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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
In recent years, American theologians have debated the outer limits of the church's competence to deliver specific ethical directives on issues of such sociopolitical import as the arms race or the structure of the American economy. In the American Catholic theological community, this discussion has focused on the two pastoral letters of the U.S. bishops written in the 1980s, The Challenge of Peace and Economic Justice for All. Ethicists critical of the public theology of these letters, including Dennis McCann and George Weigel, have expressed concern that the documents overidentify the American bishops with the political agenda of the American left. McCann and Weigel speculate that the process of wide consultation the bishops innovated as they composed these pastorals invited contributions of marginal groups who were allowed to dominate the conversation about the nuclear question and the economy and thus to skew the pastorals' conclusions in a radical direction not characteristic of the thinking of the majority of American Catholics. McCann and Weigel propose that public theology (and the consultative process underlying pastoral letters) employ “civil discourse” as the norm—that is, that all participants in the conversation speak the language of natural law, and that this language be taught by experts. The article critiques this proposal and argues that it envisages an ostensible pluralism which will, in fact, mute the voices of the marginal and protect the interests of the assumed center.
1 See O'Brien, David, Public Catholicism (New York: Macmillan, 1989), 244–52.Google Scholar Literature on the public theology debate is voluminous; see inter alia Christiansen, Drew, “The Common Good and the Politics of Self-interest: A Catholic Contribution to the Practice of Citizenship” in Gelpi, Donald, ed., Beyond Individualism (Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 1989), 54–86;Google ScholarColeman, John, An American Strategic Theology (New York: Paulist, 1982)Google Scholar, and “A Possible Role for Biblical Religion in Public Life,” Theological Studies 40 (1979): 701–06;Google ScholarCurran, Charles E., American Catholic Social Ethics (Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Pres, 1982);Google ScholarHehir, J. Bryan, “Church-State and Church-World: The Ecclesiological Implications” in Kilcourse, George, ed., Catholic Theology in North American Context: Current Issues in Theology 1 (Macon, GA: CTSA/Mercer University Press, 1987), 54–74Google Scholar, and “The Perennial Need for Philosophical Discourse,” Theological Studies 40 (1979): 710–13;Google ScholarHollenbach, David, “Public Theology in America: Some Questions for Catholicism after John Courtney Murray,” Theological Studies 37 (1976): 290–303CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Hollenbach, , ed., “Theology and Philosophy in Public: A Symposium on John Courtney Murray's Unfinished Agenda,” Theological Studies 40 (1979): 700–15;Google ScholarLovin, Robin, “Resources for a Public Theology” in Hollenbach, , ed., “Symposium,” 706–10;Google ScholarMcBrien, Richard, Caesar's Coin: Religion and Politics in America (New York: Macmillan, 1987);Google ScholarMcElroy, Robert W., The Search for An American Public Theology (New York: Paulist, 1989);Google Scholar and O'Brien, David, “American Catholics and American Society,” in Murnion, Philip J., ed., Catholics and Nuclear War (New York: Crossroad, 1983), 16–29.Google Scholar
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7 Ibid., 13. For the authors' concern with ideological distortion of communication and the threat of ideological domination in public discourse, see 31-33, 57, 67-68, 84, 140, 157, 186.
8 Ibid., 54-56.
9 Ibid., On the need to allow the North American experience of cultural pluralism an active voice in public theology, see Polity and Praxis, 7, 9-10, 34-35, 220-21.
10 Ibid., 56. The reference is to Murray, John Courtney, We Hold These Truths (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1960), 17–35.Google Scholar
11 Ibid., 91-121, esp. 114. For the theoretical foundation of this notion of civil discourse see Polity and Praxis, 50-57, 153-57.
12 Ibid., 46-47, 56, 96.
13 Ibid., 47, 54.
14 Ibid., 96. See also 100. The Gustafson reference is “The Church: A Community of Moral Discourse,” in The Church as Moral Decision-Maker (Philadelphia: Pilgrim, 1970), 83–95.Google Scholar
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17 McCann's appeal to Habermas underscores this reading of his appeal to Murray: he insists that Habermas' theory of communicative competence is framed precisely to eliminate ideological truth claims from public dialogue (98-100, see also Polity and Praxis, 50-57).
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22 Ibid.
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25 Ibid., 107.
26 Ibid., 115-16.
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31 Neuhaus' argument needs to be examined from the standpoint of ecclesiology. He appears to presume a two-kingdom theology that sees the church as somehow exempt from cultural conditioning: a church apart from culture speaks a word of judgment against the world. This theology does not deal adequately with the fact that the church is always incarnate in the world.
32 The metaphor of civil discourse as orchestration occurs in Polity and Praxis, 182.
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45 Ibid., 245.
46 Ibid., 250-51, 259.
47 Ibid., 278.
48 Ibid., 279-80.
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61 Ibid., 346. See also 354.
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