First, be aware that it exists

Then, be vigilant in keeping it.

“Truth is never just theoretical. … Truth means more than knowing. Knowledge of truth has as its goal knowledge of good.

I love reading Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI. This time, it’s an interesting occasion (in a unique way), an address he prepared but didn’t get to deliver at La Sapienza University in Rome. CWNews carries the text. In it, Benedict talks about the search for truth and he ties together two often disconnected topics and asks two questions:

What is the nature and mission of the papacy? And again: What is the nature and mission of the university?

And how are they related? By the existence of truth, and the search for it.

First, ‘the community of believers’.

The larger it is, the more its good condition or eventual decline will impact all of humanity. Today we see very clearly how the situation of the religions and the situation of the Church—its crises and renewals—act upon the whole of humanity. Thus the pope, precisely as the shepherd of his community, has increasingly become a voice of the ethical reasoning of humanity.

BUT….he says….some people object to that, saying…

the pope does not in fact truly speak on the basis of ethical reasoning, but instead draws his judgments from the faith, and therefore he cannot claim that these have validity for those who do not share this faith.

Then comes the golden question:

What is reason? How can an assertion—and above all a moral norm—demonstrate that it is “reasonable”.

Okay, that’s two questions. But great ones. Benedict says that believers of a ‘hard-line secularist rationality’ can’t just dismiss the reasonablensss of the ‘wisdom of the ages.’

Lookit, he says (well, he doesn’t say “lookit”, but it has that feel), liberal political philosopher John Rawls believed that over history, strong arguments have upheld religious doctrines. And so, Benedict says…

It seems important to me that this statement recognises that experience and demonstration over the course of generations, the historical backdrop of human wisdom, are also a sign of their reasonableness and their lasting significance.

Now listen to this…

In the face of an a-historical form of reason that seeks to construct itself in an exclusively a-historical rationality, the wisdom of humanity as such—the wisdom of the great religious traditions—should be viewed as a reality that cannot be cast with impunity into the trash bin of the history of ideas.

Which a whole movement of folks in pop theology, secular humanism and some celebrity atheist authors have been doing.

So then Benedict takes up the other question:

But now we must ask ourselves: What is the university? What is its purpose?

It’s sure time to explore that question. Part of a university’s identity and purpose is…

the demanding search for reason in order to learn about the entire truth.

Personally, I really needed a break from constant politics and political rhetoric and news polls trying to figure out political realities.

This was it. Here’s the type of analysis we need to add to that mix of politics: What is justice, and how can it serve mankind?

It is a question that is related to how we can find legal rules that can govern freedom, human dignity and man’s rights. It is an issue that concerns us insofar as it relates to the democratic processes that shape opinions but also one that can distress us insofar as it relates to humanity’s future.

What’s legal, Benedict says, comes from two sources…

the equal participation of all citizens in the political process and reasonable conflict-resolution mechanisms in politics.

This is so good, just a bit more. Imagine this analysis being worked into current media discussion.

We know that the representatives of this public “process of argumentation” are for the most part political parties which shape the formation of the public will. In fact they invariably will seek a majority and will almost always take care of the interests they pledge to protect which are very often partisan and not collective interests. Responsiveness to the truth always takes the back seat to partisan interests.

Okay. We have candidates who talk about bi-partisanship and unity. And they argue a lot. Let’s have the public will to expect the truth, justice, reasonableness….and the respect for the dignity of all human persons.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *