https://www.ncregister.com/cna/pope-francis-calls-for-paradigm-shift-in-theology-for-world-of-today?amp
Pope
Francis waves to pilgrims
on
All Saints' Day
in
St. Peter's Square, Nov. 1, 2023.
Pope Francis Calls
for
‘Paradigm Shift’
in Theology
for
World of Today
Citing the need to
deal with
“profound
cultural transformations,”
Pope Francis presented
his
dramatic vision
for the future of
Catholic theology
in anew motu proprio issued earlier today.
November 1, 2023
Pope Francis has
called
for a “paradigm shift” in
Catholic theology
that takes widespread engagement with
contemporary science, culture,
and
people’s lived experience
as an essential starting point.
Citing the need to
deal with “profound cultural transformations,”
Pope Francis presented his
dramatic vision
for the future of
Catholic theology in anew Motu Proprio
issued earlier today.
Titled
Ad Theologiam Promovendam,
or
“to promote theology,”
the document revises the statutes of
the
Pontifical Academy of Theology
(PATH) “
to make them
more suitable for the mission that
our time
imposes on theology.”
“Theology can only develop in a
culture of dialogue
and
encounter between different
traditions and different knowledge,
between
different Christian confessions and
different religions,
openly engaging with everyone,
believers
and
nonbelievers,”
the pope wrote in the
apostolic letter.
‘Fundamentally Contextual’
Pope Francis wrote
that
Catholic theology
must experience
a “courageous cultural revolution”
in order to become a
“fundamentally contextual theology.”
Guided by
Christ’s incarnation
into
time and space, this
approach to theology must be
capable of
reading and interpreting
“the Gospel
in the conditions
in which
men and women live daily,
in different
geographical, social,
and
cultural environments,”
the pope wrote.
The pope contrasted this approach
with a
theology that is limited to
“abstractly
re-proposing formulas
and
schemes
from the past”
and repeated his long-standing
criticism of
"desk bound theology.”
Instead, he emphasized that theological studies must be
open to the world,
not as a “‘tactical’ attitude”
but as a profound
“turning point” in their method,
which he said must be “inductive.”
Pope Francis emphasized that this
bottom-up reenvisioning
of
theology
is necessary to better
aid the
Church’s evangelizing mission.
“A synodal, missionary, and ‘outgoing’
Church
can only correspond
to an ‘outgoing’ theology,”
the pope wrote.
Relatedly, Pope Francis said, this
dialogical approach can allow theology
to “broaden the boundaries”
of scientific reasoning, allowing it to overcome
dehumanizing tendencies.
‘Transdisciplinary’ and Pastoral
To achieve this “‘outgoing’ theology,”
Pope Francis wrote that theology must
become “transdisciplinary,”
part of a
"web of relationships,
first of all with
other
disciplines and other knowledge.”
This engagement, he wrote, leads
to “the arduous task”
of theologians making use
of “new categories
developed by other knowledge”
in order to
"penetrate and communicate
the truths
of faith and transmit
the
teaching of Jesus in today’s languages,
with
originality
and
critical awareness.”
Pope Francis also wrote that
priority must be given to
"the knowledge of people’s ‘common sense,’”
which he described as the
theological source
in which
many
images of God
live,
often not corresponding to the
Christian face of God, only and always love.”
Pope Francis said that
this
pastoral stamp”
must be
placed upon all of Catholic theology.
Described as “popular theology,”
by starting from
“the different contexts
and concrete situations
in which
people are inserted”
and allowing itself
“to be seriously challenged by reality,”
theological reflection can
aid in
the discernment
of the “signs of the times,”
the
pope wrote.
“Theology places itself at the service of the
evangelization of the
Church
and the transmission of faith, so that
faith becomes culture;
that is, the wise ethos of the people of God, a
proposal of
human and humanizing
beauty for all,”
the pope wrote.
New Statutes
The pope’s shift in emphasis
in Catholic theology was reflected
in the new statutes issued for the
Pontifical Academy of Theology.
Ad Theologiam Promovendam shifted the 200-year-old
institute’s focus from
"promoting the
dialogue between reason and faith”
to promoting
“transdisciplinary dialogue
with
philosophies, sciences, arts,
and all
other knowledge.”
The new statutes place
PATH “
at the service of
academic institutions
dedicated to theology
and other
cultural and knowledge
development centers
interested in reaching
the
human person
in his context of
life and thought.”
The change was welcomed by
PATH’s president,
Bishop Antonio Staglianò.
“Pope Francis entrusts our Pontifical
Academy
with a new mission:
that of promoting, in every
area of
knowledge, discussion, and dialogue
in order to reach and involve all of the
people of God
in theological research so that the
life of the people becomes theological life,”
the Italian prelate said in
a press release.
The new statutes call for
PATH
to facilitate collaboration between
Catholic theologians and
"those of other
Christian confessions or religions.”
The academy will also “
"network’
with
universities and centers
of production
of culture and thought”
and explore
“culturally qualified”
ways to
propose the
Gospel as a life
guide to even atheists, a
process described in the PATH
press release as “wisdom dissemination.”
In harmony with
“the magisterium of Pope Francis,”
under the new statutes PATH will also exercise a
commitment to
"intellectual charity”
by focusing on the questions and
needs of those “on the existential peripheries.”
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