The Changing of the Guard

Good for Commonweal magazine. In a recent issue they published a balanced discussion of the Catholic theological scene, one that makes quite evident the changing of the guard from the surreal intransigence of a now passing generation of liberal Catholic theologians to new voices that are more obedient and sensible.

The occasion was a dustup in the Catholic theological world in the wake of what (to my mind) was a straightforward and appropriately critical analysis, put out by the Committee on Doctrine of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, of Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God, by the feminist theologian Elizabeth Johnson. Johnson is one of those theologians who transform classical Christian affirmations of the ultimate mystery of God into a metaphor-minting license. The times they are a’changing, and we need, she says, a “revolution” in theology that gives us new, inclusive, and “non-authoritarian” images for God, etc., etc., etc.

The Catholic Theological Society of America”an organization that has transformed itself from a staid academic forum into a union for liberal Catholic theologians who are perpetually at war with the Catholic magisterium”immediately issued a defiant response. They are, however, “open to further conversation with the Committee on Doctrine regarding the understanding of our theological task.” Very magnanimous of them.

This is all very typical of the scene in American Catholic theology in recent decades: a tentative and even diffident effort by the bishops to exercise some oversight of academic theology followed immediately by a “how dare you” response from the academic theologians. So the editors of Commonweal asked a couple of theologians to weigh in on this now ritualized dispute.

Luke Timothy Johnson, New Testament professor at Emory University, fixed on the “tone” of the committee’s statement. Its critical approach “is anything but collegial and makes clear that the last thing the committee wanted to do was to hear from Johnson, much less learn from her.” On the contrary, what the committee “wanted above all was that she be silenced.” Silenced? The statement struck me as measured. In any event, it called for no book burnings, no inquisitions, no ecclesiastical trials”nothing that even remotely suggests “silencing.”

Apparently Johnson and his theological allies have very thin skins. “The statement,” he continues, “represents another stage in the progressive stifling of theological creativity in the church, and it presents to the world the spectacle of a once-glorious intellectual tradition committing self-strangulation in public.” Come again? A plainly written document pointing out the ways in which Elizabeth Johnson caricatures traditional theologies, misrepresents the Catholic view of divine mystery, and comes to conclusions at odds with the official teaching of the Catholic Church amounts to the “stifling of theological creativity” and “self-strangulation in public”?

Luke Timothy Johnson accuses the committee of imposing the narrow “formulas of nineteenth-century systematic theology” and juxtaposes this supposed narrowness to the fact that Elizabeth Johnson’s theological assumptions have been shared “by virtually all reputable Catholic theologians before recent efforts to return the church to a Tridentine form.” Translation: All the intelligent, progressive people I know agree with Elizabeth Johnson, and whoever doesn’t is a mindless reactionary.

Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt, professor of theology at Loyola University in Baltimore, takes a more sober view. He points out that the committee’s statement “focuses more on critique than on censure.” That’s not surprising, he notes, because, aside from seminary professors and those who teach at pontifical faculties, Catholic theologians aren’t subject to Church discipline. In fact, those who criticize the Church tend to flourish. Elizabeth Johnson has received more than a dozen honorary degrees.

Academic accolades notwithstanding, nearly all Catholic theologians, including the liberal, revisionist ones, care about what the Church has to say about their work, as Bauerschmidt points out. He agrees with the committee’s criticisms, finding the book “an intellectually confused and confusing work.” But he recognizes that Johnson clearly writes for the Church and her members, hoping to enrich rather than diminish their faith. Having the chief pastors of the Church tell you that you’ve failed surely stings, which is why, he observes, an official critique from the Committee on Doctrine cannot help but feel like a censure.

Quite true. I know some dissenting theologians whose academic tenure insulates them from anything remotely like real censure. Yet, however misguided their theologies, their desire to serve the Church makes them vulnerable to official criticism and decisions by the hierarchy that treat dissent as dissent. They often develop the bitter view that the Church is ganging up on them”and this even as they are promoted in academic rank and accorded honors in theological societies.

It’s understandable, and better than an insouciant mentality that cares not a whit what the bishops say. But nonetheless, it should not be an occasion for self-pity. Dissent can be dignified, but not when it results in hyperbolic claims of oppression, along with caricatures of those allegedly doing the oppressing. And dissent is especially puerile when it suggests that the ephemeral consensus of your like-minded friends (“virtually all reputable Catholic theologians”) outweighs the chief pastors of the Church.