A Brief Examination of Fr. Timothy Radcliffe's statement, "The intellectual discipline of our study has this ultimate purpose, to bring us to this moment of conversion when our false images of God are destroyed so that we may draw near to the mystery."
What is the purpose of theology? A search on google reveals 77,800 results for such a query[1]. It is a question asked often enough to demand attention, but for the sake of this essay, I shall here consider only one person's answer - that of Father Timothy Radcliffe - and my reaction to that. For Fr. Radcliffe, "The intellectual discipline of our study has this ultimate purpose, to bring us to this moment of conversion when our false images of God are destroyed so that we may draw near to the mystery [2]." This view seems to be echoed by M. Scott Peck in The Road Less Traveled, when he states, "The path to holiness lies through questioning everything," and in my own personal experience with a friend of mine, who once advised me to "Keep asking your questions, they are essential in your pilgrimmage toward the face of God." In all of these statements, study and investigation are means linked with the ends of drawing closer to God.
How and why does it do this? Theology, according to Radcliffe, leads us to knowledge of God via our own conversion. As Paul says, in his second epistle to the Corinthians,
"Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their minds; but when a man turns to the Lord the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." [3]
So, encountering the Lord without veils, or "false images," in this case, leads us to conversion. But this can be challenging, because our preconcieved notions of God, notions that we've grown comfortable with and have sometimes built whole sections of our worldview upon, risk being torn away with each new veil we remove. If we use Paul's notion of metamorphesis as a continuing hermeneutic, we may also feel threatened by handing over authority to something we cannot understand - that is, God. Paul states that our process of seeing God clearly happens when a person turns to the Lord, as in, one who has authority over another. Certainly, most Christians at least pay lip service to the idea that God is sovereign in their lives, but most of us also struggle with this same concept of being subject to another, especially another that they cannot understand. Ironically, it is in humbling ourselves to our Lord that we see more clearly, and undergo further conversion.
In this very manner, Fr. Radcliffe's statement is also comforting, for even as we are brought into a moment of conversion through our humility, we are drawn closer into Mystery; our study enables us, through its transformative virtues, to be pulled deeper into God's reconciling embrace. That is just the revitalizing touch we need, for the smoke before our eyes, that which conceals the Mystery, is nigh infinite. It is likely that a theologian thinks and studies in the manner in which he or she does due to a yearning and a passion for religious knowledge, and so, theology, with its continual call to study and conversion, provides for those that are willing to be converted, a path that is infinitely nourishing for both their human curiosities and their spirituality.
Following Paul's hermeneutic of the New Covenant, this conversion's result is enacted in imitation of God, that is, as we are reconciled to God, we desire to do his work, specifically that of evangelization and ministry. For, while Moses wore a veil to hide his shining face, it is the theologian's business to remove these veils, and in doing so, we may show others the brilliant glory of God, proclaiming the Gospel with authority that comes from truth gleaned from the grace of our continuing reconciliation to God. In short, the telos of theology is the very purpose of Christianity, to spread the Gospel to all, so that all might be reconciled to their Loving Creator.
Sources:
[1] Google query of phrase "Purpose of Theology," on Friday, July 17, 2009. 77,800 results were found in .33 seconds.
[2] Sing a New Song (Templegate, 1999), p 64. Radcliffe, Fr. Timothy, O.P.
[3] II Corinthians 3:15-18, The Holy Bible, RSV, Second Catholic Edition (Ignatius Press, 2006).
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