Fr. Greeley's agnosticism
Sheehan, Thomas
sponded to what Jesus actually thought of himself and (if this were knowable) who he ontologically was. One of the most important if least touted achievements of recent Catholic theology has been...
...I acknowledge, of course, that within its own framework the reformism he proposes is a noble and worthy task, and in no way do I wish to belittle it, There is much good that can and will come from liber~ theologies like his (for example, the eventual regrafting of the traditionalist Catholics onto the tree from which they are splitting off...
...Christianity essentially is its sense of historicity, its unique claim of historical continuity -- but the continuum is with Simon rather than directly with Jesus...
...But having said that, I must say that the liberal position which Tracy advocates -- correction and reform of the Christian tradition through the quasi-parliamentary procedure he describes -- strikes me as an exercise in ~olishing brass on the Titanic...
...And sooner or later the more traditional Cfitholic intellectuals will come to see that in Father Tracy and the other liberal theologians they have no enemies at all but only the staunchest advocates of the faith of Simon Peter and of those who claim to follow him...
...Christianity begins with Simon, not with Jesus, and maintains itself through history by constant selfreference to Simon (and only indirectly to Jesus...
...He cannot accept (or perhaps even conceive of) the undoing of the very system of which he is a part...
...T HIS STATE of affairs underlies David Tracy's assertion that mainline Christianity (and therefore Catholicism) is based on a "fundamental trust in tradition" as that which mediates Christian faith through the ages...
...What is more, he is showing himself to be, in the best sense of the term, a conservative Christian, one who upholds thXe ideal and principle of all Christianity...
...And having established his conservatism, that is, his option for mainline Christianity, Father Tracy also establishes his liberalism, that is, his scholarly good sense: he acknowledges that this fundamentally trusted tradition which binds him to Simon "is also, like all traditions, ambiguous and thereby in constant need of correction and self-reform...
...Both of them are, after all, members of the same family, and as much as they fail in the effort, they really do want to love one other...
...Home is where Simon is...
...Eventually the traditionalists will recognize that the church's liberal theologians have brought her back to her conservative beginnings: to the line that separates what faith asserts from what history can prove...
...Some do it smoothly, others maladroitly...
...He, like Karl Rahner, Hans Kiing, Edward Schillebeeckx, and the others (only a ltandful of whom I mentioned in the article) are intent not on destroying Christianity but on rcinvigorating it while preserving continuity with the founding act of Christianity...
...All liberals, by nature, tinker: they accept and trust a tradition that has been handed Commonweal: 500down to them, but they also reform, amend, correct, and enhance it...
...Tracy is, of course, correct...
...That is, rather than leaving Jesus dead and then going on to live the Kingdom that Jesus had proclaimed, Simon hoped him out of the tomb and identified the Kingdom of God with the prophet who had preached it...
...That act is Simon Peter's identification of the fate of the Kingdom of God with the fate of Jesus himself, whether or not (for we shall never know and it doesn't matter) the content of Simon's faith corresponds to what Jesus had in mind...
...Often enough their work upsets traditional Catholic believers...
...I hope that David, whom I p~ze and admire, will not be offended by my saying that...
...But finally these are only minor Oedipal conflicts that end up with the more conservative.father recognizing himself in his wilder son, while the son in turn comes to accept Dad and his ancient wisdom and values...
...Anyone who chooses to preserve continuity (in whatever fashion) with Simon Peter's interpretation of Jesus can also rightly claim the title "Christian," even if he or she believes that Jesus is as dead as a doornail...
...Tracy, to be sure, is one of the best of them...
...One of the most important if least touted achievements of recent Catholic theology has been the recognition that it is both impossible and unnecessary for Christia#ity to show any inevitable connection betw~n what went on in Jesus mind when he was alive and what went on in Simon's mind after Jesus had died...
...Nonetheless, I think such liberalism misses the point...
...For ultimately Jesus is not essential to Christianity...
...Some day traditionalists like Karol Wotyla and George Kelly will be glad that there are liberals in the church like David Tracy...
...Of course, Simon was smart enough, at least at the beginning, not to insist that Jesus had physically left his tomb, although that local and idiosyncratic legend would soon enough become a normative formulation (and for today's traditionalists, the normative 21 September 1984:501...
...All of this is well and good if one wants to remain, as David Tracy does, a liberal theologian within mainline Christianity...
...That principle is: ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia -- Christianity is present wherever someone traces his or her faith back to Sim9n's...
...it is the Bark of Peter...
...I N ONE DEFINITION, a liberal is a conservative who has stretched his paradigm to its limit but refuses to transcend it...
...If all liberals tinker, liberal theologians tinker with Christianity...
...The only problem is that Simon Peter missed the boat he should have taken and instead signed on as captain of the Titanic...
...In so doing, he took Jesus' message, in which the apocalyptic overlay was at a minimum, and reinserted it into an elaborate and mythical apocalyptic drama that cast Jesus as the eschatological judge who was soon to reappear in glory...
...But Peter is...
...Here lie the origins -- and the Original Sin -- of Christianity: not the "Resurrection" (which virtually all modern theologians agree is a hermeneutical symbol rather than a historical even0 but Simon's identification of the Kingdom of God with the man who had proclaimed it...
...In other words, Tracy the liberal is of one heart and mind with Tracy the conservative...
...And that is why they constantly beg each other, like deep calling to deep, "Son [or Dad], won't you please come home...
...However, they never intentionally destroy it, no matter how much they might seem to, for if they did, they would destroy their very raison d'etre, which is to be nothing more than brilliant and dating conservatives...
Vol. 111 • September 1984 • No. 16
