M
mlcampbell
Guest
In light of all the recent controversy over Pope Benedict’s speech at the University of Regensburg, I decided today to go ahead and read the full thing myself, instead of relying on distorted media reports and the poor relating of the issue on “the street”. Personlly, I found the speech brilliant. However, needless to say, I’m not here to start another thread about all of the hullabaloo going on; rather, I have a specific theological question concerning one of the passages within the Holy Father’s speech. He’s talking about three attempts at dehellenizing Catholic theology throughout history:
*"The thesis that the critically purified Greek heritage forms an integral part of Christian faith has been countered by the call for a dehellenization of Christianity-– a call which has more and more dominated theological discussions since the beginning of the modern age. Viewed more closely, three stages can be observed in the program of dehellenization: although interconnected, they are clearly distinct from one another in their motivations and objectives.
Dehellenization first emerges in connection with the fundamental postulates of the Reformation in the 16th century. Looking at the tradition of scholastic theology, the Reformers thought they were confronted with a faith system totally conditioned by philosophy, that is to say an articulation of the faith based on an alien system of thought. As a result, faith no longer appeared as a living historical Word but as one element of an overarching philosophical system. The principle of sola scriptura, on the other hand, sought faith in its pure, primordial form, as originally found in the biblical Word. Metaphysics appeared as a premise derived from another source, from which faith had to be liberated in order to become once more fully itself. When Kant stated that he needed to set thinking aside in order to make room for faith, he carried this program forward with a radicalism that the Reformers could never have foreseen. He thus anchored faith exclusively in practical reason, denying it access to reality as a whole." *
While I was reading the speech, I wanted Pope Benedict to deal more directly with this form of criticism against the Church. Obviously, he didn’t have time to do all that and instead moved on to a broader and more important discussion about the relation between reason and faith. So I guess what I want to do here is pick up the discussion where he left off and approach this whole issue of hellenization more directly and specifically. So how much has the Church been effected by Greek thought? Has hellenistic philosophy literally inserted beliefs into Catholic doctrine, or is it merely that the Church, in the past, has employed Greek philosophical language to express ideas that are fundamentally Christian? Is the Church totally conditioned by a philosophy foreign to original Biblical faith? How would one go about convincing, say, a protestant that his/her arguments that the Church has been hellenized are ill-founded?
Thanks for your help!
*"The thesis that the critically purified Greek heritage forms an integral part of Christian faith has been countered by the call for a dehellenization of Christianity-– a call which has more and more dominated theological discussions since the beginning of the modern age. Viewed more closely, three stages can be observed in the program of dehellenization: although interconnected, they are clearly distinct from one another in their motivations and objectives.
Dehellenization first emerges in connection with the fundamental postulates of the Reformation in the 16th century. Looking at the tradition of scholastic theology, the Reformers thought they were confronted with a faith system totally conditioned by philosophy, that is to say an articulation of the faith based on an alien system of thought. As a result, faith no longer appeared as a living historical Word but as one element of an overarching philosophical system. The principle of sola scriptura, on the other hand, sought faith in its pure, primordial form, as originally found in the biblical Word. Metaphysics appeared as a premise derived from another source, from which faith had to be liberated in order to become once more fully itself. When Kant stated that he needed to set thinking aside in order to make room for faith, he carried this program forward with a radicalism that the Reformers could never have foreseen. He thus anchored faith exclusively in practical reason, denying it access to reality as a whole." *
While I was reading the speech, I wanted Pope Benedict to deal more directly with this form of criticism against the Church. Obviously, he didn’t have time to do all that and instead moved on to a broader and more important discussion about the relation between reason and faith. So I guess what I want to do here is pick up the discussion where he left off and approach this whole issue of hellenization more directly and specifically. So how much has the Church been effected by Greek thought? Has hellenistic philosophy literally inserted beliefs into Catholic doctrine, or is it merely that the Church, in the past, has employed Greek philosophical language to express ideas that are fundamentally Christian? Is the Church totally conditioned by a philosophy foreign to original Biblical faith? How would one go about convincing, say, a protestant that his/her arguments that the Church has been hellenized are ill-founded?
Thanks for your help!
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