Sensus Fideli-whom?: Retrieving Insights from Johann Adam Möhler

Abstract

While Johann Adam Möhler’s work is mentioned in histories of the concept of the sensus fidei, the mention is brief and often suggests that Möhler is too vague to offer a substantive contribution to the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic debate on the topic. However, though Möhler does not treat systematically the topic of the sensus fidei, nor indeed even use the term sensus fidei, I will demonstrate how his relevant insights can contribute substantively to theological discussion. I begin this paper by summarizing and commenting regarding magisterial and other theological treatment of the sensus fidei, noting both points of consensus and disagreement among authors. I then present four ways in which Möhler can contribute to contemporary discussion on the sensus fidei: First, Möhler’s insistence that “God can be known by the individual only through the whole” supports a via media between individualistic and authoritarian understandings of the sensus fidei. Second, Möhler’s attention to living faith’s preceding and exceeding doctrinal formulations helps to flesh out the sensus fidei’s role in the development of doctrine. Third, Möhler’s positive appraisal of the role of heresy in the clarification and purification of doctrine helps to underscore the benefit of public opinion, even while the sensus fidei is not the same as public opinion. Fourth, Möhler’s distinction between antithesis and contradiction can serve as a principle of discerning the sensus fidei.