Continuing the conversation: Theologians: young & older

...But do A second opinion Only by using the word in its most we really need another in-house hassle over papal primacy Pickwickian sense would I ever call myself a "young" the- versus episcopal collegiality...

...Most Catholic students I know who decide to commit blood warming our faces, to a lifetime of teaching, studying, and writing theology do cars rattling by on chains so because they have discovered, to use von Balthasar's term as if to remind us why (die Sendung), their own sense of personal "mission...

...True, we value theology for its positive efpublications" that are produced "for the sake of gaining fects on the life of the church, but we also recognize, with tenure and promotion...

...The classroom is the context exercise as cranking out an op-ed piece on the rescue of in which students are most likely to ask, or be asked, critical Elian Gonzalez...

...Ruddy makes an unsupported generalization that schol- Nor is it apparent why Ruddy dismisses scholarly journals arly publication is "all for the sake of gaining tenure and as "myopic," when in fact specialization is a necessary prepromotion...

...Attacks on the vided they did not cut into the appropriate number of books good name of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin in the pages of and refereed articles...

...In fact, it conis where theology is "most relevant" to the church, for the tinues throughout a theologian's career...

...But Ruddy ignores the counterevidentiary fact for tenure and promotion to give priority to popular writing that many of the most prolific writers are academics who and speaking would, over the long haul, have the effect of already have tenure...

...the contribution of theologians to the church or to lament their academic professionalization...

...In my naivete I had assumed that publication in a mag- What remains ultimately worrisome is the way theologiazine with such a large circulation (relatively speaking) cal liberalism has congealed into an ideology, an ideology would be greeted with a congratulatory nod by my col- that will brook no opposition to the party line...

...I suspect he expresses the point of view of one segment of this group that would like a richer sense of First Griffin's Deli, then Pizzaworld, Catholic identity and that feels the intellectual activity of then all the houses on Jasper Street, theology needs to be complemented with a deep personal each sidewalk getting us five bucks piety and communal identity...

...On the positive side, pulling lyrics from smoke and wind, this absence forces lay theologians to take active responsirising into our groove bility for their lifestyle, spiritual formation, and participation like when we straighten in the life of the church...

...Lay people most often become deour backs to let the ache out, voted to theology as a result of having begun to appropriate dipping left and right, their own faith...

...our futures calling, It seems, then, that the last thing we need to do is minimize two blocks left before dark...

...own sake...

...of freezing our asses off, Lay theologians, as Ruddy notes, do not have the instisuddenly musical, stealing grace tutional supports that were given to their clerical forebears from the surface of the waves, like John A. Ryan or Bernard Lonergan...

...Although at the time I was only a visiting professor ample is the recent silencing by the Holy Cross Fathers of Fain a nontenure track at a secular university, I can still re- ther James Tunstead Burtchaell, who has been told by his member the shock when my chairman-a man genuinely order that he may no longer speak out in support of his latcommitted to promoting my best interests-told me such est book, The Dying of the Light, a devastating account of work actually counts against promotion...

...El wisdom from the theologian's table...

...The scholarly training that is essential to questions about social justice, moral integrity, political re- theological studies-in languages, history, doctrine, phisponsibility, sexual morality, and ecological concerns...

...how Christian universities across the board have capitulatAn even greater shock came when I was later told the ed to secularism...

...Certainly much of his experience match- some more contrary student had wished to argue that the exes my own...

...ology department...

...Graduate students classroom provides a sustained, disciplined opportunity for and junior professors are wisely advised to devote their time students to deepen their understanding of the faith, and it of- and energy to developing scholarly skills so that some day fers them an unparalleled chance to ask questions, air griev- they will become competent, productive theologians...

...some organs of right-wing Catholicism during the days of his I recently had to review a book by a theologian whose stances on various issues evinced a genuine pastoral sensiLrG I T 1IIA7 E tivity...

...First, is it really necessary to the well-being and healthy functioning of a theologian to be affirmed by the local ordinary in the quasi-therapeutic way that the author recommends...

...A good exleagues...

...But changing the criteria journalists...

...and speak in a more popular vein, and that tenure commit- An additional consideration: The serious study of theology tees give these activities more weight in their deliberations...

...Perhaps Ruddy is correct in saying that the er education...

...But at the risk of having Ruddy relegate me once more to the old folks' bench in Theology Park, I would also like to register a demurral or two...

...And Ruddy thinks that academic its own sake...

...ology, the public good, and, yes, the church...

...He proposes that theologians write Newman, that it ought to be valued for its own sake...

...Though its our hair slicked back, prerequisite, effect, and complement, spiritual formation is both cool after months not the proper focus of theological education...

...it would be unjust, and inaccurate, to ignore this...

...Often we were out there, this calling is pursued in spite of misunderstanding by peers, as if we could forget, discouragement from family, and short- and long-term fiboth sixteen and ready, nancial sacrifices...

...This desire is laudable...

...He complains that too few theologians write about issues of concern for the contemporary church, but this is clearly not the case...

...man...

...I know many theologians who engage in public theological discussions, both in print and at conferences, that appeal to a broad audience...

...He makes it clear that his own position Yet despite my age, I found myself agreeing with most roughly resembles that of Archbishop John Quinn...

...Second, I wonder whether the author of this generally Stephen J. Pope is associate professor and director of undergraduate well-observed essay has noticed that his own dissertation studies in the theology department at Boston College...

...potential students of theology, even though it appears to be John Courtney Murray's famous Theological Studies articles more an "instrument of control" than a means of cultivating on religious liberty may not have been immediately disa genuine ecclesial theology...

...This is where the theologian who publishes mandatum will not drive away young theologians from in even the most "arcane" and "myopic" journals makes an Catholic settings (though I have my doubts, and even some important difference in the lives of ordinary Catholics...

...Newman's view seems to contrast sharply theology can do so only if young theologians are given spir- with Ruddy's, who, in demanding that theology be "releitual formation and encouraged to focus their efforts more on vant," adopts an American pragmatic approach to the value writing for popular journals than for "myopic and arcane of the discipline...

...Ruddy makes valuable points, but his essay suffers from a lack of clarity and balance...

...Despite that, Ruddy seems to cussed in rectories or from pulpits, but they had a major, have doubts about the value of academic freedom and the long-term impact on the life of the church...

...No, I was told: although certainly not a blot on my I have also been struck by how willing liberal theologians copybook, translations would only count in my favor pro- have become to engage in personal attack...

...To Ruddy overlooks the fact that theologians spend a great produce a sound, informed, and scholarly article, say, on deal of time teaching college students, and that this is where Saint Thomas Aquinas's theory of the soul, is not the same their impact is felt most broadly...

...How ances, and debate matters of theological import within a else, given theology's richness and complexity, will young constructive context...

...They do not take up the study of theology beBilly singing Springsteen cause a bishop needs them to fill a slot on the seminary facwhile I jammed on shovel-guitar, ulty...

...It can be addressed more radically by betree limbs like wires, snow clumped coming involved in intentional communities like those of on our boots, hats, and gloves Sant'Egidio or the Catholic Worker...

...takes a great deal of time, training, and focused energy...

...indeed, spiritual formation loving Billy's bleeding sax, is essential to discipleship...

...Of course, Ruddy has a right to follow his interests, and I certainly wish him well in his new career...

...Because of Ruddy's courageous manifesto, we now know the reason why...

...It was, in fact, the massive scholarship of Congar, de Lubac, Chenu, Rahner, and others that prepared the way for Vatican II...

...Rather than create an unnecessary and false dichotomy that separates thinking ex Daniel Donaghy corde ecclesiae from thinking ex corde academiae, we need to understand more deeply that the latter is, in its own distinctive and rigorous way, a special kind of participation in the Commonweal 12 June 2, 2000 former...

...Indeed, I belong, at least chronologically, to that Yes, in the wider scheme of things, the issue is a real one...

...Spiritual formation, like while in our heads moral growth, therapeutic healing, or political and social danced girls around a campfire, responsibility, is a good thing...

...But more to Ruddy's point, contributing to Ruddy ["Young Theologians," April 211 has written an in- popular journals is neither more nor less "ecclesial" than triguing and challenging essay on the state of academic the- publishing in scholarly journals...

...The vast majority of American Catholics theologians be able, as Ruddy desires, "to pass on the never read America or Commonweal, but many are brought church's liturgical and social riches to our own and future into the world of theological inquiry through Catholic high- generations...

...This losophy, etc.-takes many years to master...

...unfortunately, his book was couched in such plod- anPLArrars I 'nH3NIUG ding, sawdust prose and larded with, on average, more than I two hundred endnotes per chapter that I wonder if the book will ever be read by more than a hundred people...

...But closer to what we were saving for, it is a need that ought to be met not by theology departour shovels scraping pitted concrete, ments per se but by active engagement in campus prayer dreams of Jersey shore summers groups, retreats, service programs, and the ordinary life of thawing us in blue-black December, a local parish...

...And no wonder some theologians have reservations about taking a public stance on a contentious issue...

...But many others pubously compromise the academic credibility of theology as lish precisely because they care about the discipline of thea discipline that belongs on university campuses...

...Writing an essay for Theoology and its relation to the church [see also, Correspondence, logical Studies or the Heythrop Journal contributes to the life of this issue, page 4...

...books...

...capitulation to the norms of secular academia, its footnoteCommonweal 1 3 June 2, 2000...

...Once again, I had always as- of Ex corde ecclesiae is silenced, Catholics can at least be sumed that a theologian's first obligation is to hand on the amused at this extra fillip of irony: that liberal academics in Great Tradition of the church and only secondarily to try to Catholic universities and their sponsoring religious orders speak in propria persona...

...post-fifty generation-so effectively dissected by Christo- But even granting the legitimacy of the topic (however low pher Ruddy in his article "Young Theologians"-whose it may rank in the hierarchy of truths), was Ruddy really mental clocks, in his amusing image, seem to have stopped allowed full scope to argue the issue at Notre Dame's thedead in 1968 with the encyclical Humanae vitae...

...If the state of theology-its "Next win dour, please...

...Since I was working at the time on are resorting to the very tactics that have made Henri de an introductory book on Hans Urs von Balthasar, it seemed Lubac, Yves Congar, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin the hethe most natural thing in the world to translate two of his roes of theological liberalism...

...topic smacks of the old saw about rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic...

...Had Charles Curran stayed in a scholarly "cocoon," he would not have been dismissed from The Catholic UniverCommonweal I I June 2, 2000 I H U I H G T H E C O H V E anecdotal evidence, to the contrary...

...It's hard to tell to what extent Ruddy speaks for "younger Digging for Summer: 1986 theologians...

...Theologians are not professional journalists, but most are willing to contribute to popular journals when they think they have something to say that will shed light on an important issue...

...It's hard a University, but "an end sufficient to rest in and to pursue for to disagree with this goal...

...Career advancement is, of course, no less a mo- requisite for the advancement of scholarship, Christian scholtive for academicians than for other professionals (including arship included...

...What if of what he wrote...

...Theologians, after "shrillness" of its defenders on Catholic college and uni- all, are called to contribute to theological knowledge for its versity campuses...

...Some write, to be sure, out of a need for "dumbing down" faculties of theology, and it would seri- ego gratification and public acclaim...

...He thinks the mandatum-formal epis- the church, even if it is not something folks will mention copal approval to teach theology-will not "scare away" over the dinner table or at the neighborhood block party...

...When the nation's most articulate defender same thing about translations...

...But the academic study of thegushing for my Gibson guitar, ology is not to be confused with monasticism...

...As in the other liberal arts, theology is not mereRuddy writes that theology should be more "effectual," ly a means, as Cardinal Newman observed in the The Idea of that is, "make a difference in the life of the church...

...I recall the time early in my postdoctoral career ample of the current pope would indicate the plausible need when I published an article in America on Cardinal New- for a strong papal primacy...

...In this way we are more likely to become, to quote the mongering, its professional isolation-is as bad as Ruddy Vatican's Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian, claims, then why would a bishop want to plead for scraps of "servants of the word and of the people of God...