RBWords - Volume 23 - Number 7: July 2010
Something to Think About
Several friends of mine are in programs to obtain graduate degrees in theology. They were all student parishioners of mine at one time or another. Theology is not the field that most of them initially studied as undergrads. Two of them were in computer science engineering, one in biology, one in political science, another in international relations. Their faith means a great deal to them and to what they now want to do with their lives, and a graduate degree in theology is an important step toward realizing their dream to make a difference in the world and to serve God’s people! One interesting “complaint” I have heard from them concerns the need to study philosophy in order to understand theology! I heard a similar complaint when I was in the seminary. I had to take three years of philosophy and attain a M.A. in that subject before I began the formal study of theology! (In my case, however, I enjoyed the subject and enjoyed theology even more!)
No matter what one’s educational level may be, one’s faith is shaped by the “philosophy” that one develops along the way of growing up. We get it from parents, church, school and culture! Most of the time we are unconscious of this philosophical formation. (When I taught bio-medical ethics, I often asked students why they responded a particular way to a particular case, and the response was often, “Because that’s the way I was raised!”) Believe it or not, those “civics” classes or parental corrections were in some ways a catechism for the American socio-cultural world of individualism. We in America are the heirs of a European, especially Anglo-American, way of thinking known as “utilitarianism.” One can learn much about this from the classic work of Robert Bellah, et al: HABITS OF THE HEART. On a much larger scale, we are also heirs to the “western” way of viewing the world around us, which comes to us from Greco-Roman philosophy, especially Plato and Aristotle. In short, the way we place value on anything around us is a reflection of a “philosophy of life.” If one wishes to be in service of ministry to God’s people, one must know how one’s own philosophy shapes one’s understanding of the gospel and faith. Otherwise one unconsciously brings certain ways of thinking or even prejudices to the preaching and service! The formal study of philosophy is a way of becoming aware of this personal background before diving into the rich theological treasures of Catholic or other religious traditions. I still have my first philosophy textbook from my first class in philosophy at Tulane as an undergraduate: Plato’s THE REPUBLIC. I didn’t know it then, but this book would continue to help me understand my faith in the years ahead. IT’S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.
It Has Been Said
IT HAS BEEN SAID: “All our merely natural activities will be accepted, if they are offered to God, even the humblest, and all of them, even the noblest, will be sinful if they are not. Christianity does not simply replace our natural life and substitute a new one; it is rather a new organization which exploits, to its sown supernatural ends, these natural materials.
From: THE WEIGHT OF GLORY by C.S.Lewis