James V. Schall is a treasure of the Catholic intellectual tradition. A prolific author and essayist, Schall readily connects with his readers on sundry topics from war to friendship, philosophy, politics, and to ordinary everyday living. In his newest work, The Mind That Is Catholic, he presents a retrospective collection of his academic and literary essays written in the past fifty years. In each essay, he exemplifies the Catholic mind at its best―seeing the whole, leaving nothing out.
The "Catholic mind" seeks to recognize a consistent and coherent relation between the solid things of reason and the definite facts of revelation. Its thought aims to understand how they belong together in a fruitful manner, each profiting from the other; each being what it is. The Catholic mind is not a confusion of disparate sources. It respects and makes distinctions. It sees where things separate. It is in fact delighted by what is.
This delightful book is not polemical, but contemplative in mood. Schall shares with readers a mind that is constantly struck by how things fit together when seen in full light. He brings to his work a lifetime of study in political philosophy, a wide-ranging discipline that, in many ways, is the most immediate context in which reason and revelation meet. The Mind That Is Catholic respects what can be known by faith alone. But it also considers what is known by faith to be itself intelligible to a mind actively thinking on political and philosophical things. The whole, at the risk of its own contradiction, does not exclude the intelligibility of what is revealed.
"Father James V. Schall is one of the few renaissance men still among us. His knowledge of various areas of reality and human endeavor is encyclopedic. Dealing with important abstract ideas, he is able to put flesh on them so that the ordinary reader can grasp easily what he is getting at. Schall is the apostle of truth and reality, since he is always reminding the reader to consult that which is."―Kenneth Baker, S.J., Editor, Homiletic & Pastoral Review
James V. Schall is professor of political philosophy at Georgetown University. He is the author of hundreds of essays on political, theological, literary, and philosophical issues and numerous books including Schall on Chesterton: Timely Essays on Timeless Paradoxes, At the Limits of Political Philosophy: From "Brilliant Errors" to Things of Uncommon Importance, On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs, and Another Sort of Learning.
James V. Schall is professor of political philosophy at Georgetown University.
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这本书的结构安排堪称是一次大胆的实验。它不是线性的,更像是同心圆式的螺旋上升,每一次循环都比前一次更深入地探讨了同一个核心母题,但视角总是在不断地变化。我感觉作者在不停地试图找到一个“不动点”,一个能够解释所有现象的终极公理,但又似乎始终心存疑虑,不愿轻易下结论。书中对于“时间感”在信仰体验中的作用有着一段惊人的论述,它探讨了如何通过对循环时间(如礼仪年)的强调,来有效抵消线性时间带来的焦虑感和虚无感。这段描述极其富有画面感,仿佛能让人真切感受到那种时间被凝固的宗教体验。但遗憾的是,这种高光的时刻往往被大量的、冗长的数据比对和概念辨析所淹没。这种对“深度”的执着,使得本书的整体阅读体验显得忽高忽低,如同坐在一辆时而疾驰于开阔地带,时而陷入泥泞小巷的车辆上,节奏感极不稳定。
评分如果要对这本书的智力贡献下一个断语,我会说它是一次对“认知谦逊”的深刻呼唤。作者的视角极为宏大,他似乎试图将人类历史上所有关于精神世界的尝试,都置于一个巨大的、非评判性的观察框架之下进行分析。他展现出一种令人敬佩的平衡感,即能够同时理解信仰的社会功能与形而上学的诉求,而不偏废任何一方。我特别欣赏其对“意义建构”与“生存压力”之间相互作用的剖析。他清晰地展示了,许多看似纯粹的属灵追求,其实深深根植于人类对抗死亡和无序的原始需求之中。但或许正因为这种全景式的、去中心化的分析方法,使得这本书在具体的问题上缺乏“落地”的感觉。它更像是一篇关于“如何思考信仰”的元论文,而不是一本直接讨论具体信仰实践的指南。阅读完毕,我感到脑海中充满了各种新的连接点,但缺少的是那种能够立即指导我日常行为的清晰方向。这是一本需要多次回顾、并配合其他辅助材料才能真正消化吸收的鸿篇巨制。
评分这部作品,暂且称之为“那本关于信仰与心智的探讨之作”,着实让人深思。我花了整整一周的时间,试图在其中捕捉到一种清晰的、一以贯之的论述主线,但每一次深入,都像是走入了一个由无数复杂视角交织而成的迷宫。作者似乎对人类认知过程的细微之处有着近乎偏执的关注,尤其是在处理那些超越纯粹逻辑的信念系统时。他没有采取那种居高临下的教化姿态,反而更像是一位细致入微的考古学家,试图挖掘出信仰深处的结构性组件。比如,书中对“确定性需求”如何塑造了早期教义形成过程的分析,就极其精妙。他巧妙地援引了认知心理学的若干前沿理论,来解释为什么某些看似不合时宜的传统观念,却能在大脑的特定区域产生强大的情感共振,从而维持其长久的生命力。然而,这种跨学科的穿插有时也显得略微凌乱,感觉信息密度过高,对于只想寻求一份宁静阅读体验的普通读者来说,可能会感到有些吃力。它要求读者必须时刻保持警惕,不断地在哲学思辨与神经科学的术语之间切换频道。总而言之,这是一本挑战思维习惯的书,它不会给你现成的答案,只会提供更为精密的提问工具。
评分读完此书,我的感受就像是参加了一场漫长而高深的学术研讨会,与会者都是思想深邃但又各持己见的专家。这本书的叙事节奏极其缓慢,它似乎刻意避开了任何引人入胜的戏剧性冲突或个人轶事,转而专注于对概念进行无休止的解构与重构。我尤其欣赏其中关于“集体记忆的脆弱性”那一章节的论述,作者以极其严谨的语言描述了宗教叙事如何在历史的洪流中,通过一代代口耳相传的“过滤机制”被不断地优化和简化,以适应当时的社会心理解压需求。那种对历史文本进行“功能性还原”的手法,令人耳目一新。但与此同时,作者对情感层面的处理却显得有些过于疏离和抽离。仿佛作者害怕一旦触及过于炽热的情感,就会破坏其建立起来的纯粹的智力模型。这使得某些探讨“敬畏”或“救赎”的段落,读起来像是冰冷的实验室报告,尽管其逻辑无懈可击,却缺乏能够真正触动灵魂的力量。这本书更像是一份为思想家准备的蓝图,而非慰藉疲惫心灵的良药。
评分这部作品的语言风格,用一个词来形容,便是“晦涩的精确”。它无疑是为那些已经浸淫在高等人文科学领域多年的读者量身定做的。书中大量使用了定制化的术语和复杂的句式结构,很多时候,我需要反复阅读同一个段落三次以上,才能确保我理解了作者试图表达的那个微妙的、介于A与非A之间的灰色地带。我特别注意到作者在处理“异端思想的内在逻辑性”时所展现出的非凡洞察力。他没有简单地将“异端”斥为谬误,而是深入探究了这些偏离主流的路径是如何从主流思想的根基中自然生长出来的,揭示了其内部逻辑上的自洽性。这无疑拓宽了我们审视信仰光谱的维度。然而,这种过度追求精确性的代价是巨大的——它几乎完全牺牲了可读性。对于习惯了清晰、直接交流的现代读者而言,阅读这本书更像是在进行一项耗费心力的语言破译工程。它更像是一份深藏于图书馆密室中的手稿,而不是一本面向大众的畅销书。
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