WHAT THEOLOGY IS AND IS NOT
1.
Theology is not faith. To have faith is to be in a personal relationship
with God, who is Truth itself. Faith can include theology. To use St. Anselm of
Canterbury’s centuries-old definition, “Theology is faith seeking understanding.”
It is the more or less systematic effort one makes to understand and express
the fundamental experience of God. There can be Hindu theology and Muslim
theology; Christian theology focuses that process of understanding on Jesus
Christ, operating within, and in fidelity to, a particular community and
tradition, like the Catholic Church. So there is a specifically Roman Catholic
theology, and it need not be an intimidating empire of thought or system.
2.
Theology is not monolithic. Not only are
there many religious faiths (Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist) but
there are also many variations of faith within given faith-traditions. Even
within Catholicism, for example, one may speak of a theology that is
Augustinian, Thomistic (St. Thomas Aquinas), Rahnerian (from the late Jesuit
Fr. Karl Rahner). But other divisions are also possible, and, in fact,
operating, based on the situation: feminist, liberation, ecological,
inculturation, and so forth.
3.
Theology is not simply reflection on doctrine.
A doctrine is an official teaching that derives from theology, not from direct
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Before the official Church can propose a
statement of faith for the acceptance of its members, it must first think about
and struggle with its possible meanings and with various possible expressions
of meanings. That process of struggle, always aided by divine grace, to
understand faith leading to some official expression of faith is called
theology. Theology, however, does not consist simply of a listing, explanation,
and defence of doctrines. The theologian’s task is not only explicative, but
critical – critical even of doctrine, or the language of doctrines and the
conceptual framework so that the doctrine’s truth can become accessible anew in
a fresh formulation, taking the help of the intellectual-cultural thought
patterns of a particular nation or people.
4.
Theology is not catechesis. Catechesis
is, literally, an “echoing” of the faith. Unlike theology, catechesis is for
the potential member (known as catechumen) or for a newly initiated member of
the Church (e.g. a growing child or an adult convert). Catechesis teaches the
faith by highlighting and explaining the main elements of the faith tradition
and their relationships, as well as their personal and pastoral implications.
The catechist’s task is not to invite
potential or new members of the Church to think critically about their faith,
but rather to understand and appropriate it in as clear and spiritually
fruitful a way as possible. The theologian’s task, by contrast, is critical.
The mature member of the Church is invited to think critically, to question,
even to challenge certain elements of the faith-tradition. To judge the
theologian’s work by the standards of the catechist’s is to misconstrue the
work of both.
5.
Theology is not religious studies or a philosophy of
religion. To do theology, one must proceed from and reflect within a
faith-tradition, one that takes God to be real, not only objectively and
historically, but also in one’s own life and consciousness. It is quite
possible, though, that a split personality could study theology, even teach it,
without it’s making any faith difference in his life. Agents of the communist
era have gone through the course of theology in this fashion. It’s difficult to
say what was in their minds.
6.
Theology and the faith it seeks to understand do not
begin at the point where reason gives out. The very use of the
concept “understand” includes the function of reason. Faith is consonant with
reason, which in turn is illumined by faith. Both faith and reason are fully
engaged from the very start of the theological process.
7.
Theology is not static or ahistorical.
Theology is always and everywhere contextualised. It occurs not only within a
given faith-tradition, but also within given moments of time and within given
networks of circumstances and interrelationships.
Theology belongs to the very guts of a
changing world as agent of the process of change and development; it is not a
decoration but a factor of man’s opening to God in ever new and challenging
situations. For this it has to think up and provide the necessary “God talk”
for a changing world. The theologian is a man in God and a man in the world.
The theology of one historical period
and/or of one cultural situation will differ, often markedly, from the theology
of another historical period or cultural situation.
The faith may not change, but our
understanding of it does.
8.
Theology is not in conflict with science, since both seek and are devoted to the truth.
Alleged contradictions are only apparent, not real. It is probably accurate
(and humiliating) to say that theology has had more errors and false
assumptions to correct in recent decades than has science!
9.
Theology is a science, because it is
methodical and systematic. Although rooted in faith and in the life of the
Church, theology is, unlike catecheses, preaching and pastoral
instruction, a scientific discipline. The theologian is not charged primarily
with the “echoing” of faith (which is the literal meaning of catechesis), nor
the proclamation of the Gospel (which is the task of preachers), nor the
official transmission of the faith to the general membership of the Church
(which has become over time the special responsibility of the bishops, known as
the Magisterium).
The theologian is not simply a catechist
with a doctoral degree. Unlike the catechist, he is required to probe and
examine the whole of the Christian tradition to see what it means, how it fits
together, by what process it has developed, and how it is related to the
so-called outside world of theory and practice; and then to pose new questions
in light of changing historical circumstances and propose fresh answers for
them. The Church has never made it easy for its most ardent defenders. The
Church represents all that is eternal, lasting and permanent. The Church’s
views look back over the centuries, and mistrust those who think they have the
keys to all the puzzles in their puny hands. It is too cautious to charge ahead
with every innovator, though later it will admit that some of them were right.
10.
The theologian’s audience. The catechist
has one audience or public: church members who are relatively new in the faith,
whether children or adults. But the theologian has three audiences or publics:
first, church members who have advanced beyond the stage of catechesis; second,
the academy (colleges and university related people who are themselves
seriously engaged in intellectual reflection on religion); and, third, the
wider society. The important point is that the theologian addresses the mature
Christian. There are many more mature Christians these days, thanks in
large part to the success of Catholic higher education, than some members of the
hierarchy and some lay people seem prepared to acknowledge.
Further, the Catholic theologian has an
even wider audience within the Church. The Church of Christ is, after all,
wider than the Catholic Church. Accordingly, the Catholic theologian must be mindful
of Anglicans, Orthodox, Protestant, Pentecostal and other non-Catholic
Christians. In India, particularly, he must take into his theologising the
thinking and wisdom of Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Sikh religions. Theology is
ecumenical by the very nature of the enterprise. Furthermore, the theologian
has an even wider audience, beyond the church and beyond the religious
persuasions at large. The theologian also addresses fellow academics in
Catholic, non-Catholic and secular institutions alike, men and women trying to
make difficult ethical decisions in government, business and medical
professions; poets and musicians, novelists and artists; and ordinary people
seeking answers to life’s most fundamental questions.
As a scientific and ecclesiastical enterprise,
theology has to be engaged in dialogue with all three publics: church, academy
and society. Failing to understand the range of the theologian’s publics is to
conceive too narrowly the nature and task of theology itself.
(concluded)
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