{"id":7756,"date":"2014-08-21T06:00:41","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T06:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/08\/21\/is-catholicism-a-religion\/"},"modified":"2014-08-21T06:00:41","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T06:00:41","slug":"is-catholicism-a-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/08\/21\/is-catholicism-a-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Catholicism a Religion?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is the pope Catholic?<\/span><\/p>\n

I would like to believe that James V. Schall, S. J. has a better understanding of Catholicism than I do, but I just now read the following from his otherwise very good On Revelation<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Catholicism is a revelation, not a religion. The word \u201creligion\u201d refers to a virtue by which we know what we can about God by our own human rational powers, \u201cunaided,\u201d as they say. Revelation means that, in addition to all we know by our own powers, another source of knowledge and life exists that can address itself to us, can make itself known to us.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The first sentence in this paragraph is the conjunction of two claims. The first is that Catholicism is a revelation.  The second  is that Catholicism is not a religion.  The second claim is plainly<\/em> false.  If Catholicism is not a religion, what is it?  It is not a branch of mathematics or a natural science.  It is not one of the Geisteswissenschaften<\/em>.  It is not philosophy or a branch of philosophy such as natural theology. <\/span><\/p>\n

Schall is of course right to tie religion to human beings: God has no religion.  But it doesn't follow that Catholicism is not a religion.  It is a religion based on divine revelation.  God reveals himself to man, and man appropriates that revelation as best he can using the limited postlapsarian resources of intellect and will and emotion at his disposal.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Schall may be confusing the genus with one of its species, religion with natural religion<\/em> the Merriam-Webster definition<\/a> of which is accurate:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

a religion validated on the basis of human reason and experience apart from miraculous or supernatural revelation; specifically<\/em> :<\/strong>  a religion that is universally discernible by all men through the use of human reason apart from any special revelation \u2014 compare revealed religion<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Catholicism is a revealed religion and therefore a religion.  Or will you argue that 'revealed' in 'revealed religion' functions as an alienans adjective<\/a>? I hope not.
<\/span><\/p>\n

Now what about the first claim, namely, that Catholicism is a revelation?  That's a lame way of putting it in my humble opinion.  If Catholicism is a religion based on revelation, then, since religion is a human enterprise as Schall rightly notes, it involves an interaction between God and man.  So it cannot be a pure revelation which is what Catholicism would have to be if it is not a religion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Compare the Bible.  It is the word of God. But that is only half of the story.  The Bible is the word of God written down by men<\/em>.  Similarly, Catholicism is divine revelation appropriated by men<\/em>.  It is therefore neither purely divine nor purely human.<\/span><\/p>\n

I could be wrong, but I don't think what I have just written is too far from Catholicism's own self-understanding.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>On Examining Anti-Catholic "Reasons": A Review of "Why Catholics Are Right"<\/a><\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a>Let's stop teaching philosophy of religion in secular colleges<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is the pope Catholic? I would like to believe that James V. Schall, S. J. has a better understanding of Catholicism than I do, but I just now read the following from his otherwise very good On Revelation: Catholicism is a revelation, not a religion. The word \u201creligion\u201d refers to a virtue by which we … Continue reading “Is Catholicism a Religion?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-corner","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}