These are partial and fragmentary answers to the various questions raised in fundamental theology,

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Dwyer,

Some Answers to the Questions of Fundamental Theology

[1.2.8.2]

1

These are partial and fragmentary answers to the various questions raised

in fundamental theology, and listed on the outline you have already re-

ceived.

All of them need to be expanded (many to book-length), and all of

them raise more questions than they answer.

I propose them here as

suggestions of avenues down which you can profitably think out your own

answers.

The numeration follows that of the outline you have received,

except for a few cases which are noted.

1 Faith is letting God define himself on his own terms, in his own way, in

his own good time.

Christian faith is letting God define himself (and us)

in Jesus Christ.

For Paul, faith is hearkening to the word of uncondi-

tional acceptance that God has spoken in Jesus Christ, particularly on

the cross.

In the Synoptics, faith is relying totally on Jesus.

1.1

Historical study cannot «prove» faith, nor can it provide the mo-

tive for faith.

But historical study can show us

how

God has de-

fined himself – that is, it can clarify what it is that we are called to

believe.

1.1.1

[This section does not correspond to one of the

questions on your outline.]

Historical study can also

make us suspicious of some stances (of ourselves and

of others) which pose as Christian but which are hard to

reconcile with positions taken by the historical Jesus.

1.2

Faith is not an alternative to understanding, to the use of intel-

ligence.

Faith itself is an act of understanding, and it affects and

undergirds all other acts of understanding (not only in theology,

but in all of life).

1.2.1

The evidence for faith is different from the evidence

which we have in other kinds of knowledge, but faith is

not

assent without evidence, because then it would be

irrational, anti-intellectual, and unworthy of a human be-

ing.

The evidence on which faith is based is the immedi-

ate experienced presence of God in our lives.

1.2.2

Faith is the quintessentially intelligent way of knowing.

All exercise of intelligence, all understanding deals with

the mystery of being, and, ultimately, that mystery dis-

closes itself only to faith.

1.3

Emotion, in so far as it is truly human (and not merely vapid,

self-absorbed sentimentality) is the experience of the charm, the

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beauty, the attractiveness, of what we have begun to

understand.

Intelligence is not the act of turning the cold light of

reason on pure concepts; it is the power to enter into the mystery

of being.

1.3.1

Head and heart need each other, and attempts to sepa-

rate them lead to fanaticism.

Fanaticism is almost

always the result of suppressing the truth

(fundamen-

talism is a good example).

1.4

To call faith «saving» means that faith has the power to heal the

brokenness of life – it has the power to take away fear, anxiety,

silly pride, stupid pretense, hopelessness, alienation, estrange-

ment, meaninglessness, in this life, and it has the power to offer

eternal life.

1.5

Saving faith can be found outside Christianity because God can

be known outside of and apart from his definitive revelation of

himself in Jesus Christ.

1.5.1

Both God and Jesus can be known by «pen names» –

that is, they can be known in experiences and in percep-

tions of value which make absolute claims on us.

When-

ever we recognize that there

are

values (ways of acting

which promote human existence), and that those values

are

there

whether we like it or not, we know God anon-

ymously.

1.5.2

Agnostics can have saving faith; many self-

styled agnostics adhere to values which they

know are not of their own making.

2 Revelation is God´s act of communicating, sharing, his own life, his

very self.

2.1

Revelation is not alien to human intelligence; as intelligent be-

ings, we seek revelation, because, without it, we cannot be

present to the mystery of being, and cannot deal with the

problems of life and the predicament of human existence.

2.2

God reveals himself in a number of ways, one of which is in na-

ture – in the crags, the cliffs, the sky and the stars, the depths of

the oceans and the mysteries of quantum physics and of qua-

sars.

2.2.1

Nature is part of revelation – always ambiguous,

because only revelation in

word

can remove this

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Some Answers to the Questions of Fundamental Theology

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ambiguity.

2.3

Revelation occurs in other religions (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism,

and others), but not only there; it occurs in some of the great

philosophical and artistic achievements of all peoples.

But with-

out the cross, these revelations also remain ambiguous.

3 Scripture is God´s revelation in word, and which, because it is written,

has achieved stable, permanent form in a way which stands over us

and is not subject to our whims.

For this reason it can function as a

norm for all other supposed revelations.

3.1

Although scripture was written in human languages, its words

are the bearer of God´s thought, power, and presence; in these

human words, God speaks to us.

3.2

The scriptural word is sacramental because it is a human,

worldly reality, which is the bearer of God himself into our midst.

3.3

Scripture and church are correlative concepts – each belongs to

the definition of the other.

3.3.1

Neither was «there» before the other.

The church came

into being in the writing of scripture, and scripture is the

book of the church, written in, by, and for the church.

3.3.2

Scripture does not «belong» to churchmen, in the sense

that they can deal with it as they want, or use it at their

own discretion.

All in the church (including bishops and

the pope) stand under scripture.

3.4

The problem of the canon is the question of how the writings of

the Old and New Testaments became canonical – that is, norma-

tive for church life.

Did they acquire this status through divine

providence which made use of human error (for example, er-

roneous judgments about the authorship of many of the writings).

3.4.1

These writings became canonical partly because of the

errors mentioned above, but partly because of the power

of the writings themselves.

3.4.2

This could have happened through divine providence

making use of human error.

God can write straight with

crooked lines.

3.5

The term «canon within the canon» implies that some of the writ-

ings of the New Testament (the term is used almost exclusively

by NT scholars) are more central than others, more normative of

Christian faith and life, for the church and the individual.

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3.6

The OT is the most powerful presentation of the human predica-

ment, of the hope and longing which are constitutive of the hum-

an situation, which the world has ever seen.

In this sense (and

not as the prediction of things to come) it is a preparation for the

NT.

3.6.1

The term «Hebrew Scriptures» refers to these writings

which were produced over the span of more than a thou-

sand years by the Israelite and Jewish peoples.

As

such, they have their own consistency, their own

meaning, their own integrity,

within

Israelite and Jewish

history.

The term «Old Testament» refers to these

writings (with some small additions which were not

originally written in Hebrew), which were adopted by

Christians, and read as preparation for the coming of

Jesus.

3.7

We need an approach to scripture, a way of reading it, which

does two things: it places the document against the background

of its own time and place, because, apart from that context, it

cannot be understood.

And second, it respects the essentially

critical

nature of human understanding – the fact that we should

give our assent only when we have seen the evidence and

evaluated it.

3.7.1

Historical-critical method is

historical

because it sees the

need to learn the «language» of the text it is interpreting

– that is, because it is aware of the resources of thought

and expression available (or unavailable)

to the writers

because of the time and place at and in which they lived

.

It is critical, because it strives to distinguish what the

text

seems

to be saying from what it really

is

saying.

4 Tradition (as a theological concept) is the handing on of an authorita-

tive, normative teaching.

It can also be used to refer to the teaching

which is handed on.

4.1

Scripture is God´s word to us, and, as such, it is normative for

faith and life in a primary, primordial way.

Tradition is the word

of the church (that is, of all Christians, of the whole people of

God), as it strives to speak a word of response to God.

4.2

Tradition cannot be on the same footing, because it is the

re-

sponse

to God´s word, and therefore it is subordinate to that

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word and is to be measured by it.

4.3

Tradition cannot function as such a supplementary source.

To

see it in this light would be to deny that scripture is truly

normative for the faith and life of the individual Christian and of

the church.

4.4

[The text in the question should read «if not.»]

When we find

dogmas which appear to have no real basis in scripture, we can

only see them as the expression of some scriptural teaching, but

in a form which reflects the religious culture and the devotional

style of a particular time.

(This religious culture and devotional

style may well have many elements which have no scriptural

pedigree whatsoever.)

5 The magisterium is the office in the church which is charged with main-

taining the apostolic doctrine intact.

It has a solid NT basis, although

its specifically juridical elements and the hyper-development of the

papal magisterium cannot be authenticated by the NT.

5.1

The authority of the magisterium depends on scripture.

Scripture

is the repository of the apostolic preaching and teaching, and the

magisterium cannot teach which scripture does not teach.

5.2

This is true for two reasons.

First, the magisterium has no inde-

pendent sources outside of scripture, on which to base its teach-

ing (the guidance of the Holy Spirit shows itself by inspiring

loyalty to the scriptural message).

And second, the magisterium

owes it to the whole church to help its members acknowledge

the primacy of scripture in Christian life.

5.3

Dogma is teaching which is normative for all in the church.

It has

this character because it states scriptural teaching in language

which is understandable in the day and time in and at which it is

formulated.

5.4

Ecumenical councils have an important role in the formulation of

authoritative teaching, because they are meetings of those who

have the special task of safeguarding the apostolic teaching.

5.5

Historical-critical method is not simply a way of understanding

scripture; it must also be applied to the statements of popes and

councils, since otherwise we have no way of discovering what

claims these statements have on us and our faith.

Like scripture,

their statements often need to be decoded.

6 The prophet is the wo/man who speaks the powerful word of God into

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Some Answers to the Questions of Fundamental Theology

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the present situation.

The prophetic office is something we can never

claim for ourselves, and true prophets are ordinarily recognized only

when they are dead.

(And even then very few merit the title.)

6.1

It referred to one who spoke the powerful word of Jahweh into

the situation of the moment.

It had nothing to do with predicting

the proximate or remote future.

6.2

When Paul speaks of prophets and prophecy, he probably has in

mind those in the churches who spoke of the meaning of the

Christian message for practical living.

6.3

The Christian prophet does not claim to be one, bases his/her

message on scripture, and suffers, without complaint, for the

truth of his/her message.

John Courtney Murray, and Yves

Congar are good examples.

7 Theology is the attempt to think clearly and systematically about the

mystery of God, and about the mystery of ourselves which depends on

God.

7.1

The purpose of theology is to understand something of the divine

mystery so that we may enter into it and be transformed by it.

7.2

The principal source of theology is scripture, but it also takes

note of tradition (the church´s response to the scriptural word).

This response is found in the teaching of bishops and popes, in

the writings of theologians, in the liturgy, in the common-sense

judgments of the laity, and elsewhere.

7.2.1

Scripture is the primordial source, on which all other

sources are based.

7.2.2

After scripture, the teaching of the bishops has priority,

because they form the group within the church which is

charged with maintaining the apostolic teaching.

The

other sources can play their role to the degree to which

they are rooted in scripture.

7.3

Theological statements must do two things, satisfy two criteria.

First, they must derive their content from scripture.

Second, they

must state that content in language which is intelligible at the

moment at which they are made.

7.3.1

They must answer the questions which people are actu-

ally asking – questions about the meaning of existence,

about how to deal with suffering and with the experience

of meaninglessness and despair.

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7.3.2

They are measured by their fidelity to scripture and by

the correctness of their analysis of the human situation.

7.4

Philosophy raises questions about the meaning of being, in the

most all-encompassing sense, and it uses all the resources of

reason and intelligence in seeking an answer.

Theology draws

on revelation, God´s communication of himself, his sharing of his

own life, to answer the question of the meaning of being – of

God´s and our own being.

7.4.1

Philosophy is the quest for the meaning of

being.

7.4.2

Philosophy and theology are implied in each other´s defi-

nitions, because philoso

phy articulates the question that

we ask and the question that we are, and theology an-

swers those questions.

7.5

In the early centuries, theologians saw their task as interpreting

scripture, but there were two problems.

First, they read scripture

through the dark glasses of Platonic and neo-Platonic philoso-

phy, and second, they used allegorical methods of interpretation,

which led them to find things in scripture which were not there.

In addition, they rarely proceeded in a systematic way.

At about

the middle of the eleventh century, the period of scholasticism

began.

7.5.1

Scholasticism was the attempt to use the philosophies of

ancient Greece (particularly that of Aristotle, although in

earlier years Plato´s thought played an important role) as

a tool to understand the mysteries of the faith.

It led to a

highly ordered, systematic approach, and it peaked in

the work of Thomas Aquinas in the middle of the

thirteenth century.

After his time there were many sterile

imitations, and then in 1879 Leo XIII made Thomas

something like a court theologian for the Catholic church.

This neo-thomism was the way Rome wanted theology

done, and, except in Germany, it was done this way

almost everywhere, up to Vatican II.

7.5.2

In Catholic theology, no single method has replaced

scholasticism and, more narrowly, thomism.

Some con-

temporary approaches use a concept of

salvation

history,

which they claim to find in scripture, as a key to

organizing and systematizing the theological enterprise,

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Some Answers to the Questions of Fundamental Theology

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while others (for example, the

Catechism of the Catholic

Church

) begin with the statements of the Nicene Creed,

while drawing heavily on the scholastic tradition.

The

strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches

should be measured by the extent to which they depend

on scripture, understood historically and critically.

8 «Religion» is a very ambiguous term.

8.1

It can be defined positively as «the attempt to know God, to sub-

mit to him, and to do his will.»

8.2

It can be defined negatively as the attempt to manipulate and

control God, and force a reward from his hands, by correct belief,

by conforming to his law, and by engaging in the proper ceremo-

nial activities.

8.3

All forms of religion manifest both these positive and negative

traits.

The temptation to become a religion of law, with appropri-

ate «pay-offs» for those who obey the law, is strong in Christian-

ity.

9 A common division is: dogmatic, scriptural, and practical.

Dogmatic

theology would include sections in the following areas: the question of

God,

creation, christology, the Spirit, the Trinity, grace, the church, the

sacraments, and eschatology.

Scriptural theology would include sec-

tions on the principles of exegesis of OT and NT texts, and then on the

actual exegesis of these texts.

Practical theology would include moral

theology (or Christian ethics), pastoral theology, spirituality, canon law.

Church history could be included under practical theology (but see be-

low).

9.1

The status of moral theology is much debated, but the best moral

theology cannot be seen as reflection on «the law of Christ.»

It

is much better to see it as the attempt to answer the question of

how those who have been offered true freedom by the preaching

of the Gospel will manifest that freedom in the choices and deci-

sions they make.

9.1.1

[This section does not correspond to a question in the

outline on foundational theology.]

Moral theology, as it

was taught in the seminaries, was organized around the

concept of sin (since it was designed to train future

priests to hear confession, and the Council of Trent de-

manded that serious sins be confessed by type and by

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number.)

More recent approaches have concentrated

on the virtues – in this they followed Thomas Aquinas.

9.2

Church history is a

theological

discipline because it does not ex-

amine the life of the church simply as a series of events which

have causes and effects of the same kind as those operative in

secular history.

It recognizes the church as a divine/human real-

ity, and looks for criteria to judge the church at different moments

in history.

9.2.1

The principal norm for judging the church at any moment

in history will be that of conformity to the period in which

it came to be, and to the NT as the written record of that

period.

9.3

Pastoral theology deals with evangelization, catechetics, homilet-

ics, counseling, and psychology.

Spirituality is sometimes

located here.

9.3.1

Traditionally, pastoral theology has been treated as a

separate branch, and as part of practical theology.

9.3.2

Dogmatic and scriptural theology must be pastoral, be-

cause if they are merely theoretical they have no relation

to faith and life.

10 The sacramental principle sees all creation as pointing to God and

revealing God, and sees that it can all be a bearer of the real presence

of Jesus in our midst.

Water, oil, bread, wine, a few words – all of them

have the radical power to be bearers of the presence and power of

God.

10.1 The sacramental principle discerns a potential in everything in

the natural world to point beyond itself to God.

10.1.1 This happens when the word of Jesus raises things to a

new level, brings them into the human/divine world

where he lives.

10.2 Some things have already left the purely natural world and have

been incorporated into the human world.

For example, when

food and drink become signs of shared joy and acceptance at a

family meal, they are changed.

They are no longer simply ways

of nourishing the body.

10.2.1 When Jesus takes this human situation, in which bread

and wine are already more than mere nourishment, and

makes it the bearer of his own presence, he does this

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through the power of his word.

10.3 God´s word, whether spoken immediately by him, or through

Jesus, his son, manifests the same power as it showed at cre-

ation.

It is never merely descriptive, but always a word which

intervenes in the world, changes history, creates new

possibilities of existence.