Angelus News | July 2, 2021 | Vol. 6 No. 13

How does the intellectual life of
Catholics today compare with different
moments in the past? Was there
a golden age for it?
I think there was a kind of golden
age that coexisted with a golden age
for secular intellectual life, in the
middle of the 20th century. People
of all walks of life were learning and
studying and struggling with great
books or fundamental questions.
Learning and study for its own sake
was mainstream, a part of our broader
culture.
Writers like Jacques Maritain or Yves
Simon are the product of that time.
We’ve lost that, and with it much or
most of the institutional support for
that kind of study for most people.
However, I have to say that I’m very
optimistic. There are many inspiring
young Catholic writers right now, and
I think we will see wonderful developments
in the coming decades.
What would be distinctive or
different about the intellectual life
of a Catholic? Are there any helps or
advantages built into Catholic faith
and tradition?
For me the core of the Catholic faith
in this regard is the idea that grace
builds on nature. There is a natural
desire to know and to understand that
we share with all other human beings.
It is deeply related to our inbuilt destiny
to know and to love. That means
that we can find God through all sorts
of inquiry: watching birds, looking at
plants, mathematics, as well as philosophy
or literature.
It also means that our intellectual
life can be a bond with other human
beings, nonbelievers or believers in
other faith traditions. We ought to
seek out these bonds with our fellow
human beings. That said, there are
inbuilt problems with intellectual life
for human beings: It degenerates into
the pursuit of status and power.
There Catholics have the advantage
of knowing the paths of grace through
prayer and the
Denise Foster reads from
the Little Rock Scripture
series as Alicia Sandoval
and Tom Garcia follow
along during a Bible study
at Holy Spirit Church in
Fremont on Sept. 8, 2008.
| GREG TARCZYNSKI/
CNS FILE PHOTO
sacraments.
Only grace can
free us from
the bondage
to our worst
impulses and
bring us into the
freedom and
happiness of
becoming our
best selves.
Mike Aquilina is a contributing
editor to Angelus and author of many
books, most recently “Friendship and
the Fathers: How the Early Church
Evangelized” (Emmaus Road Publishing,
$22.95).
12 • ANGELUS • July 2, 2021