Fertilizer

A didactic not necessarily Hegelian “ Reform, on the other hand, corrects and expands the status quo rather than destroying and starting anew. The Catholic understanding has always, therefore been one of constant reform and renewal, not one of revolution. Catholic reform is built not on a Hegelian premise of thesis, antithesis and synthesis, but on a hermeneutic of continuity. We do not destroy the old to start again. We correct the old, modify the status quo and expand and develop our understanding of the faith and the work of the church. To use a gardening analogy, the Catholic prunes the vine, fertilizes the soil and weeds the vineyard. The revolutionary grubs up the whole place with a bulldozer and tries to plant a flower bed. Highlite text with cursor to reveal redactions My apology for subjecting you to even a hint of religious preachery or proselytism.  Truth is,  I stumbled upon this [Francis: Reformer or Revolutionary?] for reasons I forgot, but thought it a fine treatise with application outside of the church.  Like the United States.  We find ourselves at a decision point.  Do we "fertilize the soil and weed the vineyard" in the  Jeffersonian sense?  Thomas Jefferson's mandate here can encompass a hermeneutic of continuity, and Hegelian dialectic.  Sorry. I have no idea what this is about.  Maybe you will. ”