A Dark Chapter

The Church’s response to Kant, which I had the opportunity to research in the Vatican archives, serves as a stark reminder of a dark chapter in the history of faith and reason, but it also shows the Church’s ability to overcome some of its historic errors. The episode is particularly pertinent in 2024, which marks Kant’s tricentenary. Today, critical thinking and academic freedom are once again under attack. Even in the United States, the “land of the free,” school boards and state politicians have resorted to book bans to protect certain political or moral views. But promoting non-thinking over critical engagement with uncomfortable ideas is never fitting for Christians, who are called to be fearless witnesses to the truth (John 8:32).