Abstract
Born into the intellectual, social, and religious chaos of post-revolutionary France, Auguste Comte (1798-1857) proposed a systematic plan for achieving a new basis of order and progress—first in Europe and then throughout the world. Comte’s plan, which he called positivism, began with the denial of transcendence and then focused solely on what can be observed. Comte’s aim was to destroy Christianity, not by a direct attack, but by replacing belief in God with belief in and love for humanity. Comte was a naturalist who invented the term “altruism” and encouraged its practice. So many of his ideas have infiltrated late-modern civilization that he is rightly seen as a secret ruler of our age. Uncovering his subterranean influence helps people of faith see more clearly the nature of our contemporary battle.
Speaker
Philip Rolnick (PhD, Duke) is Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), Adjunct at the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity, and Director of the Science and Theology Network (STN). He has been a Member of Notre Dame's Seminar on Human Distinctiveness and Princeton’s Center of Theological Inquiry.
His books include: Analogical Possibilities: How Words Refer to God; Person, Grace, and God (Eerdmans, 2007); and Origins: God, Evolution, and the Question of the Cosmos (Baylor, 2015). Origins shows how challenges of contemporary science can be turned to advantages for faith. Rolnick is currently writing a three-part series: A Post-Christendom Faith. Book I, The Long Battle for the Human Soul, is forthcoming with Baylor University Press, Fall 2021. His webinar with the Murphy Institute on Auguste Comte as a secret ruler of our age will draw upon this forthcoming work.
Rolnick has also published articles on Trinity, analogy, "person," and, most recently, on C. S. Lewis.
The Common Good Series
The common good, as defined by the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes, refers to "the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily" (GS 26). This is undoubtedly a high call to make tangible in a fallen world but one that is necessary for all persons of faith to strive toward in their own capacity.
The Murphy Institute’s "The Common Good" series invites St. Thomas faculty from across the university to explore their own areas of expertise as it relates to the promotion and pursuit of the common good. This initiative is a continuation of the 2020 series "The Common Good in Uncommon Times" which hosted conversations pertinent to the year’s experience within the pandemic, cultural reckoning, and political divisions. As society continues to grapple with these conflicts and many others, "The Common Good" aims to showcase the role each discipline has to play in the building up and fostering of the fulfillment of all peoples.
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