Thomas A.: what mean by straw?

• great synthesis – lasting to the present
• immediately modified, systematized, rigidified
• analogical
• Thomas' synthesis drew on the newest scientific/philosophical discoveries, made possible by the power of the Islamic scholars
• analogical speach: http://www.humanismandculture.com/thomas-aquinas-and-the-language-of-analogy/

Humanists

Thomas More:

• Utopia from Grk ou + topos (no place)
• Martyred by Henry VIII

Erasmus

Several quotes to illustrate "Humanism"

• cf. http://oll.libertyfund.org/people/desiderius-erasmus
• need for a philosopher of the kitchen
• for peace and against war

Erasmus quotes

• There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.

• By a Carpenter mankind was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade.

quotes cont..

• Now I believe I can hear the philosophers protesting that it can only be misery to live in folly, illusion, deception and ignorance, but it isn't -it's human.

• He who allows oppression shares the crime.
• In praise of folly (in Latin a play on words dedicated to his friend Thomas More) Could be In praise of More
• Opening lines, spoken with dripping irony: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30201/30201-h/30201-h.htm

Counter-reformation:

as misnomer (cf. Placher 171)

One can see the Church has constantly reforming.

• Paul as a reformer
• Anthony in the desert – Benedict's Rule
• Establishing rule of law
• Councils seen as reforming (cf. canons of Nicea)
• Debates about the nature of the Eucharist flourished through the centuries
• Vatican 2 in our own day

Overview

Council of Trent

• p. 173 notion of "justification" which many thought as a kind of property people have or don't,
• L. "no righteousness of our own but only share in Christ's righteousness"
• Trent set forth doctrinal statements on
  • Scripture and tradition,
  • original sin,
  • justification, and the
  • sacraments that have provided the basis of Catholic theology ever since,"

Jesuits and mystics

• Don Quixote and Loyola (Knight for Christ)
• S.J. sending missionaries world wide, adapting to customs of people they met
• Carmelites (John and Teresa)

Continuing debates

• Jesuits at center of response to Protestantism
• "Aquinas had taught that we talk about God "analogically"
• Port Royal Jansenists – rigorous piety and trust in grace as opposed to Jesuits whom they saw as "Pelagian"
• Pascal: genius of age … conversion "Fire, God of Abraham …" trust in grace while being well trained in reason as mathematician
• Pascal defense of Christianity, but ultimately Pope ruled against Jansenist radical trust in grace (not own will)
• Fenelon, "Quietism", Mme. Guyon = claiming that usual rules don't apply because of special relationship with God

Going forward from the 16th c.

Mysticism:

Teresa

• cf. from Readings p. 38 a road to training and forming oneself in the path of prayer at the deepest level

Pascal:

• Blaise Pascal was one of the most important scholars of the 17th century. He was a great scientist, mathematician, and inventor, famous for many key breakthroughs. He was also a devoted Catholic and wrote what is considered to be one of the best apologetic works of his time.

Closing

When we read the Reformers from the perspective Protestantism it seems relatively straightforward. In the context of all that was going on including the Catholic perspective it is a lot less clear.

Keep in mind that we don't even consider here the Orthodox view. which is older than Catholicism.