What Is Catholicism? Questions With Answers | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | May 1, 2007
"The University and humanity are in need of questions.
Whenever questions are no longer asked, even those that concern the essential
and go beyond any specialization, we no longer receive answers, either." --
Benedict XVI,
To Theological Faculty of the University of Tübingen, March 21, 2007.
"If all intellectual inquiry is really only questioning,
then it is not even questioning, because unless there is an answer, there
really is not a question. It is something else. It is a kind of intellectual
tourism perhaps, or intellectual debunking. It is essentially the old
sophistry, Plato's opponents." -- Msgr. Robert Sokolowski, Correspondence,
April 17, 2007.
I.
The modern Church, taking up an ancient process, has, it
seems, been talking of little else but "dialogue" for some time. The Church has
endeavored to "dialogue" with everyone, even with those most reluctant to
associate with it. If we look behind the initiatives in recent decades that
arrange formal discussion about the highest of religious and social topics, the
impetus almost always comes from the Catholic side. It is the Catholic Church
in the modern world that, in practice, thinks that differences can and must be
first resolved in reason. It is the faith that professes to be bound by reason.
This is the import of Benedict XVI's "Regensburg Lecture." It insists that
there are no places for either philosophy or religion to hide from the
necessity to explain and justify what one stands for and what one lives by. The
Church wants to know the "reason" why anyone, including itself, will not be
reasonable or why he does not think he is bound by reason.
Continue reading...
It is sometimes hard to respond to Fr. Schall's articles-mainly because his writings can produce an endorphin rush which invites one to step into truth and silence.....
Posted by: Rick | Tuesday, May 01, 2007 at 05:27 AM
I know. It always pains me when I don't see any comments about his essays, but then I suspect that they're so good they render many speechless, feeling unworthy to comment.
Posted by: Jackson | Tuesday, May 01, 2007 at 11:15 AM
Oh my! I can second (third?) notion. I definitely want and need to study (not just read) the essay.
Posted by: Joe Buckley | Tuesday, May 01, 2007 at 08:03 PM
Yesterday, I received Fr. Schall's The Regensberg Lecture in the mail, have made my way through the first couple of chapters, so far as good if not better than this article!
Posted by: Rick | Tuesday, May 01, 2007 at 08:23 PM
Yes, I recently got his Regensburg book too. Worth moving to the high priority reading list?
Posted by: Jackson | Wednesday, May 02, 2007 at 11:23 AM