Theological Aesthetics

In The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics, Volume I: Seeing the Form, Hans Urs von Balthasar describes a theological aesthetics that "develops its theory of beauty from the data of revelation itself with genuinely theological methods." 

According to von Balthasar, the supreme object of beauty is the form of divine revelation centered on Jesus Christ, who is God, bears witness to God as a man, and reveals God's glory, "the primal splendour of the love of a God who humiliates himself."  This sacrifice does not destroy, however, for it transfigures all of creation through love.  His form, "the most sublime of beauties," which can be seen by those filled with the Holy Spirit, captivates Christians and inflames their love, and thus the Christian form is the most beautiful human form.

(Quotes are from the translation by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, published by Ignatius Press.)

The Perils of Meritocracy

The meritocracy that exists in American society is the subject of two articles that consider current events and classical philosophers.

In The Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria argued that meritocracy is under assault and under siege.  This meritocracy replaced a aristocratic system, led by WASPs, that "rewarded wealth, social status, and family connections."  In First Things, Patrick J. Deneen explained this American aristocracy was stable because both the working class and the elites believed two premises that were first described by Plato in the Republic: (1) all citizens (both classes) are united by their commonalities (e.g., belonging the same family or clan) and (2) each person belongs to a specific, distinctive, and unequal class.  When all believe both premises, the working class accepts the inequality, while the elites use their wealth and power to help others and serve the common good.

Today, this consensus appears to be unraveling.  Zakaria criticized a proposal to change the criteria for admission to New York City's selective, specialized high schools.  Socially liberal elites are uncomfortable admitting that there is a hierarchy of talent.  Deneen made the same point and stated that today's elites embrace inclusion---we're all equal, and no one should be left out---because they take the first premise as given.  The elites deny the second premise, however, which allows them to ignore their responsibility to the common good by emphasizing inclusion and claiming that those who are not elites chose their fate.  Their blindness is the result of rejecting Christ's commands.

Zakaria concluded that, despite its faults, no alternative is  better than meritocracy.  Deneen concluded that, because the elites whom this meritocracy created refuse to acknowledge their position and fail to work for the common good, the working class will continue to support populist rebellions.

Sources:
Deneen, Patrick J., "The Ignoble Lie," First Things, April 2018.  https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/04/the-ignoble-lie

Harris, Elizabeth A., "De Blasio Proposes Changes to New York’s Elite High Schools," The New York Times, June 2, 2018.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/02/nyregion/de-blasio-new-york-schools.html

Zakaria, Fareed, "American meritocracy is under attack," The Washington Post, June 29, 2018.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/meritocracy-is-under-attack/2018/06/28/e9f689d0-7afb-11e8-93cc-6d3beccdd7a3_story.html?utm_term=.b0d259db9570

The Case against Automation

In "Skilled Perception, Authenticity, and The Case against Automation," David Zoller argued that we shouldn't automate everything.  Automating an activity implies that satisfactory performance of that task is sufficient; there is no need to do it excellently.   But doing something excellently is necessary for happiness (cf. Aristotle).

Moreover, each person defines himself by certain vocations (such as being a parent or a teacher or a firefighter), and fulfilling each vocation requires doing certain types of activities.  Automating those activities would contradict the requirement of the vocation.  For example, how can one be a teacher if the associated activities such as demonstrating and explaining something for one's students are done by machines or computers?

Acquiring the skills to perform the duties of a vocation requires training, which requires activity.  One cannot learn to perform a task that, because it is automated, one never does. Because humans and the time and resources available are limited, one can pursue only a limited number of vocations, and so one's skills are limited, which makes the skills that one has mastered more valuable as a sign of one's competence and ability to accomplish something.

David Zoller, "Skilled Perception, Authenticity, and The Case against Automation," in Robot Ethics 2.0, Patrick Lin, Ryan Jenkins, and Keith Abney, editors, Oxford University Press, 2017. ISBN: 978-0-19-065295-1.

Chaput on Fides et Ratio

In the March 2018 issue of First Things, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput discussed the lessons of Fides et Ratio, Pope John Paul II's encyclical on faith and reason.  (Last year I discussed this document here.)

Archbishop Chaput highlighted the pope's emphasis on truth:

John Paul II argues that the search for truth is central to any genuinely human culture. The drive to understand the world and our place in it is one of the most basic human hungers. Truth is not the enemy of freedom but its foundation, since it gives us the capacity to love reality as it really is. Knowledge of the truth expands our freedom to love.

The search for truth and the capacity to love are both important and are not opposed to one another. 

We can only resolve our inner confusions about life by seeking the objective truth about things, and by exploring that truth with others who hold us accountable to reality. As John Paul states bluntly, “Truth and freedom either go together hand in hand or together they perish in misery.”

But searching for the truth is not limited to scientific, empirical research.

The aim of any true philosophy, it notes, should be to find the unity of truth in all things, an understanding of the whole. This demands an engagement with the classical discipline we call “metaphysics,” ... an exotic word for a very basic subject: the study of the deep truths and harmonies built into the world.

As we journey through Lent towards Good Friday and Easter in a world that denies the existence of any truth beyond this world, we must, as the pope wrote, seek answers in Jesus Christ:

Reason cannot eliminate the mystery of love which the Cross represents, while the Cross can give to reason the ultimate answer which it seeks.

Views of Evolution

Because it provides an explanation of our origins, the scientific theory of evolution has provoked a variety of reactions.  Some have denied it, some have accepted it, and some have extended it beyond its domain.  A brief summary of some key positions:

Young-earth creationism: Evolution did not occur.  God created the universe in six days, and humans are descended from Adam and Eve.

Theistic evolution:  Evolution is an acceptable scientific explanation, and God doesn’t intervene with the material process.  “God, eternally foreseeing all the products of evolution, uses the natural process of evolution to work out his creative plan,” according to Avery Cardinal Dulles [1].  Pope Benedict proclaimed, “We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary” [2].

Intelligent Design: Evolution can explain some aspects of life, but not all.  God produced irreducibly complex organs that a sequence of small random mutations, under the laws of evolution, could not produce.

Teleological evolution: Evolution is an acceptable scientific explanation, and it has a purpose.  According to Cardinal Dulles, “Biological organisms cannot be understood by the laws of mechanics alone. The laws of biology, without in any way contradicting those of physics and chemistry, are more complex. The behavior of living organisms cannot be explained without taking into account their striving for life and growth” [1].  Evolution is a process that is not complete; God activates new classes of life within that process; and through it God will unite the whole universe in Himself.

Neo-Darwinism:  Evolution not only explains the origin of life but also shows that God does not exist and the universe has no purpose.  

1. Avery Cardinal Dulles, "God and Evolution," First Things, October 2007.

2. Pope Bendict XVI, homily, Inauguration Mass, April 24, 2005, https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/homilies/2005/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20050424_inizio-pontificato.html.

Faith and Reason

Pope John Paul II took up the relationship of faith and reason in Fides et Ratio, his encyclical about theology and philosophy.  This is his introductory passage:

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.

As humans, we ask some fundamental questions:

Who am I? Where have I come from and where am I going? Why is there evil? What is there after this life? 

Where do we get the answers?  First, from God, who speaks to us as one person speaks to another:

By the authority of his absolute transcendence, God who makes himself known is also the source of the credibility of what he reveals. By faith, men and women give their assent to this divine testimony. This means that they acknowledge fully and integrally the truth of what is revealed because it is God himself who is the guarantor of that truth. They can make no claim upon this truth which comes to them as gift and which, set within the context of interpersonal communication, urges reason to be open to it and to embrace its profound meaning.

And this inspires our rational search to understand the answers:

Revelation therefore introduces into our history a universal and ultimate truth which stirs the human mind to ceaseless effort; indeed, it impels reason continually to extend the range of its knowledge until it senses that it has done all in its power, leaving no stone unturned.

For more about Fides et Ratio, see the article by Richard John Neuhaus.