tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post1763206733966192355..comments2024-03-26T14:20:38.103-04:00Comments on The Thought Criminal: We Need More Theology That Isn't an Expression of an Arid, Lifeless DevotionalismUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-2989650297336560972015-08-14T09:17:20.392-04:002015-08-14T09:17:20.392-04:00I will, however, challenge the idea that "glo...I will, however, challenge the idea that "global suffering" is a measure of the inaccessibility of God.<br /><br />Global suffering is a measure of first-world awareness; and a matter of how we define "suffering." Too much of it is defined as "lack of first world benefits," even though those benefits come at great cost to the third world (something the liberation theologians point out, which is what gets them on the outs with Rome and, at one point at least, the CIA).<br /><br />Yes, there is tremendous suffering in the "Third World," but the source of the suffering is much closer to home than an inaccessible God. The very concept sounds a bit too much (at first blush, I should give Tracy the respect he is due) like a soteriology where God is supposed to save us from ourselves; let us, in other words, do as we please and withdraw from us all consequences of our actions.<br /><br />The precise opposite, in other words, of the God present in the Hebrew Scriptures, who doesn't punish Israel, but rather lets them suffer the consequences of their apostasy. Not because God withdraws from them, but because they withdrew from God.<br /><br />Hmmm....I wonder if Tracy ever finished that book. I'd like to look into it.Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-51664204396979420692015-08-14T09:12:11.411-04:002015-08-14T09:12:11.411-04:00And if I hadn't stopped at that paragraph to g...And if I hadn't stopped at that paragraph to get my thought out before I lost it, I'd have ended that post with this paragraph:<br /><br />"Theology, he continues, “is not about supplying answers that cannot be questioned,” but rather is judged by “the questions it asks.” In the final analysis, theology is a work of mysticism rather than of logic."<br /><br />Exactly.<br />Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-66354288621977102902015-08-14T09:11:08.287-04:002015-08-14T09:11:08.287-04:00Just to pause here:
"Before Vatican II, Trac...Just to pause here:<br /><br />"Before Vatican II, Tracy points out, “Spirituality became something you do after you do your theology.” I can testify from personal experience that this was, in fact, the operative assumption of much pre-conciliar seminary theology. "<br /><br />Not only in pre-Vatican II Roman seminaries. At my very Protestant, very liberal, seminary, three of us tried to start a prayer group for the simple purpose of gathering for prayer. Not intercessory prayer of "Come, Lord Jesus" prayer or praying like high school Baptists, but spiritual communion as we imagined it to be in the ancient Christian traditions.<br /><br />The dean we approached had no problem with it, but also said it had been tried before, and never succeeded. We found an isolated space at the top of the main building, basically a room under the rafters on the third floor of a two story building, and met. Infrequently. With no mentor and no practice to fall back on, we didn't last long.<br /><br />The school emphasized theology and church history and ecclesiology and sociology and how to be a pastor (a difficult subject) and it was an excellent seminary.<br /><br />But it wasn't a place for spirituality. Whether that was because "spirituality" seemed too much like Pietism (which has German roots, as did our seminary), and Pietism too much like fundamentalist holy rollers, I don't know. But spirituality is very hard to reconcile with modern theology, especially among theologians influenced by Heidegger (Rahner and Bultmann come to mind here).<br /><br />Theology is in a bit of a wilderness, torn between devotion to the pre-Enlightenment world and determination to conform to post-Enlightenment modernity. It is, in some sense, all a darkness.<br /><br />But it needn't be.<br />Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.com