Advent 22

Volume 22 (Textile to Vasc): Theology.

Another day, another giant topic for the Overgraduate to sink his inadequate teeth into. My overtaxed grey matter does wonder at the wisdom of the task I have set myself. Has anyone ever gone on Mastermind with the specialist subject of pages 63 of the volumes of the 1959 Britannica?

Theology is that branch of philosophy that is concerned with the explanation of the world in the terms of a supreme mind or spirit. The study of theology is not therefore, as I comprehend it, the same thing as religious experience but the study of religious experience is a legitimate (in fact, one might argue, essential) constituent of theological study.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church invites us to distinguish between theology (theologia) and economy (oikonomia), the former being the mystery of God's innermost life, the latter the works by which God reveals himself. I understand this as the contrast between the spiritual and the temporal and it is in the space between those elements that my own unequal and impertinent negotiation with God takes place. Heavy man!. Page 63 has much to answer for.