Catholic Thinkers

The question of a Christian tragedy is always one that brings up ultimate questions about the nature of our life on earth to why we exist.  In the light of the Resurrection and the Christian understanding that we are free beings, can there actually be a "Christian" tragedy?

The lecture "On Being Roman Catholic" is an attempt to state briefly what the essence of Roman Catholicism is in distinction from other philosophies and religions.

From the Essay:

"The reason that properly belongs to Catholicism delights to hear any objection to its truth.  Such objections insight us to clarity and distinction.  Catholicism is a revelation confident in its own grounding and coherence."

"It is of the essence of Catholicism to be an intellectual religion.  On its own tenets it is not true if a case cannot be made for its validity." 

Graduation from college is a time to look back and ask oneself if what one received in the four or five years of college was really an education.

The graduation address comes from a consideration on graduation about Greeks and Goths, about the full content of a real education.

From the Essay:

"In the university we should be looking for what is, in fact, practically useless...the things that are useful are not the most important things."

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"Even though we have the power of desire, fact comes before it...[w]hat is important is not that we know, nor is it our image of what we know...no, what is important is that which we know..."

https://youtu.be/QsRkWeFL12I

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"Our walking is a reminder that there really are places and realities outside of our minds to which we want to go, at which we want to be present..."

https://youtu.be/vb_s4LBUAjY

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"The end for which man was created and elevated was to live the inner life of the Godhead. To contemplate this end strikes me as more exciting and wondrous than any of the humanly made alternatives..."

https://youtu.be/drfRE4g2vss

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From the Essay: 

"There is really not much sense in eating a croissant unless it is very good. Though one should be careful of demanding such perfection that he misses in this life the fact that what is is good even if it's not perfect.  The search for perfection does not necessarily exclude the less than perfect."  

"In seeking the perfect croissant, a worthy enterprise as it seems to me, I wonder what indeed am I looking for in all that I do.  It is a question that ought to arise in the pursuit of any real good I think--including the perfect croissant."

Fr. James Schall retired from teaching Political Philosophy at Georgetown University in December of 2012.  But he was not done teaching.  Through a partnership with the International Catholic University Fr. Schall self-recorded many of his well-known essays and lectures, including a full course based on his popular “Introduction to Political Philosophy.”

In this final lecture of nine, I examine the question of whether evil disproves God’s existence. There are two versions of the problem of evil. The first logical version of the problem of evil says that any evil at all disproves God’s existence. One toothache alone disproves God. If God is all good, then God would want to get rid of all evil. If God were all powerful, then God could get rid of all evil. But obviously evil exists, so it seems that God lacks goodness or power or both. A second evidential version of the problem of evil argues that there is unjustified evil in the world. If there were only a little evil, perhaps that would be compatible with the existence of God, but there is so much evil that God (at least as Aquinas describes God) cannot exist. Do these arguments actually show that God doesn’t exist. We suggest that neither argument establishes that it is impossible that God exists. 

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https://youtu.be/A6ILV4C3IKA

Scripture famously teaches that, “God is love” (1 John 4:16). But Aquinas thinks this same belief can be shown to be true on the basis of reason alone. If we define love as willing the good of the other for their sake, and if God the First Cause wills the good of human beings for their sake, then God must love human beings. For Thomas whatever God does is also what God is. So if God is loving, then God is love. Moreover, Thomas believes that God so loved the world that Jesus was sent as the fullness of revelation of God. This is a “mystery of faith” that goes beyond what philosophy can show to be true. Thomas thinks that Jesus is fully divine and also fully human. He has both full divine nature and full human nature. 

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https://youtu.be/2wVK0Df3U6E

This lecture looks at a number of questions: Can God make a rock that God cannot lift? Can God Destroy Himself? Could the Uncaused Cause bring about a miracle? If God’s will is unchanging are prayers of petition pointless? Does God will evil? Thomas answers these questions relying not just on faith but also on reason. The differences between the Divine Will and the human will, the Divine Knowledge and human knowledge, give rise to questions about Thomas’s understanding of Jesus. 

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https://youtu.be/CONkCIDFJn8