AMERICAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGY
Cooke, Bernard J.
AMERICAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGY BERNARD J. COOKE A\tale of three cities Like many others in the American Catholic community, I experienced great reassurance with the Detroit "Call to Action," a...
...Clearly, there is need for prudence, but prudence is not hesitancy...
...In this "listening-to-the-Spirit" approach to doing theology, Christian community will assume much greater importance for theological method, not only because Christianity sees the community as expressing the presence and action of Christ's Spirit but also because the entire community experiences this Spirit and must therefore be listened to by theologians...
...secondly, there is a relatively broad interest in and even involvement with "process thought," the attempt to employ the philosophical insights of Whitehead to gain new perspective on some of the classical questions about the relationship between divine and created...
...I think that one can interpret what is happening today as movement into new vitality, new vision, and new influence for Christianity...
...In such a view of history, human choice and achievement .play a central role and are seen as truly creative of the future...
...Clearly, this last-named has several basic implications for Christian theology...
...Basic alignment of theologians today is frequendy grounded in differing philosophical backgrounds, differing judgments about pastoral strategy, differing resonance with political and sovial developments-had not in differing doctrinal beliefs...
...History is the progressive creation of humanity by men and women whose freedom is a decisive input into the unfolding of the future...
...yet for the moment there is little attempt to incorporate such modes of thought into the theological enterprise...
...There /ire some indications that today's ecumenical thrust is irreversible...
...but it must be fearless in listening critically to new and challenging voices_9 Unless it does this, it cannot by its own secure trust in Christianity's faith bear witness to the truth of that faith in the academic marketplace.' More basically, without the questions and the insights that can come from these "alien" sources, the theological community within the church will be unable to fulfill its role as a major source for the church's historical development of understanding...
...So, we are faced with the need to make some sense out of present-day theology...
...if so, this dictates some important items for Catholic theology's agenda...
...Admittedly, the Hartford document is diflicuit to assess: the various theses enunciated are carefully couched so as to take possession of the middle ground...
...Considerable impact has filtered through Rahner and Lonergan, both of whom have sizable and influential groups of disciples in North America, but there is still quite little direct study of modem philosophical metaphysics that has flowed into theology, and there is little felt need to alter this situation_9 Two exceptions to this general statement must be made: among the "younger generafion" of theologians (including a rapidly growing humCommonweal: 521 ber of womeaL especially among those trained somewhere else than in seminaries or in Rome, there is a growing group of scholars who systematically utilize non-scholastic philosophy in their own theological reflection...
...All of these are reflected in post-World War II movements of theological confrontation with the realities of human history--such as recent theologies of hope, of politics, of liberation...
...One of the most basic issues facing today's theologians is the incorporation by Christian theology of modern philosophical thought...
...What is involved is that history is not simply the context for Christian experience, the ever-changing stage upon which the drama of human salvation is played...
...T.hat a "secularity" which leaves no place for sin or salvation represents a radical challenge to Christian faith is obvious enough...
...Certainly, one thing that bids seriously for such distinction is the development of inodern historical consciousness.which leads us to our second question...
...This worry is felt and pronounced even more starkly by the professedly "con18 August 1978:522 servative" wing of the American church...
...how is ecumenism affecting Catholic theology...
...While both of these developments (which, incidentally, see Catholic and other Christian theologians working in close cooperation) need assessing, and some of the "insights" being presently suggested may not eventually stand the test of careful criticism, it seems fair to say that they have provided an important challenge to other Catholic theologians to 'examine the bases for their own understandings...
...Most American Catholics, even a number of Catholic theologians, are relatively ignorant of the massive academic enterprise represented by the term "religious studies" and therefore have never considered the need to relate Catholic beliefs to it...
...Nothing comparable has (at least to my knowledge) been done by a Roman Catholic theologian...
...and one can mention a few names-Coleman, Baum, Greeley, Berger--that represent a convergence of theological and social scientific thought...
...The prominence of competent Catholic scholars in these areas of study is an indication of how far we have come in bridging the gap between Catholic theology and "the modern mind...
...Some fruitful avenues of study have been suggested, perhaps most importantly by Schubert Ogden in his presidential address to the December convention of the American Academy of Religion...
...poetry and song and liturgy are more proper instiumeats in this realm, but theology can help Christian poets avoid misappropriate metaphor and help liturgies avoid sentimentality or empty formalism...
...Quite simply, if created reality is not fully real, God is not fully a creator God...
...Human experience, with some particular attention given to its more formally religious moments, is seen ~o be a basic word of God upon which theologians must reflect...
...To neglect such avenues of insight would be a strange impoverishment of Christian thought...
...But it also draws attention to Christianity as a faith grounded in decision, to the resurrection of Jesus as "realized eschatology," to Christianity's heritage of hope and to its missionary responsibility to share such hope...
...The Hartford Appeal is an excellent illustration...
...If one does pursue such a view of history and of humans' role in it, there definitely is more uncertainty and relativity in human life...
...Since this is essentially an evolution of theology about the Spirit of Christ, it cannot have the clarity of clear-cut explanation, much less that of dogmatic formulation...
...What keeps this from being fruitless navel-gazing or just another manifestation of the insecurity afflicting so much of the church today is the fact that/radical changes are being introduced into theology's classic mode of procedure, changes which if their creative possibilities are to be realized demand from theology increased and structured self-understanding...
...a fairly widespread understanding of theological procedure is needed among Christians in general, so that there are not faulty expectations of theologians and unjust accusations regarding their failure to he doing w ha~ they should...
...Selection of "secularity" as the enemy has been both perceptive and misleading...
...One of the gains in the more recent approach to understanding God's action in history has certainly been the increased evaluation of the reality and importance of created things and persons...
...What is already underway is a long-delayed learning process, in which theologians of diver@ Christian traditions are listening to voices from other camps, and in beginning fashion drawing from other traditions in their theological reflection...
...One of the important discoveries of ecumenical dialogue has been, however, that difference of view is more often than not based on something other than denominational distinctions...
...Now, people like Berger know this as well as anyone, which makes one suspect that to some extent their pronouncements are a "gut reaction" (which does not make them less true), a worry about future deviations that cannot yet be satisfactorily defined, a concern about a drift towards unbalanced and unprofessional flirting with theological novelties...
...Yet, it is worth noting that the opening statement of the Hartford Appeal already draws attention to the dangers of modem thought: "Theme 1: Modern thought is superior to all past forms of understanding reality...
...Theology can be seen (particularly in a seminary context) as a process carried on within a denominational community, more or less officially committed to defending the confessional declarations and safeguarding the traditional beliefs of that community--in which case prospective theologians are recruited for their "safety" rather than for being innovative...
...Spirit is not Word...
...Thus, "schools" of theology tend to cut across confessi3nal lines...
...A third development in theological method demands some attention, even though it must be unjustly brief...
...It seems, then, that within the basic area of methodology the underlying problem (and therefore the most basic tension) is the manner in 'which traditional Christian understandings can be brought into some kind of enlightening relationship with "modern thought...
...Christian theology must not be foolhardy or superficial in committing its religious heritage and intellectual integrity to faddish movements...
...This has threatened to deprive theologians of the support of a nurturing and sympathetic community and made it humanly more difficult for them to engage fully in the risky venture of asking the ultimate questions...
...But twentieth-century humans have a diversity of disciplined ways in which they clarify and deepen their understandings, most characteristically through the social and behavioral sciences...
...Here we observe a division even among relatively more progressive thinkers...
...Bible, liturgy, traditional church formulations--these, too, act as indispensable "words...
...If there is increasing consciousness of modem epistemological concerns, there is less creative encounter with modem metaphysics...
...the post-Hartford controversies have ilins~rated this quite strikingly...
...but the question of thz divine influence on human life is asked in even sharl~r form: in such a worldview, where humans are recognized to be determinative of their destiny...
...But this is a notoriously uncertain venture, whose success is conditioned to a large extent by the presence of genuine prophetic voices in the church or (as a second-best) by the presence of balanced and creative theology...
...and it may well be that the most profound change going on in Christian thought today is the altered view of "divine providence...
...Like any other theological shift, this stress on the importance of the sensible world, above all on the autonomy and freedom and (if one uses the term carefully) ultimacy of humans, can be pushed to excess...
...and the now well-known Hartford Appeal suggests that much present Catholic theology is not clear-headed, that much of it may even be misleading, and that clarification is required within theological circles before theologians can provide their proper kind of leadership within the church...
...But "modern thought" is many things, and it may be worth the effort to single out one or other element of post-med!eval thinking which has particularly caused questions and ferment in Christian theology...
...the Spirit can only be pointed to by our formalized thought and language...
...Granted the intrinsic tension built into this emerging confrontation between use of classic philosophy and use of more modern philosophy, one Wonders if there is not a deeper tension--in the very concept of what theology is aH about...
...18 August 1978" 324...
...and if anything is questionable about the statement, it is the reason for its existence and the vaguely formulated and free-floating suspicions it raises--suspicions that have unjustly been attached to various thinkers in the months since the Appears appearance...
...Methodology 1. Like other disciplines of knowledge today, Christian theology is almost obsessively concerned with its own methodology...
...But the names are few, and it is symptomatic of the present "crossing of lines" that it is Peter Berger, one of the most important influences in bringing about some interaction of sociological and theological thought, who has sounded the alarm about dangerous currents of "secular" theology and organized (along with Richard Neuhaus) the Hartford meeting to marshal opposition to such danger...
...On the other hand, theology can be viewed as a search for new understandings of a community's faith, as directed to discovery rather than to confirmationin which case exploration of new ideas and proposal of new hypotheses are looked upon with approbation rather than suspicion...
...but not apart from the experience of men and women that tells them in practical terms about the meaning and purpose of their lives, Though we are but at the fumbling beginnings of that rather new way of doing theology, we can already begin to see that theological reflection upon the religious experience of Christian communities will open up quite new approaches to Christology and to trinitarian questions...
...Recognition has been granted to a propaedeutic role, i.e., preparing more careful data for" theology to consider, but (apart from the important exception of Christian ethical reflection) little attention given to utilizing these social scientific methods within theology itself...
...Like many others, I have had mixed emotions about the recent Chicago Declaration, perhaps feeling most keenly a frustration because I do not know exactly how to answer the question: how do we "get our act together" so that we move from restlessness to a creative response to our unparalleled opportunities...
...Theologians like Schillebeeckx and Schoonenberg, obviously influenced by psychology and modern emphasis on personality, have sketched out the main lines of such a "theology of divine presence," and have used it to open up understanding in Christology, ecclesiology, and sacramental theology as well as in dealing with the question of God's direction of creation...
...In some circles, this attempt by Catholic theologians to listen and learn from nonCatholic thought is still viewed with considerable suspicion...
...As this ceases to mark a large segment of Catholic theology today, worries and even misunderstandings are to be expected...
...It is one thing to say, "Even though there are dangers, still modern thought is a precious resource...
...9 . . In repudiating this theme . . . . " The Appeal does go on to balance this with "We favor using any helpful means of understanding, ancient or modem...
...Liberation theology," of course, claims to do just that...
...Fortunately, not all clarification has to come from theologians...
...Supported by the rediscovery of the biblical emphasis on the "created," both in the distinctiveness of biblical insight into the transcendent "otherness" of God and his creation and in the genuine created humanness of Jesus, contemporary theologians have been able to challenge the long-standing heritage of Greek thought's under-estimation of created reality...
...how is theology coming to grips with modern historical consciousness...
...What may be the deepest level of identification among theologians of a given "school" is a certain community of Christian experience...
...For a variety of reasons, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of secondary causes in the shaping of history, a recognition that is at once a recovery of biblical emphases and a result of modern scientific attitudes...
...It is precisely a fear of venturing into the unknown, a clinging to the past instead of opening to the future, that have seemed to characterize so much Catholic theological reaction to modern thought...
...By now there is broad recognition of the need to recover from the past the insights that enriched earlier generations of faith...
...It is the entire community that is prophetic...
...Like all challenges to the adequacy of our theological understanding, this recent questioning about "provi= denee" has led to some promising developments, particularly in opening up the understanding of God's presence...
...but it also promises to be as exciting as that of the church...
...Commonweal: 523 For Christian theologians the matter of theological pluralism has particular relevance because of the ecumenical developments that have marked the past half century...
...To situate clearly my remarks, .let me note two areas that I will not treat, because they are too important to receive any subordinate mention: 1) One of the key problems facing Roman Catholic theology is the apparently hardening view of many bishops regarding their claims to be the exclusive referent of the term magisterium...
...and quite another to say (as the Hartford statement does), "Even though modem thought has its value, still we must beware of its dangers...
...Rather, history is the process of men and women working out their destiny in interaction with the divine saving presence...
...To a large extent this by-passes the classic formulations about the problem of "predestination and free will...
...If so, this coincides with the tendency in some theological circles to stress Christian experience rather than doctrinal formulations as theology's starting point...
...and leaving aside all pretensions to discern among the conflicting claims to prophetism in today's church, I would like to hazard a view of some of the things going on in American Catholic theology...
...and basic to that prophetic role is the whole community's responsibility to "read the signs of the times...
...in this case to eliminating the need for God as the sustainer and savior of history...
...perhaps it is Catholic theology's chief contribution today to read "the signs of the times" with such hope...
...Actually, it is not enough that professional theologians reflect on what they should be doing...
...This seems to threaten a regression to the oppressive witch-hunting climate of the pre-Vatican II era at the very time when the Catholic community needs the guidance of theological expertise...
...This matter needs careful but completely frank airing...
...Yet, it is a little difficult to see why David Tracy, Langdon Gilkey, and (to a lesser extent) Gregory Baum should be identified as targets by two of Hartford's most ardent defenders, Avery Dulles and Peter Berger--or perhaps it is not difficult, since these three are creative enough and professional enough to give undeniable credibility to the "exploring" wing of current Christian theology, and too influential to overlook...
...Having said what I will not do, I would like to attempt some analysis of the American theological 18 August 1978:520 scene, grouping my remarks as response to three questions: what do theologians think they are doing...
...There is even a wide acceptance of the notion of historical development and some acceptance of the relativity that this introduces into any statement or experience of the past...
...3. Reflection on theology's encounter with historical consciousness brings us logically to our third question, the impact of ecumenism...
...Happily, the Hartford Appeal--as was its stated intent--has triggered a number of clarifying essays, not least by some of the Hartford signers (for example, George Lindbeck's valuable essay in Against the World ]or the World)_9 There is no question about it, the modem thought that has come out of the Enlightenment is a profound challenge, no place more than in the radical epistemological issues it raises about all human knowing and especially religious knowing_9 Catholic theology's longstanding unwillingness to deal creatively with Kantianism illustrates an awareness of this challenge, but the highly-respected syntheses of Rahner and T.~nergan make it clear that we can learn from such sources without abandoning our own traditions or lessening our faith_9 Though the deeper issues raised by Kant and other classic Enlightenment thinkers are still very much with us, the truth and certitude questions about Christian faith and doctrine are today formulated by linguistic analysis of "God-talk" or by application of form criticism, redaction criticism, and (most recently) stmcturalist methodologies to the biblical texts...
...2. Important attempts to come to grips with the historical dimension of Christianity go back at least as far as Mohler and Newman, but the task is far from achieved...
...No doubt, this is still done hesitamly and by a relatively few thinkers in each of the Christian churches...
...Implicit in any acceptance of the relativity of historical reality is a pluralistic approach to human knowledge, particularly knowledge of the divine~since all such knowledge must of necessity proceed from historically conditioned human experience...
...Those involved in ecumenical discourse know full well that we are engaged in more than just a resolution of conflicts, a removal of barriers to community reunion...
...All this means that Catholic theology's future is as uncertain as is that of the church...
...But alongside Detroit and Chicago stands Hartford...
...One of the disturbing aspects of the Catholic Church in the States today is the ease and unquestioning self-justificadon with which some conservative elements in the church ally themselves with questionable fundamentalist currents at the same time that they attack "liberal" thinkers for disloyalty...
...We can see this in theology's use of scripture to get at the faith experience of the biblical communities, in the reconsideration of "tradition" as the evolving religious experience of the Christian community, and in current recognition of Christian experience (particularly in its community aspects) as the "externalization" of the Spirit...
...We seem cleady at a moment of far-reaching decision, and as a working theologian I would hope that clear-headed theological thought guides the North American Church at this moment...
...If history is really being given to men and women to shape by their decisions, this dearly makes the future a more risky venture...
...But there is no need to go to such lengths in working out a more "creation-respecting" approach to a theology of divine providence...
...And even these few, who if anything represent willingness and openness and a relative lack of prejudice, lind it difficult to shed their previously acquired misunderstanding...
...What diminishes, at least for the time being, the interaction of the "older" and "newer" currents of theology on the American scene is the fact that to a large extent the more scholastic practitioners operate within the context of the Catholic Theological Society while their "younger" confreres function more within the American Academy of Religion...
...Classically, theology has been thought of as the process of expanding the understanding of the faith through application of a philosophical way of knowing...
...There does, however, seem to be a growing gap between the two groups and the recent dispute between Berger and Dulles on the one side and Tracy and Gilkey on the other suggests that the movement away from scholastic patterns will be greeted with considerable worry and even suspicion...
...what is there left for God to do...
...This is understandable: unless the premise of knowledge's inevitable pluralism is acknowledged, it can quite logically seem chat acceptance of Protestant insights necessitates the abandonment of elements ,~f the Catholic ~radition...
...AMERICAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGY BERNARD J. COOKE A\tale of three cities Like many others in the American Catholic community, I experienced great reassurance with the Detroit "Call to Action," a sense that the creative currents that one associated with Vatican II were still very much at work...
...Obviously, this newer view of history represents a revision of the previously attributed role of God and humans...
...2) Another critical area for discussion deals with Christian theology's relationship "outward," its situation and role within the collection of knowledges gathered under the umbrella of "religious studies...
...This points to some validity in the worry about "theological secularism...
...What is only slowly emerging is the realization that history is a basic modality of all human existing and consciousness, including faith and religion...
...but there is Jalso a fundamental strain of biblical thought and of Christian historical tradition that suggests that insistence on the reality arid importance of "secular reality" is the obverse of insistence on the transcendonce of God...
...but the subordination of elements is key to the attitude being reflected and the value judgment being made...
Vol. 105 • August 1978 • No. 16
