MODERNISM AND THE GROWING CATHOLIC IDENTITY PROBLEM: THOMISTIC REFLECTIONS AND SOLUTIONS

• Authors: Heather M. Erb
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Philosophical forces gathered in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Catholic Modernism 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 contemplative ideal, many now welcome the incoherence of broad philosophical and theological pluralism, 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/charity, for example). To reverse this anti-intellectual course, rehabilitation of Aquinas’s positions 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 nuanced position on the encounter of Thomism and Modernism supports this assertion.

Keywords

EN

Catholic Modernism; Catholic identity; Aquinas; Gilson; Garrigou-Lagrange; Blondel; perennial philosophy; worship; pluralism; speculative truth; pragmatism; Leo XIII; Pius X; Pius XII; John Paul II; Aeterni Patris; Dei Filius; Humani Generis; Fides et Ratio; manualists; gradualism; Scholasticism; contemplation; dogma; mystical theology; Vatican Synod on the Family

• Publisher: International Étienne Gilson Society
• Journal: Studia Gilsoniana
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 251-283

Dates

published

2015-09-30

Contributors

author

Heather M. Erb

• Great Books Academy, USA

Notes

EN

Issue Theme: “Renewing the West: Religion, Atheism, and Common Sense.” Guest Editor of the Issue: Tomasz Kopiczko

Identifiers

ISSN

2300-0066