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Overview
Few encounters have as much potential for both enlightenment and danger as the clash between the psychological "self" of modernity and the religious "soul" of traditional Christianity. Paul Dinter asks whether a new stage on the way that faith seeks understanding can move post-Vatican II Catholics beyond this impasse - and he provides fresh and compelling answers. By taking advantage of Vatican II's recognition that both the Bible and the church "have a history" and must be seen accordingly, Dr. Dinter suggests a way for mature believers to profess Catholic faith beyond the anti-modern formulations of natural law, papal infallibility, and the recent Marian doctrines. Not content to critique these definitions for their flaws, he re-appropriates their truth for today. "In a mature perspective," Dinter writes, "Catholic unity is not guaranteed by mind-numbing obedience to the magisterium but by participation in sacramental reality, post-critically understood." Beyond Naive Belief is a bridge-building book for all believers of good faith.Editorials
Library Journal
Contemporary believers must integrate the Bible's symbolism with modern rationality, posits Dinter, a theologian, scholar, and former priest. He compares this process to human development: Mature adults have relinquished the nave beliefs of childhood, engaged in criticism of authority in adolescence, and accepted separateness, ambiguity, and loss of innocence. So must the Church, its hierarchy, and the laity. The Church must reinterpret, for example, papal infallibility and the Marian doctrines. To evidence mature belief, the Church and individual Christians need to accept the ambiguous reality behind the mythopoetic tradition. The open-minded and determined reader will be rewarded with valuable insights, but the ordinary lay reader will be confounded by the scholarly, esoteric terms and erudite discussions ranging over many disciplines. Recommended for theology collections.-Nancy M. Laskowski, Free Lib. of PhiladelphiaBook Details
Published
January 3, 1995
Publisher
New York : Crossroad, 1994.
Pages
320
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780824514211