THE KNUCKLEHEAD
'
S GUIDE TO COVENANTAL THEOLOGY
169
Once 'moral instruction' is a theological argument, then, if the
argument is incorrect, the 'instruction' is meaningless. Further, if moral
instruction is an argument, then the New Class (which quite literally
makes arguments for a living), not only runs the world and provides it
with stupendous new wealth, but is -- and should be -- the principle
source of 'moral instruction' in that world.
This of course is seen most clearly in New Class Catholicism:
bishops should always defer to the judgments of New Class Catholic
theologians -- because bishops are not really as qualified to make
technical arguments as 'their' theologians are. Needless to say, if even a
bishop must defer to a theologian, your grandmother's place in the
moral pantheon is not exactly assured.
It is worthwhile to be reminded of what is wrong with this picture:
there is no safe 'place' in 'flesh' for 'reason.' When Man is at his
brightest and bravest, he sees that apart from the Eucharistic Event, he
is not responsible for his actions, he has no 'free will' -- what he does is
Cause or Chance, period, despite his pretensions to the contrary.
'Moral' arguments in 'flesh' are simply unavailable, insane. You can't
have a moral life at all, let alone make 'arguments' regarding it, if
everything you do is in the end either pre-determined or arbitrary.
Catholic theology's own adoption of
a time-less framework for its
discourse inevitably prompts a
'Battle of the Time-less Frameworks'
with the New Class, and worse, it
may imply to the New Class that
'evangelization' is such a 'Battle.' If
it is a Battle, then naturally, the New
Class will not want to lose it.
Thus, at the heart of the New Class is a great emptiness, the age-
old pagan pessimism and despair that is an inevitable result of any
dehistoricized cosmology, any time-less framework that divides the
world into Cause and Chance. Further, as was argued in this work, the
ultimate survivors in the world of Cause and Chance must of necessity
be either idiots or devils. This too the New Class knows, however it
hides this from itself.
So, the Church a) though it has liturgical vocabulary in abundance
suitable to the task, currently possesses no intellectual or theological
vocabulary to establish a connection to the positive activities of the
New Class; b) finds even its most loyal theologians in the position of
trading 'arguments' with a Class which makes and trades arguments for
a living; and, most importantly, c) lacks the theological vocabulary to
help it to touch and to heal the root pessimism and despair of the New
Class, all because present day Catholic theology, both New Class and
traditional, also accepts dehistoricized cosmology as its intellectual
foundation.
Why, then, should the evangelization of the 'modern world' be
proceeding smoothly?
Something really new has arisen in human history. The blind really
see, the lame really walk, the sick really are cured. But the New Class,
not the Catholic Church, is responsible. Indeed (at least to the New
Class) the Catholic Church appears to have been either actively
Despite its power, the New Class
does not escape the age-old pagan
pessimism -- it too needs to and
deserves to have the Good News
preached to it.
N.B. This is an html-ized copy of a page from the pdf file, The Knucklehead's Guide to Covenantal Theology.