Man’s Transcendence and Thomistic Resources

MAN'S TRANSCENDENCE AND THOMISTIC RESOURCES CHRISTIANITY PRESUPPOSES that man is a reliously transcendent being, that is, that he is oriented by his knowledge and love, as these emerge from andreflect his being, toward a personal relation to God within the human community. On this view man's unawareness or rejection of this relation to God and his fellow men is an alienation from himself, a failure to know or appropriate himself on the deepest level of his being. It is not evidence that this orientation does not exist; rather it shows that the Christian revelation and gift are not only a fulfillment of man's orientation but a liberation from ignorance and inclinations that are destructive of himself and the human community. Without this orientation the Christian proclamation can have no meaning or relevance to him. There is, however, a very strong tradition in modern philosophy that questions and even denies such a transcendence. These denials or questions are normally based on interpretations of man's horizon as experienced in his scientific knowledge and his values in modern secular life. The importance of this question for a philosophy of religion and theology calls us to raise the question of the fact and character of man's transcendence from an examination of man's modern experience of knowledge and values.1 The present article addresses the question of how one who comes from the Thomistic tradition in philosophy should be related to his tradition when he faces a problem like this. Although many of us in the Thomistic tradition claim as our own 1 In "Religious Reflection and Man's Transcendence," The Tkomist 87 (1978), 1-68, I present evidence for this interpretation of the difficulties and suggest an approach to the question of transcendence. 4~6 MAN'S TRANSCENDENCE AND THOMISTIC RESOURCES 4Q7 the whole background of modern science, life, and philosophy, we were introduced to philosophy in a specific tradition, and so we face the question of our relationship to that tradition when we approach philosophical problems. We have seen radically differing attitudes toward this tradition by men so introduced to philosophy. At one period many Neo-Thomists when facing a modern problem would seek the full answer from St. Thomas in a way that indicates they did not recognize that modern experience and problems pose a question of the adequacy of this philosophy. More recently we have seen many reject or abandon this tradition almost totally when they face modern philosophical problems, out of their sense of an unbridgeable chasm between current problems and Thomas's philosophy. Most of us from this tradition are somewhat confused about the way we should relate the philosophy we initially accepted to the current problems we face. In this situation it seems worthwhile to reflect on the use we should make of the resources of Thomistic philosophy as we face a question like man's transcendence in our time. It may seem to some that there is opposition between facing a philosophical problem personally and creatively and doing so within a philosophical tradition. True, we must honestly acknowledge the full dimensions of a philosophical problem like that of man's transcendence and try to understand and be open to the difficulties against it as these are expressed in modern philosophies. And because of the nature of philosophy we must address ourselves to a problem of this sort largely on the basis of the experience we as modern men have and our reflection on this. This is not because modern experience is more valid in all instances than an earlier experience. In fact, there may well be much in the experience claimed and explained by earlier philosophers that we have valid bases to appropriate as our own, and much in more recent philosophies that we cannot validly appropriate as an adequate articulation of our experience . But the difficulties against man's transcendence in our time are said to derive from modern experience; we share many experiences with men of our time that seem to argue against 428 JOHN FARRELLY transcendence, and we must communicate with these men. While it is characteristic of creative philosophers generally to reflect on their own problems and...