Dr. David Lang

Theme: Immunizing Ourselves against Viruses of the Mind

Dr. David Lang’s presentation was titled “Unmasking the Enemies of Being: The Transcendentals as our Defensive Weapons”. Dr. Lang is an adjunct professor of Logic and Math at Boston Northeastern University and a professor of Systematic Thomistic Philosophy at Our Lady of Grace Seminary in Boston. Being a Thomistic philosopher Dr. Lang dedicated his presentation to the beauty of truth through the transcendentals: Being, One, True, Good, and Beautiful. True perennial philosophy seeks to answer the question Pilate cynically asked Him who was Truth incarnate: What is Truth? He lays a foundation for his subject by explaining truth as it is ontologically, logically, and morally. Ontological truth flows from being. A thing is what it is, or put another way, truth is declarative being. Logical truth is the conformity of mind to reality. And moral truth is the conformity of expression to the mind. Our society is wearing a collective mask hiding the person from reality as Adam sought to hide himself in fig leaves and Cain from his fratricide. It was a very uplifting talk. Our speaker did not intend to minimize the evils of our day but he sought to elevate the true, the good, and the beautiful as they are manifest in the highest Good, the One God, Who is ontologically His own existence. “I am Who Am”. Professor Lang referred at the end to the exquisite passage from Saint Paul to the Philippians: “For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely, whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, if any praise of discipline, think on these things.” (4:8).

2020 SBC Conference