The Vision of a Catholic University
by "Nicholas J. Healy, Jr." - October 5, 2007
Reprinted with permission from our good friends at InsideCatholic.com, the leading online journal of Catholic faith, culture, and politics.
The loss of the Judeo-Christian vision in the West has many casualties, perhaps none so obvious as the degradation of our popular culture. We might think of art as the canary in the coal mine, the death of the canary being the early warning of foul air. In a like manner, art in the West has been the early warning of the death of culture. Much of what is displayed in trendy museums and studios, much of our music and what is shown on our movie screens cannot even be described in polite company, much less experienced without revulsion. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that what we are witnessing is the death of the vision that gave rise to higher culture – to the art, music, and literature that inspired, uplifted, and ennobled man. Without that vision we would have no Dante, no Pietà, no Sistine Chapel, no Bach concerto, no Swan Lake, no Shakespeare, no Dostoevsky.
At the root of our cultural decay is the loss of the essential convictions, the foundational truths, by which Western society was organized and enculturated. Note the realities we've lost sight of:
Original sin. This simple truth explains why man, with all his intelligence and ideals, is constantly prey to corruption. In the absence of this essential understanding, man is perceived as shaped entirely by his environment; he is perfectible in the right social order. He is the noble savage, rendered base only by oppressive social and political structures. Destroy these and the new man will emerge, to live in paradise on earth.
Thus, the power and evil effect of ideas popularized before and during the French Revolution – such as Rousseau's "Man is born free and is everywhere in chains," whose hideous progeny includes Stalin's gulags, Mao's cultural revolution, and the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge.
Second, the Incarnation. God became man, took on material form, and in that stupendous act forever pronounced the body good, simultaneously refuting and rejecting the many religious and pop psychology movements that consider matter evil. Further reflection on the meaning of the Incarnation brought the great impulse to paint and sculpt nature and the human form.
Third, salvation. The knowledge that we are not doomed by original sin is the antidote to despair; we have a Savior, and in Him we have life. Indeed, even in this life we have joy, and the saints have ecstasy. Calvary gives meaning and value to suffering. Death is evil, but it is not to be feared; it has been defeated. The corollary principle is that our salvation is from a Person – the Son of God – and not from our own efforts, however heroic. Thus is demolished Pelagianism in all its forms, and the pitiable attempts to treat ourselves as gods.
These pillars of the Christian vision are not just the wellspring of the West's cultural treasure, although they are surely that. They are not mere relics of a past glorious age superseded by modern man's advances in psychology and science. From the very beginning of Christianity down to the modern era we have examples of their transformative power in the world.
