Catholic Worldview Weekend
Recapturing a Global Vision
Purpose:
The Catholic Tradition possesses a living wisdom that orders all things and all truth
within a Divine Framework. The foundations of this Tradition were set by God, its structure
ordered by God, its life maintained by God. This wisdom contains an entire Worldview that has
an incomparable vantage point from which to view all things as God would have us view them.
This Tradition and its wisdom sees all things pointing to God, some hidden and indirect, others
more evident and direct. It is the purpose of the Catholic Worldview Weekend to re-introduce
college students, Catholic missionaries, and others to this vast and great Tradition.
The Catholic Worldview Weekend tells the Catholic story – how all truth is contained in
the Catholic view of reality. This is critically needed by students at modern universities, where a
secular and aggressively materialistic framework has taken hold of the thinking of students on
the structure and purpose of reality and human life.
The Catholic Worldview Weekend consists of a series of talks, each with question and
answer sessions, running from Friday to Saturday at US colleges. Topics include the
compatibility of faith and reason; the structure of creation according to the Catholic tradition;
how the use of reason in the sciences leads naturally to the higher questions of the meaning and
purpose of reality; the hierarchical structure of reality found in philosophy and in science
culminate in God as the highest of all reality; the intimate relationship between the life of human
beings in the material world and the mystical life of prayer; the Lord’s Prayer as a model for
psychology; and male psychology, chastity, and proper relationships with women. The last talk
will be shorter, with an extended Q & A session to round things out and give students a fuller
option to ask questions of all three speakers.
Speakers:
Dr. Richard W. Cross
Richard W. Cross, Ph.D. is a clinical and educational psychologist. He completed his
undergraduate studies at Thomas Aquinas College, California, and received his Ph.D. at Indiana
University, Bloomington. Dr. Cross taught high school, and for 13 years was a university
professor in psychology and the Great Books, as well as being a student of the history of science.
For over 35 years, he has studied both ancient and modern sources of thinking on human
psychology and has published articles on psychology from the standpoint of the Catholic
intellectual tradition. He also has written many scientific papers in psychology and education. He
has been a licensed practitioner for 25 years.
Dr. Kenneth J. Howell
Kenneth J. Howell, Ph.D. is Resident Theologian and Director of Pastoral Care for the
Coming Home Network International. Dr. Howell has taught in higher education for almost
thirty years, most recently for over decade as a Professor of Religion at the University of Illinois
(Urbana-Champaign) where he taught classes on the history, theology, and philosophy of
Catholicism. Dr. Howell has authored dozens of articles and six books.
Dr. Howell was a Presbyterian minister for eighteen years and a theological professor for
seven years in a Protestant seminary where he taught Hebrew, Greek, and Latin as well as
biblical interpretation and the history of Christianity. During his ministry and teaching, Dr.
Howell's own reading on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist started him on a six-year
journey that eventually led him to Catholicism. On 1 June 1996, Dr. Howell was confirmed and
received into the Catholic Church at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Bloomington, Indiana.
Concerning his own conversion, Mr. Howell says, "I never would have guessed how rich
is the fullness of faith found in the Catholic Church. After twenty-five years of searching for the
historical Church of Jesus Christ, I can now say Eureka, “I've found it.” Or, rather I should say, it
found me. For my journey to the fullness of the faith was guided by a Providence beyond my
control, a Providence that flows from a loving heart greater than I ever imagined --- the
Eucharistic Heart of Jesus."
Daniel P. Toma (contact person):
Daniel P. Toma, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Biology at Minnesota State
University, Mankato, MN. After his undergraduate at Indiana University, Bloomington, he spent
two years in the seminary and then taught both religion and science for three years in Catholic
High schools. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in biology (genetics) and
was a researcher for several years at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, CA, a private nonfor-profit research institute devoted to the structure and function of the brain founded by the
Nobel Laureate, Gerald Edelman. In addition to his scientific work, Dr. Toma, a Byzantine Rite
Catholic, has spent over thirty years immersing himself in Catholic philosophy and thought. He
has published articles in both scientific trade journals and theology and science. He is writing
his first book which concerns Catholic cosmology and science. Finally he is actively involved
with the St. Thomas More Newman center at Minnesota State University where is the faculty
liaison, academic advisor, advisor for the Little Flower Institute of Catholic Thought at the
Newman Center, leads a theology discussion group, and is faculty liaison and head of the board
of the Phi Kappa Theta Catholic men’s fraternity.
Talk abstracts in order of presentation:
1. The Purpose of Our Life: the True and Living God. (Dr. Howell)
The purpose of the Catholic Worldview Weekend is to lay a foundation for participants to
develop their hearts and minds in a worldview founded on truth, goodness, and beauty. The first
part (about 20 minutes) of this 60 minute talk is devoted to explaining what a worldview is, why
developing a consistent one is necessary, and the broad features of a Catholic worldview that will
be further explained in the course of the weekend. Then the presentation focuses on the end or
purpose of our life. In the Catholic faith, the purpose of life is to be with and in God for eternity,
or what the medieval theologians called The Beatific Vision. This recalls the words of Jesus
“Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.”(Mt 5:8). This end of human life
corresponds to our human yearnings that point beyond the created world to a supernatural
destination, or as St. Augustine put it, “You have made us for Yourself and our heart is restless
until it rests in You.” (Conf 1:1). But what does it mean to know God? It is impossible to know
God through human reason alone and therefore the natural complement of reason is faith because
faith is what leads beyond reason to knowing the end or purpose of our life. Once we know that
purpose by faith, it in turn illumines our entire earthly life so that every activity and action is
directed toward the final end of knowing God.
2. Catholic Cosmology, Angels, and the Hierarchy of Being. (Dr. Toma)
The Catholic view of the creation, or cosmology, includes both a spiritual and a material
order. The spiritual order consists of angels and the human soul, while the material consists of
humans, animals, plants, and non-living things (stars, planets, mineral, atoms, etc); humans thus
constitute a bridge between these orders. These beings are organized and structured
hierarchically as a great ladder leading all things to God, their origin and final purpose, in order
to extend the Trinitarian life of God to creatures through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. This
structure is composed of three parts: those beings representing union with God, those who
represent the proper disposition to union with him, and those who represent election or ordering
to him; this is simply the structure of the Liturgy. Creatures are organized within this structure
based on powers of the intellect, which enables them to enter into communities of knowledge
and love – to be persons - among themselves, other intellectual creatures, and God. The Church,
the body of Christ, is the perfection of this structure, with bishops, priests, and deacons as visible
representations in the order of grace of this natural order. Ultimately, the Catholic Liturgy, or
mass, is the model and completion of the whole created realm and is the beginning of the final
completion and re-creation of all in the world to come.
This talk will therefore cover the “big picture” of creation: The first part will discuss the
incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Liturgy, how the whole of creation is structured, including its
parts, such as the nature and types of angels, humans, and the material universe and Adam, Eve,
Eden and the Fall. The second part will discuss how this order is completed in Church as a great
Liturgical act to God the Father.
3. The Lord’s Prayer as a Catholic psychology model for the human person. (Dr. Cross)
Here we review the psychological research on the spiritual awakening in children. We then study
the Lord's Prayer and find that it provides the spiritual foundation for sound psychological
development in children and spiritual awakening in youth and adults. Each of the prayer’s parts
address the core spiritual and psychological needs in the human person--the need for a father, the
role of law and authority, the trust in provision, the antidote for anger, the hope in safety, the
expectation of help and forgiveness.
4. Hierarchy and science. (Dr. Toma)
This talk will be an extension of the talk on Catholic cosmology. The main point will be
to use science, particularly biology, as a proof of principle that not simply ancient and medieval
knowledge, but all modern knowledge, if viewed correctly, can be easily incorporated into the
Catholic cosmological view and is best understood from this viewpoint. The Catholic world
view is the best for understating reality and uniting all knowledge.
Catholic cosmology sees creation as a hierarchy of intellectual beings. Intelligence is an
interior action of a being. At the same time, life itself is defined best as that which moves itself,
i.e. that which to a greater or lesser degree does not rely on things external to itself. This is
contrasted with non-living things, which act externally upon each other. Therefore, life is
moving towards intelligence and love. Ultimately creation and all things in the universe are
therefore moving towards God, infinite intellect and love. This movement of life towards
intelligence provides a framework to organize knowledge from the standpoint of knowing ability
and personhood, as opposed to survival. All knowledge – art, music, literature, science,
philosophy, psychology, etc. – can best be understood from this principle. By ordering all things
under the idea of intellect, one opens up the mind to higher realities and shows how all things
and knowledge are one movement to God, the purpose and end of all things.
5. Sexual sobriety in a sex-addicted society, or, male chastity as a human accomplishment. (Dr.
Cross)
In this talk we see how St Joseph, the exemplar, and St John Chrysostom, the teacher,
guide fathers and sons in the virtue of sexual sobriety. The male calling to provide protection and
support to others are moderators for sexual temptation. The call to protect is rooted in the male’s
natural desire to compete, regulated and directed by a call to serve, exercise humility, and
subordinate oneself to authority. These psychological and spiritual forces are indispensible
factors in knowing how to relate to women both in and out of marriage.
6. Concluding Presentation (and Summary): Where do we go from here? (Dr. Howell)
This weekend we have learned how everything in life is directed toward knowing and
loving God. We observed the integration of knowledge, reason, and faith in the mind and heart
of each human being. We observed how the Catholic faith and worldview contains a rich treasure
trove of wisdom in reference to the natural sciences, to the humanities, and to human
psychology. We saw how education should be more than vocational training for the workplace.
We understood how education must be an integrated pursuit of knowledge, goodness, and
beauty, all of which lead to the great Source of these transcendentals. In short, we came to see
how the Catholic worldview is the foundation and hope of the western world. Where do we go
from here?
I conclude with practical suggestions as to how to develop one’s mind in a Catholic
worldview by recommending: 1) a regular pattern of spiritual disciplines (Mass, private prayer,
spiritual reading, adoration), 2) a program for reading in philosophy and theology, 3) a program
for learning about how a Catholic worldview informs a particular area of interest (e.g. science,
history, law).