Reflection This Week
`NO
ONE KNOWS IT ALL
A recent posting
(01/21/08) by one of my heroes, Martin Marty, in his online column
Sightings reminded me of another one of my heroes who
predates Marty in my discovering heroes, one Father Andrew Greeley.
(Both, by the way, were born on the same day!) I admired Greeley
back in my seminary days because he was, and still is, that sort of
radical priest I never had the guts to be who spoke out on issues
with honesty and love. He loved/s his church even in what he
considers error.
Back then I read
Greeley not only because of his sometimes-controversial opinions but
mainly because he had a knack of being able to take highly technical
theology issues and making them understandable not only for a
somewhat-confused theology student but for those who barely had a
passing interest in the subject. He continues to do so today which
is why he remains a hero.
In his column
Marty comments on Greeley’s latest book, A Stupid, Unjust, and
Criminal War: Iraq 2001-2007. It is a collection of 121 columns
Greeley wrote dating back to 2001. I haven’t read the book nor do I
intend to because, in all honesty, I will find myself agreeing with
him about the war, as does Marty. But that is neither his point nor
mine. The point here is, in my words, no one know it all: not Marty,
not Greeley, not the President, not even me. No one knows it all on
the subject of this war or that theological issue. We know what we
know, but there is so much we do not know.
The further
point, and Marty’s main one, is that we know some things from our
personal perspective that others cannot know given theirs. I give my
opinion on some things as I see them from a male’s point of view but
they, at times, come in conflict with how my wife views those same
subjects from her point of view. I know enough about what I see to
voice and opinion. I know enough to listen to hers. I don’t know it
all, and neither does she and neither does anyone else for that
matter, no matter what the subject.
Even the experts
don’t have a lock on the truth, which was Greeley’s point back in my
seminary days and even today. As Marty reminds, back in the Vietnam
days clergy were taken to task for opposing the war or being
critical of the manner in which the war was being waged, napalm and
all that, because clergy lacked the expertise to make any judgments,
exempt from military service that we were.
Nothing has
changed. Were I, for instance, brave/foolish (take your pick) enough
to stand in the pulpit and make some statement about the environment
or the economy – or the war – based on a theological point of view,
there still would be those who would take me to task for talking
about something of which I know so little.
They would be
correct, to a point. I am as fallible as the next preacher.
Reflecting on Greeley, Marty opines: “It becomes clear once again
that biblically informed, theologically inspired criticism and
proposals can come from highly fallible people who, like everyone
else, do not “know enough,” but who do “know enough” from another
angle, to make their own contributions to conversations that remain
urgent.”
We are all
searching for the truth no matter the issue at hand, not only as we
see it but with the help of those who view it from their personal
perspective. Each of us owns part of that truth but not all of it.
Each party in the conversation helps the other(s) to see the truth
from a different set of eyes. Seeing together we will see more
clearly. Even then the truth may escape us. It is only when we are
humble enough to admit that truth that we have a chance to
discover the real truth. WJP
