The Good, the Better and the Sunday Best - How to Evangelise Using St Thomas's 4th Way Without Having to Read or Understand the Angelic Doctor

In this article, I am suggesting that the 4th St Thomas’ Aquinas’s Five Ways (or proofs, for the existence of God), is a powerful tool for evangelization, but not through an explanation of the proof itself, no matter how engaging it might be. Rather, the 4th Way describes after the fact, a mode of thinking that leads naturally to faith as a response to the world around us. It is seen most commonly, therefore in those who already have faith regardless of whether or not they have even heard of St Thomas Aquinas, let alone read his proof. This being so, as a method for evangelization, one approach to using the ‘4th Way’ is to do so indirectly. Accordingly, the goal is to stimulate and nurture the natural facility in us for ‘4th-Way’ thinking (leading in turn to faith in God), through the influence of the culture, and our actions and interactions with others. That mode of 4th-Way thinking is one that uses the principle of analogy in connecting beings to each other, recognizes the natural place of a hierarchy of being, and that all lesser beings participate in the fullness of Being which is the ultimate cause of their existence. This mode of thinking comes so naturally to us that even small children can employ it. Furthermore, when we apprehend beauty, we intuitively employ all of these modes of thinking and so in many ways, the 4th Way is itself analogous to, if not directly identifiable with, the Way of Beauty. Finally, and in the light of this, after suggesting general principles by which we might create an environment that evangelizes, I illustrate with some specific examples that occurred to me.

What’s the use of proofs of God’s existence? Will they persuade anyone to believe anyway?

The 4th Way of St Thomas is described in the Summa Theologiae, and in the Prologue to his commentary on the Gospel of John. St Thomas thought this was the most persuasive of his proofs for the existence of God. But how can such a dry and for many people arcane argument be persuasive? I think it can be, but not in the way that many academics discuss it today.

Here it is as described in the Summa:

The fourth way is taken from the gradation to be found in things. Among beings, there are some more and some less good, true, noble and the like. But "more" and "less" are predicated of different things, according as they resemble in their different ways something which is the maximum, as a thing is said to be hotter according as it more nearly resembles that which is hottest; so that there is something which is truest, something best, something noblest and, consequently, something which is uttermost being; for those things that are greatest in truth are greatest in being, as it is written in Metaph. ii. Now the maximum in any genus is the cause of all in that genus; as fire, which is the maximum heat, is the cause of all hot things. Therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God.

Put another way: we observe degrees of perfection of properties found in beings (good, better, better still...etc), by analogy this establishes a hierarchy of beings with that property and this hierarchy indicates to us that there is something, which might not be otherwise known, but which is the greatest in each property. In turn, and again by analogy, we see that the best in all categories exist in a single being which contains all attributes of being in perfection, which is Being itself. All of lesser beings owe their existence to that greatest possible Being and are said to participate in that fullness of Being.

My understanding is that the intention of St Thomas in presenting this was not to convert, but rather to demonstrate that faith is consistent with reason - faith seeking understanding. For those with faith, understanding is certainly a noble goal. But does this mean that this Way has no application as a tool for evangelization? I suggest that the answer to this is, no and, in fact, the Fourth Way is indeed the most powerful tool we have for conversion. Though perhaps not in the way that some people might think.

If we have faith, then it is as likely that we already think in such a way that the concepts of hierarchy, substance, analogy, and participation are natural modes of thought for us. We may not be able to articulate how we think or define the terms in such a way that a philosophy professor would be happy, but it doesn’t stop us from thinking in that way. For so many who have faith, they are engaging in 4th-Way thinking deep in their hearts, naturally and intuitively, and in response to the world around us.

If our mode of thought changes, as it can under the influences of bad education or culture, then faith will decline too. This being so the task is not so much to teach people about the 4th Way of St Thomas, although doing so might help with some, but rather to stimulate and nurture this mode of thinking. In the context of its use for evangelization and preservation of the Faith, the need to teach people about the argument of the 4th Way itself is primarily to the few who are in a position to influence the pattern of education and of the culture so as to reflect and in turn cause it.

What do we do to encourage 4th-Way thinking?

I think that the approach should be similar to that by which we might encourage people to apprehend beauty naturally. Here's why:

One simple definition of beauty is ‘the radiance of being’. When we grasp the beauty of something we are in relation to it and we are apprehending truths about its existence that are transmitted, so speak, to us. When we respond fully, we see it as beautiful and it causes us to look instinctively for the perfection and superabundant source of that beauty, which is Beauty itself, God. And we look also to the source of that object’s existence, Being itself, which again is God.

The desire for the original source of beauty and being can be so great that it has been compared to a wound. Benedict XVI, for example, quoted Nicholas Cabasilas the 14th century Greek Father, who said that: ‘True knowledge is being struck by the arrow of beauty that wounds man: being touched by reality, “by the personal presence of Christ himself.” This visceral response to beauty is powerful ‘4th-Way’ thinking that directs us to the contemplation of God.

Furthermore, when we see something as beautiful we are are seeing a pattern of related parts within a being (or of interrelated beings within a community of beings), harmoniously arranged. Either way, to do so we must be capable of recognising beings - substances - (as well as communities of beings) as entities that really exist and recognise also that they are interrelated through common properties of being and see how, collectively, they point to the highest being possible. Again, to think ‘beautifully’ is to employ 4th-Way thinking. Every time we see a pattern in which we can see that something is missing and fill in the gaps, as it were, we are thinking in this way.

So, I suggest, when Benedict XVI and John Paul II stressed the power of beauty in evangelization, those modern prophets of beauty were simply reiterating in their own way what St Thomas told us several hundred years ago when he spoke of the power of the 4th Way.

A formation in beauty encourages 4th-Way thinking: This being the case, the simple answer as to how we might encourage 4th Way thinking is that we work to create the liturgical city here on earth - the New Jerusalem - that is we strive to create a beautiful culture that is informed by the divine order. Furthermore, others should see that our response to the beauty around us is faith and joy and that as a result, we conform to that order in our own behaviour and especially interactions with others so as to compound it.

My book, The Way of Beauty describes my general ideas for how we can work towards such a culture, but here are some specifics that occurred to me that are informed particularly by this consideration also of St Thomas’s 4th Way.

Aidan Hart's New Jerusalem

The Liturgy

As with nearly all human behaviour and thought, whether directly or indirectly, the most important influence is the liturgy. If we get this right it catechizes the faithful and evangelizes the faithless. Here are some suggestions:

Ad Orientem: This is perhaps the most striking and immediate way of symbolizing that we look to and recognize a Higher Power. My own conversion was influenced by seeing an ad orientem Mass in which the priest seemed to be at the head of a body of people leading us towards a common destination. This impression just described was accentuated by the architecture and art which served to focus my attention on and present to me visually images of what I otherwise would not have intuited.

Sacred Images: In regard to sacred images, in particular, we must again learn to pray with and venerate sacred images, especially in the context of the liturgy. For to do so requires us to think analogically and hierarchically when we recognise that the image presents to us in a particular way the prototype in heaven. Accordingly, when we venerate an icon we understand that the respect we show is transferred to its prototype; and furthermore, we understand that there are degrees of respect. These are traditionally seen as latria - worship, which is the highest and is for God alone; next is hyperdulia, which is accorded to Our Lady only among the saints and angels; and then dulia which is for saints and angels. This mode of thinking which takes delight in and recognises degrees of perfection that point us to an ultimate Being is powerful 4th-Way thinking.

So important is this to our faith that the Church asserts that sacred art is not just permitted but necessary in the Christian life. When we cease to pray with images they become superfluous to our worship and this, in turn, undermines further the authenticity of our worship.

The natural extension of this proper sense of their place in the liturgy is iconoclasm. So powerful a part does sacred imagery have in preserving and stimulating a faithful mode of thought that I suggest that what might seem like minor neglect opens the way to a chain of progression that has the direct consequences. We see connected: iconoclasm, the rejection of the authority of the Church and the inversion of the hierarchy of being which seeks to bring ‘god’ down to us (rather than allowing him to draw us up to Him by our partaking of the divine nature), and then atheism which rejects Him altogether. People may doubt that these things are connected, but I am certain that they are.

It is not the only thing to think about, but I suggest nevertheless that until devout Catholics once again engage actively with sacred images in the act of worshipping God, in the liturgy, we will not stop the decline in the Faith that we see in the West. One cannot underestimate the importance of this or how far from this ideal we have strayed today. Remember that Christians died in order to defend the orthodoxy of holy images. Today in the Roman Church, it seems, we so often give away freely what saints in the past fought so hard to defend. We have a situation (in both forms of the liturgy I might add) where, generally, the imagery is irrelevant to our worship. Even for the pious prayer is so much an internalised, eyes-closed affair which makes the reduces the role of art and architecture, at best, as a beautiful but irrelevant backdrop.

In the wider culture?

Here are just a few examples of how we might envision such a culture:

Polis and metropolis: When possible we should design cities and towns so that God has pride of place - the heart of the community is where we worship because that is where we meet God, not the shopping mall or even the government building. This is the tradition going back centuries which has been lost in the last couple of hundred years. Vitruvius knew that the temple ought to be the focal point of the city. This meant placing it centrally and prominently and the source of an architectural style in which all other buildings participated, with design modified to suit the purpose of each building.

We often have to start from where we are, and if our church and neighborhood don’t conform to this standard already, it doesn’t always mean that we have to flatten everything and start again. Wherever the church is, to the degree that it is beautiful and it houses right worship, a community will naturally develop around it and it will start to become the natural heart of the community. Then organically and slowly, but still perceptively, the neighbourhood around will order itself to the natural focal point. People who are outside of that religious community will notice that it is the worship in the church that is the beating heart of a community, and will be curious to see more.

Recovering the art of thinking and acting symbolically: This encourages an appreciation of the natural connections between things that convey meanings to us. We must learn again to look symbolically at the culture of faith, at nature and the world around us and then strive to create a culture that reflects this symbolic way of thinking. This is not simply the re-establishment of the old symbolism that has been lost, but rather a creative and discerning retrieval informed both by tradition and our new understanding of things, for example of nature in the light of developments in natural science. The pelican symbolized the Eucharist at the time of St Thomas because it was thought to feed its young with its own blood. This was reasonable at the time, but nowadays nobody seriously believes it anymore. I wonder if might be, beautiful though the symbolism might seem, that to persist with this sort of symbolism makes us look superstitious and foolish, for example?

Scripturally based symbolism should be recovered first. Who are the figures on the fish and this scene of the baptism of Christ?

Natural hierarchies in society: We must strive to re-institute or preserve the natural authorities that exist in society, based upon, for example, family, nation and Church. When we visibly and joyfully respect those authorities it tells others that we are happily conforming to the natural order of things and will provoke curiosity. Similarly, when we are in positions of authority we must assert it but responsibly and lovingly otherwise people will rebel. These are high ideals and we will fall short, but the effort will bear fruit I believe. As an aside, I always thought that one of the things that made the series Downton Abbey so popular was the portrayal of a community in which, generally, people respected authority and those in authority recognized their obligations to those they had authority over and did their best exercise them lovingly. This contrasted with the usual dramatic narrative, in which the hero leads a rebellion against tyranny or fights injustice. Sometimes rebellion against unjustly exercised authority is right, I don’t deny, but it's not an inevitable dynamic in society and not the only story worth telling!

Nurture our inherent facility for 4th-Way thinking from the earliest age, ‘Suffer the little children…’: Even young children have the natural faculty for recognizing the existence of God as a personal God and Creator. It is still natural to them, perhaps because the awareness of hierarchy is so strong. They depend upon their parents who have full authority over them, and are the apparent source of all that is good in their lives.

Another reason that children have this natural inclination to faith might be that they have not yet had it knocked out of them by our culture, bad education, or bad liturgy.

Modern secular education deliberately, it seems to me, seeks to undermine faith by subtly but powerfully undermining 4th Way while professing an open mind to personal belief. This will be no surprise, but what is sad is that sometimes what we generally think of as a good Catholic education can do it too. Any education which is too focused on what Newman called scientific or analytical thinking will stifle our sense of the beautiful if our abilities to think synthetically are not nurtured in parallel with our ability to analyse. There is little point in learning anything, even if a true fact if we are incapable of bringing it into the whole body of learning via synthetic thinking, which then places it into the context of our ultimate purpose in life, union with God. A formation of beauty develops this facility.

There is a prejudice in academic circles, even amongst Catholics, that says that book and classroom-based learning is the real education, while other activities that develop our ability to apprehend beauty (a powerful mode of synthetic thinking) are just recreation. Whereas, in point of fact, if education is not re-creating the person, then it fails to attain its highest goal. Very few Catholics argue would with me on this point, I suggest, but then when it comes down to curricula design, many seem to hesitate to actually devote time to the formation of synthetic thinking through creative pursuits. This is a subject I address at length in The Way of Beauty.

Social graces and good manners: These are natural modes of behaviour that indicate respect for others in accordance with the natural hierarchy. They tend to be disparaged today as old modes of behaviour that are restrictive and stifling for the ‘natural expression’ of thought for others. A rigid rulebook of manners can be stifling, but when it is understood that good etiquette can promote when well taught, respect in accordance with the natural order of things, then it can be liberating. The virtuous gentleman is one who makes all around him feel at ease and for most of us, this is a skill that usually has to be learned.

Behave and dress so that we demonstrate to others that we respect authority: Even what we wear can send out visual messages. It is right to dress up on certain occasions, and even the seemingly innocent trend of no longer wearing ‘Sunday best’ for church contributes to the destruction of the faith more than we imagine. The clothes we wear reveal something of our attitudes and who we are. We all make judgements about people based on the clothes they wear, whether we like to admit it or not. In church, we should dress and behave in such as way that it reveals to others the respect we have for God. When we go for an interview we take great care to make sure that the clothes we wear and the way we behave indicate respect for the person who is going to give us a job, so much more should we remember this is God’s house. Formal dress does not alienate fellow worshippers if appropriate to our actions and our subsequent interactions with others speak of the love of God. Then our appearance will contribute to the sense that we want to invite others to join us, rather than to push them away. The goal here is to do so in such a way that it tells people what we think about God, not what we want them to think about us. This should be thought of a principle that we apply to ourselves and those beholden to us, not one by which we can criticise others!

This is a true humility. All that we do ought to draw the attention of others, not in a way that says, ‘Look at me’, but rather, ‘Look at the One who made me,’ or, ‘Look at the One who inspired me’. Potentially all that we do can speak of the love of God and so direct others to Him. When we strive for this ideal it is a true humility for it recognises our responsibilities as a Christian and our place in relation to our fellows and to God. Reflection upon the lives of Our Lady and the saints, especially through the prism of the liturgical year will help us in this regard, for they are the experts in showing us God through their lives.

Many youth fashions are designed deliberately to convey the message that they do not respect the traditional conventions of society including orderly behaviour. Yet if anyone ever admitted that they accepted that message and crossed the road to avoid them on a dark night, or let it affect them when making a hiring decision, they would be pilloried for being discriminatory and intolerant. Take note SJWs, you can't have it both ways.

Cultivate and ordered appreciation of the beauty of the natural world: Nearly all people recognise the beauty of the natural world, but not all recognise the natural hierarchy of being within nature. Hence, that hierarchy as it ought to be - man highest, then animals, plants and then inanimate nature - is often distorted or inverted.

Furthermore, in the right way of things, man is made to cultivate nature and when he does so well (and it has to be admitted he can do this badly!) he raises it up to something greater than what it was originally. I would argue therefore that there is a hierarchy of beauty in nature too that puts the work of man at the pinnacle: with gardens cultivated for beauty highest, land for production of food next and wilderness lowest. The task here is twofold, we must change our understanding of this hierarchy, as well as strive to work in harmony with the cosmic order so that what we cultivate reflects this hierarchy.

People used to see things this way, but it is not so common now. Those who hate God aim to destroy our natural desire to praise God for it by inverting the hierarchy so that man is at the bottom of the pile. Some forms of extreme environmentalism do this. For them, man in the ideal is the noble savage who is in harmony with nature. Modern man, however, has been corrupted by the false constructs of society, and as a result of this corruption is inferior to the rest of nature. ‘Corrupted’ man, it is maintained, will tend to destroy nature for he no longer lives in harmony with it. The only way to save the planet, so the argument runs, is to restrict man’s activity. The easiest way to do this is to aim to reduce the number of humans. This is why abortion and contraception are promoted across the globe and why, I suggest, the garden is a powerful and underappreciated antidote to this as a symbol of the culture of life. I wrote about this in a blog article here: Come out of the wilderness and into the garden!

In this regard, it is interesting that after the Resurrection, Mary Magdalene mistook the Risen Lord for a gardener. Our Lord did not deny that he was when asked, rather he made himself known to her more fully. I suggest that Mary was correct, although perhaps she didn’t appreciate why, for as the new Adam, Christ is the gardener par excellence who cultivates Eden. We participate in the creation of Eden through all human activities that synthesize and use the natural world gracefully and beautifully and within this gardening particularly speaks of this special role of man in nature.

The liturgy can form us here too. Our delight in the beauty of creation is consummated when we sing our praises to God for his creation in the psalms and canticles of the Liturgy - for example, the Canticle of Daniel, or Psalm 18(19). This not only trains us to see God through his works but supernaturally forms us as people who might imitate the work of the Gardener.

Ness Gardens, Cheshire, England (my mum used to work here as a gardner!)

Work to change the things that have the opposite influence: Sometimes one wonders if atheists and anti-Catholic forces understand better than we do ourselves how the changing of our mode of thinking leads to faith, so skillfully do secular educators and shapers of the culture promote the values of atheism while appearing to promote the values of freedom and tolerance. They seem to realise that they don’t need to attack faith directly but can destroy it by restricting the parts of our culture that reinforce the sort of thinking that leads to faith. We must learn to recognise it and learn to assert what is good and true and beautiful to counter this.

All the structures a false egalitarianism (which fails to recognise the unique value of each person) in the guise of an exaggerated identity politics and tolerance for individual faith. They promote a culture of ugliness and disrespect for natural authorities while asserting respect for unnatural authority and an unnatural hierarchy (by creating, for example, too authoritarian and centralized government).

It has occurred to me that perhaps they do so because deep down, they recognize in themselves the power of this 4th Way thinking, and because they hate God, wish to erase all evidence of Him and our tendency to a natural and healthy response to that evidence.

The antidote to the art of protest, or any other form of cultural Marxism, is the art of suffering and redemption through Christ, which is the art of hope.

An Online Source for Ceramic Images and Hand-Carved Shrines

Make your public shrine or icon corner with www.waysideshrines.com

Following on from recent articles encouraging people to think about creating ceramic icon corners that can be beautiful and discreet, yet clearly visible signs of faith, here, and here, here is someone who can create such images and also carve beautiful shrines in wood or stone to house them in. It is Jerome Quigley of www.waysideshrines.org.

I met him at an Art and Faith event at St Pius X Catholic Church in Rock Island, Illinois this past week. He explained to me that he creates the carvings himself in wood or an artificial granite (used for heavy kitchen surfaces and which can be carved like wood). He can respond to commission and even more interestingly, he has a process whereby he can set images into porcelain. This is not a print, but rather one in which the pigment is set directly into the chemical structure of the substrate porcelain - similar to the way in which pigment is incorporated into the plaster in frescoes.

The tradition of reproducing paintings on porcelain goes back to the 19th century at least. I have recently seen several handpainted porcelain copies of the highest quality made in that time. The look of these hand-painted antique reproductions is the same those that Jerome makes. Here is a 19th-century example. Porcelain has a luminosity to it that you can see in this photograph.

I spoke to him about the possibility of creating icon corners consisting of three images and he was confident that he could produce something beautiful, either on a shrine or as a ceramic piece that could be set in a building by the purchaser, for example. It would need demand from customers for this to happen, but if the business logic is there for Jerome to do it, I am happy to work with him to help create outdoor icon corners.

Here are some more examples of his work. Once again his website is www.waysideshrines.org.

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Natural Law and the 10 commandments. A Meditation for the 3rd Sunday of Lent. From a Priest of the I.V.E.

In those days, God delivered the commandments: 1 Ex 20:1-17.  Here is another Lenten reflection from a priest from the Institute of the Incarnate Word, IVE, which is for the week of the 3rd Sunday of Lent. This is by Fr Nicholas Grace who is in Cowdenbeath, Scotland.

“I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery…I am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for wickedness but mercy…on those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Considering this text, I would like, in this article, to focus on two things in a very brief manner.

First: The Natural Law, written by God on every human heart.

Second: What are the Ten Commandments & Why they are so important.

The Natural Law, written by God on every human heart: Every member of Nature, every plant, every animal has a law which makes them tend to their goal, which makes them work.

Every human being has a law and must remain faithful to it if they are going to reach their goal if they are going to function correctly.  This is called man’s Natural law.

Why is it called natural? This Law is rooted in a set of natural inclinations to specific goods. Natural inclinations toward Self-preservation, toward having and raising children, toward knowing the truth about God and living in society. It is imprinted in our hearts.  It doesn’t have to be taught or learned. Like our DNA or genetic code, we also have this moral code weaved into our very being. How does it function?  -This law, through our intelligence, tells us what is right for us, what is wrong for us, what is good for us & what is bad for us. When our actions conform to this law they help us fulfill our purpose in life & are thereby right & morally good.  Similarly, when our actions are at variance with this law, they deter us from that purpose and are therefore wrong & immoral.  Some examples: The law of our Nature tells us that… ●   Nourishing our bodies is right, but overindulging to the detriment of health is wrong.

●   Self-preservation is right, but selfishness is wrong.

●   To love another person is good, but to love someone already seriously committed to another is not.

Now while it is easy to recognize that this knowledge comes naturally to us, we must also admit, very often, that same knowledge is rejected. In fact, the modern Western World is in a moral crisis.  Institutions and governments often deny the Existence of the Natural law inscribed in every human heart. This denial has assisted in the spread of a morality not based on human nature but based on an easily manipulated social consensus. Is there a consequence? This denial means that all moral opinions become valid.

Why is that a problem? Values become distorted. Take tolerance, it has been distorted to promote a society where no one's choices are criticised because criticism might make someone feel bad.

Why is that a problem? Isn’t it best to make people feel nice? People’s feelings are easily manipulated and once manipulated evil can be called good & good can be called evil, evil vices can be presented as virtues and virtues as vices to the point where feelings totally outrank reason.

Is there a solution? We already have it!. God in his Wisdom and as a convenience, explicitly revealed the Ten Commandments, which very clearly express all those Laws already written in the heart of man, but often conveniently ignored because of the stubbornness and selfishness of man.

What are the Ten Commandments & Why are they so important? As an exercise say and name aloud each of the Ten Commandments. Then consider: If everyone in the world kept even half of them would the quality of life on our planet improve? Would human beings be working so much better?

The answer is, of course, YES, because the Commandments aren’t just Religious guidelines, they are also God’s design for work, for families, for friendships and for society as a whole. A: We can compare the Ten Commandments to the handbook for a car. A car is a complicated piece of machinery, and the maker’s handbook tells you how to take care of our car properly so that you can get the most out of it.  The Ten Commandments are God’s handbook for human beings.

Why else are they so important?

Many people no longer respect God’s authority.  As a result, they no longer respect authority of any kind, whether politicians, parents, Priests, teachers or employers and the secular, as well as, the Religious community suffer greatly because of this lack of respect.

We live in an age of Moral Relativism: All Morality is relative.  All truth is relative. Unfortunately, the more everyone makes up his or her own truths, the less truth there will be.  The Ten Commandments preserve for us the ten most important truths.

There is tremendous ignorance about God. The Commandments remind the world of his existence, manifest his plan and express his personality.

Finally, The Commandments are extremely important, but they are not everything. For this reason, I would like to conclude this article with a story which might illustrate my point. It is a missionary story which concerns the Taliabo people of Indonesia. “Many years ago, two families from New Tribes Mission,  moved in with the Taliabo to live with them and learn their language. They began teaching the Scriptures, working their way forward to Christ and the Gospel. However, soon after the missionaries taught the people the Ten Commandments, a group of men visited them at their hut.

We are in big trouble with God.  God’s law tells us not to kill, but we have killed other men.  God’s law tells us not to steal, but we have stolen.  We have broken God’s commandments, but we did not know that God commanded these things.  From now on, we will keep God’s Commandments.

A couple of weeks later they returned to the missionaries’  hut. We are in really big trouble with God.  Now we know God’s Commandments, but we still break them”.

I wanted the story to underline to those reading this article that, although God has written his law in our hearts we cannot keep it.  Even though God has revealed his law through his prophets, we cannot keep it.  The Taliabo people, just like the people of Israel, broke almost every Commandment immediately after receiving them.

The point is that Knowledge of the law is not enough.  Knowing what is right does not confer power to do what is right, as Socrates incorrectly supposed. That is why, we have doctors who smoke, financial advisors who are in debt, and marriage counselors who are divorced!

The Ten Commandments do not remedy our sins; rather they reveal them and underline our need for a Saviour who can forgive them.  That Saviour is Jesus Christ.

This Lent let us make a great effort to, not only, live by following the Ten Commandments but also seek Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, when we will probably fail in our best efforts to keep the Commandments.

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Radiant Truth - How the Thomism of Fr Norris Clarke Explains The Style of Holy Icons

'For with You is the fountain of life, and in Your Light, we shall see light.' 

Many readers of this blog will be familiar, I'm sure, with the idea that there is a theology that is used to explain the stylistic elements of the iconographic liturgical art. However, I am not aware of a metaphysics or philosophical anthropology that has been or could be used to articulate a philosophy of icons.

That is, until recently.

A couple of years ago, on the recommendation of a Dominican friar here in Berkeley, I read two works of the late Jesuit philosopher, Fr Norris Clarke. These were Person and Being, and The One and the Many - A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics. You can see an interview with him shortly before his death in 2008, here, on YouTube in which he talks about his 'personalist' Thomism.

More recently, I sat in on a series of excellent lectures on the thought of Fr Clarke as part of a class on the philosophy of nature and philosophical anthropology, taught by Dr. Michel Accad for Pontifex University's Master of Sacred Arts program. Dr. Accad had invited me to attend so that I might participate by discussing with him why an understanding of philosophy is important for artists today.

There are, incidentally, a number of general reasons why such a class would be included in a sacred arts program - for example, the simple fact that an understanding of the human person and nature is always important for an artist who is seeking to reveal both invisible and visible truths about both through art. However, it occurred to me as I listened and reflected on the subject that Fr Clarke's Thomistic philosophy, in particular, might be the basis for a philosophy of icons. I offer my thoughts on this as some personal speculation for your interest.

We will start with a brief account of some of the ways in which theology has been used to explain the style of icons.

Take a look at this icon of the Transfiguration,

...we see Christ shining with light. This is understood to be a glimpse given to the Apostles of his heavenly glory. That glory, which is the radiance of his being, is the radiating of an uncreated 'light of being', the divine light of the burning bush, that shone without consuming the bush itself. Saints, who through baptism and lives of purity participate in the divine nature shine with this light too; and in their purity are able to see in ways that we can only grasp 'through a glass darkly'. This radiance is represented by the halo of light around their heads. Another indication that each figure is a source of light is indicated by the fact that none have cast shadows.

Even the apostles, who are not shown with halos (indicating that this event is prior to Pentecost when the fire of the Holy Spirit came to them) are nevertheless shown without cast shadows. This reflects the fact that in some way and at this moment, they must have been at least temporarily purified. For only the 'pure in heart' who are themselves participating in the divine nature can see the divine light. Even so, the power of such a vision to those who are unused to seeing it has knocked them back as we can see!

There are other stylistic elements that reflect truths about the objects portrayed that are not ordinarily visible. So there is a hierarchy of being in which Christ is greatest, mankind is next and inanimate beings come next. This is reflected visually by having Christ the most prominent figure amongst the six, through the design - and his size and brightness and the way in which his image relates to the other people in the composition. The mountain, on the other hand, is small relative to its natural size. In some icons, plants and mountains will be depicted actually bowing to Christ to communicate this point.

While the discussion so far relates to visible light, which is the only way that an artist working in a visual medium can portray such radiance, the light he is portraying is not in fact limited to visual light or even to electromagnetic radiation. This radiance is of a divine, uncreated supernatural 'light' that is visible to the purified 'spiritual eye', the place inside us where we see, so to speak, truth, and are connected to God. This is the 'spirit' of the Pauline anthropology (body, soul, spirit), which Stratford Caldecott, for example, equated with the intellectus of the Western medievals, and the nous of the Eastern Fathers, see here.

So how can philosophy account for this? First, it is worth describing the work of Fr Norris Clarke who is a philosopher in the true sense. He develops his own original thought, still working in the Thomistic tradition. Dr. Accad was kind enough to give me a summary of the salient points.

He wrote:

'I agree, that the work of Fr. Norris Clarke (which we cover at the end of the course, as a kind of summary and integration of everything we have learned) is likely to provide a helpful framework. Here are some of the points that Fr. Clarke distills from St. Thomas’ metaphysics (and to which he adds insights from modern “personalist” philosophy):

'The universe is an immense family of real beings, and all real beings—from the simplest drop of water to the human person—have something in common: They all exist! In technical terms, all real beings share in the act of existence. What’s more, we are all intimately connected with the source of our existence, God, who is existent in Himself (“I am who am”)

'Although all created beings share in the act of existence, each being is limited by an essence: A dog is a share of existence possessed—and limited by—the essence of “dogginess” and an oak tree is a share of existence possessed and limited by the essence of “oakiness”. God, of course, is unlimited, infinite being. According to St. Thomas, His essence is existence.

'Because created being are all finite and limited by essence, we each have something to receive from the rest of the family of beings, but we each also have something to contribute to other beings. All beings are constantly communicating of themselves to others and receiving from others to complete and perfect themselves.

'For example, even a simple pebble communicates its own existence to the rest of the world. Modern science acknowledges that: For one thing, by its existence, the pebble contributes materially to the gravitational field of the planet—even if in a most modest way. Without that gravitational field, we would all be floating about in the ether, getting evermore separated from one another!

'Because to be real is to be giving and to be receiving, we are all substances in relation. This is particularly true in the higher beings, like animals and humans who are constantly giving and receiving from one another, but it is even true at the lowest level. Water, for example, is molecular beings that are in relation with one another. Each molecule of H2O gives of itself to its neighbor and receives the actions of its neighboring molecules. The consequence this mutual interaction is a community of molecular beings that has the property of being clear, liquid, and life-sustaining for all living organisms!

'Clarke’s rendition of Thomistic metaphysics describes a wonderful community of beings, each of which, in its own way, reflects, refracts, and radiates the light of the Creator to all other beings.'

Man, of course, occupies a special place in the universe. Being at once a spirit united to a material body, he is an “amphibian” straddling the world of angels and that of earthly creatures. Because he possesses and intellectual nature that allows him to form civilizations, he leads creation on its journey back to the Creator. And, as spirit, man is also person: individually distinct and self-possessing and capable of living in self-conscious and self-determining community with others, in the image of the community of Divine Persons.

I do not know if Fr Clarke himself ever connected his ideas to the theology of the icon, but the parallels seem clear. He is describing this radiance of being in ways that are compatible with the uncreated light of being referred to by the theologians of the past, and which is manifested visually in the icon.

As I read Fr Clarke's books, this picture of being as an activity, a static dynamism in which each is giving and receiving of itself superabundantly (that is without depletion) reminds me of the dynamic of love described by Benedict XVI is his encyclicals. Benedict talks of love as simultaneous actions of self-gift and ordered reception of persons in relation, terming them agape, and eros respectively. I have written about this here.

Also, Clarke's philosophy helps me to understand something about the nature of beauty itself, which is sometimes defined as the 'radiance of being'. Beauty is an objective quality, that is, it is as an aspect of the thing considered beautiful; and in the full perception of its existence we, the subjects observing it, delight in it. But beauty has, nevertheless, a subjective component, for different subjects will have differing abilities to 'see', that is to apprehend, the incident 'light' of being emanating from the object.

I finish with an affirmation from the greatest school of theology and of life and all, that is, the liturgy. Light and life are connected in the hymn in the Eastern Rite called the Great Doxology. It opens with the proclamation, 'Glory to You, O Giver of light!' This is the divine light which we all participate in through our existence, which as human beings incorporates life, and which we possess in the fullness of our capabilities by partaking of the divine nature as baptized Christians. The connection is made explicitly later in this same hymn with the words: 'For with You is the fountain of life, and in Your Light, we shall see light.' 

The fountain of life!

What is this if not the self-effusive activity of being made all the more resplendent with the supernatural gift of life by which we relate to each other and with God in love in, at its consummation, the liturgy?

As an aside: in the Mandylion above, which I painted, I was told that the rounded brow that sits in the V between the eyebrows can be thought of as the 'spirit' or the 'spiritual eye' of the person that 'sees Light'.

Pontifex University is an online university offering a Master’s Degree in Sacred Arts. For more information visit the website at www.pontifex.university

Ceramic Tiles From Portugal - And Resources To Make Them Today

Further to my last post (on how we might bear witness publicly, yet discreetly and beautifully through tiled images cemented into buildings), readers have been coming forward with interesting and useful points. For the following I woud like to thank particularly, Raven W.

First the interesting - a number pointed out that Portugal has many blue and white ceramic tiled images. You can see many of these if you do an image search on 'Portuguese religious tile murals'.

As I dug further I found this photograph of an extraordinary mural on the wall in the town of Avente.

There are charming little decorative details as well. Remember that these patterns reflect a geometry that echoes the mathematical description of the beauty of the cosmos. When we get this right it is decoration with purpose - subtly but powerfully raising people's spirits to God through cosmic beauty so that they might be receptive to the Word.

I then decided to look further and explicitly search for Spanish architecture influenced by the Islamic art, as a style called Mujedar. I found these in the cathedral of Santa Maria de Teruel, in the town of Teruel:

This external adornment is so important in that everybody sees it. If it is done beautifully enough they will not object, I believe. The onus is on us, artists, architects, patrons, that is everybody, to start thinking about this and looking for opportunities for cosmic beauty in every aspect of our environment. (If you want to know more about the theory behind these designs, then I have just created a course as part of Pontifex University's Master of Sacred Arts program called The Mathematics of Beauty. This is an extended presentation of the theory introduced in my book, The Way of Beauty.)

Some of you may be wondering where we can get such tiles today? (Now we come to the useful!) I am not in the building trade so there is probably a lot more than I am aware of. But here are some ideas.

Patterns that reproduce the Victorian neo-gothic church floors are produced today for kitchens and bathrooms. I saw a shop on Chiswick High Road in West London, that had William Morris designs in the shop window. These floor designs began as renovations of  English gothic floors, such as the 13th century, Westminster pavement in Westminster Abbey by Victorians such as George Gilbert Scott. I would as happily use these tiles in the sanctuary of a church as in an external walkway:

...and here is a detail of St Albans Cathedral floor, renovated in the 1880s:

For the figurative religious imagery, it had occurred to me that if you can order cups with personalized messages on them online, it has to be as easy to reproduce religious imagery on ceramic now as it is to put 'World's Greatest Mom' on a mug! Sure enough, a reader referred me to this Italian company that offers Catholic religious images through Etsy and they do mail order. Here is a ceramic tile image of the Virgin at Prayer by Sassoferrato:

So there are ways we can start to think about this.

It can be done well or badly - we still need to take care that we don't put this together to create kitsch, but as long as we are aware of that we have a chance. And as GKC said - if something is worth doing, it's worth doing badly!

We finish with something done well. A cloister in the cathedral at Porto, Portugal.

Sacrifice Is Foregoing Something Good! A Reflection for the 2nd Sunday in Lent, from a Priest of the IVE

'When we give up sin, properly speaking, we’re not making a sacrifice.'

In anticipation of the Second Sunday in Lent, here is another Lenten reflection from a priest from the Institute of the Incarnate Word, IVE, and we are delighted that they have taken the time to do so. This focuses on the nature of sacrifice and is by Fr. Nathaniel Dreyer from their seminary, the Venerable Fulton Sheen Seminary, close to Washington DC.

In common with all that I see in the charism of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, Fr Nathaniel stresses the great joy that is on offer through the Faith. Even in sacrifice, the rewards are greater. This is what attracted me to Catholicism originally - I was lucky I think to be guided to the Church, over 25 years ago now, by someone who was himself a joyful man and was adamant that we can have a happy life in the here and now through Christ. 

I have chosen the art to accompany this meditation. In the passage below there is a reference to St Ephrem the Syrian's commentary, in which he asserts that Abraham reacted with joy when he saw the ram caught in the bush, because he anticipated that this was the Lamb of God and understood, perhaps albeit dimly, what was to come. The last painting below makes this explicit by showing not a lamb or ram, but Christ on the cross in the scene with Abraham. What is intriguing is that the painter is Chagall, who was Jewish. 

Fr Nathaniel writes:

The account of God’s call to Abraham and the near-sacrifice of Isaac cannot fail to rattle us, especially in this time of Lent, when we’re reminded more frequently God calls us to sacrifice. There are three things that really call our attention about the whole scene: first, that initial call from God and Abraham’s response, second, the way God describes Isaac, and, third, the reward that Abraham receives for his willingness to sacrifice. In turn, we can apply each of these to our lives, and consider how we respond to the sacrifices that God asks of us.

That initial call from God and Abraham’s response is the first thing that sticks out. “God put Abraham to the test,” we’re told, “and said to him: ‘Abraham!’ ‘Here I am!’ he replied.” Then God gives instructions on how Isaac is to be sacrificed. First, notice Abraham’s prompt reply: to the sound of his name, a personal call uttered only once, Abraham replies, “Here I am!” Contrast this to Adam and Eve, after the fall, when they hid out of shame, and God had to ask, “Where are you?” although He already knew they were far from Him because of sin. On the contrary, the one who really wants to do God’s will is prompt to reply, and that exclamation, “Here I am!” expresses a willingness to do anything, to go anywhere, and to give up anything. If we are to have truly generous hearts, we can’t set limits on what we will do for God; we can’t tell Him, “This far, but no farther.” We must trust in God; when He calls, and we see clearly what it is He asks of us, we should neither doubt nor hesitate. It’s interesting that God speaks to Abraham in the beginning, but the rest of the interactions that Abraham has with God are done through an angel; God speaks once, and then Abraham must walk the lonely road to the mountain by faith.

Regarding the second, God gives a very beautiful description of Isaac to Abraham: “Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love.” It would’ve been enough to say simply “Isaac,” but God emphasizes that Isaac is an “only son” and “beloved.” In other words, God emphasizes the difficulty of the sacrifice. He’s not asking for just any old sacrifice; He’s asking for something that hurts, something that is more precious to Abraham than anything else he has or possesses. He’s asking Abraham to sacrifice the child of the promise, the one he had waited so long for. When we give up sin, properly speaking, we’re not making a sacrifice; there is nothing sacrificial in ceasing to steal, or to lie, or to gossip. Rather, the word sacrifice comes from the Latin sacra, holy or sacred, and facere, to make.

When we make a sacrifice, we are taking something that is good, something we could have without sin, and offering it to God, taking a good thing and making it even better by giving it to the Almighty. Opportunities abound every day for making sacrifices: it might be as small as sacrificing my time in order to be with the sick or the elderly, or even simply to be patient with relatives or coworkers who annoy me; it might be sacrificing a snack or an outing and using that money for charity. However, it could also be something as great as sacrificing my dreams, my hopes, and what I want (or what I think I want) in order to give myself completely to God, be it in a vocation to religious life or priesthood, or to a spouse and family in marriage.

We shouldn’t think that God doesn’t know how hard it is, or how difficult it is to sacrifice. God knows, and He knows better than we do. In Matthew’s Gospel (19:27-30) Peter, speaking for the Apostles and, for all those who leave things to follow Christ, asks about the reward for those who give up everything, even the little they had: “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Notice the list of things that Jesus mentions giving up: “Everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life.”

This passage follows right after the rich young man had gone away sad because he had many material possessions, and it’s quite probable that Peter had his material goods in mind: his fishing boat, his house, and so on. The word Peter uses just means, “everything.” Yet, Jesus replies a specific list of things, the majority of which aren’t simply material goods, but, we could say, more spiritual. The list starts with material goods, namely, houses, then more spiritual ones, family members, and ends, oddly, with the Greek ἀγροὺς, meaning “fields” or “lands,” which would seem to be simply material. Yet, it’s important to remember that fields in the Bible aren’t simply physical places: they are part of a family’s inheritance and future, and fields are not only the place where things are planted and grown, but also where cattle can be raised, battles fought, and the dead buried. In other words, fields are full of potential, full of future possibilities and dreams. In our lives we surrender all that to Jesus, and it’s as though Jesus responds by saying, “I know exactly what you have given up for my sake, even more than you know”; indeed, He’s the only one who really knows. The God who tells us through Isaiah, “See, upon the palms of my hands I have written your name” (Is 49:16), and in the Psalm that “our tears are stored in His flask, recorded in His book?” (cf. Ps 56:9), will not let anything we give up be forgotten. He takes all of that, and opens to us a hundred more possibilities as He takes our futures into His hands: as He said through the prophet Jeremiah: “For I know well the plans I have in mind for you—plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope” (29:11).

Regarding the third, Abraham receives a great reward for his willingness to surrender everything to God. The book of Genesis presents us with a long list of rewards, but one, perhaps even greater reward, is missing. This reward is mentioned by Christ Himself in John’s Gospel (8:56): “Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” Saint Ephrem comments that Abraham rejoiced when he saw the lamb caught in the bush, because he saw in it the future Lamb of God, who was to take away the sins of the world. In that moment, he caught a glimpse of the salvation that was to come, a time when yet another only-Begotten, Beloved Son would head to the summit of a mountain, but this time, that Son wouldn’t escape sacrifice. The rewards from God far outweigh the sacrifices we make for Him, because in them we can catch a glimpse of the reward that is to come. God is not outdone in generosity, and, although the sacrifice might be difficult, God always gives His grace, and “with dawn comes rejoicing.” Lest we forget, the evening of Abraham’s rejoicing probably started out as the worst morning of his life, as he led Isaac out into the middle of nowhere to kill him.

For us, then, we need to be prepared to give everything we have to God. Perhaps, as in the case of Abraham, it will be enough simply to offer it, even though our hearts might break. He might simply ask that we purify our attachment to things, and then leave them to us, with our hearts set on Him alone. Perhaps, though, God will ask that we do indeed surrender it to Him, sacrificing it to Him and His adorable will. What God wants is always what is truly best for us, and we must be convinced of this with the certainty of faith.

If we really want to be saints, then we must be willing to sacrifice everything for Him. What good does anything in this life do, if I’m not willing to give it to God. We can ask ourselves: what is God asking me to sacrifice to Him? What is it that He asks me to give to Him, or to Him through others? Where is my heart set? Where is my treasure? What holds me back from giving everything to God? Through the intercession of Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, let us ask for the grace to have minds ready for sacrifice, and wills ready to leave everything to follow Christ.

Are You the Gardener? A Lenten Reflection From a Priest of the Institute of the Incarnate Word

Lent: A Pathway Between Two Gardens

From a priest of the Institute of the Incarnate Word

We are now in the first week of Lent. In order to aid our passage through this important liturgical season, we offer weekly meditations. Each is written by a priest from the Institute of the Incarnate Word, IVE, and we are delighted that they have taken the time to do so. The first focuses on some general thoughts for Lent and is by Fr Brian Dinkel, Pastor of Our Lady of Peace in Santa Clara, CA. He writes:

With due reason, the archetypal setting for the Lenten season is the desert. The arid desolate land that purges us from the attachment to the comfortable life of sin, which goes no further than self-satisfaction. What about Gardens? As much as our senses and inclination to comfort may need some desert time for detachment, so too might our intellect and will need some time spent in the Gardens for conversion. Let us explain.

The Old Testament line that inaugurates Lent for most is: “Remember you are dust and unto dust, you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19) These words are spoken in a Garden, Eden. In this Garden, through an act of disobedience, Adam and Eve turned from God. This is followed by what Bl.John Henry Newman wittingly describes as “The original excuse.” (Cf., Bl. John Henry Newman, Oxford University Sermons, Sermon 8) First Adam points to Eve saying, “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree,” and then Eve places the onus on the serpent, saying, “the snake tricked me, so I ate it.” (Genesis 3,12-13) In another other Garden, Gethsemane, we witness a supreme act of obedience to the Father.

Jesus speaks to His Father with child-like simplicity: “Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless, not My will, but Thine, be done.” (Mt 26,42) In this Garden, however, He makes Himself the excuse for everyone else. The Garden of Eden is where life is springing forth on all sides, but selfishness leads to death. In Gethsemane, death is all-encompassing, but in this garden, selflessness leads to life.

His soul was sad to the point of death. He felt within His soul a sadness that was deep enough to cause the feeling of death. The Greek adjective περίλυπος (perilypos: from peri‐ around + lypé sorrow, grief) means properly, around‐sorrowful, that is, sorrowful all around, encompassed with sorrow; i.e. exceedingly sorrowful. (Cf., Mt 26,38) Therefore, the Jesus Christ, as St. Paul describes it, became sin, “for our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin.” (2 Cor 5,21) The moral sufferings of Jesus were without comparison; they were tremendous; they were of greater suffering than the very nails that pierced His hands and His feet. It was so intense that He sweat blood. After all of this agony, He calls us into communion with Him this day. He gives us the blessing to be with Him, to receive Him, to be in communion with Him.

We have to look at, take ownership of, and reject what we have done. We must also acknowledge and cherish what He did, for me, in order for my heart to begin to change. One needs to see the darkness and evil of sin, that it is mine alone, and that Jesus – the Innocent Lamb – has taken it upon Himself to free me from them. As Pope St. John Paul taught, “Sin is an integral part of the truth about the human person. To recognize oneself as a sinner is the first and essential step in returning to the healing love of God.”

I need to see this, I need to look at this, in order for there to be real, lasting change; otherwise, I never see myself honestly, nor do I give the great price that Jesus paid for me an honest consideration. Our faith, religion, is more than pursuing happiness or self-realization – it is friendship and love. He took on a terrible amount of filth for me and He continues to call me like a loving friend who says: “forget about it – I don’t condemn you, I absolve you and forgive you, but go and sin no more.”

Our hearts must change. Ash will probably not do it, but maybe God—so meek and humble who came down from heaven, clothed Himself in our sins and poured forth blood from every pore of His body—will.

Here, in this Garden, Jesus places the sins of all human beings upon His shoulders. Thinking of the circumstances, the number, the malice, the ugliness, my own sins, . . . sins of a culture, of a society, of governments, our uncontrollable pride that in the name of liberty we unhinge ourselves from subjection and when faced with our ruin we place the blame on God who did not intervene or we reject Him altogether. He who knew no sin, placed upon himself all of this.

He can take away from these awful things something good – His Passion is our Redemption. He wanted to give us the sacraments. Therefore, no matter how bad our sins may be, or have been, God’s love is Greater – out of love for us He clothed Himself in this suffering. 2. Love – the love of God for each and every one of the members of His Mystical Body. Jesus saw all of His disciples, those who would follow Him, He also saw all of our infidelities. How we place our affections on material things, the insults that we make towards one another, the divisions, the hatred, the calumny, . . . He saw the lukewarmness and indifference of His friends.

He saw all of this, the martyrs of all times, the sufferings of the members of His body. He suffered these as if it were His own body. These were His members. The innocent ones who were forgotten or abused, thrown away by a society. For this reason, we know that Jesus suffered when we suffer. And this produces a profound suffering in His person. The Father in His infinite Love sent an angel to console Him, as His friends could not stay awake and watch one hour with Him.

Paintings are by Bosch, Goya, and Tiepolo respectively.