In a book entitled The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century, by Robert Royal, the author recounts a story of Josyf Slipyi (1944-1984), a Catholic Archbishop from the Ukraine, who endured terrible tortures for almost twenty years in a Russian Gulag. He was released in 1963. Despite his terrible ordeal, he ministered to his fellow prisoners, both Christian and non-Christian alike while he was in the Gulag.
Faith and Life in a Russian Gulag
What really got my attention in Royal’s account is how Slipyi “lectured on medieval philosophy” in the Gulag. Why would he do such a thing in such barbarous conditions? Slipyi reasoned that such scholarly activity was intended to “prepare for the day when the church would emerge from captivity.” This is what happens when a person looks at his or her circumstances, no matter how dire, with the eyes of faith.
Imagine such foresight to not only think of survival, but to look forward to such a time when the church would thrive again, and with it all of the things that characterize Christian civilization – philosophy, art, literature, etc.
Why is a blog on philosophy and faith pertinent in a time when the foundations of Western civilization seem to be crumbling? Because, even though nations may rise and fall, the Church will never be destroyed. The material in this blog is not really focused on how to get through this present darkness and societal collapse, for here are many other resources for that. Rather, the purpose of this blog is to provide concise material in one place that future generations can use to help rebuild and restore Christian civilization again, with or without the United States or Europe as we know it. For you see, in God’s economy nations are expendable, but his Church will endure forever.
I realize that I am just one small voice, but I believe that it is the coalescing of thousands of voices that makes a difference. There is only one truth, but, because of our experiences and education, each person sees that truth from a slightly different perspective. By putting all of our perspectives together, the rich tapestry of what is called reality starts to take shape. It is my hope that you will be inspired as well, by this blog, to add your voice to the conversation in whatever way works best for you.
Purpose of this Blog
In this blog, I seek to explore the relationship between Faith and Reason. The religion in mind is Christianity and in particular Catholicism. Even if you are not a Catholic Christian, you will still benefit greatly from this blog. And if you are not a Christian at all, I think that you will be fascinated by what you will learn.
The philosophy that I will discuss is ancient Greek philosophy. I begin with some posts on the life of Socrates because I consider him to be the father of reason or philosophy, even thought there were philosophers years before him. If you read the posts on him, you will understand why. I then go on to a series of posts on Abraham, because he is considered the father of faith by the Jews, Christians, and Muslims. After that, go back to philosophy again as I discuss the Presocratic philosophers. Eventually, I will make my way to Plato, Aristotle, and the rest. I will demonstrate how these two tributaries of faith and reason eventually merged into the Catholic Church.
I am a non-academic philosopher. Being non-academic, I can think more creatively and am not constrained by peer expectations or academic presuppositions. The academic process should be a means to an end, but unfortunately has become an end in itself. Much of modern philosophy is an esoteric echo chamber that has no bearing or practical application to real life. Academics have taken philosophy out of the context of history which has caused to to become an abstract discipline. Because of all of this, modern philosophers have walled themselves off from the people that they should be serving.
In my blog, I will always seek to root the philosophy that I discuss within the historical and social contexts from which it came. This will not only be more interesting, but also will keep it from getting overly abstract and impractical. I will also seek to apply it to contemporary times. This is the way that philosophy was meant to be done. I hope will find as much enjoyment from it as I have.
Faith and Philosophy Joined
Greek philosophy provided the tools and the philosophical language that made it possible to understand and express Christian theology in a deep and coherent fashion. The Greeks also asked the questions, for which they had no answers, that were eventually answered by the Christianity. Without the Greek’s philosophical ideas, the Christians would have been hard pressed to articulate their faith. And without the revealed truths of Christianity, many of the profound philosophical questions of the Greeks would have gone unanswered. But they weren’t just Greek questions, they were really the types of questions that all cultures throughout the world ask in their particular way. The Greeks asked universal questions, but in their own uniquely Geek manner and in ways often more profound than other cultures.
We reason because we are made in the image of God. In fact, our rationality is our primary characteristic being his image bearers. But our reasoning can only take us so far. Without revealed religion, our knowledge of ourselves and the universe that we inhabit would remain woefully inadequate. We inherited this faith from our Jewish ancestors. With this blog, I aim to show that faith and reason are not in opposition, but are made to be unified while remaining distinct. In this way we are coworkers with God in furthering his kingdom to use an allusion from St. Paul.
Faith and Reason Divorced
The chief characteristic of the modern age that we live in is that we have divorced faith and reason. And like many divorces, children reap the damaging repercussions from the fractured relationship. We moderns are the children of divorced parents – faith and reason. And we are living with the consequences today of the broken home that we call Western Civilization. The only solution is to reunite what never should have been separated in the first place. It is my hope that this blog will enlighten you to what we have lost and to hopefully inspire to reunite faith and reason in your own particular sphere of influence.
Alternative to Dismal Public Education
My target audience is anyone who is interested in the relationship between faith and reason, but I particularly have in mind younger people like older high school and college. This group, if they have been raised in the public school system, knows nothing about the history of Western Civilization and the Christian foundation that made it great.
If there is going a change for the better in our present dismal situation, then we must raise up leaders from among the younger people who can be educated in such matters so that they can take leadership roles in society to effect change. In this way, this blog can be incorporated into a classical education curriculum.
The first series of posts on Socrates have an easier comprehension level on purpose. This is to introduce people to the topic, especially younger people. As the blog progresses, then the content, especially the philosophical writings, becomes increasingly more difficult and challenging. If you have any questions or feel that something is not clear, please contact me. I always seek to improve.
Style
Rather than dry or technical philosophical writing, I seek to portray this interplay between faith and reason as a grand narrative spanning several millennia. More often than not, what we get today in regards to philosophy and even theology, is compartmentalized and disjointed. I seek to attempt to show the grand unity of how everything connects. For example, what does Socrates have to do with Kant, Derrida, or the even the Reformation? I also seek to apply philosophical thought from all ages to contemporary situations.
As you can see from the example above, I will pepper beautiful artwork throughout my blog usually as it relates to the various posts. The purpose, besides something that is delightful to the eye, is to learn more deeply about truth through beauty. Also, it is a reminder of how far we have fallen into the ugliness of modernism. A society devoid of truth and goodness will also be devoid of beauty since they are all linked as transcendentals.
Contemporary Application
So again, why am I writing such a blog in the midst of a world that appears to be coming apart at the seams? Is this like trying to compose a musical score on a piano in a house that is on fire? I would say not. We live in a time where emotions govern and reason has been cast aside. No matter how we try to fix our problems, if we are not using reason governed by faith, the it will all be for naught. We can’t build or rebuild a society based on emotions. St. Thomas Aquinas said that reason should govern the emotions and not vice versa.
The only way out of this morass is to rediscover and implement the very things that made our once great civilization great – our heritage of faith and reason. But what if the West does indeed collapse into heap of rubble and we descend into a period of darkness and chaos (which has happened several times before in our history)? Well, it would be my hope, that information like this will last and that one day it would play a very small part in the rebuilding of a great Christian civilization once again. The Gospel is essential to save individual souls. But information like this is essential to building a civilization characterized by great music, art, architecture, philosophy, medicine, technology, and literature, etc.
As Christians, we should seek the Kingdom of God on both a micro and a macro level. The Evangelical Christian says the saving souls is the only think that matters since the world is irredeemable. The materialist humanist says the building a civilization is the only thing that matters since there is no afterlife. The Catholic view is that both are important.
The Beauty of Faith and Reason
When the grand river of the Catholic Church was formed from the smaller rivers of Jewish faith and Greek philosophy, a grand civilization arose. This civilization made great strides, not only in intellectual and religious pursuits, but in art and architecture as well. Think about beautiful artwork such as da Vinci’s Last Supper to Botticelli’s Primavera. Behold the great Gothic Cathedrals. It is no accident that beauty arises from truth and goodness.
This is why I include, when appropriate, examples of this beauty, not just so you can enjoy it, but so that you can be reminded about what is possible when a culture is properly oriented toward God. We live in an age characterized by ugliness and fear. It is my hope that one day we can witness a recovery in the West of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, the three great transcendentals on which the West was built.
“At this point, as far as the understanding of God and thus the concrete practice of religion is concerned, we are faced with an unavoidable dilemma. Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God’s nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true? I believe that here we can see the profound harmony between what is Greek in the best sense of the word and the biblical understanding of faith in God. Modifying the first verse of the Book of Genesis, the first verse of the whole Bible, John began the prologue of his Gospel with the words: “In the beginning was the λόγος”. This is the very word used by the emperor: God acts, σὺν λόγω, with logos. Logos means both reason and word – a reason which is creative and capable of self-communication, precisely as reason. John thus spoke the final word on the biblical concept of God, and in this word all the often toilsome and tortuous threads of biblical faith find their culmination and synthesis. In the beginning was the logos, and the logos is God, says the Evangelist. The encounter between the Biblical message and Greek thought did not happen by chance. The vision of Saint Paul, who saw the roads to Asia barred and in a dream saw a Macedonian man plead with him: “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” (cf. Acts 16:6-10) – this vision can be interpreted as a “distillation” of the intrinsic necessity of a rapprochement between Biblical faith and Greek inquiry.“
–Pope Benedict XVI at his Regensburg address, 2006
The following quote is from a courageous letter that Archbishop Slipyi wrote to the Ukraine Communist Party:
“We ourselves should die off, and all of you will die off too. But the Greek Catholic Church will endure in the catacombs.”
Deo Gratias
The following link will bring you to an interesting discussion entitled “Why Study Philosophy” on the Sensus Fidelium YouTube channel.
The above account of Archbishop Slipyi and quotes relating to it are taken from the book The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century: A Comprehensive World History by Robert Royal which is an interesting and enlightening read on its own. This latest edition was published by Crossroad Publishing Company in 2017.
To purchase this book directly from the Crossroad Publishing (bypassing Amazon) click the following link https://my-site-106304-102421.square.site/product/catholic-martyrs-of-the-paperback/1029?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.
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