McCool's "From Unity to Pluralism"

Gerald A. McCool, From Unity to Pluralism: The Internal Evolution of Thomism, New York, Fordham University Press, 1992, 248 pages.

This post is partly a review of McCool's From Unity to Pluralism and mostly a collection of notes that might aid my own project on the conflict of mysticism and reason in the USA in our time.

SUBJECT. McCool tells the history of a certain movement of European Catholic scholars (theologians and philosophers) in the 1800s. These scholars, the Neo-Scholastic movement, wanted to counter the tide of modernist philosophy that was tearing down religious culture. The modernist philosophers ranged from Descartes (1596-1650) to the successors of Kant (1724-1804).

In particular, some Neo-Scholastics looked back to the worldview Thomas Aquinas had developed. They thought (wrongly) that he had developed a worldview that integrated the insights of other ancient and medieval Christian philosophers—such as Augustine and Bonaventure—into a harmonious whole. They also thought (1) that this supposedly integrated worldview had been shared by other Christian intellectuals in the medieval Christian world; (2) that the worldview had been lost at the end of the Middle Ages, and (3) that the worldview had been recovered by post-Renaissance Catholic theologians such as Francisco Suarez (1548-1617). Thomism, these 19th Century Catholic intellectuals thought, was potentially a unifier for modern culture, a culture disintegrating under the effects of post-Descartes philosophers such as Kant.

These first Neo-Thomists, in the early and mid-1800s, held a vision of Thomas's philosophy as resting on an epistemology of "common sense realism." In this epistemology, a concept in the mind comes from a thing in the world. For Neo-Thomists, the starting point of philosophy, therefore, is sense-perception, not Descartes' cogito. (p. 29) Cogito ("I know") as the starting point of a philosophy is subjectivist; it has no anchor in reality independent of one's own mind. Thus Thomism was radically opposed to the major post-Descartes philosophies.

In 1879, Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Aeterni Patris officially confirmed the Neo-Thomist estimation of Thomism and directed the Church to incorporate Thomism into higher-level Church education (the universities and seminaries), thus presumably disseminating Thomism to the remainder of Catholic culture. This approach was to be the Church's defense against Modernism (atheism, moral relativism, personal subjectivism, and so forth). Further, the Church would use Thomism, Leo XIII hoped, as a foundation on which to stand while conducting a "dialogue" with contemporary philosophies. (pp. 1 and 9)

McCool's purpose in the book is to trace the trajectory of the Neo-Thomist movement from the late 1800s to the 1960s: its rise, expansion, disintegration, and fall. (p. 2)

STRUCTURE. The general order of the book is chronological. Selecting from many individual intellectuals in the movement, McCool focuses on four main intellectuals (theologians, philosophers, historians) who shaped the internal evolution of the Neo-Thomist movement: Pierre Rousselot (1878-1915), Joseph Marechal (1878-1944), Jacques Maritain (1882-1973), and Etienne Gilson (1884-1978).

CHRONOLOGY. Unfortunately McCool does not provide a chronology of persons and events in this complicated history. A chronology would have simplified the reading. Here is my brief version:

1225-1274: Thomas Aquinas lives.

c. 1820: Luigi Taparelli d'Azeglio, the pioneer of Neo-Scholasticism, begins influencing Giacchino Pecci to admire Thomism. Pecci is a young seminary student who will fifty years later become Pope Leo XIII. (p. 5)

1846: In Naples, Gaetano Sansaverino founds the first academy devoted to the philosophy of Thomas. One of Sansaverino' students is Salvatore Talamo, who later recommends to Leo XIII that Thomism be made the only philosophy taught in Catholic schools. (p. 12)

1878: Matteo Liberatore (1810-1892), a prominent Neo-Scholastic who, along with other writers, has campaigned publicly for the restoration of Thomism, writes a draft of the encyclical that will become Aeterni Patris. (p. 12)

1879: Pope Leo XIII (reigned 1878-1903) issues his encyclical Aeterni Patris (On Christian Philosophy), calling for a revival of Thomism as an answer to the threat from Modernist philosophers. (pp. 5 and 6)

1879-1962: Through support from the papacy, Neo-Thomism acquires a privileged position in Catholic philosophical culture. (p. 5) Here "privileged" means that the support for Neo-Thomism is coming from the hierarchy that administers the Church, not from laymen, who are the vast majority of Church membership. The support (McCool says on p. 32) includes replacing seminary professors who do not support Thomism with Neo-Scholastic professors.

c. 1900: A third generation of Neo-Thomists arises. Trained in northern European universities (not Italian seminaries) they are familiar with—and ominously more sympathetic to—the philosophies that Neo-Thomists should counter, as Pope Leo XIII had hoped. Four intellectuals of this generation are the main subjects of this book: Pierre Rousselot, Joseph Marechal, Jacques Maritain, and Etienne Gilson. (p. 34)

1900-1950: This period is the "Thomistic Revival." (p. 34) This period ends because leading Neo-Thomists themselves no longer believe Thomism alone is adequate as a philosophy and theology. (p. 35) Acceptance of pluralism—the idea that different periods inevitably give rise to different philosophies—dominates Catholic intellectual culture by 1950. (p. 35)

THEME. McCool's theme is straight-forward: "... [Neo-Scholastic] Thomism's own internal development had to lead inevitably to the undermining of the nineteenth-century conception of [Thomism] which had inspired [Leo XIII's] Aeterni Patris." (p.3) Because the 19th Century Neo-Scholastics inadvertently (or perhaps with wishful thinking) created a false of view of Thomism (that it harmonized the, in fact, discordant philosophical voices of ancient and medieval Catholics), their efforts were ultimately unproductive. The leaders of a movement cannot make accurate plans for changing their culture if they are working from false historical premises.

The following two paragraphs, at the beginning of Chapter 7, summarize much of the book: 

In Aeterni Patris Leo XIII envisioned two main paths he was confident would lead to the recovery and authentic development of St. Thomas' own philosophy. One of these was ongoing dialogue between Thomists and other contemporary philosophers; the other was rigorous research into Thomism's historical sources in the texts of the medieval Doctors [the leading theologians] and their [later] commentators. (p. 161)

As we have seen, Neo-Thomism's dialogue with contemporary [19th and 20th century] philosophy, far from promoting its own internal unity, led to the emergence of systematic pluralism among Thomists themselves. ... Marechal and Maritain were poles apart in their understanding of the nature and function of Thomistic metaphysics. Like Marechal, Rousselot was extremely open to Kantian and post-Kantian idealism. … Gilson, like Maritain, believed that Thomism and idealism were fundamentally incompatible and attempts to reconcile the two were bound to end in failure. (p.161)

OBSERVATIONS ON THE NEO-THOMIST MOVEMENT. Following are notes I have drawn from McCool's insights about the Neo-Thomist movement. Some of these insights, properly generalized, might apply to other movements.

First, in the perspective of the struggle between reason and mysticism, why would the rise or fall of Thomism be important? Thomism, like all Catholicism, tries to "integrate" the supernatural and the natural. Thomas at least worked inductively from observation of this world, thus philosophically maintaining some contact with it. The post-Cartesian rationalists looked inside their own minds, not at the world. (p. 20) A revival of Thomism might offer a chance for Catholicism to move toward a more objective worldview.

St. Thomas' metaphysics does not descend, as do the post-Cartesian systems of metaphysics, from an intuitively grasped God to finite and sensible reality. Starting from sensible reality and discovering its structure through metaphysical analysis, it follows an ascending order from the world to God. (p. 20)

Second, movements do not perfectly overlap with organizations. A new movement might win the allegiance of some members of an established organization, but not others. The result can be conflict within the organization. For example, consider the Society of Jesus. Some Jesuit scholars were enthusiastic supporters of the idea of making Thomism the official philosophy taught in Catholic schools; other Jesuits were indifferent; and still others opposed the suggestion. (p. 13)

Third, even if they are not concise and always clear, books written by members of a movement do influence other members of the movement. An example is the massive five-volume work on theology by Joseph Kleutgen, whose works were published successively for 20 years (1853-1874). Its influence continued into the early 20th Century. (p. 21)

Fourth, for decades, the Neo-Thomist movement also used the textbooks of Neo-Thomist leaders to convey their view to the next generation. (p. 32) Books are transmitters from generation to generation as well as disseminators within a generation.

Fifth, after the first, pioneer generation of Neo-Thomist thinkers, no deep thinkers  followed in the second generation. Equally limiting was the failure of the Neo-Thomists to disseminate Neo-Thomism among the lay intellectuals in the Church. (For example, most Neo-Thomist writings remained in Latin.)

EVALUATION. I would recommend this book only to a specialist focusing on theological and philosophical history of European-American Catholic intellectual culture in the last 150 years. Reading is often difficult and the author provides few aids such as a chronology or brief biographies for the main characters..

Burgess Laughlin

Author of The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith, described here: http://www.reasonversusmysticism.com/

Example of Fundamental Conflicts within a Mystical Movement

In the two preceding posts I provided my notes on Richard M. Gula's Reason Informed by Faith: Foundations of Catholic Morality. In the post below I focus on one element of the book, Gula's account of a debate among Catholic theologians in the 20th Century. 

Catholicism is a 2000-year old religion. Its theologians have always debated about the ideal relationship between reason and mysticism (faith in particular). Most Catholic theologians have tried to integrate them. Philosopher Leonard Peikoff has rightly called this attempt "misintegration." It is logically impossible to integrate contradictories. "Misintegration" is the result of such an attempt. (See the Nov. 28, 2012 post (here) for a review of Leonard Peikoff's The DIM Hypothesis.)

The following example, taken from Gula's confusing account, looks at the debate among Catholic theologians from about 1940 to about 1990 (and presumably today). The key question in the debate was: What should be the source of Catholic morality? Should theologians start with the principles provided by mystical sources (Holy Scripture, Church Tradition, and the magisterium guided by the Holy Spirit)? Or should theologians begin with natural law, that is, principles which thinking about the world (which God created) can produce?

THE EVENTS

Early 20th Century: The manuals which Catholic teachers used to teach Catholic morality presented the "classical moral theology" of Catholicism. Gula is unclear here, but apparently the classical moral theology was the result of Catholic theologians thinking about ("reflecting on" ) moral problems as natural law, without referring directly to the roots of Catholic morality in specifically Christian beliefs. (p. 1, par. 1)

1940-1970: A movement arose wanting to "Christianize" Catholic morality by rooting that morality directly into Holy Scripture and "the mysteries of faith." (p. 1, par. 2) Gula does not say so, but apparently this Christianizing movement was a reaction against an earlier movement to root Catholic morality in natural law.

1962-1965: The Second Vatican Council calls for radical revision of the manuals of morality. (p. 1, par. 1)

Late 1960s-early 1970s: Some Catholic theologians agreed with the Second Vatican Council's call to revise the manuals but broke from the early revisionists, the ones who wanted to base morality directly on Holy Scripture and other specifically Catholic sources. These new theologians instead wanted to use a philosophical method to develop "autonomous ethics," that is, ethics based on, not God's revelations (in Holy Scripture), but on thinking about the human person who was created by God to have a certain nature and must discover morality for himself through reason. (p. 1, par. 2)

Why did many Catholic theologians of the autonomous-ethics movement in the 1960s to 1970s want to revise Catholic morality's roots? They had two motivations. First was that the non-Catholic culture around them was becoming more secular, and a philosophical approach would be more acceptable to secularists. Second was that Catholic theologians of the autonomous-ethics movement reacted against the earlier Christianizing phase of renewal, the phase that began in the 1940s and wanted to ground Catholic morality in Catholic mystical sources. Apparently the Catholic theologians of the autonomous-ethics movement of the 1970s objected to relying on specifically Catholic roots for two reasons. First, the earlier renewalists, the Christianizers, apparently published essays that were "uncritical," that is, they did not meet rigorous academic standards and therefore were an embarrassment. (Gula is not clear here.) Second, the earlier, Christianizing renewal movement's products (which were rooted in specifically Catholic sources) were too sectarian, that is, too Catholic. That was a problem in the 1970s and later because by then Catholic theologians wanted to appeal to intellectuals all over the world regardless of their religious choices. (Apparently these Catholic autonomous- ethics theologians of the 1970s wanted to be "multicultural" in appeal.) (p. 1, par. 3)

1970s: Apparently still another movement arose among Catholic theologians. (Gula is not clear about the timing.) This movement, the "faith ethics" movement, arose in reaction against the autonomous-ethics movement. The faith-ethics movement's theologians said that mysticism (specifically in the form of God's revelations) must have a role in forming Catholic morality. Thus this movement of the late 1970s wanted to restore the Christianizing renewalist movement of the 1940s to 1950s. (p. 1, par. 4)

1980s: At the time of Gula's writing (1989), Catholic theologians, considered as a group, were in "tension." (That is the academic word for "contradiction.") They were trying to meet both demands—"trying to include the orientation of faith ethics, while preserving at the same time reason's critical reflection on human experience which characterizes autonomous ethics." 

In other words, Gula says, Catholic theologians generally wanted to avoid relying on either sectarianism (faith ethics) or humanism (autonomous ethics) in isolation. (p. 1, par. 4) Instead, the Catholic theologians of the 1980s wanted to speak of Catholic morality "in a language accessible to nonbelievers" as well as Catholic believers. (p. 1, par. 4 continuing onto p. 2) This is an example of the Catholic "both/and" approach to many issues. ("Faith and reason" is an example.) It is "misintegration," and the Church advocates both at the same time.

SUMMARY

Catholic theologians from around 1940 to around 1990 turned from one pole to another, that is, from open mysticism to the truncated, Catholic version of reason. They made their turns sometimes for loyalty to their mystical sources and at other times for the hope of reaching their modern goal of being able to talk to all individuals everywhere, regardless of religious or cultural background.  Catholic theologians continue today trying to find the right mix of contradictory sources of knowledge. Trying to "integrate" mysticism and (alleged) reason is an effort that is inherently unstable. The instability leads to conflict and confusion in the movement.

Burgess Laughlin

Author, The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith, described at http://www.reasonversusmysticism.com/

A Catholic Theologian's View of Reason and Mysticism

In the previous post, I briefly reviewed Richard M. Gula's Reason Informed by Faith: Foundations of Catholic Morality. The post below records some of my notes on Gula's views of reason and mysticism.

REASON. What is reason? Gula provides no direct answer. Curiously, in a book dedicated in part to reason, the index has no entry for reason. The reader must infer Gula's meaning of "reason" from clues. Here is one clue. At one point he implies that reason is "critical reflection on human experience." That sounds promising. He says that critical reflection is "a valid source for coming to know what is morally required." However, his justification for doing so is the "principle of mediation: "... only through the human ... do we come to know God and respond to what God is ... requiring us ... to do." That principle in turn rests on "a commitment of faith by which we accept the mystery of Christ as the full revelation of God and accept the sources of faith as valid sources of coming to the truth about God, being human, and living in the world." (p. 8) So, according to Gula, "reason" works on the material provided mystically by God. This is not reason as the faculty of forming abstractions logically from sense-perception of the natural world. 

"Reflection" is a synonym for reason in Gula's view. At one point (p. 46), Gula even speaks of "reflection informed by faith" as he spoke of "reason informed by faith in the title of his book. "Reflection" is an appropriate word here. The Catholic thinker reflects on ideas that come from outside of him; he does not create these ideas. He reflects on them as premises of some sort in his chain of thinking. 

When should we use reason and how? In a section called "Reflection," Gula says: "We turn to the language of the mind when we want to support, analyze, and communicate what we grasp by heart." (p. 16) Again Gula says that in ethics, reason (which he refers to as "rational explanations" and "conceptual knowledge") is useful if we want "to communicate values and to argue for or against a position." (p. 84) Reason, then, is for persuasively conveying ideas to other individuals, not for gaining new ideas of our own. Reason is rhetoric.

The strict logic of a scientific nature is necessary in morality in order to defend publicly what we have decided.  But we do not actually make our decisions in the same logical way that we try to justify them. Ordinarily in the oral life, we lead with the heart. Judgments of rationality follow in a complementary way. (p. 316)

We get ideas—in least in the field of ethics—from God via revelation and our "heart," and then we use reason to tidy up our position when speaking to others. So much for reason, at least in the field of ethics. (Gula's view of the roles of reason in other fields are not clear in this book.)

MYSTICISM. Gula does not use the word "mysticism" to identify the class of alternatives to reason. Instead he identifies each form of mysticism individually. For example, early in the book Gula names three "theological sources of faith—scripture, Jesus, and the church." (p. 4) A Catholic takes on faith the ideas conveyed through scripture, through Jesus's words as preserved in Catholic tradition, and through the Church's magisterium, its special teaching ability, as guided by the Holy Spirit. The following passage makes those sources explicit:

The Christian conviction about the good is governed by the religious beliefs expressed in the stories of the Bible, especially in Jesus, and further expounded in the theological tradition of the church. (p. 44)

Another form of Catholic mysticism is "sensitivity," as shown in two passages:

(1) Sensitivity is fundamental. It implies that moral living begins in the heart and not with an abstract principle about the nature of being human from which we draw crisp conclusions. ... The foundational experience that awakens our moral consciousness ... is the experience of the sacredness of human life, or the value of persons as persons. All morality is organically linked to this foundational experience. The value of persons as persons can only be appreciated. It is not something we reason to or can prove with satisfaction of a logical syllogism. That is why the foundational moral experience is a matter of the heart. ... To bring sensitivity to moral analysis, then, is to engage artistic or mystical insight in the service of the moral life and moral reflection. (pp. 13-14)

(2) The sensitivity required for the moralist to engage in moral 'theological' reflection is a sensitivity of the heart attuned to the presence of God. ... Without this prayerful attentiveness to God, moral reflection [that is, "reason"] stops short of attending to the fullness of the relationships which make up the moral life. (p. 15)

Yet another form of mysticism appearing in Gula's book is the mysticism of "theological code words." For example, Gula says, the term "Trinity" is a "theological code word" for the "freedom and totality of God's self-giving." (p.65) You see or hear the word "Trinity" and then you "know" something about God.

Gula identifies a last form: the mysticism of experience. 

Evaluative knowledge, symbolized by the heart, is the kind of knowledge we have when we are 'caught up' in someone or something through personal involvement or commitment. Evaluative knowledge is more personal, more self-involving than conceptual knowledge of facts or ideas, for it has to do with grasping the quality of a person, object, or event. We do not gain evaluative knowledge by words but by touch, sight, and sound, by experiencing victories and failures, sleeplessness and devotion. ...  In short, evaluative knowledge is a felt knowledge which we discover through personal involvement and reflection. (p. 84)

IMAGINATION. In Gula's Catholicism, reason is not the faculty of integration of sense data into abstractions. Reason is instead merely a faculty of argumentation, that is, lining ideas up syllogistically, mainly for persuasion.

Catholicism values integration, connecting things into a system, as Gula says through out his book. If not reason, then what in Catholicism performs integration? Gula's answer is the faculty of "imagination." Four passages illustrate it.

(1) Understood in its deepest sense, the imagination ... is the capacity to construct a world. By means of the imagination we bring together diverse experiences into a meaningful whole. (p. 71) 

(2) The imagination connects "diverse beliefs and experiences." (p. 72)

(3) When religious beliefs, for example, are part of the imaginative process, they enter into the content of what we experience and contribute toward connecting the many dimensions of experience with the values entailed in those beliefs. (p. 72) 

(4) The imagination informs what we think, what we see, the way we feel, our readiness to act, and the direction of our actions. (p. 72)

RELATIONSHIP OF REASON AND MYSTICISM. We have seen above that Gula cites various sources of mysticism, that is, non-rational claims to "knowledge." He restricts "reason" to reflection on ideas that have come into the mind in various ways. He thus expands mysticism and shrinks reason. What is the relationship between them? The next three passages show that Gula's Catholicism claims adherence to both faith and reason.

(1) Characteristically, Catholic moral theology relies on 'mediation' for coming to know God and what faith requires. This means that it takes seriously not only revelation and the tradition of the Church, but also critical reflection ["reason"] on ongoing human experience as well. Both faith and reason, then, are the fundamental sources to which we appeal in giving content to ethics [theory] and morals [practice] within Catholic moral theology. (p. 10)

(2) Our affective commitment to ... the value of persons ... are 'reasons of the heart' which ultimately cannot be proven, yet which will always remain the final court of appeal for our moral judgments. We appeal to 'reasons of the head', or rational arguments, to confirm and demonstrate in a way that can be convincing to another what we already know by heart. In the moral life, head and heart work together. (p. 14)

(3) The Catholic tradition has not maintained ... a complete dependence of morality on faith. It holds to a relative autonomy for faith and morality. Faith informs reason, but it does not replace it. Faith and reason are the two sources of moral knowledge to which the Catholic tradition appeals. (p. 45)

Gula acknowledges the central problem in claiming both faith and reason: How does one decide to use one or the other claim to knowledge?

The challenge to moral theology today lies in maintaining the proper relationship of faith and reason for determining what constitutes morally good character and right moral action. (p. 46) 

When pressed for demands for a rational approach, Gula resorts to polylogism and subjectivism: 

Thus, the 'therefore' which links morality to religious beliefs is not by way of a strict inference of syllogistic logic. [Instead, the] inference is made by way of ... 'the logic of self-involvement'.

Such a "logic" considers the believer's "certain manner of living" and "having certain attitudes and feelings." (pp. 48-49) An additional form of Catholic mysticism, the mysticism of Christian symbols, ties up any loose ends left by other forms of mysticism.

Using a Christian symbol of some sort to look on a situation, then, will determine to some extent what one sees [the is, the facts] and what one does [the ought, the values]." (p.50)

SUMMARY. In Gula's Catholicism, mysticism is broad and takes many forms; reason is narrow and is truncated to being a tool of rhetoric. The Church insists on claiming both, leaving no room for the mind that starts from sense-perception, forms abstractions about the world, and then selects values from among those facts. For the Church, mysticism is the means for obtaining morals from another world, and "reason" is the means the Church uses to argue for its positions.

Burgess Laughlin

Author, The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith, described at http://www.reasonversusmysticism.com/

BkRev: Reason Informed by Faith

Richard M. Gula, S.S., Reason Informed by Faith: Foundations of Catholic Morality, New York, Paulist Press, 1989, 334 pages.

Two posts will collect notes I have made on Richard M. Gula's Reason Informed by Faith. The first post, below, is an informal book review. The next post will examine Gula's Catholic view of reason, mysticism, and their relationship. 

AUTHOR. Richard M. Gula is a Catholic intellectual activist. He disseminates his understanding of his worldview—its supernaturalism, mysticism, altruism, and statism—to other, more specialized Catholic intellectuals and particularly to the Catholics involved in "pastoral care," which means the bishops, the priests, and lay workers who make daily contact with the great flock of Catholics who look to the Church for guidance in their lives. Gula trains these trainers. 

The back cover of the book says that Richard M. Gula was—in 1989, the year of publishing Reason Informed by Faith—the Professor of Moral Theology at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, California. A seminary is a sort of university, one reserved for training the intellectuals of the Church—the priests, the bishops, the cardinals, and the popes, as well as the Catholic intellectuals who work outside the hierarchy of the Church but in universities, "think-tanks," and advocacy organizations.

The "S.S." after Gula's name means Society of Saint-Sulpice, a Catholic organization devoted to training the intellectual leaders of the Church: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Saint-Sulpice. Gula's central purpose in life appears to be an extension of his training. The Logos Almanac of the Christian World, at http://almanac.logos.com/, speaks of Richard_M._Gula thus:

As a Sulpician priest, Rich has dedicated his life to the education and formation of ministers in the Church. After teaching in diocesan seminaries for twenty-three years, Rich came to [the Franciscan School of Theology] in 1996 to participate in a more diverse and ecumenical effort in preparing ministers for the Church. As a moral theologian, Rich has tried to be a bridge between the community of academic theologians and the community of pastoral ministers. Besides teaching, Rich is on the workshop circuit lecturing to clerical and lay ministers on topics in moral theology, medical ethics, and professional ethics. He is also involved in the world of health care as an ethics consultant to hospitals. His several books and many articles have addressed a variety of moral issues which pastoral ministers have to face today.

As a writer, lecturer, and teacher, Richard M. Gula is a fount of not only particular principles of Catholicism, but also, and more importantly, the conveyor of an intellectually systematized worldview. That systematization—an act of integration— makes Catholicism a potent weapon in the war between reason and mysticism.  

SUBJECT. Gula's Reason Informed by Faith is a tour of Catholic morality. It covers the fundamental principles that "inform" (shape) Catholic positions in debates over abortion, war, welfare, and other issues. It also identifies the intermediate steps, the methods of thinking about moral issues. Finally it offers guidelines for the skill of  "discernment of spirits." By "discernment" Gula means making a judgment of a particular person, action, or situation. The term "spirits" refers to Gula's belief that God is present in everyone we judge and we need to learn to seek God's presence as a guide to our judgment. 

Gula draws his information from theologians who have written since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). The theologians Gula consults are mainly Catholics, but some are Protestants.

We are experiencing a convergence of Protestant and Catholic thinking in more and more areas, especially in one of the major areas of concern in this book—the integration of the rational aspects of morality with a perspective of faith. Therefore, while the primary emphasis here is on the foundations of Roman Catholic morality, many Protestant voices will be heard throughout. (p. 3)   

What distinguishes a partucular ethics is its sources, Gula says. Catholic ethics grows from Catholic sources. Three such sources are the Catholic Bible, the Catholic Tradition, and the Catholic magisterium (the mystical teaching authority given by God to the Church). (p. 10)

Questions arise. "How does faith inform Catholic morality? What relation do religious convictions have to Catholic moral thinking which prides itself on being 'rational' and based on 'nature'?" (p. 2) Gula sets out to answer.

AUDIENCE. The book, the author says, "is written for those who are seriously interested in Catholic morality but who do not have the time to make their way through all the scholarly work which has gone on in Catholic moral theology." (p. 4) Academic teachers could use this book as a textbook because it surveys moral theology as a whole—both its foundations and the positions (and controversies) that stand on the foundations. A serious layman, given sufficient time, could work through this book and gain an introduction to the field of Catholic moral theology, both its history and its contemporary landscape. Gula says he tries to write to "the 'people in the pews'." (p. 4)

STYLE. Gula makes the structure of the text clear. He writes previews, summaries, and reviews. Unfortunately his convoluted sentence-by-sentence style is often difficult to follow. For clarity, a careful reader must often reread, parse, and restate the author's point in the reader's own simple, declarative sentences. 

THEME. A Catholic, Gula says, should strive for "discernment." This is a complex skill that leads a person to making the best possible moral judgment—of oneself, another person, or a situation—in particular circumstances at a particular time. Discernment thus is an attempt to integrate fundamental moral principles with the particulars of an individual case.

Elements of discernment include the following:  

1. One should have faith. Without faith, "discernment of spirits" is impossible. "Discernment of spirits" is the "process of discovering the presence of God in one's inclinations and choices." (p. 316). "Discernment of spirits is only possible for a person who looks on life from the perspective of one committed to God in Christ and through the Spirit. ... For the person of faith, every human experience, if given a chance, could disclose God." (pp. 317-318) 

2. One should realize that an individual's heart is the place in him where he makes contact with God. Here "heart" refers to the deepest level of one's nature. "This is the level of the human person which escapes clear conceptual knowledge."  (p. 321)

3. One should gather complete and accurate information about the subject being judged. (pp. 323-324)

4. One should confirm one's initial judgment internally (for example, by having a feeling of harmony) and externally (for example, by consulting the needs of the community). (pp. 324-326)

The four points above produce a "reasoning heart" (p. 316), that is, an integration of faith and reason, at a non-conceptual level (p. 321, with a summary at p. 328) Thus, Catholicism "integrates" faith and a crippled version of reason, basing decisions ultimately on feeling of one sort or another. 

Burgess Laughlin

Author, The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith, described at http://www.reasonversusmysticism.com/

BkRev: Catholicism for Dummies

John Trigilio, Jr., and Kenneth Brighenti, Catholicism for Dummies, 2nd ed., Hoboken (New Jersey), John Wiley & Sons, 2012, 414 pages

I reviewed the Catechism of the Catholic Church on December 19, 2013, here; and I focused on particular aspects (reason, mysticism, the holy spirit) in later posts in that series.

While the Catechism is generally clear, it is also sometimes difficult to read because it is condensed; it is a handbook of teachings, not a tutorial. Trigilio and Brighenti's Catholicism for Dummies corrects the problem of difficult reading. Trigilio and Brighenti's writing is clear. They cover generally the same ground that Catechism covers and in the same order:

- Part I: What Do Catholics Believe?

- Part II: Celebrating the Mysteries of Faith [the Sacraments]

- Part III: Living a Saintly Life [Ethics]

- Part IV: Praying and Using Devotions

- Part V: The Part of Tens ["Ten Famous Catholics" and so forth]

- Part VI: Appendices (a 2000-year history of the Catholic Church in about 20 pages; and a collection of popular Catholic prayers]

(I read some parts closely; I skimmed some sections; and I skipped over some sections.)

If Catholicism for Dummies covers the same subjects as the Catechism, why review it here on TME? Catholicism for Dummies is an example of one of the many actions that philosophical activists can take to disseminate their ideas to a wide audience—in this case, an audience outside Catholic academic and administrative circles. Catholicism for Dummies includes checklists, simple icons ("Remember," "From the Bible," and "Warning!") that mark special or secondary text. The format includes wide margins and aims for ease of reading.

For the most serious advocates of reason who are also activists, Catholicism for Dummies serves as a test: Has the reader failed to understand or misunderstood Catholic doctrines and practices described in more formal documents such as the Catechism?

For the few, most serious advocates of reason, another advantage of reading this book is seeing the form of arguments that a well informed Catholic activist might use to explain Catholic ideas to an audience standing in front of him. For example, the following quotation is an excerpt from a three-page explanation of the relationship of reason and faith. The title of the section is "Backing Up Your Faith with Reason: Summa Theologica."

So are having faith and hoping to be saved the same as believing in the Tooth Fairy and hoping for a dollar bill under your pillow? Of course not. The First Vatican Council (1869-1879; also known as Vatican I) taught that you need the intervention of supernatural revelation to be saved, but certain truths, like the existence of God, are attainable on your own power by using human reason. 

In the 13th Century, St. Thomas Aquinas (see Chapter 21), a philosopher, explained how the human mind seeks different kinds of truth. He said that

- Scientific truth (also known as empirical truth) is known by observation and experimentation. So, for example, you know that fire is hot by burning your finger with a lit match.

- Philosophical truth is known by using human reason. You know that two plus two equals four, for example. So if two chairs are in a room and someone says, "I'll get two more," you know by using reason that the total will be four chairs. You don't need to count the chairs after they arrive.

- Theological truth, known only by faith, is the final and highest level of truth. It can't be observed, and it can't be reasoned; it must be believed by faith—taken on God's word, because He revealed it. (pp. 33-34)

Parts of the book defend Catholicism from false charges, for example, rebutting (the authors hope) the charge that Catholics are polytheists because they worship three gods (the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit). (pp. 11, 32, 51, and 101-102) This function of defense is a standard function of activists. Christian intellectual activists who do so are called "apologists" (from the Greek word for "defense," apologia).

This book has a compound theme: The Catholic Church, the authors say, is here on earth to help save your soul for heaven—and the Church, through divine inspiration and 2000 years of diligent intellectualizing, has answers for almost all relevant questions. Anything that the Church cannot explain is a mystery and requires faith. In Catholicism for Dummies, as elsewhere, the Church's advocates convey the idea that the Church is "both-and." The Church supports reason and mysticism, supernaturalism and naturalism, achieving one's own success and sacrificing to others (as well as God).

Catholicism for Dummies, like the Catechism, does not speak of "mysticism," though it does speak of the elements of mysticism: revelation; inspired Holy Scripture; the Church hierarchy's divinely-given ability (under some circumstances) to teach infallibly; and faith in all those mystical sources. 

In conclusion, this book is worth reading for any individual who is seriously planning, in the decades ahead, to confront the most powerful pro-mysticism institution in the USA today.

Burgess Laughlin

Author, The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith, described at reasonversusmysticism.com/

The Catechism's View of the Holy Spirit's Role in Catholicism

The previous post, on February 4, 2014, frequently mentions the role of the Holy Spirit in various forms of mysticism, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. What is the Holy Spirit? What actions does it take? What is the significance of the Holy Spirit in Catholicism's mystical worldview?

The Catechism devotes Part One, Section Two, Chapter Three to the Holy Spirit. The title is "I believe in the Holy Spirit." The Catechism also includes many other references to the Holy Spirit, as shown in the Index.

WHAT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT? The Holy Spirit is a "person," one of the three "persons" in the mysterious Holy Trinity of God (the Father), Jesus (the Son of God), and the Holy Spirit (which emanates from God). (Catechism, pars. 236 and 684) 

We can know of the Holy Spirit through his effects. (par. 688) In historical order, the Old Testament Bible initially revealed God the Father, the first person of the Trinity. Next, the New Testament Bible revealed Jesus the Son, the second person. The New Testament also revealed the existence of the Holy Spirit by identifying some of its actions and attributes, though in less detail than the Father and the Son. (par. 686)

SYNONYMS AND SYMBOLS. The Holy Spirit appears more frequently in the New Testament than a casual reader might realize at first. In the New Testament and in Catholic literature generally, synonyms for "Holy Spirit" are "Paraclete" (Consoler), "Spirit of Truth," and "Spirit" with various attributes such as "Spirit of promise." (par. 692) 

In the Bible, symbols for the Holy Spirit are: the "Finger of God" (700), fire ( 696), the "Hand of God" (699), the dove (701), the seal (698), water (694), and cloud and light (697).

WHAT DOES THE HOLY SPIRIT DO? In historical times, the Holy Spirit was the "principal author" of Holy Scripture (304). It illustrates his repeated role in bringing knowledge to men.

In our time, the Holy Spirit acts in various ways among individual men on earth. The Holy Spirit can: awaken faith (684) enable men to communicate with Christ (683), help men grow in spiritual freedom (1742), teach praying (741, 2652), reveal God (687), reveal the Trinity (244, 684), be a source of holiness (749), and give "gifts" (charisma, in Greek), that is, special abilities such as "speaking in tongues" (768, 798-801, 1830)

The Holy Spirit also has particular roles to take within the Church (the community of believers, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit [pars 797-798]). The Holy Spirit has the special tasks of unifying the Church (813), directing the Church (768), supporting the Church (747), participating in the liturgy (1091-1109), providing the living memory of the Church (1099), and taking responsibility for the Church's mission (852).

Perhaps most importantly, the Holy Spirit "kindles faith in us," specifically faith in Jesus Christ. (par. 683) Beyond that, the Holy Spirit conveys information from the Father and the Son (the other two "persons" of the mysterious Holy Trinity). (par. 684) While the Holy Spirit enables us to know some things about the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit reveals nothing about himself. (par. 687) 

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT? Of the three persons of the mysterious Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit is the least known but perhaps (Catholics say) most present among Catholics. The Holy Spirit is, one can infer, primarily a conveyer, an enabler of God communicating with and thereby guiding man. In effect, the Holy Spirit is the form in which God is present on earth, in particular aiding the Church in its mission of saving souls. Thus, the Holy Spirit is the bridge between the supernatural world and the natural world. The Holy Spirit provides a structure of integration in the Catholic worldview—making Catholicism a more formidable opponent of reason.

Burgess Laughlin

Author of The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith, described at http://www.reasonversusmysticism.com/

What is the Catholic Catechism's view of mysticism?

Today, in the United States of America, the Catholic movement may be the largest, most influential, and most dangerous movement on the mysticism side of the war between reason and mysticism. In its instruction manual for new members, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Church has distilled its views on reason and mysticism, as well as many other subjects. In the preceding post, I outlined the Catechism's view of reason, which is a minor part of Catholic epistemology presented in the Catechism. 

This post, below, examines the main part of Catholic epistemology: mysticism. For the notes that this post collects, I am using the classifications I suggested in an August 26, 2009 post here.

MYSTICAL SOURCES. The Catechism does not use the term "source" or even the term "mysticism" (as defined in this weblog). Nor does the Catechism present a systematic view of mysticism, that is, the various ways in which believers acquire "knowledge" outside of reason. The Catechism does, however, frequently speak of God (or his earthly incarnation, Jesus) as the origin of words designed for man's guidance. 

In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness God speaks to them in human words: 'Indeed the words of God, expressed in the words of men, are in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness [as Jesus], became like men'. (paragraph 101)

God's actions on earth 2000 or more years ago "communicate" to believers today: 

Christ's whole earthly life—his words and deeds, his silences and sufferings, indeed his manner of being and speaking—is Revelation of the Father. (par. 516)

Intermediate sources, such as the Bible, pass God's Word in some way to ordinary believers. The Catechism describes intermediate sources, though without using that term. Intermediate sources might—in electrical terminology—also be called "transmitters" or "repeaters".

Following is a brief list of various ways (channels, routes) in which God directly or indirectly sends his messages to men. One element, the Holy Spirit, appears frequently in the communication process. A later post will describe the Holy Spirit.

MYSTICAL WAY 1: GOD TALKS TO THE CHURCH NOW. The Bible records historical instances in which God spoke to particular individuals, such as Moses. The writers of the Catechism say God continues to talk to the Church, who is "the Spouse of his beloved Son" (paragraph 79). Note that here, and elsewhere in the Catechism, "the Church" refers to all the believers together. It does not refer to the Church's hierarchy alone.

The Father's self-communication made through his Word in the Holy Spirit, remains present and active in the Church: 'God, who spoke in the past, continues to converse with the Spouse of his beloved Son'. (par. 79)

Nothing in the context for the passage quoted above indicates that the Catechism is speaking of "conversation" metaphorically. The passage means what it says.

MYSTICAL WAY 2: GOD SPEAKS THROUGH HOLY SCRIPTURE. The Bible is "the word of God." God talks with his children through Scripture. (par. 104) "God is the author of Sacred Scripture." The men who wrote the Scripture were inspired by the Holy Spirit. (par. 105) "God inspired the human authors of the sacred books." (par. 106) "Still, the Christian faith is not a 'religion of the book'," that is, a believer should not interpret the text with literalism alone. Understanding scripture requires Christ, working through the Holy Spirit, to open the minds of the readers of scripture. (par. 108)

In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking, and narrating then current. 'For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression'. (par. 110)

Reading sacred scripture requires a double form of mysticism: 

'Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written'. (par. 111)

Holy scripture also provides an example of Christians valuing integration, here called "unity." 

Different as the books [of the Bible] which comprise it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God's plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover. (par. 112) 

The unstated premise here is that God is integrated in all his actions and therefore we can expect to see connections in the world and in Scripture. The Catechism speaks of "the unity of the divine plan." (par. 128) and identifies the cause of unity within scripture: "The unity of the two Testaments proceeds from the unity of God's plan and his Revelation." (par. 140)

MYSTICAL WAY 3: CHURCH TRADITION. The handing of an idea or practice from one individual to another and so on down through history is a tradition. It may be written, oral, or institutional. (An institution is an organization which the founders of the organization designed to continue beyond their own lives.) The Catechism explains that the information that Jesus's apostles  handed to later generations was information which the apostles learned by: (1) listening to Christ; (2) observing Christ's way of life and works; and (3) learning "at the prompting of the Holy Spirit." (pars. 76) "The first generation of Christians did not yet have a written New Testament, and the New Testament itself demonstrates the process of living Tradition." (par. 83)

The tradition of the Church (as the group of believers, including the hierarchy) interacts with holy scripture. The Catechism advises: 

Read the Scripture within 'the living Tradition of the whole Church'. According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture ('according to the spiritual meaning which the Spirit grants to the Church'). (par. 113, deleting original emphasis on the first sentence) 

MYSTICAL WAY 4: APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. Bishops have a special place in the Church. A bishop is an administrator of a diocese, which is a geographic territory of the worldwide church. (A diocese is divided into parishes, each of which ideally has its own church building and a priest.) Spiritually more important is the teaching role of each bishop. He is responsible for educating the believers in his sheep flock. Collectively, bishops, when assembled and joined by the pope, are infallible in their decisions. Bishops are successors to the original apostles of Jesus. Bishops, the Church believes, speak for Christ:

Hence the Church teaches that 'the bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises Christ and him who sent Christ'. (par. 862)

An idea closely related to tradition as mysticism is the concept of "authority." Objectively defined, authority is an expert's ability to "author" judgements about issues in a particular area of knowledge. Such an authority must meet certain qualifications. The rationale for accepting the authority of the Church is not objective rationale but supernatural: the Church is the body of Christ, who is its head. (par. 669) The authority of the Church—for example, in interpreting Scripture— leads Church members to believe in Christianity. The Catechism quotes Augustine: "But I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved me." (par. 119) 

MYSTICAL WAY 5: MAGISTERIUM. The ideas of apostolic succession and authority are related to the idea of "magisterium." This is the ability of the Church to correctly interpret the "sacred deposit" (Scripture plus Tradition from the apostles) and teach the Church accordingly. The interpreters and teachers here are the bishops in consultation with the bishop of Rome, the Pope. (par. 85) The Holy Spirit assists the bishops in their interpretation.

The interpretations made by bishops are not merely subjects for discussion among Catholics. The Church intends Catholics to follow their bishops' advice. Based on the words of Jesus in scripture, the Church expects "the faithful [to] receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in different forms." (par. 87)

A dogma is a statement which the Church makes and expects "irrevocable adherence" to accepting on faith. The statement must consist of "truths" already "contained in divine Revelation or also when it proposes, in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection with these." (par. 88)

A Catholic Dictionary explains: "Magisterium" is "[t]he Church's divinely appointed authority to teach the truths of religion ...." The Biblical citation for that authority is Matthew 28, 19-20. "This teaching is infallible ...." The Church specifies certain conditions for producing infallible statements; the Church does not claim that everything said by every member of the Church in general or the hierarchy in particular is infallible. There are two levels of magisterium. 

(Level 1) The solemn magisterium is that which is exercised only rarely by formal and authentic definitions of councils or popes. Its matter comprises dogmatic definitions of ecumenical councils or of popes teaching ex cathedra, or of particular councils, if their decrees are univerally accepted or approved in solemn form by the pope; also creeds and professions of faith put forward or solemnly approved by pope or ecumenical council. 

(Level 2) The ordinary magisterium is continually exercised by the Church especially in her universal practices connected with faith and morals, in the unanimous consent of the Fathers … and theologians, in the decisions of Roman Congregations concerning faith and morals, in the common sense … of the faithful, and various historical documents in which the faith is declared. All these are founts of a teaching which as a whole is infallible. (Donald Atwater, general editor, A Catholic Dictionary)

MYSTICAL WAY 6: THE GIFT OF INFALLIBILITY. The Catechism says:

The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant established by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium's task to preserve God's people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God abides in the truth that liberates. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church's shepherds with the charism [gift] of the infallibility in matters of faith and morals. (par. 890) 

This infallliblity applies to the pope in certain circumstances, and to "the body of bishops" when they and the pope meet in ecumenical councils. (par. 891)

MYSTICAL WAY 7:  "SENSE OF FAITH" (CHURCH CONSENSUS). In various forms, consensus is yet another way of reaching "knowledge" of the supernatural or of the application of supernatural principles to human life. 

In order to preserve the Church in the purity of the faith handed on by the apostles, Christ who is the Truth willed to confer on her a share in his own infallibility. By a 'supernatural sense of faith' the People of God, under the guidance of the Church's living Magisterium, 'unfailingly adheres to this faith'. (par. 889)

[T]he faithful share in understanding and handing on revealed truth. They have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, who instructs them and guides them into all truth. (par. 91)

The whole body of the faithful…cannot err in matters of belief. This characteristic is shown in the supernatural appreciation of faith (sensus fidei) on the part of the whole people, when, 'from the bishops to the last of the faithful,' they manifest a universal consent in matters of faith and morals. (par. 92) 

There is also an implication in the Catechism that ecumenical (worldwide) councils of bishops reach truth through consensus. (par. 242)

MYSTICAL WAY 8: COMMUNICATION THROUGH COMMUNION. The Catechism suggests too that believers can gain knowledge from the supernatural by a communion with Christ: 

Believers who respond to God's word and become members of Christ's Body [the Church], become intimately united with him: 'In that body the life of Christ is communicated to those who believe, and who, through the sacraments, are united in a hidden and real way to Christ in his Passion and glorification'. (par. 790)  

MYSTICAL WAY 9: PERSONAL CHANNELS OF MYSTICISM. The Catechism says man has two personal channels of mysticism: 

When he listens to the message of creation and to the voice of conscience, man can arrive at certainty about the existence of God, the cause and the end of everything. (par. 45)

Students of philosophy may recognize these two channels as the mystical routes that Kant cites: a sense of awe that comes from viewing the starry skies above, and the inner voice of conscience. (See Ch. 7, "Kant," of The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith, here.)

SUMMARY. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states or implies at least nine ways in which "knowledge" in some form can pass from the supernatural world to the believers living in this world. Some sources of that knowledge are direct. Others are "repeaters" in the transmission lines from the other world to this world. These descriptions of mysticism are scattered throughout the Catechism; they far outnumber descriptions of reason. Truly, Catholic Christianity is a religion, that is, a worldiview formed on principles acquired from supernatural sources.

Burgess Laughlin

Author of The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith, described here: http://www.reasonversusmysticism.com/