Direct Service between Athens and Jerusalem:On the Purpose and Organizing Principles of the Dominican Colloquia in Berkeley Bryan Kromholtz, O.P. and Justin Gable, O.P. Co-organizers The greater part of the current issue of Nova et Vetera comprises articles based on papers presented at the colloquium held at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California, in July 2014 entitled “What has Athens to Do with Jerusalem?” Initiated at the request of the Master of the Order of Preachers, Fr. Bruno Cadoré, the colloquium was the first of a recurring triennial symposium series, the Dominican Colloquia in Berkeley, subtitled “Philosophers and Theologians in Conversation.” As this publication marks the beginning of an ongoing effort, it calls for not only an expression of gratitude to the editors of Nova et Vetera for allowing us to present you with a portion of the outstanding scholarship that is the fruit of the colloquium, but also an explanation regarding the overall aim and value of the colloquia series itself. As its subtitle suggests, the colloquia series is designed to bring philosophers and theologians into conversation concerning matters of mutual interest. Such an undertaking might seem like merely one more example of academia’s current infatuation with interdisciplinary dialogue. While the contemporary trend toward interdisciplinary approaches has much to commend it, we would argue that an ongoing dialogue between philosophy and theology is of the greatest importance for these two disciplines. While there is a unique integrity and proper methodology for philosophy and for theology, neither can do [End Page 403] justice to its subject matter or attain its fullest expression without being in contact with the other. Philosophy’s importance for theology is seen rather readily. Since philosophy is, at least potentially, universal in scope, it touches on the most fundamental questions of human existence that theology, too, must address: the meaning of life, the nature of the world, the ultimate fate of existing things, and the reality of a divine being or beings. Thus, the subject matter of philosophy clearly overlaps with that of theology. Philosophical method, too, is of the utmost importance for theology. Theology is, by its very nature, a human science of the divine, subject to logic and hermeneutic principles. Indeed, divine revelation itself, if it is to be true communication between God and man, must express itself according to the limitations of human language and in continuity with the human intellect’s already existing grasp of the world. While divine revelation illuminates and transforms, it does so through a human medium; while it may provide a glimpse of the ineffable, it does so in a manner still accessible to the human heart and mind. Divine revelation encounters philosophy the moment it is explicated and expounded. Philosophy’s need to reckon with theology is perhaps not quite as obvious. And yet philosophy, if it is to be a search for true wisdom, must ask questions of a universal nature, reflecting on the whole of existence and the meaning, source, and end of everything. Theology, although based in religious belief rather than human reason alone, is similarly oriented to the universal truth of things. Its conclusions, then, should be of interest to philosophy. Can philosophy remain a truly open inquiry if it fails to consider theological or religious answers to the questions it is asking? Can it exclude reasoned reflection on a meaningful mode of human experience and remain an authentic, sincere search for the truth? What is more, in seeking answers to its own questions, philosophy searches for ultimate causes. Such ultimate causes lead us to consider “that thing which we call God” as the source of the existence, intelligibility, and goodness of human life and the world around us. Avoiding theology would seem possible only if philosophy were to refuse to deal with ultimate questions and to content itself with the particular and partial. But such would leave us with a form of rational inquiry much less than philosophy has understood itself to be, and with no plausible claim to be a seeking of true wisdom. That there is something essential for both philosophy and theology in their mutual cooperation is not...
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Feb 21, 2022
Marla C Berns + 1
Open Access