Catholic Philosophers’ Favorite Bible Passage
COMMENTARY: What did Joseph Ratzinger point out about a passage in the Acts of the Apostles that changes a seemingly brief and off-hand biblical travelogue into something that is so rich with meaning?
by Jennifer Roback Morse June 6, 2023, at National Catholic Register
“Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the Gospel to them” (Acts 16:6-10).
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The importance of this Scripture passage has been with me for so long, I can’t now recall exactly where I read it. I think I first became aware of this passage from something in the writings of Joseph Ratzinger. No matter. I am always filled with awe when Acts 16:6-10 comes up in the lectionary for daily Mass, as it recently did.
It does not seem like a theologically significant passage. Nor does it seem especially philosophical. So, what did Joseph Ratzinger point out about the following passage in the Acts of the Apostles that changes a seemingly brief and off-hand biblical travelogue into something that is so rich with meaning for Catholic philosophers?
In this passage, the Church going to Greece appears to be divinely ordained. First, the Holy Spirit prevents Paul from going to Asia and keeps him and his companions in the land of the Greeks. Then, in verse 7, they try to go to Bithynia, in present-day Turkey. The Spirit of Jesus prevents them.
While they are in Mysia and Troas, also in Asia Minor, they still haven’t gotten the point. So God the Father sends Paul a vision in a dream that he can’t ignore. The Man from Macedonia specifically tells them, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” As if to seal the point, verse 10 states that Paul concluded that God called him and his companions “to preach the Gospel to them.” Meaning the Macedonians. Meaning the Greeks.
Paul and his companions believed they were helping the people to whom they preached. And so they were. Little could they have known how the Greeks would ultimately help the Church! Christianizing the people of Greece meant that Christianity would encounter Greek philosophy.
This encounter meant that the Church “appropriated” aspects of Plato and Aristotle, while more or less leaving Epicurus and the Stoics on the cutting room floor. St. Augustine’s Neo-Platonism is well-known, as is St. Thomas Aquinas’ Aristotelianism. It is a complex story, to be sure. But Christianity, particularly in the West, embraced Greek philosophical tools, such as logic, the law of noncontradiction, a sophisticated understanding of causality and much more.
About the Ruth Institute
The Ruth Institute is a global non-profit organization, leading an international interfaith coalition to defend the family and build a civilization of love.
Jennifer Roback Morse has a Ph.D. in economics and has taught at Yale and George Mason University. She is the author of The Sexual State and Love and Economics – It Takes a Family to Raise a Village.
To schedule an interview with Dr. Morse, contact media@ruthinstitute.org.
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