Christianity beyond Christendom: reflections on a European sojourn

Actually, when we visited Regensburg in Bavaria I had been reminded of how, in his autobiography, Hans Kung (now disbarred as a Catholic theologian by the Roman Curia) recalls theologian Ratzinger's flight from the ecumenical and open, theological faculty of Tubingen, where both Kung and Ratzinger worked. Professor Ratzinger retreated to the safety of a Catholic University in Regensburg where he began his rise in the hierarchy, becoming by 1981 a Cardinal in the Curia where under Pope John Paul II he began to dismantle the work of the second Vatican Council.

Kung's account suggests that Ratzinger took fright at the challenges of the 1968 world-wide student unrest which demanded debate of dominant orthodoxies and liberation from an authoritarian culture. Ratzinger himself reflected later on his flight from the 1968 ethos: "everything falls apart if there is no truth" (Milestones, p.153 www.ratzingerfanclub.com/biography.html). And he has seemingly been imposing his version of 'Truth' ever since!

All this became vivid to me as we made our way across Europe. These museums and mausoleums could be seen as signs of institutional Christianity, withdrawn into itself, in flight from liberal democracy and post modernity, afraid to open its windows as John XXIII had prayed.

This personal analysis might sound overly cynical. It is not. Rather it backgrounds questions many of us who have grown up in one Christian church or another are asking: to what extent can a spirituality relevant to our global future be shaped within traditional religious institutions? That is, to use the time honoured imagery of the church likened to a ship: to what extent can we stay on board and rock the boat (i.e. honestly address these questions) or will we only be moving deck chairs on a sinking vessel? Is it inevitable that those who seek a spirituality, informed by the Jesus way, but stripped of unbelievable dogma, must either jump ship or risk being pushed overboard?

Post Script

A reader might ask: why I, as a person of Protestant heritage, should focus so much on the future of Roman Catholicism?

There are many valid responses to such a question. One simple answer is that what happens in the Roman Catholic community has clear impacts on those who are non-Catholics in our global and ecumenical society, both within and without institutional religion. Personally, I am drawn to this debate because Catholic spirituality, and the consequences of the second Vatican Council, have influenced my own life profoundly. On a wider stage, the drama now being played out under the papacy of the present Bishop of Rome has a similar character to the tensions in monotheistic religions of many brands - tensions about putting new wine in old wineskins, tensions between hierachical authority and communal authenticity, tensions between an orthodoxy forged in a past era (for some, Christendom) and one that recognises that that era has passed.

And finally, is this a futile struggle, even an indulgence, when the urgent challenge is to translate compassion into local and global acts for peace, social justice and environmental sustainability? Is it better to let the dead bury the dead ?