Author: Fr. Robert A. Brungs, SJ
Article Abstract:
“The base of any Christian theology is belief in a person, Jesus Christ, and a response to him on the personal level.” Fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding) – with these words the author sets the scene for developing the broad outlines of dogmatic theology for the Christian faith He emphasizes that only a Christian believer can be a Christian theologian. While others may write about theology, they can not be Christian theologians.
Do the advances in science and technology have any role to play in the development of a Christian dogmatic theology? The author, a physicist and theologian, strongly advises that the Church re-visit its formulation of dogmatic theology, re-shaping it at times in light of the new scientific discoveries of the 20th and 21st centuries. He cautions, however, that “the faith-content must be preserved.” (“Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.” Pope John Paul II)
Finally, after examining the developments in the life sciences the author states: “To the dogmatist belongs the duty of developing the Christian realization of the place of these new discoveries — science & technology — in the building of the Kingdom of God, which is and must be the prime and really only concern of the Christian.”
