Table Of ContentNEW THEMES
BR
100 IN
R56
CHRISTIAN
PHILOSOPHY
Ralph M. McInerny
Editor
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS
NOTRE DAME & LONDON
Copyright
© 1968
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS
NOTRE DAME, INDIANA
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 68-20439
Manufactured in the United States of America
To
LEO R. WARD, C.S.G
In recognition of a long career
as
Priest, Professor, and Author
from
His Colleagues in the
Department of Philosophy
This book
Is
Affectionately
Dedicated
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ix
1. RESTORATION OF A LOST INTELLIGIBILITY 1
Thomas Langan, Indiana University
2. KIERKEGAARD AND PHILOSOPHY 13
Paul L. Holmer, Yale University
3. HEIDEGGER AND THE QUEST FOR FREEDOM 37
William J. Richardson, S.J., Fordham University
Comment: Nicholas Lobkowicz, University of
Munich
4. GOD IN THE METAPHYSICS OF WHITEHEAD 64
Leonard J. Eslick, St. Louis University
5. THE COMMUNITY OF EXPERIENCE AND RELIGIOUS
METAPHORS 82
John J. McDermott, Queens College
Comment: Richard J. Blackwell, St. Louis
University
6. RENEWAL AND HISTORY 110
A. Robert Caponigri, University of Notre Dame
7. PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY 129
Gerard Verbeke, Louvain University
8. THE RELEVANCE OF PHILOSOPHY FOR THE
NEW THEOLOGY 152
Bernard Cooke, S.J., Marquette University
Comment: David B. Burrell, C.S.C., University of
Notre Dame
9. THE REVIVAL OF THOMISM AS A CHRISTIAN
PHILOSOPHY 164
James A. Weisheipl, O.P., University of Toronto
THE FUTURE OF THOMISM 187
W. Norris Clarke, S.J., Fordham University
Comment: Edward D. Simmons, Marquette
University
vii
10. RADICAL THEOLOGY AND THE THEOLOGICAL
ENTERPRISE 214
John E. Smith, Yale University
11. COSMIC MEANING WITH FREE INDIVIDUALITY 233
Francis H. Parker, Purdue University
Comment: Sister M. Patricia Rief, Immaculate
Heart College
12. INTUITION AND GOD AND SOME NEW METAPHYSICIANS 254
Joseph Bobik, University of Notre Dame
Comment: Gareth B. Matthews, University of
Minnesota
13. PSYCHE AND PERSONA 279
Fred Crosson, University of Notre Dame
Comment: John A. Mourant, Pennsylvania State
University
14. CAN METAETHICS ADVANCE ETHICS? 304
Robert L. Cunningham, University of San
Francisco
Comment: Brian J. Cudahy, Boston College
15. THE CONCEPT OF SIN CONSCIOUSNESS 334
Harry A. Nielsen, University of Notre Dame
Comment: Calvin O. Schrag, Purdue University
16. MODERN ATHEISM 348
Robert O. Johann, S.J., Fordham University
Comment: Louis Mackey, University of Texas
17. PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNITED STATES CATHOLIC 370
COLLEGE
Ernan McMullin, University of Notre Dame
INDEX OF NAMES 411
viii
Introduction
RALPH M. McINERNY
THE PAPERS BROUGHT TOGETHER HERE WERE PRESENTED AND dis-
cussed at a conference held at the University of Notre Dame
in September, 1966. Inevitably, perhaps, the conference was
called “Philosophy in an Age of Christian Renewal.” However
tired we may be of that word, ours is an age of renewal, thanks
to the wisdom of Pope John XXIII. By renewal, or aggiorna-
mento, the late Pope meant that the Church should open win¬
dows to the world and rethink and re-present the Christian
message in terms of the time in which we live. This is not a
new task for the Church, of course, but it is one that has con¬
stantly to be renewed. In every period during which this task
has been seriously undertaken particular attention has been
paid to what philosophers are doing. It was the thought of those
of us in the Department of Philosophy at Notre Dame that we
might do something toward presenting the flavor of current
philosophy by bringing together a number of outstanding men
of different philosophical, and indeed of different religious,
persuasions for several days of exchange and discussion. Our
aim was to provide a living and lively tableau of present-day
philosophizing, some sense of what the Church sees through
those reopened windows.
So much for the ultimate objective of the studies included in
this volume. In the middle distance we had in view a specifi¬
cally philosophical value. To paraphrase a famous title, one
might sum up the present situation in philosophy as the scan¬
dal of disagreement and the virtue of variety, but, as Psmith
might have said, it is ever so. There is a recurrent dream in the
history of philosophy that the diversity of philosophical posi¬
tions can be overcome by devising some foolproof decision pro¬
cedure, a method of calculation whose employment will swiftly
make dissent dissolve and bring all philosophers—kicking and
screaming, perhaps—under one commodious and rational roof.
IX
NEW THEMES IN CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY
Sometimes the dream takes the form of a substantive doctrine,
supple and open-ended, which will be able to reconcile differ¬
ences in terms of a higher unity. In its undreamt of condition,
nevertheless, philosophy continues to be a label attached to
new skins and old, of incorrigibly irreducible pigmentations.
Philosophers speak to one another, sometimes in unexcited
tones—and in rare cases they learn from one another—but such
interchange usually results, not in irenic hand-holding and dith-
yrambic unanimity, but in a subtle alteration of what each
man thinks so that the resultant viewpoints, while still opposed,
are opposed differently from the way they were before. What
becomes clear is that philosophers are seldom opposed in their
assessment of a single argument or of one tenet; rather the dif¬
ferences are in the total climate, the vision of the whole into
which a particular discussion fits. Thus philosophers who hold
a lot in common can feel they have nothing in common, since
what is lacking is a shared sense of the purpose of the whole
enterprise of philosophizing. It is relatively easy to change one’s
mind, but it is difficult, if not morally impossible, to alter fun¬
damentally one’s basic angle of vision. One thing that influ¬
ences a philosopher’s angle of vision is the gift of faith, al¬
though it is clear to the student of medieval thought that this
influence manifests itself in a variety and diversity of philo¬
sophical positions. The essays of Professor Langan and of Pro¬
fessor Verbeke deal with aspects of this influence, and many
of the other papers cast oblique light on it. One might think
of the Langan and Verbeke essays as addressing themselves in
a special way to the task of the Christian philosopher. The essay
closest to theirs in theme is probably that of Professor Parker;
Parker offers a view of the dialectical progression of the history
of philosophy and makes some interesting remarks on the com¬
plementarity of the Catholic and Protestant mentalities.
Because Thomism has come to be a privileged locus of the
influence of Christian faith on philosophizing, has become in
some sense the official philosophy of the Church, we solicited
two essays on it. Father Wiesheipl has written a brief and im¬
portant history of Thomism; Father Clarke examines its future
in a very personal, yet undeniably public, vein. It has become
increasingly clear that if Thomism is to survive as a philosophi-
x
Ralph M. Mclnerny
Introduction
cal viewpoint, it will have to do so on philosophical terms.
This survival (as indeed its past history shows) means diver¬
sity; there will be different styles of Thomism, and this will
reflect the situation on the wider scene.
A number of the essays are devoted to displaying or discuss¬
ing current styles of philosophizing. Professor Holmer’s essay
on Kierkegaard, Father Richardson’s on Heidegger, that of
Professor Eslick on Whitehead and of Professor McDermott on
American philosophy, as well as Professor Caponigri’s on his¬
tory, form a cluster, and the philosophical viewpoints they in¬
dividually discuss or represent give only an inkling of the vari¬
ous ways in which men are nowadays philosophizing.
Many of the essays deal not so much with men or movements
as with perennial philosophical issues. Professor Bobik dis¬
cusses the status of proofs for the existence of God, Professor
Crosson discusses a point in philosophical psychology with defi¬
nite theological overtones, and Professor Cunningham assesses
the ethical implications of metaethics. The essay of Professor
Nielsen is in many ways sui generis—like its author: it cuts
across any categories one might devise to group these essays
and gains from doing so. Father Johann’s paper deals with a
perennial problem, atheism, that has recently come in for much
analysis.
Two papers, Father Cooke’s and Professor Smith’s, discuss
from different angles the relationship between philosophy and
theology; Canon Verbeke’s paper is another contribution to
this discussion.
Since the purpose of the conference for which these papers
were solicited was to map the present philosophical terrain, it
occurred to us that much could be learned by polling the phi¬
losophy departments in the Catholic colleges of the land to
find out what they are doing. The results are most interesting.
Father McMullin undertook the task of preparing the question¬
naire, programming the results, and shepherding them through
the computer; unwearied, he wrote a narrative report on his
findings. It does not seem too much to say that his report will
be a mandatory point of reference for anyone who wishes to
speak of the situation of philosophy in Catholic higher educa¬
tion today.
xi
NEW THEMES IN CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY
It is our hope that the reader will find these essays as inter¬
esting as did the more than two hundred philosophers who
came to Notre Dame to hear them and to join in the discussion
of them. At our sessions, papers were followed by prepared
commentaries, some of which are included here. The reader is
warned not to look for anything which binds these essays to¬
gether apart from what has already been said about the pur¬
poses of the conference. We at Notre Dame have no grand vi¬
sion of what philosophy in all its generality ought to be; we
were not looking for essays to corroborate some a priori con¬
ception of our own. It is easy, all too easy, to elicit opinions on
what is going on in philosophy today, what is being taught in
philosophy departments in Catholic colleges, and so on. Our
idea, in all its simplicity, was: let's find out. This collection is
the result of that effort. If the effort is at all successful, this
book should show, at least in part, something of the present
scenery of the philosophical enterprise. It is intended to be
informative, not normative. Philosophical disagreements, we
have suggested, are seldom about particular points; philosophi¬
cal variety seems to be a persistent phenomenon when many
men philosophize. It is pointless to lament what is perennial
and pervasive, particularly when, by attending to the diversity,
we can learn from it. No man can or should want to be every-
man, but each must look to many quarters before offering his
own two bits worth, so to speak.
It is a pleasant task to thank those responsible for this col¬
lection: the authors of the essays, their commentators, those
who attended the conference and joined in the discussion. My
colleagues, especially Professors Lobkowicz, Oesterle, Fitzger¬
ald, and Nielsen, were helpful in formulating the program and
selecting symposiasts. I should like to pay special tribute to
Father Ernan McMullin. His fine Hibernian hand was felt
everywhere in the conference, from its inception, through the
hectic months of preparation, to the smooth flow of the sessions
themselves. Finally, I must as always thank my wife, Connie;
not only did she survive my infrequency before and during the
conference but she also granted me a brief recuperative fur¬
lough abroad when the doings were done.
xii
1
Restoration of a Lost Intelligibility
THOMAS LANGAN
SOME CONTEND THAT THE NOTION “CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER” IS
itself an Unsinn. The search for truth, they point out, is above
all confessional separations. Of course, there are philosophers
who happen to be Christians, just as there are philosophers who
happen to be Moslems and many, at least these days, who are
atheists. But qua philosopher each is seeking the one truth,
and the measure of their respective merits as philosophers is
their success in unveiling being.
THE FAITH OF THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER
But while I concede that the goal and ultimate criteria are
the same for all, still, the actual situation of the individual phi¬
losopher—his finitude—obliges us to find a provisional measure
of the adequacy of his developing thought. His conception of
the unattained goal (call it an hypothesis if you like) and the
attitude which guides him as he goes about seeking it are here
of crucial importance. In the provisional conceptions of the
goal and in the attitudes governing the search for it we find
expressed each philosopher’s faith. While philosophizing is un¬
derway, the sought-for sophia is an object, not yet of demon¬
stration, but of faith. And the pkilein is not perfect unity with
the all-real object of the sophia, but an expectant attitude gov¬
erned by the vision of that faith. In this way the philosophia of
the various philosophers will be peculiarly animated by the
soul of each of their faiths.
I would like to take the measure of the Christian philoso¬
pher’s faith and of his situation, both as they affect his attitude
(the philein) and his object (the projected, faith-grounded con¬
cept of the sophia). I intend to speak of the latter in terms of
some perennial problems in their contemporary form and in
terms of some new problems to which it is particularly urgent
1
