In an age of rampant specialization and outsourcing, it often seems that we are urged from every quarter to sit back and trust the experts with all the complicated goings-on of the wide world around us. We are fools and very small, in the grand scheme of things, we are told through advertisement and social cue alike. Though – especially as Americans – this has until recently chafed against a national identity as self-made men, it is increasingly common that men and women shrug and surrender to the inevitable.
Just trust the experts, they say.
On the surface this seems simply logical. We trust pilots to be specialized. We certainly expect surgeons to be highly-trained experts in their given field, and no one would fault us if we refused to go under the knife for a surgeon with a less-than-stellar reputation.
Religious Experts
Applying that principle to the field of religion, why not leave theology solely in the hands of learned men in ivory towers? After all, clergy and religious spend their entire lives in pursuit of the elusive bliss of a deeper knowledge of the God of all the Universe, and if they can so easily struggle with these eternal truths, how can we poor harried souls in the world hope to do better?
The trouble is, theology is not civil law, nor is it physics. Even in the deeply specialized fields of research and medicine, or arcane skills and the trade secrets, which were once guarded guild secrets, all members of the Church share a common, general understanding.
In theology, the science is no less precise, and the words are no less important, but their significance is all the more grave. Grave, not because it is dreadful (though indeed it is in the oldest understanding of that word), but grave because nothing is more important than coming inch by inch into a deeper awareness of the eternal Truth, Goodness, and Beauty which describe by passing degrees the indescribable glory of God.
Each man and woman, etched by the finger of God and made intimately in His own image and likeness, is drawn by an inner, gasping thirst for the drink that might truly satisfy which our Lord promised the woman at the well (John 4:10). Each of us is called toward richer life, through immersion into the Body of Christ and a participation in His Divine Sonship, if only we would walk in that grace.
This is the very heart of theology, and it is so precisely because there is nothing unique to the quest for the Face of God except the shape of one’s life in His Presence. Every man, woman, and child is called toward God, and because it is intrinsic to human nature, that is where we begin with our defense of the Everyman’s spiritual journey.
Nature and Scientism
Ancient pagans, faithful practitioners of the modern cult of scientism, and people from all the great religions of the world, attest to the natural impulse toward spiritual realities. While their approach is different, each is attempting to find answers to the source of life, and to find and define some semblance of meaning to the world.
From Buddhists to Baptists, we are all grappling with the inherently obvious metaphysical world (that is, the aspect of the world beyond the merely material). There are fundamental disagreements in the nature of the world, and doubts perhaps on its purpose, but faith is the natural state of mankind, for we believe, as the Teacher in Ecclesiastes tells us, that God has placed eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
Materialist worldviews, such as those typified by the so-called “new atheism” are often nested beneath the umbrella of scientism since they attempt to place at the head of their religious experience the magical employment of supposedly raw and unbiased data. This data, the selfsame which Christians gather and observe, is twisted to present facts and deny belief. Most importantly for us, however, we must as believers be sure that they do not, in Faith’s place, lift up only “knowledge” as their god.
Faith and Reason
Indeed, a fanatical and fantastical faith is required to enjoy the claim above the hordes of countless men and women that society, with the rise of modern philosophy, has been lifted from the shackles of belief. Rather, a cold and lifeless god, which demands all and promises nothing, is placed upon their altar, and for such as these, not only is traditional faith sacrificed but, if need be, all of the society and order which has grown from it.
For Christians, this natural impulse, which has sustained all human community from the dawn of time, is clarified in the Person of Jesus Christ, and we have been meditating on and unpacking this reality since the birth of the Church. Because of the redemptive Theological Tradition which Christians of all stripes inherit, we believe that faith and reason are necessarily united. It is therefore essential that Christians learn and grow in their faith, if for no other reason than the demands of the human intellect to better unite clarity and reason to the guiding force of belief.
But, as you can no doubt guess, there are more reasons than the demands of man’s rationality to guide the layman’s deep dive into the study of God.
It’s Transformative
There is a well-loved (and very true) adage about Christian worship – lex orandi, lex credenda – the law of worship shapes the law of our belief. Simply put, the manner of our worship (its form and substance) will shape, guide, and determine the form and substance of our belief.
For Catholics, all that we believe hinges upon the belief that Christ established on earth His Church, and put as leaders the unlikeliest of men – His apostles. Chief in our focus, the “source and summit of our faith” as the fathers of the Second Vatican Council put it, is of course the Eucharist. This reality alone, the supreme mystery of God Himself giving Himself as priest and victim, shapes the manner and substance of our worship. It also shapes and transforms us, those who come to the throne of heaven where Christ Himself is adored and glorified veiled in the mystery of the Eucharistic sacrifice.
Coming to that fount and drinking deeply, like the young Hobbits in Tolkien’s The Two Towers who drink the Entwine and grow taller and wiser, we are not left unchanged. The faintest glimmer of faith is a gift, and growing in that grace bears fruit, both seen and unseen by us, small pilgrims that we are. When we seek the Source of all truth, in His gracious mercy we find Him, and we are never left unchanged from that meeting.
In this vein, one of the great reasons to study theology is to seek the transformative power of drawing closer to the God of all creation in wonder and praise. Basking in that holy light, like a happy shoot, the tendrils of our spiritual roots are driven deeper and the radiance of our mirroring reflection carries with it a glorious refracted grace.
There is sometimes a third law added to the adage above, and it is perhaps the richer and the headier to consider – lex vivendi. That is, the form of our worship indeed shapes our belief, which in turn shapes the way of our life. It is just so with the study of our faith. The tenacity with which we throw ourselves into the study of our faith, guided and encouraged by the loving hand of Mother Church, correlates to the spiritual fruit we will find in our own lives.
The final reason I would suggest breaking away from the specialist mentality prevalent in so many Catholic circles even today is perhaps the truest.
It’s Worth It
Speaking with other lay theologians, I often reflect with them on the burden of knowledge. Scripture is clear: to whom much is given or entrusted, much will be expected (Luke 12:48). Studying the faith is of course the shared calling of all Christians. At Baptism we promise (or our godparents do so on our behalf as infants) to renounce the enemy and his lies and profess that we do believe in the faith of the Church.
So important is this connection to the life of Grace and the depths of Christian truth that the liturgy of the modern rite itself reminds parents and godparents of the gravity of what just happened. When the celebrant confers a candle as a symbolic reminder of their baptism, he says:
Parents and godparents,
this light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly.
This child of yours has been enlightened by Christ.
He (she) is to walk always as a child of the light.
May he (she) keep the flame of faith alive in his (her) heart.
When the Lord comes, may he (she) go out to meet him
with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom.
That light is the light of faith, and this faith must be tended and lovingly nurtured. This process of stewardship and care is nothing less than growing in the knowledge and love of God. Theology, it may be said, must always end in Doxology – or praise to the Beloved who has stooped so low to draw us so close. If that is our goal and nothing less – that glorious end which we call the Beatific Vision – then every faltering step towards it in our childlike wonder is eternally worth it.
Of course, clergy and religious have a unique and wonderful charism. Theirs is a life given uniquely over to the Divine Service, but that life, complete as it is with a deep theological shape, must not be made the sum total of Christian experience or else all of mankind is not redeemed. They represent the whole in so many ways, and serve on our behalf, yet they cannot possess the Object of faith, hope, and love on our behalf. We are all called by degrees to ascend as one Body the mountain of God, and there, like Moses, to be transformed in His Presence.
Dust off your catechism and your bible. We have an embarrassment of riches in sound faith formation resources today. Follow the example of our dear friend St. Augustine and “take up and read.” Time spent in the Presence and study of God is nothing less than a gift. Dive into your faith – you will never regret it.
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