Moving beyond impasse

by Leo D. Lefebure

Catholic theologians today face numerous challenges, which can often seem intractable and unyielding. Recognizing this situation, the Catholic Theological Society of America focused this year's annual convention, held this past weekend in Halifax, on the theme "Impasse . . . and Beyond."

The organizers sent us an article by Constance FitzGerald, a Carmelite contemplative from Baltimore, on John of the Cross's exploration of the various forms of "dark nights" that we face. Again and again we come to situations in which our usual ways of thinking and acting do not work. Our normal assumptions cannot move us beyond the standstill:

Paradoxically, a situation of no potential is loaded with potential, and impasse becomes the place for the reconstitution of the intuitive self. This means the situation of being helpless can be efficacious, not merely self-denying and demanding of passivity.

FitzGerald's meditation set the tone for the assembly, and she offered further reflections in one of the plenary sessions.

The Catholic theological community approached the topic from many perspectives. Historian Gary Macy set present impasses into a historical context by reflecting on the 11th-century church, which faced multiple problems with no apparent resources. Macy noted that even as the church leaders moved forward, there were tragic developments—such as the increased attacks on women, which he related to the new emphasis on clerical celibacy.

Ethicist James Keenan shared his own struggle with melanoma and challenged the assembly to integrate their personal experiences into their theological writings and to write for a broader audience. In his presidential address, Terrence Tilley explored impasses in Christology, recalling ancient controversies and centuries of deadlock. After 1,500 years of mutual condemnations, recent decades have seen important breakthroughs in this area. Tilley noted how language changes its meaning over time, so that repeating ancient formulas no longer states the same content that the original framers understood.

One of the most significant and impressive developments has been the increased attention to interreligious issues and comparative theology, which can also be places of impasse. At earlier conventions, such topics were often somewhat marginal. This year, one session after another focused on relations with Jews, Muslims and Hindus. In a discussion of Judaism and post-Conciliar Catholic identity, John Pawlikowski stressed the importance of developments in recent studies of Jewish-Christian relations in the first centuries of the common era, when overlapping and merging identities continued for a much longer period than had previously been thought. Pawlikowski lamented that there has been almost no awareness of this historical scholarship in Christian systematic theology.

In a discussion with Muslim scholars Zeki Saritoprak and Amir Hussain, Daniel Madigan posed the pointed question of whether the Muslim notion of God as One (Tawhid) contradicts the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Madigan noted that in most Islamic theology the Qur'an is an eternal, uncreated word of God, and he compared this to the dynamics of the word in the fourth Gospel. Hussain was quite open to pursuing this line of thought.

Hindu scholar Ravi Ravindra attended a session at which Michael McLaughlin and I offered responses to his commentary on the Gospel of John. Ravindra began his response to us by saying, "I'm not a theologian," and proceeded to offer an autobiographical account of his journey from the study of physics to philosophy to religion. The late Wilfred Cantwell Smith, a noted Islamic scholar and comparative theologian, thought that Ravindra understood the gospel better than many Christians. This surprised Smith and challenged his own methodological approach, which trusted insiders to be the best readers of the texts of their own communities. Smith even commented to Ravindra at one point, "You've undone half my life's work!"

Leo D. Lefebure, author of Revelation, the Religions and Violence and a Century editor at large, teaches at Georgetown University's campus in Qatar.