Correspondence
CONROY, CHRISTOPHER A. & LUKASZEWSKI, LEON & TREACY, J. F. & BAILEY, (MSGR.) JOSEPH G. & McGILL, DANIEL J. & PALAGI, PATRICIA & GLEASON, PHILIP & Nugent, Robert & BURKHART, MARIAN & Wilken, Robert L.
CORRESPONDENCE To the Editors Leon's corner Couple of mild malapropisms in your editorial on Buchanan ("Bully in the Pulpit/' March 8): 'To say that Buchanan is a throwback is to belabor the...
...And kudos also to Commonweal for publishing a piece that provides some insight as to why a thoughtful blue-collar worker like Mr...
...In practice, though, even when one clearly distinguishes between authoritative magisterial teachings and theological opinions, one is still open to the charge of equating the two simply by presenting them...
...If he can't bring himself to vote for Bill Clinton, so be it, but what about his local, state, and congressional races...
...The question, however, is not whether we know more but how we are to understand and interpret what we know...
...That is far removed from the opinion of Pius XII, who gave his approval to historical criticism in Divino afflante spiritu (1943...
...Unfortunately, I have encountered him (in your pages) as he is turning to a third party, so I have to bring him home in two steps...
...I have been teaching New Testament in a college seminary for over twenty-five years...
...Women, after all, have been changed as much as men by living with the fact of Christ...
...I am not an expert on the history of political theory, and there has been much disagreement over the past twenty years or so about the sources of American republicanism...
...But how does one square this with Washington's Cardinal James Hickey's summary and unilateral dismissal of the official guidelines for dissent adopted and approved by all the United States bishops as "simply unworkable...
...Remember the days before women's suffrage...
...Such an exercise might lead us to note that women as well as men must recognize the necessary gentling of the warrior that belief in Christ imposes...
...I hope I can persuade him, first, that voting for a third party in a presidential election in 1990s America is just a symbolic protest that will have no more than ephemeral influence on the course of events, and, second, that his only hope of staying even economically (not to speak of advancing) is to vote for the Democrats...
...Johnson's book and my review are very much in the spirit of this report, and I am confident that when Monsignor Bailey reads the book he will see that Johnson is onto something important and timely...
...It would seem that women now need the priesthood as men have always needed it...
...I myself can't do that...
...its "whole enterprise is designed for self-promotion...
...Though I have the deepest respect for both Luke Johnson and Robert Wilken, and though I have not yet read Johnson's book, I still deplore the negative aspects of both the book and Wilken's approving review-and I have nothing but scorn for the Commonweal headline, "The Jesus Seminar gets an 'F.'" The quest for the historical Jesus is a very important undertaking in contemporary New Testament scholarship...
...CORRESPONDENCE To the Editors Leon's corner Couple of mild malapropisms in your editorial on Buchanan ("Bully in the Pulpit/' March 8): 'To say that Buchanan is a throwback is to belabor the obvious/' To belabor is to beat up on...
...Cheating is not valued in testing but honesty is...
...Thank you, Mr...
...I am often at odds with Dominic Crossan, for one example, especially when he attacks Raymond Brown, but I still respect his scholarship, as well as that of Robert Funk...
...What is misguided about it...
...Their very lives keep them close to the earth, to blood, sweat, tears...
...In fact it is important that by and large we pluralistic Americans share these values, as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, and their followers did not...
...Carlin dismisses these as "noncontroversial" (and therefore, it seems, insignificant) values...
...It is my view that many like Mr...
...PHILIP GLEASON What did Jesus say...
...In "the situation as it then existed," Gleason writes, "there was genuine merit" to the position that Scholastic political principles formed an important element in the intellectual background of American constitutional thought...
...But I question Novak's conclusion...
...Filicchia would vote Republican...
...The book's main thrust is an attack on the Jesus Seminar, a group of forty New Testament scholars who meet semi-annually to discuss the authenticity of Jesus' words in the New Testament...
...Men were as likely as women to prefer Gnosticism or Arianism or Pelagianism to the knotty, difficult idea that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ...
...MSGR...
...PATRICIA PALAGI Billings, Mont...
...bullying is not valued among students but cooperation is...
...That's where key decisions are made about allocation of resources...
...Remember the days of Jim Crow...
...Filicchia have abandoned their economic self-interest by voting for Republicans because they think their self-interest in a morally clean America or in anti-communism is more important...
...There is no question that historical scholarship on the Bible has taught us a great deal...
...ROBERT NUGENT, SDS Baltimore, Md...
...The reviewer replies: Monsignor Bailey underestimates the changes that have taken place in biblical scholarship over the past several generations...
...LEON LUKASZEWSKI Walnut Creek, Calif...
...The answer, please Philip Gleason's article "How Catholic Is the Declaration of Independence...
...Believe me, I know: As one cardinal said to me, "You must tell the people that the theological opinions are poison and cannot be used...
...I wish he had elaborated on how to present church teaching "sympathetically...
...And, I cheerfully confess, one reason I can't is that the Republicans laugh at and about anyone who abandons his or her economic self-interest...
...The political system created by our Constitution clearly values open discussion...
...Tomorrow morning, real teachers and school administrators will set about the difficult task of teaching real values to real kids, every period of the school day, every day of the school week...
...It should be a matter of pride for us that Catholic scholars are in the lead in this serious quest...
...Carlin's premise appears to be that since we do not live in a morally homogeneous society-there are many competing and irreconcilable values out there-we should therefore abandon the notion of teaching values in our public schools...
...If before the Incarnation priestesses worshiped a Gnostic, nongendered nonentity, and admittedly some still do, most who want to serve Christ as priests worship the God Christ reveals...
...But in the public arena of church life, and especially in serious disagreements and challenges over homosexuality, it seems somewhat unrealistic to think they can all be adequately addressed by "one-on-one pastoral counseling...
...A scholarly enterprise that was once closely linked to the church has gradually become divorced from Christian faith and life...
...It is true, as Carlin repetitively insists, that we are not able to agree about how society should handle abortions...
...While "diversity in people's personal faith journeys, combined with often significant differences in theological background" might invite "misunderstanding," I think the risk is worth taking to ensure that many voices are heard as the whole community struggles to discern the truth...
...However, I believe there is still genuine merit to the claim that Catholic thinkers of the medieval and Counter-Reformation eras made significant contributions to the "higher law" background of American constitutional thought...
...Or is it also to be viewed as a book of the church...
...I thought the New Ostrich Review non-advertisement [February 9] was hysterical...
...It merely tells us the views of Catholic historians over two generations ago when Catholic patriotism was being attacked...
...They need the meditation upon the power of powerlessness that taking the central role in the reenactment of Christ's Passion, death, and Resurrection compels...
...to see it in the pages of Commonweal was most distressing...
...Now, having read carefully the statement of the Pontifical Biblical Commission on the historical veracity of the Gospels (1964), I no longer expect the words of Jesus quoted in the Gospels to be necessarily authentic...
...He adds that "[historical criticism...seems more and more irrelevant to the church's life...
...Hey, but thanks for the lovely cover photo of Emma Thompson and your increasingly amusing cartoons-apart from your everworthy serious content...
...Politics and government are about enlightened self-interest, the banding together of people with common goals to get part of what they want in give-and-take with people who want something else...
...As any perusal of current dictionaries of the Bible will show, we know far more about ancient culture, about biblical languages, about Jesus and his world than did previous generations...
...I question as well the assumption that women err on the side of bloodless spirituality...
...Robert L. Wilken's review of the Luke Timothy Johnson book The Real Jesus [March 8]-leaves me very unhappy...
...The author replies: The title given by Commonweal's editors to the extract from my book on the history of Catholic higher education has understandably misled reader Treacy...
...Those involved in the Jesus Seminar are not self-promoting hucksters but serious scholars...
...If you want to keep values out of the public schools, Mr...
...According to Wilken the Seminar is "interested in publicity...
...Women, priesthood, power Michael Novak's comments on the necessity of a male priesthood [January 26] are worth considering, and answering...
...and murder is not valued by teachers and students threatened with guns but tolerance and respect are...
...Biology itself suggests, in fact, that if women err, it is in the opposite direction...
...In his subtitle, "The Misguided Search for the Historical Jesus," Johnson reveals his prejudice...
...I served today as Eucharistic minister, offering my fellow parishioners the Blood of Christ...
...I was also pleased to see Gaillardetz acknowledge the possibility of dissent by theologians and even "ordinary believers" as a manifestation of the Spirit bringing the whole church to truth...
...According to Wilken, the real topic of Johnson's book is "the dire state of biblical scholarship within the academy, including seminaries and theological faculties...
...The young bishop of a small western diocese once told me of his concern that while I could present church teaching on homosexuality, I might also then "raise my eyebrows" and thereby dismiss what I had just said as of no importance...
...I am really not convinced that "protracted debate"- even in a public setting-is all that harmful to church life or the pastoral minister, always provided it is informed and responsible...
...God is, indeed, the Father...
...Worth a subscription Please renew my subscription...
...To labor in this context is to overwork...
...True, it is the idea of empowerment that has informed and inspired much of the women's movement (and has led to achievements worth achieving...
...Carlin begins and ends with an assumption that we are not capable of discerning moral values as a society together-as if the difficulty of reaching moral consensus in society were unique to our era, and as if we today are uniquely incapable of doing so...
...The recent report of the Pontifical Biblical Commission recognized the value of the different methods now being used to interpret the Bible, but it also reminded scholars that the Bible is to be interpreted in light of the mystery of Christ revealed in the Scriptures...
...JOSEPH G. BAILEY Hammond, N.Y...
...Yes, we are a nonhomogeneous society but we as a people happen to agree on the moral value of dialogue in seeking the truth...
...daniel j. mcgill Grand Junction, Colo...
...As for why hearken is spelled with an extra "e" and hark is not, don't ask...
...J. F. TREACY Clarkston, Mich...
...and a gender-free concept of God does tend to become a God-free concept of God-Aristotle's First Cause or the primal energy some present-day dodgers of doctrine think themselves enamored of...
...If I read this in the pages of The Wanderer I would not be surprised...
...That they should be opposed by Luke Johnson, the more conservative scholar, should not surprise us, but we should not be left with the erroneous judgment that Johnson is closer to normative Catholicism than they are...
...His assertion that "the scholarly claims of the Jesus Seminar are fraudulent" and his derisive reference to the Seminar's "hucksterism and religious prejudices" and its "arrogant dismissal of the Christian theological traditions" are unsubstantiated...
...Thirty years ago when a colleague, a Unitarian scholar at Saint Lawrence University, said that the only words of Jesus we could be sure were authentic were "Amen, amen," I felt a great shock...
...Carlin does not teach in a public school, or else he would know that just as prayer and tests never left the public schools, neither did the teaching of values...
...But a million-and-a-half abortions a year is only one of the symptoms that suggest the inadequacy of empowerment as a guiding moral principle...
...And yet, while I found all of Gaillardetz's criteria eminently reasonable and convincing, I still encounter difficulties when I have attempted to put them into practice...
...but, as he fails to note, there are few if any among us who value abortions in and of themselves as healthy, happy events that we should encourage our daughters to experience...
...Then, in the next sentence, "hearkens back," as your unabridged may tell you, should be harks back...
...Is the Bible to be viewed primarily as a collection of documents from the ancient world providing information on the beginnings of an interesting religious movement in Roman Palestine...
...In the first volume of his monumental work A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, John Meier draws a careful distinction between the "real" Jesus and the "historical Jesus," and concludes that "the real Jesus is not available and never will be," for "the reasonably complete record of the 'real' Jesus is irrevocably lost for us today...
...Johnson and Wilken attack the Jesus Seminar with emotionally charged accusations...
...MARIAN BURKHART New York, NY...
...The freedom of discussion that we enjoy is not irrelevant to the future status of abortion in our society...
...March 8) never answers the title's question...
...The interplay between the theological and pastoral enterprises underlies some of these tensions, especially in the area of private conscience formation...
...In sum, this was a very unfortunate review and does no credit to Commonweal...
...But is that the verdict of competent historians today...
...Presenting the faith As a public pastoral minister attempting to navigate the "minefields" of church teaching on homosexuality, I welcomed Richard Gaillardetz's articulation of practical criteria (for example, the hierarchy of truths, responsible dissent, theological notes, the role and sanctity of conscience) for responsible presentation of church teachings ["Proclaiming the Catholic Faith," February 9...
...Carlin, for that insight-but please reconsider...
...Should we allow students to steal other kids' pencils, should we allow the use of gang signs and clothing to intimidate other students, should we allow one kid to be first in the lunch line every day, and should we allow teachers to seduce students or critically evaluate the essays of David R. Carlin in class...
...The experience, if it enriches, does so by humbling, by making actual both where ultimate power resides and what such power does...
...Carlin, you'll have to close them...
...The article does not give an "up-to-date answer" to the question in the title because it was not written with that question in mind...
...CHRISTOPHER A. CONROY Values are teachable David R. Carlin, Jr.'s opinion [February 9] on the teaching of values in public schools lacks real-life insight...
...Given the numerous revisions of historical judgments in the past seventy years, we need an up-to-date answer to this important question...
...Its purpose was to lay out the larger dimensions of the so-called "Bellarmine-Jefferson legend," to show that it was not so absurd as is usually assumed, and to explain its role in the thinking of American Catholics in the 1920s...
...Does the tradition that was formed by the Scriptures, and by Jesus' death and Resurrection, have a role in helping us understand who he was...
...the Second Person was incarnated as a man...
...ROBERT L. WILKEN It's still the economy Kudos to Ralph Filicchia ["A Buchananite Speaks/' March 22] for his key insight, that "the absolute power of corporate America also corrupts absolutely...
...rioting over lost games against school rivals is not valued but good sportsmanship is...
...Finally, I agree with your author that when presenting complex issues we must honestly acknowledge that there may be theological disagreement on some matters, and that a minister might even need to "acknowledge opposing arguments" to church teaching...
...On this issue, I am prochoice, but I do think working-class people who vote Republican have abandoned their own economic self-interest, and that of their parents and children...
...As Novak wrote, we should most certainly accept Pope John Paul II's request that we make this "gender-alive dimension of our faith the object of renewed reflection, meditation, and inquiry...
...I presume Mr...
Vol. 123 • April 1996 • No. 8
