Words of Wisdom: Is Faith an Ideology?

Philosophy is the keen search for truth. There is only one Truth, which is rooted in nature and grace. It is reality. Unfortunately, there are countless ideologies. In 1864, Karl Marx introduced the word “ideology” to mock his competition. Since then, his ideology has spread throughout the world in the 20th century. His ideology is the denial of reality.

St. Augustine taught that the only true progress is that of the soul as it grows in holiness to attain its heavenly home, during the trials of our earthly existence. Eternal salvation is the goal of every soul ever born until the last child is conceived before the end of the world. Karl Marx’s system denies eternity and our spiritual destiny. His revolutionary goal was unlimited power. When he was asked about the afterlife, his response was, “A good socialist does not ask that question.”

This banned question is the backbone of every ideology. Challenges to that question have caused the death of over a hundred million innocent people worldwide, ever since. These powerful forces that seek to overturn the Truth of Christ call the faithful ‘rigid’, ‘impeding progress’, or ‘backward’. Traditional Christian faith has become an odious epithet in many places in our culture today.

Christ is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” He doesn’t change and neither should we. (adapted from Population Research Institute Review)

By Terry Henderson, O.C.D.S. Our Lady of Lourdes, Catholic Church