Free thought; Modernism (Christian theology) -- Catholic Church; Religion and science; Teaching, Freedom of
We have to do here with a confusion of ideas possible only when
correct reasoning has sunk to a surprisingly low level. To think
with the will, to draw conclusions with intention, is degenerate
thinking. But now we understand better what is meant by autonomy
of thought. It gives man license to disregard by shallow reasoning
everything that clashes with his own will. “What I have put down
as A shall be A and remain A!”
It is now clear that subjectivism and autonomism in thinking are rooted in
the positive disregard of objective truth, in the refusal of an
unconditional subjection to it; they mean _emancipation from the truth_.
Here we have the most striking and _deepest difference_ between modern
subjectivistic and Christian objective thought. The latter adheres to the
old conviction that our thoughts do not make the truth, but are subject to
an objective order of things as a norm. For this reason autonomous freedom
and subjective caprice, a manner of reasoning that would approach truth as
a lawgiver, and even change it according to time and circumstance, are
unintelligible in the Christian objective thought. This thought submits
unselfishly to truth wherever met, be it without a divine revelation or
with it, if the revelation be but vouched for. And the reward of this
unselfishness is the preservation of the truth.
But subjectivism, with its freedom, leads inevitably to the loss of the
truth; it is scepticism in principle, in fact, if my thoughts are not a
counterpart of an objective world, but only a subjectively produced image;
not knowledge of an external reality, but only a figment of the
imagination, a projection, then I can have no assurance that they are more
than an empty dream.
The Modern Separation of Knowledge and Faith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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