The Functions of Paraclesis

Abstract

The Thomist 73 (2009): 89-107 THE FUNCTIONS OF PARACLESIS JOHN CORBEIT, 0.P. Dominican House ofStudies Washington, D.C. THE DEATH OF Fr. Servais Pinckaers, 0.P., has left the world of moral theology without one of its leading lights. His work in moral theology centered on the recovery of Thomas Aquinas's perennial wisdom as it concerns the nature and destiny of the human person. He was widely known as a ressourcement rather than as a systematic theologian. His own substantive proposals were appreciably different from those of the ressourcement theologians of the nouvelle theologie, both in regards to subject matter and in regards to certain central governing intuitions, above all about the proper interpretation of the principle "grace does not destroy nature but perfects it." Nevertheless, he shared with them the conviction that the further theology moved from immediate consideration of its normative sources, the more unhealthy its developments were likely to be. He certainly knew the necessity of rigorously scientific systematic theology and appreciated the insights offered by the more metaphysically recondite approach to the writings of Aquinas taken by the Thomistic commentatorial tradition. His own genius, however, was to make his proposal through the vehicle of historical exposition. This recovery of Aquinas was to be achieved through the discipline of reading Aquinas through the lens provided by his sources rather than the lens provided by his commentators. Pinckaers was convinced that Aquinas's sources, most fundamentally the Scriptures, but also the Fathers and, of course, Aristotle, had an idea of moral teaching that was fundamentally different from that provided by modernity. 89 90 JOHN CORBETT, O.P. If the moderns, beginning with William of Ockham, set the stage for considering moral teaching as chiefly concerned with the detailing and defense of moral obligations, the ancients were agreed in seeing moral teaching as chiefly engaged with setting out the authentic paths to human happiness. Pinckaers shared this conviction with the ancients and likewise the conviction that this path is essentially the path of virtue. Furthermore, as the telos of moral instruction is practical the teaching on virtue has to be accessible. Though Pinckaers recognized that there are distinctions that must be made with speculative rigor-for example, the distinction between the freedom of quality and the freedom of indifference-they were drawn out only to provide accessible help to the man or woman searching for authentic human happiness. I. THE NEGLECT OF PARACLESIS/PARAENESIS Pinckaers placed great weight on the ancient genre of paraclesis or exhortation as a mode of moral instruction. Several factors influenced him in this regard: his reverence for the authentic sources of Christian ethics; his conviction that the Scriptures are normative for the faith (and that they are to be read pace the Fathers in a "realist" fashion, and are in no way the private preserve of professional exegetes); his conviction that moral theology is, above all, about the search for authentic human happiness; his conviction that this search is integrally tied to the acquisition of virtue; and his conviction that discussions of virtue must be intelligible to the man or woman of today. Regretting that paraclesis is not as esteemed as it should be by modern ethicists he wrote: It is now considered as a minor, unimportant genre useful only for people who are aiming at perfection. It is sharply distinguished from a duty-driven morality or ethic, and is given the name paranesis to indicate that it is optional. Once again, the mistake is a serious one, for exhortation seems to have been the characteristic mode of apostolic moral teaching. If we are faithful to the primitive Christian vocabulary, we will replace paranesis, a termvery rarely used, (three times only: in Luke 3:18 and in Acts 27:2 and 22) with paraclesis, which indicates an earnest exhortation. We may think of it as a technical term in St THE FUNCTIONS OF PARACLESIS 91 Paul, for he often uses it to introduce moral teaching in his letters. For example "Think of God's mercy, my brothers, and worship him, I beg you" (Rom 12:1 See also Phil 2: 1; Eph 4:1 and 1 Peter 2: 11). Paraclesis puts...