God Today
Sandro Magister, on his Chiesa website, reports on a conference in Rome that brought together philosophers, theologians, scientists, and artists to discuss the topic: “God Today.” It was sponsored by the Italian Episcopal Conference and was the inspiration of its former President, Cardinal Ruini. Magister provides some excerpts here.
I was particularly struck by the remarks of Cardinal Angelo Scola, the Pariarch of Venice, and one of Italy’s foremost theologians, who critiques a one-sided appeal to kenosis when meditating on and speaking of God:
“It is only in the God who is Logos-Love that meaning is given to the decisive theme of the divine ‘kénosis’ as the way in which God-Truth-Goodness offers himself to men. The kenotic God is not a weak God, but a God who loves, and offers him as such to the liberty of man.”
And Jesus said, “Who do people say that I am?”
“You are the eschatological ground of our being! The kerygma, in which we find the ultimate meaning of an interpersonal relationship.”
And Jesus said, “Huh?”
It seems to me that in liturgical writings the one-sidedness comes up in a certain kind of emphasis on the paschal mystery of the dying and rising of Jesus.
The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy closely identifies the Mass with the paschal mystery. However, instead of having a dual character that is repeated: dying/ rising, dying/ rising… the Council extends the mystery to the Ascension (para. 5) and Pentecost (para. 6)
Entering into the liturgy should have an elevational aspect. We’re not just transformed into better people by our ongoing conversion, but into the life of God.
The sky’s the limit. There is no limit.
I think this is a first, but I find myself somewhat in agreement with Gregory Popcak! Ever since I read Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity by Alan Sokal, I have felt a little more confident in my position that sometimes — and only sometimes, of course — when you don’t understand something, maybe the problem is not with you. (For those unfamiliar Sokal, PW on Amazon explains: “In 1996, NYU physicist Sokal published a paper entitled Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity in an academic journal. Shortly thereafter, and to great furor, Sokal reported that his paper was a parody of postmodernism.”)
I have struggled through some extremely difficult works (most notably Jesus by Edward Schillebeeckx) and profited by it, so I am not saying that abstruse theology or Christology is meaningless. It’s just that the teachings of Jesus were so simple (or at least deceptively simple), and he didn’t use a technical vocabulary that left the masses scratching their heads.
I remember hearing a story (perhaps apocryphal) once about this Robert Frost poem:
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
Someone read a paper offering a complex analysis of the deep, symbolic meaning of the poem. Robert Frost was present, and he said the analysis was very impressive, but what had prompted him to write the poem was that he had walked under a hemlock tree and a bird had kicked snow on his head.
I reserve the right to deny I have ever said any of the above.
LOL David.
The Christmas season does strange things to people. Imagine my consternation when I pulled Grant for my Secret Santa.
The best we can all do is hope that, with a little effort, the New Year will restore the spirit of bitterness and rancor to which we have all become accustomed. ;-)
In the meantime, David (and all my frenemies at dotcommonweal) please accept my sincere wishes for a Blessed Christmas.
G
There was a joke sheet circulating a while back that explained how to make impressive statements in grad school theology classes. Take the subject from column A, a qualifier from column B, a verb complex from column C, and a direct object from column D.
But I believe that the real news here is that a Communio scholar is calling into question a significant aspect of the influence of Balthasar.
Kathy,
Every time you go here, the site generates an original postmodern paper, complete with footnotes. Here’s an example:
Deconstructing Lyotard: Lacanist obscurity and dialectic deconstruction
John B. Porter
Department of Sociology, Stanford University
H. Jane Hanfkopf
Department of Literature, Yale University
1. Lacanist obscurity and deconstructivist appropriation
“Society is part of the defining characteristic of sexuality,” says Derrida. Dialectic deconstruction holds that discourse must come from communication.
If one examines Lacanist obscurity, one is faced with a choice: either reject dialectic deconstruction or conclude that the Constitution is elitist, but only if language is interchangeable with consciousness; if that is not the case, Sontag’s model of Debordist image is one of “prematerial theory”, and therefore part of the dialectic of culture. In a sense, the main theme of the works of Rushdie is a mythopoetical reality. The subject is interpolated into a deconstructivist appropriation that includes consciousness as a paradox. . . .
Thanks for the link, David.
I too tend to rebel against obscurantism, which can be facilitated by jargon.
But I don’t think that’s what’s going on with this conference.
Kathy et al.
This sounds not so much like a strike on Balthasar as a strike on Gianni Vattimo, the Italian philosopher of “weak thought” (pensiero debole) and a notion of a “weak God.” He follows folks like Altizer in viewing the kenosis apart from exaltation; for Vattimo, “kenosis” is univocal language that designates the death of the transcendent God, belief in which he considers a form of violence. He has a substantial following in Italy.
Tony
Anthony,
thank you for that insight. I suspect that you are right, and that von Balthasar would agree with Scola’s view.
Gregory,
I thought that particular canard expired with the seventies — and you of all people to attempt a resuscitation.
Anthony,
Thank you.
Kathy and Father Imbelli,
My pleasure. Tom Guarino has recently published a book on Vattimo with T&T Clark that would be very helpful.
Kathy, can you give me a reference on the liturgical anti-ascensionism you mention above. That is a very interesting comment to me.
Anthony
Anthony,
I wouldn’t say anti-ascensionism, exactly, and certainly there are many exceptions. However, the limited duality of dying/ rising, used as though this formula expresses the entire paschal mystery, is generally pervasive throughout pastoral publications.
Kathy, hi–
I hope you don’t think I was being suspicious of your claim when I asked for a reference. I genuinely would like to investigate the issue because it ties in with a general area that I work in (that is, the loss of divine transcendence or its erasure through particular theological moves). This would be another place to research in the general area. By “pastoral publications” do you mean publications put out for the Church’s worship by Bishop’s Conferences and the like?
A.
Hi, Anthony,
Feel free to email me, I think this is an important topic. I’m not suspicious but guarded.
I don’t mean official documents or theoretical works as much as practical publications for ministry.
Anthony,
Over the years I’ve posted a few times here on the feast of the Ascension, which I have called the neglected feast, yet one that is so rich theologically and spirtually. The late Jean Leclrecq called it the feast of contemplatives.
I think Pope Benedict’s “Ascension Homilies” over the years have been wonderful.
Here is an excerpt from this year’s homily (all are available on the Vatican Website):
“In Christ ascended into Heaven, the human being has entered into intimacy with God in a new and unheard-of way; man henceforth finds room in God for ever. “Heaven”: this word Heaven does not indicate a place above the stars but something far more daring and sublime: it indicates Christ himself, the divine Person who welcomes humanity fully and for ever, the One in whom God and man are inseparably united for ever. Man’s being in God, this is Heaven. And we draw close to Heaven, indeed, we enter Heaven to the extent that we draw close to Jesus and enter into communion with him. For this reason today’s Solemnity of the Ascension invites us to be in profound communion with the dead and Risen Jesus, invisibly present in the life of each one of us.”
Father Imbelli,
Thanks for that excerpt–it makes my day (and that’s saying something given the ungraded papers on my desk!).
Kathy, thank you as well. I will take you up on it.
Anthony
“Man’s being in God, this is heaven.” Very nice.
Thanks, Fr. Imbelli. The Magister article is fascinating. First, it actually includes a purely metaphysical article, something I’ve not seen in a non-scholarly article since . . . Come to think of it I think this is a first. Second, Cardnal Ruini, who was behind the conference, actually admits there are no water-tight proofs for the existence of God. My how the Vatican has changed! Or is the CDF going to de-license him as a theologian for saying that?
Very seriously, the conference does seem to exhibit a new openness to and even appreciation of non-Catholic thinking. It even seems to show a willingness to be self-critical! If so, this is momentous. Is the Counter-Enlightenment over?