Of Religion and First Principles

Abstract

Of Religion and First Principles Catherine Joseph Droste Sr. O.P. (bio) On the Feast of the Purification 1843, John Henry Newman preached a sermon on the role of reason in the development of doctrine. He began by speaking of the Blessed Virgin who by her pondering of "divine providences and revelations" became our pattern of faith.1 Newman, too, spent his life pondering. This fact might lead some to naively consider him a precursor of the contemporary mindfulness movement.2 Yet, nothing could be further from the truth. Newman's writings instead offer both a critique and response to this movement and its Buddhist roots. In a letter written to William Henry Goodwin, we find seeds of this critique. Newman writes: It seems to me that the great differences in religion between man and man arise from their difference from each other in first principles, so that according to their first principles such is the religion which they severally adopt.3 Newman's first principles included acknowledgement of the existence of two self-evident beings: "myself and my creator"; two separate existent beings related as creature and creator.4 Contemporary mindfulness, as defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, implies other first principles. Essentially, he says, mindfulness is "the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment."5 Mindfulness emphasizes self-consciousness, self-awareness, my breathing, my body, my experience; a subjective attentiveness to what I am and to what I experience in this moment [End Page 185] without reference to any other person, or creature, or time. If it admits of any self-evident being, it is myself—"I am," and subsequently negates the religion of the God who revealed himself to Moses long ago as "I am who am." Christian thoughtfulness negates neither the self nor the present but looks to the nature of created things. It acknowledges the first principle of creation and thoughtfully ponders all of creation, including the self, in relation to the Creator and to the Person of Christ. These first principles push Christian thoughtfulness beyond the limits of the present. As Newman writes, "Christianity is the fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham" (past).6 "At present it is so mysteriously potent, in spite of the new and fearful adversaries which beset its path."7 And "it must last while human nature lasts. It is a living truth which never can grow old" (future).8 In addition to these historical elements, by the Eucharist Christianity transcends history and offers men and women a foretaste of heaven. One final small but seeming convergence appears in the Chinese character for mindfulness, translated as 'presence of heart.' But Newman would not understand a soul pondering itself in radical isolation. Such a human heart thinking upon itself without relation to God could lead to confusion and even madness. What Newman offers us is, then, not cor, but cor ad cor loquitur. Catherine Joseph Droste Sr. O.P. Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas Catherine Joseph Droste Catherine Joseph Droste, O.P. is a Dominican Sister of the Congregation of St. Cecilia, Nashville, Tennessee. Sister Catherine Joseph holds an STL and STD in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). Currently, Sister teaches theology at the Angelicum and serves as Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Director of Collaboration. NOTES 1. Newman. "Sermon XV," 313. 2. "The practice of mindfulness includes coming to recognize the faculty of awareness within oneself and learning how to befriend and inhabit it as the primary dimension/abode of experience, a faculty that can be an effective and liberating counterbalance to the also very powerful and creative, although too often imprisoning and blinding faculty of thinking (and the emotions that accompany our thoughts, likes and dislikes, memories, and anticipations)." Kabat-Zinn, "Too Early to Tell," 1127. While mindfulness is used in the medical field and many adherents do not intentionally embrace it as a religion, Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), unhesitatingly confirms its Buddhist roots. 3. Newman, "Letter to William Henry Goodwin," 390. 4...