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21 2 Theology and Sanctity In an impressive essay published some time ago also named “Theology and Sanctity,” Hans Urs von Balthasar made a case for the necessary unity between theology and spirituality.1 For a long time, he said, the great theologians were also great saints. But when theology turned from a living reflection into a merely academic affair, the great saints no longer included theologians. As a consequence, there were no longer any great theologians. Without jumping to hasty conclusions about the grandeur of theology in our own time, we are aware that theology has once again become a living reality. In fact, theologians have once again become attentive to the spiritual—or, properly speaking, mystical—dimension of their discipline. We certainly cannot deny the existence of currents of thought that are much more concerned with effectiveness than with contemplation.2 Some of these currents are no longer theology except in name. As a result, it is hard not to note the impasse before which theology stands.3 Also observable, however, 1. Cf. Hans Urs von Balthasar, “Théologie et sainteté,” Dieu Vivant 12 (1948): 17–31. 2. Cf. for example Gustavo Gutiérrez, “Notes pour une théologie de libération,” in IDOC 30 (1970): 54–78; and Rubem Alves, “Esquisse d’une théologie du développement ,” in IDOC 30 (1970): 79–94. 3. Cf. M. Xhaufflaire and K. Derksen, eds., Les deux Visages de la théologie de la sécularisation , L’actualité religieuse 29 (Paris and Tournai: Casterman, 1970), esp. 85–129. 22 Theology and Sanctity is the rediscovery of eschatology, thanks to which (even in so-called political theology) the future of theology is not reduced to the limits of a terrestrial future, but beautifully and well maintained in or reordered to its fulfillment in the Kingdom.4 Neither do we lack essays that strive to reemphasize the place of apophatism in discursive theology,5 or to show the intrinsic link between theology and the spiritual life.6 On this point, Bonhöffer himself offers conclusions that were still recently considered astonishing.7 It is precisely on this question so current in theology that it is interesting to consult anew St. Thomas Aquinas. If we summarily define the Christian life in terms of the call to sanctity,8 and if the essence of this sanctity consists in the complete fulfillment of the double commandment of love—a love that cannot even exist if it is not active—then how is this love related to theology? Or better yet: what is the relationship between the Christian life and theology? Is a life of imitating the love of Jesus Christ who came to save us advantageous for theology? Can theology be practiced independently of a certain exigency to lead a holy life (that is to say, in relation to the holiness of Christ and his saints), the type of life without which theology itself would not even exist? The ever-possible divorce be4 . On this subject, see C. Dumont, “De trois dimensions retrouvées en théologie: Eschatologie, orthopraxie, herméneutique,” Nouvelle Revue Théologique 92 (1970): 561–91. 5. Cf. Gottlieb Söhngen, “La sagesse de la théologie par la voie de la science,” in Mysterium salutis, vol. 1.4, Dogmatique de l’histoire du salut, ed. R. Ringenbach (Paris: Cerf, 1969), 159–250, especially 163–84; and L. Malevez, “Théologie contemplative et théologie discursive,” in Pour une théologie de la foi (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1969), 217–58. 6. G. Chantraine, Vraie et fausse liberté du théologien (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1969); Chantraine, “Théologie et vie spirituelle: Un aspect de la méthode théologique selon Erasme,” Nouvelle Revue Théologique 91 (1969): 809–33. 7. At the end of a precise and sympathetic analysis of Johann Baptist Metz’s “political theology,” Henri de Lavalette is not afraid to write: “For our part, we feel much more attracted to another way than that taken by political theology. One of the principal lessons we can learn from Dietrich Bonhöffer is that only the God of the mystics is credible today, and especially unbelievable is the useful God. The same lesson was taken up, amplified, and expressed in a balanced way by Hans Urs von Balthasar”; de Lavalette, “La ‘théologie politique,’” Revue de Sciences Religieuses 58 (1970): 321–50, at 349. 8. Cf. 1 Peter 1:15–16: “As he who called you is holy...

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