Volume > Issue > A Penny Catechism (for Philosophers)

A Penny Catechism (for Philosophers)

EDITORIAL

By James G. Hanink | January 1999

Fides et Ratio (FR) “Faith and Reason,” the Holy Father’s new encyclical, is an old philosopher’s gift to Mother Church, and it calls us to our lessons.

Warm-up question: What did The New York Times say in its news section?

The Times reported that the encyclical signals “paradoxes” — we have a papacy “marked by a return to rigid conformity in doctrinal matters,” and yet we have a Pope who “still meets regularly with scholars to debate ideas….”

Hmm. Was the Times’s dumbfounded woman on the beat, Alessandra Stanley, perhaps angling for an invitation? Are there scholarship funds (not that she’d really need them)?

Enjoyed reading this?

READ MORE! REGISTER TODAY

SUBSCRIBE

You May Also Enjoy

Letter to the Editor: May 2011

Liturgical Reform & the 'Protestantization' of the Liturgy... Mourning the Daily Paper... There's No Escaping Mystery... Catholic Social Teaching: A Mess of Abstractions... Intelligent Design... and more

Letter to the Editor: March 1994

Something Else Going On In the Rue De Bac... Look East... Lippman, Not Mencken... Barbara Ward, the Dreamer... Badmouthing Public Schools... Libeling Public Schools... Who's Teaching the Teachers?... Needing Constantine Again?...

Letters to the Editor: November 2018

Gut-Wrenching... Don’t Tune Out a Much-Needed Voice... A Turn in Every Direction... Misunderstanding Humanae Vitae... Counteracting Suicidal Ideation... Very Wrong... The Nuptial Meaning of the Body... Surmounting a Wall-Building Ecclesiology