Father Longenecker on Friar Lawrence

I tell you the truth, unless you chagne and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Pieper holds wonder to be an innocent act, such as a child or even man when he was in Eden before the Fall. Wonder leads one to philosophy and following the path of philosophy leads one to the entrance of the kingdom of heaven but philosophy itself will not allow one to enter; that is the province of theology. As Pieper says on page 135, By the nature of the philosophical act, the person engaged in philosophizing cannot help overstepping the boundaries of pure philosophy and taking a theological position. He cannot help it because philosophizing is a fundamentally human relationship to reality and is only possible if our whole human nature is involved and that necessarily involves the adoption of a definite position with respect to ultimate things. As to how this all applies to education, I must first give what I think Pieper would say and then give my own. For Pieper this means that a robust philosophical and theological education is needed, a specifically Catholic philosophy and theology. A good example of an institution following what Pieper envisions would be The Catholic University of America and the University of Notre Dame. As regards myself I agree that theology or a definite position with respect to ultimate things is needed and must be cultivated through education. I do not go so far as to say that this need be any specific position. Within the university setting I would ideally set up as part of the requirement for graduation the taking of a few basic philosophy classes and comparative religion classes. If nothing else this would provide students with a confrontation with ultimate things but without imposing a specific position. The ideal university would teach the positions of all religions and let the students decide to accept or reject.