The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1897-09-25
A VERY INTERESTING ARTICLE
The Only Effective Method for
Catholic Teachers.
in AN AGE OF FREE THOUGHT
Must Talk to Men in a Language
They Can Understand.

Rev. William Barry, D. d., Catholic
scholar of international reputation.
/ writes as follows on ''Dogmas and Liter.
atnre' in the Liverpool Catholic Times:
, Years ago Mr.. Matthew Arnold uhlish-
cd book which made no little stir in
It's time, the title of which was I,itera-
tnre and Dogma" But on reading it the
world became aware that dogma" was
brought in merely TO be annihilated:
while literature" would henceforth if
We gave ear to Mr.. Arnold reign In it's
stead as II true. OF at least n new relig-
| ion. with which science had no quarrel.
! because to scientific decision it laid no
, claim. The contention was somewhat
cAtravagant; nor had it any lasting
| success. A religion which is not found
| ed on facts, and which never appeals to
principles, what is IL except a species
| or romance or mythology, IL poem like
| virgins Aeneid, or play like those
enacted upon the Athenian stage? Some
/ II,
! amused. and more contemptuous. But
! have chosen his title, though reversed.
! III order TO sum up as shortly as posi-
bic, the drift and meaning of u paper
! which | was allowed to send to the con-
gress OF tribourg. where suggest that
| IL dogma cannot be explained away into
mythology yet It can and ought to be
expoundcd IN literature think Mr..
Arnold was feeling about dimly in tho
ncighborhood OF a most important, and
indeed vital principle which is now
making Itself visible to our Catholic
( teachers ut home and abroad. What do
| mean by talking of such IL principle?
| | mean that there is an immense work
OF Interpretation. translation, cXposi-
| ton, to be done upon our part who
write or speak to the world at largo
before we can get them SO much as to
| understand what the things nre which
we commend to their acrcpation And
mean. furthermore that we shall not
arrive ut Il common ground of argu-
mcnt. or have any purchase on the
minds OF cultivated men and women
outside, unless we make ourselves ac-
| auaintrd with their manner of thinking.
| their first principles. their peculiar and
individual prejudiccs. their unconscious
philosophy and their hnbltual language.
| All this belongs, we may say, to litera-
turc, and implies the faculty and the
| use of criticism. But whereas Mr.. Ar
mold would have destroyed dogma by
means of literature. l. by the same
means, would make It Ineligible and
persuasive. Let us see why this should
he attempted, and whether 1t can be
done.
1t is certain that we are entrusted
with mission in our own age Equally
certain is 1t that the age no longer lis
tens to the church. 1t has not attended
to the Catholic view OF things for a
hundred years and more. The philoso-
piers, from Kant to SrhOpenllauer, to
| Spencer, to LntZe, to the last French
and German disciples of Condillac have
been Of every color except the Aristote-
lan and Thomistic. The men of let
tiers who are most celebrated in poetry
and romance, In fiction or in criticism.
or in historical works of n large and
lofty aim, cannot be found among us,
or the proportion of them that we have
contributed Is much less than our num-
bers would warrant. In science, pure
and applied. we may reckon that we
have done WELL as the catalogue of our
! illustrious savhnts would ablndantly
| prove. But 1t Is not science as such
and directly, that tells on the multi
tudc. Literature tells on them immcd-
lately; and, in the long run. amazing
as it sounds, the most abstruse sys-
tens of thought will likewise tell on
them, being conveyed to the average
| mind by the same channels. Moreover,
general reading has now taken, or
usurpcd, the place of the pulpit and wo
have to contend with an authority
which though not protesting to be in
falliblc, speaks and acts as if it were
so, in newspapers, lectures, conferences
at every point of the compass and In all
parts Of the social system. There is.
doubtless, great and widespread confu-
sion Of thought; and yet all these scat
tered elements have, until lately, served
as explosive material to shatter some
| portion of the old Christian edlfice. I
ask, then, whether we have any special
duties in consequence of a state of mems
minds so unlike what they were in the
Thirteenth century, when our dogma
was wrought up by the school into It's
scientific shape and again in the Six
teenth, when the questions that mainly
occupy our religious and controversial
writings assumed an Importance 50 vast