The Facts of Life Series: Catholicism
Catholicism is an affront to the modern world. For our modern world arrogantly asserts real truth does not exist. Modern truth is only a matter of personal perception, not a matter of fact. And, it is right here that Catholicism commits the first sin of modern culture. And, it does so without hesitation, without qualification.
It rejects the cardinal rule of modernity and dismisses its foundational tenets, so dominant in our times. It breaks the barrier of tolerance and its implicit relativism. It denies the nonsense of nihilism and the emptiness of existentialism. And, it does all this with striking simplicity and relentless rational rigor.
And, it is this relentless rationality that is one of Catholicism’s truly distinctive traits, particularly in modern times. For our modern world rejects reason’s power to prove things confining reason’s utility merely to matters of rhetoric, persuasion, manipulation.
But, Catholicism insists, as it always has, that it is true. Objectively and factually true. Rationally and scientifically true. Provably true. True in the commonsensical sense, not in the nonsensical modern sense of true, where the idea of truth is an illusion, a product of personal perception and willful belief.
For Catholicism is “the” way, not “a” way; “the” answer not “an” answer; “the” truth, not “a” truth. And Catholicism justifies and explains such assertions with persistent rational proof. Catholicism does not do so with an assertion of its authority or even with an appeal to its history or its worldwide popularity. It does so by inviting skeptics and critics, the curious and the convinced to examine rationally its evidence, not merely to accept its conclusions.
It simply asks the curious and the critical to think through the questions about God, just as Catholics themselves have across the centuries. It asks the unconvinced to think again and reminds them to reason rigorously. It challenges modern men and women to critically examine its evidence and to be similarly circumspect about their own modern conclusions.
For like it or not, Catholicism is either true or it is false. It is right or it is wrong. It is of consummate importance or it is nothing more than a comforting fairy tale we hold onto in the face of life’s grinding mechanistic materialism and its accompanying meaninglessness. If Catholicism is not true, then it is of no real importance or worth, despite what modernity’s assumptions tell us about the prominence of perception as the sole determinant of truth.
But, significantly Catholicism does not build its philosophy on willful belief, nor does it expect its adherents to embrace a blind faith. Rather it claims that true knowledge of God is available to anyone who honestly and rationally seeks the truth. For Catholicism asserts the primacy of the mind of God, rather than the will of God as many other faiths do, even Christian ones. And, this is a difference that makes all the difference.
For the Catholic way tells us we can know God exists and we can know His nature, if we but think clearly and consistently, rigorously and rationally. This rational basis is a crucial and key distinctive of Catholicism, that every other religion does not share, to this deliberate degree. Catholicism asserts that our thinking, when it is done properly, tells us a great deal about God. Using our God given rational capabilities to discover and understand God has nothing to do with a prior belief. For belief is a conclusion, a rational conclusion based on evidence.
And, reason is the way we properly pursue such questions. Reason has everything to do with properly applying the laws of logic to the subject of God. Most people, if given a chance, understand that process of rational inquiry is both necessary and fair. Yet, even here there is evidence for God. For the very idea of a rational order to thought is a primary precept of Catholicism’s assertions of truth and how truth may be found and proven, developed and expanded.
As St. Augustine says, “Heaven forbid that we should believe in such a way as not to accept or seek reasons, since we could not even believe if we did not possess rational souls.” Not only is reason important, but it is, in fact, primary. Again, Augustine tells us “for faith to precede reason in certain matters that cannot yet be grasped, surely the very small portion of reason that persuades us of this must precede faith.” Reason comes first. But reason’s order and power are not a human contrivance, but a divinely created one.
Thus, reason is the basis of truth and the basis of the Catholic faith. For they are one and the same. Catholicism insists it is a rational religion. For there is no physical reason that reason and its intangible nature, order and power should exist. Yet, they do. And, they manifest the very mind of God. They present the primary path to knowing God exists, to knowing how we should live and what life’s many purposes are. And, they reveal a routine rational and relational opportunity to experience God, the possibility of an everyday epiphanic encounter with Him.
Yet, this rational character of the Catholic faith does not mean it is without revelation. It is revelatory because God is actively involved with humanity and His disciples. For revelation is really just a word for the reality of God communicating with us more directly. And, revelation is a special means, just as reason is the more typical, the more regular means of such communication. Revelation is just God taking the initiative to speak to us. It is His side of our relationship and personal intimacy with this us, individually and collectively.
But, reason itself is revelatory, a means for discovering revelatory content and for understanding it. Reason’s proper use is the common path to revelation, the revelation of the instant insight, the revelation of the relentless rational pursuit of truth, the rational recognition of the truth sitting there waiting for our discovery.
Also, Catholicism’s distinctive emphasis on reason is clearly evident in the preparation of its priests. For the typical preparatory sequence involves four years of study in philosophy followed by three years in theology. Philosophy, as a method of study, depends on the right use of reason, which is taught explicitly in logic and epistemology courses and implicitly in all other philosophical areas such as ethics, metaphysics and aesthetics.
Catholicism’s philosophy of human nature and its functioning also reflects this rational emphasis. Catholicism places our rational intellect as the foundation of its conception of human functioning. Catholicism’s paradigm begins with the prominence of our rational intellect that properly informs our will, which in turn controls our emotions. And, our intellect is properly utilized when it is grounded in truth and sound reasoning.
Catholicism, by virtue of its emphases on reason, not only allows for progress, but it is the impetus for progress in the major areas of human life and living and in the profundities of its fundamental truths. This progress is implicit in its rational emphases and is evident in many explicit ways over the length of its history. For even a cursory look at the number of its councils and synods, its encyclicals and ministries demonstrate its reverence for reason’s God given capacity to develop and deepen the nature of its specific dogmas and its relevant use and application of these over time and circumstance.
Also, just look at Catholicism’s history in education. Beginning in the Sixth Century there were monastic and cathedral schools. In 1079 Pope Gregory VII issued a decree establishing formal regulation of these schools. Within a decade of this decree, Bologna established the first true university followed by Paris (1150) and Oxford (1167). And, virtually every university in Europe was a Catholic institution until the Sixteenth Century.
Or, look at the many prominent Catholic scientists and mathematicians over the history of the Church. Albertus Magnus, Copernicus, da Vinci, Mendel, Bacon, Lemaitre, Galileo, Descartes, Pasteur, Pascal, Lavoisier and many more were all significant figures in the development of these fields since the time of the first universities. The Catholic emphases on reason fueled scientific and mathematical progress, just as it compelled similar advances in philosophy and theology, in morality and the arts.
Remember too that Catholicism is a distinctive religion. For there is no religion in the history of humanity that has put reason in such a prominent place in the explanation, justification and defense of its truth. No religion ever made reason so crucial not just to explaining its religion’s foundational tenets, but to proving them so certainly and explaining them so rationally.
Given the modern world’s faulty ideas about truth and human knowing, the Catholic emphases on reason and its many applied areas is truly revolutionary. For it cuts right to the heart of our modern epistemology’s stupidity and its many cultural errors and depravities. It proves God and truth exist. It proves reason’s reality and power in the face of modern assertions to the contrary. It proves the nature of true goodness and beauty, virtue and love and all their many implications. It even proves that these many aspects of reality not only could be true or should be true, but that they must be true.
And, that is certainly revolutionary. But, it is a rational revolution. A revolution of good news. Good news that requires rigorous rational thinking. A good news revolution that only requires following reason’s well-worn path to the truth and discovering Catholicism is where that path inexorably leads.
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This article is the thirteenth part in an extended series on the “The Facts of Life” by F. X. Cronin. You can start with part one by clicking here and see previous entries by clicking here.
We also recommend Mr. Cronin’s latest book, The World According to God: The Whole Truth About Life and Living. It is available from your favorite bookstore and through Sophia Institute Press.
