RALPH BARTON PERRY’S ‘THEORY OF VALUE’ AS A TOOL FOR DISCERNING HUMAN MOTIVATION IN PRIESTLY FORMATION

Abstract

In the best of times, the task of forming young men for the Catholic priesthood is a complex one. Yet, we are in such times that only the presumptuous would dare argue that things are not downright perplexing. Those directly entrusted with this task in seminaries and other houses of formation are at times not even sure what else they could do. They engage candidates for formation whose goodwill and appropriate disposition cannot be ascertained. Nevertheless, they forge ahead with courage sustained by hope, that the Lord who calls and whose task they have accepted to fulfil, will show the way through the maze and complexities that formation has become in our time and age. Thus, it is an imperative that the effort to seek for better and improved ways of appropriately engaging in the task of forming young men for the Catholic Priesthood should be a never ending one. I propose here, a perspective which though pertains to axiology, nevertheless bears relevance to the said task. It is an approach which could, hopefully, be developed as a module, in aid of the formation process. Adopting an analytic methodology, it takes ‘the theory of value as interest’ as proposed by Ralph Barton Perry, to highlight certain elements of it, while indicating what could be included in an effort at evolving a model for the fulfilment of the task of forming priests for the Catholic Priesthood.