Has any serious-minded Catholic every taken the Catholic Theological Society of America seriously? I know I haven't. Over its last decades, it does not seem to have been able to come to any consensus about anything, let alone accord with Catholic magisterial tradition.
So here were are again: "Theological society endorses Farley, elects leadership" (NCR, June 8, 2012), and two days later she addresses her "fellow theologians" about the Vatican's "harsh criticism of her books."
Soon she and her "fellow theologians" may be locked in deliberations over whether the Pope is Catholic, the Church is Christian, or Jesus is Biblical.
Remember the theologians in C.S. Lewis's book, The Great Divorce
(one of my favorite books), who took a bus tour from hell to the outskirts of heaven, where they spent a day considering the rough edges of heavenly reality? At the end of the day, they all hopped back onto the bus to return to hell, so as not to miss the next session of their "theological society." Remember? And remember Oscar Wilde's quip in The Decay of Lying (1889) about how life imitates art much more than art imitates life?
[Hat tip to J.M.]
Whenever I discover a new theologian, I assume they are a heretic until they prove otherwise. Cynical? Undoubtedly. Unjust? Probably. Uncharitable? Possibly. Has it served me well? You better believe it.
ReplyDeleteNot that I take any pleasure in being proven right. This state of affairs, where there is no idea so outlandish that some theologian somewhere doesn't hold it, ought not be.