Sweeping call for reforms not theology

A LAYMAN’S THEOLOGY, by Bernard Straughan. Coppinger Press, Cape Town, 2011. 132pp.

Reviewed by Michael Shackleton

In his preface the author says: It is sincerely hoped that the questions that are to be asked here, and therefore the views that will be expressed, will add in some way, however small, to our understanding of, and our wonder at, the marvels of a Creator God and, specifically, to our understanding of the nature and teachings of Jesus Christ.

His sincerity must be taken seriously. Bernard Straughan is a well-educated cradle Catholic who has seen the Church evolve in his time from pre-Vatican II conservatism to its present more accepting attitude to the modern world. He has struggled with his dilemmas and perceived inconsistencies in the Church’s teachings and conduct, and his frustrations are poured out vividly in this short volume.

In effect, he wants his readers to sympathise with him as he sets out a layman’s theology to help simplify doctrine and render it less incomprehensible to the man and woman in the pew.

He examines the immortality of the soul, drawing the conclusion that the good and the bad will be immortally in the divine presence for eternity because God and immortal souls will be the only realities. The good will be happy to be with God and the bad will not, and this explanation does away with any complicated conventional theories of the nature of heaven, hell and purgatory. He ignores the consequences for this opinion in regard to the resurrection of the dead.

Following his own line of reasoning, Straughan concludes that the distinction between mortal and venial sin is outdated. Less logically, he dumps the practice of canonisation because all souls are already with God, so the Church cannot infallibly say that any particular saint is with God. He forgets that canonisations are not infallible decrees about God’s revealed truths.

From here on Straughan disposes of certain other elements of doctrines such as original sin, the nature of the Mass and sacrifice, the indissolubility of sacramental marriage, divorce and remarriage and the nature of the Trinity.

He distinguishes what he calls the Church’s monolithic structure from the true Christians who care for their neighbours and then break bread together. He does not explain sufficiently how the Church is structured in a way that makes it not truly Christian.

Fair enough, but even a layman’s theology must come to terms with contemporary theological studies. His brief few pages of personal opinions quote no authority to support his contentions, and the references he provides are not sufficiently relevant to the enormous doctrinal reformation that he has in mind.

When we consider that traditional Christian theology is the methodical and disciplined elaboration of the truths of divine revelation by reason enlightened by faith, we appreciate that even the greatest theological minds cannot question what they believe in faith, despite their attempts to comprehend it and fine tune it logically and clearly.

Though it has the word theology in its title, this book is not a theological treatment of what the Church takes on divine faith. Instead of defining each doctrine that he wants to criticise and then setting out logically his precise proposals to amend it or ditch it, Straughan dwells only on his personal logic, completely ignoring what even the catechism says. It should not have been a problem for him as a layman to start with the catechism’s basic teachings.

Any theological presentation may not deviate from the corpus of theological doctrines and theories that has been constructed laboriously and set out by the teaching authority of the Church and experienced and well informed experts. Attempting to simplify this for the lay person to absorb clearly is not the same as re-inventing our understanding of the mystery of God and the Catholic faith.

Faith is the humble intellectual and willing acceptance of divinely revealed mystery. Theology is our attempt to understand the immensity of that mystery and its implications for us. Straughan’s approach is nothing like that.

Instead of sweeping away teachings that are at the basis of Christian tradition in the liberal way he does, he should have chosen just one that he thinks needs to be simplified for the ordinary Catholic. Then he could have defined exactly what the Church teaches, presented his difficulties with it, weighed this against traditional and current theological thought and presented a coherent synthesis of where he stands.

Irrespective of Straughan’s sincerity, his arguments fail to add to our understanding of the nature and teachings of Jesus Christ. Instead, they are too introspective to be called theology in the proper sense.