Pope Quote, Theologians

 At a mass celebrating the Holy Spirit's approach to mankind after Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, Pentecost on May 28, 2023, Pope Francis related that event to the upcoming Bishops' Synod on Synodality (link HERE to the article, and first reference at bottom of post):

The Catholic Church's current Synod of Bishops should not be a "parliament for demanding rights," but a journey in accordance with the Spirit.

He emphasized, "the Holy Spirit is the heart of synodality and the driving force of evangelization."

But from the same homily, Francis warned, "We often hear so many so-called thinkers and theologians who give us cold doctrines that seem mathematical because they lack the Spirit."

The Pope covers at least three themes in his statements: the Holy Spirit; Church synods; and "cold" (assuming bad) doctrines of theologians. I'd like to address the third in my last post on these quotes. 

First, I don’t know if Pope Francis meant the doctrines or the theologians “lack the Spirit,” but I will not speculate directly on whether a specific individual has the Spirit or not.

Simply put, Catholic doctrines are defined as all Church teaching in matters of faith and morals. Heresies are ideas contrary to accepted, approved religious beliefs. Theologians study God and write about their findings and their thoughts can be very complex.  Many of us don’t understand them and thus lies one of the problems. We trust in our educated Church leadership, many themselves theologians, to sort through the opinions of others through the ages and then tell the rest of us what we need to know. 

Popes and bishops sometimes need to actively oppose false doctrines, as we saw in the Arian heresy (described in my last post HERE), where our Nicaean Creed was drawn, so that all Catholics can know the clear beliefs of the Church. Yet, as we saw in the same Arian heresy, many leaders were misled for a long time. So much so, that St. Jerome at one point said the world “awoke with a groan to find itself Arian.”

Some theologians resist what the pope and magisterium teach. At times, popes have required Catholic professors to sign pledges to teach orthodoxy (Church approved beliefs). That does not always stop their resistance, however. And, to be fair, the Church does change for the better sometimes due to new realizations, such as the injustice of slavery.

The Holy Father didn't name any theologians and neither will I, but I will mention two extremes of intellectual thought that, if not at this point can even be called Christian theology, have influenced theology and therefore culture in general. I’m not an expert and I’m defining these theories very broadly, so anyone out there who reads this and can add or correct, feel free. But I think these labels will fit well enough to be recognized and cover some of what is going on in minds both inside and outside the Church.

One theory is called “Naturalistic Modernism” (or some form of the term), where all of existence is from natural laws and material substance. The other theological theory is the “Supernatural Existential,” where all people who in some sense know they are human are infused supernaturally and ultimately called by God to the Divine Nature so that pretty much every person, no matter what they believe about God or have even heard of Him, end up with Him in Heaven.

Naturalistic Modernism started centuries ago and involved so-called intellectuals denying miracles, mostly because, I think, of the increase of understanding of nature and scientific method. They wanted to look at Christ in the sense of a simple human teacher but transformed in stories by what his disciples thought of Him. The theory led to the elimination of all supernatural phenomena, including God Himself. And, of course, this is where many people stand.

Concerning the Supernatural Existential, as I understand it, individuals, even avowed atheists, do not have to believe in Christ in order to be Christian. If they accept their own essence as human beings, with an innate transcendent consciousness open to God as the Other, they are Christian even if they don’t know it. As far as I can tell, if the theory is right, no one would be eliminated from Heaven. There is more to this than I can describe here or fully understand, so I refer you to a book by Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, linked below, called, Gethsemane: The Origins and Rise of the Intellectual Revolution in the Church.

Cardinal Siri did not flinch in denouncing this theory. Another negative analysis came from none other than Pope Emeritus Benedict, previously Pope Benedict XVI, also known as a brilliant theologian. In an interview HERE (reference below), the Pope Emeritus pointed out that simply accepting oneself as human does not explain the “drama of change and renewal that is central to Christianity.”

And this theory is not what is laid out in the Bible. In the first book of Romans, a letter by the Apostle Paul to citizens of that city, Paul first describes those faults of Gentiles which Jews point out. But in the second chapter, he accuses the Jews of the very same faults. In the third chapter he spells out, with verses marked under the Bible’s New International Version (Romans 3, NIV): 

9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 

10 As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11

    there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
12 

All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
    there is no one who does good,
    not even one.”

Paul continues after naming more human faults:

21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith…

Though all have sinned and are justified by the grace that comes through Christ’s sacrifice, this redemption is only received by faith.

Unfortunately, the Supernatural Existential thinking has permeated the Catholic Church, leaders and laity, to the point where evangelization is damaged. Why exert yourself if everyone is saved anyway? Evangelization can be very challenging.

Are people saved who never heard of Christ? It is up to God if He wants to make exceptions for His own reasons. It is our job to make sure all persons in our day hear the Gospels loudly and clearly. Are atheists or persons from other religions saved who have heard the Word and strongly deny either that God exists or that Christ is God and has atoned for our sins as long as we believe in Him? I very much don’t think so unless they change, no matter how much they accept themselves as human or transcendently spiritual they feel. 

Most of us are familiar with the verse, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life,” (John 3:16). This is stated by Jesus Christ Himself. But the next two verses, especially 18, are not as familiar in our culture: 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son (NIV). (Though the wording “they have not believed” may imply “at any time in our lives,” I think that as long as we are alive, we can realize and accept the truth of Christ and subsequently be saved.) 

Only Christ leads to God, which He distinctly told us, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). We consider the Bible to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, and although the Bible itself can be challenging for the laity, it is not impenetrable. We also have faith that the Holy Spirit lives within Christians and leads us to Truth. 

The “cold doctrines” Pope Francis mentions are those that lead us away from Truth, from understanding and therefore from a right relationship with God. There are intellectual and theological ideas floating around right now which openly and obviously counter to what we seek in prayer, hear in our consciences, read in the Bible, and of what Christ Himself taught. These can be analyzed by sincere believers, theology professionals or not, in our reason and our hearts, and should be called out for the "cold doctrines" that they are.

I hope all Catholics will be willing to seek the Lord's will together, throughout the Bishops' Synod on Synodality and its aftermath.

References

Justin McClellen, "Pope on Pentecost: Synod is a journey in the Spirit, not 'a parliament,'" Catholic News Service, May 28, 2023.

https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/pope-pentecost-synod-journey-spirit-not-parliament

Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, Gethsemane: The Origins and Rise of the Intellectual Revolution in the Church (Franciscan Herald Press, 1981). (This book is again available in a reprint by Sophia Institute Press, 2022.)

Fr. Jacques Servais, SJ, “Faith is Not an Idea but Life: 2016 Interview with Pope Emeritus Benedict,” Catholic Culture website, Proceedings of the residency of Gesu on Justification by Faith, accessed Sept. 9, 2023.
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=11197