George Weigel and logic

"The Truth of Catholicism" is under 200 pages, but dense despite the brevity. Weigel's writing consists of simple, clear expositions of basic logic. Sometimes I think the disappearance of logic (along with Latin and the virtues) from the educational curriculum is the underlying root of the muddle-headed thinking so much in evidence today: there is no effort to teach people how to think.

Anyway, here are some examples of what I mean.

Abortion: (p 162) Weigel pronounces the simple syllogism I've longed to see in print.

1. Abortion is the end of an innocent life.
2. Ending an innocent life is always wrong.
3. Therefore, abortion is always wrong.

Then he goes on to defend the fact that abortion is, in fact, the end of an innocent life (as opposed to the "mere" destruction of a lifeless clump of cells).

Christianity and others: (p 145) While not such a straightforward exercise of logic, the Catholic position is expressed very tersely and succinctly: "The Church cannot believe that Christ is anything other than the unique savior of the world; the Church cannot but believe anything other than that God wills the salvation of all, whether or not they ever hear of Christ or the Catholic Church." The conflict is resolved as follows: everyone that is saved (even if they have never heard the name of Christ) is saved because of Christ and his redeeming death and resurrection. The value of missionary activity (bringing the word of God to non-believers) is two-fold: giving them the opportunity to lead a Christian life; and providing them with the ordinary means of salvation (participation in the Christian liturgy; salvation outside Christianity is extra-ordinary - beyond the ordinary).

Freedom, willfulness, and the law: (p 77) Chapter 10 "How Should We Live?" was the most powerful for me. Weigel considers how we can grow in virtue and become better human beings, and the real nature of freedom. He compares the act of living a fully human life with learning the arts. How do we extract beautiful music from a piano? Not by willfulness - just sitting at the keyboard and pounding away; an exercise in freedom as the world understands it, but productive of nothing but cacophony - much as the exercise of similar willfulness in all spheres of life has led to the chaotic situation of today's modern world! No; to produce beautiful sounds from a piano requires laborious exercise, discipline, and renunciation of perfect willfulness in order to become a masterful player. "After a while, though, what we once experienced as constraining seems liberating. Mastering those exercises has equipped me to play anything I want, including the most difficult compositions." Weigel calls the freedom of discipline and mastery "freedom for excellence", and contrasts it with "freedom as my way". The discipline of the Church (daily prayer, frequent reception of the Host, frequent Confession, spiritual reading...) gives you the freedom to live life as a follower of Christ, and frees you from your slavery to sin.

And make no mistake about it - we are all slaves, either slaves to sin and the devil, or slaves of Christ.