On this year’s Feast of All Saints, Pope Francis issued a new motu proprio (a papal document akin to an encyclical letter, but with less substance and gravity, and usually instructional, administrative, dispensational or aimed at rectifying a particular issue) that serves as a reminder to the entire Church today that theology is made for humanity, not humanity for theology.
The Latin title of the recent text, “Ad Theologiam Promovendam,” can be translated into English as “To Promote Theology.” While on its surface the letter is aimed at revising the statutes of the Pontifical Academy of Theology, established by Pope Clement XI in the 18th century, its ecclesiological significance far outstrips official members of that body. The roughly 1,400-word document, published initially only in Italian, summarizes many of Pope Francis’ perspectives on the task of theological inquiry in the contemporary world.
Its opening statement makes his basic point exceedingly clear: “To promote theology in the future, we cannot limit ourselves to abstractly re-proposing formulas and schemes from the past. Called to prophetically interpret the present and to see new itineraries for the future, in the light of Revelation, theology will have to deal with profound cultural transformations, aware that: ‘What we are experiencing is not simply an epoch of changes, but rather a change of epochs.’”
Pope Francis argues that “a synodal, missionary and Church ‘in uscita’ cannot but correspond to a theology ‘in uscita.’” The use of the Italian phrase “in uscita,” does not have a direct equivalent in English, but is an absolutely crucial and indispensable element if one wants to appreciate the pope’s vision. It is less to be understood as “extroverted” as the common English translation of “outgoing” sometimes implies, and perhaps could be better interpreted as “outward-rushing.”
It is supported in the text with the notion that theology cannot be done effectively if it is “desk-bound.” Rather it must be oriented as open to the world, “rushing out” to the concreteness of the human being in his or her existential situation, with all of the problems, wounds, challenges and potential that are to be found there.
Theological reflection then, the pope claims, is called to a turning point today, a paradigm shift toward a “courageous cultural revolution,” as he puts it. The discourse about God, which is the literal meaning of theology, and the service it implies that manifests itself as “faith seeking understanding” – to use the construct of Saint Anselm of Canterbury – must, in our day, be fundamentally contextual, transdisciplinary and always bear a “pastoral stamp.”
He says, “Without opposing theory and practice, theological reflection is urged to develop with an inductive method, which starts from the different contexts and concrete situations in which people are inserted, allowing itself to be seriously challenged by reality, to become discernment of the ‘signs of the times’ in the announcement of the salvific event of the God-who-is-Agape, communicated in Jesus Christ. … Theology places itself at the service of the evangelization of the Church and of the transmission of faith, so that faith becomes culture, that is to say, the wise ethos of the People of God, a proposal of a beauty both human and humanizing for all.”
Theology is in essence then a dialogical enterprise, one that engages in exchange “with other scientific, philosophical, humanistic and artistic knowledge, with believers and non-believers, with men and women of different Christian denominations and different religions.” Theology and Divine Revelation are certainly related, but in no way identical; theological articulation of the deposit of faith can and has changed through the years, as it engages the evolving storehouse of human knowledge.
An alumnus of Camden Catholic High School, Cherry Hill, Michael M. Canaris, Ph.D., teaches at Loyola University, Chicago.
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