YOUNG THEOLOGIANS

...a catechetical school and they are not propagandists...

...However, much of the public response to the proposed Christopher Ruddy, an intern at Commonweal, is a doctoral candidate in theology at the University of Notre Dame...

...Taking the opposite tack, First, the increasingly academic nature of theology...

...Many bishops have reason to terpreters and disciples of Ignatius Loyola and his spiritube dismayed that some Catholic theology is in- ality...

...Margaret Farley, president of the of academic freedom and the still uncertain shape of episCatholic Theological Society of America, has copal involvement in the appointment of theologians...

...in practicing a theology obsessed with liberal and conservative camps and shooting down those who dare to see merit in the "opposition's" thought...

...The fundamental theological problem, then, is not the disow, however, those who study theology, de- sent of a few theologians, but that so many of their rank fail spite their best intentions, often lack such for- to make a difference in the life of the church, doing theolomation and identification...

...At the simplest level, how often does a domfrom interference) rather than positively (freedom for in- bishop meet with young theologians or graduate students in quiry and truth), when, in fact, it involves both...

...Those younger theologians, who are overwhelmingly lay...

...a fashion to the theologically unwashed...

...in pro- issues of Theology Today are now available online...

...The daunting nature of this task makes it no less pressing...

...Hiring and promotions broadly constructive than evaluative (although certainly not committees aren't concerned with publishing in non-peer-re- excluding the latter...

...Young theologians are particularly affected by this shift to a more academic model for theology, since it is the context in which they are being formed, hired, and socialized...

...In his intervention at last fall's European of fifty are noticeably absent from the broader public de- Synod of Bishops (see "La pratique theologique dans un bate, both within the church and in society at large...

...an ciations, and, as a result, many theologians have lost-or intimate, liturgical encounter with Scripture, read as the never possessed-the ability to speak in a direct, intelligible church's book and not simply as a historical-critical text...

...tradition, address the consumerism of our culture and the cheapness of all life in it, and pass on the church's liturgical Theology Today P0...

...With a cry of "Leave us alone," selves-intellectually, spiritually, or materially-to help theacademic freedom is defined largely in negative terms (free- ologians meet them...

...Its more serious failure is that it does not address the more radical problem facing Catholic theology today: its increasing captivity to the mores of the academy and its concurrent ecclesial deracination...

...will it foster a more thoroughly ecclesial theology...

...At the most practical level, sponsible primarily to his or her professional colleagues...

...They are simply intion of thought and prayer, of mind and heart, of academy dicative of the deeper malaise generated by ineffectual and church, it is imperative that any program of theological theology and unreflective oversight...

...Nor is the N had little experience of spiritual direction, struc- problem that bishops wish to contribute to the truly ecclesial tured communal life and prayer, or pastoral ministry...

...How often, for example, do ops and theologians-so much in evidence at Vatican II-are theologians-other than the usual suspects such as, to name virtually nonexistent...

...logical truth but as fostering the conditions for a genuinely With relatively few exceptions, theologians under the age ecclesial theology...

...How do young universities, thereby escaping the canonical requirement to theologians deal with this situation...

...Seminaries, already and rightly under episcopal Princeton Theological Seminary is a theological irhalituior, of thu Proahyrerinn Ch-Ch IUS control, are not currently distinguished as a group for their Commonweal 1 9 April 21, 2000...

...Commonweal 1 7 April 21, 2000 of such professionalism and freedom are self-evident, as are "academic" and removed from the ecclesial community that the dangers when they are compromised...

...Nearly who argue that the bishops have no place at Catholic col- all of the older generation of theologians either are or were leges and universities are mistaken: episcopal authority is clerics and/or religious...

...Moreover, his diocese to tell them that they are performing an essential such shrillness masks a deeper problem for Catholic theol- service in the church, one for which they receive little recogogy: it is not that episcopal intervention might compromise nition or recompense...

...some older theologians, whose intellectual clocks stopped in 1968 with the ecclesial politics of Humane vitae, and a middle generation whose theology is often uprooted and dif- Search by fuse...

...Today's heated that previous generations of theologians had...

...On the one Theology Today is only hand, how do they find a place in an academy dominated by a click away...

...Today, I would add, is it mere coincidence that two of the greatest hatever else the agenda of Rome and the Amer- twentieth-century Catholic theologians, Karl Rahner and ican bishops may be, they are right to pursue Hans Urs von Balthasar, were among the most creative inW such a renewal...

...It cannot bring about in the seminary (often more than ten, factoring in prepara- communities and programs of spiritual formation, lead hirtory and minor seminary studies), possible study in Rome, ing and promotions committees to give weight to supposand been deeply aware of the church's ministerial and apos- edly "nonprofessional" factors like popular writing and tolic needs...

...In this work of spiritual and intellectual reintegration, nei- tPrinceton Thwlvgical ther repeated calls for academic freedom nor the mandatum seminary will succeed...

...On the other, how are they to respond to bishops who keyword author appear distant and more concerned with control and litmus theme tests than with solidarity and nurture...

...Nonetheless, I hope my dissertation will help me get a job...

...How do Catholic theologians to seek employment at non-Catholic bishops relate to theology and theologians...

...This lack of contact sends a message: ety...

...Moreover, because my dissertation touches on some contentious issues concerning the episcopate and the papacy, arguing that the church would benefit from internal reform and renewal, it might cause some concern to a mandatum review board...

...in arguing the Thanks to a grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., back relative merits of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II...

...Box 29, Princeton, NJ 08542 and social riches to our own and future generations that are email: theology.today@ptsem.edu so sadly ignorant-and in need-of them...

...Similarly, a diocesan priest more as an instrument of control than of cultivation, does would have had the experience of at least four or five years not address the root of the problem...

...Older theologians who have fought courageously speaking, or get theologians to emerge from their academic for academic excellence and freedom may not fully appre- cocoons...

...Answering first to the academy and second (perhaps) to either the bishop is uninterested in theology or he appears the church, many theologians have become concerned pri- as a reactive policeman, arriving only to lay down the law marily with addressing other scholars, speaking a short- when it is too late...

...greater material support of students-I would few...

...I did my undergraduate work in English literature at Yale, my master's in theology at Harvard Divinity School, and I am completing a doctorate in systematic theology at Notre Dame...

...It is that too other words, despite the necessarily different forms lay spir- often they are doing so in a counterproductive manner...

...In such increasingly myopic and arcane publications, all for the sake an atmosphere, the bonds of trust and respect between bishof gaining tenure and promotion...

...At most, I hope that it is the beginning of a vocation of serving the God and the church I love...

...Baldly put, many article type young theologians are not interested in fighting the old bat- article year tles: in hearing the war stories of liturgical abuses of either and more...

...the church's teachings on ordained ministry, its necessary Therefore, out of the many pressing needs facing Catholic role in the church's life, the unique salvific role of Jesus Christ, theology today-a new biblical, patristic, and liturgical and life issues such as abortion and euthanasia, to cite but a ressourcement...

...Christian theology cannot flourish apart from the rich sufficiently Catholic, deeply critical-even dismissive-of seed-bed of Christian community...

...The question remains, reform attend to the new spiritual and ecclesial situation of what will become of young theologians...

...Institutional self-policing and episcopal intervention by themselves cannot remedy these problems...

...chak-write regularly for the educated, nonspecialist But what would happen if, as Cardinal Jean-Marie Catholic public that reads such publications as Commonweal, Lustiger of Paris suggested recently, bishops saw their priAmerica, and First Things...

...More theologian to pursue truth in an atmosphere of dialogue and fundamentally, I think that the mandatum will not scare critical questioning, free from outside interference...

...The mandatum, which often appears spiritual, and pastoral formation...

...a regard for the spiritual will take on work or develop skills that will not help her or freedom of theologians, exemplified by the doctors of the him get tenure and professional honors...

...Where is the next John A. Ryan or mary task as not simply that of verifying or controlling theoJ. Bryan Hehir...

...How often does he ask them for honacademic freedom, but that theology today is often simply est feedback on what they perceive to be contemporary probnonecclesial and irrelevant to the needs of church and soci- lems, hopes, and needs...

...To use another analogy, bishops often end hand unintelligible outside the academy, and piling up up practicing emergency, not preventative, medicine...

...Trust ituality takes, lay theologians have not had the opportunities and responsibility can be restored not by fiat, but only by and benefits of spiritual formation and ecclesial integration generous and respectful acts on all sides...

...In part monde secularise," in Etudes [January 2000]), the cardinal this is so because their academic formation and ethos have argued that episcopal responsibility for theology is more not encouraged or trained them for it...

...If theology- calls for academic freedom, on the one hand, and the man"faith seeking understanding"-is truly to be an intersec- datum, on the other, are not the answer...

...Perhaps they have gy not ex corde ecclesiae, but ex corde academiae...

...In their Richard John Neuhaus, editor-in-chief of First Things, has underappreciated struggle for theological integrity and exwritten that young theologians who would be scared away cellence, most theologians have taken the academy as their by the mandatum probably shouldn't be teaching at a Catholic dominant model...

...Younger theologians are You can find the full text of all issues from 1983 to 1993 concerned with how to grasp more fully the sources of our at our web site: http:Iltheologytoday.ptsem.edu...

...sional and pragmatic concerns militate against theologians Is it any surprise, Lustiger asks, that the two greatest meaddressing, in David Tracy's terms, the three "publics" of dieval theologians, Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas, were academy, church, and society...

...The mandatum may not drive away young theolociate their own spiritual formation and the way it forged gians from Catholic colleges and universities, but neither strong ecclesial identification and responsibility...

...In this situation, how are the respectively among the earliest followers of Francis and Doecclesial responsibility and vocation of the theologian to be minic, whose creation of the mendicant life ranks as one of renewed...

...As those who, by definition, exercise oversight (episkope), cite one area of central concern: the spiritual formation of the bishops have the duty to maintain faith and morals...

...the Left or the Right, and the seminary horror stories of the 1950s or 1970s...

...They rightly insist that the university is not university in the first place...

...Unvoiced concern (New York Times, November 18, 1999) that derlying both these concerns are deeper questions: How the implementation of Ex corde might lead many young does theology relate to the academy and the church...

...In other words, he came Steubenville and Christendom College, are more apologetito theology already possessed of considerable intellectual, cal than theological...

...LI lay theologians...

...Theology, As a young theologian, I share Farley's concern for the in this model, functions as an academic discipline like any integrity and freedom of theological research and teaching, other, such as classics or chemistry, and the theologian is rebut suspect that it is misdirected...

...In short, profes- church...

...the most fruitful developments in Christian history...

...The young theologians need jobs and-as Catholic colleges and theology department has the institutional integrity necessary universities represent a large market-will do what is nec- to conduct its own affairs, while academic freedom enables the essary to obtain them, for reasons both good and bad...

...YOUNG THEOLOGIANS Between a rock & a hard place Christopher Ruddy he fate of young theologians has been a recur- implementation of Ex corde confronts me with two unapring theme in the controversy surrounding Ex pealing options: the academy's occasionally shrill defense T corde ecclesiae...

...theologians are in effect answerable only to themselves...

...At the risk of alienating all comers, let me explain why...

...After all, what young lively friendship between bishops and theologians, built on theologian, faced with a family to feed and loans to pay, dialogue and respect for difference...

...The fruit young theologians away from-or keep (or bring) older ones into-the theological fold...

...seek a mandatum to teach theology...

...fessing loyalty to the magisterium or to the Catholic Theological Society of America...

...Too often, though, much of the rhetoric about academic At present, however, the bishops seem to be making greater freedom and institutional integrity owes more to autono- demands of theologians while doing virtually nothing themmy than to communion...

...It includes the creation and support viewed journals or involvement in civic and ecclesial asso- of vibrant communities of Christian prayer and service...

...In their absence, is it any surprise that a few, Lisa Sowle Cahill, Avery Dulles, and Joseph Komon- all parties are edgy and defensive...

...By the time a Jesuit began doctoral extrinsic to theology only if theology has become so purely work, for instance, he had already spent close to fifteen years Commonweal 18 April 21, 2000 in intense spiritual formation: living and studying in a dis- theological research, while those institutions which are selfciplined community, praying publicly and privately daily, professedly "orthodox," like the Franciscan University of serving in the order's apostolates...

...In nature of Catholic universities and theology...

...Simply put, young theologians live and move and have their being in a world not of their own making...