MODERNISM AND THE GROWING CATHOLIC IDENTITY PROBLEM: THOMISTIC REFLECTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
Journal Title: Studia Gilsoniana - Year 2015, Vol 4, Issue 3
Abstract
Philosophical forces gathered in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Catholic Mod-ernism have crystallized into theological views which permeate the antinomian atmosphere in the Church today, resulting in an ongoing Catholic identity problem, both within the Church and in relation to the world. In place of the perennial philosophy and its contempla-tive ideal, many now welcome the incoherence of broad philosophical and theological plural-ism, while pastoral practice is infused with the fruits of pragmatism and the rhetoric of false dichotomies (justice/mercy, intellectual/pastoral, tradition/living faith, speculative truth/char-ity, for example). To reverse this anti-intellectual course, rehabilitation of Aquinas’s posi-tions on the primacy of the speculative order and contemplative charism, his integration of natural, revealed and mystical wisdoms, and his sense of objective worship, is needed. A brief account of the robust role of philosophy in the Church’s mission and of Gilson’s nu-anced position on the encounter of Thomism and Modernism supports this assertion.
Authors and Affiliations
Heather M. Erb
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