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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
This essay is an exercise in practical theology, the theological reflection arising out of and in response to the church's actual situation. Practical theology insists that it is not enough to analyze the church's actual situation with deductive, ahistorical theological principles, but that it is necessary, first, to uncover and, then, reflect critically on the actual situation to test it for the presence of the Spirit, relevance, and significance in light of the gospel. Practical theology grows out of the relationship between theoria and praxis which, for the church, is the relationship between faith and praxis. The essay argues that to recognize scientifically the church's actual situation and to perform the required theological reflection practical theology requires sociology.
The essay explores, therefore, the relationship between practical theology and the data of sociological research. It also examines the theological realities, sensus fidei and reception, and explores their relationship to that data. The exploration is concretized theologically by a consideration of the sociological data and theology about two Catholic moral doctrines, divorce and remarriage without prior annulment and artificial contraception. A theological reflection on the actual situation of both doctrines and a sociological consideration of the data suggest the conclusion that a dramatic development and re-reception of both doctrines, in line with previous dramatic developments of doctrine in the church, is under way.
1 Rahner, Karl, “Practical Theology Within the Totality of Theological Disciplines,” Theological Investigations, 9 (London: Darton, Longman, and Todd, 1972): 102.Google Scholar Emphasis in original.
2 Ibid, 105.
3 See, for instance, Gill, Robin, Theology and Sociology: A Reader (London: Cassell, 1996)Google Scholar; Martin, David, Reflections on Sociology and Theology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997)Google Scholar; Browning, Don S., A Fundamental Practical Theology: Descriptive and Strategic Proposals (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1991).Google Scholar
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8 In this essay, I embrace the ambiguity of the word virtual, and argue that it can be specified only by dialogue and consensus in the church. I have no doubt that 86% of any population is virtually all of it, but is 80% or 75% or 68%? Only dialogue and consensus can decide.
9 The foundational work on reception was done by Congar, Yves, “La réception comme réalité ecclésiologique,” Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Théologiques 56 (1972): 369–403Google Scholar, and Grillmeier, Alois, “Konzil und Rezeption: Methodische Bemerkungen zu einem Thema der ökumenischen Discussion der Gegenwart,” Theologie und Phisolophie 45 (1970): 321–52.Google Scholar See additional bibliography in Gaillardetz, Richard R., Teaching with Authority: A Theology of the Magisterium in the Church (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1997), 252–53.Google Scholar
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53 Ibid., §36.
54 Ibid., §62.
55 Familiaris Consortio §5.
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58 Lumen Gentium §12.
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61 Dei Verbum §19. Emphasis added.
62 This word means to interpret, to place a certain meaning on. I use it to insinuate two connected meanings: first, the character of the theologian, professional or otherwise, as construction worker, one who constructs a certain meaning for things; second, the character of all theology as construction, both that theology which preceded the construal of the scripture and that theology which followed after and was dependent upon those scriptures.
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93 Humanae Vitae §11 (Washington, DC: National Conference of Catholic Bishops).
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