Hello, I'm Dr. Anadale.
This video is about a short essay by Fr. James Schall, titled “Reading for Clerics.”
This was originally an address delivered to seminarians at St. John Fischer Seminary in
Bridgeport, Connecticut.
It was published an appendix to Schall’s 2006 book of essays titled The Life of the Mind.
In this video, I would like to share a couple of significant quotes from the essay, offer
my commentary, and leave you with a few questions for discussion.
First, Schall writes, “Catholicism, for better or for worse, is a religion of intelligence.
That is, it has always recognized, as Leo Strauss pointed out, that philosophy is essential
to its overall understanding and mission.”
For philosophers and Catholics, especially seminarians, this insight is worth pondering.
Philosophy is essential to the Church’s mission and self-understanding.
Of course, philosophical knowledge is not in any way necessary for salvation; we can
set that idea aside at once.
Christians are saved by faith in Jesus Christ.
But in some way, philosophical *wisdom,* a proper orientation to the realities of self,
world, and God, is necessary for the Catholic Church to accomplish its mission.
This truth is reflected in the requirement that Catholic seminarians study philosophy
for two years before beginning the study of theology.
So, what are the philosophical requirements of Catholicism?
What do Schall and Strauss mean by calling it “a religion of intelligence”?
Later in the essay, Schall writes, “Most failures of intellect, I suspect, can be traced
back to a prior failure of virtue, of spiritual life.
Still, there are, I think, few more fatal mistakes for a cleric than that of underestimating
the importance of his own intellectual life.
I mean by this that he must have some intelligent grasp of why Catholicism is true, and some
awareness of the arguments and practices that purport to deny this truth.”
Since Catholicism requires a certain sort of intellectual life, a priest who neglects
his intellect will soon fall into error about the most important things.
He should know, in an active and ongoing sense, the arguments of both the Church and her critics.
So, how does failing to take the intellectual life seriously undermine the effective vocation
of a priest?
What practical steps can a man take to ensure he remains intellectually engaged his whole
life long? (Note: this is the central question of Schall’s essay.)
Next Schall writes, “As I have suggested, Catholicism is a religion of intelligence.
It is likewise a religion of revelation, but it conceives this revelation as coming from
and directed to intelligence, that is, as directed to the truth of things.”
And one final quote: “A priest, I think, should above all be someone who was drawn
to where he is, to what he holds and to how he lives because he is seen to be freely pursuing
where reality leads him.”
In these last two passages Schall connects Catholicism and its intellectual life with
an appreciation for reality.
Revelation comes from and is directed to intelligence, that is, to us as thinking, reasoning, knowing
beings, engaged with reality.
A healthy priestly vocation should be the result of following where reality leads you.
A priest should be somebody who is deeply connected with the real, someone not given
to flights of imagination or ideological dogma.
He should be someone who is able to know and live in and love the real world, in all of
its imperfection and difficulty. Exactly what habits and practices, though, should we adopt,
in order to accomplish this? That is a good subject for discussion.
Those are my comments on Catholicism as a religion of intelligence, and the need for
Christians, especially seminarians and priests, to have an active and honest intellectual life.
The four quotes were from Fr. James Schall’s essay “Reading for Clerics.”
I recommend you read the whole thing, whether you are a priest or not, and Catholic or not.
That’s all for now. Thanks for watching today; goodbye.