Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J., says farewell to teaching, Fordham

Catholic News Service reports on the farewell address given on April 1st at Fordham University by Cardinal Dulles, one of the finest American theologians of the past fifty years:

In the presentation Cardinal Dulles reconfirmed his faith, his orthodoxy, his spirituality and his commitment to the Society of Jesus. He also offered a final word against the materialism, relativism, subjectivism, hedonism, scientism and superficial anti-intellectualism he said is found in modern society.

"Western thought," he said, "followed in the path of cognitive realism for many centuries before the revival of agnosticism in the Renaissance." The cardinal repeated Pope John Paul II's admonition that philosophy should seek to "resume its original quest for eternal truth and wisdom."

"Science, we all know, does not rest on a treasury of revealed knowledge handed down in authoritative tradition," the cardinal said. "Science has wonderfully increased our powers to make and to destroy, but it does not tell us what we ought to do and why.

"It does not tell us where the universe came from, or why we exist, or what our final destination is. And yet some scientists speak as though their discipline were the only kind of valid knowledge," he said.

Even as an undergraduate student 70 years ago, he felt the "oppressive nature of a culture that had no place for objective moral norms and meaning." It was this desperation for enlightenment, the cardinal admitted, that set him "on the path that led through ancient Greek philosophy to Catholic faith."

"Christian revelation brought a tremendous increase of light. God alone, I learned from the New Testament, was good and true in an unqualified sense," he said. "And the same God in all his beauty and majesty became one of our human family in Jesus Christ, the truth, the way, and the life."

"The most important thing about my career, and many of yours, I feel sure, is the discovery of the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field -- the Lord Jesus himself," he said.

Read the entire report.

• A magisterial book about the Magisterium (March 18, 2008. About Cardinal Dulles' new book, Magisterium)
• The History and Purpose of Apologetics | An Interview with Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., author of A History of Apologetics (July 2005)
•  Foreword to Yves Congar's The Meaning of Tradition | Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. (Dec. 2004)
 

Comments

[Robert Miller]

"Western thought," he said, "followed in the path of cognitive realism for many centuries before the revival of agnosticism in the Renaissance." The cardinal repeated Pope John Paul II's admonition that philosophy should seek to "resume its original quest for eternal truth and wisdom."

This is the best succinct history of philosophy in the West that I have ever read.

[Rick]

Warmth and congeniality characterized Cardinal Avery Dulles' farewell address....

I had the honor of seeing him lecture twice, those words describe him well. The first time he came to speak at St. Joseph's University on Catholicism and the Democracy. As I recall, he was treated rather disrespectfully by a few students and some of Theology faculty, the dept. chair had a sneer on his face the entire lecture. The good Cardinal remained nothing but warm and congenial and Christ-like through the entire thing, a true priest. Ad multos anos Cardinal Dulles!

[Thomas]

Any indication of what Cardinal Dulles will do now? Has he said if he has any projects he will be directing his attention to?

[padraighh]

this thread appears to have runawy italics.

[padraighh]

this thread appears to have runaway italics

[Carl Olson]

Is that better?