Becoming Fully Human by Joseph Pearce
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any years ago the English w riter G. K. Chesterton claimed that the " coming peril" f acing civilization w as " standardization b y a low standard." Today, almost a century later, Chesterton's w ords have something of the mark of prophecy ab out them. s du n do n s e e p ed n er ca s w oef ully b eleaguered education system. Standards of literacy and numeracy, to say nothing of standards of morality, are not so much declining as plummeting. The prob lem is that the architects of our education system consider Pontius Pilate's f amous q uestion, "Quid est veritas? " to b e intrinsically unansw erab le. In contradistinction, the mark of an authentic education is the asking of Pilate's ax iomatic q uestion w ith the aim of seeking an answ er to it. The f irst step in answ ering the q uestion, " What is truth? " is to ask the preparatory q uestions: H ow do w e know w hat is truth? What are the means necessary to achieve the end? We discover truth through the use of reason and only through the use of reason. There is no irrational path to truth. The so- called mystical paths to truth, such as the ex perience of the kiss of b eauty or the goodness of love, are merely rational paths b y another name, and b y any other name reason smells as sw eet. The good, the true, and the b eautif ul are nothing b ut the triune splendour of truth itself , each of w hich conf orms to, and is an ex pression of , the rational f oundations of reality. The great pagan philosophers, Socrates, Plato, and r s o e arr ed a e con c on o e e s ence o the Divine through the use of reason. The great pagan r ers o er esc y us op oc es and r
Joseph Pearce is the series editor of the Ignatius Critical E ditions, the Tolkien and Lewis Chair in Literary Studies at Holy A postles College and Seminary, and the author of several biographies of Christian literary figures.
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