Posted on by Kurt Bodling

I could be wrong

“Now in individual cases, it may be that they say something that we find very hard to accept because of our own earnest convictions. Here we must rethink our own positions in the light of what authority has said and, if possible, try to see the reasons why authority has spoken as it did, the presumption being that they had good reasons to do it. However, it may be that with the best will in the world we cannot really convince ourselves that this is right. And if so, we are inevitably thrown into a position of dissent. But I think we must be modest about it and realize that our own opinion is not necessarily the last word. Maybe somebody is wiser than we are. And maybe the church has a wisdom from which we have to learn. So we shouldn’t constitute ourselves as a kind of alternate magisterium.”

Dulles, Avery Cardinal. “Reason, Faith and Theology.” Interviewer: James Martin, SJ.  America. 5 March 2001 issue. Viewed online 12 December 2015 at http://americamagazine.org/issue/338/article/reason-faith-and-theology

I’ve heard two phrases that everyone should have at the ready. One is “I could be wrong” (as above). And the other is “I guess I don’t see it that way.”

The way of humility is paved with phrases like these, not with clinchers, or closers, or zingers, not with shutting down the opposition, or winning at any cost.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

just talk together, already

“First of all, we have to listen to one another and sit down and talk together in a civil spirit. I regret the way in which some go off in a sectarian way within the church and make their own little home in one wing or the other and become either liberal Catholic reformist types or truly adamant conservatives. Then they just tend to shoot across at one another from their trenches. This is not a healthy thing within the church. We have to cultivate the spirit of unity among Catholics and to try to understand one another’s point of view and learn from one another. This would be my hope.”

Avery Cardinal Dulles. “Reason, Faith and Theology.” Interviewer: James Martin, SJ.  America. 5 March 2001 issue. Viewed online 12 December 2015 at http://americamagazine.org/issue/338/article/reason-faith-and-theology

Note: There has to be a better way to live together, says Cardinal Dulles, than in constant sniping, argument, and disagreement. Especially within the Church. You’d think this would be obvious to people whose Leader once prayed to His heavenly Father “that they may be one, as we are one.”

On the other hand, if your first move is to define the other folk out of the Church because they think/say/do something you think they shouldn’t, then I guess you feel like you aren’t violating the Savior’s prayer intention. Not a smart strategy. And you’ll have further to go to get to the point I want to see: cultivating the spirit of unity among all Christians (and not just the Catholics).

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

the point of writing

“Those of us who are scholars ought not to leave our desks or stop writing our books, but we need to recognize very vividly and urgently the greater whole of which our writing is just a part. If our research, writing, and teaching, do not directly help the poor, we had better make sure that what we do is part of the compassionate, merciful and just work of the Church. But what the scholar, in the disciplined and quiet work of mind and heart, is to do, is the topic for another post.”

Clooney, Francis X. “Compassion and Dialogue Shall Embrace” America Magazine 27 November 2015 < no page number as this was found online >

Note: Whether you’re writing the ‘book to end all books’ or putting together a Sunday School lesson or researching a blog post for your friends to read, it all involves study. And here the point is that if your study (verb) doesn’t take you beyond your study (noun), then it’s both short-sighted and less than it should be.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

engage in dialog

“Good Catholics embrace dialogue; it is only our latter-day cafeteria Catholics who think they can omit dialogue from their theology, piety and practice.”

Clooney, Francis X. “Compassion and Dialogue Shall Embrace” America Magazine 27 November 2015 < no page number as it was found online >

Catholics, yes. But also Lutherans. And, really, everyone. Without dialogue what we’re left with is stony-faced, rigid wall-building, or a simmering misunderstanding set to boil over at the slightest provocation. Let’s not omit dialogue.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

study as a spiritual discipline

“Before all else, our study should aim principally and ardently at this that we might be able to be useful to the souls of our neighbors. By study the brethren consider in their heart the manifold wisdom of God and prepare themselves for the doctrinal service of the Church and of all mankind. It is all the more fitting that they should devote themselves to study, because from the tradition of the Order they are called to cultivate mankind’s inclination toward truth.

“The brethren should contemplate and study divine revelation of which Sacred Scripture and Tradition constitute a single sacred deposit, and from the perennial instructional value of its overall plan, they should learn to discover the many paths of gospel truth, even in created things, in human works and institutions, as well as in different religions.

“The brethren should study attentively the writings of the Fathers of the Church and distinguished witnesses of Christian thought who, with the help of different cultures and the wisdom of the philosophers, labored to understand the word of God more fully. Following their thinking, the brethren should respectfully listen to the living tradition of the Church, seek dialogue with the learned, and open their mind to contemporary discoveries and problems.

“Continuous study nourishes contemplation, encourages fulfillment of the counsels with shining fidelity, constitutes a form of asceticism by its own perseverance and difficulty, and, as an essential element of our whole life, it is an excellent religious observance.”

extracted from: “Study as an Essential Part of Religious Life for Friars” from a web page published by the Dominicans of the Province of Saint Joseph, one of four provinces in the United States. Viewed online at https://opeast.org/about/our-way-of-life/study/ on 6 December 2022.

Note: The Dominicans in many ways seem to embody the spiritual discipline of study. They dig into the sources. They serve the fruit of their study to the Church and the world. These days I’m especially resonating to the thought that “Continuous study nourishes contemplation, [and] constitutes a form of asceticism by its own perseverance and difficulty….”

What are you studying these days? Is it for the good of those around you as well as for your own good?

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

creation care among Christians

Quote:
“So what might we take away from the document? I would suggest several things. First, Francis provides a way of engaging those who do not share our beliefs in a post-Christian world. Second, the document provides some helpful lines of direction toward a more robust theology of creation and its use within the church. Finally, Francis encourages us to expand our horizons and embrace a comprehensive vision of the world. He challenges the church to take a global perspective in which a practical commitment to human beings and the environment take priority over a commitment to nationalities, ideologies, economic theories, and politics.”

Charles P. Arand, “Tending Our Common Home: Reflections on Laudato Si’.” Concordia Journal Fall 2015, vol. 41, no. 4, page 308.

Note:
LCMS seminary prof Charles Arand highlights things that Lutherans can pick up from Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’. I’m not sure, however, whether any Lutherans really have taken up the 2015 encyclical. I certainly don’t see a lot of Lutheran focus on the issues of creation care. We do talk a lot about “life issues” but I just can’t say that I’ve seen much that uses the phrase to include preservation and enrichment of all life on earth. And, yes, I’m talking about the scourge of climate change.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

irreconcilable differences? hope not!

Quote:
“We have irreconcilable differences with Rome on the second and third articles related to the work of Christ and justification by faith alone that date back to the sixteenth century. But we share a number of common convictions regarding the first article of the creed as it relates to the moral issues of society and God’s continuing work in creation (creatio continua).”

Note:
As a respected seminary professor in the LCMS, Arand knows of what he speaks, but I sure wish he hadn’t called the differences “irreconcilable.” That troubles me. At one time it wouldn’t have. Still, I guess it’s good there’s something we agree on.

Charles P. Arand, “Tending Our Common Home: Reflections on Laudato Si’.” Concordia Journal Fall 2015, vol. 41, no. 4, page 308.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

are you using that phrase correctly?

Quote: “Movements and theologies need short phrases that capture their convictions and give people something easy to remember in times of need. But these slogans can end up being reductive or distorted. A great example of this is sola Scriptura or “Scripture alone.”

“It accurately represents Luther if it means something like “the church has permission to formulate as binding doctrine or practice only those things that are taught in the Scripture, always pointing to the salvation offered in Jesus Christ as the matter of central importance, but it can’t make up new teachings or traditions and impose them on believers as a matter affecting their salvation.” Whew! Not a very catchy slogan, that.

“But, if sola Scriptura means something like “unless it’s explicitly written and defined in Scripture a Christian must have absolutely nothing to do with it” or “nothing in the entire history and tradition of the church is of any value at all” or “anyone can read the Scripture without any education or training and come up with a perfectly valid interpretation that cannot be challenged because after all it’s from Scripture”—then no, those unwieldy versions of sola Scriptura do not accurately reflect Luther.”

(From a now apparently defunct webpage by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson at  https://www.lutherreadingchallenge.org/ which is © Institute for Ecumenical Research “in Strasbourg, France, an affiliate of the Lutheran World Federation (http://www.lutheranworld.org/) that has been devoted to Lutheran churches’ ecumenical commitments since 1965.” The web page existed on 15 November 2016.)

Note: I get so exasperated with writers and speakers who misuse terms like this one. It’s shorthand for an important theological concept. It doesn’t mean what so many people make it out to mean. This is mostly those trying to “prove” fellow Christians are wrong, but sadly also includes lesser-informed Protestants. What Pastor Wilson says in the above quote accords with the original meaning of the pithy Latin phrase as used by those in the 16th century who first used it.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Living Faith of the Heart

“But the monastic understanding of Jesus is far more than mere correct doctrine about Catholic or ecumenical Christian faith and morality, church and monastery structures, or the correct performance of liturgy and sacraments. It is a life experience. We become ‘like Christ,’ or ‘Christian.’ Perhaps that is why monastics have always been both protectors of orthodoxy and pioneers in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue.”

Talbot, John Michael. Blessings of St. Benedict. Collegeville, MN : Liturgical Press, 2011, page 126.

Talbot says that while correct doctrine is necessary, it isn’t enough. That would only be head knowledge of Christ; and it’s important not to forget a heart knowledge of Jesus. I wonder whether he would admit that this “life experience” of the Lord can be gained through immersion in “correct doctrine.” I ask because I have known many folks utterly concerned about protecting “pure doctrine” and orthodoxy, who never wanted to get tainted by being involved in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Vocation in the Church

“I sometimes had to stand up against the simplistic equation of ‘vocation’ with the parish ministry of the Church. Therefore, I was repeatedly obliged to explain how scholarship, too, could be a sacred vocation, and one that was needed by the Church — even though, as it happened, I had to leave the employ of the Church thirty-one years ago in order to carry out this church vocation.” 

(Pelikan, Jaroslav. “The Vocation of Scholarship in the Church,” Academy: Lutherans in Profession. 45:3-4, pages 10-17.)

I’ve felt like I always had to stand against that simplistic equation. The Missouri Synod I came up in was hurting for parish pastors (even moreso now) and, even though my personal path did not but bump up against parish ministry except on Sunday mornings, I felt I was an outsider and either ignored or looked down upon because I had no full-time parish experience. I certainly did not know ordained peers whose vocation in the Church was not parish-focused.

And, so, around 20 years ago I, too, left the employ of the Church. Not that anyone anywhere would ever suggest that I’m a scholar in any way like Pelikan was.