Abstract
In his autobiographical account of his theology Augustine Shutte (2016) clarifies how his understanding of the Christian faith has, finally, put him in conflict with orthodoxy. More recently he explains that “in the absolute distinction between creator and creature it is appropriate to see God alone (Father, Word and Spirit) on one side and Jesus and me and you on the other.” This affords us a useful starting point for a discussion of a Christian faith marked by unorthodoxy. As foil for the discussion I take Bart Ehrman’s thesis that the early development of the understanding of Jesus as “uniquely divine” is unjustified, and this undermines Christian faith. I argue in response that the cognitional dimension is only one aspect of religious faith; secondly I unpack the structural side of orthodoxy; and thirdly I introduce Shutte’s concept of salvation in terms of a fundamental human need. The uniqueness of God’s presence in Jesus implies a sectarianism unhelpful in a plural culture.
Highlights
In his “autobiographical introduction” to his collected theology papers published in the Stellenbosch Theological Journal (2016), and reflecting back on his fifty years of theological research, Augustine Shutte (d. 2016) remarks of his essay on ecumenism that he affirms there “the uniqueness of God’s presence in Jesus, and in the church, in a way that I no longer would.” In his notebooks, which happily I have to hand, he explains further that this changed view is based on his understanding of personal presence
I argue in response that the cognitional dimension is only one aspect of religious faith; secondly I unpack the structural side of orthodoxy; and thirdly I introduce Shutte’s concept of salvation in terms of a fundamental human need
Keywords Bart Ehrman; Augustine Shutte; orthodoxy; salvation; secular age; Christian faith
Summary
In his “autobiographical introduction” to his collected theology papers published in the Stellenbosch Theological Journal (2016), and reflecting back on his fifty years of theological research, Augustine Shutte (d. 2016) remarks of his essay on ecumenism that he affirms there “the uniqueness of God’s presence in Jesus, and in the church, in a way that I no longer would.” In his notebooks, which happily I have to hand, he explains further that this changed view is based on his understanding of personal presence. Since Shutte is on the Catholic side of things, my example is the “Notification” of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Catholic church issued in respect of the “doctrinal errors” in Roger Haight’s 1999 book, Jesus Symbol of God that discusses, among others, what Haight elsewhere (2005b: 29, footnote) terms an “imaginative fixation on Jesus’ being God.” This authoritative body encourages, as the Catholic Theology Society of America notes (in Haight 1999: 516) the “process of serious, systematic, internal criticism” of theology, a process undermined by this “Notification” (Haight has had restrictions placed on his eligibility to teach theology), which could plausibly be judged – as the ball is returned to the other court – as itself contravening the “orthopraxis” of the religion. Premise 4: But the idea of the divinity of Jesus can be shown to be based on very weak grounds
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