Joe Hollcraft
CCP 211: Foundations of Catechetics
Week 12: November 27, 2007

XIII. Faith and Reason: “Two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of Truth” (John Paul II). Faith and Reason is the study of relationship with God built upon the cornerstone of faith rooted in knowledge of created order and beauty. They are not set against each other, but as John Paul II puts, they are complimentary—it is the dynamic relationship of the queen sciences, Theology and Philosophy (consider previous notes on the genesis of the University system)! As faith has already been considered in detail, let us turn our attention to how faith serves reason…And remember the basic characteristics of Modernity is the gulf that separates science, morality and religion.

A. Reason must always set itself upon some sort of faith. The rationale of Science concludes this in its fiduciary principle—all science is faith-based. What does Science mean by this? Reason (Science) places its trust from a previous experiment that is built upon a previous set of credentials that is built upon a series of journal, etc…faith is necessary if reason (science) is to exist.

1. So why is science and religion opposed? Simply, we have replaced faith (and removes the identity of faith as a supernatural gift) with experience and concluded that there is a higher authority in experience as opposed to faith…although, as we have now seen, all science is tied to some aspect of trust. Ultimately, what you have with reason alone is the drying up of its substance, leaving nothing but “a bird to fly with one wing” . How are we to better understand reason (science) in relationship with faith? We must consider logic.

a. Logic is the instrument to reason. What is logic? As defined by Dr. Hahn in Reasons to Believe : “Logic is simply a reflection of how the mind structures its thought, which is itself a reflection of the structure of reality” (Hahn, 19). If a person wishes to disprove logic, the individual runs into a wall because they have to do so in a logical manner. Logic allows us to move from the material to immaterial and visible to the invisible…ultimately from faith to reason and reason back to faith. This is characteristically human (Hahn, 19).

1. Letters represent sounds, which in turn become words representing things all around us. We are mathematicians from adolescence and yet they produce immaterial things. Scientists who want to disprove God use numbers all the time (Hahn, 20)!

a. Virtue, which people innately see as a necessity, is immaterial in itself but yet objective (Hahn, 20)!

XIX. Freedom and the Moral Law: Freedom is a means to an end and not an end in itself. Freedom is not what we please to do but what we ought to do. Freedom demands our attention to rules and laws, which give form to the purpose of freedom—to achieve excellence. Consult Word of the Week on Excellence.

A. “Rules” our seen by many as an infringement upon our freedom, because they see freedom as “willfulness” as opposed to a gift given to freely submit in obedience to the principles of a particular discipline…analogy of pianist and linguist!

1. Consider the natural law and our dietary needs. In obedience to our natural dietary needs our bodies will know health. It is easy to obey the laws of nature when it comes to food…the moral law is no different. In the Christian vision of law, we move from rules to virtues!

2. The moral life is not something added on to real life from the outside. It is life lived by human beings. We live in the gap of the person we are against the person we ought to be. There is always room for growth in the potential of becoming who we are called to be.

a. Pope Benedict XVI in his work Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures states: “If morality is expelled from all law then we are a culture absent of values and direction. Progress ultimately then becomes blind and destructive.” In this absence of moral law, man is driven by his capacity to advance in the technological sciences. He believes he is exercising his right, flexing his scientific muscles with no boundaries…yet has he asked, “Should I be doing this?”

b. Morality: ethics is determined by the intention, object and circumstance. We are called to generalize, reflect and discern to understand the proper choice…what operates our motives?

XX Modernism: The use of modern historical critical research to biblical scholarship that leads to a denial of certain truths of our faith. Modernism is the most pervasive heresy in our contemporary age and fails to appreciate research within its appropriate structure. When researching any subject matter you must always respect the history of the discipline that is under the scope of research. You start with its primary source and then move to the secondary source. The nature of research is built upon the principle of history: historia (L.) meaning “to weave a pattern”. To not feed the root from which a tree sprang up from is a failure to allow the tree to breathe; leaving it arid, dry and left for dead. Scientifically research is the same—you must consider your historical roots.

A. Heresy. Consult Word of the Week on Heresy

1. Modernism (naturalism/Rationalism) conceptualizes Revelation as a natural human development as mankind lives on into the future and makes progress in the sciences. Modernism places absolute trust in the cosmos to advance mankind. Modernism also discounts Divine revelation as it gives no room for the Word of God spoken to mankind from above and beyond the reach of the cosmos—science in the contemporary sense. Modernism worships reason excluding faith altogether.

a.  This philosophical apostasy has been the infection feeding of the host of Satan's agenda to divorce man from God…From Luther (solo fides) to Loisy (biblical rationalism) to our current age we have seen the progression into maybe the most pervasive cancer--Ethical/Moral Relativism!

b.  Ethical/Moral Relativism is the branch of philosophy that believes there are no absolute norms or universal truths; no moral right from wrong. Relativism speaks in the name of tolerance and mutual respect (Chesterton) whereby all is o.k. to have your truth and my truth … all the while sacrificing Truth . Essentially, morality is conditioned to social/political/cultural norms. Pope Benedict XVI in Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures states: “Relativism…believes itself in possession of the definitive knowledge of human reason, with the right to consider everything merely as a stage in human history that is basically obsolete and deserves to be relativized.”

1. John Paul II (person)…culture of life verses the culture of death is the culture of truth verses the culture of lies! The splinter heresy from this tree trunk of apostasy is Sentimentalism. Sentimentalism is the imbalance of feeling and emotions in the Christian walk where you begin to place an authority on your experience; basing your faith on feeling (kin to Rationalism…Modernism…and Moral Relativism).

a. People do not believe that evil exists in the world. We are excluding God from our public awareness! People can be well meaning or good intentioned. They do not believe that they have that inside of them—misunderstanding of Satan. We need not look far!

b. Compassion is the healthy and noble virtue whereby you are suffering (consider beatitude) with your brother in Christ…rooted in Love and Truth! It is not in conflict with Catholic Doctrine, but firmly set in it (cf. Mt.6.33)...Doctrine is not something, but rather someone!

XXI. Catechist verses the Modernist: The Modernist offers exclusively the experiences of faith where the catechist offers--Truth. The Catechist teaches what is universally true in all of its systematic parts: Catechetical definition, Holy Scriptures, History, Lives of the Saints, and Church Fathers. The true catechist exhorts us to understand the teaching and live it out…all the while dreading vice! Here we have the absolute necessity of obedience.

A.  Obedience of Faith: To listen and freely submit to the will of God (CCC 144). In this way, we participate in our own pasch, our own “hour'. Cardinal Macharski, Archbishop of Krakow remarks: “To the total gift of God there is only one response: the total gift of man. It is not just a question of accepting a message, but also of the assent to a new vocation and to a new meaning of one's own life.” Hence, obedience is the movement from allowing our will to be consumed in the father's will…the new will of conversion each day!

1. This servile obedience leads to a profound testimony to the body of Christ and is a unique participation in the witness of Christ's own paschal mystery--this is accomplished through relationship! Recall, that our conscience (L. compound meaning “with knowledge) must be formed in truth, in this way, prudence now having knowledge is the pronouncement of our formed conscience working in conformity with the Church.

2. Witness extends into the deepest recesses of this journey to Calvary . Consider St. Maximillian Kolbe…into the starvation bunker. Remember, silence and neutrality is the agent of evil!

a. Holiness is the intensification of love; allowing God to pursue us. Holiness demands fidelity when the feeling is not there. Like the rose that blossoms only after a period of time in darkness so do we in our fidelity!