{"id":678,"date":"2008-06-07T15:42:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-07T15:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/06\/among-the-theologians.html"},"modified":"2008-06-07T15:42:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-07T15:42:00","slug":"among-the-theologians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/06\/among-the-theologians.html","title":{"rendered":"Among the theologians"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Allen has been reporting from the Catholic Theological Association’s annual meeting in Miami. I found today’s report very interesting:<\/a><\/p>\n

Generations\u201d is the Catholic Theological Society of America’s theme for its annual convention this year, motivated by a hunch that today\u2019s younger generation of theologians brings a different sensibility to the guild.
\nHere\u2019s one possible sign of the times: At the halfway point of the conference, so far only one speaker during a plenary session has referred in any extended way to John Paul II, Benedict XVI, or official church teaching. Not coincidentally, it was a younger scholar who observed that Catholics who grew up without a strong ecclesiastical subculture to rebel against are often \u201cmore inclined to question a troubled culture than an imperfect church.\u201d
\nJulie Hanlon Rubio of St. Louis University <\/a>spoke this morning to the CTSA convention on the subject of family and marriage.
\nHanlon Rubio humorously described her own upbringing in a decidedly liberal, post-Vatican II Catholic family \u2013 in her home, she said, the books were by Hans K\u00fcng, the dog was named Berrigan, and Hell was mentioned only in jest. She was taught, she said, \u201cto love God and be skeptical of the church\u201d \u2013 in part because her dad was suing a bishop at the time.
\nHanlon Rubio said she’s held onto much of that heritage, and she\u2019s definitely not one of the \u201cneo-orthodox\u201d young Catholics often described in press accounts these days. Nonetheless, she said, she\u2019s attracted to much of Pope John Paul II\u2019s theology of the family. To some extent, she implied, that\u2019s because like so many Catholics of her generation or younger, the primary point of reference, and hence the reality against which one is inclined to rebel, is not the church but secular middle class culture.
\nJohn Paul II, Hanlon Rubio said, described the family in 1981\u2019s Familiaris consortio<\/em> and elsewhere as \u201ca community of love, called to be church together,\u201d and \u201cto soften the hard edges of society through works of charity, mercy and hospitality.\u201d She called that \u201cthe most integrating, challenging vision of marriage and family I know.\u201d
\nIn that regard, Hanlon Rubio criticized modern Catholic parishes for failing to nurture such a vision of the family \u2013 especially large and affluent suburban parishes, which too often, she said, sponsor events such as auctions, golf tournaments and carnivals, but without offering opportunities for sustained family-based service to those in need.
\nIn practice, she said, parish life too often \u201ccaters to the needs of the middle class tribe.\u201d
\nFamilies need to be brought into regular contact with the dying, the handicapped, and the poor, Hanlon Rubio argued, in ways that go beyond donating to a food pantry at Thanksgiving.
\n\u201cCatholic social teaching can\u2019t really penetrate the church unless it goes through the family,\u201d she said.
\nEven ostensibly family-oriented programs, Hanlon Rubio said, such as youth ministries or men\u2019s and women\u2019s groups, she said, tend to isolate family members rather than bringing them together.
\nParishes, she said, \u201cshould encourage spouses to reflect on the pace of middle class family life, helping them find time to build communion.\u201d She ticked off a host of forces that limit the ability of families these days to find time for one another: the demands of two careers, an explosion in activities for children, the difficulties of commuting and getting kids to and from multiple schools, and so on.
\n\u201cThe kind of relationship between spouses John Paul II seeks cannot be achieved when they\u2019re just too busy to pay attention to each other,\u201d she said. Rather than adding a host of other activities they simply further fragment family life, she said, parishes should be a place where an alternative ethos is fostered.
\nParishes should also, Hanlon Rubio argued, \u201cdevelop ties that bind parishioners more closely in community,\u201d such as small faith-sharing groups. (Currently, Hanlon Rubio observed, only five percent of American Catholics participate in such a group.)
\n\u201cParishes must sustain an environment in which the demands of discipleship trump those of middle class culture,\u201d she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The challenge, of course, is to figure out how to do this, how to make parishes and other manifestations of Catholic life reflect this without taking families out of the home for one more night or splitting them up, as she notes, into subgroups or <\/em>making the mistake of thinking that one-size-fits all (as in the case, for example, with small groups, which are helpful to many, but not everyone’s cup of tea.)
\nI wonder sometimes if it takes a more radical kind of questioning, a question that is not “how can we fit this into contemporary family life” but rather, “do kids and families really need to be doing all of these things?”\u00a0\u00a0What is the purpose? What is the ultimate end?
\nAnother, rather fundamental question raised by the presentation is the segregation of parish life, rooted in the socio-economic segregation of our environment. I don’t experience that much here – our neighborhood is very mixed in every way, as are most of the parishes in about a five-mile radius. But you get out into the suburbs…and you know the story. It’s a constant question, I think, for any parish located in that type of suburb. How do we\u00a0break through that particular kind of parochialism and live Catholic lives that are…catholic?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Allen has been reporting from the Catholic Theological Association’s annual meeting in Miami. I found today’s report very interesting: Generations\u201d is the Catholic Theological Society of America’s theme for its annual convention this year, motivated by a hunch that today\u2019s younger generation of theologians brings a different sensibility to the guild. Here\u2019s one possible…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAmong the theologians - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/06\/among-the-theologians.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Among the theologians - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John Allen has been reporting from the Catholic Theological Association’s annual meeting in Miami. I found today’s report very interesting: Generations\u201d is the Catholic Theological Society of America’s theme for its annual convention this year, motivated by a hunch that today\u2019s younger generation of theologians brings a different sensibility to the guild. Here\u2019s one possible…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/06\/among-the-theologians.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-06-07T15:42:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Among the theologians - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/06\/among-the-theologians.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Among the theologians - Via Media","og_description":"John Allen has been reporting from the Catholic Theological Association’s annual meeting in Miami. I found today’s report very interesting: Generations\u201d is the Catholic Theological Society of America’s theme for its annual convention this year, motivated by a hunch that today\u2019s younger generation of theologians brings a different sensibility to the guild. Here\u2019s one possible…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/06\/among-the-theologians.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2008-06-07T15:42:00+00:00","author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/06\/among-the-theologians.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/06\/among-the-theologians.html","name":"Among the theologians - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-06-07T15:42:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-06-07T15:42:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/06\/among-the-theologians.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/06\/among-the-theologians.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/06\/among-the-theologians.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Among the theologians"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}