The Missing Key Piece from Youth Catechesis? It’s Philosophy
“Faith and reason are like two wings on which the
human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.” —Pope St. John Paul II
“Where the right education of youth is concerned,
no amount of trouble or labour can be undertaken, how great soever, but that
even greater still may not be called for” (Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae
Christianae, 42).
And according to the recent synod of bishops,
there is indeed a great deal of trouble and labour to be called for when it
comes to the catechesis of the Church’s youth. Bishop Robert Barron is reported
to have commented on the increasing need for catechesis and apologetics since
so many young people who leave the faith cite intellectual reasons for their
departure.
For me, it was intellectual reasons that initially
pulled me back to the Church. Despite my Bible study training in a Protestant
setting, my education in physics, and the classes I was taking in philosophy at
a secular university, I couldn’t deny the truth of Catholicism. Whenever I was
tempted to doubt, my reason got in the way. So it breaks my heart to hear that
so many people walk away from the faith for intellectual reasons.
What was the foundation of the reason that got in
the way of my doubt? A basis in Ancient and Medieval philosophy in conjunction
with my study of Catholic doctrine. As I continued this course of study, I
found that all of my “intellectual objections” were no more than
misunderstandings or logical fallacies. As I continue to learn and dialogue
with others, I have found all other intellectual objections to be the same.
The famous first line of John Paul II’s Fides et
Ratio begins, “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit
rises to the contemplation of truth.” Both wings are necessary. Later in the
same encyclical, John Paul II writes, “Reason and faith cannot be separated
without diminishing the capacity of men and women to know themselves, the world
and God in an appropriate way” (16).
In order for catechesis to have a firm foundation
in reason, philosophy is a necessary component. For example, one of the most
important starting points of any process of rational thought on a subject is
clear understanding of the terms. How can a youth understand the beauty of
virtue if all that comes to mind when he hears “virtue” is “not-having-sex”?
How can anyone make sense of the immortality of the soul when he imagines the
soul to be merely a ghostly, airy copy of the body? How can a questioning
teenager realize that the nature of human sexuality is based on the nature of
the human being when he has been implicitly spoon-fed for his whole life the
idea that nothing has a nature but is only whatever he wants it to be,
including his very self?
Much of the terminology that theology uses comes
from philosophy, and a poor foundation in philosophy can lead to a lot of
misunderstandings in theology, both dogmatic and moral. I have heard many
objections to the existence of God, but all of them are based on straw men
versions of God.
Pope Leo XIII wrote, “Philosophy seeks not the
overthrow of divine revelation, but delights rather to prepare its way, and
defend it against assailants” (Inscrutabili Dei Consilio, 13). Philosophy
prepares the mind to be able to handle ideas like the eternity of God, the
nature of the human person as a body-soul unity, and the basis of ethics. In
learning how to reason correctly about these abstract truths, we also learn to
recognize faulty reasoning. It is philosophy that trains the mind to think
logically about difficult and seemingly abstract subjects like the nature of
existence, the meaning of life, justice, the good, the true, the beautiful, the
nature of God, virtue and vice, rights and values, and the relationship between
body and soul.
I find that many of my students are shocked to
find out that there are rational ways of thinking about these topics, let alone
that there may be truth with respect to them. If nothing else, working with
philosophy can open the mind of a young person to the point where they realize
that these concepts might not be as clear-cut and simple as the culture often
presents them.
In fact, the type of clear thinking that good
philosophy promotes is a necessary guard at the door of the mind. There is
little better training in recognizing logical fallacies and analysing arguments
than philosophy. The claims that there is no truth and that you can have your
truth and I can have my truth sound sane and open-minded until one realizes
that those claims are irrational. If there is no truth, then the statement
“there is no truth” is not true. But it takes practice in philosophy to be able
to articulate the claim clearly and then recognize the fallacy involved.
As another example, one of the most common
objections to faith is science, so-called. Apart from the fact that the
“conflict” between faith and science can be traced by historians to two books
by Draper and White, which are two of the worst history texts ever written,
from the end of the 19th century, it is philosophy that draws the boundary
lines around each of the domains.
When someone is arguing that the scientific method
is the proper method for science, he is not doing science per se; he is doing
philosophy. A youth without any philosophical training can easily be fooled
into thinking that there is a significant overlap and disagreement between the
teaching of the Church and science; but a youth with some understanding of the
philosophy of science and the philosophy of religion will easily see through
any claims of conflict between the two arenas. The expert in science is not
necessarily wise.
But philosophy doesn’t just defend theology and
pave the way for understanding it. Pope John Paul II wrote, “With its enduring
appeal to the search for truth, philosophy has the great responsibility of
forming thought and culture; and now it must strive resolutely to recover its
original vocation” (Fides et Ratio, 7).
Philosophy sets the tone for society. It is through
our philosophy that we see the rest of the world. It is a culture’s philosophy
that is handed on to its children without conscious instruction. Philosophy
defines a culture’s values and moral assumptions. This, of course, is true for
both true and false philosophies, and it takes philosophical training to be
able to identify and evaluate these intellectual starting points of culture.
Teenagers and young adults who are not consciously aware of their worldview are
most likely viewing the world through the prevailing lenses of contemporary
society.
I find, also, that philosophical inquiry awakens
wonder in a way that theology often does not. Young people are sometimes turned
off when a discussion begins with the Bible, which they have not read, or questions
about God, the Sacraments, or the Church, which they consider to be subject to
interpretation and personal preference. But discussions that begin with a moral
dilemma, the nature of true happiness, or the meaning of life tend to pull
young people in a little faster. Those questions, in the end, lead to
theological reflection, but philosophy can help build the bridge that leads to
questions that can be authoritatively answered by the Church.
Pope Leo XIII wrote, “Philosophy, if rightly made
use of by the wise, in a certain way tends to smooth and fortify the road to
true faith, and to prepare the souls of its disciples for the fit reception of
revelation; for which reason it is well called by ancient writers sometimes a
steppingstone to the Christian faith, sometimes the prelude and help of
Christianity, sometimes the Gospel teacher” (Aeterni Patris, 4). Besides
forming proper critical thinking skills, good philosophy creates awe and
wonder.
Again, in Fides et Ratio, St. John Paul II wrote,
“On her part, the Church cannot but set great value upon reason's drive to
attain goals which render people's lives ever more worthy. She sees in
philosophy the way to come to know fundamental truths about human life. At the
same time, the Church considers philosophy an indispensable help for a deeper
understanding of faith and for communicating the truth of the Gospel to those
who do not yet know it” (5).
The only reason to believe something is that we
believe that it is true. “Truth alone should imbue the minds of men” (Pope Leo
XIII, Libertas, 24). If our young people want intellectual clarity and rigor,
there is no greater philosophical tradition than that of Catholicism; most
people, let alone youths, don’t even know that the Church highly values clear,
rational thought. We should be the ones who provoke our young people to think
deeper in the first place, giving them the tools to think well about the
foundational questions of human existence, and then giving them the roadmap,
set down by the great Catholic thinkers, that leads to the very Source of Truth
and Goodness and Beauty.
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