tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994073177496022401.post5438727157769990694..comments2024-03-27T15:00:33.760+00:00Comments on Catholic Commentary: Thoughts on dialogueJoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09339499088443959192noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994073177496022401.post-41643679594364317062009-11-21T15:13:57.254+00:002009-11-21T15:13:57.254+00:00Yes we think this is right. Catholic co-operation ...Yes we think this is right. Catholic co-operation in social action is very valuable, and certainly does not require an explicit intention to convert Christian (or non-Christian) partners.<br /><br />As you have suggested, it's a question of the proper focus of one's attention. In ecumenical dialogue, the common focus is (or ought to be) the Truth about Revelation. In social action, our attention is focussed upon the person whom one is trying to assist. Human need constitutes a real and complete object of attention; it <i>requires</i> no further theological elaboration in order to justify one's efforts. (This is not of course to suggest that human need and our response to it have no theological <i>implications</i>; but those implications do not provide the necessary and sufficient motivating reason for responding to suffering.) <br /><br />Of course the moral and social teaching of the Church may place limits upon the kinds of co-operation and response which are possible or prudent. But that said, Christian witness to the 'social Gospel' is a necessary and powerful thing.<br /><br />We suspect it makes a more lasting contribution to human well-being, is a more eloquent manifestation of what Christians have in common, and constitutes a more effective path to Christian unity, than the bulk of ecumencial dialogue - at least as it has been commonly practised up to now.<br /><br />Thank you, Joe, for raising important questions and for providing such a thoughtful and hospitable opportunity for discussing them.NewmanCausehttp://www.newmancause.co.uk/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994073177496022401.post-63312628441766500072009-11-20T15:54:47.233+00:002009-11-20T15:54:47.233+00:00NewmanCause:
Thank you for your comment, which, o...NewmanCause:<br /><br />Thank you for your comment, which, once again, I am very happy to post.<br /><br />Thinking about ecumenical dialogue: I wonder whether working together with Christian's of other denominations on social action in the world (which would perhaps not be recognised as "dialogue" as such) is the analogue of "presence in charity" understood in the context of evangelisation?Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09339499088443959192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994073177496022401.post-20630506865910208312009-11-20T13:00:08.961+00:002009-11-20T13:00:08.961+00:00Many thanks for this very interesting post.
You ...Many thanks for this very interesting post. <br /><br />You seem to want to treat 'dialogue' as a fundamental concept, and to bring various kinds of encounter which are commonly called 'dialogue' under its control. We wonder whether 'dialogue' is best conceived in this way, as a well-structured generic term. It seems to us that it is an informal concept, with no hard and fast criteria for its application. We suggest this, because your desire to represent the Church's ecumenical dialogue as a species of her generic encounter with culture appears to us over-systematic. <br /><br />About the encounter with culture you say many things with which we do not disagree. In particular, your emphasis upon the fact that 'presence in charity' must not degnerate into proselytism seems to us very important. But does the inappropriateness, in the context of the Church's encounter with culture, of 'an explicit intention of seeking conversion to the Catholic faith', apply also to the ecumenical context – that is, to the formal discussion of doctrinal and moral differences with other Christians? <br /><br />It applies to the encounter with culture because, as you say, 'many [such] encounters...might be without explicitly religious content'. But in the ecumenical context this is not so. We certainly agree that, in the context of such discussions, Catholics could have 'an explicit intention of seeking conversion to the Catholic faith' which, <i>in the particular forms in which it was adopted</i>, might be counter-productive. But surely the intention itself is both unavoidable and essential?<br /><br />We think that it is, <i>in a way</i>, essential also to the encounter with culture: in the sense that, in whatever forms such encounter takes, the underlying dynamic must be to bring one's partner in the encounter closer to Christ. Your point is that this need not be 'explicit', but may be expressed in the quality of one's attention to him or her, in the concrete context of the encounter; and that is absolutely right. (It may also, of course, be expressed in the prayers one might say for him or her afterwards.)<br /><br />The sense in which, in the ecumenical context, this intention (in our opinion) necessarily becomes explicit arises from the fact that the object of ecumenical dialogue is Christian Truth. The ecumencial kind of partnership is ordered, not only to the conscientious statement of position, or to the clear and charitable understanding of difference, but to Christian unity. This is not merely an intellectual or emotional goal, but is inescapably evangelical. At its heart is the intention of bringing others (and, yes, oneself also) to see Christian Truth more adequately. And for Catholics (despite all the formulations which have been ventured to escape this implication) that intention must be towards conversion to the Catholic Faith. <br /><br />Were this not so, then Catholic presence in ecumenical dialogue could not be a 'presence in charity', in the fully demanding and conscientious sense of those words that ecumenical dialogue inherently demands. If, as a Catholic, one is unsure about this – and, if one is, it is not necessarily a personal failing - then (in our view) whatever other forms of apostolic activity one undertakes, one's vocation is not to be a partner in ecumenical dialogue. Too often, perhaps, Catholics have been drawn to ecumenical dialogue for the very reasons which, in reality, mean they should stay away from it.NewmanCausehttp://www.newmancause.co.uk/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994073177496022401.post-52191776067784765432009-11-20T10:52:29.505+00:002009-11-20T10:52:29.505+00:00ZENIT are today carrying a news report of Pope Ben...ZENIT are today carrying a news report of Pope Benedict XVI address to the 23rd general assembly of the International Federation of Catholic Universities: "Pope calls for closing of faith-culture gap". The report is here, and contains a link to the full text of the address: http://www.zenit.org/article-27607?l=english<br /><br />Pope Benedict's remarks have a couple of interesting threads: a language of purification in the context of a dialogue between revelation and culture in the university, and an account of the relation of that dialogue to the overall mission of the Church.Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09339499088443959192noreply@blogger.com