J
Joe_5859
Guest
The Archbishop of New York and the Catholic future
This article is an interesting assesment of Archbishop Dolan’s influence in the Church today. This is the section that most jumped out at me, though:
If generals are always fighting the last war, journalists are forever handicapping the last election. For the past fifty years, the conventional journalistic way of sizing up Catholicism has been in terms of a struggle between left and right. After more than thirty years of bishops’ appointments by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, however, that contest is largely over at the leadership level.
Instead, the real battle for the future runs between different currents in the broad conservative camp – between cultural warriors who see the outside world primarily as a threat, and evangelists who see it as missionary terrain. The first instinct is a prescription for pulling back, the other for meeting the world halfway.
In that tug-of-war, Dolan embodies the open, positive version of Catholic conservatism that I’ve called “Affirmative Orthodoxy”. Both parts of the formula are important. It’s “orthodox,” meaning a tenacious defense of Catholic thought, speech and practice. It’s also “affirmative,” in the sense of presenting Catholic identity in a positive key. The emphasis is on what Catholicism embraces and affirms, what it says “yes” to, rather than what it opposes and condemns.
I think Allen just gave me a new favorite term: Affirmative Orthodoxy.
It is interesting what he says about the battle between “liberals” and “conservatives” being effectively over on the leadership level in the Church. I have heard something similar in other places, too. Curiously, each time I have heard this said, it has come from a “liberal” source.
Thoughts?
This article is an interesting assesment of Archbishop Dolan’s influence in the Church today. This is the section that most jumped out at me, though:
If generals are always fighting the last war, journalists are forever handicapping the last election. For the past fifty years, the conventional journalistic way of sizing up Catholicism has been in terms of a struggle between left and right. After more than thirty years of bishops’ appointments by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, however, that contest is largely over at the leadership level.
Instead, the real battle for the future runs between different currents in the broad conservative camp – between cultural warriors who see the outside world primarily as a threat, and evangelists who see it as missionary terrain. The first instinct is a prescription for pulling back, the other for meeting the world halfway.
In that tug-of-war, Dolan embodies the open, positive version of Catholic conservatism that I’ve called “Affirmative Orthodoxy”. Both parts of the formula are important. It’s “orthodox,” meaning a tenacious defense of Catholic thought, speech and practice. It’s also “affirmative,” in the sense of presenting Catholic identity in a positive key. The emphasis is on what Catholicism embraces and affirms, what it says “yes” to, rather than what it opposes and condemns.
I think Allen just gave me a new favorite term: Affirmative Orthodoxy.
It is interesting what he says about the battle between “liberals” and “conservatives” being effectively over on the leadership level in the Church. I have heard something similar in other places, too. Curiously, each time I have heard this said, it has come from a “liberal” source.
Thoughts?
