Thomas Aquinas, 13th century theologian, philosopher and a classical proponent of natural theology (i.e., we can know God exists by simple common sense; by what we know of the world), was hugely influential in the development of Western thought.* He asserted that there was no conflict between faith and reason (“both kinds of knowledge ultimately come from God”); for surely God does not ask us to believe what we know to be false.
 
A Catholic saint, Aquinas is also honored as a “Doctor” of the Church and as the master and patron of Catholic schools –which accounts for the many primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities around the world bearing his name.

 
Considering the depth and breadth of the man’s influence, might we not expect to find – even in these post-post-modern times – some allegiance to the reasoned faith of Aquinas at his numerous namesakes. Shouldn’t there be a few Thomistic corners left in the halls of American academia? Perhaps, for instance, the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, is still somewhat grounded in reality…?
Alas, not so much.
 

Last week, rather than risk offending the multi-cultural sensibilities of anyone, the school cancelled a rather innocuous-sounding “Hump Day.”
 
A spokesman for the university said that the event, which featured a “petting zoo” with a live camel…

… was organized by the Residence Hall Association (RHA) (and) aimed at reducing stress for students before their commencement of their exams.
 
“Hump Day” is also commonly referred to a Wednesday for being in the middle of the week, or for any difficult “hump” in a calendar.
 
Last December, the school welcomed a reindeer at the end of the first semester. The event was well-received and no protests ensued. Earlier this month, RHA hosted a “Southern Hospitality” event, where students rode a mechanical bull.

 
“Hump Day” however must have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. A student-led protest on social media found a variety of reasons to judge the event unacceptable. According to these über-tolerant young people, the event would have been – to varying degrees –
 
• offensive to Middle Eastern cultures
• disrespectful to animals
• encouraging orientalism (?)
• promoting a negative carbon footprint
• displacing an animal from its “natural habitat.”
• too expensive (at about $500)
 

As I wrote earlier this week, today’s college students seem to have so completely lost perspective, along with their ability to prioritize, to make distinctions between substantial and trivial, and ultimately to even determine right from wrong. They’re just sort of thrashing about in a sea of moral and cultural relativity.
 
But I guess it’s not too surprising when this is the nihilistic message they’re hearing from the ivory tower:
 
A university spokesman told Campus Reform, “St. Thomas is a Catholic university that welcomes students of all faiths and cultures.”
 
Yes, welcome to collegiate America where the only thing we seem to know for certain is that nothing is certain (as if that nonsense isn’t self-refuting!).
 

 
All that being said, it wouldn’t be fair to characterize the entire University of St. Thomas as post-Thomistic. Just after I saw the Hump Day Cancelled story, I ran across this encouraging article at Crisis Magazine: The Reasonableness of Religious Belief, written – coincidentally – by a philosophy teacher at that very same institution.
 
Although her apologetic struck me as a bit too apologetic at times (these days I suspect one must tread so very carefully with young post-moderns so as not to offend), I’m quite sure St. Thomas himself would be pleased with Ms. Lu’s defense of the faith ~

I myself believe that the most epic spiritual battle of our time is not with Muslims or Protestants or political liberals, but rather with the deadening spirit of secular materialism, which cloaks itself in the guise of reason and enlightenment, and ultimately consumes all its children into a black pit of nothingness.

Explaining why she, on her personal philosophical journey, never converted to unbelief, Lu speculated ~

No doubt I was blessed with many graces and positive human influences, but from a subjective point of view, I believe I would always have said that belief seemed more rational to me because it was so self-evident that the universe is full, not only of matter, but also of meaning.
 
I believe in beauty. It isn’t in the eye of the beholder; the world doesn’t just seem, but actually is, beautiful. I believe in love. I don’t accept for a moment that love comes down to brain chemistry, or an evolutionary mechanism that helps to perpetuate my species. I believe in virtue, or, to put the point another way, I believe that humans are capable of far more than the “critical thinking” that the disciples of secular humanism love to champion. Virtue requires a much higher standard of objective goodness than the meta-ethicists will ever be able to justify.
 
Belief is more rational because the world is manifestly better than the materialist is prepared to believe […]
 
I realize that this truth is hard, but I would urge materialists nevertheless to grin and bear it. The universe is far, far better than they ever supposed.

 
Although Truth doesn’t change from one century to the next, cultures certainly do. And a culture that get bogged down in the trivial, the irrelevant and the latest nonsensical #hashtag, seems to have lost the very concept of Truth.
 
The students who so vehemently protest the appearance of a simple camel would be much better off focusing their youthful zeal and enthusiasm in pursuit of higher things. Isn’t that, after all what education is supposed to be all about? The Truth, as understood and communicated by St.Thomas Aquinas is still there, transcendent and immutable, waiting to be rediscovered. And, if they’re fortunate enough to have Ms. Lu as a professor, the students at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota may just find it.
 

 
*G.K. Chesterton, from his biography on St. Thomas ~

… St. Thomas Aquinas was one of the great liberators of the human intellect […]
 
Simply as one of the facts that bulk big in history, it is true to say that Thomas was a very great man who reconciled religion with reason, who expanded it towards experimental science, who insisted that the senses were the windows of the soul and the reason had a divine right to feed upon facts, and that it was the business of the Faith to digest the strong meat of the toughest and most practical of pagan philosophies.