Posted on by Kurt Bodling

the source and norm

“There is only one God, brethren, and we learn about him only from sacred Scripture. It is therefore our duty to become acquainted with what Scripture proclaims and to investigate its teachings thoroughly. We should believe them in the sense that the Father wills, thinking of the Son in the way the Father wills, and accepting the teaching he wills to give us with regard to the Holy Spirit. Sacred Scripture is God’s gift to us and it should be understood in the way that he intends: we should not do violence to it by interpreting it according to our own preconceived ideas.”

Hippolytus. “A treatise against the heresy of Noetus.” Quoted in the Liturgy of the Hours, Office of Readings for December 23 (Vol. 1, p. 370-371) and cited there as: Cap. 9-12: PG 10, 815-819

Note: Saint Hippolytus, who lived in the decades either side of the year 200, writes that people learn about God only from sacred Scripture. Which sounds to me like a sola Scriptura thought. He also here makes clear that interpreters need to get from the Bible what God intends us to get, and not what our preconceived ideas tell us is there.

Holy Scripture is, in other words, the source and norm for all our talk about God. Or it should be.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

seeing God

“By his own powers man cannot see God, yet God will be seen by men because He wills it. He will be seen by those He chooses, at the time He chooses, and in the way He chooses, for God can do all things. He was seen of old through the Spirit in prophecy; He is seen through the Son by our adoption as his children, and He will be seen in the kingdom of heaven in His own being as the Father. The Spirit prepares man to receive the Son of God, the Son leads him to the Father, and the Father, freeing him from change and decay, bestows the eternal life that comes to everyone from seeing God.

“As those who see light are in the light sharing its brilliance, so those who see God are in God sharing His glory, and that glory gives them life. To see God is to share in life.”

Saint Irenaeus. Adversus Haereses or Against Heresies. Quoted in Office of Readings for Wednesday of the Third Week in Advent, (vol. 1, p. 288) and cited there as: Lib 4, 20, 4-5: SC 100, 634-640.

Note: Seeing God isn’t usually physical seeing, just as knowing God isn’t intellectual knowing. But understand that God was seen, is seen, and will be seen.

Saint Irenaeus also makes an interesting flip by saying that the former was through the Spirit, the middle in the Son, and the latter in the Father. (I think we usually say of old through the creating Father, then in the incarnate Jesus, and ultimately in the Holy Spirit’s leading the Church. So I suppose we’re the ones making the flip.)

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

irreconcilable differences

Note:
Yesterday the commonplace carried a hopeful note that because Lutherans and Catholics do theology in the same way and are both careful to write theology precisely, the two have made progress on bridging the gap between them. He specifically referred to the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification as evidence. The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) didn’t sign on to the Joint Declaration and today’s author knows better than to make the same kind of hopeful praise.

So, in a slight counterpoint to yesterday’s post I note that, as a respected seminary professor in the LCMS, Charles Arand clearly knows of what he speaks, but I sure wish he hadn’t called the differences “irreconcilable.”

[And, as I don’t know who is reading this post, perhaps I need to explain that “second and third articles” below refers to the second and third parts of the Apostles’ Creed, which confess our faith in Jesus and justification, and in the Holy Spirit and the Church, while the “first article” confesses our faith in the Father and his act of creation.]

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).” (p. 308)

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

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

precision talk about God

Note:
A former Lutheran pastor now converted to Catholicism writes about a similarity between the two traditions: they “do theology alike.” Particularly, both bodies put a high premium on the words they use in official documents. The theological task – thinking, writing, speaking about God – needs to be done with care and precision.

Quote:
“What impressed me was how close Lutherans and Catholics really are in basic doctrines and in the respective theological formulations. We ― Romans and Lutherans ― do theology alike, and possibly in a way nobody else does. We pay close attention to our words. Each word is weighed and compared to alternative words that might be used but pose less precision. Precision in wording, it seems, will keep us out of theological hell, and if the exact words aren’t the exactly proper words placed in the exact proper order, well, do not doubt it, we are all certainly doomed.

“When you think about it, it’s actually a pretty charming approach. It also means that when Lutherans and Catholics do sit down together, they have a common language and speaking it together often results in surprising outcomes, as in 1999 with the doctrine of justification.”

Source:

Russell E. Saltzman,”Former Lutheran Pastor: ‘Why I Am Becoming Catholic …’.” viewed online on the Aleteia website < viewed 18 March 2016 > at:
http://aleteia.org/2016/03/18/former-lutheran-pastor-why-i-am-becoming-catholic/

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

theologians must pray

Note:
Cardinal Dulles says theologians must pray. It would seem like a ‘no brainer,’ but I’d bet he knew of some theologians who said they didn’t. Or maybe it was his way of saying that theologians can’t only be book-learning head-knowledge people.

Quote:
“So the theologian must participate in the prayer life of the church and be a praying person himself or herself in order to think the thoughts of God, as we theologians try to do. A theologian who does not pray could hardly be a good theologian.” [emphasis added]

Source: Dulles, Avery Cardinal. “Reason, Faith and Theology.” Interviewer: James Martin, SJ.  America. 5 March 2001 issue. Viewed online 12 December 2015.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

theologians all

Note: And building on yesterday’s post about theology, it’s not just ‘Everyone a Minister’! (ISBN 13: 9780570031840) And it never was.

Part of being a priesthood of all believers is that we all are (need to be) theologians. At least to some extent. Certainly some more and some less, depending on our spiritual gifts, but all as we are able.

Quote:
“This is the work of theology: to comprehend the mystery of the Christian faith. And every Christian is called to be a theologian, that is, to endeavor to penetrate God’s mystery. For this reason, without theology we cannot do lectio divina well.”

Source: Barban, Alessandro. “Lectio Divina and Monastic Theology in Camaldolese Life” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002, p. 49.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

paean to theology

Note: I always cringe a little when I hear preachers say “I’m no theologian, but….” It makes me wonder to myself why they’re even up there. Didn’t the congregation call/license/hire you to be their theologian-in-residence and interpret the Word of God in their midst?

What they are generally trying to do, I think, is to distance themselves from academic theology which can sometimes be dry, boring, and even quite wrong in its attempt to be innovative. That ploy, however, can make theology as a whole an object of contempt and even ridicule among the congregation.

Rest assured that there’s still a place for theology in today’s world. All Christians need at least some theological knowledge so that they can work with the heart wisdom gleaned from Scripture through the spiritual disciplines. Every one of us is a theologian. Some of us are just better trained and more skilled at it than others of us.

Quote:
“Theology is the main requisite for entering into and embodying Christian wisdom. We read the Scriptures, but without theology, we understand only the letter and do not enter into the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We read the mystics, but without theology, we do not understand the profundity of their spiritual insights and enter into mystical experience. We have authentic moments of silence, meditation and prayer, but without theological exercise, our life will not become doxological, permeated by prayer and thanksgiving. Theology is the way to enter into God’s mystery.”

Source: Barban, Alessandro. “Lectio Divina and Monastic Theology in Camaldolese Life” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002, pg. 50.