James V. Schall - The Mind That Is Catholic: Philosophical & Political Essays

To Professor Jude Dougherty, the School of Philosophy's dean emeritus; Msgr. Robert Sokolowski; Father Kurt Pritzl, O. P.; Msgr. John Wippel; Professor Kevin White; Professor Bradley Lewis; Professor Gregory Doolan, a former student of mine; and other members of this extraordinary faculty, as well as to my Jesuit colleagues, Father Robert Spitzer and Father Christopher Cullen, both graduates of the school; all of whom I have admired over the years for keeping both philosophy and revelation before our minds that we may coherently think about them together in the light of the first and final truth: Deus logos est.

This dedication includes, from Catholic University's Department of Politics, Father Charles N. R. McCoy (19111984), whose classes, as a graduate student at Georgetown University in the late 1950s, I used to cross the city to audit, and Professor David Walsh, philosophers both and inspirations to me. Finally, I wish to include in my admiration of Catholic University, Professor and Mrs. Virgil Nemoianu, both in the Department of English, and Dean Alyce Ann Bergkamp, whose graciousness to so many of us makes this school such a human and Catholic place.

Socrates: Shouldn't we offer a prayer to the gods here before we leave?

Phaedrus: Of course.

Socrates: O dear Pan and all the other gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions be in friendly harmony with what is within. May I consider the wise man rich. As for gold, let me have as much as a moderate man could bear and carry with him.

Plato, Phaedrus

We have been promised something we do not yet possess, and because the promise was made by one who keeps his word, we must trust him and are glad; but insofar as possession is delayed, we can only long and yearn for it. It is good for us to persevere in longing until we receive what was promised.

Augustine, Discourse on Psalm 148 (5th Week, Easter, Saturday)

That is what is peculiar to theology that it turns to something we ourselves have not devised and that is able to be the foundation of our life, in that it goes before us and supports us, that is to say, it is greater than our own thought. The path of theology is indicated by the saying, credo ut intelligam. I accept what is given in advance, in order to find, starting from this and in this, the path to the right way of living, to the right way of understanding myself.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, What in Fact Is Theology?

It is not only possible to say a great deal in praise of play; it is really possible to say the highest things in praise of it. It might reasonably be maintained that the true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. To be at last in such secure innocence that one can juggle with the universe and the stars, to be so good that one can treat everything as a jokethat may be, perhaps, the real end and final holiday of human souls.

G. K. Chesterton, Oxford from Without

Le problme est de savoir en d'autre terms si la rfrence ultime est politique ou s'il y a des rfrenes ultimes par lesquelles la politique elle-mme est juge. Ce problme est peut-tre le problme essentiel d'aujourd'hui. Et si nous tenons tellement Dieu, c'est cause de cela. C'est parce que nous pensons qu'un monde o la rfrence politique serait la rfrence ultime est un monde o les liberts ne seraient plus possibles.

Jean Cardinal Danilou, La crise actuelle de l'intelligence

For if some (things) have no grace to charm the sense, yet even these, by disclosing to intellectual perception the artistic spirit that designed them, give immense pleasure to all who can trace links of causation, and are inclined to philosophy.

Aristotle, Parts of Animals