The Craft of Theology

The Craft of Theology

In the early middle ages theology, chiefly practiced in monasteries, became more contemplative; it was closely bound up with the pursuit of holiness and with prayerful reading of sacred texts, both biblical and patristic. In the high middle ages the universities emerged as the chief centres of theological productivity. Theology became more academic and scientific. Then, in early modern times when the universities became secularized and nationalized, theology moved by preference to the seminaries; there it remained for the most part until about a generation ago. Seminary theology has usually been somewhat clerical and doctrinaire.

The medieval universities were able to make a unique contribution because the catholic faith was dominant throughout western Europe and because the modern national state had not yet arisen. Later, the loss of catholic faith in large sections of Europe and the subjection of the universities to kings and parliaments severely limited the value of the universities to the catholic church.

In many parts of Europe, they laboured under laws that discriminate against Catholicism or even against all religion in higher education. In Laicist France no catholic university faculties survived, but some of the functions of university theology were performed by catholic institutes of higher studies and by houses of formation in which religious orders educated their own members.

In the English-speaking world of the nineteenth century John Henry Newman thought it necessary to defend the very existence of theology as a university discipline. He argued, in summary, that since theology is a branch of knowledge, it ought to have a place in a university, since a university is a place in which universal knowledge is taught.

Catholics erected their own colleges and universities. A glance at the membership lists of theological associations, at publishers’ catalogues, and at the tables of contents of learned journals strongly suggests that catholic theological leadership has in recent years passed from the free-standing seminaries to the universities and graduate schools.

The seminary, generally speaking, is oriented toward the formation of future clergy. For this reason, it puts the accent on teaching rather than on pure research. The seminary professor can normally assume that the students are already convinced believers and adherents of the particular church or denomination in charge of the seminary.

University theology, by contrast, is oriented more heavily on research. In order to make new advances, it maintains, or should maintain, close contact with other disciplines, such as history, literary criticism, sociology, psychology and philosophy. It makes use of reason not only deductively but also critically. It may address widely diversified audience, including people who are adherents of different religious traditions, or even of no particular religion.

The revival of university theology cannot make its expected contribution unless lessons are drawn from the past. Precisely because it encourages independent thinking, such theology can easily be a source of error. Many heresies since the twelfth century have been associated with university theology.

For the present, it may suffice to say that theology requires a living relationship to a community of faith and to the official leadership of that community. If academic freedom meant that theologians were entitled to teach as true whatever seemed to them to be suggested by purely rational methods of inquiry, without any deference to scripture, tradition, or ecclesiastical authority, theology would sacrifice its status as a reflection on the corporate faith of the church and would cease to render the kind of service that the church expects from it.

Is theology in the tradition sense, a function of the university?

Since religious studies are not pursued in the light of faith and are not intended to contribute to the understanding of faith from within the believing community, the substitution of religious studies for theology on a large scale would notably impair the kind of service that the church has traditionally received from university faculties.