On Monday, October 29, the John Henry Cardinal Newman Chair at the University of Rochester will host Roger Haight, SJ, of Yale University and his presentation on “How Religious Pluralism Affects Christian Identity.” In case you are not aware, Roger Haight is a dissident theologian who was recently censured by the Vatican. The reasons for his censure are as follows:
Theological method: Haight, the notification says, subordinates the contents of the faith to their plausibility and intelligibility in postmodern culture. The preexistence of the Word: The notification asserts that Haight’s book undercuts the doctrine that Christ existed as the divine Word of God prior to his incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth, a position, the notification said, that ran counter to the cultural horizon of the ancient world.
The divinity of Jesus: The notification asserts that Haight’s book presents Jesus as a human being who symbolized or mediated the saving presence of God, as opposed to being truly divine and truly human. The Holy Trinity: Haight, according to the notification, interpreted the Son of God and the Holy Spirit as two different mediations of God, and to think that they are different persons would compromise the oneness of God. That position, the notification says, contradicts the faith of the church.
The saving value of the death of Jesus: Haight, the notification contends, suggests that to affirm that Jesus accepted to suffer punishment for our sins, or to die to satisfy the justice of God, does not make sense in the world of today. That position, the congregation held, is unacceptable.
The oneness and universality of the saving mediation of Jesus and the church: Haight, according to the notification, holds that Jesus is normative for Christians but not constitutive for followers of other religions, and that it is not necessary to believe that God saves only through Jesus. He proposes a shift from Christocentrism to theocentrism, arguing that it’s impossible in a postmodern culture to think that one religion can insist on being the center to which all the others have to be brought back. Such arguments, the notification asserts, contradict the church’s traditional faith in Christ as the lone and universal savior of humanity.
The resurrection of Jesus: On the principle that it should not be supposed that something happened in the past that would be impossible today, Haight proposes, according to the notification, that belief in an empty tomb and post-resurrection appearances of Jesus are not essential to the faith. Again, the notification asserts, such a position contradicts church doctrine.
Unfortunately the diocese is giving implicit endorsement to Roger Haight’s presentation as this event is listed on their web site. This is another sorry example of the faithful in this diocese being handed over to the wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Perhaps some of the evangelical pastors in the area will step up to defend our young Catholics from Roger Haight. I can guarantee that they would never allow this poisonous dissident to get anywhere near their young people. After all, why would any Christian leader allow Roger Haight to teach his young people that the resurrection is not essential? Or that Jesus is not divine? Or that the Trinity does not exist? Why indeed?