A Mind's Matter: An Intellectual Autobiography

The distinguished author of forty-one books, Stanley Jaki's writing is well known to those whose field of research is the historical relationship between physics (especially astronomy) and religion. His work bringing to the attention of scholars the importance of the French Catholic thermodynamicist, Pierre Duhem, is particularly well-regarded. My initial debt to Jaki was for the intense pleasure I found in his thorough study of Olber's paradox. Jaki's more popular works on aspects of the Christian roots of science have helped to correct atheistic tendencies in the writings of others. Encountering this combative Catholic intellectual through his writings and lectures always provokes one's mind to engage in thought, sometimes gratefully in agreement with his wise and scholarly insights, sometimes very much in opposition to his unyielding traditionalist stance. If Newman (on whom Jaki has written perceptively) had not already used the title, Apologia pro vita sua, this would have been the ideal title for A Mind's Matter. In his intellectual autobiography, Jaki has set out his own account of his long militant campaign in defence of the indebtedness of the modern scientific worldview to the truths of Catholic doctrine. The enemy, guilty of intellectual dishonesty and selectiveness of their sources, are the secular materialists, whose naturalism rests, as they suppose, on a science which is independent of Christianity. Such an unhistorical position has been the target of Jaki's sustained and accurate barrage. His other principal target has been the philosophical inadequacy of scientism. Here, the premise from which he proceeds to attack is the traditional form of supernaturalism in the Catholic West. By now, some readers will be uneasy about the military imagery in which Jaki's autobiography is being described. Militia est vita hominis super terram. The author himself quotes the Vulgate approvingly with reference to himself: on this earth man's life is a military service. The immoderate language of the book itself (and surely one is entitled to such in one's own autobiography?) accurately conveys Jaki's style of engagement with the putative foe. "Resentment, bordering on rage, can make one resort to strange footwork that cannot be explained on purely intellectual grounds except as a visceral reaction of the 'noble pagan' to the spectre of the supernatural". If the opponents against whom Jaki struggles have been less than cold-bloodedly cerebral, the same might be said for the pugnacious author. "Whether one likes it or not", writes Jaki, "one is engaged in a battle, and if such is the case, it is better to fight. I certainly do not dislike a spirited encounter or two, and I read with great delight that Newman readily joined a battle whenever he saw one." If the best defence is a strong offence, then Stanley Jaki stands in the front rank against those who represent the Roman Catholic Church as the Dark Force of Obscurantism against which the Armies of Light (scientism and materialism) hurl themselves. He reminds one of those mediaeval orders of chivalry such as the Knights Templar or, less attractively, as a Storm Trooper for Christ. I read this intellectual autobiography and re-read it, stopping frequently to underline passages simply to make sure that I was not mistaken. It is true that too many autobiographies are glossy works of self-advertisement in which the winning smile and boundless charm of the writer floods the world with happiness. No such attractive figure appears in A Mind's Matter. Utterly lacking in a sense of humour or indeed of proportion, Jaki pours abusive and withering scorn on an un-named Protestant theologian who pointed out a weakly amusing reading of the cover of Jaki's "The Saviour of Science". His publisher had printed the author's name above the title. Protesting (too much, methinks) and spluttering, Jaki pointed out a "heavy line" between his name and the title. What else could motivate the Protestant's adverse sentiments except perhaps jealousy? And what, the reader might wonder, gave rise to Jaki's intemperate and uncharitable response? And here is the difficulty. When one reviews autobiography, one inevitably judges the author, or the person portrayed by the author as being him or herself, as much as one evaluates the book. Jaki portrays himself as lacking generosity of spirit to his opponents. These unfortunates are represented as villains and fools whose function again and again seems to have been to step into the armoured path of Stanley L. Jaki and be crushed. He does not write to convince so much as to cow his opponents. Nevertheless, as one reads with embarrassment, even his friends, such as James McCord, can be written off patronisingly. In an autobiography, the writer cannot pretend to have been misrepresented except by himself or herself. I think I have never read such an unsympathetic portrayal of a man's character in a book written about himself by himself. In the war in which Stanley Jaki serves, he has handed his enemies the military equivalent of an own goal. And yet, I found myself laughing out loud again and again at A Mind's Matter: in many respects the sheer naïve pomposity of the central character makes this one of the funniest books I have read. It is quite Dickensian, though unintentionally so. There are even moments of saccaharine sentimentality, for example, in the recollection of little Marie (p107/8). These do little credit to the sense that one is dealing with an intellectual autobiography. However, the work as a whole falls into the category of tragicomedy. Self-aggrandisment has inflated a human ego rather on the principles which lifted the Montgolfier brothers' balloon, and lifted it to the point where other humans are seen as dwarves. One such passage struck me as anomalous: there is an interesting and sudden shift from the endlessly iterated first person personal pronoun "I" used throughout the book to the more impersonal form "one" on p103. Was Jaki aware of a need to distance himself from his assertions dismissive of the minds of others as worthy of attention? Was he trying to suggest that his mind's opinions on this matter were objective rather than merely subjective? As with all Christians, Jaki would insist that there is ultimately only one mind which matters, the mind of Christ. Have this mind within you which is the mind of Christ, we are taught. An interesting comparison suggests itself: read A Mind's Matter in juxtaposition with the autobiography of another distinguished Catholic writer and priest, Jaki's contemporary, Thomas Merton and apply the scriptural criterion. I wonder what Jaki's spiritual director made of this book? This is a book to approach with caution but there are fascinating glimpses of the mind which has given us such exact and necessary scholarship and to such good effect over so many years.