steubenville, Piderit, S.J. and Melanie • Prizes are as follows - 1 : $1000; T nd rd OH, (2006), Paper, 373 pp. M.Morey, offers a summer program 2 : $500; 3 : $250 (Prize awarded for college and university profes- when winner is informed and sub- Catholicism and Religious Freedom: Con- temporary Reflections on Vatican II’s Declara- sors, Substsantially Catholic, aimed mits signed letter of acceptance.) tion on Religious Liberty, ed. Kenneth L. at providing or upgrading Catholic • Submissions must be postmarked Grasso and Robert P. Hunt, Rowman substance for courses. Marist Col- by October 4, 2007. All entries will & Littlefield Publishing Group: Lanham, lege, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., is hosting be submitted to a jury. Decision an- MD, (2006), Paper. 224pp. the program with lectures designed nounced by December 15, 2007. Union With God: Letters of Spiritual Direc- especially for English Literature and • Applicants agree that, if chosen, tion by Blessed Columba Marmion, Selected Political Science on June 10-15, their work will be published in The and Annotated by Dom Raymond 2007. More information is available Way, which holds exclusive first-time Thibaut, Zaccheus Press: Bethesda, MD, at www.marist.edu/sc
38 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 Letter
ur Natural Family Planning • Interested applicants may send an Father John Arthur Orr gave a presen- Center of Washington, D.C. SASE (with four first-class stamps) tation on “John Paul the Great” at the Oand Teen STAR Program has for a sample copy of The Way. Please 9th annual Women’s Conference of the received a PEPFAR grant (President’s make your request to: The Way, 1500 Diocese of Knoxville at Saint Jude’s Emergency Program for Aids Relief) 34th Ave., Oakland, CA 94601. Catholic Church, Chattannogga, TN, which will be used to scale up the • Please send all submissions to: November 4, 2006. Teen STAR Programs in Uganda and Include telephone number(s) as ad- Ethiopia. Pray we do it well! ditional, essential contact information. Tel: (916) 443-5717. Sister Miriam Paul (Hanna Klaus, M.D.) www.sbfranciscans.org Natural Family Planning Center . of Washington, D.C. and ✠ Teen STAR Program 8514 Bradmoor Drive Bethesda, MD 20817-3810 Tel. 301-897-9323(w) . 301-530-9383(r)
SAVE THE DATE
The Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Annual Convention 2007 will be held in Washington, DC. at the invitation of Archbishop Donald Wuerl who will be the main celebrant and homilist for the Saturday morning Mass. Friday, September 28 through Sunday, September 30, 2007 Host Hotel, topics and Speakers will be announced soon at www.CatholicScholars.org Expressions of Interest to Jack & Marlene Rook, Convention Managers E-mail [email protected] or phone 239.595.1813.
FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007 39 Ex Cathedra
POPE BENEDICT XVI ON HIS FOUR VOYAGES
n his annual Christmas address to the Roma Cu- as its major theme God, and the voyage to Turkey gave ria on 22 December 2006, Pope Benedict XVI the pope an opportunity to demonstrate his respect for said that the “correlation of the topic of ‘God’ the Islamic religion and to make still another appeal for and the topic of ‘peace’ was the decisive aspect effective religious liberty in every part of the world. of the four apostolic voyages of this year.” The At Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland the pope men- pope’sI point is that unless people give glory to God and tioned the Nazi attempt “to wipe out the people of become reconciled with him, there cannot be peace on Israel” and “to banish God Himself from history.” In earth. Reconciliation with God depends, of course, on Spain Pope Benedict reflected on why Europeans don’t living according to God’s will. Otherwise stated in his want to have children and noted widespread ignorance World Day of Peace Message, “the transcendent ‘gram- about the right way to use freedom, the denial of differ- mar,’ that is to say the body of rules for individual action ences between the sexes and the suicidal denigration of and the reciprocal relationships of persons in accordance the body. In Germany the pope reflected on the im- with justice and solidarity, is inscribed on human con- portance of the dialogue between faith and reason and sciences, in which the wise plan of God is reflected.” noted that the fullness of reason must be recovered. He Pope Benedict further clarifies his meaning by saying concluded with this ominous statement, “if [secular- that all peoples of the earth have access to the mystery of ized reason] remains closed before the question of God, God by following the norms of the natural law. “Rec- this will end up leading to the clash of cultures.” This ognition and respect” for this law facilitates dialogue thought reveals Pope Benedict’s understanding that between believers and unbelievers and among believers, the resolution of the highly theoretical question about who do not share the same faith. reason will have profound consequences in the sphere The pope described the trip to Poland as “a feast of of every day life. ✠ Catholicity,” especially because of the unifying power of faith, and the voyage to Valencia, Spain as a “search Brian Benestad, Editor of what means to be a man.” The trip to Germany had Professor of Theology, University of Scranton
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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40 FCS Quarterly • Spring 2007