Richard McBrien's Theological Influence on Thomas Groome
by Eamonn Keane
To buttress his own theological positions, Groome occasionally draws on the work of Fr. Richard McBrien who he refers to as "a leading American theologian."121 McBrien is well known for his book Catholicism, against the first edition of which the Australian Bishops issued a monitum stating it was not suitable as a reference text for teachers. In his booklet Ministry, McBrien asserts that in the early Church there were "two diverging patterns of ministry: (a) '`charismatic,' as in the original Jerusalem community and later in Corinth; and (b) structured' based on the synagogue model."122
McBrien asserts that over the course of the first few centuries, the institutional model of the Church won out over the charismatic as Christians sought to fix the structure of their community along the pattern of the prevailing municipal and political organizational structures.123 He asserts that "in the early Church there was no hard and fast distinction between clergy and laity" but rather that such a distinction emerged "with the establishment of Christianity as the state religion in the fourth century."124
In 1996, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Doctrine in the United States censured the 3rd edition of McBrien's Catholicism for "certain shortcomings." The committee was concerned about McBrien's treatment of the Virgin Birth of Jesus, the perpetual virginity of Mary, the ordination of women, his treatment of moral issues such as homosexuality and contraception, and about his tendency to place the teaching of the Church on the same level as the opinion of dissenting theologians.125 Dr. Robert Fastiggi, who is an associate professor of religious studies at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, sums up McBrien's methodology well where he says:
What one often finds is a discussion of a traditional Catholic dogma cast in ambiguous terms by a skilful turn of phrase or a clever sleight of hand. Thus, the uncritical reader is given the false impression that McBrien's discussion of the dogma is safely rooted within the parameters of Catholic orthodoxy without realizing that the author has frequently undercut the full meaning and authority of the dogma itself.126
The distinguished theologian, Fr. John Hardon, S.J., has cited Richard McBrien as an example of "still professed Catholic writers" who "are re-interpreting the Church's teaching on the sacraments with a license and a devastating consequence that has no counterpart in the last half millennium." Having said this, Fr. Hardon added:
I will never forget the conference I attended of the Midwestern Theological Society. The keynote speaker was Richard McBrien. Through one hour of learned discourse, he gave the audience one reason after another why the Catholic priesthood was not a sacrament instituted by Our Lord at the Last Supper. It was a later second century innovation. A logical consequence of this position is to question whether Christ had instituted any of the sacraments.127
Endnotes
121 Thomas Groome, Educating for Life, op. cit. p. 57.
122 Fr Richard McBrien, Ministry, Harper & Row, San Francisco 1987, p. 30. 123 Cf. Ibid. p. 33.
124 Ibid. p. 38.
125 The review of McBrien's book by the Bishops' Committee On Doctrine was published in the April 18, 1996 edition of Origins.
126 Dr. Robert Fastiggi, The Methodology of Ambiguity: Richard McBrien's Revised Catholicism, Homiletic and Pastoral Review, June 1998, pp. 48-49.
127 Fr. John Hardon, S J, Sacraments: Channels of Divine Grace, Catholic Faith Magazine, May/June 1996. Also available on http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals/Faith/0506-96/article1.html).
Excerpted from A Generation Betrayed by Eamonn Keane. Available from Amazon.com.
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