Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, February 6, 2024
Speaker: Ilaria Morali (Pontificia Università Gregoriana)
On February 6, during a seminar session jointly organized by the ROR and by the Patres Association, Prof. Ilaria Morali, Ordinary of Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical University Gregorian, illustrated J. Ratzinger’s thought on the relationship between ressourcement and aggiornamento. Two fundamental notions for the Second Vatican Council, to be read in close correlation and continuity with each other: the one coming from the renewal theology thanks to the two schools of Lyon Forvière (Jesuits) and Le Saulchoir (Dominicans), the other introduced by John XXIII and deepened by Paul VI.
In the course of the lecture, the speaker explained how the great german theologian in an article devoted to the relevance of the Fathers in contemporary theology in the early 1970s, had pointed out, with concern, the rupture of this nexus, the creeping in of an irremediable tension, due to the emergence of “a new awareness so determined by the sense of the significance of the present moment, that it makes turning to the past seem somehow romantic”.
The speaker then explained the original meaning of the two key concepts as well as how they constitute two key criteria for understanding the “mens” that inspired, also methodologically, the conciliar renewal. She then dwelt at length on the reasons for Ratzinger criticism of the post conciliar interpretation of aggiornamento, for the ideological approach to the past and history that resulted. Against the tendency to “wall up the door of a bygone era” Ratzinger in fact opposed the need to “reflect anew on what, in the changing times, is what really sustains”, so as not to “lose our soul”. It is ultimately a matter of establishing, as the speaker still emphasised, “what amount of the present theology should be attributed to its own history”. Such considerations are conducted by Ratzinger not with archaeological intent or out of a sort of nostalgia for lost time, but in the knowledge that the actuality of faith is not actualism, because the present cannot engulf the past in the name of the fashions of the moment. This tendency affects, among other things, negatively on the reading of the relationship between the West’s cultural contribution to faith and that of other cultures: is the Wester form also accidental, past and therefore omitted? Or does it instead belongs constitutively to the fabric of Christian discourse, without nothing to detract from the present-day emergence of other cultures, which claim the same right to affect the understanding of the Revelation of the one held by the West? In the Ratzingerian conception of theology, it is affirmed the demand to maintain the right balance between the need for adaptation (Zeitgemaßheit) and the necessary autonomy of theology by time (Zeitlogiskei). Every effort in aggiornamento, both in the Church and in theology, must remain faithful to the “form of Christianity” (Gestalt des Christentums) ontologically connected to the “form of Christ” (Christus-gestalt): for Ratzinger the overcoming of the temptation of a one-sided reading is in the one Christ, yesterday, today, and eternally. The ultimate solution lies in this three-dimensionality that cements in his person the relationship between the three declinations of time (Dreidimensionertheit).
During her speech, the speaker explained the reasons for the deep connection between this Ratzinger’s reading and the thought of the major exponents of ressourcement, more particularly the Jesuits H. De Lubac and J. Daniélou. If the theologian J. Ratzinger represents in fact the last great exponent of this movement, the questioning power of this reflections even as pontiff remains in all its relevance, reaching us intact.
