Introducing the Catholic Archive: Revisiting the Reception of Thomas Aquinas and the Modernist Crisis (1850-1917)
Date
2023-09-22
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0009-0001-0023-7011
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
This thesis introduces the concept of the ‘Catholic archive.’ Influenced by Derridean and Foucauldian philosophy, the Catholic archive is attentive to how notions of orthodoxy and heterodoxy are discursively constituted, and how knowledge is consequently privileged or marginalized within Catholic contexts. It also notes the vanishing point between the Catholic Church’s theology and politics, especially as they pertain to ecclesial governance and discipline. This thesis then analyzes the Catholic archive from 1850-1917 to trace how the theologian Thomas Aquinas became the standard for orthodoxy during this period.
As a response to social and political instability in the nineteenth century, Pius IX and Vatican I consolidated power within the ecclesial hierarchy. What the hierarchy lacked, however, was the archival capacity to reliably determine orthodox from heterodox knowledge. Leo XIII provided this capacity, notably in his encyclical Aeterni patris (1879), by making Aquinas an unassailable standard of orthodoxy. This transformation influenced Pius X’s suppression of the Catholic Modernists, who rejected Thomism and were influenced by Enlightenment thought and the historical-critical method. In Pascendi dominici gregis (1907), Pius X uses Aquinas as a theological litmus test to identify and discipline Modernists. The theological renewal of Leo XIII’s papacy became a reign of terror in Pius X’s, in which the hierarchy’s interpretation of Aquinas legitimated archival violence: censorship, excommunication, and career sabotage.
This thesis shines light on hitherto unacknowledged Thomistic discursive formations and their theo-political significance. It also contributes to the Religion and Culture scholarship by reframing Catholic theo-politics as an expression of the dominant interpretations of Aquinas within the Catholic archive. These interpretations have not only limited the institutional acceptance of alternative philosophies or worldviews but provided the theological justification to suppress potentially nourishing alternatives.
Description
Keywords
Thomas Aquinas, Catholic Archive, Catholic Modernism, Jacques Derrida, Catholic Church, Neo-Thomism
Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Religion and Culture
Program
Religion and Culture