Georgetown Theology Department Defiant, Over Defiant Book

GU Theology Professor Rebuked by US Bishops
By Laura Brienza Jan 05 2008
On Campus
After Georgetown theology professor Fr. Peter Phan did not comply with the requests of a committee of U.S. bishops to submit clarifications of his controversial book on Catholicism and interfaith dialogue, the committee took the task upon itself on Dec. 10. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine issued a 15-page statement that rebukes Phan for questioning the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church in his 2004 book, “Being Religious Interreligiously: Asian Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue.” The report was issued after Phan did not clarify statements made in his book, which the committee had asked him to do by Sept. 1. The report includes no mention of disciplinary action against Phan. Phan and members of the Committee on Doctrine could not be reached for comment. The report, titled “Could Easily Confuse or Mislead the Faithful,” addresses three areas questioned by Phan’s book: the role of Jesus Christ as the universal Savior, the salvific significance of non-Christian religions and the idea that the Church provides the only path to salvation. But Phan’s book is not without supporters.

Terrence Tilley, chair of Fordham University’s theology department and president-elect of the Catholic Theological Society of America, a position Phan held from 2001-2002, defended Phan’s work in the context of contemporary religious publication. “Phan is doing a form of comparative theology that is cutting edge, and there are going to be disagreements about how well he fits in the [Catholic] tradition, but this is a major open question, not a solved problem,” Tilley said. He added that Phan is addressing “an important set of issues going on in theology today.”

The Committee on Doctrine’s report rejects Phan’s assertion that other historical figures besides Jesus Christ may have a role in salvation. “In the Church’s teaching, Jesus is not merely preeminent among many savior figures,” the report says. The report also criticizes Phan’s support of religious pluralism, claiming his book could be interpreted as a call for the end of missionary and conversion efforts by the Church. “The reader is led to conclude that there is some kind of moral obligation for the Church to refrain from calling people to conversion to Christ and to membership in his Church,” the report says. “Such a conclusion … is in fact an alteration that blurs Church teaching.” In his book, Phan used the Church’s historical missteps to argue that it has no right to claim existence as the unique and universal body of salvation, especially when considering the successes of many other religious institutions around the world. While the report recognizes errors made by the Church throughout history, it emphasizes that Jesus ultimately makes the Church holy. “The holiness of the Church is not simply defined by the holiness (or sinfulness) of her members but by the holiness of her Head, the Lord Jesus Christ,” it says. In the report’s conclusion, the committee members say they were obligated to act to ensure that Catholics are not misguided by Phan’s book. “While ‘Being Religious Interreligiously’ addresses a number of issues that are crucial in the life of the contemporary Church, it contains certain pervading ambiguities and equivocations that could easily confuse or mislead the faithful, as well as statements that, unless properly clarified, are not in accord with Catholic teaching,” the report says.

Tilley noted that the Church supports inter-religious dialogue and is not trying to suppress it by examining Phan’s book for ambiguities. He said that the Church’s investigation of Phan’s book has only made it more popular, a common trend in controversial religious publications. “If they wanted to suppress it, they would have ignored it,” he said.

Tilley also said that Church’s contemporary challenge is to strike a delicate balance between the promotion of inter-religious dialogue and strict adherence to its theological traditions. “You have to say, ‘Yes, I am committed to my position, but I want to learn from yours as well as persuade you of mine,’” he said.

Link (here)