Customer Reviews

The Order of Things

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First, full disclosure: I have long been a fan of Reverend Schall.

This ambitious book, in under 250 pages, tackles many of the biggest questions surrounding our existence and our obligations. In a time of atheist chic, Rev. Schall takes a serious look at why things are the way they are. He weaves together many classic ideas from Plato to Aquinas to Tolkien and Lewis. And, his writing is accessible to someone without a philosophy degree, but merely a deep curiosity about existence and reality.

Counterintuitively, the author starts with the macro perspective -- The Orderly and Divine -rather than starting, like Lewis' "Mere Christianity" at the personal level. As his focus narrows, the higher-order ideas and lessons wrap neatly around the more personal.

An absolutely delightful read. The material is not easy, but is presented in clear and enjoyable prose. The greatest challenge, however, is less in the understanding of Rev. Schall's points than in the acceptance of them in one's life.

Like the previous reviewer, I am a fan of Fr. Schall. He is the wise type of professor I always enjoyed but rarely found. This book is not an easy read, but it certainly is well worth reading because of its wisdom encompassing subjects ranging from political philosophy to aesthetics, in terms of both faith and reason. Fr. Schall is equally comfortable quoting both Plato and Peanuts and many of the great minds of the Western tradition to show that reality has an objective order that is divinely ordained. This order begins with God and extends to creation and all its aspects-angels, humans, plants and matter, law, ethics, science, knowledge, beauty, etc. The ascent of the order leads to God via the mind knowing and contemplating truth, goodness and beauty in all their varying aspects of being. The book is also a profound meditation of philosophical anthropology discussing the human being in all his relationships-self, others, city and state, good and evil-to explain how goodness and love enhance the order of reality while evil alienates and creates disorder. Ultimately, he shows that that both the material and immaterial orders of realty point to God's love for humans and that our ultimate destiny and happiness is the origin of all order, God himself.

Fr. Schall's text is quite a distillation of the central idea that there is an order to things and that this order is part of a unified whole when viewed from the foundational building blocks of the Godhead. I picked this text up because it seemed to providentially be placed in my path in several different locations in my local bookstore which I had visited only with the desire to find books to later purchase online more cheaply. I am glad that I picked this book up immediately.

Although it is merely 234 pages, "The Order of Things" is a dense, but approachable, read which takes on a panoply of considerations in order to see the overall direction of the Creator, His cosmos, and the parts therein (particularly man). It is difficult to lay out the fullness of Schall's presentation in a short review since he pulls from many philosophical, theological, and cultural sources to address and consider a great variety of topics related to order. However, in short, it can be said to be an arrow which strikes the heart, having passed through the Godhead into the world and then into humanity. Schall's considerations are centered on that order which is the dynamic ordering of love in the Trinity, even if that is only implicit in much of the text. His exposition of order (and its contrast to disorder) is not one of a static nature but one which draws its unity from the initial consideration of the Triune God.

This is a book that one can revisit many times (and I intend to do such over time). I highly recommend it as a veritable smorgasbord which touches the depths of the soul.

Father James V. Schall, Georgetown Professor and political theorist, has written a wonderful book. Tackling such topics as Divinity and the Godhead, the Cosmos, the human soul, and other topics, he presents his reflections and arguments in a simple, yet comprehensive and logical fashion. Yet, the genius of the book is not in the individual topics, but rather in the deft synthesis of ideas and concepts, in the intertwining, if you will, of these seemingly separate "orders" into a coherent whole.

The joy is in the reading. For an ostensibly dry subject, Father Schall manages to maintain a high level of reader interest throughout the 230+ pages. A well-formed index and selected bibliography provide the reader with additional source material should he or she wish to explore specific topics further. Without compromising intellectual integrity THE ORDER OF THINGS puts things simply and directly -- the hallmark of solid scholarship and human creativity.

Schall is a great essayist and in this book we are given nine essays and a conclusion on "order" from "The Orderly and the Divine" through "The Order of Mind" to "The Order of Beauty". As with Schall's other works, these essays are peppered with references to the great philosophers of the past such as Socrates, Plato and Aristole - thus through Schall one gets in touch with modest effort with the world's patrimony. I will quote some passages from Schall just to show good he is and make some comments where appropriate.

The Orderly and the Divine

"Our laughter depends on our seeing the incongruity of things. We see inconcongruity only when we simultaneously see the congruity of things"

"As Aristotle told us in a famous passage, we should strive with all our might to know not merely mortal things but the highest things"

"If we keep company with "dvine and orderly things", there is some chance that we should likewise reflect this company in our souls, in our lives, in our families, in our cities"

"Thomas Aquinas, recalling Aristotle, said in a famous passage that "it is the nature of a wise man to order things".

"Our longing for knowledge is beyond our control we simply want to know. We are moved by the wonder of the world. We are beings who want to know, we seek to know the what is of everything we encounter including ourselves"

"The very good of his mind is to know and manifest this order"

"The mind wants to know that this thing is not that thing. It strives to distinguish. It seeks to know and manifest the differences among other things, including human things. The human mind implicitly assumes there is order among things because it looks for it".

"The order is a willed order. It is not irrational, though its rationality is not a manmade rationality,"

"We want to know, we have a longing to know, the "order of things".

The Order within the Godhead

I was particularly struck in this section by the fact that following the Tsunami in 2004 muslims did not rush to the aid of their confreres in the affected areas and the reason given for this as Schall himself finds out is that in Islamic theology all events are seen to be the direct result of God's will - there is no room for secondary causality. One is struck by the outpouring of charity towards the suffering people of Haiti now in 2010 - it is clear that this is, whether we like it or not, a manifestation of the gospel message still operative in the culture of the entire world but principally in the West. I am sure that the people of Haiti would give thanks for the practical fact that in Christianity we do indeed understand secondary causality - whilst God is the operative power behind all things - free will and the disfigurement of nature (tectonic plate shiftings - is it a disfigurement - would it have been like this absent the Fall?) derive their energy from God but in a secondary way they cause such calamities.

"Only Christianity, to be sure, has a doctrine of the self-sufficient inner life of God".

"Christian revelation, whether we like it or not, however, exists in the world as an intelligible explanation of things".

"What the unity in diversity [in God] implies is that the very notion of "person" cannot be what it is unless it is open toward, related to something else for its complete reality. Or better, its complete reality is to be related to another".

"We cannot merely ignore what this inner life [of God] might mean and still claim total intellectual integrity. We must seek to account for its feasibility, as it were".

"To be immutable and unalterable , moreover, does not designate inertness or lack of inner dynamism, but the opposite"

"What if God was not lonely; what if He did not need creation or others at all? What, in other words, if His inner life was "personal".

"Aquinas remarked that the world is created in mercy, not in justice" - this to me is a key quote - our very life is a gift - we are called always and every where to give thanks.

It would be a pity (albeit understandable) if the people of Haiti became angry at the givers of Aid because of inefficiencies in delivery the Aid, when the right response should be one of astonished gratitude.

The Order of the Cosmos

"Socrates had said, to recall, that what impressed him most in his cosmological studies was not that he found in them earth, air, fire, and water, but that he found mind".

It is precisely this argument that seem to have won the day with the formely atheistic philosopher Anthony Flew. He writes in his book: "There is a God" of his being influenced by the modern scientific discoveries (DNA, Big Bang etc) that the Cosmos spirated Mind i.e. the Universe shows the hand of a Creator. Incidentally, the book is not that great but the point is well made.

"Mind calls to mind" - I like this one!

Schall reminds us that the Universe contains "125 billion galaxies" !!!

"But a thing cannot come from nothing no matter how much time it has. If a thing could, with equal logic, come from nothings, it could do so in a second as well as in a trillion years"

"For the secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for" (says Dostoyevsky)

The Order of the Soul

"We should also recognise that no human action, even the worst, will not be chosen in the name of some presumed good. Every human action will actually contain some good, however convoluted"

Thus, in the case of abortion, as President Obama is oft quoted as saying - he is not pro-abortion - indeed this only logical - it would be monstrous to be pro-abortion. Indeed, the Vatican seemed to indorse that Obama was not pro-abortion and this seemed to anger some people. But Obama about himself and the Vatican about Obama must be right. Obama describes his position as pro-choice because he is motivated by the good of a woman living in a manner which respects her freedom and integrity and the furthering of her good, education, career etc. And, all those things are goods. But, as Schall notes, when we do evil under the aspect of a good, we are leaving some good out - something critical is missing. In the case of those who are "pro-choice" , they wilfully, or not, blind themselves to the unrepeatable good of the life of the unborn child. In the hierarchy of values, the good in the woman's desire to self actualise herself can never be superior to the right of another being to exist - we only get to this bizarre position because this other life exists in and is dependent on the woman for life and we then treat the unborn child because of its utter dependence on the woman as falling exclusively with the woman's sovereignty. Notice we don't do that with the day old child - somehow it mysteriously then falls within the protection of the law.

I think I have said enough on this wonderful book. One final point, I am not normally terribly interested in politics but Schall shows how necessary the polity is - indeed it is only within a civilised polity (where friendship is possible and can thrive) that we can seek after the higher things. He notes for example that tyrannies want to control all relationships even purely private relationships. One wonders in light of increasing legislative oversight in the western world whether we are beginning to see a form of tyranny takeing a foot hold. As Schall notes, secularism is itself a religion - it has its dogmas and if your religious dogma (for example, catholics hold the view that in a sexual act the procreative element cannot be cut out in each act without denaturing the act) with the secular dogma where sexual acts have only the meaning which the participating parties give to it, there may be only one winning dogma and I fear that may be the secular one.

Like all of Schall's books, The Order of Things is an index of great ideas and the great books in which they can be found. Schall maps out the order of the different spheres of existence and points his readers to a profound perspective of human nature and its place in the universe. This book deserves to be read, pondered, and read again -- and, of course, keep a pen and pad handy to jot down the names of all the other books you're sure to want to follow up with after this one.

This book is very easy read, one which requires almost no background knowledge. The author looks at "order" in various aspects of life and faith. Basically, the entire book can be thought of as an argument for God's existence based on order in the universe. Unlike some other books on design, this does not go heavy or deep into science at all. I particularly enjoyed his chapter on the order of hell. Just the title of the chapter (The Order of Hell) seems not quite right, but the author shows the reason for hell, it's importance, and it's order. He takes a bit of a different twist on it then what you've probably heard. It's thought provoking.

Now I can name three living Jesuits whose writing doesn't scream "dissenter."

Schall has written some jems over the years, but I would have to say I found The Order of Things to be my favorite so far. If you have not delved into Catholic philosophy or theology before, you are in for a treat, though as an earlier review noted (and I concur) it is deep and requires some mental energy. What it can deliver is a reorientation of the mind to a perspective that is not commonplace today yet intellectually challenging and profoundly captivating once one acquires it. Order of Things delivers intellectual insight with a fresh manner that makes Order just plain fun to read.

That mythological works begin with man and continue on to God, wherein Schall begins with God and continues on to man, shows the author truly does know the Order of Things.

This is an age, as we all know, in which the irrational seems to reign supreme, but whence? Schall argues when man dreams up alternative provisional truths to Ultimate Truth, all manner of things can become disordered, not last, man's soul.

The argument is, there is an Order to things, even a Meta-Order to the physical order we encounter in everyday life.

To begin, God, in Trinitarian form, consisting of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is Wholly complete, internally consistent, and in need of nothing. Creation, the Cosmos, is created out of mercy rather than Justice or even Necessity. The order of things, and our relation to God is not to be surmised by measuring the distances and weights of the Cosmos, but rather Intent. Though we may come later naturally, God had us in mind at the beginning of Creation. We are the reason for the Cosmos, in fact. Shocking? In this day and age, surely, though this idea shouldn't be.

More, this Creation is a Cosmos as the Ancients saw it, an intelligible Whole, and not a Chaos. Though through the Fall, we may not see or experience things in their proper relationship to one another, there is Hope in Redemption (of which also has an order.)

Beginning with the order of the Godhead and culminating in the order of Beauty, Schall makes the argument cogently and consistently we are not here by accident. Besides explaining the order of things, the author explains in seconds many tenets of Faith that have been argued for centuries. Most importantly to me, Free Will is breezily expounded upon, wherein I am sucker-punched into understanding it.

They say when the student is ready, the teacher arrives. Thank you, Mr. Schall for reminding me of what I already knew.

Isaiah's 5:20 warns us:

"Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter."

This admonition characterizes our times when accidentals have been put in the place of purposeful choices and purposeful choices have been put in the category of accidentals. A stark illustration is when one believes they can change their gender. Gender is an accident that lies ourside of our personal choice, yet it is now treated as an option. Then there is drug addiction, a choice now called an accident of genetics.

The upsidedowness of our world is startling. There is the greatest need to put things back into their proper order. Human nature and the purpose of being human is the same now as it has always been. The world would tell you otherwise. Fr. Schall, a most learned good man, shares with us the proper oreder of things based on the collected wisdom of Mother Church, informed by the revelation of Jesus Christ. He also makes liberal use of the greatest thinkers in the Great Western Tradition.

If you are at all confused about the world today, read this excellent book and ground yourself in ultimate reality. This is a great place to start to understand the world and man's place in it. Fr. Schall speaks plainly and truthfully and unselfconsciously. A better guide, we are not likely to come across easily. Pax Christi Vobiscum!