Rome & relativism
Marty, Martin E.
schooled to think of themselves as benign outsiders and ...
...Commonweal asked three version to pre-Vatican II declarations...
...Or, conversely, they will react as funda- Incarnation of Jesus Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity mentalists do, building walls, creating barriers, and speak- that flows from that confession of faith do not form the apex ing ill of all who do not belong to their club...
...At Vatican II other theologians, two Catholic and one Protestant, to assess Dominus Christian churches could be regarded as "brothers" and Iesus...
...So says today's Rome...
...What is crucially important about this document is gated by the Second Vatican Council...
...It intends to recapitulate the church's faith in the uniqueness and uniRobert P. Imbelli versal salvific significance of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God: the article of faith upon which the church itself stands n November 18,1965, Dei verbum was promul- or falls...
...No, said the Protestants, some of whom, like the Baptists, have always said we were here first, and we are inerrant and best and only...
...No, said the Eastern Orthodox, in some rage: you are the upstarts...
...Though the Since we in sister and brother churches do seek guidance, tone of the document is peremptory and its ecclesiological from Rome and elsewhere, and who hope also to be heard, teaching raises legitimate questions, I shall limit myself to Dominus Iesus inspires regret, not rage, for the missed op- the Christological teaching because the profession of faith portunity it represents...
...Catholic theologians in the East, with 0 versality of Jesus Christ and the Church...
...We are The Tradition...
...We are the mother and you are dialogue with world religions can continue...
...Thus the Congregation for the Doc- and mouths "we are all, after all, in different boats heading trine of the Faith...
...W fects...
...0 secured the church's acceptance of modern his- Put bluntly: There is abroad a measure of innocent and torical-critical methods of biblical exegesis...
...Dei verbum was justly celebrated for recovering a speaking of the incomprehensible mystery of God...
...than that of Jesus Christ, Our shrunken world does not permit Rome or Geneva, or that Trinity is but one "model" Athens or Canterbury, Wittenberg or New York, to be sequestered, closed off, from other believers and nonbelievers...
...Their evaluations follow...
...of Dominus Iesus have this correct: Without clear, reflective, and empathic guidance, believers will be at sea, awash in tides of relativism...
...Yet Dominus Iesus spends its only for Christians, time saying that Catholics cannot look for new formulations or that the salvific role of the Spirit in a world wherein they cannot hide and where they do not is more universal do well simply to build walls...
...In that light, it is important to note that the declaration is directed not Martin E. Marty, the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Pro- to ecumenical dialogue partners, nor to all people of good fessor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, has written extensive- will, but to the bishops of the Catholic church, to be comly on ecumenism and interfaith relations...
...But under the the daughters, daughters who "suffer from de- sign of regret...
...for speaking of the incomprehensible How present is Jesus Christ in such a world...
...In judging other Chris- cate?-as they fumbled their way tentatively into new relatian churches inadequate and other religions "gravely deficient," tions, but now they are to cut off efforts...
...native to churchly "religion...
...evangelism, and about dialogue among the religions, of "multiple incarnations" has to know that you can "give the store away" in dealings of the Christ, with other faiths on an open market...
...Roman imagination...
...Yet Dominus Iesus gives very Those claims condensed the document Dominus lesus in most Catholic and public media, and evidently in public perceptions, after the Vatican announced its position on non-Catholic faith, churches, and religions on September 5. If the intent was to reclaim absolutes and fight off relativism, whether among Catholic theologians and the faithful or among others who thought they were as old as, as good as, and as faithful in sharing salvific work as Catholics can be, Dominus Iesus is likely to produce ironically opposite outcomes...
...No, say the other religions, none of whom had ever pretended to be the same as Catholicism, but who had been Commonweal 12 October 20, 2000 few clues as to how to reason about the truth...
...If the church's magisof all the council's documents-now seems to evoke em- terium cannot authoritatively declare that such is not "the barrassment in certain "progressive" theological and mis- faith delivered once and for all to the saints" (Jude 3), then sionary circles...
...The rejection of sometimes quite intentional apostasy...
...Among some Catholic the "traditionalist" preliminary draft of the constitution theologians, there is advanced the idea of "multiple incarnathree years before had marked the effective beginning of tions" of the Christ, or that Jesus is Savior only for Christians, Pope John's council and the beginning of the end of Tri- or that the salvific role of the Spirit is more universal than dentine Catholicism, with its undeniable beauties and ba- that of Jesus Christ, or that Trinity is but one "model" for nalities...
...gregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF...
...11 in Jesus Christ constitutes the heart of the matter...
...You can lose the impulse to invite others into the company of Christ...
...It appears in print, both at popular and Yet, the robust Christocentrism of Dei verbum-indeed, more sophisticated theological levels...
...a place vidually often our brothers and sisters, are not even members where "spirituality" gets invented as a do-it-yourself alterof "churches in the proper sense...
...Its claims have to do with authority...
...No, said the Anglicans, in frustrated and aggrieved tones...
...You can set- or that Jesus is Savior tle for cheap universalisms...
...schooled to think of themselves as benign outsiders and profoundly well-intended dialogue partners by Rome...
...Anyone who cares about the truth in Christ has good reaWe are the best...
...The rest of you Christians, though indi- ference what you believe, as long as you believe...
...Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) released the declaration Regrettable, say some of us who see in Dominus Iesus a Dominus Iesus: On the Unicity and Salvific Uni- missed opportunity...
...The other Christians have to be Martin E. Marty "daughters," " and deviating or deviant ones at that...
...Fair enough...
...In the thirty-five years since Vatican II, there there is no legitimate role for the magisterium...
...Ecumenical dialogue part- ologies of pluralism" to face urgent and confusing new reners have raised questions about the meaning of Dominus Iesus, alities here, were taken to the woodshed and in effect told while many Catholics worry that it is yet another effort to quash to cease and desist...
...The authors mystery of God...
...At otiose...
...Among some Catholic theologians, Anyone who cares about spreading the truth in Christ, there is advanced the idea a.k.a...
...thus, presumably, also as "sisters," as Pope Paul VI also sometimes called them and as John Paul II indicated in word and gesture...
...Catholic theolothe declaration seemed to revert to a triumphalistic language not gians in the West, many of them trying to formulate "theused by Rome since before Vatican II...
...It is simply has been frequent appeal to the "hierarchy of truths...
...theological exploration, especially among theologians engaged in So instead of having an intellectually vibrant encounter dialogue with Eastern religions and those writing on the ques- among Catholic thinkers and with others, many see a retion of religious pluralism generally...
...A re- that this article of faith, everywhere professed and presumed markable, indeed, revolutionary document, it by Vatican II, can no longer be taken for granted...
...one time or other the claim is put forward that birth con- The CDF document does not mount a theological argutrol or even papal infallibility does not "rank high" in that hi- ment but sets forth a profession of faith, drawing in particerarchy...
...His newest book is municated especially to theological faculties and missionary Education, Religion, and the Common Good (Jossey-Bass...
...a time when "it does not make any difWe are the only...
...The relativizing game of comparison began at once...
...ROME & RELATIVISM Interesting, say the media and the bystanding public: You 'Dominus Iesus' & the CDF Christians can fight all you want, but you'll only amuse and bemuse us in your contests and conflicts over unsettleable n September 5, the Vatican's Congregation for the issues...
...It would be of the hierarchy of truths, then there is no such thing...
...for the same shore...
...When it comes to salvation, son to fear relativism in an age where in too many minds you are at best half-safe...
...No longer...
...Of course, ecumenical endeavor will not cease...
...Such "unimore vibrant, personalist understanding of God's revela- tarianism of the Spirit" is no figment of some overheated tion, whose fullness is given in the person of Jesus Christ...
...They were no doubt unique revelation of Jesus Christ and the Catholic church's status making some mistakes-how is a non-Catholic to adjudias the ultimate guardian of that revelation...
...But if the doctrine of the unique ular upon the New Testament, the documents of Vatican II, Commonweal 13 October 20, 2000...
...Back to the drawing board...
...The Asian spiritual environments in mind, were working to relate statement restated and reaffirmed the church's understanding of the the truth in Christ to the light in the East...
...We are the bearers of tradition...
...unfair to call the new Vatican document simply exclusivist It seems to me that a concern for securing that definitive arand fundamentalist, but in its polemical swing at Catholics tide of faith forms the context in which to understand Domiwho, Rome thinks, are indeed giving the store away, it has nus Iesus, the recent controversial declaration from the Connot contributed to clarity...
...we are partners in God's saving work, as you had come to tell us in recent decades...
...congregations, as well as to the Catholic faithful...
...Of course, e are the oldest...
Vol. 127 • October 2000 • No. 18
