Canadian cardinal: theology should be taught in spirit of ‘repentant adoration’
November 11, 2014
In an address to the theology faculty of St. Michael’s College of the University of Toronto, Cardinal Thomas Collins called upon theologians to follow the way of community, concreteness, and “repentant adoration” rather than individualism, abstraction, and self-sufficiency.
Upholding St. Augustine, St. Teresa of Avila, and Blessed John Henry Newman as model theologians, Cardinal Collins, who was installed as Toronto’s archbishop in 2007, said that “the primordial flaw of academia is pride. Smart people, and learned people, have to watch out for that.”
He continued:
Those who are caught in the web of words, and engage in the trade of language and ideas, need to be especially alert to the demon of pride. Pride leads to blindness, to self-absorption, to arrogant posturing, to gossip, to intrigue, to hardness of heart towards the sufferings of others, and to isolation from the wider community and its needs.
So, especially because it can have a great effect upon the life of the whole community of faith, theology must be done in a spirit of repentant prayer. Priests are urged to get to confession frequently, for they suffer temptations similar to those of theological scholars. Students and professors of theology should do the same.
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