Notre Dame Teaching

So this coming semester I will be teaching tutorials each week for an introduction to ethics course at The University of Notre Dame at Broadway. The work presents a unique opportunity. Since Notre Dame is a Catholic institution, all its students must take three compulsory subjects – introductions to philosophy, ethics and theology. It will be a terrific challenge to try and interest commerce, medicine, education and theology students in philosophy, and will hopefully help me sharpen my communication abilities. It will also be a great opportunity to engage in some dialogue about the intersection between Christianity and philosophy, since I assume many of my students will be Catholic…kinda.

It also represents a step forward in achieving my life-long ambition: to become Jed Bartlet.

Johannine Philosophy: John Calvin and John Paul II on the Purpose of Philosophy

One of the reasons for my starting this blog was to try to think through what the best relationship between Christianity and an activity like philosophy could be. See my first post here. It’s my hope that this question interests not only those who dabble in philosophy, but other Christians who may be curious whether there is a relationship between their vocations or areas of work; their hobbies or ‘regular/neutral’ activity, and their belief that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is now Lord. Art, sport, commerce, music, law, government, medicine, media – you name it! – how should anything like this fit with my faith? This is the question of integration.

Anyway, this big question which motivates my blogging is sometimes obscured by all the small, fragmented posts which tip-toe around this issue and poke it with a stick.

But here is a quote which tackles this central question head on. And it’s from none other than – the Pope! Or at least, a previous Pope. Read this quote a few times, and think about whether

1) You think this is a good picture of faith and philosophy, and

2) Whether this principle that John Paul II is espousing is one that throws any other areas of your life into a helpful light. The quote is somewhat bizarre, but pretty stimulating I think.

Put your thinking caps on…

Just as the Virgin was called to offer herself fully as human being and as woman that God’s Word might take flesh and come among us, so too philosophy is called to offer its critical and rational resources that theology, as the understanding of faith,  may be fruitful and creative. And just how in giving her assent to Gabriel’s word, Mary lost nothing of her true humanity and freedom, so too when philosophy heeds to the summons of the Gospel’s truth its autonomy is in no way impaired. Indeed it is then that philosophy sees all its enquires rise to their highest expression. This was a truth which the holy monks of Christian antiquity understood well when they called Mary ‘the table at which faith sits in thought’.

– John Paul II, Fides et Ratio (1998)

To my lights, this quote walks a tightrope which many theories of integration walk. On the one hand, it affirms that God exists, and that all good things are created by God – including abstract human activities like philosophy. On the other hand, it wants to say that this human activity is at its best when it is orientated towards God, when it is talking about Christianity, when it is coming to the aid of the more important activity which is theology. This amounts to saying: created things are kinda good, but they need to be explicitly and fruitfully giving themselves over to the causes of God to be their best. From my (quite limited) reading, the most well-known Christian philosophy buys into this approach – such as Alvin Plantinga, William Lane Craig, J. P. Moreland, Norman Geisler etc.

What troubles me about this is the small place that this theory has for philosophy qua philosophy as a part of life. What troubles me about this is the implicit spiritual elitism which carves the world up into ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ categories and then maintains that the secular things are actually only good when they get a bit of the religious in them, or when they subordinate themselves to the religious. Implicit in this view is the idea that if you aren’t working full-time in ministry, theology, charity or some such endeavour, then you are doing something second rate.

This is a view which can then colour a whole outlook on life.

I think Calvin’s mysterious, restrained and humble remark is gesturing more in a direction I’m comfortable with. Calvin wrote,

Shall we say the philosophers were blind in their fine observation and artful description of nature? Shall we say that those men were devoid of understanding who conceived the art of disputation and taught us to speak reasonably?

– John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559), II.ii.15

Charles Taylor on What Makes Christianity Unique

The paradox of Christianity, in relation to early religion, is that on one hand, it seems to assert the unconditional benevolence of God towards humans; there is none of the ambivalence of early Divinity in this respect; and yet it redefines our ends so as to take us beyond flourishing.

– Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (2007), p. 151

It is often claimed that what marks Christianity out from all other religions is — grace. Christianity holds that people do not work to win the favour of God. A religious life does not consist in the performing of certain rituals and rites to placate an angry God or to secure a place in the afterlife. On the contrary, Christianity claims to God is good, that God is for us, that God is giving and generous, and that God has done something wonderful. 

The above quote from Roman Catholic philosopher Charles Taylor throws this into an interesting light. Compared with all the other Ancient religions of the Near East and Mediterranean worlds, Taylor says that this belief in the fundamental goodness of God is unique. All other religions held that God is either indifferent or hostile towards humanity. People then needed to pray, to sacrifice, to pilgrimage, to go through certain ceremonies in order to get God’s attention, or to bribe God into being on their side. 

So when people wanted to be preserved from disease, sterility, spared from death, plauge or famine; when people wanted prosperity, health, fertility, victory, success, a plentiful harvest, protection or a long life, they would engage in religious activity which would attempt to win the favour of/bribe/pacify an angry or indifferent God.

What Taylor is saying in the above quote is that when you place Christianity within the ancient pagan world, two things become striking.

First, there is no need to placate, bribe or attempt to catch the attention of God.

Second, (and this is where the paradox comes in) although there is no need to catch God’s attention in this way, Christianity held that the purpose of religion was so much more than safeguarding individual prosperity. Ancient religions saw religion and God as the means to the ends of human flourishing. In their case, this means was particularly demanding and elusive. Christianity held that God is not demanding or elusive in the sense discussed above, but having a conception of individual human flourishing as the goal of religion simply would not do. Religion is bigger than a means to ensuring a terrific, safe and full life. Christianity redefines what the end of a human life ought to be and this is fundamentally more than individual prosperity.

This, of course, begs the question – ‘Well just what is the goal of human life to be?’ Taylor leaves this question lingering and does not provide an answer to it, though he clearly believes Christianity has one.

Bringing this insight into the Twenty-First Century, I think Taylor helpfully points out what is still a unique dimension of Christianity. Following Jesus is not a means to a successful job and happy lifestyle, a beautiful family, or the satisfying of particular religious urges. It is much more.

Christianity, Taylor believes, should always ask us to look beyond whatever the settled conception of human flourishing – a good life – may be. Do you think that Christianity is still doing this?