Niels’s Reviews > Doing Theology > Status Update

"It is precisely in this combination of continuity and discontinuity at different levels that the very nature of true reform consists." (p. 229)

"The steps the Council took towards the modern era, which had rather vaguely been presented as "openness to the world," belong in short to the perennial problem of the relationship between faith and reason that is reemerging in ever new forms." (p. 232)

"In the period between the two world wars and especially after World War II, Catholic statesmen demonstrated that a modern secular state could exist that was not neutral regarding values but alive, drawing from the great ethical sources opened by Christianity." (p. 228)

"But the Preface laments that outside the church Trent was rejected by Protestants, who allowed religious topics to be decided by individuals exercising their own "private judgment" about the meaning of the Bible. As modern times progressed, many intellectuals came to deny the authority of the Bible under the influence of naturalist philosophies of the enlightenment ..." (p. 174)

"If the bride of Christ were to discover some shadow, defect, or stain upon her wedding garment, her primary duty would be to reform, correct, and set herself to rights in conformity with her divine model." (p. 159)

"the Church has not watched inertly the marvelous progress of the discoveries of human genius, and has not been backward in evaluating them rightly. But, while following these developments, she does not neglect to admonish everyone so that, over and above the realm of the senses—things we perceive—they may raise their eyes to God, the source of all wisdom and beauty." (p. 146-147)

"The approach that emerges from this introduction to doing theology leads to claiming that the most basic location of what results from a theological quest is not the university lecture or scholarly essay. Good theology aims to find a dwelling place in minds and hearts of persons who find its insights and explanations to be sources of light in the lives they are living." (p. 136)

"St. Thomas pointed out that particular truths received as articles of faith are not ends in themselves but instead vehicles to carry the believing human spirit toward encounter and communion with God himself." (p. 118)

"Theologians sometimes search for documentation of truth and the graced life in what might seem to be obscure corners of Christian tradition and human experience. They are right to do so, for at no time does the most recent tradition of doctrine express exhaustively God the savior and our graced human life." (p. 109)

"A sound idea of religious texts assumes that they can very well yield a "surplus" meaning beyond what they expressed clearly when they were first written and read. Such further meaning comes to be disclosed when texts are read in a historical context or situation that differs from that of their author and original readers." (p. 59)

"In the New Testament, the fundamental announcement, the kerygma, of Jesus' death and resurrection (1 Cor 15:3–4; Acts 2:22–24, 36) is of first importance in preaching and belief. Scripture also speaks of the "great commandment," which must pervade the believer's practice of obedience to God in all other parts of life (Matt 22:34–40)." (p. 30)