CATECHISM ON MODERNISM – PART I – THE MODERNIST AS HISTORIAN AND AS CRITIC – II. APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF VITAL IMMANENCE

PART I
THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS

CHAPTER V

THE MODERNIST AS HISTORIAN AND AS CRITIC
I. APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF AGNOSTICISM
II. APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF VITAL IMMANENCE

Q. Is the dominion of philosophy over history confined to prescribing to the critic the division of documents into two parts-documents serving for the history of Faith and documents serving for real history ?

A. The dominion of philosophy over history does not end here.

Q. After this division of documents into two lots, in the name of agnosticism, what other principle of Modernist philosophy makes a fresh appearance, to rule the critic ?

A. Given that division, of which We have spoken, of the documents into two parts, the philosopher steps in again with his dogma of vital immanence.

Q. What importance, for the Modernist critic, has this principle of vital immanence ?

A. It shows how everything in the history of the Church is to be explained by vital emanation?

Q. How, according to this principle, are facts which are but an emanation of life subordinated to the immanent need from which they emanate ?

A. Since the cause or condition of every vital emanation whatsoever is to be found in some need or want, it follows that no fact can be regarded as antecedent to the need which produced it historically the fact must be posterior to the need.

Q. What, then, does the historian in view of this principle ? How does the Modernist historian proceed in the history of the Church ?

A. He goes over his documents again, whether they be contained in the Sacred Books or elsewhere, draws up from them his list of the particular needs of the Church, whether relating to dogma, or liturgy, or other matters which are found in the Church thus related.

Q. Once this list has been drawn up, what does he do with it ?

A. Then he hands his list over to the critic.

Q. Aided by this list of the successive needs of the Church, what operation does the critic make the documents of the history of Faith undergo ?

A. The critic takes in hand the documents dealing with the history of Faith, and distributes them, period by period, so that they correspond exactly with the list of needs, always guided by the principle that the narration must follow the facts, as the facts follow the needs.

Q. Does it not happen at times that certain parts of the Sacred Scriptures, instead of simply revealing a need, are themselves the fact created by the need ?

A. It may at times happen that some parts of the Sacred Scriptures, such as the Epistles, themselves constitute the fact created by the need.

Q. But, whatever may be the case with regard to these exceptions, what, in a general way, is the rule which serves to determine the date of origin of the documents of ecclesiastical history ?

A. The rule holds that the age of any document can only be determined by the age in which each need has manifested itself in the Church.

 

III. APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF EVOLUTION

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