Levels of liberal consensus
Tracy, David
studying scripture, scholars like Kiing are led to treat questions like immortality in terms of "a kind of 'pious agnosticism.'" "Even the Christian believer who takes Jesus as his or her model is...
...He speaks of them as Catholic theology's "most vigorous intellectual renaissance since the high Middle Ages...
...AUTHORITY Levels of liberal consensus I DAVID TRACY T HOMAS SHEEHAN'S RECENT article on "Revolution in Catholicism" in the New York Review of Books (June 14, 1984) has caused a stir...
...Second, there are also inevitably disputes on the conclusions arrived at...
...They believe those doctrines even while holding that, on the scriptural evidence alone as inter- preted through historico-critical methods, the historian as his- torian can hardly be expected to know much about what Jesus actually thought...
...Finally, the "consensus allows wide-ranging internal dispute, but it draws lines that include certain presuppositions and exclude others...
...It is, to repeat, all more complicated than that...
...It seems somehow ungracious (or, at least, ungrateful) to comment on his work publicly only when I basically disagree with it...
...How, asks Sheehan at this point, can one understand the church's momentum despite the fact that "the liberal consen- sus has pushed Catholic theology to the point where it seems to break down...
...C ONSIDER THE FOLLOWING analogy: a particular political philosopher (say John Rawls or Robert Nozick) develops a concept of "justice...
...The fact is- that Thomas Sheehan's technical work on Heidegger has aided me and many others greatly in trying to understand that modern classic...
...Theologically, the prophetic strand in the Catholic tradition impels self-criticism and self-reforni on its own religious and theological grounds...
...2. This consensus applies to a relatively limited area of the fuller range of Catholic theology: specifically, to how one interprets the scriptures and the "historical Jesus" (not simply "Jesus," as Sheehan states...
...Two of them have very kindly provided responses to the Sheehan article...
...It means, therefore, that an individual has a personal trust (faith) in Jesus Christ in present experience...
...Not only would it cut off the arms supply the administration persists in believing is the key to Salvadoran insurgency...
...The philosopher may claim that the theory is a necessary corrective of a major or minor flaw in the practice or self-understanding of the tradition which should be acceptable on the basis of the principles of the tradition...
...Some theologians may even be called upon to play the role of a loyal opposition --which is still, I trust, a responsible role for any "citizen" of any community...
...Refuse to use it at all and you're on your way to enlisting in fundamentalism...
...Because, even on strictly hermeneutical grounds, the central christological affirmation is: "I/We be- lieve in Jesus Christ with the apostles...
...But it seems to me that in all his theological efforts, Kiing (or, for that matter, the liberal consensus) has pushed Catholic theology to the limits of its own language...
...2. The liberal consensus has not been sufficiently hard- headed to see that there is no middle ground between fun- damentalism and secular agnosticism...
...One becomes confused by all these issues which are somehow related (how...
...Many have warned that this strategy, possibly involving a major Nicaraguan "incursion" by Honduran troops, and an expanded army of Nicaraguan contras, with U.S...
...My major misgiving is this: I am a great admirer of Thomas Sheehan (and an occasional acquaintance...
...So Sheehan is right, I think, in his basic description of the liberal consensus for interpreting the scriptures...
...The Catholic theologians to whom Sheehan di- rects our attention follow Vatican II, and consent to that self-reforming principle...
...Like all too many philosophers and theologians (particularly on Catholic faculties), Professor Sheehan's social science is a generation too old...
...The philosopher may claim that this theory of justice is a genuine development or refinement of traditional American notions...
...Is its natural destination finally a vague "pious agnosticism" or a conventional liberal humanism, perhaps inspired by a subjectively appealing "'myth...
...Cognitive psychologists, researchers in artificial intelligence, post-stmcturalist students of human development, and cultural an- thropologists have developed converging approaches to the issues of knowing and language which are pertinent to the question of religious knowledge and religious language...
...We agree with the warn- ings but are not sure about the conclusion...
...In sum, there are levels of ever more tentative consensus...
...It is possible but, as I hope to persuade him, not likely...
...9It is easy to see why the White House might hold that excising the Sandinistas is the most direct route to a solution in El Salvador...
...The church is also the "church always in need of reformation" (ecclesia semper reformanda...
...Confusion, for me, became sheer disbelief when I then read the following lines in the middle of the article...
...The Catholic tradition is much too multifaceted and polyvalent to be demolished by a handful of theologians, however skilled, precisely because, as Father Tracy demon- strates, its experience of the presence of God (radically differ- ent from that of the other three Yahwistic religions --Islam, Judaism, and Protestantism), its images and symbols of God, and its stories which recount the experience and explicate the symbols are unique...
...But I soon sensed something had gone awry...
...Moreover, his assumption is at odds with the thinking of many of the social scientists who are on the leading edge of the search for explanations of how we humans know...
...But those articles, alas, did not cause the stir that this recent article did...
...For Catholics (and indeed most mainline Christians) tradition is also thereby fundamen'tally trusted...
...liberal exegesis and theology advancing in scholarly circles...
...What I think went wrong is something like this: a review of Hans Kiing's book On Eternal Life...
...Largely, he answers, in terms of "the church's gradual shift of concern away from theoretical questions and toward social, political, and moral issues like nuclear warfare, abortion, and liberation theology," a shift he calls "one of the major consequences of the undoing of traditional theology...
...This is true, but something more surely needs to be said before an unwary reader leaps to the conclusion: "Oh, these scholars now deny the divinity of Christ and the reality of the Trinity...
...8/10/84 the ecclesial community by a particular theologian as a result of her or his earlier free theological interpretations...
...It all depends on what kind of society the United States wants to be...
...We hope the discussion will continue...
...I thought we were talking about the liberal consensus on scriptural scholarship among Catholic exegetes and theologians and how Ki~ng is clearly committed to that consensus and exemplifies it in his new book...
...what is "supernatural revelation...
...10016 Please send the next 6 months of Commonweal to: Name Address City, State, Zip [] I prefer a full year subscription at $24...
...As one reflects on that belief in Jesus Christ, one may also realize that one fundamentally trusts in the tradition which mediates that faith to us in word, sacrament, and action...
...On this reading, therefore, there are different levels and degrees of "consensus...
...and (b) that it stimulates politi- cal, social, and economic activism as a compensation for doctrinal uncertainty...
...Indeed, such a procedure risks rhetorically the endorsement of a new form of "conclusion theology" which we could well do without...
...4, 1982) have been, quite simply, the best articles that journal has published on religion or theology...
...some further reflections on Sheehan's interpretations seem in order...
...Moreover the consensus is "not on a body of dogmas but on the questions to be asked and the methods for answering them...
...b) the memory-images of Jesus maintained by and shaped by the early communities and redactors which can also be reconstructed by historico- critical methods...
...As a consumer rather than a producer of theology, I will be content with the observation that the extremely limited nature of Pro- fessor Sheehan's thinking is indicated by the fact that he either does not know or does not report that the first question FATHER ANDREW M. GREELEY, currently a professor of sociology at the University of Arizona, is Senior Study Director of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago...
...A good deal of the article, to be sure, demonstrates Sheehan's proven virtues: for example, his brief but clear history of the impact of Pius XII's encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu for Catholic biblical scholarship and what a difference it made...
...The reasons why this is so can probably be filed under what theologians call "the human situation...
...In fact, he has brought it to the point where one can ask what its teachings have to offer that cannot be found outside the scope of its experience and discourse...
...So, in good Catholic fashion, I con- fess: I would rather write an article on how good Thomas Sheehan's other New York Review articles and his Heidegger work are...
...There are better candidates for Catholic distinctiveness --some examples are a sense of trust in tradition, a sense of community, a sense of sacramentality, and a sense of a crucial role for "reason" in "faith...
...Theologically, it is all more complicated than that -- as Sheehan's earlier article on Rahner showed...
...It is the case that Catholic scholars use historico-critical methods in their exegesis and that the conclu- sions they reach do sometimes contradict traditional under- standings of what the scriptures mean...
...Really...
...Stated thus baldly one wonders how Professor Sheehan can possibly propound it...
...Announcements of how the present "lib- eral consensus" in Catholic theology has occasioned the loss of any distinctively Catholic vision of reality are even more likely to unleash the furies...
...Theologians present their scholarly, independent arguments and interpretations (including, as part of a larger whole, their scriptural interpretations) to the wider community of inquiry called theology for critical assessment...
...I I I with some misgivings...
...Obviously, Sheehan's article raises major questions about the state of Catholic theology...
...The same political philosopher may also believe that this proposal has important implications for the society in which he or she attempts to be a responsible citizen...
...Sheehan moves quickly through several other issues and makes several points on loosely related controversial questions (e.g...
...These are, I think, important qualifi- cations worth noting about the liberal consensus...
...Tom Sheehan, won't you please come home...
...Commonweal, August 12, 1983 6 months for $9 OFFER FOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS ONLY COMMONWEAL, 232 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y...
...I shall return to this point at the end of my commentary...
...It does not follow that exegisis can (or should) simply replace the tradition...
...The church is the bearer of that tradition to us from the "apostles...
...Use the historico-critical method at all on the scriptures and you're on the way to joining the "liberal consensus...
...This is true even for Kiing and Schillebeeckx who do accord an important corrective role to "historical Jesus" re-search but not a constitutive role --that belongs to Jesus Christ...
...It is possible, of course, that I became confused --or, worse, unnerved -- by his portrait of what the "liberal consensus" in Catholic theol- ogy really leads to...
...Not only would it eliminate what the president terms a Soviet and Cuban "base...
...Announcements of revolu- tion tend to do that...
...The "historical Jesus" means that knowledge of Jesus which can be reached through the use of modern historico-critical methods...
...in the New York Review of Books is in fact a description of what Sbeehan calls the "liberal consen- sus" among Catholic theologians...
...became the occasion for reflection on the wider "liberal consensus" in Catholic theol- ogy...
...But Sheehan also poses the possibility that the "liberal consensus" could push "beyond its limits," abandon belief in Jesus's resurrection and in any afterlife, and return to "the pre-apocaiyptic faith of the prophets with its moral, social, and political concerns...
...I began reading Sheehan's latest article with high expecta- tions...
...To what extent is his account of the "liberal consensus" accurate or complete...
...There can exist a liberal consensus on methods of interpretation of scripture side by side with far less theological consensus on how to use the results of these methods in Catholic theology...
...We discussed these and other questions with several Catholic scholars...
...Catholicism is too rich and pluralistic a tradition to be reduced to such unlikely candidates for distinctiveness as refusal to accept historico-critical methods or a refusal to abandon a notion of rationality which involves a neo-Scholastic concept of proof which does not prove anything...
...He clearly admires the liberals' scholarship and inten- tions...
...THE EDITORS I II EXEGESIS, TRADITION...
...As Rudolf Bultmann once observed, if you so much as question a literal reading of the trumpet at the Last Judgment, you have the same set of problems as the rest of us...
...Now, what does all this mean...
...Here they will have to face a further question for interpretation: how to interpret the nature of the It Might Work...
...For all these rea- sons, they conclude, it won't work...
...One such source (there are many others) is the use of historico-critical methods on the church's own normative witness, the scriptures...
...Vatican II was a major expression of precisely this ecclesial self- recognition...
...But here I think Thomas Sheehan will agree with me...
...The famous "Denziger-theology" of the old teaching manuals didn't work...
...If theologians also believe that their conclusions have relevance, for example, as "developments" or "correctives," for the wider ecclesial community, they will also present their results in appropriate form to that community...
...Not to distinguish these levels and the kinds of methods and argu- ments appropriate to each is to ask the "liberal consensus" on scriptural interpretation to carry far more weight in theology as a whole than it possibly can...
...In short, the problems of "responsible citizenship" for the theologian in the church are as real, as difficult, and as soluble as the analogous problems of a politi- cal philosopher in American society...
...to the earlier more narrowly defined issue of a "liberal consensus" on scriptural methods...
...A "Reagan Doc- trine" might in fact "work" in Central America, in the same way the Brezhnev Doctrine has so far "worked" in Eastern Europe and possibly may "work" in Afghanistan...
...Such sympathy may even obscure, for some readers, the otherwise striking fact that Sheehan's conclusions coincide with two major conservative charges against liberal, post-conciliar theology: (a) that it eventually empties Catho- licism of all distinctive belief...
...Some day we might even possess a theological consensus on how theological proposals for either develop- ment or correction should function in the whole church and still not have a consensus on any particular proposal...
...But then something strange happens and keeps hap- pening throughout the rest of the article until the reader reaches the curious, not to say weird, conclusion about where the liberal consensus could end, with Sheehan speculating on whether the church could"shelve" its belief in Jesus' s and our resurrection and concentrate on "intrinsic moral, social, and political concerns" in what Sheehan terms "Pascal's wager in reverse...
...I wish, how- ever, that he spent more time on these scholars' methods and questions rather than on simply listing some of their conclu- sions...
...And simply to list"conclusions" from scriptural exegesis and ignore how those conclusions are, in fact, related to theological proposals for the Catholic com- munity by individual theologians (and not only by Cardinal Baum) does not help much...
...conservatives en- trenched in "their shrinking pockets of power...
...The New Testament was first described as the "apostolic writ- ings...
...The philosopher may even decide that, in this case, her duty as a responsible citizen demands an exercise of "civil dis- obedience" to a given law in order for the society to realize its own ideals of justice...
...The "historical Jesus," therefore, is a technical term to be distinguished from (a) the Jesus of Nazareth who actually lived...
...But suddenly "Catholic theology" is unraveling...
...But before Catholics United for the Faith and The Wanderer (and their mysterious Vatican sub- scribers) rush to the fray brandishing the New York Review, no less, as Exhibit A of all their fears (or hopes...
...The fact is that one would be hard-pressed to find a Catholic biblical scholar who denies either...
...New Pluralism in Theologyand The Analogical Imagination: Christian Th~ogy and the Culture of Pluralism (both Crossroad Books...
...Until Thomas Sheehan fills in the gaps in his interpretation, which moves all too quickly from an earlier "liberal consen- sus" on the methods of scriptural exegesis, to discussions of "proofs," to brief descriptions of revelation and faith, to puzzling characterizations of "Protestants" and Catholic "folk religion," to announcements that perhaps there's noth- ing distinctive left in Catholic Christianity, to facile distinc- tions between "intellectual" and "activist" enterprises, to curious "what if" arguments leading to "Pascal in reverse," I do not believe I (or he) should be persuaded by his analysis...
...Note the present battle between those biblical scholars who employ historico-critical methods alone and those who insist that literary-critical methods or methods of ideology-critique are necessary for understanding what, for example, the parables as parables actually mean...
...This philosopher then makes this propo- sal (with its arguments) to the community of inquirers compe- tent to judge it (political philosophers...
...Not all the "startling" conclusions listed by Sheehan are representative of widespread scholarly consensus --for example, on how to interpret the still highly controverted "Son of Man" sayings...
...Sheehan's article, it should be noted, is written with consid- erable sympathy for these exegetical and theological devel- opments...
...Even if that were avail- able, one would still not necessarily have a consensus on how the results of that theological method should function in the wider church...
...The political philosopher now has the additional task of interpreting how the proposal on justice does or does not accord with the self-understanding of American society and its particular authorities (the Constitution, the courts, legislatures and legislation, etc...
...what did the "folk religion" of popular Catholicism really hold...
...Still, Sheehan is correct to insist that anyone who accepts the historico-critical method at all is, in some sense, part of the "liberal consensus" on how scholars interpret the scriptures...
...If one ac- cepts this method, then the only alternative to fundamentalism is agnosticism...
...His books include The New Agenda, American Catholic: A Social Portrait, The Making of the Popes, and several best-selling works officaon...
...So, with apologies, if such be needed, to a thinker and writer I admire, here goes...
...3. On the whole (i.e., allowing for many "internal dis- putes") Catholic theologians have been wary of according too great a theological role to the results of exegesis on the ,histor- ical Jesus...
...The christological confession reads and means " what it says...
...All this lends credibility to the author' s ultimately rather devastating view of the current developments' limits and im- plications...
...The consensus consists in "the scientific methods employed and the conclusions generated...
...My principal effort in this commentary will be on the second proposition...
...That's what the confession says and, theologically, that's also what it means...
...The analysis seemed unfocused and finally confused...
...NEITHER FUHDAMENTALISM NOR AGNOSTICISM The ways of knowing ANDREW M. GREELEY T HOMAS SHEEHAN'S LONG REVIEW of Hans Kiing's Eter-nal Life...
...It follows that the results of that exegesis can (and often do) correct, refine, develop, and challenge traditional ecclesial self-under-standings...
...It would also teach an unmis- takable lesson: even if revolutionaries do take power in El Salvador or elsewhere, they are not going to retain it . . . says the full military might of the United States...
...about the distinctiveness of Catholic teachings --has been answered by what should be recognized as the Summa of the "liberal consensus," David Tracy's The Analogical Imagina- tion...
...Its reverse side --an anti-Denziger theology of new "shocking" conclusions --won't work any better...
...Things may continue as currently: Rome slapping "a few more wrists in a futile effort to stop the liberal movements launched by the Second Vatican Council...
...Again, fair enough...
...A FTER THIS INTERPRETATION of the liberal consensus, the article heads out to sea...
...and the social gospel vigorously pursued...
...As a responsible citizen, the political philosopher now proposes the same theory to, say, American society...
...Moreover, given the nat~are of the scriptures as confessional documents, the historian can reach the plausi- ble conclusion that in many cases it is more likely that state- ments attributed to Jesus were added by the Christian believers who wrote these texts to affirm their faith in Jesus Christ rather than made by Jesus himself...
...Does the com- mitment of the "liberal consensus" to scientific methods of scriptural scholarship really lead to the impasse he describes...
...I hope to show that social science theoriz- ing today about the nature of knowing does not at all demand a choice between agnosticism (of the liberal political variety) and fundamentalism...
...logistical, communication, and air support, might entail fierce fighting, acquiescence in a post-victory bloodbath, prolonged repres- sion of social and nationalist aspirations, and enormous long- range damage to America's world posture...
...Surely there are enough philosophers and theologians who have effectively refuted such a dichotomy --Ricoeur, Polanyi, Ramsey, Barbour, as well as Tracy, Lonergan, and Rahner within the Catholic tradition...
...In effect, Christianity may be a useful "myth" which "inspires some people to do what all human beings should do: be sensitive, intelligent, reason- able, loving, and just...
...The issues he raises in this recent article are too important, and the interpretations he gives of where Catholic theology is going too troubling, not to respond...
...and (c) the Jesus Christ of faith -- witnessed to in the scriptures, the entire tradition, and in an individual or community's present experience of Jesus Christ in word and sacrament...
...The further fact is that Sheehan's previous articles in the New York Review on Catho- lic theology, especially his extraordinary article on Karl Rahner ("The Dream of Karl Rahner," Feb...
...Fair enough...
...And was it really necessary to list those conclusions with minimal explanation of their meaning and a maximal use of rhetorical shock value...
...It does mean that, on the church's own theological self-understanding, they see the church as open to correction, challenge, purification from any source which can aid its reform...
...My own response to Sheehan's article is offered, I admit, I I FATHER DAVID TRACY is a professor of theology at the University of Chicago...
...If you demand "proofs," then return to Ludwig Ott --or get yourself on Phyllis Schlaf- ly's mailing list...
...It seems that this earlier "consensus" has been expanded be- yond its clear and limited range to include a "consensus" on the theological method in its entirety and that the latter, in turn, has brought Catholic theology "to the limits of its own lan- guage" and the loss of its own distinctiveness...
...If you do not trust the members of the liberal consensus of our own day on all this, then consider liberals of earlier days --for example, Thomas Aquinas or John Henry Newman...
...On the whole, Jthese exegetical results serve genuinely corrective but not constitutive functions in Catholic theology...
...What the texts he cites, (including Hans Kiing's new book) and the issues he raises show, I suggest, can be described in alternative terms like the following: 1. There is a consensus in scriptural scholarship among Catholic exegetes and theologians which can be described in the terms Sheehan provides with the two qualifications added above...
...A contributor to many journals, he is the author of Blessed Rage for Ordet...
...For myself, I would rather stay with all the real Catholics --like Geraldine Ferraro and Thomas Sheehan...
...If they were honest with themselves, Kiing and the other members of the consensus would be able to say "As far as one can know, when you're dead, you're dead --and the same holds for Jesus, Rather than hoping him out of the tomb, leave him there and try to live the kind of life that got him to his grave" a life, according to Professor Sheehan, of moral, social, and political concerns...
...What is new in modem Catholic theology is a greater recognition that the tradition which is fundamentally trusted as the mediator of this faith is also, like all traditions, ambiguous and thereby in constant need of correction and self-reform...
...But what is this "consensus" and what does it mean for Catholic theology...
...And confusion spreads...
...This Catholic confes- sion of faith does not read "We believe in the historical Jesus...
...One might even find a more tentative consensus on how all Catholic theology functions with some "method of correlation...
...At first, Sheehan suggests that the consensus is a consensus on "the new approach that Catholic scholars are taking to Jesus and the scriptures...
...I shall leave to theologians the question of whether Profes- sor Sheehan's summary of their consensus is adequate...
...This does not mean that they no longer trust the tradition or the church...
...The disputes at the moment are central...
...It seems fair tO summarize Sheehan's critique of this consensus in two propositions: 1. The critical analysis (scientific method) of the "liberal" theologians has left little that is distinctively Catholic: "One can ask what its teachings have to offer that cannot be found outside of the scope of its experience and discourse...
...nor "We believe in the apostles...
...studying scripture, scholars like Kiing are led to treat questions like immortality in terms of "a kind of 'pious agnosticism.'" "Even the Christian believer who takes Jesus as his or her model is still thrown back on the same finite information as the non-believer, and the same human tasks: providing for one's own needs, overcoming one's selfishness, making the social and political order more human...
...T HE UNDERLYING assumption of Professor Sheehan's com- mentary seems to be that there is but one valid way of knowing, the scientific method (critical analysis...
...They include disputes, first, on the understanding of the methods employed...
...A LL OF THIS is, I believe, clearly Catholic --i.e., a funda- mental trust in the tradition, the church, the apostolic witness as entailed by one's faith in Jesus Christ...
...We believe in Jesus Christ with the apostles...
...The .consensus among scholars in the disciplines I have mentioned can be simplified as follows: we humans know by naming...
...An example: "Today, for example, one would be hard pressed to find a Catholic biblical scholar who maintains that Jesus thought he was the divine Son of God who preexisted from all eternity as the second perst~a of the Trinity before he became a human being...
...what is "proof...
...However, it is worth noting that the internal disputes presently occurring in the liberal consensus (as anyone knows who has read the repre- sentative authors Sheehan lists) are not exercises in the "nar- cissism of small differences...
...Tradition is trusted as the principal mediator of that faith in Jesus Christ...
...We understand by imposing meaning on the conflict...
...nor "We believe in the Christ principle...
Vol. 111 • August 1984 • No. 14
