DAILY
CATHOLIC MONDAY June 8,
1998 vol. 9, no. 110
NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective
To print out entire text of Today's issue, go to SECTION ONE and SECTION TWO
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NEW ENCYCLICAL ON FAITH AND
REASON REPORTED
VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- According to the Italian news
agency ANSA, the new papal encyclical to be released this autumn will be entitled Fides
et Ratio-- Faith and Reason.
This would be the 13th encyclical by Pope John Paul II. If
it is indeed
published in the autumn months, that publication come alongside the expected canonization
of Edith Stein, the Jewish philosopher who became a Carmelite nun, whose work on the
relationship between faith and reason has earned the Pope's explicit praise.
According to the ANSA report, the encyclical discusses two
key problems in contemporary thought: the technique of "methodological doubt"
and the "neo-Gnostic" tendencies sometimes associated with New Age ideology.
Through the use of methodological doubt, the Pope argues (according to ANSA), philosophers
seek to put man in the center of the cosmos, as the arbiter of all truth, and with the
capacity for total domination of his world. On the other hand the neo-Gnostic impulse--
often mixing elements of music and Asian religions-- suggests some "universal
energy" rather than a Creator
God.
Each of these approaches contradicts the essence of
Christian philosophy, the Pope argues. The ANSA report notes that Pope John Paul himself
is trained as an academic philosopher, and has always paid careful attention to the latest
developments in the field.
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Articles provided
through Catholic World News Service.
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to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.
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June 8, 1998
volume 9, no. 110
NEWS & VIEWS
DAILY CATHOLIC
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