The Vatican Muzzles the Jesuit Roger Haight. And Jesus Is Why
Roger Haight, 72, a theologian, belongs to the Society of Jesus. But the Jesus of his writings is too far from the one proclaimed in the Creed, in the judgment of the Vatican authorities who keep watch over correct doctrine.
Previously, on December 13, 2004, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed at the time by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, issued a notification condemning some of the ideas that Haight had expressed in a book published five years earlier, "Jesus, Symbol of God." It concluded by prohibiting the Jesuit from "teaching Catholic theology."
As a result, Haight left his professorship at the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, run by the Jesuits. But he did not stop teaching theology. He moved on to the Union Theological Seminar in New York, a non-Catholic institution founded by the Presbyterians in 1836. Leading Protestant theologians like Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich have taught there. Today, it is independent of the control of any individual Christian denomination.
Haight has also continued to publish books of theology presenting his basic ideas. Two of these in particular are "Christian Community in History," in three volumes, and "The Future of Christology."
But now the Vatican authorities have again acted against him. They have ordered him to stop teaching theology anywhere, including non-Catholic institutions, and not to publish books and essays on theological subjects. This — as the previous notifications said — will last "until such time as his positions are corrected to be in complete conformity with the doctrine of the Church."
The new provision dates back to last summer, but it was made public only in January of 2009. Haight has not commented on it.
The examination of Haight's positions, both this time and before the notification in 2004, was conducted according to the usual procedures. The Vatican congregation for the doctrine of the faith entrusted the case to the superior general of the Society of Jesus, who in turn activated the American province of the Society, to which Haight belongs. He was asked to send clarifications and corrections on points indicated as erroneous. And he did so. But this did not convince his judges to clear him. In 2002, there was even a curious setback. Haight's response arrived at the Vatican after the deadline, and created doubts about its authenticity: it did not seem certain that he had actually been the one who had written it. They sent it back to him demanding that it be returned with his signature on every page.
The reasons given in support of Haight's condemnation are not insignificant. The 2004 notification lists them meticulously. In the judgment of the Vatican authorities, Haight uses a theological method that subordinates the content of the faith to its acceptability on the part of postmodern culture. And for the objective realities defined by the articles of the Creed, it substitutes symbols.
The result is the loss of substance of key truths of the Christian faith like the preexistence of the Word, the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, the salvific value of the death of Jesus, the unicity and universality of the salvific mediation of Jesus and of the Church, the resurrection of Jesus. On each of these points, the Vatican notification says how and why Haight contradicts Catholic doctrine.
Haight has always cooperated with the sanctions he has received, although he has delayed this somewhat. He will soon leave his professorship at the Union Theological Seminary in New York. And he is preparing a new written response to send to the Holy See.
At the Vatican, they are seriously concerned about this case. They do not believe that it is at all confined to academic circles. Haight is a theologian with a significant capacity for communication, he is appreciated by the "liberal" culture extensively present in the media, and enjoys widespread support within the Church, especially in the Society of Jesus.
Of the last seven theologians scrutinized by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, four are Jesuits. In addition to Haight, the others are Anthony De Mello, Jacques Dupuis, and Jon Sobrino, the last of these a leading exponent of liberation theology.
It was no surprise that one year ago, while the Society of Jesus was assembled to elect its new superior general, the Vatican authorities called its many theologians and exegetes back to greater doctrinal fidelity and a more effective "sentire cum Ecclesia."
Naturally, not all Jesuit theologians have been suspect. In order to convince Haight to correct his positions, the American province of the Society of Jesus asked for help from Jesuit Cardinal Avery Dulles, a theologian of recognized greatness and unquestionable orthodoxy, in spite of his advanced age and precarious health. Cardinal Dulles died in New York last December 12.
But it is beyond doubt that Haight's theology finds a generally hospitable atmosphere in the Society of Jesus. He lives in New York, at the residence of the Jesuits who publish "America," a leading magazine for progressive Catholicism. In March of 2008, when he was already prohibited from teaching and was about to receive new sanctions, he published in "America" an extensive overview of Catholic theology at the end of the 20th century, with the major theologians classified in seven categories, thoroughly described and evaluated. It was all to demonstrate that the future of Catholic theology depends on its capacity to represent the articles of the Creed in a form that is comprehensible to the dominant culture in the West.
Another American Catholic magazine that has come out in support of Haight is "Commonweal." In January of 2007, it published an impassioned apologia of his thought by the title "Not So Heterodox. In Defense of Roger Haight." Its author was a highly esteemed theologian, Paul Lakeland, a professor at Fairfield University in Connecticut, one of the 28 universities and colleges run by the Jesuits in the United States, and its first holder of the chair in Catholic studies named after the Jesuit theologian Aloysius P. Kelley.
Other American theologians have instead expressed severe criticism of Haight, who for several years was also president of the Catholic Theological Society of America. A couple of noteworthy critics include William Loewe, of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and John Cavadini, a professor at Notre Dame University in South Bend Indiana and a consultant for the doctrinal commission of the United States conference of Catholic bishops.
Another critic of Haight's positions is himself a Jesuit, who also teaches at a university of the Society of Jesus, the most important one in the world. He is Gerald O'Collins, a professor of systematic theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, a specialist in Christology.
O'Collins made a memorable quip after news came of Haight's first condemnation: "I wouldn't give my life for Roger Haight's Jesus. It's a triumph of relevance over orthodoxy."
In short, Haight is all the more worrying for Church leaders in that he expresses the widespread tendency to subject the figure of Jesus to the canons of comprehension of the secular culture, exalting him as a great man and a worker of justice, but obscuring his divinity.
One clear expression of this tendency — less theological, and more conversational — can be seen in the latest book by another famous Jesuit, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini: "Conversazioni notturne a Gerusalemme. Sul rischio della fede [Nighttime conversations in Jerusalem. On the risk of faith]."
The Jesus presented by Cardinal Martini is a guaranteed winner, based on sales of the book. But in any case, he is very far from the Jesus, true God and true man, in the book "Jesus of Nazareth" by Benedict XVI.
Once again, Jesus the savior is the great sign of contradiction according to which the Catholic faith is measured. And it is remarkable that one epicenter of this dispute is precisely the Society of Jesus.
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See also the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's Notification on the Book, 'Jesus Symbol of God'
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