The Mind That Is Catholic: Philosophical and Political Essays by Schall James V

Author:Schall, James V. [Schall, James V.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780813218267
Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
Published: 2011-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

III.

Gilson begins his examination with the first encounters of revelation and philosophy, those that suppose that revelation makes philosophy unnecessary, if not dangerous. We associate this initial position in particular with Tertullian, whose famous aphorism, “What has Jerusalem to do with Athens?” has itself become, in the hands of Leo Strauss, an instrument of restoring both philosophy and revelation to serious consideration, though within what must be suspected, at least at first sight, of bearing Averroistic overtones. Strauss, without denying the reality of either, seems to have denied any possible encounter or cross-fertilization between reason and revelation.18 He “protected” revelation not, as Aquinas did, by recognizing at least some elements of revelation that could also be examined by genuine philosophy, but rather by setting the way of life of the philosopher and the way of life as the prophet or priest in radically different worlds. Whether this separation served to protect either revelation or reason can be questioned, since it admitted the possibility of two bodies of “truths” that had no means of contacting one another. On the other hand, to his credit, in an academic world that had forgotten the origins of its own meaning, Strauss at least enabled the question of revelation to appear as a legitimate, if perplexing, one.19

The second great approach that began to realize the faith and reason might have more to do with one another than simple opposition was that of Augustine. Augustine was a seeker of truth, wherever it might be found. As a young man, he was almost a classical potential philosopher of the Platonic variety. Beautiful things in which he sought beauty itself deceived him until he found his way. “Augustine was never to forget,” Gilson wrote,

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