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OUR APPROACH TO KNOWLEDGE
All of the foregoing, however, is only one aspect of the Catholic intellectual tradition. The other aspect is the way we have learned to deal with experience and knowledge in order to acquire true wisdom, live well, and build good societies, laws and customs. Central to this are values and assumptions that we share with all religious traditions. These include the conviction that human life has meaning and that the meaning can be known. Further, they include the understanding that the basic principles of moral right and wrong are given and not humanly invented. Beyond this we hold in common with all religious traditions the deliberately fostered yearning for communion with the ultimately transcendent, and the understanding that in some way this is connected with the way we relate to one another.
These are foundational principles that we usually treat as pre-suppositions and therefore do not even examine. They are seldom called into question by ordinary people. Yet the drift of modern philosophies, especially since the end of the Second World War, suggests that it is urgent that some of us in scholarly circles reflect seriously on these underlying principles and their consequences at the levels at which contemporary science and technology, contemporary analysis in the humanities, and contemporary philosophy and social sciences influence the shaping of our society.
Beyond the common base that we share with all religious traditions there is, of course, a Christian core that we share with our fellow Christians. At its simplest, this is the conviction that in the person of Jesus of Nazareth we have an utterly trustworthy interpretation of the meaning and destiny of human life, of human relationship with God, and of what constitutes a good life. From this simple beginning, the Christian community over the centuries has elaborated ways of worship, structures of society, beliefs, and expectations, all of which go to make up a way of proceeding. Among Christian communities, however, some characteristic emphases and understandings are more particularly Catholic. In this essay, I would like to point to some that have direct implications for Catholic higher education and scholarship. These are: commitment to the continuity between faith and reason; respect for the cumulative wisdom of the past; an anti-elitist bent; attention to the community dimension of all human behavior; concern for integration of goals and objectives; and keen awareness of the sacramental principle.
The first of these, the continuity of faith and reason, leads Catholic universities and colleges to include philosophy and theology as essential components of the liberal arts core of undergraduate education, and to offer public lectures on current issues in public, professional and private life, to address these issues from a faith perspective. In contrast to some strands of Christian tradition, the Catholic tradition has strongly emphasized the need to think through the coherence of the faith and to challenges to it from secular events and knowledge. We see this as a practice of faith, not a rejection of it. And this has led Catholic universities to develop philosophical traditions that train the mind to think clearly about the implications of the faith. The fact that the Scholastic tradition as it was passed on earlier in the twentieth century no longer serves this need adequately does not mean that we should abandon the project, but rather that we must find new philosophical vehicles to pursue it.
The second characteristic emphasis that I have singled out is that of respect for the cumulative wisdom of the past. In contrast to the position of some Christian communities which look for Christian wisdom only in Scripture or only in the legacy of the pre-Constantinian era, the Catholic community has set great store by knowledge of the cumulative wisdom of all the Christian centuries. Indeed, we have inherited and preserved the attitude of the second-century Greek apologists for Christianity in appreciating even the wisdom of pagan traditions as seen and adapted in the light of the faith. Catholic universities, therefore, have typically had strong programs in the humanities and often outstanding programs in classics at a time when others have tended to abandon the classical languages and deal with classical literature and mythology only very lightly.
The third characteristic mentioned above is the anti-elitist bent. This is another way of expressing that mark of the church that we used to call universality. Salvation and all other human goods are intended by the creator for all. All human beings and all peoples and nations are precious to God, who is at all times self-revealing to them. There is, therefore, a certain intellectual humility required in Catholic scholars and Catholic institutions, as well as a certain sense of responsibility for the conduct and use of scholarship, time, and resources. Non-elitism means responsibility to the whole community for what we choose to research and write, for the resources we use up in doing it, and for the way we use time when the labor of others indirectly makes possible our leisure for study and scholarly work. But non-elitism also means writing in a style that is accessible to non-specialists and teaching in a way that is helpful to all students. It means making strenuous efforts to include the underprivileged or excluded from society. It also means treating respectfully cultures and customs alien from our own.
The fourth characteristic is closely related to this. Attention to the community dimension of all human actions means that there cannot be a pursuit of any and all kinds of research or teaching simply out of the intrinsic interest of the subject, as though it were all a game without consequences. Critical discernment must be exercised as to the impact of releasing certain kinds of information into the society, as with increasingly powerful weaponry, or the effect of using resources for one kind of research that are badly needed for another kind that addresses urgent human need. Similarly, to say that there is a community dimension to all human actions also implies that teaching can never be without reference to the impact on the students and, through them, on their society. This applies, for instance, to the kinds of questions that are unfolded in relation to the maturity of the students to deal with such questions. And it applies to the kind of literature that is read in relation to the ability of the students to be discerning about the values expressed or implied, and about the behavior described. Moreover, the community dimension means that everything that is taught is placed in the context of what the students will do with their knowledge and the impact on their community.
This relates in turn to a fifth characteristic, namely, the concern to integrate knowledge as a basis for true wisdom in the living of one's life. Perhaps one of the most troubling aspects of rapid change and technical development in our times is that people of all ages have to learn so much so fast. They have to master so much instrumental knowledge and skill at such speed of assimilation that the more significant questions of meaning and purpose are often crowded out. The integration of learning in a coherent worldview or philosophy of life is a necessary basis for living a good, productive, well-directed life. It is necessary, though not sufficient, for setting proper priorities, for attaining a proper hierarchy of values, and even for attaining an appropriate intellectual humility in work and career, and in relations with other people.
A sixth characteristic, the final one mentioned here, is the experience and understanding that modern Catholics have come to name the sacramental principle. This refers not only to the seven sacraments that are central to Catholic worship, but to a broader experience that has to do with the way human beings use their memory and imagination. Our perception of reality is never in terms of raw experience, but is always arranged, interpreted, focused by the active mind of the perceiver. How we do this depends in large part on what we have experienced in the past, how those about us interpreted the experiences in which we shared, the representational art about us, the stories we heard, the way space and society had already been organized for us, and so forth. Two faculties play a role in this: memory which records what has been, and imagination which arranges the elements of experience in a meaningful pattern. An insight that Catholics particularly inherited from their Jewish or Hebrew past is that this is the way a people shapes its culture, and likewise the way the culture shapes the people. It can happen almost by default, a real risk in a pluralistic rapidly changing society like ours, or it can be the outcome of focused contemplation and critical reflection.
It has been a continuing practice of the Catholic community to build on religious memories by story and image, in literature and art, in music and architecture, in the liturgy and in extra-liturgical devotions, and in the elaboration of symbols of all kinds. The purpose of this is to shape the memories and the imagination of succeeding generations of believers so that they will interpret all their experiences in terms of the pervasive presence of the sacred and in terms of a history of salvation. The value that this gives to the education of the imagination is a precious heritage with implications for all education and in a special way for higher education. It demands a foundation in the liberal arts, a style of education that fosters contemplation, and a respect for works of scholarship that take a long time. This is all rather counter-cultural in our times.
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