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The Saints and Doctrine
by James Hitchcock
February 1, 2002
Recently a Catholic journalist
wrote, "You know when you have met someone you think is
a saint: instead of feeling inferior, you feel enormously affirmed."
That seems to me one of those statements which the author would
find it impossible to defend if asked. Does it follow that everyone
who "affirms" us is a saint? Or that anyone who reminds
us of our failings cannot be one? By this description the perfect
saints would be what psychologists call "enablers"
-- those who may not themselves do destructive things but in
various ways support those who do.
I thought of this while reading a new book called The Saints'
Guide to Knowing the Real Jesus, by David Mills. (The author
and I work together on the board of the ecumenical journal Touchstone.)
Interest in Jesus never wanes, although one might say that each
age reinvents him. Right now there is a large industry proposing
to help people find Jesus, ranging from the very traditional
to New Age.
David Mills had the very Catholic idea of going back to what
the Fathers of the Church said about Jesus, on the assumption,
taken for granted throughout much of Christian history, that
they were closer to the sources than we are and therefore understood
better what the message of Jesus really was. It is also relevant
that most of the Fathers were saints, the kind who were far more
likely to remind people of their sins than to "affirm"
them.
Today's culture encourages an approach to Jesus in which He is
our brother and our friend. We are urged to love Jesus as He
loves us, and to extend that same love to our fellow men. So
far, so good.
But Mills points out something about the Fathers which now strikes
many people as odd -- they were extremely concerned with doctrine,
with knowing and proclaiming formal truths about Jesus. Thus
the early Church was torn apart by, above all, the question of
Jesus' exact relationship to the Father (the Arian heresy). At
one point the dispute centered on one syllable of a Greek word
-- whether Jesus was "the same as" the Father or merely
"like" Him.
So important were these beliefs that creeds were written to embody
then, one of which is still recited at Mass and in baptism. The
Church placed enormous emphasis on "orthodoxy" ("straight
teaching"). Not only were Christians supposed to live as
Jesus commanded, they were supposed to probe the divine mysteries
to the extent that God had made possible.
The Fathers might thus seem like ivory-tower scholars insulated
from the world. But Mills reminds us that some of them suffered
martyrdom for their beliefs, which for them were literally life-and-death
issues. What was at stake was not some academic theory but the
vital truth of the faith itself.
Sometimes modern Christians talk as though they have discovered
"orthopraxis" ("straight action"),
meaning that now we live the Gospel, not speculate about it.
But the early Church which placed so much emphasis on correct
belief was even more demanding than we are of appropriate Christian
behavior. They had much higher standards of conduct, and they
scrutinized catechumens very carefully before admitting them
to the Church.
The modern way of looking at religion owes much to the philosophy
called Pragmatism ("if an idea seems to work, don't worry
if it can be proven"). It sets up a conflict between orthodoxy
and orthopraxis, implying that those who emphasize the
former must be deficient in the latter.
The truth, as Mills shows, is just the opposite. How can one
follow Jesus if one does not even know who Jesus is? What an
odd kind of love it is that shows so little curiosity about the
beloved. As a modern thinker put it, ideas have consequences,
and if you start out with erroneous doctrines you will probably
end up losing your moral compass as well.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta is the great contemporary example of
someone who considered it of crucial importance to accept all
the teachings of the faith and was also heroic in living that
faith. I met her once. She was not in the least pretentious,
but I'm sure that all of us in the room definitely felt inferior.
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James Hitchcock, professor of history at St. Louis University, writes and lectures on contemporary Church matters. His column appears in the diocesan press. His two-volume book on religion and the Supreme Court has just been published by Princeton
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