At this rate, the Mods will have to make a new category of question entitles, "aimless musings."

I was thinking today about Catholic philosophers and thinkers and what they have in common. It would seem very little. But there are some things; some tendencies and qualities which are visible even in ex-Catholics, or soon-to-be Catholics, as well as the saintliest Catholics in history.

This could be a useless exercise in abstraction. Still, I wonder if we can look hard at ourselves and reveal something of a Catholic ethos. Let me try a few:

• So it seems, for Catholics, that the only permissable extreme is devotion. I'm not talking about the extremes that we passively receive--some of us are extremely short or have extremely large noses; no culpa in that. But as far as our choices are concerned, it seems that almost every extreme is identified with sin (or at least 'non-virtue'), except for devotion--to God and to fellow man, of course (but the latter is contained in the former). I say devotion rather than holiness or love because we have a clearer picture of what devotion means. 'Holiness' is a frenetic and loaded word, with too many indepednent meanings. It can even connote sanctimoniousness, which nobody likes. 'Love' as word is even more problematic, and it lacks the sense of activity implicit in 'devotion'. On second thought, 'devotion' as I conceive it really contains in it all of Faith, Hope, and Love.
• It seems to me that there is, in Catholicism, a certain unique and celebrated plurality. Now, I hope certain very sensitive people here don't receive that as a codeword for dissent. It isn't (so breathe, ok?) I only innocently point out that if you combine the Pauline rule, "Test everything, retain what is good," with the world and a rigorous and faith-informed discernment, you end up with a virtually infinite banquet of Grace. This can take as its form the heroism of a Chinese Catholic in the face of political oppression to the simple faith of a soccer mom in Tennessee. A firmly devoted Catholic can best discern and appropriate the treasures God cultivates in the world without fear or danger of the pitfalls of synchretism or error. For example, a Catholic philosopher can look at someone ostensibly opposed to everything good (like Nietzsche), and turn their thought completely on its head (or onto its feet, as it were) and end up with a jewel of Truth. There is nowhere where there is no goodness to be found.
• With respect to non-Catholic or non-Christian religions, a Catholic heart expects a peaceful co-existence, but is nevertheless confident not only in the truth of its devotion (see above) but also the cosmic joy of it. Some kind of substantial evangelization seems necessary, and the Catholic ethos, I suspect, rejects both the thinly-veiled non-evangelization of "only preach through example" and the anti-evangelization of "show them how they're obviously in the wrong religion." I suspect that Catholic evangelization takes the following forms:
  • We pray for their conversion; for God to give the other the gifts He knows they need; for their true joy such as can only be found in the truth, and so on. Those are favorites of mine, anyway.
  • We do preach "by example".
  • We seek to introduce our faith as one would a family member. "Hello, pleased to meet you, Muslim Bob; this is my faith, Catholic Christianity. Have you met?"
  • We respectfully and carefully represent our beliefs when asked about them, not as a scientist would, but as one with a devotion.
  • We celebrate the joys and lament the sorrows of the other, seeing their inherent dignity, and representing the Church as in tune with the depths of human joy.
• It seems to me that a strong part of the Catholic ethos is that we want to be in harmony with our nature as human beings. (See my post on natural law).
• I think that a very strong Catholic meta-value is honesty; almost no other human act (without respect to objective levels of evil) is quite as emotionally despicable as willful deception, whether it takes the form of a verbal lie, an ideological self-deception, a symbolic deception (e.g., Mormons/Jehova's Witnesses insisting on their status as Christians despite their almost total departure from the tenets of the Apostle's Creed). Sins against truth are grievious indeed for Catholics.

I think that's about what I have for now. Additions? Contentions? Prayers?

-- anon (ymous@god.bless), March 11, 2004

Answers

"Can I bump it?" "Yes you can!"

-- anon (ymous@God.bless), March 12, 2004.

Not sure I understand how you are using devotion. Paint for me a biography or a 'day in the life' of a 'devoted' man.

In Christ, Bill

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), March 12, 2004.