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CHRISTENDOM AND THE WEST What is Christian Culture? By Thomas Storck Almost every time that we read the newspaper or listen to the news on TV or radio we see or hear the West mentioned. Until recently it was apt to be about some military initiative in opposition to the Soviet Union and her allies. Currently it is more likely to be about some economic problem or program. And although the news media hardly ever take the trouble to think about what they mean by the West, it is not difficult to figure out what in fact they do mean. For them, unfortunately, the term signifies no more than a political or economic bloc. The European Community and some other European countries, such as Scandinavia or Austria, the United States and Canada, a few countries in Asia or the Pacific such as Australia and New Zealand, possibly even Japan. And because the media's notion of the West is repeated so often many of us begin to see the West chiefly in their terms: the West is nothing but a political bloc committed to certain things, chiefly democracy and freedom conceived principally as freedom for moneymaking and pleasure seeking, and till recently organised to defend itself against another bloc of nations that wished to destroy or inhibit that freedom. Of course there is occasionally some mention of "historical values" or such that are seen to be at the bottom of the unity of the West, but in our media's conception these values are so ethereal as to mean little besides an adherence to representative democracy and a minimum of restraints on conduct. With abortion legal in nearly every country of the West, they surely do not include a respect for human dignity! Because the public and civic life of Western nations shows no deeper unity than a superficial political or economic likeness, most publicists and commentators assume that that is all there is to the West, at least today. It is merely a group of nations with some sort of common historical background, but sharing nothing important now but a commitment to preserving its freedom for materialistic and hedonistic pursuits. Fusion of two "words" But is this all there is to the West? Is it only a grouping of nations seeking to preserve the material goods and worldly pleasures they possess? Although I think that most orthodox Catholics in the West know that their civilization is much more than this, yet we too are affected by the media's conceptions, and for that reason are apt to forget just what the West really is and what gives it its unity. So in the first part of this essay I propose to set out some of this richness of the West, the things that give it its essential unity, so that in our thinking about the direction of the world and of Christian civilization, we will have a better idea of what we are talking about. Then in the second and third parts, I will explore certain themes relating to the direction of Western culture and its relations with any possible Christian culture. How do we get at this reality of what the West is all about? Jacques Maritain captured the essence of the West in one sentence, when he wrote that the Greek people "may be truly termed the organ of the reason and word of man as the Jewish people was the organ of the revelation and word of God." The West then is nothing but that rich fusion of the Word of God and the word of man, the former coming ultimately from the revelation God made to the Jews – to Abraham. Moses and others in the Old Testament, culminating in the coming of God himself, who as far as his human nature is concerned, is a Jew. So in this way the theological content of Western culture comes from Israel. And though the final form of this theological content is in Catholic doctrine, its origins lie in the Old Testament covenant of God with the Hebrew people. The Empire of "Logos" The second of the two words, that of man, is from the Greeks. Of all the peoples of the earth known to us, only the Greeks developed a rational investigation of all things, of the world, of man and even of God, unmixed with myth or theology. Only the Greeks have what may be called philosophy simply and strictly speaking. This rational examination and consideration of things, though in no way opposed to religion, is separate from it and allows men to systematically discover and classify the essential truths about nature, man and his soul, the state, law, even many truths about God. Moreover, philosophy has been found to be an indispensable handmaid for theology and theologians. This then is the double tradition of the West, for what makes the West not just a geographical, but a unique cultural unity, is this coming together of the Hebrew tradition, which in fact was an absolutely unique phenomenon, because God gave to that nation alone a revelation properly speaking: and of the Greek tradition, a human accomplishment it is true, but undoubtedly fostered by God in that place and time. Both traditions contributed knowledge of truths to the human race, the Hebrew of truths of the divine nature and his dealings with man; finally, in fact, of God himself among us as the fulfilment of those dealings. The Incarnation and the subsequent establishment of the Catholic Church were not only the climax of the old law of Abraham, Moses, the prophets and of the sacred kingdom of Israel, but were the universalizing of that tradition, as the spiritual goods of ancient Israel and of the Old Testament were now made available for all men, together with a sure and clear means for our salvation. Throughout the Old Testament, starting even with the call of Abraham in Genesis 12, the universal import of God's speaking to the Jews is clearly stated. What God is saying to Abraham is meant not just for his children according to the flesh, but somehow and at some time for all of mankind. And with the founding of the Church this tradition of the Hebrews received its final form in the shape of Catholic doctrine, intended for the whole earth and sent out to be proclaimed to the whole earth. The Greeks and Development of Doctrine The Hebrew theological and intellectual tradition and vocabulary is in terms of that people's unique relationship with God and the various institutions and practices, such as the covenant and the Mosaic law, which arose out of that relationship. Thus both the Old and the New Testaments present salvation history in a way that emphasises its particular and unique connection with the Chosen People, even when it witnesses to God's design to save all men. In order, then, for this spiritual content to be easily accessible to all, the Church had to leave that particularizing Jewish context and enter into a context that was at least potentially universal. This it was able to do because of the availability of the Greek intellectual tradition. Now what is true is always universal. Even a simple truth such as "John is sitting" is universally true if it is true at all, since the fact that John is sitting is true for everyone. Now truths about the most important things, about God, man, the world of natures, change and permanence etc., are not only universal but they are important. The Greeks had discovered very many such important truths, and moreover, since they sought to understand reality as it was in itself without reference to time or place, the terminology they employed in their intellectual investigations was, in principle at least, accessible equally to men of any time or place. The nascent Church likewise had even more important truths of divine revelation to communicate to men. But it was inevitable that as the Church communicated her truths, points would be raised, both among Catholics and by the Church's enemies, which would involve questions that the Hebrew tradition could not deal with definitively on its own intellectual terms because of its particular and concrete mode of understanding and expression. How, for example, arc we to conceive of the inner nature of God himself - the relation of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, or of the union between the divine and the human in our Lord? What terms from the vocabulary of the older Mosaic or the Wisdom traditions, or of the earliest Catholic writings, the epistles and the Gospels, are adequate to describe these sublime mysteries? It was because the Greek terms and the entire Greek intellectual tradition was at hand that the Church was able so comparatively easily to formulate its theology, something necessary if the spiritual message received from the Jewish tradition was to be made available to those of other places, that is, outside the Hebrew tradition, and. more importantly, of other times. The contribution of the Greeks then, the "word of man" is absolutely vital, since without it Western culture would not exist. We lake its contribution largely for granted because, thanks to the Medieval scholastics, Greek logical concepts have permeated our language and thinking. Every time we use the words "essential" or "nature" (as in "the nature of the problem") or "substantially" we are using, however attenuated they may have become, Greek philosophical concepts. But if one could see a culture untouched by the influence of ancient Greece one would see classifications, concepts and distinctions we take for granted ignored. Greece rose above Nominalism This heritage of Greek philosophy is the patrimony of every Catholic, and to a great extent, those outside the Church are losing the ability to make the distinctions on which sound thinking depends. So not only our Western spiritual heritage but also our intellectual heritage needs to be defended today. Catholicism itself would look very different, in its intellectual and theological aspects, had it developed in India or Africa without benefit of Greek philosophical categories. It would still be true, of course, but I think one could say that it would have a harder time expressing that truth because its theological vocabulary would lack the philosophical terminology necessary for making distinctions clear. The thing that Maritain calls the "word of man" is basically the ability to conform the mind to what is, and to sort out from all that we see around us the basic units, as it were, of existence. For example, we see colours, see things moving and changing, coming into being and passing out of being. What is basic? Some of the very early Greek philosophers, as they groped their way toward truth, argued that everything was in flux and nothing stable existed: others argued that there was no change at all. Though the truth of this matter may I seem commonsensical to us, it is so only because we are the unconscious heirs of their search for, and attainment of, philosophical truth. Or again, if I see you today and not again for fifty years, is it the same you that I see, since your shape, weight, in part even your colour, the sound of your voice have all chanced'? Is there something basic that has endured so that I can rightly say you are still the same thing? Bertrand Russell actually argued that each new time I see a particular person it is not the same person that I am seeing, but only different appearances of similar-looking patches of colour and bits of sound, connected by unknown physical laws. Well, no doubt under the protection of divine grace, the ancient Greeks, Plato and especially Aristotle, realised that substances, that is, persons and things, are what basically exist, not colour patches or isolated sounds or sense experiences. This probably seems obvious to us, but I think it is so obvious in part because we have the intellectual heritage of Greece behind us. And though all this may seem like unnecessary abstruseness such questions have effects on everyday life that would surprise most of us. The slide from the real real Greek philosophy, therefore, when used by and in company with the theological revelation that came from Israel, is what makes Western culture distinct. Western culture has received unique blessings from God in being the heir of both Jews and Greeks and as such is able to perform well the function that a culture was meant for. The word culture comes from the Latin cultura, a word which means simply cultivation, as in farming or gardening. Our word agriculture comes from agricultura, the cultivation of a field (ager) But just as not everything one does to a field is cultivation, for example to throw dirty oil and old bottles and tin cans into a field will not help the crops to grow, so not everything one does to man really cultivates him. Cultivate means to help something to grow in its proper direction, to help it to become what it is supposed to become. Do some cultures do this better than others? I contend that Western culture cultivates man better than any other culture does, because, historically speaking, it is based on truth, both divine and human, and surely man cannot be perfected according tn anything except the truth. Unfortunately, one must say, "historically speaking", because today Western civilization is far from its roots in Hebrew and Greek truth. Moreover, this departure from its historic path is not something that began in l965 or 1932 or 1918. Western civilisation has been tending away from its own genius since the end of the Middle Ages, and has been rushing away from it since the early I8th century. Today the West is actually to a large extent a baneful force in traditional Third World countries were we break down age-old ways of life and village cultures. As an Iranian friend of mine once put it, today the West seems to stand for only technology and pornography. Latin-the bonding of God and Caesar The Hebrew and Greek foundations of Western civilization were strengthened and developed by the Romans. Although their contribution was not as original as that of the Hebrews and Greeks, it consisted of three important elements: a universal empire: universal law, and the consolidation and extension of the Greek and Hebrew achievements. However, in discussing the Romans and their contributions to Western civilization, we must not forget that the Eastern and Greek-speaking portion of the Roman Empire was still very much in existence throughout the Middle Ages until 1453, and though non-Latin, can hardly be called non-Western. In fact, Western culture has always included areas not of Latin culture. For the Byzantines, of course, had no need of the Latin tradition to mediate Greek thought for them. And even if they did not appropriate their own classical tradition as much as did the Latins, still they were conscious heirs of the vast learning of the Greek Fathers, which itself made use of much of the best of pagan thought. There were also important missionary effort" by the Greeks, as in the work of Saints Cyril and Methodius and in the conversion of Russia. Nevertheless I think one can say that the most distinctive part of Western culture was the Latin, and without the achievements of the Romans in western Europe the development of Western culture would have I been considerably hindered and perhaps imperilled. The idea of the universal empire of Rome had a powerful impact on men's imaginations throughout the Middle Ages and up through the 18th century. It was an idea of unity with diversity - not the kind of unity where everything becomes the same, but where local customs and attachments are fostered within a larger whole. The idea of Rome was one of the chief things making for the international character of Christendom. The men of the Middle Ages knew that Rome had once ruled over most of Europe, and indeed they themselves attempted to perpetuate the international character of Rome's rule. Thus they created the Holy Roman Empire, which endured until A.D. 1806 and was conceived to be in some sense the same state as that of Caesar and the ancient emperors. Europe received from Rome an international culture - nationalism and nations as we understand them did not exist. The Latin language was one major factor in this culture, and of course Catholicism was the most important part of it. Wherever the medievals looked, physical monuments of Rome remained and were in daily use - Roman roads, bridges, aqueducts, walls, etc. The Roman Empire exercised a tremendous power over their imaginations, and was a major force making for a European-wide civilization. Pope and Emperor were the twin heads of this Christendom, and Christendom was a universal entity. In law Rome pioneered in establishing a systematic, reasonable approach to jurisprudence, and Roman law is the basis of law today in continental Europe and Latin America. When Roman law was revived during the high Middle Ages, its study was the foundation for any scientific legal work, and even influenced the common law of England and the United Stales during that law's very early period. Without the Roman law's codes, case -books and the other parts of the Emperor Justinian's legal compilations, legal study would have taken many more years to attain to the systematic state it has today. Greek metaphysic and Roman pragmatism To a great extent Roman law is he application of Greek thought to juridical questions, and the clarity of the distinctions that the Greeks made in investigating all reality the Romans were able to appropriate for their practical needs in administering the state. But though law is a practical science, good law and jurisprudence are based ultimately on metaphysics, and the superiority of Roman law to some of the crudities of the barbarian legal codes is simply the superiority of Greek reason to blind reliance on tribal tradition untempered by sound philosophic reflection. Rome's third achievement was her consolidation and extension of Greek and Hebrew attainments. Greek political and military strength, despite Alexander's conquests, was not powerful enough to set up on a stable basis Greek civilisation with its philosophical and scholarly traditions. Greek culture in the East was actually losing ground when the Romans came long and established it on a stronger political and military base. The Romans were eminently practical, and having once accepted Greek culture, they set about organising things. That is what Pope Pius XII meant when he praised the Rule of St. Benedict, calling it an "outstanding monument of Roman and Christian prudence" (Encyclical: Fulgens radiatur. 1947). For prudence is the virtue especially needed by the practical man and the Roman's had this natural virtue to a high degree. "Though the Church, of course, can survive without Roman culture, nonetheless God made use of the peculiar strong points of the Roman achievement in the first centuries of the Church, as He previously used the Greek accomplishments in philosophy to orient the beginnings of Christian theology and philosophy. The Church spread throughout the Latin-speaking regions of the Empire, and later, when she began to penetrate lands never conquered by Rome. Catholic missionaries brought Latin culture with them though one must recall what was said earlier about the Greek areas of Western culture and their missionary activity. Thus all of western and northern, and most of central, Europe received the Latin tongue, and with it classical philosophy and Latin literature, in fact all the intellectual heritage of the Hebrew, and Romans. Latin Christian civilization became extended throughout Europe, and together with the lands of Greek culture, resulted in Christian Western civilization. Reprinted with permission from Faith Magazine, September 1991. Published by: The ChurchinHistory Information Centre http://www.churchinhistory.org/
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