From: REXLEX@linac.fnal.gov
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: A god does exist!
Date: 5 Nov 92 07:41:58 GMT
Organization: FNAL

Thought this might be of interest:

"Tensions in Contemporary Theology", chapter "Recent RC Theology," David F.
Wells.  Pp. 310-313. 1976.  (There's a new edition out but I don't have it)

THE CHURCH AND GOD

     Vast changes have occurred in the way the God question is posed today and
in the way God-talk is undertaken. The issue concerns the way in which we think
and speak about God, for human experience at this point is shot through with
contradiction and ambiguity. In the sixties, theology tended to reflect this
experiential ambiguity rather than the rational certainties of the older
orthodoxy .
     There are basically three approaches that can be taken in deriving a
doctrine of God: the philosophical. the empirical, and the experiential.
According to the first. what is said about God arises out of the process of
explicating logical principles. In Catholic thought it is probably best
exemplified by Thomas Aquinas, who approached God not through the revelation of
His Son but through a philosophical network of truths. In the "Summa
Theologiae", this network reduces itself to the famous 'five ways,'' which not
only ''prove'' the existence of God from the world's contingency but also make
metaphysical assertions about God, such as His self-sufficiency as the unmoved
Mover and the uncaused Cause. The argument rests heavily on the twin
assumptions of natural revelation and the rational continuity between God and
man, so that the latter through his rational processes actually is revelational
of the former in His being. Modern theology in general has shown a restiveness
with both ideas.
     The second approach, the empirical. sees the life, teaching, and death of
Jesus as providing a definitive statement on what God is like. Beginning with
the theology of the New Testament, it seeks to extrapolate a doctrine that will
not only encompass all the biblical data but also provide a satisfactory
explanation of the experience of redemption. Given the whole impetus of
"ressourcement" in Catholicism, this would seem like a viable substitute for
the rejected Scholasticism. As it turns out, however, Catholic theologians have
in many ways followed their Protestant counterparts in arguing that the
theology of the Bible is not so much the result of divine inspiration as it is
the summary of the authors' religious experiences. Traditionally the former is
infallible, whereas by common consent the latter is not. Consequently, the
empirical approach fades away, leaving only two basic choices, the
philosophical and the experiential. By and large theologians have chosen the
latter.
     In this third approach, God can be distilled from human experience. Within
the everyday processes of living, thinking, loving, serving, and communicating.
' whiffs of transcendence'' can be detected which point back to that Power in
whom we all live, move, and have our being. The biblical perception of this is
by no means discarded nor, for that matter. is the church's collective
experience of God down through the ages: but it needs to be recognized that
every faith expression, such as we have in the Bible, is conditioned by the
frailty, relativity, sins. and limitations of the author. God alone is
infallible, Kung contended in his "Infallible: An Inquiry," and no human, be he
pope, theologian. or apostle, can ever participate in this infallibility. Thus
it is to our own experience that we must look even if this is understood
against a broader canvass of the experience of others.
     Nowhere has this new approach been more influentially treated than in the
Dutch "De Nieuwe Katechismus," which appeared in Europe in 1966 and was
translated for American use in the following year. Although it is written in
nontechnical language, the catechism provides an apt summary of the thinking
represented, for example, in the four-volume symposium entitled  "Mysterium
Salutis" and the series of books under the general title "Unser Claube", both
of which were published more or less simultaneously with the catechism and were
recognized as important theological statements.
     Systematic theologies such as Thomas Aquinas' "Summa" have customarily
begun with a discussion of the possibility. methodology, range, and limitations
of theology and then moved into a discussion of God, how He can be known, and
what can be known about Him. The Dutch catechism. however, begins not with God,
but with man and with his perennial question as to ''what is the meaning of the
fact that we exist.''  The question is inescapable, it is said, for '"all our
work and all our family affairs, all that we do be it pleasant or tiresome''
persistently reiterates it. What we do to live is a tender, strong and urgent
request put to existence.''
     Human experience. the catechism states, does not provide the answer:
indeed, the more we examine it, the more hollow and insubstantial it appears.
Its feebleness contrasts with the idea of omnipotence, its humanness with that
of the divine, its finitude with that of the infinite. Yet the transition from
knowledge about man to knowledge about God cannot be made by reason, as Thomas
Aquinas thought. '"Experience shows that in general, men must first be familiar
with God through faith before they can accept the rational evidence.''  And
what is faith? In essence it ''is a leap,'' but, the catechism adds, ''not an
irresponsible one.'':  Reason can take a man only so far. The analogy drawn is
between faith and falling in love. Using our minds is appropriate in choosing a
life partner in order to ensure that there is some compatibility of
personality, outlook, and interest: but to have found a person with whom we are
compatible does not necessarily result in being in love with that person.
Similarly, faith is an added dimension which it is beyond the capacity of
reason to produce and according to which God says. ''I ask of you the gift of
yourself, if you really wish to know who I am.''  In this important respect,
commitment precedes the knowledge of the God; to that extent, the catechism is
correct in describing faith as a ''leap.''
     The leap, it is argued. is not irresponsible. because it does not take
place in a total absence of knowledge. This knowledge varies depending upon
whether one approaches God from the direction of "the nations'' (Hinduism,
Buddhism. Chinese Universism. Islam. Humanism, or Marxism) or of ''Israel.'' 
With respect to the former, there is undoubtedly error mingled in with whatever
knowledge of God is possessed: but we have to see that wherever truth exists,
it inevitably comes from the Holy Spirit.  "Humanity's groping quest for God is
animated by God's quest for man."  And these gleams of truth in other religions
''can help Christians to gain a deeper and more vital conviction of Jesus'
truth.''  But it is in the latter. the people of Israel, that God has sought
out man in a unique manner. especially in the coming of His Son. In His Son He
has disclosed Himself, and through His Son He is best apprehended.

"The way to Jesus is not irrational. Nonetheless the final step is an act of
confidence. And even this is not done indeliberately. But it is a way of
knowing which is something more than pure reasoning. It is something deeper.
For no matter how highly one esteems the analytical work of the intellect, this
is not what is deepest and most total in man. nor even in his knowledge. There
is a level of our being which is deeper than the intellect. more personal than
feelings. more human than the subconscious. It is the level on which the unity
of the two great aspects of our being. knowledge and love, exists. There man's
effort to lay hold of truth is inseparable from his striving after goodness. In
this primal unity. knowledge is not a cold light and love is not a blind urge.
Knowledge is full of love, and love itself has vision.... To this core of our
being Jesus addresses himself when demanding faith."

     What is wholly true is also wholly good: thus the level at which Jesus
addresses us is, in addition to being mystical, also moral. And the assent
which we return. not merely with the mind but also the whole being, is ' a
judgment of value.''
     The presence of Jesus is felt at the ground level of our existence through
the work of the Spirit. The presence of this Spirit. His Spirit, makes Jesus
once again visible to the world through the life of the church, its sacraments
and preaching, its joys. sorrows, its living and dying. ''His risen life in the
world is reflected visibly in the life of men.'' 
     The life of man. therefore. is where the existence of God is felt and
where He is seen to be the answer to that void. that hollow insubstantiality
which human existence presents by itself. Man should no longer pursue those
Olympian insights by which Aristotelian philosophers imagined they had
penetrated the heavens: God cannot be found there. nor can He be found in this
way. Rather, God addresses us at a different level of our being, requiring of
us commitment before further disclosing Himself.  And not only does He address
Christians in this way. but also those in other religions and even atheists.
those who have also responded to Him, but faultily. Thus God is known through
human relations, through human feelings. hopes, ideals. joys. and sufferings.
Consequently. the church really is. as the Second Vatican Council put it, ''the
sacrament of salvation to the world."