Schall at Ninety.

My former teacher Father James V. Schall, S.J. celebrates his ninetieth birthday today, an occasion that has led a group of his friends, fans, and former students to offer birthday tributes on The Catholic Thing, published together with a new essay by Father Schall written to mark the start of his tenth decade. Looking back on his many years of teaching and writing, Schall has this to say:

In retrospect, much of my life consisted in recommending things to read. I discovered Plato at a relatively advanced age. At Georgetown, every so often, I would spend a semester with a class in which we would read as much of Plato as we could.

To read Plato, however, it helps to be well-grounded in Aristotle and Aquinas. Few are more helpful in putting all these together than Charles N. R. McCoy, Josef Pieper, Joseph Ratzinger, and Robert Sokolowski. I had been fortunate in my early studies to have had as teachers Clifford Kossel, S. J. and Heinrich Rommen.

When asked what "field" I was in, I usually said "political philosophy." But lest that sound hopelessly narrow, I argued that from this beginning one could and should go in many directions. If there is any "distinct" Schall contribution to political philosophy, it is basically distilled in my Political Philosophy & Revelation: A Catholic View.

The essential point is that reason and revelation belong together in a non-contradictory way. But we see this only after acknowledging what questions that philosophy can ask but not answer by itself. At this point, we become aware that an intelligence is found in revelation. The mind of revelation and the mind of reason have the same origin.

...

Ultimately, "teaching" consists in two things: 1) the teacher and the student together read the same books that bring both to the truth, to the heart of things (Plato is the quickest way); 2) A professor, to recall Frederick Wilhelmsen, must state, over the years, what he has learned in his teaching.

To read the rest, click here. To Jim Schall, ad multos annos! AMDG.