God in Revelation (Dogma)

Rating:
Summary: Dogmatics against dogmatism ?
Review: With Vatican II, the Catholic Church underwent a facelift so deep it takes a trained eye to recognize its internal organs. Anything it could not stop doing, it had to «renew», to do in a different way. Probably every Catholic ecclesiastic and theologian must have felt like an employee in some venerable public company that had just lost its legal monopoly, and was suddenly forced to adapt to the rigorous demands of the free market, by confronting the competition on its own terms and responding to consumer demand.

Michael Schmaus's six-volume *Dogma* was born of that revolution. Published in 1968, it cites as its most revered authorities such names as Yves Congar, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, Hans Kung and above all Karl Rahner, all of them intellectual pillars of the Conciliar Church.

Schmaus's main contention seems to be that the message of the Church can be divided into two parts : a core of unchangeable truth, and a whole gamut of historically determined, changeable (one might almost say disposable) expressions of that core. Because man's mental categories are constantly being reshaped, no single expression of the faith can be considered as valid for all ages, not even Jesus's own words, for Jesus, after all, «is the child of his people, speaks their language, lives as they live and prays their prayers... His thoughts move in a form which is different from the western way of thinking, since the latter is determined by the classical Greek forms of thought.» (p46)

Schmaus therefore has decided to offer modern man a translation of Catholic dogma compatible with his thought patterns ; a translation which, he assures us, will simply be a new formulation of pre-existing truths, since «nothing of the old faith shall be eliminated, nor anything added; it shall be presented unabridged and unfalsified» (p xii.)

The major aspect of this translation, the one which determines the whole structure of the work, is the abandonment of what Schmaus calls «the theology of concept or of essence», characterized by «ontological thinking », in favour of an «existential» theology, which «interprets truth primarily not in its being but in its relationship to man» (p xiv.) In other words, rather than asking what things are, Schmaus tries to answer the question : «What's in it for me?»

When applied to the theme of the present volume, this approach leads to a redefinition of Revelation as a «salvific dialogue between God and humanity» (p5), which must be understood not so much through a rigorous analysis of its content as through a contextualized history of its development. In the interest of existential pertinence, dogma is therefore reduced to its soteriologically relevant components, while salvation itself is surreptitiously naturalized («In the world of today, salvation is seen above all in welfare, in freedom, in education, and in peace», p139.)

For some reason, I did not hate the book, though because of its lack of clarity and somewhat rambling structure, my eyes occasionally tended to glaze over, and I would be at a loss to summarize its overall argument (if any) or to single out any forceful point the author may have made (and not contradicted in fact or in equally forceful statements.) The general effect of the book is of a big blur that never goes anywhere specific but does appear to be moving in some direction : reading it will not make your mind stronger or more accurate, only more flexible and therefore more apt to bend over backwards for ecumenical purposes.

Having read only one volume of this series, and being relatively new to the subject, I cannot decide whether Schmaus's approach to dogmatics (which, he tells us, is in the tradition of Augustine, Bonaventure and Newman) is a valid one, or whether it is just another learned contribution to the work of post-conciliar destruction. At best, I suspect it can only serve as a complement to the more classical «ontological» approach, as exemplified by such works as the highly regarded twelve-volume Pohle-Preuss series. I do intend to read the other five volumes of the collection to make up my mind, as part of my attempt to give the Conciliar Church a second chance, though I will also seek some critical ammunition in such books as Robert C. McCarthy's *A Critical Examination of the Theology of Karl Rahner* and Cardinal Siri's *Gethsemane* (in addition to Romano Amerio's brilliant *Iota Unum*, which I have already reviewed for this site.)

Rating:
Summary: Dogmatics against dogmatism ?
Review: With Vatican II, the Catholic Church underwent a facelift so deep it takes a trained eye to recognize its internal organs. Anything it could not stop doing, it had to «renew», to do in a different way. Probably every Catholic ecclesiastic and theologian must have felt like an employee in some venerable public company that had just lost its legal monopoly, and was suddenly forced to adapt to the rigorous demands of the free market, by confronting the competition on its own terms and responding to consumer demand.

Michael Schmaus's six-volume *Dogma* was born of that revolution. Published in 1968, it cites as its most revered authorities such names as Yves Congar, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, Hans Kung and above all Karl Rahner, all of them intellectual pillars of the Conciliar Church.

Schmaus's main contention seems to be that the message of the Church can be divided into two parts : a core of unchangeable truth, and a whole gamut of historically determined, changeable (one might almost say disposable) expressions of that core. Because man's mental categories are constantly being reshaped, no single expression of the faith can be considered as valid for all ages, not even Jesus's own words, for Jesus, after all, «is the child of his people, speaks their language, lives as they live and prays their prayers... His thoughts move in a form which is different from the western way of thinking, since the latter is determined by the classical Greek forms of thought.» (p46)

Schmaus therefore has decided to offer modern man a translation of Catholic dogma compatible with his thought patterns ; a translation which, he assures us, will simply be a new formulation of pre-existing truths, since «nothing of the old faith shall be eliminated, nor anything added; it shall be presented unabridged and unfalsified» (p xii.)

The major aspect of this translation, the one which determines the whole structure of the work, is the abandonment of what Schmaus calls «the theology of concept or of essence», characterized by «ontological thinking », in favour of an «existential» theology, which «interprets truth primarily not in its being but in its relationship to man» (p xiv.) In other words, rather than asking what things are, Schmaus tries to answer the question : «What's in it for me?»

When applied to the theme of the present volume, this approach leads to a redefinition of Revelation as a «salvific dialogue between God and humanity» (p5), which must be understood not so much through a rigorous analysis of its content as through a contextualized history of its development. In the interest of existential pertinence, dogma is therefore reduced to its soteriologically relevant components, while salvation itself is surreptitiously naturalized («In the world of today, salvation is seen above all in welfare, in freedom, in education, and in peace», p139.)

For some reason, I did not hate the book, though because of its lack of clarity and somewhat rambling structure, my eyes occasionally tended to glaze over, and I would be at a loss to summarize its overall argument (if any) or to single out any forceful point the author may have made (and not contradicted in fact or in equally forceful statements.) The general effect of the book is of a big blur that never goes anywhere specific but does appear to be moving in some direction : reading it will not make your mind stronger or more accurate, only more flexible and therefore more apt to bend over backwards for ecumenical purposes.

Having read only one volume of this series, and being relatively new to the subject, I cannot decide whether Schmaus's approach to dogmatics (which, he tells us, is in the tradition of Augustine, Bonaventure and Newman) is a valid one, or whether it is just another learned contribution to the work of post-conciliar destruction. At best, I suspect it can only serve as a complement to the more classical «ontological» approach, as exemplified by such works as the highly regarded twelve-volume Pohle-Preuss series. I do intend to read the other five volumes of the collection to make up my mind, as part of my attempt to give the Conciliar Church a second chance, though I will also seek some critical ammunition in such books as Robert C. McCarthy's *A Critical Examination of the Theology of Karl Rahner* and Cardinal Siri's *Gethsemane* (in addition to Romano Amerio's brilliant *Iota Unum*, which I have already reviewed for this site.)