7. (the last post) What’s the use?
In my opinion, TOB has its uses. It seems that it is pastorally effective. People have converted from a life of sin after being introduced to it. It is persuasive for many.
The art of persuasion is rhetoric. Rhetoricians attempt to manifest reasons that a certain action should be undertaken or not. In this endeavor, any good reasons are adequate; one need not only relate the per se and proper reasons. Rhetoric normally has recourse to singular examples (read, “experiences”) and arguments from likelihood. This, in my opinion, is what TOB does. It is not a theological treatise on the causes of rightness or wrongness of acts. It is not a new field of undiscovered theological territory. It is an apologetical tool; it is arguments to live what the Church teaches.
Hence, I think that there is no need to rid the world of it. But I do think that Catholic theologians should realize that it is not a new interpretative key for the whole of theology. It gets people back on track, morally.
Sometimes, some of those people will ask further questions; they will wonder why contraception really is wrong; they will wonder why fornication really is wrong; they will wonder what man’s highest calling is; they will wonder what depths of wisdom and knowledge divine revelation has freely granted to men; they will wonder about the order of the universe and the deep things of God as He is in Himself. As Fr. Angelo Geiger put it, “apologetical explanations are not sufficient to complete a catechesis. If a new vision of human sexuality gets them in the door, only the tradition of the ages will get them to the sanctuary.”
Some will think this is not true. Some will think it is unrealistic, perhaps pointing out that no one is satisfied with the traditional theological exposition on marriage. Well, I simply don’t know if that’s true. I tell people what St. Thomas says, I tell them what St. Alphonsus says, I expound what I have expounded here to people, and I have tended to find that people do like it. Ideas that have lasted since the beginning of man’s search for wisdom tend to ring true in people’s ears. But I admit, I don’t generally deal with the sexually wounded. I am not an apologist, I don’t tend to deal with the large crowds of Catholics who can’t figure out any reason for the Church’s teaching on sexual morality.
But I do have the optimism that Wisdom, which judges all things in light of the highest causes, and sees things in terms of their order in the whole, rather than from just their particular intentionalities–I tend to hope that such wisdom, though regarded as rare in the ancient world, is within the reach of all who have access to the fonts of grace. Indeed, St. Augustine claims that one of the triumphs of Christianity is that it makes the masses of men able to obtain what the ancient philosophers regarded as only possible for a few. In my opinion, every baptized individual is called to be a theologian to some extent. If you love God, you want to be united to Him, and this will push you to try to know him more, not always by learning new things, but certainly by contemplating Him. Such a desire is not satisfied until the Beatific Vision, but it does not therefore remain idle in this life. We can continue to grow in our knowledge of God by prayer and study. When people advance in this knowledge of God, I think that sex might take on a little more perspective. As Peter Kreeft once put it, asking if there will be sex in Heaven is like a kid asking if adults can eat candy when they’re having sex. Admittedly, it’s a matter that is on the forefront of most men’s minds. But it was not the principal reason for God’s revelation. Those who take up the office of teaching theology should not be that afraid to tell people that we could always use a little bit of curbing and a re-directing of our energies and focus.
[So what about John Paul II? I think that, for the most part, JPII's project was thoughtful, inventive, and effective. But one thing I have noted in my doctoral studies is that every genius, by definition, brings to the body of knowledge an excellent contribution; but for some of them, the problems begin in the following generation with those pupils who only learn the doctrine of the genius without first learning what the genius himself/herself learned. I see this time and again. And I see it in much of my contact with TOB pupils. This is to be expected... not everyone can learn everything in every generation. But at least there will always be those who pioneer the new, and those who remind people of the old... It's the way things have to be. And it is part of the mission of Novantiqua.]
