Handing on the Faith (College Theology Society Annual Volume, 59). By Michael Lewis Sutton and William L. Portier, eds. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2014. vii + 210 pp. $35.00. ISBN: 978626980792
Matthew Sutton is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at St. John’s University. William L. Portier is the Mary Ann Spearin Chair of Catholic Theology in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Dayton. This edited volume represents the results of the fifty-ninth annual meeting of the College Theological Society, which gathered in May 2013 at Creighton University. In Gaudium et Spes, Vatican II asserted the church’s duty in every age to examine the signs of the times and interpret them in light of the gospel.
One of the signs of our times needing interpretation is a revolution in theological studies in every aspect from who produces theology to what is produced, from who teaches to who learns, and from where theological studies take place to what is taught in the classroom. Previous generations of academics secured the academic legitimacy of theology, and their students were well-prepared, since they were usually catechized in the networks of elementary schools that helped make up the Catholic subculture. However, the times have now changed. Indeed, current students in academic institutions are more diverse in their religious sensibilities, often reflecting even religious disaffiliation, and those who are religious tend to be fluid in their conceptualization of it.
Under he heading “Teaching Theology and Handing on the Faith,” the 2013 meeting of the College Theology Society (CTS) attempted to interpret the new signs of the times and reflect on the new pathos opening up for the theological discipline. Panelists addressed new situations in higher education, particularly in Catholic institutions, since this is where most of CTS members teach. Recent studies have shown that America is religiously illiterate, for the most part, and even Catholic students at Catholic institutions lack deep understanding of the Christian tradition. In the face of these challenges, many discussions at the CTS meeting explored the Catholic theologian’s relation to the academy and the church, and revisited past assumptions regarding convergences between teaching theology and handing on the faith. For the future of Catholicism in America, this volume contends that explicit attention to the relationship between theology and evangelization is critical for both self-aware teaching and for the ecclesial mission of evangelization. In what follows, I will cursorily examine the contents of the Sutton and Portier title more fully.
Sandra Yocum, in chapter 1, explores how theologians might respond and witness to students’ needs in the academy today. Robert Imbelli, in chapter 2, urges teachers to focus upon Jesus Christ as their witness to the faith. Anne-Marie Kirmse, O.P., in the third chapter, offers her thoughts on the convergent work of Cardinal Avery Dulles and the Catholic church’s larger call for a new evangelization. Two Jesuits – Christopher Collins in chapter 4, and Christopher Hadley in chapter 5 – provide accounts of handing on the faith in the classroom, focusing respectively upon Scripture and the importance of integrating theology. Maureen O’Connell argues that thinking about moral theology with millennial students necessitates new strategies in chapter 6.
Chapter 7 begins the second section of the book, and is written by Aurelie Hagstrom, who negotiates her way between a classic academic approach to teaching theology and a catechetical approach to teaching theology, relying on a unique interpretation of Dei Verbum. The eighth chapter, written by David Gentry-Akin, presents his teaching methodology as a way forward that honors diverse students while also confronting them with a real application of the Catholic faith. Chapter 9 is written by Andrew Black, a Baptist faculty member at a Catholic institution, and in it he reflects upon his experiences as being the “only Jesus” that many of his students will ever see. In chapter 10 Katherine Schmidt addresses the meaning of conversion and its role in teaching theology from a Lonerganian approach. For Mary-Paula Cancienna, in chapter 11, teaching theology means paying attention to the aesthetic dimensions of her students’ humanity. The twelfth chapter, written by Emily Dykman, Michael Lopez-Kaley, and Laura Nettles, acknowledge a certain tension between teaching at their Franciscan University and teaching required courses in Christianity. In chapter 13, Felicidad Oberholzer discusses the disconnections between Christianity’s teachings on marriage and sexuality and her students’ acceptance of popular notions of sexuality.
The third section of the book is onset by chapter 14, where Curtis Freeman discusses an eighteenth-century piece of fiction and its potential evangelizing role. Christine Tucker, in chapter 15, elaborates on the crisis of Catholic identity that occurred in the 1990s at Catholic Relief Services, noting its renewal of mission since that time. The volume is closed by Donna Orsuto’s chapter 16, in which she recounts Francis de Sales’s advice to us to “Let us be what we are and be that well,” additionally invoking William Wordsworth’s words to the effect that what we have loved, others will love, and we will teach them how to do it.
All in all, this book is a worthwhile read for those who are teaching theology and who desire to hand on the faith to those who teach it. Thus, the intended audience of this volume is not the general public, but those involved in the academy instead. Even more direct, it is those who are involved in the Christian academy. The book flows well, and is well organized, with its thematic concern ever before it. I recommend it to Christian academics unreservedly.
Bradford McCall is a graduate student in Systematic Philosophy at Holy Apostles College and Seminary, having previously taught the history of Christianity at Elizabeth City State University in Elizabeth City, NC, and also having previously worked at Emergent Genetics, Inc. He has a degree in biology from the University System of Georgia, an MDIV from Asbury Theological Seminary, and an MA in Church History and Doctrine from Regent University.