Catholic Church and deism
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Relations between the Catholic Church and Deism have historically largely been critical, with the Church having an openly hostile view on Deism.
The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) recounts Catholic opposition in this period to Deism:
The deistical tendency passed through several more or less clearly defined phases. All the forces possible were mustered against its advance. Parliaments took cognizance of it. Some of the productions of the deists were publicly burnt. The bishops and clergy of the Establishment were strenuous in resisting it. For every pamphlet or book that a deist wrote, several "answers" were at once put before the public as antidotes. Bishops addressed pastoral letters to their dioceses warning the faithful of the danger. Woolston's "Moderator" provoked no less than five such pastorals from the Bishop of London. All that was ecclesiastically official and respectable was ranged in opposition to the movement, and the deists were held up to general detestation in the strongest terms.[1]
The 1992-published Catechism of the Catholic Church, like the Catholic Encyclopedia written nearly a century before it, similarly addresses Deism, in Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 1, Article I, Paragraph 285:
285 Since the beginning the Christian faith has been challenged by responses to the question of origins that differ from its own. Ancient religions and cultures produced many myths concerning origins. Some philosophers have said that everything is God, that the world is God, or that the development of the world is the development of God (Pantheism). Others have said that the world is a necessary emanation arising from God and returning to him. Still others have affirmed the existence of two eternal principles, Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, locked, in permanent conflict (Dualism, Manichaeism). According to some of these conceptions, the world (at least the physical world) is evil, the product of a fall, and is thus to be rejected or left behind (Gnosticism). Some admit that the world was made by God, but as by a watch-maker who, once he has made a watch, abandons it to itself (Deism). Finally, others reject any transcendent origin for the world, but see it as merely the interplay of matter that has always existed (Materialism). All these attempts bear witness to the permanence and universality of the question of origins. This inquiry is distinctively human.[2]
In 2013, Catholic author Al Kresta wrote that Scientism was opposed to the Church, and specified that under Scientism, "Newton's mechanics turn into the clockwork universe of deism."[3]
Catholic philosophers foreshadowing deism
In addition to the 13th century Averroist movement, the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica identified the following philosophers as men whose writings foreshadowed deism:
- Giovanni Boccaccio
- Petrarch
- Thomas Moore, in his Utopia
- Michel de Montaigne
- Pierre Charron
- Jean Bodin (nominal Catholic)
Catholic influence on deism
The Catholic philosopher René Descartes is credited with developing Cartesian dualism. Cartesian dualism reinforced natural theology in 18th century French deism, especially in the writings of Claude Gilbert and in the anonymous Militaire philosophe.[4]
Deism relies on the teleological argument for the existence of God on the basis of his orderly design.[5] This concept, although present in both Classical philosophy and the Bible, was also taught within Catholicism in the writings of Thomas Aquinas.
18th century Irish Protestant clergyman Philip Skelton argued that Deists and Catholics were allied in certain matters. In particular, they both attacked certain arrangements involving the government and the Church of England. Skelton noted that although deists sometimes railed against Protestant writers, they never argued against them; deist writers argued against Protestant rather than Catholic writers. Skelton was of the opinion that some deists would actually convert to Catholicism prior to death. Skelton felt that Catholics and deists had similar positions on the authority of Scripture, the indulgence of vice, and even purgatory. Skelton also thought that since Protestants and deists were equally heretics in the eyes of the Catholics anyway, they had no real reason to favor Protestants against the deists. Rather, Skelton thought Catholic apologists would prefer to work with a Deist than a Protestant, as it is easier to convert someone who is an unbeliever already. As part of his argument, Skelton cited the Jesuit educations of the prominent deists Matthew Tindal and John Toland and also noted that Pilloniere was once a member of the Jesuit order himself.[6]
See also
References
- ^ "Deism", The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913).
- ^ "Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 1, Article I". The Holy See. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
- ^ Al Kresta, Dangers to the Faith: Recognizing Catholicism's 21st-Century Opponents, "Science and Warfare With Religion" (2013), p. 95, ISBN 1592767257.
- ^ Betts, C. J. (1984). Early Deism in France: from the so-called "déístes" of Lyon (1564) to Voltaire's "Lettres philosophiques" (1734). The Hague; Boston: M. Nijhoff Publishers. p. 3.
- ^ The doctrine of the knowledge in English tradition, Context and Reflection: Philosophy of the World and Human Being. 3-4 2013 by Serdechnaya Vera Vladimirovna
- ^ Deism revealed. Or, the attack on Christianity candidly reviewed in its real merits by Philip Skelton, Volume II (table of contents is found in Vol. I, 1751)
Attribution: contains material from the articles Pandeism.