THE KNUCKLEHEAD
'
S GUIDE TO COVENANTAL THEOLOGY
49
The paradigm represented and discussed in these chapters is
precisely the paradigm of the logical consequence, of the time-less
truth. This paradigm is what Fr. Keefe calls:
"dehistoricized cosmology"
A dehistoricized (time-less) cosmology (explanation for the
cosmos) makes the universe inevitable, necessary (whether logically,
or, for that matter, arbitrarily), by reference to some time-less truth
prior to it.
Catholic theology must reject that paradigm totally, even before
Catholic theology begins. Indeed, Catholic theology must reject it
totally, in order to begin.
For what Fr. Keefe sees is that "dehistoricized cosmology," the
paradigm of the logical consequence, of the necessary implication, is
completely pagan, totally un-Catholic. Once the paradigm is accepted,
the entire revelation given in the Christ is excluded from before the
outset. The Catholic proclamation could not be more radically
incompatible with it.
Among other things, this does mean that the Deus Unus, the name
for God among all Thomists, is a pagan god. The Deus Unus is
radically incompatible with the sacramental worship of the Church,
radically incompatible with everything given us in Christ and handed
on by the apostles.
In our modern age which has
"discovered history," it might at first
glance seem that we have freed
ourselves from time-lessness. However,
we should bring to mind Fr. Keefe's
telling phrase: what the historian writes
is not history. What we moderns have
'discovered' instead is some version of
The Proper Technique, Repetitively
Applied, or a scarcely disguised time-
less agenda: Inevitable Good Things,
Forever! We have not escaped the flight
to the time-less -- to be modern is to
add a layer of pretense and delusion on
top of that flight.
It is the intellectual adoption of this completely pagan paradigm by
Catholic theologians -- an adoption made with little reflection near the
very beginnings of Catholic theology and continued with very little
complaint since then -- which has led over the centuries to the state we
now are in: the Catholic academy in utter disarray, and the rest of us
seemingly with only two choices, "why bother?" Catholicism, and
"what holes?" Catholicism.
Covenantal Theology is thus a radical book.
It is
thereby a book only for children -- of all ages. It asserts that
Catholicism is radically incompatible with all dehistoricized
cosmologies, with all attempts to explain the universe in terms of the
time-less; which is to say, in terms of necessity, logical or otherwise.
Covenantal Theology says that nearly the whole of Catholic
theology has appropriated a paradigm that will inevitably conclude to
paganism, to a pagan god -- and to a completely un-Catholic pagan
pessimism.
Fr. Keefe traces the history of this appropriation. In the early
centuries of the Church it amounted to innocent borrowing from
classical Greek philosophy, and did not actually affect Catholic
theology pervasively, partly because the early Fathers weren't as
systematic and 'logical' as theologians would later become.
N.B. This is an html-ized copy of a page from the pdf file, The Knucklehead's Guide to Covenantal Theology.