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THE THOMISTIC CONCEP'l' OF CULTURE By RoBERT E. BRENNAN, O.P. I. WORDS AND REALITIES A GREAT deal of contemporary literature, by writers outside the Catholic tradition, has been devoted to the problem of culture and its phenomena. When it is all sifted down, two things become quite obvious: first, that there is very little agreement among these writers about the nature and ideals of culture; second, that many errors, touching matters of both doctrine and history, have been spread abroad in the name of human progress and human enlightenment. Perhaps we can best describe the spirit of such literature by saying what it is not. Thus, it is not humanistic, in the sense of being faithful to the rational insights and rational desires of men. It is not intellectual, in the sense of correctly estimating the potentialities of the human mind. It is not ethical, in the sense of recognizing the value of the moral virtues for human living. Above all, it is not christian, in the sense of properly judging the goods of our present existence as merely a prelude to the enjoyment of the beatific vision. This last point is of special significance. For if there is a common agreement on which the anti-traditional philosophers of culture rest their cause, it is precisely this refusal to see any prize or hope or fulfillment of desire beyond the present existence. Being enemies of Christ and worshippers of the gods of materialism, they find a united front in their opposition to christianity and all its cultural claims and achievements. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote no special treatise on the subject of culture. As a matter of fact, he does·not use the word at all in its modern connotation. His cultural philosophy is simply part of a larger historical development which emerges out of the wide trend of his ideas, or of what the moderns call his world view. What we shall try to do here is to piece together, 111 112 ROBERT E. BRENNAN from works widely separated in time and subject matter, the system that integrates his views on the phenomena of culture and makes such views consistent. It will then be apparent, I think, that he knew all the principles that form the groundwork of a philosophy of culture; and, moreover, that the culture he envisioned was not a static thing, but full of dynamic forces.1 One of the charges made against the Angelic Doctor is that he regarded the intellectual achievements of Aristotle as the ne plus ultra of human learning, beyond whose heights any further development was simply inconceivable, " a perennial peak, a timeless expression of wisdom and knowledge," in the words of Rudolf Eucken.2 Before examining this charge against the Angelic Doctor (and I should like to say that it is a very common reproach of men outside the tradition) , let us dwell for a moment on the meaning of culture-as a word and as a reality. Among the ancients, the term culture referred to the tilling of the soil. In time, its use was broadened out to include other objects upon which much energy and care was expended. Ovid speaks of the culture of the body; Varro of the culture of the home. From material things the term gradually made its way into the realm of the spiritual; so that Cicero could discourse on the culture of mind and the culture of morals. Finally, the word was employed to signify all those human goods and human operations which are usually indicated in the modern richly-laden meaning of the term culture. With so many and such diverse elements entering into its 1 I cannot help referring at once to the scholar in whose honor this essay has been written. Jacques Maritain's fertile genius has given us a most profound and searching analysis of the problems of modem culture; and everywhere he has sought inspiration in the principles of Thomas Aquinas. Thus, in establishing the Angelic Doctor's essentially spiritual and dynamic attitude towards the movements of human history, Maritain points to the dual warfare which the Saint was constantly called upon to wage: first, against the excessive...

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