HOPEFUL ABOUT THE FUTURE

10 science-proven facts that will help you be optimistic about the future

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We are living at the best moment of our collective history, says hard data.

We are living at the best moment of our collective history, and nevertheless, there is a widespread belief that the world is going dramatically downhill. This is the main thesis of the book Progress: 10 Reasons to Look Forward to the Future, by Johan Norberg. The book, which aims to open the eyes of society and promote the value of progress, was published in English in 2017 and is now being published in other languages.

According to Juan Ramón Rallo, who wrote the prologue to the Spanish edition, Norbert shows with hard data—contradicting popular opinion and many forecasts—that “our planet is making huge strides on all basic indicators that we use to measure social progress.” The author reviews data, anecdotes, and historical events of great relevance, and their evolution and effects on the present and the future. All of this, he does to remind us that the past wasn’t always better. In fact, the book begins with this quote from Franklin Pierce Adams: “Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory.” Starting with that thesis, Johan Norberg develops his arguments focusing on 10 key points:

1. Nutrition: Norberg reminds readers of the countless famines that have occurred for various reasons, such as bad harvests, and points out that the situation in Asia has been even worse than in the West. He explains that in the past a lack of adequate nutrition held back the intellectual development of society. However, he emphasizes that, according to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), the worldwide malnutrition rate has diminished from 50 percent in 1945 to 11 percent in 2015. Aware that the worst indicators on this scale are from Africa, the author also dedicates part of his analysis to the positive changes that have taken place in countries such as Angola, Cameroon, and Mozambique.
2. Sanitation: The existence of sewerage, of sources of potable water, and of proper waste management helps avoid illnesses that can shorten the average life expectancy. Norberg points out the global progress that is being made in this area, although he criticizes the phenomena of water pollution and poor water management that leads to waste. The author also studies the progress taking place in this respect on the African continent.
3. Average lifespan: From 1770 to 2010, the average life expectancy at birth has grown from 29 to 70 years. In this regard, Norberg reminds his readers that “during a good part of human history, life was a difficult and short experience. Not only did we have much fewer commodities; the incidence of diseases, famine, and lack of sanitation was so acute that the lifespan of the average citizen was significantly shortened.” Currently, despite problems that continue to afflict humanity, such as infant mortality or certain diseases, the statistics are improving.
4. Poverty: In the 18th century, the majority of the population lived in abject poverty. With data such as this, Norberg shows that poverty is “everyone’s starting point” and reviews the historical evolution of poverty on a global scale. The statistics are clear: from 1820 to 2015, according to the World Bank, the percentage of the global population earning less than a dollar a day diminished from 85 percent to 23 percent. Globalization and capitalism are analyzed in depth in this chapter.
5. Violence: Norberg indicates that the media contribute to the belief that we live in a violent world. Nevertheless, war and violence were much more prevalent in past epochs of human history. In this regard, the author cites cognitive scientist Steven Pinker to assert that “the dramatic reduction of violence could be the most important event in human history.”
6. Environment: “If our hunger for energy has created a problem of climate change, it will also be our hunger for energy that will solve it.” This is Norberg’s approach to the environmental issues created by progress. According to him, social and economic development also leads to the development of more human talent to deal with problems; in this way, the more eyes are trained to look at a problem, “the more brains will be committed to solving it.”
7. Literacy: According to the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), 200 years ago only 12 percent of the population knew how to read and write. “Literacy was limited to political authorities, members of religious institutions, and the merchant class,” Norberg explains. The reason was that many of the elite thought that, if poor people had access to education, they would feel dissatisfied with their condition, and there would be greater social unrest. Nonetheless, the author explains how and why societies realized, little by little, that universal literacy was necessary, and it began to be more widespread. Thus, in 2015, the worldwide literacy rate of young people reached 91 percent.
8. Freedom: In the year 1800, there were still 60 countries with laws allowing slavery. In this regard, the author reviews the history of individual freedoms and of the hierarchies that have been created around the world throughout the centuries in the context of various political systems. Norberg recalls the words of Milton Friedman in 1991: “We are still far from the ideal of a completely free world, but in historical terms, the progress in our lifetimes has been incredible: more has been achieved in the last two centuries than in the previous two thousand years.”
9. Equality: Minorities are also an important issue. In this regard, Norberg explains that “in almost all corners of the world, there are still prejudices, hostilities, or hate crimes, but there are more and more places in which the government is committed to protecting equality before the law, fighting discrimination against minorities.” Thus, despite the continuing evident inequality of many groups, Norberg invites us to appreciate the steps that have been taken towards equality.
10. The next generation: Humanity has achieved great things with only a part of the population having access to knowledge. Today, the opportunities to develop and access that knowledge are much greater than before; consequently, the author says that “it is easy to predict that we are heading towards a world with fewer limitations, which will unleash an enormous creativity at the service of our wellbeing.”

Despite the undeniably positive perspective of the author, he wisely admits that it would be a mistake to assume that progress is guaranteed. He warns, “We continue to suffer from many problems, and there are more than a few movements and social and political currents that aspire to destroy the pillars of progress: individual freedom, economic openness, and technological progress.”

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FAITH AND DOGMA

Faith and Dogma

            Surprisingly, it may seem, Faith is a divine act, which is why it is a supernatural virtue; it is not available in nature, not even human nature, though human nature is created with a specific potency to be open to divine action. God, freely desiring to connect with humanity activates this created potency (also known as “obediential” potency) in man, thereby raising it to the level of divine living, without, however, interfering with man’s capacity to freely consent to the divine action. Thus we understand the Blessed Virgin Mary’s positive “yes” to God who invited her to be the mother of the Messiah, the Son of God and Saviour.

            God and man are person (note the singular), and person is specified by the faculty of free choice. God and man cannot force themselves on each other. God offers himself to man with absolute freedom, and man accepts freely, it being understood that the capacity for acceptance is originally God-given by the very act of creation. (Ultimately, everything is from God, and nothing from man! God is pure giver and man pure receiver).

            This act of God’s self-giving is Faith in the principal sense. Man’s acceptance is Faith in the secondary sense. Remember Jesus telling his disciples: “You did not choose me, I chose you that you may go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.” Jesus would not have said that had he not faith in his disciples. The free acceptance of this choice would be the disciples’ act of faith. As it happened, the disciples would  not only accept to be chosen but also be prepared to be sent. This is apostleship that follows on discipleship. In this way, God’s action of self-giving faith is continued and expanded by the faith-act of his disciples-apostles. This is faith in action.

            The self-giving of God and reception is a profoundly transcendent experience that is communicated through the medium of fact and word. Man is a social being, and communication is an essential factor of his humanity. As it happens, this communication is rational and supernatural. The supernatural reality as gift slakes the thirst of the rational that specifies its nature as human. (Animals and the lower species lack this intentionality).

            The supernatural reality we are dealing with here is the life of the Holy Trinity for which God has destined humanity. Albert Einstein believed that all creatures dance, even the tiniest particles. “Human beings, vegetables and cosmic dust all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible player.” That invisible player is God. The early Church Fathers used the word “perichoresis” to describe the gracious movement of mutuality between the persons of the Blessed Trinity in each one’s soul: “God’s circle-dance of communion” (Richard Rohr).  That dancing Trinity is within us all, or, more metaphysically, each one, by the very fact of creation, is introduced to the movement, though they are free to decline -graciously or ungraciously.

            This mystery, beyond all telling, must be made as intelligible as man’s faculties will allow through the media and channels of word and action that we commonly describe as Revelation. Revelation is the inexhaustible fount of truth, values, and empowering action.  Certain human communities, such as the Catholic Church, assume the unending task of encapsulating and transmitting these inexhaustible realities in explanatory concepts and convenient capsules known as “dogmas.” This input and enlightenment operate in an atmosphere of trust and love.

            Since life is dynamic and progressive, one can expect to contemplate new and expanding horizons, almost invariably very challenging, calling for updated introspection and the relevant formulations of time-tested teaching. The Church as a whole must expect to confront the dialectic of the objective principles and the challenging situations. The “perichoresis” of the Trinity cannot be frozen in one particular dance form. The teachers and the taught must admit that their concepts, however well vindicated, are never exhaustive, definitive and complete, and that they need to be mentally supple and humble enough to keep searching in their desire to give the best answers in a given situation, while working towards better ones. Faith can never be frozen in dogma.

            It is imperative to be in touch with reality which includes the Grand Narrative of God’s salvation the values (read “dogmas”) which call for our assent (read “faith”) in order to discern progressively what is conducive to human freedom and development. The developmental evolution began with the “big bang” and will be accomplished in the consummate surrender of all creation to God in the Paschal Mystery of Christ. The point is that Christ’s Resurrection is the most crucial leap into a totally new dimension that there has ever been in the long history of life and its development: a leap into a completely new order – call it the order of the Holy Trinity.

CATHECHESIS

New Horizons of Catechesis in a World of Media

To begin with, let me introduce the ever-evolving phenomena of this new media environment. We live in a culture where the world becomes a global village. It is because the swift communication possible anywhere, anytime and without any delay. The mass media have given rise to a new language of communication. This new language even affects the faith life of everyone in the globe. Aetatis Novae (pastoral instruction on social communication) correctly pointed out, “Nowhere today are people untouched by the impact of media upon religious and moral attitudes, political and social systems, and education.” We communicate through gestures, images, symbols and rituals. In the age of images, new world views and languages that one needs to see the new shifts in catechesis from its traditional paradigm. Sharing Catechesis is not just the transmission of a message. It is nurturing of faith. It is an action that deals with the social and ecclesial elements that we believe in. Catechesis has the role of transmitting the divine message to societies and individuals who live in history and make history. Biblical studies have long emphasized that literary forms moulded the Christian faith from the start. Bible contains at least five dominant genres: story, law, proverb, psalm, and oracle. Each of these forms has communicative potentials. More importantly, because religious language is the language of metaphor and symbol, an integration of this language is absolutely essential for catechesis and evangelisation. God-talk moves back and forth between the world of common sense and the world of imagination.

Catechesis has always been related to communication.  But, people often reduce catechesis to a limited perspective of incorporating audio-visual elements (slides, videos, music) into the techniques of catechesis. I have observed this dangerous tendency among some experts. My observation is that some consider technology the hallmark of communication, though it does have a role to play. Applying audio-visual methods to an unchanged approach in catechesis is ineffective. One needs to reflect whether such incorporation affects the very concept of catechesis. According to Gabriel Moran and Maria Harris, catechesis involves language and form. That means one needs to go beyond words and schooling. The early Church employed a variety of forms in catechesis. Community, prayer, worship, proclamation of the word, works that serve justice have always been forms of educating in the church. They are named, for example, in Acts 2: 44-47, where the apostles are described as continuing in ... the teaching (didache) of the apostles (kerygma) and in the communion (koinonia)  of breaking the bread and the prayers (leiturgia) as well as being concerned about and aware of anyone who had need (diakonia). This view is again stressed in the General Directory of Catechesis as an essential task of catechesis. At the same time proclamation, witness, teaching, sacrament, and love of neighbour are essential dimensions of catechesis.  This perspective of catechesis leaves us a new catechetical world-view. Thus we who have received our faith from our parents, teachers and various sources have the responsibility and mandate to communicate this faith because we as called to catechise can’t remain without communicating our faith.

In the early twentieth century Wassily Kandinsky (Russian modern abstract painter) viewed art as a protest against materialism. He was convinced that art could be a source of spiritual reform. He believed that abstract forms, lines, and colours communicated a common religious language, transcending national values and orientations. For Van Gogh (a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter) the whole of the physical world was spirit-filled; thus a still life, an interior scene, or landscape could communicate a religious vision. The early icons were the gospel of the poor, so said Pope Gregory the Great. Walt Disney had a group of people called, imagineers. Their job was to be engaged in Imagineering, that is, to engage in constant creative thinking about the work they were missioned to do. We need to put new wine into new wineskins (Mt. 9: 17) if our communicating of faith is to be sustained in the future. What are these new wineskins and conditions required for s to be imagineers? First of all we need to shift from the perspective of working with old wineskins. We are beginning to see that as catechists develop more experience with computers and the Internet as learning and thinking tools, they realize that these tools could be a vehicle for restructuring our traditional understanding of the parish and school curriculum and classroom practice.

          In Communicating Christ to the World, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini wrote: “For authentic communication of the message to be possible . . . in a world that is reaching the dimensions of a ‘village,’ we must, in every field, commit ourselves to improving our competence in communications in order to place it at the service of the Gospel.” If we are to catechise effectively, not only must we witness to our faith and be willing to share our faith story with those we are catechising, but we must also employ the best pedagogical tools. Remember that we may decide to walk cautiously into the new media frontier, but we cannot ignore the possibilities or opportunities it has to offer our catechetical ministry. I am reminded of the Chinese proverb which is still relevant today: “I hear . . . and I forget. I see . . . and I remember. I do . . . and I understand.”

Fr. Robert Johnson (Archdiocese of Calcutta)