The Catholic Intellectual Tradition

The Catholic intellectual tradition is an ever-developing 2,000 year heritage of learning that is deeply rooted within the tradition of the Catholic Church. Throughout its history, it has gathered insights from the light of reason as well as the light of faith, and, as John Haughey notes, it "continues to appropriate learning, whatever its source."

It has inspired artists (e.g., Michelangelo), writers (e.g., Dante), composers (e.g., Mozart), philosophers (e.g., Saint Thomas Aquinas), the towering architecture of the great gothic cathedrals (e.g., Chartres), and scientists like Georges Lemaître, the Belgian astronomer and Catholic priest who was the first to propose what is now called the Big Bang theory. Medieval theologian and philosopher Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) has provided its unofficial motto: fides quaerens intellectum ("faith seeking understanding").

For further reading:

• "What is the Catholic Intellectual Tradition?"

• "Exploring the Catholic Intellectual Tradition"