Foundational Theology’s basis stems from the theological minds of Christianity who have relied on the testimony of those who have gone before them, in the Christian Faith as well as in the Jewish creed and in Greek philosophy. It realizes the deep-seated desire of humanity for completion, for perfection, and for love. Through this realization it offers a way, “the Way” of its founder and its God. Jesus, the “man-God,”[1] reveals the truth of this human desire by giving Himself, both as an historical figure and as a community of believers. Humanity’s quest for ultimate perfection can be satisfied by this community, which is built upon the principles of God becoming Man, His kenosis of Self, and His trust in Man’s ability to choose correctly.
It must be seen, initially, that man desires perfection. Throughout history, one can see a human push toward self-actualization and completion. From Jewish religiosity, to Aristotle’s metaphysics, and even in the grotesque human sacrifices of the Aztecs, there is evidence of ancient historical truth-seeking. It is this seeking which compels humanity to provide for itself a means of answering the question of human existence. In his work, At the Origin of the Christian Claim, Luigi Giussani, founder of the lay Catholic movement Communion and Liberation, states that this yearning is the “religious sense”[2] of humanity which is “an urgent need for total fulfillment, for maximum completeness.”[3] This need leads to an honest search for answers to the mystery and the dynamism of the human spirit. But this search can only go so far with the help of reason, whose “summit is the perception of the existence of the mystery” that is God.[4] Like the aid given to Dante by Virgil in his Divine Comedy, reason is unable in itself to glimpse the perfect:
But Virgil had deprived us of his light,
Virgil the sweetest father, Virgil, he
In whom I trusted that I might be healed,
Nor all the world our mother Eve once lost
Could keep my cheeks that had been cleansed with dew
from darkening again with bitter tears.[5]
As Giussani states: “what man can attain by his own efforts regarding the divine, the meaning of his destiny, will never lose its image as an insecure, sometimes anxiety-ridden swamp that surrounds him.”[6]
It is only through faith that Man is capable of sincere freedom for excellence, which is ultimately seen in the acceptance of the Christian claim of credibility. Reason is only capable of realizing the necessity of “Another;”[7] it is impotent in bringing about any further enlightenment or sustenance.[8]
In order to see Christianity as credible, one must ascertain in what context Christianity has been approached by others. Giussani goes on to state that religion “depends on people’s temperament, their environment, and their particular historical moment.”[9] With this in mind, one can see that various time periods and cultures will inevitably approach the question of Christian credibility in different ways. What does not change, however, is the desire for fulfillment.
As paralleled in His own ministry and self-revelation, Christ is seen to gradually “remove the scales” from the eyes of His followers in order that they might come to an awareness of the credibility of His claim as the Son of God. He forces those around Him to ask “Who is he?” -- showing the necessity for an interpretation based on reliability.[10] Christ slowly advances his claim to be divine; first through signs and wonders, and eventually through explicit statements of identity, but always with an inherent trust in humanity’s ability to realize and then freely accept the truthfulness of His claim.[11] It is on this freedom that our natures rely in order to realize the “intimate and original position of our conscience before the totality of beings and of Being.”[12]
Christ’s trust in us precipitates a demand of trust in Him, to follow His way of life, and ultimately to give one’s self utterly to Him. This trust is witnessed in Christ’s own kenosis and condescension as God become Man.[13] His self-emptying, as answer to humanity’s demand for the perfect, is itself a demand for the kenosis of the individual who chooses to accept the Christian claim. It is in this that Man comes to realize that “the very life of our nature is love, the affirmation of Another as the self’s meaning.”[14]
This personal kenosis requires a personal conversion. In his book Craft of Theology: From Symbol to System, Avery Cardinal Dulles describes conversion as “a radical shift in a person’s apprehensions and values, accompanied by a similar radical change in oneself, in one’s relations with other persons, and in one’s relations to God.”[15] This idea of conversion is a dramatic alteration of an individual’s perspective on reality; it changes one’s ability to comprehend aspects of faith and reason in order to allow for the rational choice of accepting a religious claim of credibility. Conversion can be seen, then, as a “radical transformation, involving the transvaluation of all values.”[16]
The rational choice of acceptance cannot be made by naturally evident criteria, however. This can only be done through revelatory and faith-based testimony.[17] Testimony plays a key role in the transmission of any religious tradition, but particularly Christianity, being deeply rooted in the historical fact of the Incarnation. The witness of individuals closely linked to this historical reality serves as a basis for accepting the testimony presented. It is only in a type of delayed judgment that one is able to be “genuinely open to the testimony of another.”[18] These individuals must show themselves to have been personally transformed by the message they present, bearing public witness to the transformative nature of their faith.[19]
Coming full circle, conversion requires its own kenosis of self. One’s old individualistic identity must be poured out in order that a new identity, that of a person of communion, may take its place. This must be done completely, sincerely, and freely. As Dulles so eloquently phrases it: “We do not so much grasp the faith as allow ourselves to be grasped by it, so that we are at its disposal rather than its being at ours.”[20]
In the end, the Christian faith must be accepted or rejected on its own terms and within the context to which it belongs. The coherence of Christianity comes from its ability to relate to the individual of any time, place, or culture, and depends on the willingness of the individual to follow in the footsteps of Christ in trust. Demonstrable proof will not afford an explanation for the credibility of the Christian claim, nor will blind obedience. Informed trust in the testimony of Christ and his followers is necessary to accomplish the conversion required to answer the questions raised by the human experience.
[1] Luigi Giussani, At the Origin of the Christian Claim (Montreal: McGill Queen’s University Press, 1998), 100.
[2] Ibid., 3.
[3] Ibid., 4.
[4] Ibid., 6.
[5] Anthony Esolen, trans., Dante: Purgatory (New York: Random House Inc., 2003), 327.
[6] Giussani, 8.
[7] Ibid., 89.
[8] Ibid., 21.
[9] Ibid., 12.
[10] Giussani, 56.
[11] Ibid., 52.
[12] Ibid., 79.
[13] Ibid., 106.
[14] Ibid., 102.
[15] Avery Dulles, S.J., Craft of Theology: From Symbol to System (New York: Crossford, 1995), 53.
[16] Ibid., 57.
[17] Ibid., 54.
[18] Ibid., 63.
[19] Ibid., 64.
[20] Ibid., 67.
No comments:
Post a Comment