Judge Memorial graduate speaks on philosophy

Intermountain Catholic

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Sharbel Allam (left) is a senior in high school in Lebanon, Edward Allam is a professor at Notre Dame University in Lebanon, and Gerrard Allam attends the University of Utah. IC photo by Christine Young

MURRAY — Edward Allam, a 1979 graduate of Judge Memorial Catholic High School, is involved in world-wide philosophy conferences. He is a philosophy professor at Notre Dame University in Lebanon.

Allam was a guest speaker at Saint Jude Maronite Parish, Sept. 2. He gave an informal lecture on philosophical ideals in various countries.

Allam went to the University of San Diego after graduating from Judge Memorial and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy in 1985. He went back to the University of Utah to get his Ph.D. and graduated in 1996. He taught at Judge Memorial from 1989 to 1996, while earning his Ph.D.

"I am from Lebanese decent, and my wife is from Lebanon. We met in Washington D.C., and she brought me to Lebanon," said Allam. "Now it is my adopted country."

Allam belongs to the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (CRVP), which is to understand and appreciate one’s own culture and values that shape aspirations and motivate actions.

The purpose of CRVP is to identify areas related to values and social life which are in need of research, to bring together the professional competencies in philosophy and related human sciences needed for this research, and to publish the resulting studies. It does this through local research teams in all parts of the globe, which are interrelated through regional conferences and annual 10-week seminars. These respond to the new awareness of the cultural grounds of human life and the newly global character of their interaction.

The Council grew out of a series of international philosophical conferences in India, Jerusalem, Kenya, New York and Bogota beginning in the 1970s. It has promoted team research on cultural heritage and contemporary change resulting in the publication and distribution of 200 volumes.

The goals of CRVP are:

• To understand other cultures and to develop a positive yet critical appreciation thereof.

• To build cooperation among peoples by healing deep tensions and promoting peace and cooperation on a global scale.

The objectives are:

• To mobilize research teams to study the nature, interpretation, and development of cultures and to apply them to the challenges of contemporary change.

• To publish and distribute the results of these efforts.

• To organize extended seminars for deeper exploration of these issues and regional conferences for the coordination of this work.

Allam travels extensively with CRVP discussing and participating in philosophical seminars. He has traveled to India, Iran, Cambodia, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Uganda, and throughout Europe.

"The founder of CRVP, George McLean, was my professor in Washington, D.C., and that is how I became involved," said Allam.

"What is wisdom?" Wisdom is not a knowing discipline, but a judging discipline," said Allam. "For example if someone came to you and asked you if they should build an atomic bomb. Ultimately by nature, you could talk about the common good for men. You could make an argument that it is not good for anybody to be blown up for no good reason. That would be a natural argument. But you could also go to Christianity and say what is love? That means in this example and in this world we are supposed to nurture and not destroy.

"Physics cannot judge other bodies of knowledge," said Allam.

"Before I talk about Catholic philosophy, I would like to talk about the similarities and differences of Jewish, Islamic, and Christian philosophies. With Jewish, Islamic, and Christian traditions we have a lot in common with scriptural tradition," said Allam. "All Jewish scripture is contained in Christian scripture, but not the other way around. And some Islamic scriptures are contained in Jewish scripture, which also overlaps with Christian scripture.

"All philosophies have a tendency to express how reason relates to revelation, how faith and reason are related, and how grace and nature are related," said Allam. "It also looks at how the natural and supernatural are related. When we compare the Islamic philosophical tradition and the Christian philosophical tradition, we see they are really after the same thing. They are trying to show how their own particular revelation is commensurate with reason.

"It occurred to me that a good way to illustrate this is to look at the kinds of stories about Jesus that ended up in the Christian tradition compared to those in the Islamic tradition," said Allam. "In the Islamic tradition, we find stories about Jesus as a little boy playing with other little boys where they are having contests on the beach, and they are trying to make the best sand castle. There is a story that comes from the Islamic tradition, probably rooted in the Gnostic gospels, where one little boy beats Jesus out in the sand castle he has prepared. So Jesus says I will show you and he pulls out of the sand a bird, and throws it up in the air and it flies away.

"This makes the job of the Christian philosopher much easier than that of the Islamic philosopher because philosophy is about trying to show the relationship between revelation and reason," said Allam. "If you look at Jesus’ miracles, they are always perfection of nature: water to wine, and wine to blood. These are not contrary to reason. So this attempt to show the relationship between reason and revelation, grace and nature, has really been the task of Christian philosophy and the task of Islamic and Jewish philosophies."

Allam said philosophy is the handmaiden of theology. If you look at all the great theologians in the history of Catholic theology in the East and the West, all of them, without exception, were first and foremost great philosophers.

"Saint Augustin used the philosophy of Plato, and Saint Thomas Aquinas used the philosophy of Aristotle," said Allam. "Christ, himself, was a philosopher.

"The work that I have been doing with the CRVP, is to go around the world conducting philosophy seminars with people of different faiths and sometimes with people who do not have any faith. We talk about philosophy," said Allam. "We look together toward the natural truths, which themselves are distinct from supernatural truths and revelations. They are not separate. These natural truths in a way cultivate the soil of reason. And then if the seeds of faith are to be planted then the seeds of faith can grow. But the full breath of reason cannot be reduced to rationality, it has a dimension of mystery."