In Catholicism, and to some extent in other branches of Christianity and society in general, there are pillars of power that are being replaced. And the pillars of Christianity are mad. That is an understatement.
The pillars include both high level clergy but also writers and pundits who support giving power to clergy leadership. Their role is go give intellectual, or intellectual sounding and appearing, material clergy can use to justify their powerful role in running the Church.
A couple of writers/pundits are Edward Feser and George Weigel. Weigel's claim to fame is being tight with former Pope Benedict. Feser's claim is a huge volume of writing and appearances claiming the legitimacy of "natural law." The link is a long article from Feser's blog.
Feser is popular with people who want to claim the moral case against for anti abortion and anti gay marriage. He claims the case can be made without religion. Other philosophy scholars disagree. He also likes to use big words for ideas that are simple. He fill pages putting opponents into categories, each with a label. Labeling opponents allows a put down without addressing the arguments. I get that here on my blog at times, "Jon, you are in a group called ----." It makes the accuser feel intelligent without revealing anything intelligent.
Feser, and all of orthodox Catholicism so far as I can tell, tries to draw a line of commonality from the Greek and pagan Aristotle, of about 350 BCE to Aquinas, about 1,200 CE, and to the present day. The attempt, unsuccessful as it is, is useful because it allows Feser and the Catholic clergy establishment to put fists into their favorite punching bags. These are abortion, gay marriage and critical thinking of all kinds. The critical thinking they hate today includes critical race theory, critical gender theory and critical Bible scholarship. Their go-to term is "natural law." "Natural Law" favors order and hierarchy. The right people at the top passing down judgments and rules to those below is better for everyone is the message.
The panic of Feser and his fans is that classic literature is falling into disfavor and disuse. The classics have been used for centuries to disenfranchise lower class human beings. Aristotle himself wrote that some people just deserve to be slaves. When one reads the classics from the perspective of critical race or gender theory they become something less than the foundations of Western society.
The passion to take the classics down a notch is typified by one among many who have Ivy League degrees. This fellow teaches at Princeton. In his view Critical Race Theory should apply to all literature regardless of how admired it is by those in power. The classics were used to justify slavery consistently from the ancient Roman Empire through U.S. slavery, segregation and today's prejudices.
Literature of the old white male intellectual history has always been challenged intellectually and it is now being defeated. I predict this will weaken the hold of Christianity over the U.S.
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