Scholars see ‘breach’ between bishops, theologians

Aftershocks of the U.S. bishops’ doctrine committee’s moves against theologian Sr. Elizabeth Johnson spread Monday as the College Theology Society issued a statement saying the bishops’ moves represent a “fundamental breach” in the call for dialogue in the church and wounds the “entire community of Catholic theologians.”

The Monday statement from the College Theology Society, which represents lay and religious undergraduate theology faculty, is the latest in a months-long saga over Johnson’s book Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God, which the bishops first blasted in March.

In late October, the bishops’ Committee on Doctrine reconfirmed their condemnation, which touched off questions of why the bishops hadn’t first attempted dialogue with the St. Joseph sister and what that might mean for the practice of theology.

The theology society’s statement, signed by its seven board members and four officers and addressed to the society’s membership, expresses “sadness and grave concern” over the bishops’ October statement because the bishops went forward “without entering into a process of dialogue with [Johnson] about the issues being raised.”

“The course of action taken by the Committee on Doctrine represents a fundamental breach in the call for dialogue within the church and in particular between theologians and bishops, a call that is one of the hallmarks of the documents of the Second Vatican Council,” reads the statement, which was posted to the society’s website.
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