The Center for Dominican Studies · E. F. Schumacher, in A Guide for the Perplexed (New York, 1977), makes a helpful distinction between “Convergent Problems” and “Divergent

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The Future of the Church:Insights from Three

Dominicans

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Ohio Dominican University is a private Catholic liberalarts university, guided in its educational mission by theDominican motto, “To contemplate truth and toshare with others the fruits of this contemplation.”

Founded in 1911 as the College of Saint Mary of theSprings, Ohio Dominican offers a fully accredited, highquality, career-oriented education in a distinctivesetting. The University spans 64 beautifully wooded

acres. It is a place where diversity is embraced and individualism iscelebrated. The Ohio Dominican University liberal arts curriculum teachesskills valuable in every career and life - the ability to think critically, writeproficiently, and communicate clearly. The University’s nationally acclaimedHumanities program is at the core of every student’s academic study at OhioDominican.

We forge a new vision for Ohio Dominican based on the foundation of ourenduring values.

A Message from the Director...

The Center forDominican Studies

Sr. Catherine Colby, O.P., Ed.D.

Dear Friends,

On April 7, 2005, The Center for Dominican Studies held the second of aseries of Dominican Lectures featuring the noted theologian and author,Thomas F. O’Meara, O.P., who presented a challenging and inspiring talkentitled “The Future of the Church: Insights from Three Dominicans”. Fr.O’Meara’s presentation lead the audience to engage in a thought-provokingconversation that was truly a celebration of the “life of the mind,” within thecontext of the Catholic and Dominican tradition.

We are grateful to Fr. O’Meara for allowing the Center to share hisextraordinary lecture to an even larger community through the publication ofthis booklet. Included also in this publication is a reflective response to Fr.O’Meara’s lecture prepared by ODU Theology professor Dr. Leo Madden.We thank him for his contribution to this publication.

The dates, topics and speakers for the 2005-2006 Dominican Life of the MindSeries may be found on the Ohio Dominican website atwww.ohiodominican.edu and includes further programs and events. We hopeyou will join our community to reflect, debate and dialogue about currentissues of importance to the church, culture and society.

Sr. Catherine Colby, O.P., Ed.D.DirectorCenter for Dominican StudiesOhio Dominican University

1. 10.

This event was the first presentation of the Dominican Lecture Series andsponsored by the Center for Dominican Studies.

The Mission of the Center for Dominican Studies is to promote theDominican charism of preaching; to provide opportunities for members of theUniversity and the community to understand and experience the meaning andvalue of Dominican education; and, to serve as a public voice at the Universityand in the community regarding issues of importance to church, culture andsociety.

The Center focuses on the Dominican motto: “to contemplate truth andshare with others the fruits of this contemplation” and the four pillars ofDominican life: study, prayer, community and ministry.

Guiding Principles:

• Commitment to the Catholic and Dominican identity of the university through word, study and example of life.

• Commitment to scholarship and reflection.

• Commitment to the arts and the aesthetic dimension of human life.

• Commitment to peace and justice for all humankind.

• Commitment to collaboration among the members of the Dominican Family and various cultures within the global community.

For more information regarding programs contact:

Sr. Catherine Colby, O.P., Ed.D.Director

Center for Dominican StudiesOhio Dominican University

1216 Sunbury RoadColumbus OH 43219

Phone: 614-251-4722FAX: 614-252-0776

Email: [email protected]

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“The Future of the Church:Insights from Three

Dominicans”A Lecture Presented by:

Thomas F. O’Meara O.P., Ph.D.

April 7, 2005

9. 2.

“The Future of the Church: Insights fromThree Dominicans”

Thomas F. O’Meara, O.P.

We are looking at the future from the past. We hope to gain insights about thefuture of the Church from past Christians. Looking at the past can be boring,while looking at the future can be vague. Perhaps by looking at people, we canavoid boredom and generalities.

INTRODUCTION

Three figures, three figures from the Dominican past, have caught myattention in the past year. The first inquired into the relationship of Jesus Christto Islam. The second looked at the roles of women in a modern society. Thethird developed a theology for the relationship of bishops and popes to therarest of the church, a topic of much interest in these years. The first friarcomes from the thirteenth century and is little known. The second from the firsthalf of the twentieth century is known by name to many Dominicans. We willsee something new about him, the breadth of his genius. The third Dominicanis well-known. We just celebrated the 100th anniversary of his birth. The first isWilliam of Tripoli from the 1270s; the second is Antoninus-Gilbert Sertillangesfrom the 1920s; the third Dominican is well known Yves Congar from the 1960s.Past figures – they may have something to say to our future.

I. William of Tripoli

William was born in what we call Lebanon around 1225 and died in 1273.Born of Christian parents living in the Middle East, he was of a family that hadsettled in Palestine in the wake of the crusades begun a hundred years before.Most likely of Italian or French origin, he entered the Order of Friars Preachersat its priory in Saint-Jean-d’Acre. Dominicans had founded provinces inGreece and the Holy Land in 1228; they remained small provinces, and theDominican priory in Acre was the largest house of the Order in that area.William lived there during much of his ministry, and at the fall of Acre soon afterWilliam’s death, all the friars were massacred.

William is a contemporary of Thomas Aquinas. Direct information about himcomes from three letters issued by Pope Urban IV on January 7, 1264. Thepope writes not from Rome but from Orvieto, saying that, “this Williamceaselessly works for the Holy Land, exposes himself to the dangers of travelon land and sea.” 1 Interestingly Aquinas was residing in Orvieto at the time ofthe Pope’s correspondence about William. Thomas was teaching at theDominican priory, and writings small works for the pope, some about thetheological differences between Eastern and Western Christianity.

Finally, in the case of William of Tripoli, the issue concerned competing meansof salvation: for Christians, baptism into faith in Christ; for Muslims, confessingthe oneness of God and the singular importance of Mohammed His Prophet.In his “Tractatus,” William attempts to resolve this impasse by referring to themany passages in the Koran itself that extol the person of Jesus. For ex-ample, in one text, Jesus is the very personification of God’s “book, wisdom,law and good news” (section XXXVII); and in another text, the followers ofJesus are “your [i.e., Jesus’] imitators” (section XXXVIII). For William, then,the person of Jesus can unite competing—indeed, warring!!—Christians andMuslims and thus can bring both groups of sheep into the one sheep-pen ofthe one God. Here, then, is the principle that, from a Christian’s point of view,can resolve this divergent problem; it rests with actual Christians and theirdialogue partners to make it a reality.

Dr. Leo H. Madden (S.T.D., Pontifical Gregorian University) is an AssistantProfessor in the Division of Theology, Arts and Ideas at Ohio DominicanUniversity. He specializes in Biblical Theology and is currently the Director ofODU’s Masters in Theology Program.

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RESPONSE by Dr. Leo Madden

E. F. Schumacher, in A Guide for the Perplexed (New York, 1977),makes a helpful distinction between “Convergent Problems” and “DivergentProblems.” The former category deals with problems that in themselves allowfor a solution, so long as there is sufficient energy, time and expertise. Think ofthe challenge of restoring livelihood to the city of New Orleans: with enoughmoney and know-how and commitment, that city can be re-built; the problem ofNew Orleans can be resolved. The latter category deals with problems thatpresent competing concepts. Think of the final phrase of the United StatesPledge of Allegiance (“With Liberty and Justice for all”): as we study theseconcepts and put them into practice, we realize that they diverge rather thanconverge because the full exercise of liberty and the full exercise of justiceconflict hopelessly with one another. The resolution to divergent problemscalls for two elements: an appeal to a principle that is higher or more funda-mental than the two concepts in conflict; and the presence of a dialogue partnerwilling to enter into that kind of conversation.

In his address to the Ohio Dominican University community, Fr.O’Meara presents three examples of divergent problems that the CatholicChurch has faced in her past. Let me address them in reverse chronologicalorder.

In the case of Fr. Yves Congar, the problem concerned competingimages of the Church (e.g., the Church as hierarchical; the Church as thePeople of God; the Church as the Perfect Society; the Church as the Body ofChrist), each of which had strong support in Scripture and Tradition. Congarproposed an image—the Church as a series of concentric circles, with eachcomponent of Church life animated by the holy Spirit and dependent on oneanother—that reflects both Biblical principles and Congar’s own experience ofthe vibrant Church in post-World War II France. In this case, Congar’s initia-tives resolved the divergent problem because he appealed to a more funda-mental concept (the “pneumatic organism” of the Church) and because hisideas found a willing audience (in the form of the Council Fathers).

In the case of Fr. Sertillanges, the issue concerned competing imagesof personhood. On the one hand was the radical individualism of the Enlight-enment and the French Revolution, which inspired the birth of the feministmovement in France in succeeding decades. But that movement clashed withthe tradition of gender-specific roles in the Church. Sergillanges proposed thata solution to this impasse lay with the more fundamental notion ofcomplementarity. Whether that solution is satisfactory—then as well as now—remains an open question.

Already in 1226, Honorius II had written a letter to Dominican missionariesauthorizing those working in the East to wear local clothes, to wear a beard andhave their hair cut according to the local (often Muslim) custom. TheDominicans from their foundation were devoted to intellectual life, and at thistime in Spain they translated and studied texts in Arabic, In 1269 Nicolo andMaffeo Polo were in Acre at the Dominican priory. They were again on theirway east to China with Nicolo’s son, Marco whose memoirs mention William ofTripoli.

William had a remarkable openness to Islam. He had lived his daily lifeamong Muslims. His book of about fifty pages called The Condition of theSaracens (we might call it “The Reality of Muslims”) aims at offering toEuropeans at the end of the thirteenth century first hand information aboutIslam. The book is neither apologetics nor a handbook of how to evangelize.This is pioneering ecumenism, a positive dialogue, a view of convergencebetween Christianity and Islam.

His book gives an expose of the Koran, of its purpose as a scripture forMuslims. He argues that Mohammed had some Christian teachers and that theBible is influential at the origins of the Koran. Islam has a positive influence onits followers and a direct and accurate discussion of Islamic morality looks atpractice, cultural context, and natural law. William talks about what Muslimsactually believe and what they would find attractive in Christianity. “Even if thisfaith is obscured in poetry and hidden in some falsehoods, still it betrays theirfear of God and shows clearly that the Saracens stand closely to the Christianfaith and are close to them on the way of salvation.” 2 He looks positively at itstreatment of Jesus and Mary. Three paragraphs conclude, on the Trinity, theIncarnation and the teaching of Jesus where the author highlights aspects thatwould be attractive to those no Christian.

William is clearly someone who had had experience explaining Christianityto Muslims and who had developed his own approach both to Islam and toChristianity. “They should hear that in Christ’s teaching a full and unstainedfaith is present, a knowledge of the way of God, an exclusive prescription forbelievers which is nonetheless a prescription of the love and true friendshipwith God and neighbor…, in this way, on the basic of a simple preaching aboutGod without philosophical arguments or the power of weapons, they move likesimple sheep to the baptism of Christ and enter into God’s flock.” 2 NaturallyWilliam thinks of converting Muslims, although one notices that, as thepassage just cited states, Muslims are on “the way to salvation.” Muslims seeksalvation and truth, and so basic Christian views on salvation should be firstpreached, preached in an attractive way, pointing out similarities. William’stone is quite optimistic, buoyed up by his conviction that Islam, far from beingsome alien pagan religion, is a kind of relative of Christianity. It is hard not tobe impressed by an utterly different perspective, even for today; a perspectiveunimaginable for France and England 100 years ago fighting over what is todayIsrael and Lebanon and Iraq.

4.7.

II . Sertillanges

For our second figure we jump 600 years ahead to 1900. Antonim-GilbertSertillanges. Many have seen copies of his The Intellectual Life. Sertillangeswas born in 1863; ordained in 1888, he went to Italy for several weeks where artinspired his first book on art in Florence in 1896. He wrote a Christianapologetics based on art and a study of Gothic architecture and its similarities toscholastic theology and medieval mysticism.

Teaching moral theology at the Institute Catholique of Paris after 1900, hewrote books, large and small to explain Thomas Aquinas; and founded journalsfor the same purpose. He published many books of what we might call modernapologetics, one, Les Sources de la Croyance en Dieu published in 1903 had 22editions. There were also writings on modern philosophy beyond Kant, particu-larly in 1941 an important study of Henri Bergson. “The death of Henri Bergsonhas been a loss for the universe; it is equally – this would surprise no one – aloss for Catholicism. Mystical souls recognize that God is great to an infinitedegree…In terms of Catholicism the position of Bergson (as his books present itto us) is not membership [in the church], is not an adhesion. He was aphilosopher…but he was – I can bear witness to this – fully persuaded of thelegitimacy of faith. He saw his ideas being prolonged.” 3 Sertillanges became afriend and advocate of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in 1934: “I just read yourprecious little book Dieu ou Rien which has reached our distant shores. It gaveme great joy. Your voice, so measures and commanding makes me hear againthe approach that I have dreamt of, for a long time, to make sound in a freshway. If Christianity, I am convinced, often has so little place in the conscious-ness of believer and fails to attract the soul of gentiles, this is mainly because itcarries an air of disdaining or fearing the grandeur and unity of ouruniverse….Christ is re-incarnating himself, four our mind and our hear, in theformidable dimensions newly discovered of the experienced Real. Theseextensions, almost without measure – Christ must be capable of reaching andilluminating them. I think that St. Thomas would acknowledge the joyous daringwith which you see things expanding a little more, each day, before us. It isgood to feel around oneself, in the church, like-thinking companions at arms.” 4

We want to look particularly at his book Feminisme et christianisme publishedin 1913. It seems impossible that a Catholic intellectual, a Dominican priest iswriting on feminism a hundred years ago. That word and its cause, in fact, had ahistory in Europe in the nineteenth century, and in France the rights of womenare debated and enacted in the century after Napoleon. The book comprises tenaddresses (the opening of each begins “Gentlemen!”). The lectures treat theorigins of the feminist movement, Christian reality’s place in feminine liberation,feminist principles and Christian principles, and then on to themes of work,politics, marriage, divorce, and education. After showing how feminism comesout of political and social movements of the nineteenth century, Sertillanges

Three great topics – dialogue with world religions, women in the church,ministry and ministries – are evidently not so new, and our ideas about themtoday are not so novel. The Pontificate of John Paul II is over; his pastoralstyle was to repress discussion about any pastoral issues Now there canonly follow a flood of issues and challenges in the on-going changes n churchministry.

Ohio Dominican University — a tradition and a single university can make adifference today by knowing theology and its history. As our three figuresexemplify, that contribution will inevitably be local and international.

FOOTNFOOTNFOOTNFOOTNFOOTNOTESOTESOTESOTESOTES

1 Registres d’Urbain IV #473, p. 234, 235b.

2 Peter Engles., ed., W. von Tripolis, De Statu Sarracenorum (Wurzburg:Echter, 1992) 48, 55.

3 Henri Bergson et le catholicisme (Paris: Flammarion, 1941) 5f.

4 M-F. Moos, “Préface,” to A.-D. Sertillanges, L’Univers et l’âme (Paris:Éditions ouvrières,1964) 16f.

5 Feminisme et Christianisme (Paris: Gabalda, 1913) 20ff.

6 Ibid. 30.

7 Dialogue between Christians (London: 19—) 32.

8 Letter to his Mother in Journal

9 “Yves Congar,” in H. Vorgrimler, Bahnbrechende Theologen. Bilanz derTheologie im 20 Jh. (Freiburg: Herder, 1970) 10; see Thomas O’Meara, “Raidon the Dominicans,” America (1994) .

10 Congar, Mon Journal du Concile II (Paris: Cerf, 2002) 510f.

11 Congar, “Bref historique des formes du ‘magistère’ et de ses relations avecles docteurs,” Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques 60 (1976)112.

6.5.

What has put me in the wrong (in their eyes) is not having said false things, buthaving said things they do not want to be said.” 8

The Paris newspaper Le Monde called it “A Raid on the Dominicans.”Suarez flew to Paris and assembled the Paris Dominicans: “We must givesome satisfaction to the Holy See, sings of obedience and of disciple, and thenafter a while all this will be forgotten.” Suarez removed all the provincials anddirectors of studies, and theologians were not allowed teach, lecture or publish.This was all contradictory to Dominican tradition of democracy. Congarreacted: “This is absurd! Simply inconceivable!” “There are people who accuseus of modernism. That’s unjust and libelous. They have no sense of history.” 9

If in 1954, Congar was condemned and silenced by the Vatican, five years laterin 1959 he was serving in the Vatican as an adviser to Vatican II. At theCouncil, there was enormous amount of work for him, on some manypreparatory commissions; He spoke of drafts of documents appearing innumbers like the autumn leaves falling on the streets. Particularly revealing forhis importance and personality is the entry in his diary toward the end of theCouncil December 7, 1965. “I left the Basilica slowly and with difficulty; anumber of bishops congratulated me, saying that this was very much my work.Looking at things objectively, I did do a lot to prepare for the Council, toelaborate and diffuse the ideas the Council made its own. At the Council itself Iworked a lot.” He lists the section of Constitutions on the Church andRevelation, that are from him as well as parts of the texts on ecumenism, non-Christian religions, missions, priests and religious liberty. “In short, thismorning, that which was read came very extensively from me.” 10

Two areas of his theology remain particularly important: theology of ministry;theology of authority. For both Congar suggested a view f the church as anorganism enlivened by the Holy Spirit: in short, Paul’s Body of Christ. ATheology of Ministry begins by seeing how the church is composed of manypeople led by the Spirit to charisms and ministries, voices and activities. Forlay ecclesial ministry he advocates a theology of ministry of concentric circles.Only that explains the picture and reality of the diocese and parish today.There are a number of ministries and ministers; they are not the same; pastorand bishop are the leaders and center; but readers, educators, ministers tosick, liturgists are truly in the church’s public ministry. The Holy Spirit is theunderlying vivifying force, seeking diversity and participation. A Theology ofAuthority notes that the bishops, and the bishop of Rome, also exist within theone organism of the church; they are not above it, or outside it. “Magisteriummust not be isolated from the living reality of the church. The originality of thetheologians’ charism and service must be recognized. Their work should becarried out responsibly, in communion with the concrete lives of the faithful, inthe context of the liturgy, in an atmosphere of discussion. Theologians are notto be regarded only from the point of view of a dependence on Rome.” 11

Congar’s ecclesiology of the pneumatic organism retains its prophetic valuebecause it is Paul’s theology of the Body of Christ.

Sertillanges stresses that feminist movement belongs in the life of the earlytwentieth century, without surprise. Societies change, women should receivevery place they can do; justice is seen differently. 5 He associates feminismwith liberation.

Interestingly, he argues that feminism should not take place without menbeing part of that movement; all classes of society must change. At the sametime, he remains within the pattern of complementarity and does not see, Ithink, the possibility of women – in business, in national politics – having thesame positions as men. But that is a limit of his time.

Sertillanges concludes: “Let us rejoice as Christians in this aspiringmovement. Christianity has, as always, a necessary role…The Gospel is for alltimes; one must not nail it down, nor is it a lantern attached to a pole but a fire.”6 Christianity at its origins was an immense revolutionary movement. It is foundat each stage in history….We must overcome those who invoke religion inorder to stay asleep as if the religious principle were a drug. It is a viaticum, forthe road.

III. Yves Congar

Yves Congar, arguably the most important Catholic theologian before VaticanII. At the time of his ordination he chose a vocation of ecumenism and ofrenewal of the church through a historical knowledge of church forms. Fromthe liturgy of an installing an abbess to the jurisdiction of a pope, Congar wasan expert. In his thirties Congar wrote pioneering works on ecumenism, onchurch reform, on the role of Luther, on theological dialogue and on the laity.He was in a German prison during the war and then experienced the pastoraland theological renewal of France. “Anyone who did not live during the yearsof French Catholicism after the war missed one of the finest movements in thelife of the church. Through a slow emergence from misery, one tried in thegreat freedom of a fidelity as profound as life, to rejoin in a Gospel way theworld, a world of which the church could become an integral part for the firsttime in centuries.” 7 At that time he wrote books on the identity of bishops andthe local church.

Congar‘s major studies were not permitted by Rome to have second printings.He and his ideas were suspect. In October, 1953, Cardinal Pizzardo directionof the Holy Office wrote to the Master General of the Dominicans, EmmanuelSuarez: “You know well the new ideas and tendencies, not only exaggeratedbut even erroneous, that are developing it the realms of theology, canon law,and society, ideas finding a considerable resonance in certain religiousorders…so-called theologians ” teach falsehood. Jesuits had already beensilenced. Congar wrote to his mother at this time: “What I am blamed for isusually very little. Most of the time, whatever problem is raised about an idea inmy work is explained in the preceding line in that same work.

“The Future of the Church:Insights from Three

Dominicans”A Lecture Presented by:

Thomas F. O’Meara, O.P.

April 7, 2005

Little TheatreErskine Hall

Ohio Dominican University1216 Sunbury Road

Columbus, Ohio

Sponsored by theCenter for Dominican Studies

Thomas F. O’Meara, O.P.

Father O’Meara, O.P. is a Dominican friar of the Central Province of theOrder of Preachers. He is a theologian, teacher and author who haswritten and lectured exttensively on the topics of Thomas Aquinas,Theology of Ministry and Religion in history.

Father O’Meara i sthe Warren Professor of Theology Emeritus at theUniversity of Notre Dame. He teaches part-time each semester atNotre Dame, the Catholic Theological Union and the Aquinas Institute.He recently returned from lecturing at St. Joseph’s TheologicalInstitute and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Truly, Fr.O’Meara is an itinerant preacher.

In his book, Thomas Aquinas Theologian, Fr. O’Meara makes aninsightful contribution to our contemporary understanding ofAquinas. He further examines the effects of Aquinas’ influence onpast and present western thought.