Emerging voices influence evolution of 21st-century Catholic theology
By Dennis Sadowski
Catholic News Service
CLEVELAND (CNS) – Shifting demographics within the Catholic Church are allowing new voices to emerge to help guide the development of Catholic theology, several theologians said during the 65th annual convention of the Catholic Theological Society of America.
The voices shaping theology include those of women and African, Latin and Asian cultures, providing for a deeper understanding of what the Scriptures can mean to a church that has been dominated by European theological interpretations for centuries.
Extending in many cases from broad experiences of witnessing or performing ministry in marginalised and poor communities both in the United States and around the world, these emerging voices are widening traditional theological thought while building recognition that diversity will strengthen the Church as it faces growing challenges in the 21st century.
The effort is allowing Catholics of all walks of life to “tap into the universal human experience,” said Fr Bryan Massingale, associate professor of theology at Marquette University, who ended his term as CTSA president on 13 June during the organisation’s convention.
“We’re trying here to create a Catholic theology that is no longer a European or Eurocentric Catholic theology,” Fr Massingale explained.
“The way I put it we’re trying to create a Catholic theology that is truly Catholic, truly universal. And if we’re going to be Catholic, genuinely universal, then inclusion is not something of political correctness. Inclusion is a requirement of our faith.”
The effort to include formerly missing voices in the development of theology in the United States stems from necessity because Catholics of European descent no longer make up the majority of the US Catholic Church, said Dominican Sr Jamie Phelps, director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana.
“Once you get into the minority position and you have the power and the authority, but you don’t have the manpower to be in charge … then we’re forced to do what the Second Vatican Council told us to do a long time ago: that everyone is called to communion,” Sr Jamie told CNS during a convention break.
“We’re supposed to call leadership from each cultural family.”
That leadership extends not only to positions within the Church and its various ministries, but the development of theology as well, she said. “What the Second Vatican Council has done is still being unfolded,” Sister Jamie added. “We as theologians are trying to read the signs of the times. You have to look at the natural historical cultural developments and say, ‘What is God saying to us about this in terms of who we are and how we’re supposed to continue the mission of Jesus Christ?’”
Fernando Segovia, Professor of New Testament and early Christianity at Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School and a Cuban-American, explained to CNS that the rise of new voices has been fuelled by better access to education and a reversal of the tokenism practised for decades by administrators of theology programmes. Whereas in the not-too-distant past a single Hispanic or African-American would have been admitted to graduate or doctoral studies in theology, the situation has changed today, he said.
“With an increase in voices and faces, there comes an increase in power,” said Segovia, who has studied the rise of minority Christian theologies in Western cultures.
“The institutions do respond to a group of individuals more than they respond to one.
“The demographic (changes) of the late 20th century both here and abroad will continue to change the face of Christendom, incredibly so,” he said.
For its part, CTSA established its Committee for the Underrepresented Ethnic and Racial Groups in 1988. Father Peter Phan, professor of Catholic social thought at Georgetown University, co-chairs the committee. Its work revolves around raising up the voices of Catholics who traditionally have not been prominent in Catholic theology.
Fr Phan said during a convention session that theology in the Asian Church arises from grass-roots activities rather than from academic settings. “We do (theology) as an experience of Church within a context of daily living,” Fr Phan said.
“The Church of Asia is the people of God among God’s people, so, therefore, there’s always this understanding that we exist not for ourselves.
“The goal of the Church is neither to convert people into the Church and increase the numbers nor plant the Church by establishing more churches, but rather by this prophetic witness, prophetic sense, that here God’s reign is present by the celebration of life.”
In an interview, Fr Phan told CNS that he has seen Asian Bishops immerse themselves in local Christian communities to understand how a parish functions and how ministry is carried out in an effort to better understand Catholic theology.
“Every time they go to a discussion in a city, it’s mandatory that they go and stay for a while among the people, eat their food, drink their drink and stay with them for a while,” he said.
As people continue to migrate around the world and become involved in Catholic parish life, Sr Jamie said she expects theology to reflect more of the experiences people have in their lives.
“The diversity both in the local hurch and within the global Church is not an accident,” Sr Jamie said. “It’s a design. As I tell my students, diversity is an aspect of nature. What would it be like if we had only one type of tree or one type of bird?
“So if diversity is one aspect of creation, then we have to see that as a gift from God and instead of being afraid of diversity or the other who is different than myself, I need to see that as an opportunity. What is it that I can learn from this other culture?”