Filling gaps in our systems: the dynamics of growth - Presenting the Issue

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Spring, 2003 by David M. Bossman

Every social and theological system exists because it provides ways and means for addressing a wide spectrum of needs people share. Those who rely on a single system can be expected to find difficulty in recognizing the worth of another so long as basic needs are thought to be met by the conventional operational model. That doesn't mean that other systems or alternatives don't exist, or that they may not even be better given a different range of needs. So it is with the system within which the Bible was written as well as the modifications the synagogues and churches have made to that system over time and in different circumstances. The problem that begs to be addressed is when and how to recognize gaps in the conventional biblical and theological systems, given changing circumstances and needs that call for reasonable and legitimate growth.

The recent publication of Cardinal Koenig of Vienna, now in his mid-nineties, "How Vatican II Changed the Church," (THE TABLET [London], December 21, 2002), provides a helpful perspective on the question of how a church system can and did change to meet a new range of needs. Cardinal Koenig attended the Second Vatican Council (1961-1965), which made what many regarded as significant changes in Catholic Church polity. One such area was the move toward ecumenism that many Catholics regarded as necessary given the circumstances of the church in the modern world, viz., as one church among many in a world now acknowledged to be prodigiously religiously diverse. No longer could the Catholic Church lay claim to exclusive legitimacy, even though this notion would be relinquished only slowly and over time.

Cardinal Koenig recalls encountering Cardinal Ottaviani, the head of the Holy Office (formerly known as the Office of the Inquisition, subsequently the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), and informing him that Koenig would be bringing the controversial modernizing theologian, Karl Rahner, as his theological aide at the Council.

   "Rahner," he muttered, shaking his head, "how will
   that work?" He wasn't against it, just worried. Not
   long after the actual council had begun, however, I
   saw Cardinal Ottaviani and Rahner strutting up and
   down St. Peter's together, deeply absorbed in conversation.
   Ottaviani was against change, but he was far
   more flexible than his right hand, Fr. Tromp, SJ. Tromp
   was utterly convinced that the concept of the Church
   as the Mystical Body of Christ was the apogee of theology
   after which there could be nothing new.

The doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ was a theological development that went well beyond biblical symbols, but Fr. Tromp had already accommodated to that level of filling in a theological gap within the biblical system, viz.: how a dynamically appreciated Christology could extend beyond time and place to include all believers in a new theological construct. He had not yet recognized further gaps, which even Cardinal Ottaviani, whose motto remained, Semper Idem (Always the Same), might have been willing to consider, given cogent arguments in favor of further advances in church teachings.

Cardinal Koenig further notes that the Second Vatican Council accomplished four "trail-blazing, creative and lasting stimuli" that he now recounts favorably nearly forty years after the deliberations. These were the recognition of global diversity within the church, religious ecumenism, an emphasis on lay apostolates, and the re-definition of the relation between the Church and non-Christian religions. Rumors concerning an impending declaration on Jews, Koenig notes, proved to raise "violent opposition" from Christian Arabs, the Eastern Churches, and from a "vociferous conservative group of council bishops." Koenig now expresses great admiration for Pope John, Cardinal Bea and Fr. John Oesterreicher "for persevering despite fierce opposition, intrigue and sometimes outright slander," realizing a breakthrough redefinition of the way the Catholic Church views non-Christians.

What the council effectively managed was a process of change that signaled responses to new realities, which could hardly have been conceived at an earlier time, largely at variance with the understanding of the various magisteria of the Church through the centuries--the belief and practice of lay Catholics, theologians, and the hierarchy. While Semper Idem served as a forceful motto opposing change, the Council came to recognize the reality of change and took bold steps to accommodate to its demands for the vitality of the Church's mission in the modern world.

This quest continues today. In the October 21, 2002 issue of AMERICA magazine, Cardinal Avery Dulles reacted forcefully against an August 12, 2002 document, Covenant and Mission, issued by a committee of theologians appointed by the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs in dialogue with the National Council of Synagogues, concerning the question whether it is appropriate or necessary to convert Jews to Christianity. Dulles argues that the teachings of the Second Testament as well as Popes Paul VI and John Paul II clearly indicate that Jews should in fact be sought out for inclusion in the Christian dispensation through their affirming faith in the salvific actions of God in Jesus.