Continuing the conversation: Theologians: young & older
Oakes, Edward T.
former. 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...
...egos will be bruised on both sides...
...What do we make of the irony, as formation...
...On this score, I am unrepentant in my belief that Nicholas Lash notes in The Tablet (April 15), that the best-ed- both the bishops and the academy are falling short...
...This Third, Pope makes no mention of either the bishops or might be due partly to the fact that most personal attacks my comments about them, and so overlooks that I hold the from liberals take place in tribal settings or otherwise away bishops-as heads of their local churches-accountable for from the public eye, such as in phone conversations and fostering the conditions necessary for vital Christian comconfidential letters of recommendation...
...words...
...John Courtney Murray, whom Pope cites as a publicly significant scholar, is Edward T. Oakes, S.J., teaches in the religious studies department further confirmation...
...First, I agree that under- ety-like the late Raymond Brown and Richard McCormick, graduate teaching is a prime opportunity for theology to con- are rare indeed, a providential combination of innate abilitribute to the life of the church and society...
...My goal is not therapeutic affirmation by the freedom...
...dos by liberals against conservatives go unnoticed...
...His thought, biblically and patristically grounded, exposes the vacuity of labels like liberal and conservative and makes a substantial contribution to the life of the church...
...emy's most distinguished members...
...ologian...
...ucated laity in the history of the church is largely theological- As for Edward Oakes's response, I thank him for his kind ly illiterate Catholic higher-education graduates included...
...But I can still re- munities and theology...
...If the state of theology-its "Next win dour, please...
...What if of what he wrote...
...but innuen- herent violation of institutional autonomy...
...capitulation to the norms of secular academia, its footnoteCommonweal 1 3 June 2, 2000 C #"..M T 1 N.V .1 'M G T H 9 C 0 N-V' E It `S-'A T,I-'.o M tribulation facing down false accusations of sexual abuse freedom, one that sees all episcopal involvement as an inrightly met with near-universal condemnation...
...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...
...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...
...I am not as confident does not, however, excuse us from responsibility for such as Pope is that it has...
...It is no coincidence that the theology department...
...But has that op- ty, rigorous training, and timing...
...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...
...bias, neglect of the Great Tradition, and ignorance of an- Fourth, and most important, I do not hold that academic cient languages...
...I wish Ruddy well, but I fear he has a ologians I mentioned in my article are also among the acadlong row to hoe...
...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...
...Of course, Ruddy has a right to follow his interests, and I certainly wish him well in his new career...
...Finally, I freely grant that my project has found a sympathetic ear in Notre Dame's theology department...
...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...
...Perhaps we should acknowledge that first-rate theologians-those who The author replies: I can address only a few of render extraordinary service to academy, church, and sociStephen Pope's welcome questions...
...topic smacks of the old saw about rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic...
...Theological Studies but for America on issues like religious freedom, liberalism, and the papal encyclicals...
...I value it deeply and, in particular, fear what may bishops, but honest dialogue between bishops and theolohappen (and has happened) in the United States to sexual gians...
...Because of Ruddy's courageous manifesto, we now know the reason why...
...Indeed, I belong, at least chronologically, to that Yes, in the wider scheme of things, the issue is a real one...
...I say nowhere that theology demember the published letter from a member of the Catholic partments are responsible for spiritual formation, and I take Theological Society of America (CTSA) accusing a critic of the Pope's mention of "monasticism" to be a red herring, which CTSA of committing a mortal sin (!) for the effrontery of absolves the academy of spiritual integration by raising the criticizing most members of the CTSA for their left-wing specter of the monastic choir...
...Ultimately, my Commonweal article will have merit only insofar as it helps to continue a frank and respectful conversation, such as this one...
...When the nation's most articulate defender same thing about translations...
...Nonetheless, my dissertation board includes contributors to Commonweal, Communio, Crisis, and Theological Studies-surely no party line there...
...Murray wrote regularly not only for of Regis University, Denver, Colorado...
...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...
...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...
...I am writing on Jean-Marie Tillard's theology of the local church...
...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...
...Certainly much of his experience match- some more contrary student had wished to argue that the exes my own...
...However, I have no desire to have my hand held by Second, I do not have "doubts about the value of academic any bishop...
...ology department...
...A French Dominican, Tillard was a peritus at Vatican II, and is contemporary Catholicism's foremost ecclesiologist and ecumenist...
...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...
...man...
...El CHRISTOPHER RUDDY Commonweal 1 4 June 2, 2000...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...books...
...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...
...I do doubt that there is a single model of academic and collegiality...
...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...
...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...
...standards should be "dumbed down" in order to encourIt is a sign of how shrill and personal such attacks have be- age ecclesial and societal engagement...
...Second, only one ethicists and ecclesiologists (see Paul Saunders, Commonweal, part of one chapter of my dissertation touches on primacy April 21...
...how Christian universities across the board have capitulatAn even greater shock came when I was later told the ed to secularism...
...A good exleagues...
...Rather, I would raise come when one realizes that both the critic of the CTSA and the bar for both tasks, thereby demanding of theologians the letter writer attacking him are members of the same the- more rigor and relevance...
...That said, ideology and peer pressure exist everywhere, in every department, and in every job-inside and outside of academia...
...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...
...El wisdom from the theologian's table...
...Such acknowledgment portunity really been taken advantage of...
Vol. 127 • June 2000 • No. 11
