WHAT IS TR U TH?

EVANGELISING THE POST - MODERN WORLD

Joshua Madden

All booklets are published thanks to the generosity of the supporters of the Catholic Truth Society

Introduction

If man denies his fundamental capacity for the truth, if he becomes sceptical regarding his ability really to know what is true, he ends up losing what in a unique way draws his intelligence and enthrals his heart . 1

(Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

)

In Fides et Ratio, one of his most famous encyclicals, St John Paul II addresses what he believes to be one of the most pressing issues facing modern man: nihilism . He proposes:

As a result of the crisis of rationalism, what has appeared finally is nihilism . As a philosophy of nothingness, it has a certain attraction for people of our time… Nihilism is at the root of the widespread mentality which claims that a definitive commitment should no longer be made, because everything is fleeting and provisional.2

Though the encyclical deals primarily with the relationship between faith and reason – as its title suggests – the topic of nihilism crops up throughout the letter, both as the condition in which the modern mind attempts to make sense of the world around it, and as a result of the crisis in modern philosophy . Related to this concern of the saintly pope, and during his time at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, William Cardinal Levada delivered an address that took up one of the foundational aspects of the “New Evangelisation” called for by the pontiffs of recent memory, calling for a “new apologetics” that would be more suited to the current climate . Holding up Msgr Ronald Knox as a prime example, Cardinal Levada lays out the basic questions for classical apologetics to address, the first of which is the existence of God . As he goes on to say, “[i]t is not hard to see how these basic questions [i .e . those of apologetics] presuppose and rely upon the preambles of faith . ”3 Although Cardinal Levada goes on to develop new aspects of evangelisation that he believes will be necessary in the modern context (focusing on the beauty of creation, for instance), he nonetheless grounds his reflection on the need to recover a genuine presentation of what are known as the preambula fidei – certain truths known about the world by natural reason that help lead to faith – in a climate wholly saturated by postmodern doubt: “The spirit of contemporary society is sceptical of truth, of the claims to know truth, even – or especially –of truth revealed by God . ”4

It seems necessary, therefore, not only to call modern man to “repent and believe in the gospel” (see Mk 1:15), but to remind the men and women of today of their power to reason and to know the truth .

In the pages that follow I will argue the following:

(1) that modern philosophy has contracted reason, leading to radical scepticism of the human person’s ability to access reality as it is; (2) that this philosophic dead end has led to a climate of nihilism; (3) that a recovery of the true breadth of reason – and from there the preambles of faith – is needed to lead modern man out of the nihilistic dead end in which he finds himself; and

(4) that a recovery of the truth and usefulness of the preambula is necessary for the new evangelisation .

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI took up many of the major issues which Fides et Ratio attempted to address in its own time . Speaking on the topic, he states:

Fides et Ratio seeks to restore to humanity the courage to seek the truth, that is, to encourage reason once again in the adventure of searching for truth… Man is not trapped in a hall of mirrors of interpretations; one can and must seek a breakthrough to what is really true . Man must ask who he really is and what he is to do . He must ask whether there is a God, who God is, and what the world is . The one who no longer poses these questions is, by that very fact, bereft of any standard or path . 5

Men and women of today need to know that it is possible to access the reality of the world around them, and that it is possible to know objective truth, before they come to know that it is possible to gain access to the living God who has revealed Himself in Christ . This book’s objectives are modest in scope, its conclusions measured; it is my hope that it will prove useful as an introduction to the main issues discussed and act as an apologetic foundation for anyone attempting to evangelise a postmodern neighbour .