The Catholic World, Vol. 09, April, 1869-September, 1869Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 09, April, 1869-September, 1869
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
We confess that it appears to us a very puzzling "problem" to
find out how to answer the foregoing criticism, or the others
from non-catholic periodicals which it has been our hap to fall
in with. Not one of them has seriously controverted the main
thesis of the book they profess to criticise, or to make any
well-motived adjudication of the several portions of the argument
by which the thesis is sustained. Some, like the one before us,
attempt to set aside the whole question; others content
themselves with a round assertion that the arguments are
inconclusive; and the residue confine themselves to generalities;
or, at most, to the criticism of some minor details. We should
not think it worth while to trouble ourselves or our readers with
a formal replication to such superficial critics, were it not for
the opportunity which is afforded us of bringing into clearer
light the total lack of all deep philosophy or theology in the
non-catholic world, and the value of the Catholic philosophy
which we are striving to bring before the minds of intelligent
and sincere inquirers after truth.
The criticisms begin with the title of the work. The critic of
_The Independent_ objects to our calling old questions
_problems of the age_. _The Southern Review_ coincides
with him, and suggests that they should rather have been called
"problems _of all ages;_" while another critic, in _The
Evening Post_, gives his verdict that they are all to be
classed as "problems of a bygone age." This last criticism is the
only one founded upon a reason; and is, at the same time, a full
justification of the appropriateness of the title before all
those who still profess to believe in the revelation of God. The
different classes of protesters against the teaching of the
church have wearied themselves in vain in searching for a
satisfactory solution of the problems of man's condition and
destiny; either in some new rendering of divine revelation, or in
some system of purely rational philosophy. The despair produced
by their utter failure vents itself in the denial that these
problems are real ones, capable of any solution at all, and in
the attempt to relegate them finally into the region of the
unknowable. This is a vain effort. They have forced themselves
upon the attention of the human mind ever since the creation, and
they will continue to do so, in spite of all efforts to exorcise
them. The relations of man to his Creator, the reason of moral
and physical evil, the bearing of the present life on the future,
the significance of Christianity, and such like topics, can be
regarded as obsolete questions only by a most unpardonable
levity. The so-called Liberal Christian and the rationalist may
in deed proffer the opinion that the solutions we have given are
already antiquated. But, with all the hardihood which persons of
this class possess in so remarkable a degree in claiming for
themselves all the light, all the intelligence, all the spiritual
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