Monday, April 30, 2007

"The Golden Grains of Truth"

Duke here, reporting in after a hectic week of work travel, followed by a weekend helping this blog's co-founder, Mutt, move into his new house... on behalf of everyone at the TST, I would like to congratulate Mutt on his provision of a magnificent new home for his family. I know Mutt is very happy and proud -- and he has every right to be, as he's worked damned hard to get there. It don't come free, and no one knows that better than he does... but it if you're blessed enough for it to come at all, it is indeed sweet in the tasting.

At any rate, to work: I have a passage I wanted to share with readers of this blog, mostly because of its relevance to the subject matter at hand... not so much about literature per se, but the pursuit of the true, the good and the beautiful in whatever form it can be found. This is from a fantastic book I am reading called The Spirit of Catholicism by Fr. Karl Adam, who was a German priest living and writing in the early part of the last century.

One of the things I love most about the Catholic faith is its insistence on a proper balance of both faith and reason in the life of the believer. Here, Fr. Adam expresses this aspect of Catholicism with both eloquence and wisdom. These are profound words revealing even more profound truths. I found them to be very inspiring, and thought others might too.

The catholicity of the Church is manifested not least in this, that she does not allow knowledge and faith to be separated and set in an unhealthy antagonism, but conjoins them in intimate harmony, making knowledge accessible to faith and faith accessible to knowledge. Her greatest minds, Origen, Augustine, Aquinas and Newman, made it their life's task to establish this synthesis of faith and knowledge. Nor do the theologians of our own day know of any more important task than that of making modern knowledge fruitful for the faith. Catholicism lays its hand on every branch of knowledge, seeking everywhere the golden grains of truth, that it may adorn its sanctuary with them...

...such is Catholicism: an affirmation of values along the whole line, a most comprehensive and noblest accessibility to all good, a union of nature with grace, of art with religion, of knowledge with faith, "so that God may be all in all."

Not a bad manifesto for a life that is truly Catholic (and catholic!), huh???

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