SACRED DOCTRINE
For the Companions in Christ program of the Walter Farrell Institute, directed by Mike Dempkovich
When I was about 15 years old I had a long series of visits to an orthodontist, a Jew who did not believe in the existence of God and constantly filled my ears with his reasoning while his hands were in my mouth. My older brother was at Loyola at the time, and had the Pegis edition of selected works of Thomas Aquinas. I dug into them to find answers for my orthodontist friend.
As I read avidly on, I was struck by the order and interconnectivity of all the questions Thomas raised. I was particularly struck by a passage from the Contra Gentiles that the universe of material creation is for man, and man is for God. It took many years of formal study of philosophy and theology as a Dominican to grasp the synthesis as a whole, both in its simple grand outlines and in its complex and sometimes faulted but open-ended detail.
The relationship between sacred doctrine and the human sciences reflects the relationship between the divinity and humanity of Christ, which carries across to the Church as the holy bride and body of Christ as well as a society of individuals and peoples with a rainbow of cultures. In each case the human and the divine are distinct and autonomous, yet wedded together in a harmonious relationship: In the case of Christ it is the unity of a single person. For the Church and the Christian, it is an indwelling of the Trinity. For the human sciences and sacred doctrine, the former have the role of "handmaid", preparing the way for sacred doctrine as "the invisible existence of God and his everlasting power are clearly seen by the mind's understanding of created things" (Rom 1:20), and also by ratifying and giving further evidence for the Church's moral and social teaching. Sacred doctrine serves the human sciences as a higher wisdom, guiding, correcting where necessary, and encouraging--The Church has always affirmed the power of human reason against philosophers who despair of it (nominalists, idealists, nihilists etc.).
Sacred doctrine is scientific, because it contains causal explanations. For instance, Scripture argues that we will rise from the dead because Christ has risen. Even when philosophical or scientific data is used in theological reasoning, its major principles and the guiding light of its research is revelation, giving it both its unity and its dignity. What is more worth knowing than God?--even though our knowledge of him is so imperfect in this life.
Sacred doctrine is not only guided by divine revelation; it also has God as its principal subject. Of course, it talks about creation, the destiny and moral life of man and the salvific work of Christ. These other things are all viewed as they relate to God as their beginning (efficient cause) or end (final cause). The whole Summa theologiae of Thomas can be viewed as a study of God, how creatures come from God and how man in particular returns to God through Jesus Christ and the sacraments of the Church. The beginning of the Second Part of the Summa shows another way man is related to God: as an image (God is the exemplary formal cause).
Thomas Aquinas viewed sacred doctrine as a single science. Today we hear of so many branches. There is fundamental theology, which includes the study of Scripture and its allied disciplines (Biblical languages, archaeology etc.), Church history and patrology, theological method etc. And there is systematic theology, sometimes divided into "dogma" and "moral". Besides, there a vast literature of Church Council and "magisterium" documents, as well as Canon Law and an ever growing literature of "contextual theology". The situation is further complicated by revolutionary advances in Scripture studies over the past two centuries, so that very often we find that passages which St. Albert or St. Thomas cited to support a particular point are really off point. We may get the impression that any all-embrasive system of sacred doctrine is tearing at the joints. It is a challenge to contemporary theologians, particularly Thomists, to assemble the findings of the many scattered specialists, critically evaluate their validity, and incorporate them in a new synthesis. To do so, they must be up to date on what is going on on the ground, and also be very sensitive to the papal voice on these questions, since heterodox views are rampant.
Because sacred doctrine deals with God himself, who exceeds any adequate intellectual representation, it uses a great deal of imagery or symbolic language to represent in a small way what God is and, more importantly, to show what he is not. Since sacred doctrine must be presented to different people of different generations and cultures, its examples and imagery must be adapted accordingly. This is a prime basis for plurality or contextualization of theology (another topic).