R. Jared Staudt

Forming souls and building culture together form the sacramental mission of Catholic education. These profoundly related goals are laid out by the Church for education, following the general sacramental principle that permeates the whole of Catholic life. This approach seeks conformity to the Logos, the divine mind, that shapes the way disciples think, imagine, and pray. Guided by this approach, the student will be able to contemplate the truth of reality in a holistic and integrated fashion. As sacramental, it also leads to a concrete embodiment in the life of the Christian community and the daily actions of the disciple. A sacramental approach to education draws together the inner and outer life: mind and body, soul and culture, prayer and work, salvation and mission, the individual and community. For the future of society and renewal within the Church, we need nothing less than a reintegration of the person and our communities through the renewal of education, forming students deeply rooted in our heritage and prepared to hand it on in creative ways.

The greatest civilizations have all sought immortality. From inventions to massive monuments, these societies have tried to produce something that would define them and last forever. But only one is eternal: God Himself. Christ's greatest gift, His divine flesh and blood in the Eucharist, is the eternal defining legacy of Christendom, the flower of Western Civilization. The Eucharist is not just a doctrine; it is a reality to be lived, and it must shape our entire lives and culture. Indeed, from hospitals to the great cathedrals, this gift defined Western Civilization and allowed it to reach its highest heights. Yet now, our Western Civilization verges on complete collapse because we lack this supernatural framework. We have reverted to being barbarians, devoid of a noble vision of human life and the personal cultivation of virtue. But there is a remedy: a return to a Eucharist-centered life. What once took us to our summit can once again be our source for a flourishing civilization. The Blessed Sacrament has more power than any medicine to heal the body and soul, more strength than any army to defeat our foes, and more grace to transform our civilization by first transforming us. Only the Holy Eucharist, which built the great culture of Christendom, can both renew and save our secular culture by infusing it with beauty, festivity, community, and charity.

To contemporary minds, the notion of justice toward God is seldom considered and often foreign. Far more discussed is how God might either undermine or motivate social justice. The Primacy of God offers an important intervention. With the aid of St. Thomas Aquinas, Staudt argues that it is vital for both contemporary society and contemporary Catholic theology to return to the traditional view of God as the one to whom all human and social action must be ordered and to recover the virtue of religion as the virtue which orders all other virtues to God.Not only does Staudt helpfully remind readers of the ancient philosophical and biblical notion of worship as a dictate of the natural law, he also illuminates the way in which Christian liturgy, as an enactment of Christ's high priesthood, is the great fulfillment of natural and biblical worship.Accordingly, Staudt secures religion as essential for the virtue of love. This brings Staudt to criticize modern theologians like Karl Barth, who claimed that religion is inherently idolatrous, as well as Karl Rahner, who claimed that love of neighbor is the highest moral act. Staudt also considers the question of religious truth in light of the plurality of religions, soliciting the assistance of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Joseph Ratzinger, as well as the way in which religion relates to the development of culture, engaging the great Catholic social historian Christopher Dawson.The Primacy of God is a much-needed work that ought to set the agenda for Catholic theology in the twenty-first century.