Fifty Years of Saint Thomas

...Philosophic discipline can only come through intimate knowledge of the works of the great masters of thought, such as Plato, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas, 'Kant, Hegel...

...he does not confuse the spirit with the letter of a traditional doctrine...

...Whether such a program can be realized need not here be inquired into...

...Through this organ Catholic students are kept fully informed about philosophic researches carried on by non-Catholic thinkers...

...The following paper, by a professor of philosophy in the University of California, summarizes very ably non-Catholic views of the event...

...The Pope's instruction that Saint Thomas be revived by a study of his own works, and that his "golden wisdom" as embodied in the original texts be interpreted in the light of modern discoveries, is a powerful plea for philosophic scholarship, a plea in which all earnest students must rejoice, whatever their opinion about the permanent truth of Scholastic doctrine...

...Pope Leo's demand when thus generalized implies the same obligation for Catholics and non-Catholics alike: if the wisdom of all philosophers is to be drawn from their own fountains, then non-Catholics are obliged to acquire an accurate and intimate knowledge of the texts of the Schoolmen...

...The wisdom of the philosophers belonging to the modern age will not be found in the stereotyped text-books...

...He wrote: As an outsider, I do not, I think, at all exaggerate the degree to which the intellectual life of Catholicism has actually been altered in the course of this process...

...I see also (2) that there is a great increase in the understanding and appreciation of philosophers (such, for instance, as Kant) whom Catholic teachers all used to condemn without reserve or knowledge, but whom some of them, notably in France, have lately been disposed not only to comprehend, but also, in certain respects, openly to follow...

...What can a non-Catholic student of philosophy say about the Pope's momentous effort to restore to its ancient dignity the wisdom of the Scholastics...

...In the second place, a change of attitude in the opposite direction has also occurred...

...More than twenty-five years ago Royce published an article in the Boston Evening Transcript on Pope Leo's Philosophical Movement and Its Relation to Modern Thought...

...All philosophy is not Thomistic, nor is Thomism separable from those great questions of faith which are either anterior or ulterior to philosophic speculation...

...2) It will not return as it was in the middle-ages...

...at all events, if Thomas is to be carried "through seven centuries," the works of these seven centuries must be studied and known in that spirit of philosophic scholarship which Pope Leo's encyclical invokes for the study and knowledge of the volumes of the Angelic Doctor...

...All philosophy, if I may here adopt the words of William James, is "only an unusually obstinate attempt to think clearly and consistently...

...Royce spoke of course from the point of view of a non-Catholic...

...Thomism is not coterminous with all reason, and at the same time it is much more than reason...

...through their lectures and books they have succeeded in exhibiting to non-Catholic students the depth and the significance of the doctrines of the Schools, and in stimulating a profound and sustained interest in them...

...But what I do see . . . is (I) that there is a distinct increase of ctive cooperation on the part of Catholic scholars in he relatively neutral tasks of modern science and scholarship...

...The one safe foundation of Neo-Thomism, then, is Thomism, by which I here mean a thorough hold on the philosophical system of Saint Thomas as it appears in his works...

...But it can give us clearness of thought and depth of insight...

...Many of our laws are violations of conscience...

...Let me but mention, as far as this country is concerned, the frequent presence in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University of two authoritative exponents of Scholastic learning and tradition...

...These articles and reviews, though reflecting the standpoint of Catholic philosophy, are always written with fairness and moderation, aiming above everything else at cogent analysis and sound criticism...

...The basis on which men of diverse beliefs may cooperate without contentiousness, though not the only basis, is certainly that of honest scholarship required for the disclosure of what the great thinkers of the race have actually taught...

...In other words, what will come back will be Neo-Scholasticism...

...He must carry Thomas faithfully through seven centuries, and in his furthest and most daring innovation be still Thomistic...

...A lover of philosophic discipline will not deny the Pope's declaration that reason was borne "on the wings of Thomas to its human height...

...The encyclical contains a plea for genuine scholarship...

...The ideal of scholarship, such as Pope Leo demanded for the study of Scholasticism, our contemporary Scholastics have taken to heart in dealing with philosophic endeavors of every sort...

...Let carefully selected teachers endeavor to implant the doctrine of Saint Thomas in the minds of students, and set forth his solidity and excellence over others...

...I find such views maintained, with various modifications, by men whose position among the faithful seems, at least when viewed from without, to be quite secure...

...His encyclical letter -Aeterni Patris has therefore been read and discussed anew during recent months...

...But a technical issue of this sort does not fall within the purview of my present discussion...

...It epitomizes the fact that, through the Pope's encyclical, Scholastic philosophy and modern thought have in some measure become partners in the common tasks of human civilization...

...and this discipline is urgently needed if our understanding of things is to be clear and not confused, and if our thinking is to be sustained and not fitful...

...But there is little clearness about the ends and purposes of life...

...On the other side, I may refer to the New Scholasticism, a philosophical quarterly of great solidity, which devotes many articles and reviews to an understanding of philosophic products emanating from non-Catholic sources...

...He must have caught up with the Saint before he can go beyond him...

...I am grateful for the privilege of adding my words to it...

...he indicates the historical method in dealing with the great thinkers of Catholic faith...

...Prejudice is rampant...

...And (3) I also read, occasionally, efforts to show that there is nothing in the "philosophical principles" of Scholasticism which is at all hostile to the transformation of species, or to the whole set of doctrines known by the name of evolution, in so far, at least, as these doctrines are matters of natural science...

...No longer may the histories of philosophy written by non-Catholics ignore the treasures of Thomism...

...How far faith and reason are distinct and yet associated is a stupendous problem...

...Let the academies already founded or to be founded . . . illustrate and defend this doctrine...

...The command of Leo XIII to draw the doctrine of Saint Thomas "from his own fountains," lest his authentic ideas be adulterated or perverted if uncritically derived from sources not approved of by the unanimous opinion of learned men, is a command which has equal validity with respect to every modern thinker...

...In the first place, the revival of Scholastic learning has been accomplished by a critical study of original sources, upon which the labors of many great scholars have been spent, and such critical research has led to a recognition by non-Catholics of the vast importance for modern thought of the methods and results of Scholastic doctrine...

...We have attained marvelous efficiency in coping with the material forces of nature...

...For philosophic scholarship is nothing else than competent mastery of original texts, and a mastery which involves assimilation of ancient learning to modes of thought and ways of insight characteristic of the age in which such textual studies are prosecuted...

...But it is one of the very superb achievements of human intelligence, a supreme instance of philosophic discipline, a traditional and still vital example of an "unusually obstinate attempt to think clearly and consistently...

...Nor can it be expected of him that he should reject as "errors" all the philosophic views that are inconsistent with those of the Schoolmen...

...And whatever the vigor with which the validity of the results of these researches is often disputed by the contributors to the New Scholasticism, I am always struck by their honest effort to understand thoroughly even where their criticism is most severe...

...but, by the same token, it behooves students professing the Catholic faith to become thoroughly acquainted with the original writings of modern thinkers...

...What Royce wrote twenty-five years ago is still true today...

...This means vigorous study, not only of the works of the ancient Scholastics, but also of the work of modern thinkers in the light of whose results ancient Scholasticism may require reinterpretation...

...In the study of Scholasticism the Pope urges a return to the sources...

...And this discloses a second motive why a non-Catholic may join in commemorating the Pope's encyclical...

...We students of philosophy must work together to clarify judgment and make operative the blessings of calm understanding...

...and if faith is absent, it will not be implanted in the hearts of men by a system of abstract propositions, no matter how cogent...

...As he says in the article referred to: If the process which Leo initiated continues to go on unhindered, the positive results for the increase of a wholesome cooperation between Catholic and non-Catholic investigators will probably be both great and helpful...

...As Father Rickaby puts it (in Scholasticism, his volume dealing with the subject) : (I) Scholasticism will return...

...Although the aim of Pope Leo's famous instructions was to revive for Catholic education the principles of Scholasticism, and, more especially, "to restore the golden wisdom of Saint Thomas," the importance of the great encyclical for teachers and scholars outside the Catholic Church invites on this occasion particular emphasis...

...To do this calls for intellectual discipline of the highest order, and of the need and the importance of this discipline Pope Leo's encyclical is a signal recognition...

...His goal must be the twentieth century, but his starting-point the thirteenth...

...We cannot assert of justice that she is even-handed...

...And open lawlessness is the price we are called upon to pay for the existence of laws not sustained by sound criticism...

...Reflective Catholics and non-Catholics will both agree that faith has nothing to fear from philosophy: if faith is once firmly established, no philosophy, however deficient or one-sided, will be able to dislodge it...

...There is a deplorable confusion of ideals...

...The rule of reason is absent from many of our legislative enactments...

...The need of such scholarship is indeed emphasized by all those who are concerned about the future of Scholasticism...

...Many of our political leaders are without that philosophic nature which Plato demanded of those who are to rule over us...

...That in consequence of Pope Leo's famous instructions, Catholics and non-Catholics must henceforth prosecute in common the tasks of philosophic scholarship was the opinion of my friend and teacher, the late Josiah Royce...

...The title is significant...

...The unity of spirit in philosophic scholarship noted by him has grown apace...

...We live in a mechanical and industrial age...

...The consequences of philosophic scholarship, in the sense which is here adumbrated, and which the Pope's encyclical urges in behalf of Scholasticism, have actually proved to be of the greatest moment...

...In speaking of the wisdom of Saint Thomas, the encyclical says: If there be anything [in it] that ill agrees with the discoveries of a later age, or, in a word, improbable in whatever way, it does not enter Our mind to propose that for imitation to Our age...

...What is to save us from lack of vision and spiritual discontent...

...Just as it is now impossible for non-Catholic text-books to relegate to secondary importance the original and fertile ideas of the Scholastic doctors, so likewise cavalier treatment by Catholic text-books of the methods and results of modern philosophers is becoming increasingly untenable...

...Our economic system is a monument to human power and ingenuity...

...Surely this rapprochement between Catholic and non-Catholic scholars is a result of that philosophic discipline to which all minds must submit if they are to master human speculations and not be mastered by them...

...Philosophic discipline alone will not give us courage to seek and hope to labor...

...We of today have a special need of philosophic discipline...

...M. de Wulf, of the University of Louvain, and E. Gilson, of the University of Paris, have in recent years added much weight and great distinction to the teaching of philosophy at my alma mater...

...As one who cherishes philosophic discipline for its own sake, as well as for the sake of the reasonable life, I see in the appeal to Saint Thomas an appeal to the spirit of philosophy itself...

...We cannot renounce philosophy without at the same time surrendering reason as the arbiter in human affairs...

...POPE LEO'S encyclical of August 4, 1879, the fiftieth anniversary of which has been the occasion of a number of addresses, is worthy of commemoration by all serious students of philosophy...

...In providing comforts and luxuries of life we are astonishingly progressive and inventive...

...The injunction to draw the doctrine of Saint Thomas "from his own fountains" is a definite rebuke to all those who assume that brief summaries may be substituted for the original works of a great thinker...

...An unbiased opinion will share in the Pope's estimate of Saint Thomas that "philosophy has no part which, he did not touch at once finely and thoroughly...

...be careful to guard the minds of youth from those which are said to flow thence, but in reality are gathered from strange and unwholesome streams...

...A pioneer and founder of Neo-Thomism will not in all things remain a Thomist, but he must begin with being a Thomist in the sense just defined...

...What I wish to emphasize is the spirit of philosophy as such rather than the truth of a particular philosophy with respect to this technical issue or to that...

...We are said to be a prosperous nation...

...They have become restored in their full splendor by the researches of authorities whose competence and integrity are recognized by Catholics and non-Catholics alike...

...The study of Saint Thomas today must inevitably provide that synoptic view of things without which we are lost in the chaos of impressions and in the jungle of passions...

...Those who recognize the importance of philosophic discipline as the basis of clear thinking, those who accord preeminence to the rule of reason rather than to the rule of passion in human life, may honestly and sincerely applaud the Pope's famous exhortation to study Saint Thomas...

...it is the problem of all the Schoolmen, and, in one form or another, it is a problem with which every philosopher is concerned...

...This must be said by a non-Catholic in order neither to hyperbolize nor to limit unduly the Thomistic philosophy...

...Such treasures are no longer hidden or inaccessible...

...In fashioning the means of existence we have shown ourselves possessed of incomparable genius...

...it, too, must be recaptured by a return to the original sources...

...One reason is quite obvious...

...But, lest the false for the true or the corrupt for the pure be drunk in, be ye watchful that the doctrine of Thomas be drawn from his own fountains...

...We have all but conquered time and space...

...For instance, again quoting Father Rickaby: Any pretense to tell what Saint Thomas now would say, were he alive, must be illusory unless it be grounded upon an accurate and adequate knowledge of what he actually has said in the writings which he has bequeathed to us...

...Yet, without raising the issue whether the only "true" philosophy is that of the Angelic Doctor, or whether any philosophy that differs from it is necessarily "false," there are two reasons why a non-Catholic student may rejoice in the revival of Scholasticism brought about by Pope Leo's encyclical...

...It is of course not expected of him that he should believe in the finality of that wisdom...

...We may add that it is, with some changes, the manuscript of an address delivered at Saint Mary's College, California, at the meeting held in commemoration of the encyclical letter.-The Editors...

...Our lawmakers are at the mercy of conflicting opinions and values...

...I recognize how very conservative the great body of Catholic theologians have remained, and I do not imagine that either the dogmas or the political policy of that Church will undergo any notable change at any early date in consequence of the movement of which I speak, no matter how far it goes...

...And because the dignity of reason is in the philosophy of Saint Thomas so beautifully defended, and because the integrity of reason is in it so gloriously vindicated, every disinterested student must regard the Pope's encyclical as a historical event of major importance, whatever his relations to this or that religious faith...

...Time does not permit a survey of philosophic activities produced by the cooperation between Catholic and non-Catholic scholars...

...The study of compendious text-books is never the same as the study of authentic texts...

...One reason, then, for remembering today the work which Pope Leo initiated in his great encyclical lies in this, that through it a basis has been provided on which scholars of all faiths may meet and labor together...

...Royce, who knew and cherished the works of the Schoolmen, appreciated profoundly the meaning of the movement inaugurated by Pope Leo...