A Model Study‐Circle

Extract

In the winter of 1920-21 there was founded in Vienna the Association known as Logos. It was an Association or club of members of the University who sought to solve their problems and difficulties by discussion and research. There were under-graduates and graduates, scholars and professors, men and women of the learned professions : historians, scientists, doctors, lawyer, metaphysicians, linguists, social-philosophers and economists. Those were days of hardship and misery in Austria. The dismemberment of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, the breakdown of a world built five centuries before, the reversal of age-old traditions, poverty and unemployment, anti-religious movements and modern materialistic-rationalistic trends of thought, brought new social and individual needs and innumerable personal problems, and led a few people to gather together for discussion. They soon realised that only faith could provide a firm basis for their proceedings and that authoritative guidance on theological matters was essential. They, therefore, approached the Jesuit Fathers in Vienna and asked for the appointment of a Father to act as spiritual adviser at their meetings. This request was granted, and after a year’s intensive work by some twenty laymen of different learned professions of science and arts and after many experiments a certain definite method was tested and accepted and proved to be perfectly workable.