Pluralism and the Catholic University

First Things ^ | April 2002 | Alan Kors

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

bump

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

bump

[Dumb_Ox]

^

[Aquinasfan]

The article starts out with some bland platitudes but gathers momentum as it rolls along:

We live in an age of willful blindness and willful forgetfulness. Philistines do not know that virtually every thrust that they make against Christian belief was anticipated and articulated in the sed contra objections of the doctors of the Church themselves. They do not know that the debates of which the moderns are so proud ultimately resolve into arguments that arose in past ages among Catholic philosophers and theologians—realism versus nominalism, the limits of natural human knowledge, the tension between philosophical skepticism and rational dogmatism. To cite one example among so many, in seventeenth–century France one found scholasticism of various philosophical stripes, Thomist and Scotist revivals, an Augustinian revival, Cartesian, Aristotelian, and Malebranchist schools of Catholic natural philosophy, a flowering of mysticism as well as debates about the dangers of mysticism. There were deep disputes between Jansenists and Jesuits. Dominicans, Franciscans, and Jesuits debated each other over the nature of non–Christian cultures and the scope and limits of natural law and natural reason. Montaigne, Charron, Mersenne, Gassendi, and the singular Aristotelian Barbay; Pascal, Arnauld, Fenelon; devotees of Suarez, Salamanca, Louvain, the Sorbonne, and Port Royal—–all living and flourishing within the bosom of the Catholic Church.

This is a truly sad and tragic situation.

I swore to myself after leaving college that I would never read a book again. I used to tell people, "If it's a book, I haven't read it." Why? Because I was given nothing but garbage to read and had associated reading with pain. Looking back, it was probably a good survival mechanism – it saved me from jumping out a window.

In fact, I didn't pick up a book again until four or five years after graduation. By the grace of God I picked up a Bible, played some "Bible roulette," and things have improved steadily since then.

[Catholicguy]

In terms of the deepest meaning of American pluralism, those who make the latter choices enrich us all because they allow individuals to realize the fullest potentials of their choices. Where would Judaism be without its Talmud Torahs and its Yeshivas? Where would secular humanism be without its Harvard? Where would American Catholicism be without its truly Catholic institutions of higher education?

Where would America be without ANY civilisation we inherited from Christendom?

I fail to understand how disparate groups each making "choices" acording to their various philosophies "enrich" us at all. Unless one lives in Christendom (and we no longer do) all these "choices" mean nothing, as our deracinated culture continues to plunge into evermore dark, violent, and delusional activities.

I found it ironic that a non-Catholic is lecturing the Cardinal Newman Society about how crucial it is for a Catholic to present the fullness of the Faith.

[Aquinasfan]

I fail to understand how disparate groups each making "choices" acording to their various philosophies "enrich" us at all. Unless one lives in Christendom (and we no longer do) all these "choices" mean nothing, as our deracinated culture continues to plunge into evermore dark, violent, and delusional activities.

True. I almost gave up after the first few paragraphs. After reading the article, I'd bet that the initial paragraphs represent a semi-conscious, cowed genuflection before the altar of multiculturalism.

I found it ironic that a non-Catholic is lecturing the Cardinal Newman Society about how crucial it is for a Catholic to present the fullness of the Faith.

Ironic. But he did a pretty good job of it.

[Domestic Church]

"By the grace of God I picked up a Bible, played some "Bible roulette," and things have improved steadily since then."

Try the CCC along with the New Testament and let the Holy Spirit turn the roulette wheel for you. This became a favorite for me during pregnancy...and kept my blood pressure way down.

[Aquinasfan]

Try the CCC along with the New Testament and let the Holy Spirit turn the roulette wheel for you.

I find the CCC to be tough going. I think it's a stylistic thing. I do better with Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Ludwig Ott. It gets down to the nitty gritty, and backs everything up with Scripture, Magisterial teaching, Sacred Tradition and quotes from the Church Fathers.

[Domestic Church]

"I do better with Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Ludwig Ott. It gets down to the nitty gritty, and backs everything up with Scripture, Magisterial teaching, Sacred Tradition and quotes from the Church Fathers."

Sounds like a good one to look for...is it a TAN book by any chance? I've got the Fundamentals of Faith by Fr.Fox(a Digest of the CCC) to help out too. We do the CCC in small bites and are doing the Sacraments first.

[Catholicguy]

Yes, TAN sells Ott. I have overused my copy and may have to buy another.

I also own the Challoner Douay Rheims with extensive notes; the Navarre Bible collection; have Aquinas' Summa, NT Catena Aurea etc on CD; 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia (bought at used book sale for $15.00), Dom Gueranger's Liturgical Year, Catechism of Perseverance by Abbe Gaume etc etc etc.

I am the same age as Israel and I learned LONG ago that I am on my own in this culture and in this AmChurch.

BTW, here is alink to a site with soem interesting exegesis by converts Scott Hahn and revert Cavins; Catholic Scripture study

[Domestic Church]

That's my home page,lol.

[Aquinasfan]

Sounds like a good one to look for...is it a TAN book by any chance?

I'd bet they carry it. You can read the reviews on Amazon and purchase it there or through Catholic Answers

[Aquinasfan]

I also own the Challoner Douay Rheims with extensive notes; the Navarre Bible collection; have Aquinas' Summa, NT Catena Aurea etc on CD; 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia (bought at used book sale for $15.00), Dom Gueranger's Liturgical Year, Catechism of Perseverance by Abbe Gaume etc etc etc.

I can tell from the knowledge you display. That's an excellent collection, and I'm envious of your encyclopedia purchase!

I am the same age as Israel and I learned LONG ago that I am on my own in this culture and in this AmChurch.

Seems like most knowledgeable Catholics are self-taught. Kind of a sad commentary, isn't it?

[nickcarraway]

Is their anyway we can ping Steve Privett to this?

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Good idea. Along with John DeGioia at Georgetown.

Another thread on current banality:

New York Times Gloats over Pope's Illness: Thread Here

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

It might be:

privett@usfca.edu

[Domestic Church]

"Seems like most knowledgeable Catholics are self-taught. Kind of a sad commentary, isn't it?"

Sad and aggravating! Especially when you bump up against someone with no respect for anything pre-conciliar...as if they invented the whole shabang in the 60's. We know that the essentials haven't changed so why can't someone reach back and refer to an earlier "classic" like the Baltimore Catechism. You can't even reference it now in a CCD class.

[Catholicguy]

agreed...it sounds as though he(Aquinas) thee and me are all in the same situation. There isn't anything negative about one pursuing knowledge about our Faith as an individual, but there sure as heck is something wrong when it is a necessity because the Bishops have abandoned their duties to Teach and Rule.

It seems one must go to an Indult Mass to hear a sermon basd upon orthodox exegesis and having that connected to some doctrinal points.

The Catechism of The Council of Trent had it ALL laid out for every sunday of the year and all priests were expected to follow it in their preaching. Of course they could express the truth through their own unique knowledge, experiences, personalities etc.

I have no idea what the future holds but my family's motto "It is always darkest before the storm," suggests it isn't going to be pretty.

I fear a continual decline (absent some VERY bright spots, such as the FSSP) and I wonder if we aren't modern Laodicea.

[Domestic Church]

"I fear a continual decline (absent some VERY bright spots, such as the FSSP) and I wonder if we aren't modern Laodicea."

The decline is scary but now it seems more like an attack and I don't have the FSSP nearby(oh, to hear and see and partake in a Latin Mass again...I'd probably cry) but at least I can claim Philadelphia instead of Laodicea as my Diocese so I'm more inclined to sing O Come O Come Emmanuel. Everyone thought our biggest future problem would be the lack of priests.