"Enamoured of our present epoch, blind to all its characteristic dangers, intoxicated with everything modern, there are many Catholics who no longer ask whether something is true, or whether it is good and beautiful, or whether it has an intrinsic value: they ask only whether it is up-to-date, suitable to 'modern man' and the technological age, whether it is challenging, dynamic, audacious, progressive."
Dietrich von Hildebrand, Trojan horse in the city of God (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1967), pt. 3, chap. 20 ("The sapping of truth"), p. 147.
"Enamored of our present epoch, blind to all its characteristic dangers, intoxicated with everything modern, many Catholics no longer ask whether something is true, whether it is good and beautiful, or whether it has intrinsic value. They ask only whether it is up-to-date, suitable to modern man and the technological age, challenging, dynamic, audacious, or progressive."
Dietrich von Hildebrand, Trojan horse in the city of God: the Catholic crisis explained (Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 1993), pt. 3, chap. 20 ("The sapping of truth"), p. 177. That paragraph, the one that opens chap. 20, is merely transitional, however:
Yet there is a tendency that is more refined than subordination of truth to the fashions of our time. This is the attempt to interpret the notion of truth in a way that saps its very content. This error is presented in an orthodox and religious guise and so is more dangerous to faith. We are referring to the distinction, gaining popularity, between 'Greek' and 'biblical' notions of truth.
Etc. My thanks to Kendall Harmon for putting me onto this passage.
