In the Lógos of Love Edited by Fr James Heft and Una Cadegan
Oxford University Press, £22.99
Sometimes, writes one of this volume’s contributors, the Catholic intellectual tradition is “presented as little more than the texts of the magisterium and agreeable philosophers coupled with a narrowly curated list of illustrative moments in architecture, literature, music, and the arts”. The very term “implies a certain distance – ah, the Catholic Intellectual Tradition! – as if to set this particular stream apart from the coursing rush of two millennia of lived, rowdy, untrimmed Catholic experience”.
Such perceptions are certainly challenged by this wide-ranging and provocative book, subtitled “Promise and Predicament in Catholic Intellectual Life”. It demonstrates just how conflicted and vibrant that life can be in the contemporary United States.
Paul Griffiths reflects on his experience as a Catholic scholar in various secular universities. He acknowledges moments of tension but also points to enriching dialogue and assures us that such institutions are not, in his experience, a “haven for relativists”.
Amelia Uelmen concedes that “before I put myself under the knife of a surgeon … I would very much prefer that she has studied basic human anatomy extensively” but she still sees space in Catholic educational establishments that train the professions to engage more meaningfully with the broader Catholic intellectual tradition.
Sex also surfaces, with Leslie Tentler bemoaning a “widespread but unfruitful silence” among Catholics or, at best, a debate which is “nearly always about authority”.
Vincent Miller, meanwhile, encourages a more sophisticated encounter with the internet and associated technologies. For all the promise of the web, it is rapidly producing enclaves of the like-minded and “the very act of asserting particularity and difference in fact exacerbates the fragmenting powers of the new media”.
Catholicism, the editors explain, “is still grappling with modernity” and honours a “tradition of authority and community that runs counter to much of what defines US intellectual life”. As this compelling book reveals, however, this does not prevent rewarding cultural exchange or mutual respect.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.