The academic study of languages is informative and educative. The practical learning of languages is necessary when living in the culture where it is used. It is important to recall, in comparison, in terms of vocabulary, English is like a pint glass, Hebrew is like a shot glass, a more ancient language logically more limited, and Greek is like a pitcher, or so I have been told. I think this is important to remember as we tease apart terms, and all rationality is about defining one’s terms.
Dr. Benedict Nguyen is the new Diocese of Venice Director of Communications and Office of Worship. He began his position on June 30 and comes from the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisc.
“What is theology? If we talk about spiritual theology, before we can dive into that, we have to see what is theology. So the etymology of the word – which is the place, the root of the word – comes from two Greek words. “Theos” meaning God. “Logos” meaning a whole host of things. If you take a Greek lexicon – and for us academic nerds we call Greek, for some reason, a lexicon as opposed to a dictionary – really, it’s such a generic – if you take a Greek lexicon, and you look up the word logos, and if it’s a good lexicon, you’ll see that the entry for logos goes on for column after column after column, sometimes even pages. The word logos is so rich in meaning, it means logic. Logic. A logic. You know that logic itself comes from logos. So it’s science, a reason, a body of knowledge.
But we also know that John in his gospel starts with Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος (logos), “In the beginning was the Word”-Jn 1:1. So, yes, it is the study of God that if you think logos, the word itself, and start to unpack its meaning you’ll see that theology is so much more than just an academic study; so much more that just a body of knowledge. That you can see that God is so much more than some type of mathematical formula. St. Thomas puts it this way: the study of God and all things in relation to God. So it’s not just this fact about God, that fact about God. So when we speak about theology, it has to be more than just a body of knowledge. It has to be more than just facts about God. In other words, in our Christian tradition, which we’ll see if we follow this to a logical conclusion about logos, if we follow it through to that, we can see very clearly that you cannot be truly a theologian if you are not a theist, a Christian, a believer in that. You would have to qualify that word theology, such and such theology, such and such theology. We in our Christian Catholic tradition, we would have to say “No!”,theology is the entirety of truth, in the relation to God.
That’s what St. Thomas says theology is. It’s not just a bunch of tidbits of information. How we view theology is what we see everything in relation to God. So I always tell my students, if someone were to ask me, “Why are you Catholic? Why are you Christian?” My response would have to be “Because I accept everything that is real. Anything that is real, I accept that.” That entirety of knowledge, that entirety of truth starting from the existence of God all the way down to minutiae of scientific experimentation, and things like that. Is it true? Yes. And if it is, then that entire thing is what we would call theology, or what we would call Christianity, and what I would call Catholicism because those questions have to be there.
Does God exist? If you say yes, that separates you from the atheists and agnostics, those who don’t believe in God. We would accept that it’s true, but they must accept something that they hold not to be true. It is a contradiction. So with that then, do you accept that it’s a Trinity, that there are three persons in one God? I’d say yes. The Muslim and the Jew would say no. We’d part ways. We’d really go and go and going all the way to these truths, all of these truths that are laid out, that is the theology. That is the “theos logos”. That is this something that we study that is not just tidbits of information, but is ALL things in relation to God.
What is theology then? We’re distinguishing out between philosophy and theology. Theology is the study of supernatural truth. Theology is the study of God and pursuing God via not just natural revelation, but also supernatural revelation. What do we mean by this? Natural revelation is the things that God has created. Natural revelation – I’m sorry, yeah, natural revelation is the things God has created. The world, science, things like that. Supernatural revelation is those things that God simply has revealed to us. Supernatural revelation is usually those things that we could never have come up with on our own. Things are at least very difficult to come up with on our own; that we would need help in order to grasp, and to know, and to understand.”
Love,
Matthew
Summa Catechetica, "Neque enim quaero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam." – St Anselm, "“Si comprehendus, non est Deus.” -St Augustine, "Let your religion be less of a theory, and more of a love affair." -G.K. Chesterton, “When we pray we speak to God; but when we read, God speaks to us.” -St Jerome, "As the reading of bad books fills the mind with worldly and poisonous sentiments; so, on the other hand, the reading of pious works fills the soul with holy thoughts and good desires." -St. Alphonsus Liguori, "And above all, be on your guard not to want to get anything done by force, because God has given free will to everyone and wants to force no one, but only proposes, invites and counsels." –St. Angela Merici, “Yet such are the pity and compassion of this Lord of ours, so desirous is He that we should seek Him and enjoy His company, that in one way or another He never ceases calling us to Him . . . God here speaks to souls through words uttered by pious people, by sermons or good books, and in many other such ways.” —St. Teresa of Avila, "I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men and women who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, and who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity… I wish you to enlarge your knowledge, to cultivate your reason, to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, to learn to view things as they are, to understand how faith and reason stand to each other, what are the bases and principles of Catholicism, and where lie the main inconsistences and absurdities of the Protestant theory.” (St. John Henry Newman, “Duties of Catholics Towards the Protestant View,” Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England), "We cannot always have access to a spiritual Father for counsel in our actions and in our doubts, but reading will abundantly supply his place by giving us directions to escape the illusions of the devil and of our own self-love, and at the same time to submit to the divine will.” —St. Alphonsus Ligouri, "The harm that comes to souls from the lack of reading holy books makes me shudder . . . What power spiritual reading has to lead to a change of course, and to make even worldly people enter into the way of perfection." –St. Padre Pio, "Screens may grab our attention, but books change our lives!" – Word on Fire, "Reading has made many saints!" -St Josemaría Escrivá, "Do you pray? You speak to the Bridegroom. Do you read? He speaks to you." —St. Jerome, from his Letter 22 to Eustochium, "Encounter, not confrontation; attraction, not promotion; dialogue, not debate." -cf Pope Francis, "God here speaks to souls through…good books“ – St Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, "You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading. And as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed by his progress.” -St Athanasius, "To convert someone, go and take them by the hand and guide them." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP. 1 saint ruins ALL the cynicism in Hell & on Earth. “When we pray we talk to God; when we read God talks to us…All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection.” -St Isidore of Seville, “Also in some meditations today I earnestly asked our Lord to watch over my compositions that they might do me no harm through the enmity or imprudence of any man or my own; that He would have them as His own and employ or not employ them as He should see fit. And this I believe is heard.” -GM Hopkins, SJ, "Only God knows the good that can come about by reading one good Catholic book." — St. John Bosco, "Why don't you try explaining it to them?" – cf St Peter Canisius, SJ, Doctor of the Church, Doctor of the Catechism, "Already I was coming to appreciate that often apologetics consists of offering theological eye glasses of varying prescriptions to an inquirer. Only one prescription will give him clear sight; all the others will give him at best indistinct sight. What you want him to see—some particular truth of the Faith—will remain fuzzy to him until you come across theological eye glasses that precisely compensate for his particular defect of vision." -Karl Keating, "The more perfectly we know God, the more perfectly we love Him." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP, ST, I-II,67,6 ad 3, “But always when I was without a book, my soul would at once become disturbed, and my thoughts wandered." —St. Teresa of Avila, "Let those who think I have said too little and those who think I have said too much, forgive me; and let those who think I have said just enough thank God with me." –St. Augustine, "Without good books and spiritual reading, it will be morally impossible to save our souls." —St. Alphonsus Liguori "Never read books you aren't sure about. . . even supposing that these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Let me ask you this: Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup?" -St. John Bosco " To teach in order to lead others to faith is the task of every preacher and of each believer." —St. Thomas Aquinas, OP. "Prayer purifies us, reading instructs us. Both are good when both are possible. Otherwise, prayer is better than reading." –St. Isidore of Seville “The aid of spiritual books is for you a necessity.… You, who are in the midst of battle, must protect yourself with the buckler of holy thoughts drawn from good books.” -St. John Chrysostom
