Power Balances and Bridges between Church Discourses, Academic Theological Views and Daily Experiences and Reflections on Family Life

Abstract

The theological ethical discourse on families and especially on marriage as elaborated by the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church requires explanation by theologians and appropriation by ordinary people. This is the view taken by the official magisterium. The formulation of some of the questions posed in preparation for the 2014 extraordinary synod on the family makes this clear. We read, for example, “In those cases where the Church’s teaching is known, is it accepted fully or are there difficulties in putting it into practice? If so, what are they?”1 Since the sixties of the last century in particular, this process of appropriation has no longer functioned well. Other related issues, such as the value of marriage, equality, the relation between love and sex, or responsible parenthood, are considered important by most Catholics. Nevertheless, one cannot ignore a rather wide gap between magisterial teachings on “marriage and the family” and people’s ideas and experiences. The Second Vatican Council and the theological ideas in line with this council focused, however, on the role of lay people. The role of the “people of God”, most of whom are lay, was specifically stressed in the document on the Church, Lumen gentium (nos. 9-17). Gaudium et spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, called on the Church to “read the signs of the time” and to dialogue with the world (see especially no. 44). In the period shortly after the Vatican council, a new dynamism gave rise to various new theologies that focused on this dialogue with the world and emphasized the relevance of human experience for theology. We need to take the experience and concrete context in which people are living seriously. This has become a continual refrain in various forms of contemporary theology today, especially in practical theologies, feminist theologies, and contextual theologies. The experiences and the practices of people themselves are a locus theologicus, a place from which to theologize. This theologizing can be done by “ordinary people”, or by academic theologians, or by church leaders. In line with what is often called reflexive modernity, modernity being aware of its limits and complexities, we also see that contemporary theologies considering experience as a core element for theologizing are often confronted with paradoxical questions. I will begin by explaining three complex metaquestions that arise when considering people’s experience in terms of marriage and family and theological traditions. I will subsequently describe three possible ways of coping with these complexities. The third approach – that of dialogue – forms the basis for the final part of this essay, in which I will seek to sketch briefly some aspects of dialogue between the various theological positions.