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God and Intelligence in Modern Philosophy
If actuality makes modernity, then St. Thomas is the prince of modern philosophers. If a progressive universe is a contemporary ideal, then the philosophy of St. Thomas is its greatest realization. Modern Idealism needs the completion of his realism; empiricism needs his transcendental principles; philosophical biologism his metaphysics; sociological morality his ethics; sentimentalism his theory of the intelligence; and the world needs the God he knew and loved and adored. (Bishop Sheen, 1925) In this book, Fulton Sheen addresses what G. K. Chesterton called the most tremendous question in the world; perhaps the only question in the world: how man, through the power of reason, can know the nature of God. Tracing the course of philosophy from the Middle Ages to modern times, he shows Thomistic realism to be an adequate response to modern ideals. Emphasizing reason as a way of attaining knowledge of God, Bishop Sheen identifies the current age of agnosticism with its simultaneous distrust of reason. In a lucid tone, he analyzes the modern attack on intelligence, while presenting Scholastic philosophy as the solution to modern problems. Bishop Sheen succeeds in actualizing St. Thomas to such a degree that he ends up proving that Scholastic philosophy speaks to the world today as freshly as it did to the world of the 13th century. Catholics will appreciate the book as an astute criticism of modern theory and coherent introduction to St. Thomas, while non-Catholics will find it useful for its strict reliance on reason and not dogma in the pursuit of philosophical knowledge.
350 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2009
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129 people want to read
About the author
Fulton J. Sheen
522 books742 followersFulton John Sheen was an American bishop of the Catholic Church known for his preaching and especially his work on television and radio. Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in Illinois, in 1919, Sheen quickly became a renowned theologian, earning the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1923. He went on to teach theology and philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and served as a parish priest before he was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1951. He held this position until 1966 when he was made bishop of the Diocese of Rochester in New York. He resigned as bishop of Rochester in 1969 as his 75th birthday approached and was made archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales.
For 20 years as "Father Sheen", later monsignor, he hosted the night-time radio program The Catholic Hour on NBC (1930–1950) before he moved to television and presented Life Is Worth Living (1952–1957). Sheen's final presenting role was on the syndicated The Fulton Sheen Program (1961–1968) with a format that was very similar to that of the earlier Life Is Worth Living show. For that work, Sheen twice won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and was featured on the cover of Time magazine. Starting in 2009, his shows were being re-broadcast on the EWTN and the Trinity Broadcasting Network's Church Channel cable networks. His contribution to televised preaching resulted in Sheen often being called one of the first televangelists.
The cause for his canonization was officially opened in 2002. In June 2012, Pope Benedict XVI officially recognized a decree from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints stating that he lived a life of "heroic virtues," a major step towards beatification, and he is now referred to as venerable. On July 5, 2019, Pope Francis approved a reputed miracle that occurred through the intercession of Sheen, clearing the way for his beatification. Sheen was scheduled to be beatified in Peoria on December 21, 2019, but his beatification was postponed after Bishop Salvatore Matano of Rochester expressed concern that Sheen's handling of a 1963 sexual misconduct case against a priest might be cited unfavorably in a forthcoming report from the New York Attorney General. The Diocese of Peoria countered that Sheen's handling of the case had already been "thoroughly examined" and "exonerated" and that Sheen had "never put children in harm's way".
For 20 years as "Father Sheen", later monsignor, he hosted the night-time radio program The Catholic Hour on NBC (1930–1950) before he moved to television and presented Life Is Worth Living (1952–1957). Sheen's final presenting role was on the syndicated The Fulton Sheen Program (1961–1968) with a format that was very similar to that of the earlier Life Is Worth Living show. For that work, Sheen twice won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and was featured on the cover of Time magazine. Starting in 2009, his shows were being re-broadcast on the EWTN and the Trinity Broadcasting Network's Church Channel cable networks. His contribution to televised preaching resulted in Sheen often being called one of the first televangelists.
The cause for his canonization was officially opened in 2002. In June 2012, Pope Benedict XVI officially recognized a decree from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints stating that he lived a life of "heroic virtues," a major step towards beatification, and he is now referred to as venerable. On July 5, 2019, Pope Francis approved a reputed miracle that occurred through the intercession of Sheen, clearing the way for his beatification. Sheen was scheduled to be beatified in Peoria on December 21, 2019, but his beatification was postponed after Bishop Salvatore Matano of Rochester expressed concern that Sheen's handling of a 1963 sexual misconduct case against a priest might be cited unfavorably in a forthcoming report from the New York Attorney General. The Diocese of Peoria countered that Sheen's handling of the case had already been "thoroughly examined" and "exonerated" and that Sheen had "never put children in harm's way".
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 27, 2023
Quite an intellectual, difficult book to read, and it was not intended for the casual reader. Was extremely interesting in many regards, and it is clear that the author Fulton Sheen was an clever guy who knew what he was talking about. Very insightful book but I felt Fulton Sheen spent a bit too much time explaining opposing views than he did explaining his own Catholic view and I felt at certain points I was being lost in the drudgery of explanation of so many various ideologies. It would have been nice for a bit more focus on his own perspective, but all in all its a great read.
April 26, 2024
Fulton Sheen changed me; St. Augustine primed me for the Catholic Faith, but it was Fulton Sheen who gave me the shove into it. The book which proved so decisive was Three to Get Married, one of his scores of works which might be termed “popular” in the sense that it is meant for the general reader. I’m an avid reader, but that book was challenging in the best use of the word, but it truly was written so that an average fellow could understand it. Sheen was a master of communication, famous for his extremely popular television and radio programs, and, of course, his books. Few knew better how to make a message understandable to the masses.
This, however, is not a book for the masses. Sheen had a sharp mind and thorough understanding of Thomistic philosophy, and this book is intended for an intellectual audience. Despite this, and despite this being Sheen’s first book, his ability to communicate complex ideas in a way that even simpler folks like me can understand still shines through. It’s nascent, not the polished Sheen for the masses of latter works, but still noticeable. His style was clearly influenced by G. K. Chesterton, and so it seems fitting that Chesterton would write the introduction to Sheen’s first book. It will never cease to amaze me how Chesterton could take an incredibly dense philosophy and distill it into a short, pithy, accurate statement. In this case, Sheen’s book is summed up as so:
“In this book, as in the modern world generally, the Catholic Church comes forward as the one and only real champion of Reason. There was indeed a hundred years ago a school of free-thinkers which attacked Rome by an appeal to Reason. But most of the recent free-thinkers are, by their own account rather than by ours, falling from Reason even more than from Rome….our enemies have retreated from the territory of reason, on which they once claimed to many victories; and have fallen back upon the borderlands of myth and mysticism, like so many other barbarians with whom civilization is at war.”
That was written in July, 1925. Proudly Anti-Rationalists were about to pounce upon Europe and bring Hell upon Earth, but few saw it. The Anti-Rationalists are at it again today.
But the Anti-Rationalists are a misnomer, because modern philosophy has confused the previously distinct terms Intellect and Reason, much to its own detriment. Reason is a process by which we take information we know and discover things we did not. In my entire life, I may not have encountered the equation 4,537,742 + 7 = 4,537,749, but I can know it is accurate by applying the principles of arithmetic. Intellect is different. It grasps the answer. It knows. Reason leads me to the answer, Intellect holds it. And it knows the object. To deny that and say the mind only knows the idea of the thing it thinks it knows is to create chaos, because now no two intellectual beings can be sure they understand the same thing about anything. It also leads us to find meaning, purpose, everything inside ourselves, rather than to seek outside.
The same applies to our search and understanding of God. If the mind cannot directly access the outside world, it cannot use the clues provided by the outside world to point to God. This allowed each man (and Sheen provides plenty of examples of philosophers of his age doing this) to basically create his own theology out of nothing. No two are the same, which is reminiscent of St. Ireneaus’ criticism of Gnosticism in his day. Each man becomes the measure of all things, because there is nothing else by which to measure them. With such limited resources, the individual will look for meaning, purpose, the Divine in feelings, not thoughts. Experience, not logic, becomes the gateway to everything. God, rather than a truth to be discovered, becomes a tool to be used for our experiences; indeed, how “helpful” those experiences become was used by some to be the measure of our understanding of God. One sees this commonly in Modernist thinking, whether religious or otherwise. Jung saw religion as a useful help. So do many who want to redefine doctrine to “help.”
But “help” towards what? “Progress” towards what end? Those questions cannot be answered by philosophies that deny the Intellect’s ability to directly access reality. When we have no idea where we are going and let emotions call the shots, weird and horrible things will follow. Again, this book was written in 1925. A browse through Kolnai’s The War Against the West reveals what the Anti-Rationalists are capable of in a way that is consistent with their founding axioms. And Sheen correctly notes that you cannot directly refute such ideas; because everything is so tightly bound up in their own mind, nothing outside of it can be brought in as refutation.
It was a surprise during my conversion to see how insistent my priest was that the Catholic faith stands on reason, not emotions. This is not rhetoric, but an accurate statement. St. Thomas Aquinas build his Summa on logic and Divine Revelation to the Church, not to individuals. St. John of the Cross and Thomas Merton are well in the spirit of the Church’s skepticism of individual revelation. When anything unusual is reported, it is subjected to scrutiny, such as the canonization process. We are hylomorphic creatures of body and soul, with senses that inform the intellect, and if nothing else the Catholic Church has my loyalty for owning up to this obvious fact.
You can go deeper into the weeds with Fulton Sheen, and I would recommend you do. Though not my intention for reading this book, it has helped clarify Thomistic Philosophy for me on many important points.
This, however, is not a book for the masses. Sheen had a sharp mind and thorough understanding of Thomistic philosophy, and this book is intended for an intellectual audience. Despite this, and despite this being Sheen’s first book, his ability to communicate complex ideas in a way that even simpler folks like me can understand still shines through. It’s nascent, not the polished Sheen for the masses of latter works, but still noticeable. His style was clearly influenced by G. K. Chesterton, and so it seems fitting that Chesterton would write the introduction to Sheen’s first book. It will never cease to amaze me how Chesterton could take an incredibly dense philosophy and distill it into a short, pithy, accurate statement. In this case, Sheen’s book is summed up as so:
“In this book, as in the modern world generally, the Catholic Church comes forward as the one and only real champion of Reason. There was indeed a hundred years ago a school of free-thinkers which attacked Rome by an appeal to Reason. But most of the recent free-thinkers are, by their own account rather than by ours, falling from Reason even more than from Rome….our enemies have retreated from the territory of reason, on which they once claimed to many victories; and have fallen back upon the borderlands of myth and mysticism, like so many other barbarians with whom civilization is at war.”
That was written in July, 1925. Proudly Anti-Rationalists were about to pounce upon Europe and bring Hell upon Earth, but few saw it. The Anti-Rationalists are at it again today.
But the Anti-Rationalists are a misnomer, because modern philosophy has confused the previously distinct terms Intellect and Reason, much to its own detriment. Reason is a process by which we take information we know and discover things we did not. In my entire life, I may not have encountered the equation 4,537,742 + 7 = 4,537,749, but I can know it is accurate by applying the principles of arithmetic. Intellect is different. It grasps the answer. It knows. Reason leads me to the answer, Intellect holds it. And it knows the object. To deny that and say the mind only knows the idea of the thing it thinks it knows is to create chaos, because now no two intellectual beings can be sure they understand the same thing about anything. It also leads us to find meaning, purpose, everything inside ourselves, rather than to seek outside.
The same applies to our search and understanding of God. If the mind cannot directly access the outside world, it cannot use the clues provided by the outside world to point to God. This allowed each man (and Sheen provides plenty of examples of philosophers of his age doing this) to basically create his own theology out of nothing. No two are the same, which is reminiscent of St. Ireneaus’ criticism of Gnosticism in his day. Each man becomes the measure of all things, because there is nothing else by which to measure them. With such limited resources, the individual will look for meaning, purpose, the Divine in feelings, not thoughts. Experience, not logic, becomes the gateway to everything. God, rather than a truth to be discovered, becomes a tool to be used for our experiences; indeed, how “helpful” those experiences become was used by some to be the measure of our understanding of God. One sees this commonly in Modernist thinking, whether religious or otherwise. Jung saw religion as a useful help. So do many who want to redefine doctrine to “help.”
But “help” towards what? “Progress” towards what end? Those questions cannot be answered by philosophies that deny the Intellect’s ability to directly access reality. When we have no idea where we are going and let emotions call the shots, weird and horrible things will follow. Again, this book was written in 1925. A browse through Kolnai’s The War Against the West reveals what the Anti-Rationalists are capable of in a way that is consistent with their founding axioms. And Sheen correctly notes that you cannot directly refute such ideas; because everything is so tightly bound up in their own mind, nothing outside of it can be brought in as refutation.
It was a surprise during my conversion to see how insistent my priest was that the Catholic faith stands on reason, not emotions. This is not rhetoric, but an accurate statement. St. Thomas Aquinas build his Summa on logic and Divine Revelation to the Church, not to individuals. St. John of the Cross and Thomas Merton are well in the spirit of the Church’s skepticism of individual revelation. When anything unusual is reported, it is subjected to scrutiny, such as the canonization process. We are hylomorphic creatures of body and soul, with senses that inform the intellect, and if nothing else the Catholic Church has my loyalty for owning up to this obvious fact.
You can go deeper into the weeds with Fulton Sheen, and I would recommend you do. Though not my intention for reading this book, it has helped clarify Thomistic Philosophy for me on many important points.
March 28, 2020
Scholarly work by young Dr Sheen. Very well researched. Lacks the gusto and strong insights which were found in his later works.
May 25, 2016
What I particularly love about this book is that Sheen gives time and attention to understanding those he criticizes (and with more clarity than they themselves seem to have). This has the awesome effect of arguing with someone on their own grounds, which they accept, while critiquing it from the inside out. It's an excellent example of intellectual charity and rigor.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews