The work "A Crise do Mundo Moderno" (The Crisis of the Modern World) (whose first edition dates to 1941, with celebrated reissues by Agir starting in 1945 and more recently by Ecclesiae) constitutes one of the most mature and ambitious intellectual productions of Father Leonel Franca, S.J. Written in the heat of the Second World War conflict - the author witnesses the "tragic spectacle of crumbling cities and blood gushing in spurts" - the text transcends conjunctural analysis. It functions as introductory notes to a philosophy of culture and a theology of history, without claiming to exhaust the theme, but establishing the foundations of what would be the Catholic response to the collapse of the liberal West and the rise of totalitarianisms.
🥀 Diagnosis: the crisis of soul and the rupture of unityThe author diagnoses the crisis of the modern world not merely as a political or economic phenomenon, but as a profound crisis of soul and institutions, caused by historical and philosophical ruptures that fragmented the unity of medieval Christian civilization. Franca argues that external disorder is a reflection of the internal disorder of modern man. In this context, he identifies two grave original ruptures, which act as efficient causes of Western decadence.
The first of these is the Protestant Reformation, centered on the figure of Luther. This rupture introduced religious subjectivism, denying the authority of the Magisterium and Tradition. By fragmenting Christianity and transferring the criterion of truth to individual interpretation (private judgment), the Reformation broke the spiritual unity of Europe. Concomitantly, he points to Cartesian Rationalism (initiated by Descartes) as the second major fracture. This philosophical rupture, by separating thought from being (the cogito closed within itself), led to Kantian and Hegelian idealism. For Franca, this philosophical lineage necessarily flows into immanentism and, by extension, into modern revolutionary ideologies (liberalism, communism, totalitarianisms, etc.), where the State or Reason occupy the place of God.
These ruptures generate an imbalance in the human personality (individual), in sociability, and in the social order, resulting in a civilization that loses transcendence, the sense of Revealed Truth, and authentic Christian humanism. Modern man, according to Franca, has become "uprooted," an orphan of a metaphysics that gives him meaning.
🏛️ The structure of civilization and the role of culture
The book contrasts the crisis scenario with the Catholic Christian path as sufficient and necessary to restore order: reconciling fragmented elements (humanism, philosophy, science, work, social dynamics) under the Catholic view of nature and man's destiny. The structure of the work reflects a concern with defining terms before applying remedies. Regarding the idea of civilization, Franca explores the origin of the term and its components. He distinguishes natural elements (soil, geography, and race - understood here not in a deterministic biological sense, but as the historical heritage and temperament of a people) and cultural elements (science, art, techniques, law, State, people/fatherland/nation). Civilization is seen as the organized social body, while culture would be the soul that animates this body.
Regarding the binomy of Humanism and Culture, the author establishes the intrinsic relationship between both; humanism acts as the specifying principle of civilization. Here, Franca combats the notion of culture as a mere accumulation of encyclopedic knowledge, defending it as the perfection of man's higher faculties towards Truth and the Good.
🩺 Detailed anatomy of the crisis
Leonel Franca's diagnosis deepens the distinction between symptoms and root causes. Visible symptoms manifest in institutional collapse (world wars, Nazi-fascist and Soviet totalitarianisms), global violence, and social fragmentation. The crisis of souls reveals itself through the loss of transcendence, exacerbated subjectivism, the reduction of man to matter or pure reason, and a frustrated aspiration for the infinite which, finding no God, turns to temporal idols.
As for historical and philosophical roots, he reiterates that the Reformation is seen as the origin of religious subjectivism, with Protestantism acting as "legionaries" of de-Christianization by secularizing faith and submitting it to the temporal power of princes. In philosophy, the Descartes/Kant/Hegel line consolidates the idealism that feeds modern ideologies. Franca is particularly incisive in noting that Marxism, although materialistic, is an heir to Hegelian dialectics, hijacking the noble theme of "work" for the purposes of class struggle. Added to this is Scientism and Secularism, promoting the undue separation between experimental science and philosophy. Technical utilitarianism degrades the unity of the world, transforming means (technique/economy) into absolute ends.
The depth of the crisis is, therefore, metaphysical: a wrong view of life and the world guides all human activities. The forgetfulness of "Being" and the absolutization of "Becoming" or the "Ego" constitute the fundamental error.
✝️ Restoration through integral humanism
The solutions proposed by Franca's traditional Catholic and Neo-Scholastic perspective involve, primarily, restoring Christian humanism. This must act as a specifying principle that integrates natural and cultural elements under the light of Revelation and Thomistic philosophy (the philosophia perennis). Unlike lay or anthropocentric humanism, which places man as the measure of all things and ends up destroying him, theocentric humanism recognizes human dignity rooted in divine filiation.
The reconciling force of Catholicism is highlighted, as Catholic Christianity is presented as the only force capable of reconciling opposites that modernity has separated: unity vs. diversity, transcendence vs. immanence, person vs. society, authority vs. freedom. To this end, Intellectual and Apologetic Action is necessary, with emphasis on the meditation of Truth, defense against errors (polemics against Protestantism and Modernism), and the formation of a constructive civilization opposed to de-Christianization. Franca exhorts the Brazilian intellectual elite not to settle for mediocrity but to seek the universality of Catholic thought.
A key citation from the preface summarizes this program: "Whether we like it or not, consciously or unconsciously, it is a philosophical view of life and a metaphysics of the world that guides our activity. All problems [...] ask for human solutions inspired by a concept of nature and the destinies of man" (Franca, 1941).
📜 Final considerations on style and legacy
The work is marked by the integration of experimental science with spiritual philosophy ("beyond physics," as the Greeks put it), rejecting both crass materialism and disembodied spiritualism. The critique of Protestantism as the root of modern errors connects with the author's previous works, such as "A Igreja, a Reforma e a Civilização" (The Church, the Reformation, and Civilization), forming a coherent corpus of historical analysis.
There is a valorization of philosophical quality over quantity: Brazil may have great thinkers by depth, not by number. The tone is apologetic and contemplative, written as a defense of Catholic Truth amidst the chaos of war. It is a work of synthesis, considered by critics a "Summa" of Franca's thought, confronting the Christian view with modernity and anticipating debates on the dignity of the human person that would be central in the post-war period.
Bibliographical References
FRANCA, Leonel. A Crise do Mundo Moderno. Rio de Janeiro: Adorno, 1941.
FRANCA, Leonel. A Igreja, a Reforma e a Civilização. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Civilização Brasileira, 1923.
FRANCA, Leonel. Noções de História da Filosofia. Rio de Janeiro: Agir, 1950.