[based upon Papal document: Ad Theologiam Promovendam, or “to promote theology” (Nov. 2023]
“Reimagine Jesus” seeks to create a PARADIGM SHIFT.
Pope Francis has called for a “paradigm shift” in Catholic theology that takes widespread engagement with contemporary science, culture, and people’s lived experience as an essential starting point. Citing the need to deal with “profound cultural transformations,” Pope Francis presented his dramatic vision for the future of Catholic theology.
The Papal document revises the statutes of the Pontifical Academy of Theology (PATH) to make them more suitable for the mission that our time imposes on theology…theology can only develop in a culture of dialogue and encounter:
• between different traditions and different knowledge.
• between different Christian confessions and different religions.
• by openly engaging with everyone, believers, and nonbelievers.
“Reimagine Jesus” provides a 21st Century Gospel.
Catholic theology must experience a “courageous cultural revolution” in order to become a “FUNDAMENTALLY CONTEXTUAL THEOLOGY.” This approach to theology must be capable of reading and interpreting the Gospel in the conditions in which men and women live daily, in different geographical, social, and cultural environments.
• The Pope contrasted this approach with a theology that is limited to abstractly re-proposing formulas and schemes from the past.
• The Pope emphasized that theological studies must be inductive…open to the world, not as a “tactical’ attitude” but as a profound “turning point” in their method…”
• Pope Francis emphasized that this bottom-up re-envisioning of theology is necessary to better aid the Church’s evangelizing mission.
• A missionary, and “outgoing” Church can only correspond to an “outgoing theology.”
• Relatedly, Pope Francis said, this dialogical approach can allow theology to broaden the boundaries of scientific reasoning, allowing it to overcome dehumanizing tendencies.
“Reimagine Jesus” provides a transdisciplinary approach.
• To achieve this “outgoing’ theology,” theology must become “transdisciplinary,” part of a “web of relationships”… first of all with other disciplines and other knowledge. This engagement leads to the arduous task of theologians making use of new categories developed by other knowledge in order to penetrate and communicate the truths of faith and transmit the teaching of Jesus in today’s languages, with originality and critical awareness…priority must be given to the knowledge of people’s “common sense.”
• The pope’s shift in emphasis in Catholic theology shifted the 200-year-old institute’s focus from promoting the dialogue between reason and faith to promoting transdisciplinary dialogue with philosophies, sciences, arts, and all other knowledge.”
Priority must be given to the knowledge of people’s “common sense.”
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Reimagine Jesus 