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Spirituality

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Friday, March 13, 2026Spirituality

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... consider what interest, other than a religious interest, restrains the money-making motive sufficiently, so that people rest on a sabbath, or study on sunny days, instead of working the fields for marginal gains.

Michael
Pakaluk

It has no entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia; it is not mentioned in the Catechism; yet the popes talk about it in their encyclicals. What is "civilization?" Is Christianity responsible for it? Is Western civilization equal to Christian civilization? Do Catholics have a responsibility to maintain it?
Pope Leo XIII gave some definite answers to these questions, which he addressed in his very first encyclical of 1878, "Inscrutabili Dei consilio," "In God's Unsearchable Design." There, he distinguishes between those fundamental philosophical premises, which are a precondition for civilization, and the fruits of civilization. He states the premises in this text:
"It is perfectly clear and evident, venerable brothers, that the very notion of civilization is a fiction of the brain if it rest not on the abiding principles of truth and the unchanging laws of virtue and justice, and if unfeigned love knit not together the wills of men, and gently control the interchange and the character of their mutual service (n. 5)."

We can grasp these premises more easily by considering what kinds of positions would contradict them: for instance, the view that there is no truth, or that truth is relative; the view that there is no objective morality or natural law, or that only mathematical science is objective; and the view that human beings by nature are at war with one another, and that there is no natural friendship. The philosophies, then, of Nietzsche, positivism, Hobbes, Marx, and Freud, and others, according to this passage, all imply that "the very notion of civilization is a fiction of the brain."
Civilization, then, is a mode of common life which presupposes shared philosophical principles affirming the reality and objectivity of truth, virtue, justice, and natural human sociability.
Pope Leo goes on to say that, as a matter of historical fact, Christianity has supplied these principles to peoples who then developed into Christian societies:
"Now, who would make bold to deny that the Church, by spreading the Gospel throughout the nations, has brought the light of truth amongst people utterly savage and steeped in foul superstition, and has quickened them alike to recognize the Divine Author of nature and duly to respect themselves?"
When we read these words, we might find them offensive, because we suppose he is referring to the native peoples of the Americas, whom our ancestors oppressed. But Pope Leo is referring to the pagan peoples of Rome and the barbarian tribes of continental Europe and the British Isles. So think rather of how you certainly enjoyed touring the Uffizi rather than being captured and enslaved by the Goths.
Then Pope Leo goes on to talk about what we might call the "fruits" of civilization, and first, the abolition of slavery, which has been as much a rule as human sacrifice:
"Who will deny that the Church has done away with the curse of slavery and restored men to the original dignity of their noble nature; by uplifting the standard of redemption in all quarters of the globe?"
By "the standard of redemption," he means that if you and I regard ourselves as redeemed from slavery, by the price which Christ paid in his Passion, then consistently we cannot enslave others -- anymore than we can ask for forgiveness without forgiving others. It took centuries for this logic to work itself out, and yet it did, in Christian nations.
With respect to that same "standard of redemption," Pope Leo says, the Church has also brought the light of truth:
". . . by introducing, or shielding under her protection, the sciences and arts, and by founding and taking into her keeping excellent charitable institutions which provide relief for ills of every kind."
Therefore, we may say that the fruits of civilization include:
-- the abolition of slavery,
-- the founding of universities and academies, and
-- the founding of hospitals and other associations for helping the poor.
Pope Leo's argument used to be a commonplace among Catholics. But now we apparently need to be reminded of it. Indeed, Pope Leo's thinking is so strange to us that if someone like Tom Holland writes a book ("Dominion") arguing that what we take to be obvious principles of morality are, in fact, the inheritance of a specifically Christian culture, it becomes a runaway bestseller.
Similarly, in an earlier generation, Father Stanley Jaki won the Templeton Prize and was appointed to give the Gifford Lectures because he argued (in books such as "The Savior of Science") that science seemed to get started, in some initial way, in various cultures, but only in Christian cultures did it flourish. History is just as Pope Leo said: science and the arts needed to be "shielded" under the Church's protection, to become established and grow.
If that seems strange to you, consider what interest, other than a religious interest, restrains the money-making motive sufficiently, so that people rest on a sabbath, or study on sunny days, instead of working the fields for marginal gains.
But if a culture either rejects the necessary philosophical principles or turns against the Church -- which would be like a farmer destroying his seeds -- then, Pope Leo warns, the civilization it sustains is "nothing but a worthless imitation and a meaningless name." And Christians need to ponder if such a civilization is what we have inherited now.

- Michael Pakaluk, an Aristotle scholar and Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, is a professor in the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America. He lives in Hyattsville, MD, with his wife Catherine, also a professor at the Busch School, and their eight children. His latest book is "Be Good Bankers: The Economic Interpretation of Matthew's Gospel.'' You may follow him on Substack at MichaelJosephPakaluk.Substack.com.