AMERICAN CATHOLIC INTELLECTUALISM: A THEOLOGIAN'S REFLECTION

In: The review of politics, Band 19, Heft 3, S. 275-307

Abstract

The problem is the place of an intellectual in the Church. Reference to earlier Christian philosophers, like Origen, Augustin, St. Thomas, does not solve the problem, because their definition of sci is diff from ours. They recognized that theology was the norm of valid teaching even in disciplines beyond theology. When Galileo was condemned by the Church, the new sci almost literally left the Church. Today the theologian has to recognize the relevance of sci developed without his assistance, but sci is giving new importance to religion & the Church is blessing the Cath sci'ts. In America the small number of Cath's in rational scholarship is an urgent problem. The Cath pop of an average eastern US U is 50% of the whole. The Cath theologians failed to produce a satisfactory explanation of the problem. Basically sociol'al explanation is right. The root of the US Cath Church is a non-intellectual proletariat from Europe, but the inherent conservatism of the Church to which the scholar is a threat has to be taken into account. The clergy may also be disturbed by the prospect of more scholars in the Cath community. The problem of US Cath intellectualism is a missionary preoccupation of those who want to recruit Cath's for intellectual life, but they meet with little response in the Cath community itself. There is a lack of recognition of what good scholarship is. Another source of disorientation is the manner of teaching philosophy in Cath Coll's. A sociol'al phenomenon in the US Cath body is a religious influence in its outlook on scholarship & a kind of training which leads away from it. It is difficult to make practical suggestions but there must be no urging of youth to a life of scholarship with the whip of the Church's need. If the Lord wants a more dynamic scholarly group in the American Church, He will raise it up & no man can get in His way. IPSA.