What Mindset Should Catholics Have About the World? - CHSS 106
In the face of the various challenges facing Western Christianity today, some Catholics have adopted one of two mindsets.
The first mindset could be likened to a fortress. The fortress mindset would say that the Catholic Christians need to do everything in their power to keep themselves unaffected by the challenges of the modern by closing themselves off from culture as much as possible. To this end, those who adopt the fortress mindset would say that it is important for Catholics to restrict themselves to reading solely Catholic books and to avoid non-Catholic ideas and literature as much as possible.
The second mindset could be likened to a café. The café mindset would say that Catholic Christians need to expose themselves as much as possible to non-Catholic literature and ideas. This perspective would insist far less on the need to read Catholic books before engaging the ideas of the current culture as much as possible. This approach would manifest itself in a classroom where students are entirely unacquainted with a Catholic perspective(s) on the Life Questions.
Within these polar extremes, the Second Vatican Council in its document Lumen Gentium proposed that Catholic Christians should be thoroughly acquainted with their faith as well as being firmly committed to engaging modern culture. To achieve both objectives, the council presumed that Catholics would be well versed in their faith while being simultaneously well acquainted with the positions of non-Catholic movements and thinkers.
In today’s episode, we discuss the importance of not only reading good Catholic authors such as the Fathers and Doctors of the Church but also the importance of engaging the ideas of those outside the Catholic faith. We discuss the precedents set in this regard by these great thinkers of the Catholic tradition who distinguished themselves by meeting both tasks.
We illustrate this principle set forth by the Second Vatican Council by briefly discussing the contributions of the great doctors of the Church, famous teachers down through the history of Catholic Christianity. Scholars such as Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Robert Bellarmine are remembered to this day precisely because they had a great grasp of the faith and the ideas of other thinkers outside their theological tradition.
A study of these and other influential authors is an excellent starting point for thinking about these Life Questions in the context of the modern world.
Join us as we discuss the ideal to which Catholic Christians should strive in their engagements with the modern world.
https://catholicheritagespirituality.com/episode106/
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