Text below was automatically transcribed and has not yet been edited. -WCM
Today is Good Friday 2023. And this is William Michael of the classical liberal arts academy. One glaring red flag in modern society is a lack of religious vocations. I talk about this quite a bit, because no matter what anyone says, no matter how its explained away, it’s this giant flashing red light that tells us that something’s wrong. Something is wrong. Because the highest and best calling in the human life is simply not being chosen by men and women. It’s really that simple. And what we normally find our lazy religious excuses for this problem. And often it’s blamed on God himself, that he simply isn’t calling men and women to religious vocations, which is impossible. So there’s always this desire to excuse it away, as if it’s not an effect of anything that Christians are doing, or as if it’s not an effect of something going on in the world around us, but that it’s simply a time where God has chosen to not raise up any priests, monks, or nuns. And when I say any, I don’t mean zero. Because obviously, there are some, but the numbers don’t make any sense. The numbers don’t make any sense. And even when we look among Christians, we look among young Catholic adults, or even Catholic adults of any age, we just find a very shallow, lukewarm does disconnected religion. There’s a disconnect between what Catholicism professes and what we see in the lives of Catholic people, whether it’s in churches, in schools, in families. Everywhere we look, we see that there’s a disconnect. Something’s not right, something’s out of joint. And modern Catholicism doesn’t appear to be in harmony with the Catholicism that we learn of, in the lives of the saints, or in church history, or the religion that we read of, in the sacred scriptures, there’s something fundamentally wrong. Now, what most people do is they immediately begin attacking the clergy, they attack the Pope, they attack the bishops, they attack the Second Vatican Council, they immediately begin blaming the clergy for this problem. And I’ve talked about this a number of times. I don’t believe that the clergy is to blame for this problem. I believe that the problem is actually caused by things that have developed outside the church, which have influenced Christian people and created this current crisis, we could say. Making the clergy to be the scapegoats really doesn’t make any sense because they’re the ones who have chosen religious life. If anyone is not to blame, it’s the people who have chosen religious life. The question is, why is there so little interest in religious life and blaming those who chose religious life makes no sense. There’s something fundamentally wrong something something has changed. And we’ve got to figure out what has changed. That has caused this modern dilemma and how it can be fixed and I’m going to get right to it. I’m not going to talk in vague uncertain terms as most people do today. I’m going to make my theory I’m going to present this as my theory, but I’m going to make my theory very clearly known and it’s this ever since the Renaissance since The abandonment of Aristotelian philosophy in schools and throughout society, ever since the rise of the scientific revolution, and the Protestant Reformation, public society or secular society, I should say, has turned away from Aristotelian or even platonic philosophy has turned away from the more virtuous form of classical Greco Roman learning, and has turned instead to a materialistic worldview that’s related to ancient Epicureanism, which was revived at the time of the Renaissance. And I, I talked about this in another talk titled, Why are there no religious vocations? So it’s my theory, and it’s my argument. That the reason why there are very few, hardly any statistically none. Statistically, when I say statistically, I mean, if we’re looking at percentages, if we look at the Catholic population 0% Choose religious vocations. And if we look at that, and wonder why that is, my argument is that it’s because the philosophical foundation that is supposed to exist in the life of Christian people, does not exist. The philosophical foundation on which the Catholic life is to be built, does not exist. It’s like having butter with no bread. Imagine Catholicism being the butter or the cheese. But there’s no bread. In the ancient world, men were able to produce the bread by their own reasoning and work and philosophizing, they were able to build a life that was good. And divine revelation came to those men, and it was the topping on the bread it brought the meal to perfection. It didn’t replace the bread. It perfected the bread, it perfected the meal, made it most nutritious and enjoyable. And what we have done in modern society by following secular society into their epicurean or materialistic philosophy, is that we have thrown away the bread. We have nothing to eat, we’re all starving. And we look to religion as a starving person looking to butter or dressing to feed himself with and we find that there is no nourishment. There’s no nourishment, not because there’s something wrong with Catholicism. But because Catholicism is supposed to exist in the context of an established philosophical life. It’s supposed to perfect the bread, not be the entire diet. That’s not a criticism of Catholicism, by the way, because if we actually study history and philosophy, we’ll learn that the achievements of ancient men was quite amazing. They were able to live, wise and virtuous lives. But there were some things missing. There were some imperfections that needed to be brought to perfection. And these things were brought about by Christianity by divine revelation. So what I’d like to talk about in this talk today, I don’t want to I don’t want to generalize and just talk about problems or criticize things. I’d actually like to talk about the remedy. How is this problem fixed? How is this problem overcome? How is this crisis eliminated? I’d like to talk practically and specifically, based on my hypothesis that this philosophical foundation having been lost is the actual cause of the modern vocation. Since crisis and even beyond that is the cause of a loss of interest in religion among adults, I’d like to not only propose that as my my view of the cause of the problem, I’d like to explain what the solution would look like in very practical, real world terms. Because this, this solution was practiced in history for 1000s and 1000s. of years. So it’s not like we need to invent something new. Not like we need to find a cure for some new disease, we simply need to return to a habit of life that was already in place for 1000s of years. Now. I don’t think that I’m being innovative when I suggest this because if we go back, even a century or two ago, we find Pope’s Pope’s like Saint Leo the 13th, calling for a restoration of Christian philosophy. Note, he wasn’t calling for a revival of religion. He wasn’t calling for a renewal of spiritual devotion. He was calling for a revival of Christian philosophy or I should say, a restoration of Christian philosophy. And you can see this in his in the document titled attorney potteries. He was calling for a restoration of philosophy, that’s something natural, that’s something human. That’s not something spiritual, or supernatural. He was calling for a restoration of true philosophy, which had been abandoned, which had been lost a restoration of Christian philosophy. And when we poke into that, and we ask, well, what does that mean? What does? What does Christian philosophy mean? Well, he tells us explicitly, it means scholastic philosophy. That’s what it means. That’s not my opinion. That’s not the opinion of some scholastic philosopher. That’s not the opinion of some Dominican who favors scholasticism. That’s the message of Pope, St. Leo, the 13th. In a in a document published for the whole church, to read, and put into practice, and that message was echoed literally, by Pope St. Pius the 10th. In the 20th century, that message was repeated. And I say literally, because Pope Pius the 10th said explicitly in his encyclical against the modernists, he explicitly referred back to his predecessors, and made it clear that he was simply repeating what had already been called for a restoration of scholastic philosophy. And here we are in the 21st century. And we find that we’re further away from that restoration than they were when they were calling for it a century ago. So what there needs to be what what the problem is, is that the philosophical foundation of the Catholic religion has been lost. The philosophical foundation of the Catholic life of Catholic culture has been lost. And there needs to be a restoration of that classical philosophical foundation. The bread needs to be restored to the diet. And Christians can imagine that they’re going to live on butter and dressings, and bear the fruit that was born in past generations. So let’s talk specifically about how this philosophical foundation is obtained. If we go back into the study of, of classical philosophy and realize this is what I do for a living, as a classicist, and I’m not saying that class assists do this generically because I’m an unusual Classicist in that I am a Catholic, studying classical phala Asif II for the sake of Catholic studies and culture in life. But when we look back to the philosophy of Aristotle, which is the source of Catholic philosophy or scholastic philosophy, we find that Aristotle had some views about life that were different from the philosophers who had gone before him. Aristotle was very practical. Aristotle had beliefs about human potential, and the potential that men had to achieve true human happiness in this life and not just a few men. As some of the earlier philosophers believed men like Plato, who really didn’t believe that anyone but a dedicated philosopher could be happy. Aristotle believed that all men in society could be happy, if society was rightly ordered. But Aristotle was a practical man who desired to enjoy the happiest possible life and not only for himself, but for all others as well. Now, there was a method to Aristotle’s philosophy and view of life. And as I said, this method, created an educational culture created a way of life that was taken for granted. When Christianity arrived in the world, when the Catholic Church was founded, this Aristotelian worldview was already established. And not only was it established, but it was spread through the world. In God’s providence, it was spread through the world, by the conquest of Alexander the Great, who was a disciple of Aristotle. When we look at the Bible, we see the Old Testament and when we read through the Old Testament, we read, not just of the history of Israel, God’s chosen people. But we read about their interaction with a number of different pagan civilizations. Obviously, we read about the, the interaction between the Jews and the Egyptians, for example, and we learn quite a bit about Egyptian culture and history. By reading about the interactions between the Jews and the Egyptians, we also read about Babylonian culture and Assyrian culture, and Persian culture. And these, these make up most of the history of the ancient Jewish people in the Old Testament, it’s Egyptians and Babylonians and Assyrians and Persians, that the Jews are normally interacting with, in addition to the smaller groups of Canaanite peoples that they dealt with, as they inherited the promised land. But in the big picture, historically speaking, if we think about world history, we learn about Egyptians and Assyrians and Babylonians and Persians as we study the Old Testament. When we open the New Testament, we find that we’re dealing with the Jews and they’re interacting with Romans. And so if we just look at biblical history, we find Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians Persians, and then we leap forward to Romans and a whole period of history is missed, largely due to the influence of Protestantism because Protestantism has removed the Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament, which provide the history that connects the Old and New Testaments called Test intertestamental period of history, the intertestamental period. And this is actually one of the most important periods in world history. And it’s not it’s not coincidental, in my opinion that the Protestants were used to remove that history from Christian knowledge. In the intertestamental period of history, we learn how the Jews moved from interactions with the Persians to the Romans. By the time of Christ, we learned that the Jews moved from the Persian. Well, their interactions with the Persians were the Persians basically set them free from the Babylonian captivity. But then how the Persians then come into conflict with the Greeks, the Greeks defeat the Persian Empire, and then come into direct contact with the Jews. As Alexander moves through his conquest of the Eastern world, we learned that Alexander the Great actually spares Jerusalem. And that’s a fascinating story in itself. Alexander the Great as he goes through conquering city after city after city, comes to Jerusalem, and spares, the Holy City. And then goes on to conquer all of the East all the way to India. And this Aristotelian, Hellenistic culture, and when you see the word Hellenistic, the Helen’s was an ancient name for the Greek people. So Hellenistic culture means Greek ish culture, that Hellenistic culture or Greek culture is brought by Alexander all through the eastern world, so that when we have the opening of the New Testament, and the apostles are sent out into the world to preach the gospel, the language they’re communicating in is actually Greek, which I don’t think gets enough attention from us. Why are the apostles writing in Greek? It’s because this Hellenistic culture filled the world. After Aristotle established true philosophy and sent his greatest or most famous, at least, his most famous pupil Alexander out as the world’s conqueror. Aristotelian philosophy was introduced to the Eastern world. Greek language was spread through the eastern world and became the universal language in the Middle East, even though we’re dealing with a time when we’re in the midst of the Roman Empire. And so in God’s providence, the Catholic Church was established in a Hellenistic period of culture, where the Greek language was the lingua franca, or the the language spoken universally. And these things are not coincidental. They’re very significant. And it’s important for us to understand this, Catholicism was introduced to the world, quote, unquote, in the fullness of time, after Aristotelian philosophy had been established in secular society. It’s in that context, that Christ comes into the world and establishes His church. And I don’t think that’s coincidental. I think that that is essential to the fullness of the Christian faith. And I don’t think it’s any surprise that 1200 years later, Thomas Aquinas proves to everyone that Aristotelianism is the most perfect philosophical expression of the concepts on which Christianity is based in which Christianity actually revealed most perfectly through the gospel. So we see at the time of the founding of the Catholic Church, there is an Aristotelian foundation in place philosophically, there’s a Hellenistic culture that serves as the bed into which Christianity is born. And it’s no surprise that when we come to the High Middle Ages, we find the greatest doctor in the history of the church, Thomas Aquinas arguing that Aristotelianism is the philosophical foundation that that Catholics need to look to, to most perfectly articulate, Christian thought. So what we see here is that there’s a there’s a, an important connection between Aristotelianism and Catholic theology or between Aristotelian philosophy, based on human reason, and Catholic theology based on divine revelation, where reason and Revelation come together is in scholasticism in scholastic philosophy in true Christian philosophy, that’s where reason and Revelation come together where reason and faith because we receive revelation By faith, but philosophy is reached through reason where faith and reason come together is where true philosophy and true religion or true revelation come together. And that place historically speaking, is found in scholasticism. I would argue that Catholic thought and culture reached their perfection under the influence of St. Thomas Aquinas, and that since then, after something of a golden age of Catholic culture from, let’s say, the 13th, to the 16th century, we then have the scientific revolution, the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance, we find an abandonment of that philosophical foundation and that theological foundation, we find an abandonment of that, and a, a regression into pre Aristotelian philosophical ideas that were rejected by the virtuous philosophers, namely Epicureanism, we find a return to Epicureanism that’s disguised in scientific and religious language, but a return to a, an inferior philosophical system that has led to the modern mess that we see continuing to unfold year by year in modern society, it just gets darker and darker, more and more immoral and corrupt and miserable. As time goes on, we’re moving further and further and further from that climax of Christian thought and culture, which, again, is symbolized in the person of Thomas Aquinas it there’s, there’s more to it than just Thomas Aquinas, but he serves as sort of a historical signpost, if you will, of, of where things reached their climax. And we see that 300 years after Aquinas, we had this radical, radical revolution and rebellion against that culture and that thought, and this return to Epicureanism that has that Well, it started at that time to unravel all that Catholicism had established, over 1200 years, it began to unravel that, and spread. And, you know, in God’s mysterious Providence was basically given an entire new continent in America on which to unravel Christian history for this what I believe is this End Times delusion of democracy and modernism in materialism, and scientific learning, and all of this stuff that that just continues to destroy human society. What we see, Pope Leo the 13th, Pope, St. Pius the 10th, calling Christians to is a return to that scholastic philosophy. And I believe that it’s, it’s for us to choose to do that or to not do that. And if we don’t do that, if we don’t return to Scholastic philosophy, if we don’t restore the philosophical foundation that was lost, we’re just we’re lost. And we see it getting darker and darker. And we can we can play around with these things. We can, we can, we can try to pretend that we’re interested in Catholic culture, we can, we can listen to Gregorian chant, we can go to a traditional Latin Mass, we can try to dress like Catholics from another generation. But these things are all superficial. The foundation of that culture is lost, even to even to recite the Creed. The words of the Creed have no meaning, when the philosophical foundation is lost. Where are those words were drawn from? What does it mean for God, or for or for the sun to be con substantial with the father? No one even knows what that means, because it’s a philosophical idea. What does it mean to talk about the hypostatic union? In the person of Christ, what does that mean? No one knows what that mean, because it’s a philosophical concept. When the philosophical foundation is lost, the words become empty. And this is what we’re seeing. In modern Catholic culture, it’s empty. We can talk about the mass and Transubstantiation. But what does that mean? Without philosophy to explain the words? The words are human words, they come not from divine revelation, they come from philosophy. People often ask, Where’s that in the Bible? Where’s that in the Bible? What they’re asking is, where do these ideas come from in divine revelation? And the answer is, they’re not from divine revelation. They’re from philosophy. And the philosophy has been lost. And so these words are just empty shells of expressions that formerly had great significance had great meaning, but no longer have that ancient meaning. And we recite them. And we may argue with each other and quote them, but what do they actually mean? And how do we know that the ideas in our minds that those words are used to signify how do we know that our ideas are the same as those true ideas which those words first signified and which they truly signify, just because we use the same words, does not mean that we possess the same notions. And therefore, we could be thinking and believing falsely, while saying all the right words, but using them in a way that’s not true. Again, this was the chief concern of Aristotelian philosophy, which I’d like to talk about, and get into as we talk about the remedy or the solution to this problem. So Aristotle, in his own day, and this is 350 years before the founding of the Catholic Church, when Christ came into the world, Aristotle was already working to lead men, to the fulfillment of their potential so that they could be happy, not just a few men, but all men. He wasn’t like the other philosophers who were content to sort of live in a secret society with a few other fellow philosophers, and enjoy all of the benefits and delights of contemplative life. Aristotle believed that true philosophy had the ability to make all men happy, not just the philosophers, but all men, because the philosophers can influence the lives of other men. And this is why in the ethics, Aristotle argues that the highest calling of the human life is the work of political science. And the reason why he said that was because in politics, a wise and virtuous man has the ability to lead other men to that same happiness, not necessarily by having them all join him as philosophers, but having them enjoy the just and prudent society that could be established through true philosophy through true government. And so political science was sort of the ideal, the goal of the Aristotelian life to not only be happy yourself, but to bring that happiness to all other men as well. That was the goal. That’s, that’s the the end of man the highest end or the highest good, that men can seek. But there was a method for the pursuit of that happiness, there was a method. Now when we look at the works of Aristotle, we find a couple of different kinds of works we find, for example, his work on logic, which is called the Organon, which consists of a number of books in which he unfolds the whole science of reasoning, the whole art or science of reasoning or logic. And this starts with a book that’s called the categories then goes on to on interpretation than prior analytics, in which he introduces the idea of a syllogism, then posterior analytics, where he explains demonstrative reasoning. Then on to the topics where he talks about dialectical reasoning. And finally, the sophistical refuge refutations where he explains what’s wrong. With the false arguments of Pretenders, or or deceivers in the world. So Aristotle establishes this whole science of reasoning. And this was his great contribution in the history of human learning. He established the science or art of reasoning. So when we look at philosophers before him, they were wise men, they were able to answer many of man’s greatest dilemmas, but none of them had yet understood reasoning as an art or science that was established by Aristotle, again, around 350 years before Christ. And yet, if we pick up Aristotle’s works on reasoning, if you pick up the categories, the very first book, you’ll find that you can’t study it, and it’s almost it’s almost legendary through history that men have not been able to understand Aristotle’s categories. So so how can we even get started if the first book is too difficult for anyone to understand? And this has always been the dilemma of Aristotelian philosophy. How are we supposed to begin? And part of the problem was intentional, Aristotle intentionally wrote in an obscure manner, he intentionally wrote, obscurely, and we might say, well, that’s kind of strange, but is it when the Son of God became man, and preached in Israel? Did he speak plainly? No, he spoke in parables. And so we can see this, this mystery, this mystery of why history’s greatest teachers didn’t speak, plainly, didn’t reveal their doctrine, in layman’s terms, but chose to communicate in an obscure way. They did it on purpose, Jesus explains, again, and again, why he does. So. He says, Let those who have ears here. And so we have this mystery of the mode of communication of history’s greatest instruction, both from Jesus with respect to divine revelation, and from Aristotle, with respect to the to the greatest. And we could say most perfect human philosophy. These things are not to be given to the common people these are these are not things that are meant to be in the streets. Jesus Himself said, Do not cast your pearls before swine. And in spite of all of the attempt to try to popularize religion, and popularize education through public schooling, and this is all part of the modern delusion that I talked about before. This whole idea that everyone can be equal, everyone can have access to the same learning, everyone can have access to the same truth or that, that even the church should be, should be equally accessible to all people with no distinction, this idea of, of equality among all men. That’s all part of the modern delusion that we see in things like democracy, which is the most foolish idea one could imagine. Everyone knows that mankind is fundamentally evil, and that the majority of men are fools. Why would anyone then subject the government of a state into the hands of the ignorant and foolish? While the problem is that part of the philosophical error of the Enlightenment and all that followed was a rejection of the Catholic doctrine of original sin. And the belief that man in his natural state was actually good, and that all of man’s evil was caused by the corruption and evil of other men. And so we had this, this idea of the blank slate or the, the empty sheet of paper, that man was born into the world, an innocent good creature, and that he became evil by his experience in the world, and therefore, if we could just get rid of church authority, get rid of religion, get rid of philosophy, get rid of it. tradition and custom get rid of government, get rid of all these things and just let men be free, we would see that, that noble savage, that native goodness, revealed in man. And of course, this is a total delusion. So we see this in modern society. And there’s and you see that Christians have just gone along with this and have tried to popularize the Christian faith, which is why we now have these modern evangelical churches where the church is held in a movie theater, or in a, in a strip mall. And it’s folk music and popular culture. And it’s, it’s like a, an entertainment experience, a spectator event, trying to popularize Christianity, which was never intended to be popular, but was intended to be a religion that was preached to the world, but received only by those who were drawn to Christ, by the drawn to Christ by the grace of God. And so we see that these ideas of the Renaissance and Reformation and scientific revolution have produced these terrible effects. And Christians are right in the midst of them lost with the world in their own error. And this is what needs to be abandoned. Now, what Aristotle taught, because his works were so difficult, and that a normal person couldn’t enter into the study of Aristotle’s reasoning, which is the which is the beginning of philosophy. Aristotle’s works on reasoning is where we learn the fundamentals, the beginning of all philosophy, all philosophy, all true philosophy begins with the study of Aristotle’s works on reasoning, and yet, they’re too difficult for us to understand. And the reason why is because they are intended for a certain kind of student. And that student is a student who is rightly disposed to the pursuit of true wisdom, who has a virtuous soul that wants to be true and good, true and good. Truth refers to understanding and ideas and good refers to actions. Only the person who sincerely desires to be true in his thinking, and good in his conduct, can access Aristotle’s teaching? So we look then to Aristotle’s ethics, because the goal of Aristotle’s ethics, he says himself is, is to lead men to live a good life to be morally upright to live virtuously, because Aristotle taught that happiness was achieved only through a virtuous life. So Aristotle’s ethics teach us the science of happiness, basically. And yet, Aristotle’s ethical works depend on demonstrations that assume that one has an understanding of the science of reasoning. So we can’t start with Aristotle’s ethics. And so now we’re stuck in this dilemma. We can’t start with Aristotle’s works on reasoning because they’re too difficult. We can’t start with Aristotle’s work on ethics because it’s dependent on demonstrative reasoning. So, what are we to do? And in the Catholic life, we find a very clear answer to this because, again, traditional Catholicism Catholicism through history, was built on this philosophical foundation. The great bishops and doctors of the church understood these things. The pursuit of virtuous living and wisdom begins with catechesis. It begins with catechesis. In the ancient world, in the pre Christian world, there was a catechesis that came from Pythagorean philosophers, they gave simple moral instruction, to beginners simple moral instruction that was given with no proofs. It was given from a position of authority to be received by children to be heard and memorized and repeated by children as the means by which they learned the truth. The Pythagoreans, who were the great ancient philosophers taught through a catechetical method, just like Catholic faith is taught by Cata cases. When the Catholic Church was established, the Catechism has obviously changed to include the light of divine revelation. So the beginning of true philosophy, the beginning of the pursuit of true philosophy is through catechesis. For Catholic people, for Catholic students, it’s through Catholic catechesis formal instruction, in authority, authoritative teaching in faith and morals that’s to be simply received by beginners, received by faith. This philosophical life begins with a simple faith based catechesis. And so when we look at the Catholic life, we have that for American Catholics, we have that in the Baltimore Catechism. And all throughout church history, the Church provided children with Cata cases to teach them the articles of faith from an authoritative position with no demonstration, no proof was offered for the teaching, offered in Cata cases. It was simply taught from the authority of the Church, just as ancient philosophy was taught from the authority of the philosophers themselves, who were respected as wise and good men. So the beginning of this philosophical life starts with catechesis, where faith and morals are taught authoritatively to children without any demonstration. Another form of instruction at this point would be the study of, of moral philosophy through fables like Aesop’s Fables. So if we take a young Catholic child or any beginning Catholic wants to get started in the pursuit of true philosophy, it begins with simple catechesis, and the study of moral fables. This is why in the classical liberal arts academy, we do just this, we begin with catechesis, the reading of Sacred Scripture, the reading of Aesop’s Fables. This is the foundation of the whole education that we’re seeking to bring, and restore to Catholic families. Now, let’s say a child begins age 34567. Now they come to the age of reason, as eight year olds, they come to the age of reason. And they’re initiated into the life of the parish through the sacraments of confession, and communion, having already been baptized, but now being introduced to perish life as children who have reached the age of reason, and from whom proper behavior can now be expected. These are children who now should know the difference between right and wrong, their early catechesis should now be enlightened by their emerging reason. And that reason, should begin working on that catechetical knowledge that’s been given to them by their early catechesis. So that catechesis is already there, and waiting for reason to come at seven or eight years of age. And when that reason does arrive and emerge. It’s already present in them as a faculty from birth, but it emerges and begins to really develop when they get around age eight. That reason, has content to begin working on in the soul of that child. And that’s what that reason will do it will begin working on that content. But that reason is is a raw natural power, or faculty, just like the children’s physical muscles are filled with potential but they’re not. They’re not yet brought to perfection which comes through through training and exercise. Reason is a raw natural power that now needs to be studied and brought to perfection by that same power of reason and understanding. And so the first branch of philosophy is rational philosophy or the study of reasoning, where rational animals actually study their own reason And, and learn how to exercise that reason. Just like an athlete trains to develop his muscles and direct his muscles to reach their potential. So, as students go through this early phase of catechesis, and learning Sacred Scripture and learning moral fables, as they come to the age of reason, they then begin their formal instruction in philosophy, and this begins with the classical liberal arts. It begins with the art of grammar, where they where they learn to, to read and write well. They learn to read and speak and write rightly, in the art of grammar. That doesn’t just mean they learn the vocabulary. They learn how to talk like other people, they learn how to write sentences to get grades in their classes, it means they learn how human language really works. It’s the beginning of philosophy. And the only way that a child can be considered to learn true grammar is if that grammar is preparing him to study Aristotle’s reasoning, because that’s the goal. That’s where this is going. And so once the child begins to make progress in grammar, he doesn’t have to finish grammar, because much of grammar relates to rhetoric and not reasoning. And therefore, what’s essential to the child is that he learned those parts of grammar which prepare him for reasoning, namely, the first two parts orthography, Etymology and then syntax. But the child needs to learn these, these beginning parts of grammar, to prepare him to study Aristotle’s reasoning, and then he begins with Aristotle’s categories. Through these years of formal instruction, we see we see a move away from that early catechesis. To this formal training of the rational power in this beginner. The rational power now begins to be trained in a formal and philosophical way, very strategically following the instruction of Aristotle’s Organon and the student is trained to develop what is the instrument of philosophy, the instrument, and the instrument is this ability to understand and recognize demonstrative proofs. demonstrative reasoning, to understand what reasoning is, and what false reasoning is, to become sensitive to discern truth from error, to discern a true argument from what only appears to be an argument but doesn’t in fact, prove what is being argued. The child is formally taught the science of reasoning through Aristotle’s Organon, which means the instrument because it’s the instrument of philosophy, he’s trained in the instrument. And this prepares him for the next phase of his education, which is the study of the philosophical sciences. After he’s learned, and understands what demonstrative reasoning is, he can now move on to Aristotle’s ethics and other philosophical works. And he can now learn the truth taught in those philosophical works, and also understand and appreciate the proofs that are given to demonstrate the truth of those works. So he’s actually given the tool that he needs to understand the proofs of true philosophy, and then sent to study that philosophy with the ability to understand and appreciate it. And this continues as he enters into his adult life. And now as he enters his adult life, he combines this early catechesis. This early formal instruction in the classical liberal arts, most importantly, in reasoning, this instruction in the philosophical sciences, and now he adds to all of that learning, he adds his own experience. He now goes into the world with this instruction with this foundation, and he adds to this his own experience now If he collaborates with God’s grace, we can see that at this point as he enters into young adulthood, he is properly disposed to religious vocation, because he has been brought up in this system of thinking and catechesis and culture that he, if again, collaborating with God’s grace, he should not want to depart from and that desire to simply continue without distraction is where religious Vocations came from, throughout history, the desire to continue what one had already attained through his own study and catechesis and philosophical study, the desire to continue in that contemplative life was the normal motivation to choose a religious vocation or at least a contemplative intellectual vocation. Now, if there is a child who was raised in that environment with that education, who does not choose a contemplative vocation or religious vocation as he enters into young adulthood, he then begins to gather experience of life outside of that contemplative life of life. Outside of that undistracted, devoted religious life, and over time, he’ll find that that experience is vexing. That vexation will lead him more and more to desire to purify his desires and intentions, he’ll get sick of those worldly attractions that Lord him away from a devoted undistracted religious life. When he made his choices about his vocation, sometimes, young adults or even older adults still have the opportunity to return to that decision and enter into religious life. A good example of this would be St. Augustine. He did not experience conversion until he was in his 30s and was able still to move into religious life, and became a famous Bishop and Doctor of the church. Some people have a second chance to choose that contemplative path again, others don’t. But as they go through the world, and as they live in the set in secular society, they learn to regret that choice. And to appreciate more and more, the religion and philosophy they were instructed in when they were younger, and their experience perpetually frustrates them and drives them to more and more devotion to that original religion and philosophy. Until in a number of different ways, they choose as far as they’re able to make up for that decision and to choose the most perfect course of life available to them, where they are, for some that means, a lay vocation, like, like joining a lay community within a religious order, where they pursue as closely as they can a religious life and we see famous examples of this like St. Catherine of Siena, very few realize that she was a lay person. She was a lei, Dominican, St. Rose of Lima is another example of a lei Dominican. Most people think of them as they must have been nuns, since they were so devout and focused on on their spiritual eyes, but they were actually laity. And so we have this experience through life where we learn more and more over time, to appreciate the philosophy and religious instruction we received. And at some point, we have the opportunity again, more and more and more of a matter of degree than an absolute change in our life, we have more and more the opportunity to commit ourselves to that simple faith and reason that was taught to us when we were younger. And we see this process in the parable of the prodigal son, where the son is raised to live a certain way of life, a certain culture, and he chooses to leave that culture And goes into the world and gains his own experience. But in his mind, he always retains the memory of his former culture and education, and family life. And he looks back and regrets his decision to go into the world and then chooses to make a return. And he goes back to his father. And not only does he go back to his father, but he goes back to his father with a different disposition. He goes back to his father, ready to be a quiet, obedient servant. No more objections, no more critical questions, no more doubting, not even asking for proofs this time. Just ready to submit and yield. He becomes what he was, as a child, learning the Catechism, by faith. And so what we see in this life is an ascent from simple faith in early catechesis, simple reading and learning in discussing moral fables or Bible stories, starting with a simple faith, receiving this information, without any demonstration from the authorities. We then enter into the formal training of our reasoning ability, then into the formal study of philosophy with proof and also the study of religion with proof. We see this in the Summa Theologica. We study theology with demonstrative proof. We then have the opportunity to choose a state of life, we can choose to devote ourselves without distraction perpetually, to religion, and philosophy, and contemplation. Or we can choose to enter into secular life. And that entrance into secular life, which brings many blessings, by the way, but ultimately leads us to a desire to return to our original simplicity of life and religious focus brings us back to a child like faith at the end of our experience, and the end of this philosophical learning, the end of all of this study is a voluntary return to childlike obedience, and trust. Now, you can see this foundation of education, and philosophical instruction, even theological instruction, because you can, you can flip through and read the Summa Theologica. But it assumes that you have an understanding of the science of demonstrative reasoning, which you don’t. And so it’s going to be very difficult for modern Christians, to understand or appreciate the work of St. Thomas, you they may find little nuggets here and there that are helpful, but to really understand and get into the study, and appreciate what St. Thomas provides in the Summa is going to be difficult, if not impossible, for modern Christians, who lacked that whole philosophical foundation, lack formal instruction in the science of reasoning, lack knowledge of the classical liberal arts, lack that early catechesis and moral instruction, it’s going to be very difficult to enter into the study of philosophy, or theology. When that philosophy and theology is intended for students who have been trained in the classical liberal arts, it’s going to be very difficult. And so what’s going to happen is that most students today, and this is what we see. They find it impossible or too difficult. And so what they do is they they turn to alternatives. The teachers or those who claim to be teachers can’t teach those works, because they’ve never studied them themselves. They don’t have the philosophical foundation themselves. So what do they do? They turn to this modern fake classical education and just pretend to be offering something traditional to modern students when what they’re offering is not what’s necessary. And so the problem is not solved when we see when we see Catholics talking about the Socratic method. We have to wonder why in the world anyone would be talking about Socrates when we know that Aristotle was the truthful ossifer we can see that these, these professors and teachers, they have no interest or ability to teach Aristotle’s works to those who actually need to study them. And when we ask who needs to study them, someone at let’s say, Thomas Aquinas College will say college students need to study them. But that’s not true. These things need to be taught to children in their early teens, before they make their vocational decisions. These things can’t be taught after vocational decisions have already been made. And by the time students are in college, many of them have already made vocational decisions, which is why they’re borrowing money to go to college, they’re assuming they’re going to have future employment in secular occupations to pay back their student loans. They’ve already made vocational decisions, even if they continue talking about discerning a vocation, many of them practically have already made decisions that have pushed them down a path that they’re likely not going to be able to get out of. And this is why you’ll you’ll hear stories of so many young Catholics going to college with all of this talk about being open and discerning religious vocations. But the further they get into their college career, the further they get away from that vocation. And they get themselves into all kinds of practical troubles, which proved to be impediments to those vocations. But this is the norm today. And the reason why is because there are we’re going to pretend that classical education begins in college and give kids this dumbed down modern fluff, in the most crucial years of their life when education needs to be most serious. And no one’s interested in teaching kids at that level, because it’s it’s such grueling work, to take these complex subjects like Aristotle’s reasoning, and explain them in terms that 13 and 14 year old students can understand and appreciate. That work of teaching is extremely difficult. And yet, that’s the work of the teacher, to make those necessary lessons, especially those that are obscure and difficult, like the works of Aristotle, intentionally obscure teachers who can make those things accessible to students who have been catechized, and have been disciplined, and have been trained in good moral philosophy in simple, childlike ways, who desire to study those subjects who show themselves to be good, young men or young women eager to pursue true learning and to grow in virtue, like we see in Christ. When we read about his youth when he was 12 years old, and was questioning the elders in the temple, we see Christ as the model and again, note 12 years old, not 20 years old, not 26 year old Christ, 12 year old Christ, questioning the elders in the temple, 12 years old, St. Dominic went to university at 14 years old. And by university, we simply mean moving into the study of Aristotelian philosophy of the science of reasoning, and so on. We can look at the University of Paris curriculum from the Middle Ages and see what they taught those kids who went to university at age 14, or 15. That was when they began the formal study of philosophy of rational philosophy. That philosophical foundation, that philosophical foundation of classical liberal arts instruction, at the core of their learning at the most crucial period of their education from ages 12 to 18. That’s what’s wrong with modern Catholic culture. And again, I’m arguing that as my hypothesis, I’m not, I’m not arguing this with any kind of authority. I submit that as a hypothesis for criticism to anyone who would like to object to it, but I submit that as my hypothesis and I can understand how anyone can appeal back to the saints or Wiseman of the past, acknowledge that we do nothing that they did with reference to education and yet put pictures of those saints and Wiseman on our schools and websites and books and pretend that we have some connection with them, some respect for them when we do nothing that they did I believe that this change in education from that method of education, which has as its focus, always prepar, preparing students to master the science of demonstrative reasoning, so that they can appreciate the demonstrative teaching of Aristotle and his philosophical works, and of St. Thomas in his theological works, and gain the strongest commitment to Catholic philosophy before they make vocational decisions in their lives and make decisions that have lasting consequences in their lives. Abandoning that system of education is the cause of the vocations crisis. Today, that’s my argument. Now, when you look at the classical liberal arts academy, this is what we’ve restored, no fake classical education. We’re not talking about Socrates. We’re not playing around with silly Latin classes. We’re not playing around with, with literature and just loading kids up with all kinds of books and readings, or history classes to pretend that we’re classical because we’re studying less science and math. Now, we have to study science and math, we’re not going to neglect modern studies, they’re necessary. They’re necessary for our children’s college admission and, and future studies and work. And it’s, it’s responsible for us to pursue those studies. But that’s not the issue. The issue is whether or not we’re giving our children, the classical liberal arts foundation, that is the core of their education, the foundation of the entire Catholic life, whether we’re giving them that education, and again, my argument is that by taking that foundation away from Catholic schools, by taking that education away from Catholic children, we’ve left them as young adults completely on prepared to appreciate Catholicism, and completely unprepared to make wise vocational decisions. They’re simply not prepared for those decisions. It begins with childlike, simple catechesis, the study of Bible stories, the study of moral fables, and so on just cultivating the soul of young children even before they’ve reached the age of reason. And this includes family life, where they’re learning, they learn what it feels like to be loved. They see what it looks like for their mothers and fathers to care for them and love them, to forgive them when they’re bad to teach them to be patient with them to learn all of that virtue in their family life through simple family life. This is what the Catechism explains. For us, as regards the duty of parents. When we read that the parents are the primary educators of the children, this is what it’s talking about. It’s not saying that, that a mother is the best 10th grade history. That’s that’s such homeschool nonsense. Promoted today totally false. What it means for parents to be the primary educators is that they are the first teachers of their children. They influence their children at that first phase of learning, where children simply learn what the Christian life looks like, and even more importantly, what the Christian life feels like. Remember the prodigal son. When he sat in his misery as a young adult, he thought back to what it felt like in his father’s house. It was his experience in his memory that drew him back to where he came from. Parents are the primary educators, they’re the ones who most directly influence those early years where children learn what it looks like and feels like to live in Christian community. There are there are psychologists who say that what we learn by age seven is the most influential and is the greatest influence on our future thought and behavior. And that makes sense. It makes sense that God would do that. I’m not saying that that’s true, I can’t verify that. But I know that that’s taught by psychologists. And I encourage you to check that out. There’s a book that I’m reading right now called the blank slate, which I recommended recently, which is addressing this modern denial of human nature, which is common in modern society. But parents have direct influence on those earliest years, just think of how influential those early years of family life of faith formation of preparing for first confession and First Communion, the children’s first experience when they get to sit down with their priest, and make their first confession or when they receive their First Communion. Those are events that I remembered to this day, as clearly as could be. Parents are the primary educators and children in that phase, they learn by simple, trusting faith and obedience. And we’ve got to make sure we provide them with that necessary formation, religious formation, philosophical formation, and by philosophical I mean moral and natural instruction. Learning Bible stories, learning about God by simple revelation, that’s that first phase, then getting into formal education where they don’t simply go to a K to 12 program and learn a bunch of garbage to get a secular diploma that’s absolutely meaningless. But where they go for formal instruction in the classical liberal arts, because they have to learn the art and science of reasoning, as taught by Aristotle, they have to be prepared to study Aristotle’s reasoning, or they will not be able to understand or appreciate philosophy or theology. They have to develop in the classical liberal arts so that they can study Aristotle’s reasoning. And then when they’ve learned Aristotle’s reasoning, at least through posterior analytics, they can then go on to study Aristotle’s philosophy studying Aristotle’s ethics, and natural philosophy and also studying Catholic theology. Most importantly, the Summa Theologica, where they, they have the doctrines of the Catholic faith, proven to them, by means of Aristotelian demonstration, which they can only understand and appreciate if they’ve been taught that science of demonstration and then from there, to then face their big life decisions, vocational decisions with that already in their mind, helping them to make those decisions, and then directing them for the rest of their lives. So that is my argument as to what is missing. In modern Catholic society. I argue that that is why there’s a vocations crisis, the complete abandonment of everything that existed educationally for the first 1600 years of the Catholic Church, abandoning the philosophical foundation that was taken for granted by the saints and wise men we claim to admire but refuse to imitate. That’s what’s wrong with modern Catholic culture and going to Latin Mass is great, but it’s not going to replace this foundation. Dressing like Christians from past generations, you know, what, if returning to modesty and good taste is your, that’s great. But that’s not going to fix this problem. That’s not going to replace the problem. Using other religious formation tools using other curricula. You may do better than the public school kids because what they do is is horrific. But you’re not going to replace the true classical liberal arts education. You’re not going to prepare the kids for the study of the science of reasoning. You’re not going to introduce kids early enough to true philosophy and you’re going to present them at the age where they need to make their most important life decisions. You’re going to present them to that period of their life unprepared for those decisions. The only way that we can fix this is by restoring what was lost and again, this has been called for by Pope’s This isn’t this isn’t my idea. Paul To the 13th, a saint, the source of our prayer to St. Michael, the archangel Pope St. Pius the 10th. These Pope’s called for a restoration and return to Christian philosophy. And we simply haven’t responded to those calls. we’ve ignored them, if not disobeyed them. And we get what we deserve in terms of the fruits. We have schools that look like public schools, where kids are talking about science and math. And they are not learning the art of reasoning. They’re not studying Aesop’s Fables or Bible stories. They’re not being formally catechized. In their early years. They’re not studying reasoning. They’re not learning philosophy, or theology with demonstration. And they’re being presented at age 18. With the legal authority, to make their own independent choices, and they are unprepared to make those choices as as Christians. So hopefully, in this talk, I’ve not only made my case for what I believe is the problem in modern Catholic culture, why there’s a vocations crisis, which makes no sense, since there were young men and women choosing contemplative lives before Christianity, it makes no sense. Why Christians would not be interested in contemplative vocations, or active religious vocations, it makes no sense something is causing this problem. And I would argue that it’s a failure to be prepared to have the wisdom to have the prudence, to have the understanding, to have the reasoning power, necessary at that point in life, to make the right choices. We’re not preparing them for that phase of life. And that’s why we see what we see. And it can be changed. In the classical liberal arts academy, we’ve restored this system of education and over time, God helping us you’re going to see the fruits of this approach to training children, and not just children. But anyone who wants to get started on this right path. If if you don’t have this education, and you’re older, the only thing you can do is get started. That’s what St. Ignatius of Loyola had to do. He had to go back to school as an adult. And pick up for the last time and start from scratch. The the advantage you have as an adult getting started later is that you can progress more quickly because you have experience already, even though you may not have the intellectual instruction, you have experience. And so you can progress more rapidly then child can even though you have less time. But there’s no other way to do it, you have to go back and learn the classical liberal arts, you have to go back to the simplest formation of your moral character to to equip yourself with even the basic virtue that’s necessary for the difficulty of the study of reasoning. And then once you learn the true science of reasoning, again, not just any book called logic that’s available at the homeschool conference, or at the bookstore, but real Aristotelian reasoning, the actual art of reasoning, so that you can then understand and appreciate and be persuaded by the proofs given to you in Aristotle’s philosophical works, and Catholic theological works. If we don’t do that, we’re simply you know, seeking butter and dressing through religion with no bread. And you can see that Catholic culture is starving, even though it still has the butter and still has the dressing. That’s why I say the problem is not with the clergy, the sacramental life, the graces of the sacramental life, they’re all present. The scriptures are present. They’re all present. What’s missing is the bread, the whole foundation, the stuff of the Catholic life, that’s what’s missing. And the only way to restore it is to return to the classical liberal arts. So that’s why I established the classical liberal arts academy. That’s our explicit mission. And we’ve already seen students come up progress in the program and make choices for religious vocations. We’ve already seen it and while many parents still shrink brat back and are afraid of what you know, modern people think or what the secular People are doing outside. They hinder their children. But we’ll find more and more that as we set our children back on this course and let them free to pursue these studies. We’re going to see the fruits begin to be born again. trusting in God’s blessing upon the work that we do. We’re going to see these fruits again, be born and this vocations crisis is going to be seen not as some kind of spiritual mystery, but as a simple practical consequence to abandoning the education of wise men and saints. I hope that’s helpful. God bless
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
