THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL LIBERAL EDUCATION AND CATHOLIC THEOLOGY being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Hull by Hugh Duffy, B. A., M. Ed., H. D. E. October 1989 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No. ABSTRACT (1) INTRODUCTION 1- 19 THESIS : CHAPTER ONE The Function of Liberal Education vis-a-vis Catholic Theology 20 - 50 CHAPTER TWO The Function of Catholic Theology vis-a-vis Liberal Education 51 - 77 CHAPTER THREE The Making of a Synthesis 78 - 116 CHAPTER FOUR The Scholastic Union of Reason and Faith 117 - 165 CHAPTER FIVE Disintegration of Scholastic Education 166 - 215 CHAPTER SIX Toward a Positive Catholic Theology 216 - 242 CHAPTER SEVEN Discontinuity in Liberal Education 243 - 301 CHAPTER EIGHT Catholic Reaction 302 - 371 CHAPTER NINE Rediscovery of a Tradition 372 - 392 (ii) (viii) BIBLIOGRAPHY - ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis is to analyse and explain the intimate connection that exists between liberal education and Catholic theology. This is done by analysing the changing patterns of interconnections in the historical and on-going relationship between both. The thesis comprises nine chapters. The first two chapters outline the general principles governing the study. The next two chapters deal with the history of the relationship between liberal education and Catholic theology, beginning with the early apologists via Augustine and culminating in Aquinas' scholastic synthesis. This part of the study describes the synthesis which took pj3, ce from early Christianity until the fifteenth century. The second part of the thesis deals with the separation of liberal education and Catholic theology, which began during the Reformation, and is discussed in Chapters Five and Six. The conse- quences of this separation which led to the establishment of a secular system of liberal education, divorced from theology, during the Enlightenment, is analysed in Chapter Seven. The final two chapters of the thesis (Chapters Eight and Nine) deal with the 'Catholic Reaction' to the reformed rational system of liberal education, and the 'Rediscovery' of the comprehensive tradition of liberal education, brought about by the historic revival of Catholic scholarship, initiated by Pope Leo XIII. (i) INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study is to examine the unique correspon- dence and connection between liberal education and Catholic theology, specifically. The underlying argument of the thesis is that liberal education; namely, the liberal arts and liberal knowledge exercise a positive influence on developments in Catholic theology; and, conversely, that Catholic theology exercises a positive influence on developments in liberal education. The investigation of this mutual correspondence between liberal education and Catholic theology centres around the analysis of a dynamic process of changing patterns of interrelationships. This dynamic process does not belong to any single period of cultural history but is co-extensive with and inseparable from the history of Western liberal education and Catholic theology as a whole. Thus, the study of this process reveals successive phases common to all periods of cultural development which account for the on-going pat- terns of interrelationships between liberal education and Catholic theology. These phases can be described as follows: 1. The encounter between liberal education and Catholic theology. 2. The process of permeation of one by the other. 3. The eventual creation of new forms of liberal thought and theological insights from the process of recep- tion and transformation. The subject-matter of this investigation involves two inter- dependent areas of study; namely, liberal education and Catholic 1 2 theology. The method used in the study of this broad subject-matter is at once historical and contemporary. Thus, the method may be described as historico-contemporary; that is, it purports to analyse the whole of the historical reality, involving liberal education and Catholic theology, illuminated by contemporary thought in both areas of the subject-matter. The method, therefore, is historical in that the presentation considers every major cultural development involving the history of liberal education and Catholic theology. The method is contemporary, on the other hand, in that it reflects on the data by means of the best available contemporary understanding of the subject-matter. This inquiry begins with the Apologetic period of the early christian church and continues up to, but not including, Vatican Council II. The subject-matter of this study has been investigated, from different perspectives and modes of emphasis, by Catholic scholars of distinction such as John Henry (Cardinal) Newman, Hans Urs (Cardinal) Balthasar, Yves-Marie Congar, Henri de Lubac, Marie- Dominique Chenu, Jacques Maritain, Christopher Dawson, V. A. McClelland and, more particularly, in the official teachings and documents of the Catholic Church. It has also been researched no less originally, from other perspectives, by prominent non-Catholic scholars such as Paul Tillich, Paul H. Hirst, Sheldon Rothblatt, Mark Van Doren, G. R. Evans, Henry Chadwick, P. H. Phenix, Adolf Harnack, and Jaraslov Pelikan. This particular study owes much to the intellectual labours and insights of scholars and theologians 3 the such as those just mentioned. Although the approach taken to subject-matter in this thesis is different in emphasis and prac- tical application, it is important to acknowledge our dependence on the valuable contributions of the aforementioned authorities. This will become more apparent throughout the thesis but it will be helpful to illustrate this indebtedness, as far as content and continuity are concerned, by means of an illustration. John Henry Newman, for example, devoted much of his life to justifying the compatibility of liberal education with Catholic theology in the context of a university education. In his discourses, On the Scope and Nature of University Education, Newman tried to do for the university what Samuel Taylor Coleridge did for the encyclopedia; namely, to restore the" idea of unity" to liberal education by demonstrating "the integrity of all knowledge and the need of the human mind to reflect that integrity. "1 Newman's approach to the same subject-matter, however, was to clarify the principles of unity and progress governing liberal education and Catholic theology in the context of the university. He did not concern himself with the intimate and actual connections existing between them as mani- fested in their historical relationships. Newman explained his manner of treating this subject-matter in his first discourse: I am investigating in the abstract, and am determining what is in itself right and true. For the moment I know to history nothing, so say, of ... I take things as I find them; I have no concern with the past. 2 4 Newman's clarification of the principles of unity and progress governing liberal education and Catholic theology, however, is beneficial to this particular investigation. The contributions of other liberal scholars and theologians are no less beneficial and important. The object of this particular inquiry, however, is to explain the unique correspondence between liberal education and Catholic theology with a view to appreciating their positive benefits and interdependence. This thesis purports to do this by examining, primarily, the historical patterns of interconnections between liberal education and Catholic theology. The first two chapters of the thesis owe their importance to the fact that they lay the groundwork, by clarifying concepts and mean- ings, and by establishing the principles that govern the relation- ships between liberal education and Catholic theology. Chapter One, therefore, sets out to analyse the function of liberal education vis-a-vis Catholic theology. ' To appreciate the pattern of inter- connections between liberal education and Catholic theology, it is deemed necessary to understand, from the beginning, how liberal education functions with regard to Catholic theology, specifically. Thus, the first section of Chapter One begins with an analysis of the concept of liberal education. The role of Catholic theology as part of liberal education is discussed in this section, and the understanding of the word 'liberal, ' as applied to Catholic theology, is explained. Theology, like other disciplines of knowledge, it is pointed out, can be cultivated in two ways--as liberal knowledge 5 is and as useful knowledge. When Catholic theology cultivated as 'liberal' it not only becomes an integral part of liberal education, it realises the highest form of liberal knowledge. Section, two of Chapter One focuses on the relationship between the liberal arts and Catholic theology. The function of the liberal arts with respect to Catholic theology is described as external; that is, they provide an intellectual tool of compre- hension. This function is explained in various ways as constituting, for example, the 'supporting medium' or as being 'propaedeutic' to the study of Catholic theology. The third and final section of Chapter One deals with the relationship of the liberal sciences to Catholic theology. The liberal sciences are defined and classified according to P. H. Hirst's classification of the primary forms of knowing. The influence of the liberal sciences, especially philosophy, on the development of theological systems, and the contribution of liberal knowledge to Catholic theology, by the addition to dogma of rational elements