Heretics Can't be Theologians

Why can't heretics be theologians? To think theologically is an exercise of reason reflecting on the data of divine Revelation for the purpose of understanding what is already believed by grace through faith. Heretics may be brilliant scholars, but because there is a defect in their faith, they cannot be true theologians. Here's why.

To Think
Sacred theology is a unique human science which proceeds from what is known by faith in divine Revelation rather than by what is discovered through investigation or experimentation, and for that reason, theological method is different from the method of any other science. But all human attempts to know and understand anything, including God, must proceed according to the nature and structure of human reason. Therefore, the laws which govern all reasoning must be rigorously maintained to ensure the intellectual integrity of theology. Laws of reason such as the Principle of Identity and the Principle of Non-Contradiction are indispensable for the operation of right reason (ratio recta) without which rational discourse on any subject is impossible. That theology is a science in which reason is not sovereign or autonomous does not mean that theology can proceed without reason. To think theologically it is first necessary to think and to think rigorously.

To Think Theologically
The science of sacred theology (as distinct from natural theology or metaphysics) began to emerge as an ordered body of knowledge in the first century after Christ, and the classical definition of the project was given in the eleventh century by St. Anselm of Canterbury: fides quaerens intellectum, faith seeking understanding. Sacred theology is, therefore, an attempt to understand what is first confessed as true because of the authority of God Who reveals Himself in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, which together constitute the single divine Deposit of Faith entrusted by Christ to His Church. Sacred theology begins with the acceptance of the Gospel by faith and must be referred to the Gospel at every point in order to ensure that the activity of reason is faithful to the data of divine Revelation. 

Sacred Theology is Not Religious Studies
That theology begins with obedience of faith to the Gospel means, among other things, that unbelievers or heretics cannot be true theologians; only faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus can be true theologians. The personal beliefs of a professor of religious studies are theoretically of no greater significance to his science than are those of a biologist studying paramecia. The beliefs of a theologian, however, are absolutely essential and intrinsic to the integrity of his science, which is truly a sacred science the practice of which requires the theological virtue of faith and fidelity to the inspired and infallible Word of God.

The Role of Authority in Sacred Theology
Because Christ entrusted His Apostles with the sacred power to teach, sanctify, and govern in His place, the apostolic authority of the bishops who succeed the Apostles is intrinsic to the science of sacred theology. It is bishops, not theologians, who insure that the Gospel is transmitted authentically and authoritatively from generation to generation. Only after receiving the Gospel from the College of Bishops and its head (the Bishop of Rome) can theologians begin their enterprise of reflecting upon the data of Revelation to understand revealed truth more completely. For this reason, the exercise of episcopal authority in guaranteeing the content of the Gospel is not hostile or alien to the work of theologians. Indeed, the exercise of episcopal authority is the sine qua non of the possibility of sacred theology as a science distinct from metaphysics, and theologians are called to the same liberating obedience of faith which is the vocation of every Christian.

Sentire Cum Ecclesia
To be a theologian, in sum, requires that one be both a faithful disciple of Christ and a scholar prepared to think with the Church. Neither piety nor learning is sufficient to make one a theologian, but no one can be a true theologian without both genuine piety and deep learning.

Popular posts from this blog

Communion with the Church by Degrees of Fullness

A Lecture Addressed to the  Theological Students' Association  of The Catholic University of America by Father Jay Scott Newman, J.C.L.  Assistant Professor of Canon Law  at The Pontifical College Josephinum 18 April 2001 In his De Praescriptione Haereticorum , Tertullian famously asked with derision, "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?", meaning "What has philosophy to do with theology?" I begin with this reminder because, although I am here to address the Theological Students' Association, I am not a theologian; I am a canon lawyer. And some among you may well ask with derision, "What has canon law to do with theology?" It's a fair question, so before I explore the topic at hand today, I need briefly to digress and establish something of a lingua franca for our discussion. Because she is a human society, the Church has had law, and therefore lawyers, since her foundation, but canon law as a distinct science and course
Read more

Abortion and the Return of Paganism in Ireland

Image
Irish pagans rejoice in the freedom to kill unborn children. In October 2014 I preached about a decision by the US Supreme Court which was a preview of the Obergefell decision that came in June 2015, and in part this is what I said: "It has been many decades, some would say centuries, since the Gospel of Jesus Christ was the primary engine for the formation of culture in the West, and now we are seeing the rapid abandonment of the Gospel as a source of law in the West. For fifty years and more the trajectory of law and culture in Europe and the United States has been away from the Christian worldview and towards a new paganism, particularly in regard to sex, marriage, reproduction and family life: no fault divorce, birth control, abortion, in vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, embryonic stem cell manipulation, assisted suicide, multiple remarriages, and now same sex marriage. These changes in law and custom are but a reflection of the post-Christian character of
Read more

Of Bad Popes and Bad Presidents

Image
For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Bishops of Rome were saintly scholars and heroic pastors who inspired great devotion among Catholics because of their radiant goodness, and for the Church to have the service of such men is a great blessing. But in that blessing lies a danger. When we have so many valiant shepherds on the Chair of St Peter, one after the other, we can forget that many scoundrels and notorious sinners - to say nothing of average men of modest ability - have also served as popes, and that forgetfulness opens us to undue distress when a pope comes who doesn't measure up to his predecessors. Pope Alexander VI - Rodrigo Borgia, pictured above - reminds us that the office of the papacy can certainly survive and in some ways even flourish when occupied by a man who is manifestly unfit to be the Pastor of the Universal Church, and that knowledge should console anyone who is troubled by the character or actions of a man who sits on the Chair of St Peter but
Read more