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Digital Catholic Social Teaching by Mark Stahlman: Session 1: Social Justice - God is Dead



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See our Scribal Hyperbook for Lecture Notes, Questions, Slides and Add Your Own Comments & Questions at: https://52livingideas.com/2022/02/25/dcst-session-1-8-social-justice-god-is-dead/

0:00:00 Introduction
0:06:20 IQuestion #1: What happened to the Roman Catholic Church in the “Modern World”?
0:12:30 IQuestion #2: How did this confrontation accelerate in the 19th-century?
0:19:20 IQuestion #3: Was God Dead?
0:27:05 IQuestion #4: Why was “Social Justice” the Church’s response?
0:34:05 IQuestion #5: Who was Pope Leo XIII?
0:38:13 IQuestion #6: What were the effects of Electricity?
0:46:40 IQuestion #7: How did the Church respond?
0:51:30 IQuestion #8: Will DIGITAL put an end to the Modern World?
0:57:54 Audience Questions
1:04:55 Answers to Audience Questions

Mark Stahlman, President of Center for the Study of Digital Life Presents.
Digital Catholic Social Teaching: The Church & Technology
Sundays at 3pm ET starting Feb 27 to April 17
RSVP to all the sessions Now Here: https://www.meetup.com/52LivingIdeas/events/calendar/ Don’t miss any!

See the Last Mark Stahlman series Three Spheres: East, West & Digital here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqpF1l8gdXlE0Qkb5Q33Z_k0vQrXVTQ8E

Session 1: Social Justice -- God is Dead

The 19th-century saw the rise of Electric technology, replacing Print as society's psycho-environmental ground -- while generating both socialism/communism and the robber barons. In response, the Catholic Church invented the notion of "social justice," attempting to reassert Natural Law while addressing the widely growing conflicts. Hostile states responded by isolating the Church, launching "culture wars," and ultimately fomenting revolution. Nietzsche's dramatic assertion underpinned a wide range of social movements -- both on the left and the right.

Session 2: The Encyclicals -- Disenchantment of the World

Pope Leo XIII aggressively responded with encyclicals including "Aeterni Patris" (1879, retrieving St. Thomas Aquinas) and "Rerun Novarum" (1891, establishing Catholic Social Teaching). Forty years later, Pope Pius XII expanded CST in his "Quadragessima Anno" (1931, a cornerstone of the Church's anti-Marxist "Catholic International"). On the 100th anniversary, Pope John Paul II issued his "Centesimus Annus" (1991, from which grew CAPP, the lay organization tasked to spread CST). But few heeded the Church's call.

Session 3: Human Dignity -- Faculties of the Soul

In the process, the Church's authority about the character of the human soul was severely undermined, as "experimental" psychology took over. Even that has now been discarded and replaced with Cognitive Psychology, modeling humans on computers. Increasingly marginalized, the Church seemed to withdraw, pressured by the rising social sciences, with many relying on a "mystical" interpretation of God's relationship with humanity. We forgot Aquinas's Aristotelean Faculty Psychology and manipulating the soul became a social engineering imperative.

Session 4: Human Dignity -- Artificial Humanity

Under Digital conditions, this failure to fully understand the unique qualities of the human soul has led to aggressive efforts to build "artificial humans." If, as modern psychology asserts, humans are simply "information processors," then why can't they be replaced by immortal machines? A return to a deep comprehension of the "psyche" is urgently needed and the Church must lead in its retrieval.

Session 5: Subsidiarity -- End of Mass Society

As Electric technology overtook the world in the 20th-century, it generated a society that treated humans as mere elements of the "collective." Welcome to the Borg. Mass psychology and psychological warfare based on the effects of "mass media" led to world wars and mass suffering. In an effort to find stability, an avalanche of increasingly "soulless" mass consumption and unrooted "globalist" ideology followed. But this is now coming to an end. Indeed, as a result of Digital technology, we no longer live in the "modern world."

Session 6: Subsidiarity -- Memory and Autonomy

Digital technology thrusts us all into a dramatically new cultural paradigm. Whereas Electricity emphasized "imagination". Mass society" is being replaced by one with new social forms and based on increased human autonomy -- aligning with the principles of subsidiarity.

Session 7: Solidarity -- God's Diplomats

"Peace on Earth" has long been a key imperative for the Church. Much Charity, Faith & Hope will be required as the world goes through today's fundamental change in paradigms…(to be expanded)

Session 8: Solidarity -- Three Spheres

The post-WW II "World Order" that we have lived under has collapsed as a result of Digital technology. This presents new challenges and substantially increases risks.
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