A Common Catholic Voice

In the English Catholic weekly The Tablet , a useful review of the collected texts and documents of the International Theological Commission from 1969 to 2007, which the magazine titles Must for a Modern Theologian . The reviewer describes the Commission’s work this way:

In his introduction to the first volume, the then Cardinal Ratzinger emphasises that the original goal was to produce a body of theologians who would differ in personal expertise or in allegiance to a particular vision of theology, but who would all be willing to work toward what he calls “the common voice of theology”. The commission was never thus intended to be, he writes, a “kind of permanent ‘his Majesty’s opposition’ to the Magisterium”.

This approach has had very useful results: the commission has been able to reflect carefully and sympathetically on the contours of, and even tensions in, some key aspects of the Church’s existing and traditional teaching. The character of the commission also means that there is little scope for individual flights of creative genius. But again, this is not necessarily any failure: it keeps the documents focused on exploration of the tradition and its different aspects in a way that can command broad agreement. This is not to say that there are not some texts where discussion fails to bite theologically – and philosophically . . . .