To read the world accurately and to proclaim the truth and value of the gospel persuasively, the church needs a willingness to communicate with the world and its wise men. Today, the term 'listening church' is often used. In a world where there is a strong tendency to assert and teach, the act of listening and learning is an important virtue. In the Catholic Times, the director of the Catholic Culture and Theology Institute gives the readers some thoughts on this important subject.
However, the act of listening requires a lot of effort. Listening includes the attitude and ability to hear spoken and unspoken words. Listening should be able to accurately read the true meaning and intentions contained in the words and stories of others. Listening is an act of precise reading. In the context of the church, listening is not just people's thoughts.
The object of listening is above all God and the will of God. Listening is reading the Bible and reading the will of God in history and life. Finding and reading the will of God in the Bible, in the historical tradition of the Church, and in today's life, involves a process of interpretation and discernment. Interpreting the Bible, understanding church traditions, and discerning today's world are not simple tasks.
Listening is a high-level task that involves the act of reading and discerning. It is always difficult to read accurately, to discern delicately. Discernment is a delicate and accurate reading rather than judgment and criticism. Discernment is for a clear understanding of the will of God. Reading the world, reading the signs of the times, has become more difficult in today's complicated society. To read and identify complex societies, complex people, the humanities, social sciences, natural science competencies, and intelligence are required. Modern society and culture are too complex to be read through the eyes only of traditional philosophy and theology. The lack of intellectual capacity to read the changing world is often felt in the church.
The world is changing rapidly. It is not easy to read the times while keeping up with rapid changes. The phenomena of human life, which have become very complicated through the development of science, technology, and media culture, are difficult to analyze and read-only with the capacity of the church.
In a column, modern church historian Massimo Faggioli painfully points out the lack of intelligence and literacy often found in today's churches. To read the world accurately and to proclaim the truth and value of the gospel persuasively, the church needs an open attitude to communicate more with the world and learn from the wise men of the world. But today's church is moving in the opposite direction.
Faggioli criticizes the church for "intellectual disarmament in the face of great cultural challenges." He warns that intellectual fervor is disappearing in the church and only negative nuances of pietism are intensifying. Of course, pietism itself is a precious stream in religion. But sometimes pietism operates in the form of formalism and austerity. Distorted pietism that emphasizes only religious feelings is in danger of being reduced to an ideological religion based on hate and exclusion.
The lack of religious intellect in the church comes from a variety of causes. To be honest, it is difficult to read and discern the world while accurately reading and interpreting the traditions of faith. The church's capacity alone cannot keep up with the rapid changes in the world. In the flow of change, there is a risk that you may even lose your identity. That is why the church may have taken a strategic attitude to focus on its own business. However, it is arrogant to focus only on religious traditions and reject the culture of the world as mere secularism. The church must always carry the religious tradition and the culture of the world together.
The absence of religious intellect in the church, Faggioli argues, is related to clericalism. He talks about the problems of seminary education. It is pointed out that today's seminary education focuses on reinforced character education and psychological aspects as a preventive method against the sexual scandal of the clergy. This tendency can inevitably lead to neglect of intellectual education in theology and humanities. Faggioli diagnoses that the absence of strict intellectual training for clergy and the aging of high-ranking clergy are undermining the church's ability to accurately read the times and discern them through the eyes of faith.
Looking back on history, the intellect has not always played the right role within the times. It is not uncommon for intellect and knowledge to be reduced to empty knowledge because they are not connected with life. In the modern capitalist society, there are many cases where intellect and knowledge collide with power and capital and do not function as a proper social force. Moreover, in today's era, emotions and desires are more important than reason. So, paradoxically, it is an era in which reason is needed.
Aren't we witnessing the phenomena created by many in the present generation who are faithful to their emotions and desires? In politics, economy, society, and culture, reason seems to have disappeared and only emotions and desires remain. He wants to emphasize the role of intelligence (reason) again. The shining tradition of Catholicism has always considered faith and intellect (reason) as two axes.
The resurrection of the intellect does not mean the return of intellectualism. Intellectualism, which emphasizes the superiority of intelligence and knowledge, is nothing more than the arrogance of the intellectuals at one time. This is an era in which religious intelligence, not intellectual supremacy, is desperately needed. Faith includes reason, but intellect is always secondary. Faith and life come first. Knowledge comes from life. As an intellectual act, theology is a secondary work. Theology cannot precede faith, but theology is essential for proper faith. The absence of theology that can read and discern the signs of the times is evidence of the absence of religious intelligence in the church. In fact, isn't Catholic theology, by its very nature, the product of an effort to read tradition and the era at the same time?
The intellect to study is urgently required. In an era in which knowledge has been reduced simply to the acquisition of information, and study has been reduced to a means of realizing desires, isn't the ideal of Catholic faith that paradoxically emphasizes the unity and balance between intellect and faith more fascinating? When literacy is developed in a community, it becomes a community that can think and judge. A time when the religious intellect is desperately needed for listening, reading, and discerning.
