Sense and Nonsense: Humanism and Historicism

In Rome, on November 9, 1985, John Paul II addressed the sundry presidents and rectors of Jesuit colleges and universities in the world. (L’Osservatore Romano, English, Dec. 2, 1985.) The Pope began by praising university work and expressed his gratification for those who engage in it. He noted the special relationship that historically has existed between the Society of Jesus and human culture. This rela­tionship was to be seen within the specific purpose for which this order was founded, that is, “the defense and promotion of the faith.” The remainder of this talk was, substantially, devoted to the notion that no one can “defend” or “promote” anything — even the faith — if he does not know what it is.

The lecture began, interestingly, by recalling Paul VI’s rather more blunt address to the same representative group a decade earlier. Paul had observed that modern culture seems “to be in rebellion, as it were, against man himself.” Paul did not like the tendency to play “down (in Catholic univer­sities) their Catholic character” to meet this culture. When this is done, the result has been to replace Christian values “by humanism which has turned out to be a secularization.” Pope Montini gently suggested that when the Catholic laity see this secularization happening in Catholic institutions, they rightly turn away from them. The Church wants the support of universities; however, it also wants them to be “Catholic.” When they are, she “is ready to make great sacrifices in order to help and support them.”

Paul VI recognized the need to dialogue with all peoples, including atheists, but this required keeping “the full integrity of Catholic doctrines.” Paul added, “Even those who disagree with the Church expect us to be utterly clear-eyed in our views, so that any dialogue with us may be constructive and honest.” However, the most important passage in this talk of Paul VI to the Jesuit university ad­ministrators was the following, which seems rather pro­phetic:

The Society of Jesus (should) retain all the authority needed to enable it to meet its Catholic obligations. Your order, therefore, may not sur­render its authority dter its own universities, for if your splendid tradition is broken, not only will you lose something of your own quality and iden­tity, but the Church, too, will lose something it needs and cannot do without.

Needless to say, the most common objection today to im­plementing the spirit of the Holy Father’s words is based on the notion of a primary obligation to civil charters, not to an institution’s religious purpose in its founding.

John Paul II’s address itself was placed in the general context of asking why we have specifically Catholic univer­sities. The first reason was that the “truth revealed by God through His Incarnate Son” be made present at the highest intellectual levels. The second was the deepening of the philosophic truth of the human person which followed from this. (Of course, Pope Wojtyla’s own remarkable theoretical studies are to be recalled here, especially The Acting Per­son. Andrew Woznicki’s A Christian Humanism and M. Krapiec’s I-Man: An Outline of Philosophical Anthro­pology, both from Mariel Press in New Britain, Con­necticut, are the best introductions here.)

What was especially interesting in John Paul II’s ad­dress, particularly to anyone familiar with Leo Strauss or Eric Voegelin and the critique of modernity they imply, was the Pope’s awareness of “historicism” as a basic problem in the modern mind. “This idea (historicism), by relativizing fundamental values, leads to an unfounded primacy of freedom over truth, practice over theory, becom­ing over being. It results in ideological and moral relativism.” One would be hard-pressed to find a more acute, accurate analysis of the intellectual and metaphysical tendencies in modern academia. The Holy Father, Thomist that he is, insisted on being faithful to “the truth about the human person.” Here is his brief summary of his “grace builds on nature”: “The better one knows the mystery of man, the more open one becomes to the mystery of transcendence. And the deeper one penetrates the divine mystery, the more one discovers the true greatness and dignity of the human person.” It is refreshing to see how clearly John Paul II sees the relation between ideology in the academy and the growth of relativism. The battleground is not directly social philosophy, but philosophical anthro­pology and the theological understanding of the Incarna­tion of the Son of God.

John Paul II, then, told the Jesuit academics that a dialogue between the Gospel and culture cannot take place unless the Gospel is known and lived. Somewhere, there must be institutions that are not merely academically excellent but “recognizably Catholic,” something that in­cludes of its nature the Catholic understanding of its own order. Problems from “social progress” do arise, but John Paul II, a man of enormous intellectual acumen of his own — one has the impression that he is certainly the intellectual peer of any of his audience — seems to greet these problems of modernity with great serenity and anticipates little difficulty in finding answers “in harmony with science and with faith.” His worry seems rather that the faith and its metaphysical presuppositions are not accurately known in the intellectual world, especially in Catholic universities.

The final thing that is noteworthy about John Paul II’s address is his abiding concern for the spiritual, moral, and intellectual lives of students in institutions of higher learn­ing. Several years ago, I did a collection of the Holy Father’s addresses to university students and faculties (The Whole Truth about Man, St. Paul Editions, 1982). Wherever John Paul II has gone in the world — he makes even Jesuits look like stay-at-homes! — he has attracted in particular university students. It is clear that he can and does go over the heads of staid faculties to the real hearts and minds of the young students. In this context, it is of special interest what John Paul II told the Jesuit academics about their own students and what they thought:

In various kinds of meetings with university students throughout the whole world, I have had the occasion to perceive personally the way in which significant religious questions seem to arise spontaneously, primarily out of a need to give meaning to their lives. It would be good to be aware of this spirit, with the realization that they are looking for examples of authentically Chris­tian lives. They are searching for examples of Christian doctrine authentically lived, more than for the theoretical exposition of these doctrines.

Whenever I read such lines, to Jesuits or university students, I again feel we do not deserve a Pope of this caliber. But we have one, one who knows about the hearts of university students because he also knows about minds, about the structure of modern intelligence.