Scholasticism in Our Times | Catholic Philosophy

book_5 Before you read

Scholasticism, almost completely submerged during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, emerged again in the early nineteenth. Glenn names the notable Scholastics of the restoration period and describes the conditions that made the revival possible: the exhaustion of the systems that had displaced Scholasticism, the renewed study of the medieval texts, and above all the encouragement given by the Holy See. He records the decisive part played by Leo XIII, who on assuming the duties of the Supreme Pontificate directed the restoration of the philosophy of St. Thomas, and traces the growth of the Neo-Scholastic schools and centres of study that followed. The article closes the manual by presenting this revived Scholasticism as the living continuation of the perennial philosophy whose history the book has traced.

Article 4. Scholasticism in Our Times

Scholasticism, which was almost completely submerged during the 17 and 18 centuries, emerged again in the early 19. Notable among the Scholastics of the restoration period were:

i. Matteo Liberatore, S.J. (1810-1872);

ii. Thomas Zigliara, O.P. (1833-1893);

iii. Caietano Sanseverino (1811-1865);

iv. Annunzio Signoriello (1821-1889);

v. Z. Gonzalez (1831-1895);

vi. Joseph Kleutgen, S.J. (1811-1883);

vii. Karl Werner (1828-1888).

By 1870 there was almost unanimous agreement among philosophers of the Catholic Faith in the acceptance of Scholasticism, yet there was much controversy among them as to the manner of conciliating Scholastic Psychology and Cosmology with the data of modern science. Involved in this controversy were the following, who opposed Scholastic physics at least in part:

i. Salvatore Tongiorgi, S.J. (1820-1865);

ii. Angelo Secchi, S.J. (1818-1878);

iii. Pietro Tedeschini, S.J. (died 1876);

iv. Domenico Palmieri, S.J. (1829-1909).

Pius IX had favored the return to Scholasticism on the part of Catholic philosophers. His successor, Leo XIII, had scarcely assumed the duties of the Supreme Pontificate (1878) when he issued (1879) the Encyclical Aeterni Patris, in which he prescribed the teaching of Scholastic and Thomistic philosophy in Catholic schools. The Encyclical orders Catholic teachers of philosophy to augment and perfect the body of Thomistic doctrine by the addition of all certainly established truths and discoveries in the fields of philosophy and science. On the advice of Cardinal Joseph Pecci, Pope Leo founded the “Roman Academy of St. Thomas” in the very year of the issuance of the famous Encyclical (1879). He promoted the movement which established such Academies elsewhere, and founded a chair of Thomistic Philosophy in the University of Louvain in 1880, and later a School or Institute there, which he committed to the charge of Professor Desire Mercier (1851- 1926). Cardinal Mercier, with Desire Nys, and Maurice De Wulf, edited a Course of Philosophy which meets the requirements of the Encyclical of Leo XIII, and marks the beginning of larger achievements by the so called Neo-Scholastics.

Scholasticism is making rapid progress in our day. Its name has been amended to Neo-Scholasticism to indicate that it is no mere revival of a medieval system, but that it takes into account the established data of all sciences. As a body of principles, Scholasticism was completed once and for all by Thomas Aquinas in the 13 century; it is for modern Scholastics, or Neo-Scholastics, to apply these principles in the interpretation of the data of physical science. The work is being done, and done well, in Catholic colleges and universities the world over, not least among which are our American institutions. But the work progresses slowly, if surely, and a complete account of the 20 century achievements of Scholasticism can only be written at some time in the distant future.