8/19/2019 Role of the Church in Civilization

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/role-of-the-church-in-civilization 1/5

Role of the Church in civilization

Church doctrine and science

Map of mediaeval universities established by Catholic students, faculty, monarchs, or

 priests

Historians of science, including non-Catholics such as J.L. Heilbron,[11! ".C. Crombie,

#avid Lindberg,[111! $d%ard &rant, 'homas &oldstein,[11(! and 'ed #avis, have argued

that the Church had a significant, positive influence on the development of civili)ation.'hey hold that, not only did mon*s save and cultivate the remnants of ancient civili)ation

during the barbarian invasions, but that the Church promoted learning and science

through its sponsorship of many universities %hich, under its leadership, gre% rapidly in$urope in the 11th and 1(th centuries. +t. 'homas "uinas, the Churchs model

theologian, not only argued that reason is in harmony %ith faith, he even recogni)ed that

reason can contribute to understanding revelation, and so encouraged intellectual

development.[11/!

 'he Churchs priest-scientists, many of %hom %ere Jesuits, %ere theleading lights in astronomy, genetics, geomagnetism, meteorology, seismology, and solar 

 physics, becoming the fathers of these sciences. 0t is important to remar* names of

important churchmen such as the "ugustinian abbot &regor Mendel pioneer in the studyof genetics2, 3oger 4acon a 5ranciscan mon* %ho %as one of the early advocates of the

scientific method2, and 4elgian priest &eorges Lema6tre the first to propose the 4ig

4ang theory2. $ven more numerous are Catholic laity involved in science7 Henri4ecuerel %ho discovered radioactivity8 &alvani, 9olta, "mpere, Marconi, pioneers in

electricity and telecommunications8 Lavoisier , father of modern chemistry8 9esalius,

founder of modern human anatomy8 Cauchy one of the mathematicians %ho laid therigorous foundations of calculus.

'his position is a reverse of the vie%, held by some enlightenment philosophers, that the

Churchs doctrines %ere superstitious and hindered the progress of civili)ation.

0n the most famous e:ample cited by these critics, &alileo &alilei, in 1;//, %as

denounced for his insistence on teaching a heliocentric universe, previously proposed by <icolaus Copernicus, %ho %as probably a priest.[11=! "fter numerous years of

investigations, consultations %ith the >opes, promises *ept and then bro*en by &alileo,

8/19/2019 Role of the Church in Civilization

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/role-of-the-church-in-civilization 2/5

and finally a trial by the 'ribunal of the 3oman and ?niversal 0nuisition, &alileo %as

found suspect of heresy - not heresy, as is freuently misreported. "lthough the church

includes all his boo*s on the 0nde: Librorum >rohibitorum, and &alileo %as forced torecant his heliocentrism and spent the last years of his life under house arrest on orders of 

the 0nuisition,[11@! >ope John >aul 00, on /1 Actober  1BB(, publicly e:pressed regret for

the actions of those Catholics %ho badly treated &alileo in that trial.[11;!

 "n abstract of theacts of the process against &alileo is available at the 9atican +ecret "rchives, %hich

reproduces part of it on its %ebsite. Cardinal John Henry <e%man, in the nineteenth

century, stated that those %ho attac* the Church can only point to the &alileo case, %hichto many historians does not prove the Churchs opposition to science since many of the

churchmen at that time %ere encouraged by the Church to continue their research.[11!

[verification needed !

3ecently, the Church has been both critici)ed and applauded for its teaching thatembryonic stem cell research is a form of e:perimentation on human beings, and results

in the *illing of a human person. Criticism has been on the grounds that this doctrine

hinders scientific research. 'he Church argues that advances in medicine can come%ithout the destruction of humans in an embryonic state of life28 for e:ample, in the use

of adult or umbilical stem cells in place of embryonic stem cells.

Church, art, literature, and music

'he +chool of "thens  by 3aphael, "postolic >alace, 9atican

+everal historians credit the Catholic Church for the brilliance and magnificence of

Destern art. 'hey refer to the Churchs fight against iconoclasm, a movement against

visual representations of the divine, its insistence on building structures befitting %orship,"ugustines repeated reference to Disdom 117( &od ordered all things by measure and

number and %eight2 %hich led to the geometric constructions of &othic architecture, the

scholastics coherent intellectual systems called the Summa Theologiae %hich influencedthe intellectually consistent %ritings of  #ante, its creation and sacramental theology

%hich has developed a Catholic imagination influencing %riters such as J. 3. 3.

'ol*ien[11E!, C.+. Le%is, and Dilliam +ha*espeare,[11B! and of course, the patronage of the

3enaissance popes for the great %or*s of Catholic artists such as Michelangelo, 3aphael,4ernini, 4orromini and Leonardo da 9inci. 0n addition, %e must ta*e into account the

enormous body of religious music composed for the Catholic Church, a body %hich is

8/19/2019 Role of the Church in Civilization

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/role-of-the-church-in-civilization 3/5

 profoundly tied to the emergence and development of the $uropean tradition of classical

music, and indeed, all music that has been influenced by it.

Church and economic development

5rancisco de 9itoria, a disciple of 'homas "uinas and a Catholic thin*er %ho studiedthe issue regarding the human rights of coloni)ed natives, is recogni)ed by the ?nited

 <ations as a father of international la%, and no% also by historians of economics anddemocracy as a leading light for the Dests democracy and rapid economic development.[1(!

Joseph +chumpeter , an economist of the t%entieth century, referring to the scholastics,%rote, it is they %ho come nearer than does any other group to having been the

FfoundersG of scientific economics.[1(1! Ather economists and historians, such as

3aymond de 3oover, Marorie &rice-Hutchinson, and "leandro Chafuen, have also

made similar statements. Historian >aul Legut*o of +tanford ?niversity said the Catholic

Church is at the center of the development of the values, ideas, science, la%s, andinstitutions %hich constitute %hat %e call Destern civili)ation.[1((!

Social justice, care-giving, and the hospital system

Historian of hospitals, &uenter 3isse, says that the Church spearheaded the development

of a hospital system geared to%ards the marginali)ed.

'he Catholic Church has contributed to society through its social doctrine %hich has

guided leaders to promote social ustice and by setting up the hospital system in Medieval

$urope, a system %hich %as different from the merely reciprocal hospitality of the&ree*s and family-based obligations of the 3omans. 'hese hospitals %ere established to

cater to particular social groups marginali)ed by poverty, sic*ness, and age, according

to historian of hospitals, &uenter 3isse.[1(/!

8/19/2019 Role of the Church in Civilization

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/role-of-the-church-in-civilization 4/5

James Joseph Dalsh %rote the follo%ing about the Catholic Churchs contribution to the

hospital system7

#uring the thirteenth century an immense number of [these! hospitals %ere built. 'he 0talian

cities %ere the leaders of the movement. Milan had no fe%er than a do)en hospitals and 5lorence

 before the end of the 5ourteenth century had some thirty hospitals. +ome of these %ere very

 beautiful buildings. "t Milan a portion of the general hospital %as designed by 4ramante and

another part of it by Michelangelo. 'he Hospital of the innocents in 5lorence for foundlings %as

an architectural gem. 'he Hospital of +ienna, built in honor of +t. Catherine, has been famous

ever since. $very%here throughout $urope this hospital movement spread. 9ircho%, the great&erman pathologist, in an article on hospitals, sho%ed that every city of &ermany of five

thousand inhabitants had its hospital. He traced all of this hospital movement to >ope 0nnocent

000, and though he %as least papistically inclined, 9ircho% did not hesitate to give e:tremely high

 praise to this pontiff for all that he had accomplished for the benefit of children and suffering

man*ind.[1(=!

0n spite of the lingering problems of the #ar* "ges, hospitals began to appear in great

numbers in 5rance and $ngland. 5ollo%ing the 5rench <orman invasion into $ngland,the e:plosion of 5rench ideals led most Medieval monasteries to develop a hospitium or

hospice for pilgrims. 'his hospitium eventually developed into %hat %e no% understandas a hospital, %ith various mon*s and lay helpers providing the medical care for sic*

 pilgrims and victims of the numerous plagues and chronic diseases that afflicted

Medieval Destern $urope. 4enamin &ordon supports the theory that the hospital I as %e*no% it - is a 5rench invention, but that it %as originally developed for isolating lepers

and plague victims, and only later undergoing modification to serve the pilgrim.[1(@!

A%ing to a %ell-preserved 1(th century account of the mon* $admer of the Canterbury

cathedral, there is an e:cellent account of 4ishop LanfrancGs aim to establish and

maintain e:amples of these early hospitals7

4ut 0 must not conclude my %or* by omitting %hat he did for the poor outside the %alls of the

city Canterbury. 0n brief, he constructed a decent and ample house of stonefor different needs

and conveniences. He divided the main building into t%o, appointing one part for men oppressed

 by various *inds of infirmities and the other for %omen in a bad state of health. He also made

arrangements for their clothing and daily food, appointing ministers and guardians to ta*e allmeasures so that nothing should be lac*ing for them. [1(;!

'he beauty and efficiency of the 0talian hospitals inspired even some %ho %ere other%isecritical of the Church. 'he &erman historian Lud%ig von >astor  recounts the %ords of

Martin Luther  %ho, %hile ourneying to 3ome in the %inter of 1@1I1@11, had occasion

to visit some of these hospitals7

0n 0taly, he remar*s, the hospitals are handsomely built, and admirably provided %ith e:cellent

food and drin*, careful attendants and learned physicians. 'he beds and bedding are clean, and

the %alls are covered %ith paintings. Dhen a patient is brought in, his clothes are removed in the presence of a notary %ho ma*es a faithful inventory of them, and they are *ept safely. " %hite

smoc* is put on him and he is laid on a comfortable bed, %ith clean linen. >resently t%o doctors

8/19/2019 Role of the Church in Civilization

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/role-of-the-church-in-civilization 5/5

come to him, and the servants bring him food and drin* in clean glasses, sho%ing him all possible

attention.[1(!

'he Catholic Church as opus proprium, says 4enedict K90 in #eus Caritas $st, hasconducted throughout the centuries from its very beginning and continues to conduct

many charitable services hospitals, schools, poverty alleviation programs, among

others.