theology as a discipline in the light of Edward Schillebeeckx
Introduction
In the history of man,
there have been difficulties to define the term “theology” and prefer a
universal method in which this can be carry out. Many relate this term to the
mythical stories of the gods or to the worship of an emperor and others to the
eternal creator, God. This essay aims to attempt an exposition of the analysis
of the nature, method and goal of theology as a discipline in the light of
Edward Schillebeeckx. This notion of theology is found in his book: Revelation and Theology.
What
is theology?
Edward Schillebeeckx
begins with the historical account of theology. At the beginning, the word was
used with reference to the mythical stories of the gods. The view gradually
became accepted, however that these myths about the gods were simply a
mythological form concealing true reference to God.[1] For Aristotle, theology is
the first form of philosophical thought. The first philosophy was concerned
with the highest causes of the visible divine astral world.[2] The first definition
remained the generally accepted meaning in the language of the people. These
ideas persisted up to the patristic period. For Augustine, there are three
kinds of theology, that is, of the discipline which is concerned with the gods:
first of these is the mythic, the second is the physical, and the third is the
civil.
The civil is viewed as the theology of
public worship.[3]
Edward notes that the
term theology was Christianized only late because of the initial fear and reluctance
on the part of Christians to use pagan terminology. Origen refers to theology
as a teaching about God and Christ. Even the word theologein – to worship the emperor as god- was Christianized and
came to mean ‘to confess Christ truly as God’. It was perhaps Eusebius who
played the greatest part in the Christianisation of the term theology, in a
sense contrary to the pagan meaning. This is clear from the phrase “the
theology according to Christ”, ‘Sermo de
Christo Deo’. The word theology was used relatively as people know God.[4] It was only from the
fourth century onwards that the Greek fathers used the word theology in the
sense of the ‘sermo de Deo Vero
(‘treatise on the true God’).
In the Graeco Russian
period, theology meant everything concerned with the doctrine of God as opposed
to the Christian plan of salvation. At a later stage, theology is defined as
the ‘mystical knowledge of God’- especially in the writings of Evagrius and
Maximus confessor. In the Western church, Abelard was the first in the West to
use the word theology in the Christian theological sense. For him, the word
theology tended to mean a treatise about God himself rather than the theology
of the mystery of Christ.[5] In the Medieval period, Aquinas
used the term theology in a very different sense. A theological study was
therefore, for Aquinas a study concern with the ‘first cause’ of things,
whereas a philosophical study was concerned with things in their own value. Aquinas
seldom used the word theology as an exact synonym for Sacra doctrina. [6] In the modern period,
theology was divided into all kinds of virtually independent disciplines. Apart
from the scholastic theology, it developed the mystical theology, moral
theology, apologetic theology and dogmatic theology.[7]
The
Nature of Theology
Faith
in the God of revelation as the point of departure for and the constantly fertile
breeding ground for theology.
A.
Faith
as the basis of theology as a science
Religion
is essentially a personal communion between God and man. This personal contact
with the living God cannot be established by human effort. It can only be
established by the initiative of grace with the divine revelation that is
implied in it. The first fundamental contact is established by faith. This
divine revelation makes history. The history is made by men becomes itself the
material in and through which God makes saving history and through which he
accomplishes his revelation. God’s saving activity is revealed by becoming history,
and it becomes history by being revealed.[8] Edward gives the distinct
phases in this historical self-disclosure of the God of redemption.
1.
The constitutive phase of revelation in
which Christ appeared in human form as a public revelation of God.
2. The
explicative and continuing phase of revelation; it is in the period that what
has taken place for all of us in Christ as our photo type and representation is
accomplished within humanity in and through the church, on the basis of the
completed mystery of Christ.[9]
Faith is conditioned by the revelation in which
are addressed by God. Thus, Faith is a way of knowing. The entire theological
method is determined by this structure of revelation.[10]
B. Faith as an inner demand for theology
Edward
holds that the act of faith is incipient theology both in its subjective aspect
that is, as seen from the point of view of the believing subject, and in its
objective aspect, that is, the content of faith.[11]
The
Subjective Aspect
Aquinas
defined the act of faith as a synthesis of firm consent and intellectual
speculation: “credere est cum assentione
cogitare” (to believe is to reflect with consent). Consent in faith is not
irresolute and instable, but of its very nature a firm consent on the part of
the human mind to the content of revelation, a consent which leaves no room for
doubt.[12] There is always an
incipient theological reflection present in the act of faith which is at the
same time a fides quaerens intellectum
(faith seeking understanding) in germ. Faith is, in germ, virtually theology.[13]
Objective
Aspect
The
content of faith
a. If
speculation were not possible from the objective aspect of the act of faith,
then theology would itself be impossible, since it is the objective possibility
which provides the basis for the subjective.[14] The content of faith
implies certain intelligibility, and is therefore open to reflection.[15]
b. Moreover,
in fact the reality of revelation is offered to us as saving history. This
deeper mystery in the history is accessible to us- in the form of concepts,
images and words. The transcendental content of faith at the same time
discloses a perspective on to its own inner intelligibility.[16]
c.
The scientific extension of the reflection
that is inherent in the life of faith. The reflection that is inherent in the
life of faith can take two forms. The first of these forms can be encountered
in all the faithful. It is the spontaneous undeliberate reflection on faith
which all Christians pursue. But it can
be extended to a deliberate, methodical and systematic reflection and this is
precisely theology.
Edward
defines Theology then as something that is inwardly present in the life of
faith, but extended to the level of critical that is, of scientific-
reflection. Theology as a science is concerned with reality itself. Theology
attempts to throw light on the reality of revelation itself in its inner
intelligibility. These provide an indication of the scientific character of
theology. The scientific nature of theology that is, of its task of throwing
light on the reality itself of revelation is nothing less than faith itself.
Thus, without faith there can be no scientific theology.[17] The capacity of this
science to grasp reality can only be based in the supernatural cognitive aspect
of the act of faith, because it is in this only that contact is made with the
reality of revelation. [18] It was for this reason
that Aquinas could say that faith is as it were the condition of theology. Theology
is then ‘fides in statu scientiae’
(faith at the level of a science’). Since, however, theology is a science of
faith, a science that is concerned with mysteries, this special tension between
‘intelligibility’ and ‘mystery’ will determine the whole method of theology.[19]
2. Theology
as a science of faith: its distinctive field of vision
According
to Edward, Theology is Christian faith in human reflection. The material datum
of theology is thus precisely the same as that of faith- the content of
revelation.[20]
But the attitude of the mind of faith towards this reality is different from
the attitude of mind of theology. Faith regards the content of revelation as credibile, that is, as the object of
faithful assent of God’s testimony. Theology presupposes this act of faith, but
considers the reality of revelation as intelligibile,
that is, as something whose content is to be understood as something with an
intelligible inner meaning and value.[21] Accordingly, the immediate
subjective principle of theology is the human mind, embraced and illuminated by
faith. The first Vatican council spoke of ‘reason illuminated by faith’, while
Aquinas had spoken of reason led by the hand of faith- faith itself in human
thought.
From
the foregoing it is clear that theology although based on faith, is a formal
science and not a religious act. It is a study, even though it is a study of
religious realities. It is therefore in
itself a natural activity flowing from
the act of faith , but it may not become something devotional.[22] For this reason, it may
not even be claimed that theology is impossible without a personally
experienced religious life.[23] To conclude then,
theology although it proceeds from faith, although it constantly presupposes
this faith and serves it, is formally a question of scientific activity and
insight of research and of methological precision.[24]
Historical
notes: so called ‘virtual revelation’ as the ‘lumen quo’ of theology
Virtual revelation as according to
the author mean that theology was from the very beginning defined as a scientia
conclusionum, a science of conclusions only, and that the other aspects of
theology were in fact devalued to the level of pre-theological activities.
This is from the Aristotelian point of
view as far as this discursive function is concerned, to call the light in
which theology regards everything ‘virtual revelation- that is, the cooperation
of faith and intellect in the discursive function of theology- this mean that
theology is limited to only one function.[25] This term cannot be found
in Aquinas, he used the term ‘reverbile’. For him, revelation is the
illuminating principle of theology. Consequently, everything that is studied in
any way in the light of the truths of revelation forms part of the study of
theology.[26]
3. The
positive and the speculative function of the one theology
The
positive and the speculative functions of theology is justified in those two
aspects: subjective and objective aspect.[27]
a. The positive theological function of the
one theology: positive theology.
This
task of theology to subject to close examination this living sense of salvation
on the part of ancient Israel and of the new Israel which was expressed under
divine guarantee in scripture and which lived on, increasingly illuminating on
the basis of this constitutive revelation in the post-apostolic church. Theology,
the science of the integral content of revelation, must therefore diligently
study first the old and new testaments and then the writings which have
testified to the faith throughout the course of time. It must moreover study
all those writers- from the fathers of the church down to those of the present
day, without neglecting a single period, since God has never failed to keep his
end up. It has to know what is revealed, how it was revealed and how it was
made explicit in terms of faith.[28]
Positive
and speculative theology are not two types of theological thought, or two
distinct theological disciplines, but two essential functions of one and the
same sciences, the unity of which consists in the close cooperation between the
light of the intellect and the light of faith, the latter always assuming the
leading function.[29] Speculative theology is
powerless without contributions from positive theology- theological reflection
aims at the inner intelligibility of what positive theology is able to dig up
of the wealth of revelation.[30] Aquinas and positive theology
Aquinas
was a great theologian above all because of his positive theological output.
For Aquinas, the drawing of conclusions is not the most important function of
theology, for him the most important function was quite simply the intelligentia fidei, the understanding
of the faith.[31]
Speculative
theology
Speculative
theology is not a superstructure of positive theology but that it attempts to
establish the meaning and content of the data supplied by positive theology.[32]
1.
The meaning of the speculative ‘intelligentia fidei’ according the first
Vatican council.
In first place, the council points out
that the subject of theological insight was the human intellect- but the
intellect in association with faith, ratio
fide illustrata. This is an implicit recognition that theology is not an
act of faith, but a human mode of thought, an intellectual activity, made in
the light of and in the closest association with faith. This it achieves by
appealing to natural, human insight – to man’s experimental knowledge as made
explicit in philosophy.[33]
2.
The
basis possibility of a speculative theology
In
this way, the whole of speculative theology is subject to the constant
correction of the divine mystery of salvation. It will also be clear from this
that speculative thought should be steeped in positive theology, and can
therefore only make progress when it is in constant contact with scripture and
with the whole tradition of faith.
a. The mystery in our natural thought
about God.
There
are no real concepts about God in our natural knowledge of God.
b. The mystery in our supernatural knowledge
of faith
If
our natural knowledge of God in its concepts contains a natural openness for
the transcendent, this openness is brought about in the concepts of faith by
positive revelation
3.
Theocentric
(Trinitarian) theology with a Christological method
According
to Edward, to confine theology to the study of history of salvation is to
neglect the aspect of the mystery that is revealed in the history of salvation.
On the other hand to study pure theologia is also to neglect the part that the theos only reveals himself to us as God
in an oikonomia. So theology regards
God as transcending the history of salvation and as leading an intertrinitarian
independent life. Theology can, however, only obtain a view of the life through
the plan of salvation, and must therefore constantly rely on the economy of
salvation. The author notes that it must be the structure of revelation itself
and the life of faith that determine whether theology and the Christian life
should be theocentric or christocentric.
It is clear that the basic height into the
Trinitarian dogma were gained along the paths of the history of salvation.
4.
Some
main function of speculative theology
The
provision of a scientific synthesis of what is offered by a broadly based
positive theology is regarded as the most important function of speculative
theology.
I.
A
historical outline of the problem of the theological conclusion
The
conclusiones fidei were for the first
and foremost the truths of faith into which a deeper insight had been gained
because of their connection with other true of faith. For Aquinas, the task of
demonstrating the mutual connection between various truths of faith came within
the scope of what Aquinas called the modus argumentativus. This was the
discursive function of theology.
II.
The
discursive function in theology
According
to Aquinas, there is no place for human thought in theology. For human
knowledge comes into contact with reality only in and through a knowledge in
which experience and conceptuality form a unity. If the concept is isolated
from experience, then it is excluded by the fact itself from reality.[34]
III.
The
theological system and theological systems
The
search for the mutual connection between the mysteries of faith eventually
gives rise to a theological system.[35] It is from the inner
growth of a theological system and of theology itself that the differences
between various schools of thought can be gradually brought together, through
the openness of a given system, to form a higher view.[36]
The lumen quo of theology is to be found
in the unity of the light of faith and that of the human mind. To express this in
concrete terms, it is to be found in the effective contact between the mind of
faith and the spirit of the age (simply attempting to adapt the church’s
teaching and methods to present- day conditions and needs).[37] In this sense,
theologians are by definition the progressive factors in the life of faith and
thought of the church.[38]
Theology has to do with the God of
covenant, this saving aspect of God forms an essential part of the content of
faith. Something possesses this saving significance through the fact that it
was revealed. Every revealed truth is therefore a religious truth.[39] this clearly shows how
incongruous was the position of so-called ‘kerygmatic’ theology, which claimed
to deal in theology only with those truths of faith that have a saving value,
as though there were other truths that do not have this saving significance.
Theology
as the living organ of the church
Theology
is a science of the content of faith, of which the immediate norm is the
church. The content of the revelation is a communal possession of the church,
the fundamental value of the church’s life. The authority of the church is
itself governed by the norm of the content of constitutive revelation and thus
at the same time by scripture.[40] This function of serving
the church applies to modern speculative theology, which helps the church’s
doctrinal and pastoral authority in its guidance of moral and religious life of
faith in the church and the world.[41]
Conclusion
From the foregoing, this
essay has been able to discuss the notion of theology according to Edward
Schillebeeckx. Theology for Edward is a scientific reflection which is
concerned with reality itself and holds faith as the basis of its science. Like
Aquinas he holds that theology has both positive and speculative function. The
method of Edward’s theology is historical.
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