The Irish standard., 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., a Catholic
scholar OF international reputation.
writes as follows on "Dogmas and Liter
aturc." in the Liverpool Catholic Times:
Years ago Mr.. Matthew Arnold publish
cd book which made no little stir in
It's time, the title of which was "Iitera-
tnrc and Dogma" But on reading il the
world became aware that dogma" was
Drought in merely TO be annihilatel:
while "litcraturc" would henceforth r.
we gave ear to Mr.. Arnold, reign In its
stead as a true. or at least new relig-
ion. with which science had no ouarr,l
because to scientific decision 1t laid no
claim. The contention was somewhat
cAtravagant nor had ii any lasting
success. religion which is not found
cd on facts, and which never appeals to
principles, what is II except Il spccies
or romance or mythology IL poem like
Nlrslis Aeneid, or play like those
enacted upon tho Athenan stage? Some
were angry with Mr.. Arnold, others
amused, and more cOntemptuous, But
! have chosen his title, though reversed.
III order to sum up, as shortly as pOssi-
bic, the drift and meaning of a paper
which was allowed to send to the con-
gress OF Fribourg, where | suggest that
If dogma cannot he explained away into
mythology, vet It can and ought to be
cXpoundcd 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 at home and abroad What do
| mean by talking of such Il principle?
| mean that there is an immense work
OF Interpretation, translation, exposi-
'loh' 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 are which
We commend to their arrcptation. And
| mean. furthermore, that we Shall not
arrive at common ground of arEu-
ment. or have any purchase on the
minds OF cultivated men and women
outside, unless we make ourselves ac-
auainted with their manner of thinking.
their first principles. their peculiar and
individual prejudiccs, their unconscious
philosophy and their linbltual language.
All this belongs. we may say, to itera-
ture, and implies the faculty and the
use of criticism. But whereas Mr.. Ar
mold would have destroyed dogma by
means of literature. I, by the same
means, would make it intclligible and
persuasive Let us see why this should
lie attempted, and whether 1t can he
done.
1t Is certain that we arc entrusted
with mission in our own age Equally
certain is IT. 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 Srhopenhautf. to
Spencer, to I1otZc, to the last French
and German disciples Of Condilac have
been of every color except the Aristotle
lian ard Thomistic The men of let
tcrs who are most celebrated in poetry
and romance, in fiction or in criticism.
or in historical works of large and
lofty aim cannot be found among us,
or the proportion of them that we have
contributed Is much less than our num-
bcrs would warrant. In science, pure
and applied, we may reckon that we
have done we'll as the catalogue of our
ilustrious savants would abalndantly
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
llsurpcd, the place of the pulpit; and wo
| lave to contend with an authority
which, though not protesting to be in
| fallible, speaks and acts as if it were
| so, in newspapers, lectures, conferences
ut every point of the compass and In all
| parts OF the social system. There is.
| doubtless, great and widespread conf,l-
| 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 edifice. 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 its
scientific shape: and again in the Six
teenth, when the questions that mainly
occupy our religious and controversial
] writings assumed an Importance 50 vast