Theologians From Italy

"The substance of Nicholas of Cusa“s thought is above all Christian and Platonic. And the term 'substance” is used here in its proper and rigorous sense. In fact, in Cusano's system, Platonism constitutes a substantial element and not simply a formal and expressive one. (p. 18)"

"It is from the new truths contained in the great philosophical potential of Christianity that Christian metaphysics derives its main characteristics. It will always be a “'creationist”', “'personalistic”', “'spiritualistic”' and “'agapic”' metaphysics. (introduction, p. 15)"

"The “”vanity“” of life and pleasure can be clearly seen when we consider that pleasure is everything in the perspective of pleasure and never in the perception of it."

"Only thanks to the concept of persona – a being endowed with dignity and absolute value – brought by Christianity, which makes all men images of God created directly by Him, do all forms of discrimination based on sex, age, race, language, power, wealth, religion, etc. All men are equally worthy of esteem, respect and love, even their enemies, especially the weakest, the poorest, the most humble and defenceless. (introduction, p. 10)"

"Wisdom is not absolute autocracy and independence of the soul, but obedience and subordination of the soul to higher things, through which it acquires the ability to dominate and subordinate lower things. Only in this way does it become subordinate and mistress. “'Servire Deo libertas est”'. Humility and freedom are equally necessary."

"Though he was a good philosopher and theologian, he was a better religious. Those well acquainted with him are convinced that he never lost his baptismal innocence. Neither his holiness nor his learning made him a disagreeable companion or an undesirable friend. It would be hard to say whether he was more admired or loved by those who came into contact with him."

"Spedalieri was wrongly claimed by the Liberals as one of theirs, and if some of them accuse him of a want of loyalty when he wishes to conciliate democracy and a Divine sanction of the social order, it is because they do not understand the true nature of democracy or of the saying that all authority comes from God."

"His comparative study of the various systems supplied him with a deeper knowledge of the Scholastics, particularly St. Thomas, and of the intimate connection between their doctrine and that of the Fathers. From that time until the end of his life, his only concern was the restoration of Christian philosophy, in which, not only by his writings, but by his lectures and conversation, he was of supreme assistance to Leo XIII."

"There has been no shortage of great Italian thinkers. We remember above all Vico and, in his field, Galilei. But when we consider that, even more than these, Giordano Bruno, Nicolò Machiavelli, Ardigò and many others, even recent and living ones, whose most valid claim to fame is that they made history in the era of intellectual confusion, one wonders what we Italians have gained we Italians, in thought and in life, by stubbornly abandoning and banishing a thinker [Thomas Aquinas] who was authentically ours [...]; and what ignorance led us to deny a sublime genius who, together with Dante (who drew inspiration from him), gave us an unsurpassed primacy and an irrepressible influence in the world of thought. (p. 579)"

"[...] if healthy realism, spiritual harmony, and Thomist balance—which became a spiritual attitude and lifestyle through the deepening of thought—flourishing among Italians, had been the backbone of social and political life, perhaps we would have acted more wisely and experienced fewer disasters. (p. 579)"

"Against the current eclipse of moral values and the resulting oppression of the human person in a world dominated by moral relativism, St. Thomas points to conscience as the norm of action, the path to man's redemption from the powers of the age and victory over technocracy, materialism, and idolatry of the State, which, by denying conscience, have suffocated or enslaved the human person. (p. 572)"

"[...] he [Thomas Aquinas] was neither traditionalist nor rationalist; he did not allow himself to be fascinated by intuitionist subjectivism, nor did he reduce intellectual life to cerebralism; he defended reason against those who, emphasizing its weakness, wanted to deduce the impossibility or danger of a relatively autonomous philosophy, but he was equally decisive and strong in affirming the transcendence of faith and the infinite height of revealed mysteries; he had a marked preference for Aristotle, precisely because of his fidelity to the most obvious data of reason and common sense, but he did not become an idolater to the point of confusing a divine religion with a philosophical system. (p. 575)"

"Those who know St. Thomas and are accustomed to savoring the substance of his truth, the clarity of his reasoning, the precision of his method, and even his “discreet Latin” (as Dante said), who are familiar with the magnificent intellectual architecture represented above all by the Summa [...], cannot help but consider with melancholy the fact that St. Thomas has been rejected by Italian thinkers and their consequent aberrations from the golden thread of the Hellenic-Latin philosophical tradition [...]. (p. 577)"

"I say that, as you know, the Council forbids exposing the Scriptures contrary to the common consent of the Holy Fathers; and if Your Excellency wishes to read not only the Holy Fathers, but also the modern commentaries on Genesis, on the Psalms, on Ecclesiastes, on Joshua, you will find that they all agree in expounding ad literam that the sun is in the sky and revolves around the earth with great speed, and that the earth is very far from the sky and stands in the centre of the world, immobile. Consider now, with your prudence, whether the Church can tolerate that the Scriptures be given a meaning contrary to the Holy Fathers and to all Greek and Latin exegetes. Nor can it be answered that this is not a matter of faith, because if it is not a matter of faith ex parte obiecti, it is a matter of faith ex parte dicentis; and thus it would be heretical to say that Abraham did not have two sons and Jacob twelve, just as it would be heretical to say that Christ was not born of a virgin, because both are said by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of the prophets and apostles."

"On the sixth day, God, with a single command, produced all the species of land animals, wild and domestic, and commanded them to multiply; and so they have done, do, and will do until the end of the world. And although no one cares to preserve certain kinds of animals, such as wolves, snakes, foxes, and the like, and everyone strives to kill them and banish them from the earth, nevertheless they are always found in great abundance, and will always be found, because it is necessary that they obey the command of the almighty Creator. Finally, on the sixth day, God, wishing to summarise all his works, made man, in whom he placed the qualities of all the elements: the life of plants, the feelings of animals, and the intellect and free will of the angels."

"In the second conclave [8-16 May 1605. See Autobiography, note p. 72], he was very close to being elected Pope. And when a cardinal of great authority and seriousness promised him his influence [to get him elected], he urged him to desist without thanking him. He declared that, for his part, he would not pick up even a straw from the ground to be elected Pope. He bore no ill will towards those who opposed his election; indeed, he was not at all troubled by it. He said, in fact, that the papacy could be described as a ‘most dangerous job’ or a ‘most exhausting danger’. (p. 72)"

"(While he was Archbishop of Capua) Since it was customary for canons and parish priests to send the Archbishop rather ostentatious gifts during the Christmas season, he eradicated this custom, prohibiting it both because it was a burden on the canons and parish priests and because the rich could give, with greater merit, to the poor the gifts they would have offered to the Archbishop, who had no need of them. He often meditated on and inculcated in others the saying of Isaiah: ‘Blessed is he who has fulfilled his duty.’ (p. 69)"

"N. was born in the year of our Lord 1542, on 4 October. He had pious parents, especially his mother, whose name was Cinzia, sister of Pope Marcellus II."

"The Internet is no longer an agglomeration of isolated and independent websites, albeit connected and networked, but is to be considered as the whole of the technological capabilities achieved by mankind in the field of disseminating and sharing information and knowledge."

"There is always a vulnerable point in Pavese's life, a point that exposes him to the beauty and intuition of the taste for life, but this seems to find no possibility of development."

"Interviewer: Well Salvini out of government? Antonio Spadaro: It is not clear how this will end. In any case, Salvini's role in the League's sovereignist mutation, after twenty years in which the party has expressed real capacity for government rooted in the territory will have to be investigated. From green it has turned black. For me the question, after the bathing coup, is the relationship between Salvini, a charismatic personality who has absorbed the party into himself, and the League itself. The question is what the right in Italy can be. A question that has never been resolved."

"Digital technologies allow people, today more than ever, to stay connected and communicate, overcoming many distances. And with a technological system for communicating and thinking, a kind of intelligence distributed everywhere and growing all the time is being formed at the same time. The Internet, in fact, involves the sharing of resources, time, content, ideas. The now classic example is Wikipedia, which beyond any evaluation is the fruit of the convergence of many people, connected together across the planet, who think and write. Intelligence is distributed wherever there is humanity, and today it can be easily interconnected. The network of this knowledge gives rise to a form of 'collective intelligence' or common consciousness. [...] The Net is called from being a place of 'connection' to becoming a place of 'communion'. The risk these days is to confuse the two terms. Connection in itself is not enough to make the Net a place of fully human sharing. Working towards this goal is the specific task of the Christian."

"[...] we live in times in which we run the risk of losing the meaning of study and seeing it only as functional to a job. Certainly study 'serves' man and also helps him to find his place in the world as a worker. The risk, however, is that of living study in an occasional and functional manner, and no longer as a strong and valuable life experience. The Christian presence in a study environment such as the university must therefore first and foremost aim not to add activity to other activities, but to help the young student live his main activity: study, in a Christian manner. Much less can Christian formation and academic study be considered in competition with each other."

"Christianity is not an encyclopaedia of contents and values, nor a list of battles to be fought, but an openness to the surprise of God. Without the experience of his Real Presence, without the encounter with the person of Christ, Christianity becomes a rigid ideology. But beware! God is to be sought and found everywhere in the world. He is present and active in the world and in history. He is not necessarily where we think He is."

"It is a common experience to have frequented a library. Entering the reference room is like crossing a threshold between the world of noise and the world of silence. The people one meets appear, in general, concentrated on what they are reading with an attitude of body that seems to express deep attention. The surroundings, the silence, the concentration that one 'breathes' in the air seem to recall, in some respects, entering a church and praying. The man who studies and the man who prays seem to assume similar attitudes. This analogy is very fruitful for reflection and leads one to naturally think of a spirituality of study. The Christian scholar is strongly urged to ask himself how his activity and prayer can coexist in his inner life."

"The model we have before our eyes, that of Francis de Sales, is therefore that of a journalism that communicates passion and has an intent of involvement, participation, education. The same attention to 'truth' is not a simple and cold focus on 'objectivity' or 'neutrality', but on understanding the value of things."

"I believe that in Internet there is a highly spiritual dimension. I would like to mention at least one person, a great Jesuit, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who with his books, with his insights, his idea of the noosphere anticipated the idea of the Internet... We are talking about a Jesuit who lived in times when the Internet was not even conceivable, but he largely anticipated this phenomenon. I would also say that, in my opinion, the Internet is a reality that has strong spiritual potential."

"I well understand how Wikipedia represents an Enlightenment dream of describing the world, which, however, clashes with the difficulties of accrediting itself as a credible compendium of knowledge, while maintaining anonymity, flexibility and continuous openness to new contributors. At the same time, this 'utopia' overturns the dream of the traditional encyclopaedia, understood as an authoritative, organic and integrated construction of knowledge. In fact, Wikipedia is like a living organism: it grows (at the rate of 7 per cent every month), it 'falls ill', it is subject to internal compositions and decompositions, to continuous growth and reduction. But above all, Wikipedia conceals another, in its own way, ambiguous utopia: the absolute democracy of knowledge and the collaboration of multiple intelligences that gives rise to a kind of collective intelligence. This utopia could hide a new form of 'tower of Babel', which has its Achilles' heel not only in unreliability, but also in relativism. [...] His 'utopias' arise, radicalising them, from the profound needs of human knowledge, which the wíki, in general, help transform into concrete projects: knowledge understood as a dynamic process, open to all, and the fruit not only of individual commitment, but also of profound collaboration and intense confrontation between minds willing to share skills and intelligence."

"The Lord sent his apostles to proclaim and bear witness to his Gospel throughout the whole world, so that all men – absolutely all men – might become believers in Him. It follows that his disciple will not blush to proclaim that the only "true religion" – to use Augustine's words – is that announced by Christ and in actuality in Him; that there is no Christian God and, equivalent or almost equivalent to him, the God of other religions, even if monotheistic, but that the only true God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, or the Trinity."

"The Middle Ages as a whole and throughout their duration – with all the ambiguity of their chronological boundaries and of the very expression "Middle Ages" – prove to be an incomparable season of the culture of reason."

"And because she is not given as slave-girl or as one to lord it over him, in the beginning she was not formed either from the highest part, nor from the lowest, but from the side of man, for the sake of conjugal partnership. If she had been made from the highest, as from the head, she might seem created for domination; but if from the lowest, as from the feet, she might seem to be created for subjection to slavery. But because she is taken neither as mistress, nor as slave-girl, she is made from the middle, that is, from the side, because she is taken for conjugal partnership."

"If a believer is absolutely sure that his or her own is the only way to salvation, then any other sacred book will be seen as a threat. If, on the other hand, we start from the idea that God is not the property of any one person and that everyone is searching for him, then we can understand that all religions have something to learn from each other. This is the wisest and most ancient point of view, because it unites us in the humble awareness of having to deal with mysteries that are too great, such as death, suffering or the soul. Those who assume this posture are happy with pluralism."

"In every human being there is a divine dimension. There is a heart within a heart, [which is] the thought that precedes the words."

"The term theology is ill-suited to the thought and, I would even say, the life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Rather, another term needs to be coined to adequately illustrate his having spoken of God, his having represented him, his having been (to quote the famous definition of the Pope given by St Catherine of Siena) 'the sweet Christ on earth'. This neologism, not beautiful but in my opinion effective, is the following: theopathy. Not theo-logy, but theo-pathy. Just as one speaks of sympathy and empathy to mark the resonance of emotion when faced with another human being or a life situation, so, for the thought of God expressed by Pope Francis his writings and especially in his life, one must speak of theo-pathy. He did not think God, he suffered him. It was not logic, it was rather passion that constituted the seal of his encounter with the Mystery of the world capable of producing Love to which we traditionally refer by saying God."

"A voice like Pope Francis's, and before that the voice that was Cardinal Martini's in Milan, manages to touch chords that exist but that the everyday fails to prompt. Bergoglio's attention to the world of non-believers, for example, was the global dimension of something we had already seen with Martini and his chair of non-believers, that experiment in the Church that aroused much controversy from a part of the clergy and the faithful. It was an occasion, the one proposed by the cardinal of Milan, that was received with more attention precisely by the secular world than by the Church. With Pope Francis the same thing happened."

"Always let you work on your inner temple, therein lies great beauty."

"When he (Thomas Aquinas) wants to represent the activity of our reason in knowledge, he takes the image of the flight of birds and says: there is the bird that flies in a rotating, circular way, or the flight that goes forward and backward or the flight that goes from top to bottom, from bottom to top. Circular motion is contemplative motion, motion that goes forward is from cause to effect, backward is from effect to cause, from top to bottom is deduction, from bottom to top is induction. Remembering the flight of birds recalls all the formalities of cognitive activity."

"It is true that to admit the eternity of the whole would be to deny creation, to deny historicity, but the very essence of Christianity presents itself in some revealed elements as that which demands the transcending of history."

"Christmas is not only the telling of what has been; it is perception of what is. It is not only perception of a circumscribed and datable episode; it is savoring of a perennial and universally effective actuality; it is exultation over a richness that is given to us. The annotation that Christmas is after all a birthday would be enough to convince us of this. Now birthdays are for living men. For the dead-even if they are great and very famous-at most, centenarians are remembered. So to celebrate Christmas every year is to express the certainty that Jesus of Nazareth-that child born two thousand years ago in a stable-is a living person: he is really, truly, physically alive; he is still the principle of salvation for us; he is still the center of our every existence and of the whole of history."

"The believer knows that chastity is not the ridiculous mania of complex people, but it is the ability to lord it over our bodies with the help of grace so that we can meekly enter, each according to his or her condition, into God's loving plan."

"Christianity has an admirable example of the natural union between faith and freedom in Dante Alighieri. Precisely his undoubted adherence to Catholic truth allows and illuminates his perfect autonomy of judgement, free from any fear or human conditioning. Dante is not afraid to criticize the work of the popes and their operational choices, to the point of placing several of them in the depths of hell. But in him "the reverence of the supreme keys" never diminishes and never diminishes in the slightest (Inf. XIX, 101). When it comes to expressing reservations or criticisms that he considers due, there are no discounts neither for lay people, nor for ecclesiastics, nor for monarchs, nor for ordinary citizens... all of whom are required, without exception, to abide by the law evangelical."

"It is prophesied that the Antichrist will present himself to the whole of humanity like a pacifist, animalist, ecologist, vegetarian, ecumenist, biblical exegete, philanthropist, as a person who has faith in the progress of science and in universal forgiveness."

"[Solov'ëv was] Passionate defender of man and allergic to all philanthropy; tireless apostle of peace and opponent of pacifism; proponent of unity among Christians and critic of all irenicism; in love with nature and far removed from today's ecological infatuations: in a word, friend of truth and enemy of ideology. It is precisely guides like him that we sorely need today."

"Every Christian community is legitimated the moment it feels the weight, responsibility and apostolic impulse which throb and pulse in the heart of the one Bride of the Lord; every Christian community - within its possibilities - must strive to respond to this ineluctable prompting. This is particularly true with regard to the command to evangelise, in the most intense acceptation of the term."

"The concept seemed ambiguous to me, and the emphasis with which "pastorality" was attributed to the current Council was somewhat suspect: was it not meant to implicitly say that the previous Councils did not intend to be "pastoral" or had not been pastoral enough? Had it not had pastoral relevance to make it clear that Jesus of Nazareth was God and consubstantial with the Father, as defined at Nicaea? Had it not had pastoral relevance to clarify the realism of the Eucharistic presence and the sacrificial nature of the Mass, as had been done at Trent?. There was a danger of no longer remembering that the first and irreplaceable mercy for lost humanity is, according to the clear teaching of Revelation, the mercy of truth, a mercy that cannot be exercised without the explicit, firm, constant condemnation of every misrepresentation and every alteration of the deposit of faith, which must be preserved. St Thomas Aquinas noted this in the 'Summa contra Gentiles' (I, 2): the task of theology is to "manifest the truth professed by the Catholic faith, eliminating errors contrary to it"."

"The hope of those who commit sin because God is forgiving, is an abomination in his sight: their hope, says holy Job, is an abomination. Hence the sinner, by such hope, provokes God to chastise him the sooner, as that servant would provoke his master, who, because his master was good, took advantage of his goodness to behave ill."

"“Cogitanti omnia vilescunt” He who thinks, undervalues all things."

"He who builds a house for himself takes great pains to make it commodious, airy, and handsome, and says: “I labour and give myself a great deal of trouble about this house, because I shall have to live in it all my life.” And yet how little is the house of eternity thought of!"

"The soul enters eternity alone and unattended, except by its works. Woe to me! where are my works to accompany me to a blessed eternity? I can discover none but such as render me deserving of eternal torments."

"While others amass the fortunes of this world, may my only fortune be Thy holy grace."