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Faith

In: Religion Topics

Submitted By monarch1
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“STABILITY & FLEXIBILITY” St. Anselm said that theology was “faith seeking understanding”. What appeared to me at first reading to be a simple statement has proven to be even more profound than I first thought. The idea of combining faith and reason is by no means simple, but as I reflected on it, I found myself wanting to go even deeper as I saw connections to other ideas presented in the most recent weekend and subsequent readings. Anderson’s statement that “theology is a contextual enterprise, conditioned by time and space” immediately resonated with me, as did Dulles’ quote that “theology does not simply repeat what is in its sources…it reflects on the sources with a view towards answering contemporary questions…” My Church strives to be, and rightly so, a meeting of God and God’s people, of tradition and the real world. Theology needs to be the melding of those two worlds. Contemporary culture and theology need to be in dialogue with each other as the Church works to bring relevance to its teachings as it addresses the challenges of contemporary life. Theology needs to provide us with the resources to make connections between our faith and the practical issues we face on a day-to-day basis. When theology collides with the world, that theology has to provide strength to those facing the challenges engendered by that collision. Anderson’s statement in his lecture that theology is "paradoxical in that it is both relativistic and universal” is something I feel very much in agreement with because this balancing act between the two would seem to be what we need to be as Church, stretching ourselves to meet the world’s demands without abandoning what is at the core of our faith.

Kasper says that “theology cannot choose its time.” New circumstances demand fresh answers. However, this cannot be done at the cost of giving in to those circumstances. If the Church does

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