The February 2022 article “Heresy: Like History or Math?” reproves the integrity of BC’s Theology Department and concludes that the university “should stick to teaching what it knows to be the eternal truths of the Christian faith.” The author proposes that BC’s theology courses ought to teach students that they absolutely cannot be “queer and spiritual,” “trans or non-binary and religious,” or “straight, hooking up, and Catholic.” Essentially, this conceptualization of a theology department is more analogous to the Magisterium and not to a human teaching office that emphasizes holistic education and individual formation.
The Boston College Theology Department’s mission is to provide students with “the knowledge and skills necessary for reasoned reflection on their own values, faith, and tradition, as well as on the religious forces that shape our society and world.” It does not singly insist that “Theology…is the field which takes God’s existence as a real fact about the world.” Therefore, the department has no obligation to preach Christianity as absolute truth to all students enrolled in theology courses.
BC is one of 28 Jesuit colleges in the United States which strives to encourage reflection and “integration of the intellectual, social, religious, and affective dimensions.” These institutions do not tell their students what to think; rather, their mission is to teach students how to think about themselves, others, and their role as men and women for and with others.
Labeling any difference in opinion as heresy is not constructive in the pursuit of successful education. Yes, theology classes that read the Bible and study the history of Christianity can list definitions of Divine Revelation and heresy in the tradition of how Euclid listed the definitions of a point and a line. But not every answer can be found in Scripture; human morality is more complex than a point existing in an open plane. There are absolute truths, and there is also room for interpretation. This is why we also study Aristotle, Plato, Kant, Nietzsche, Wollstonecraft, and other thinkers here at Boston College.
After all, if we took every sentiment from our oldest Christian texts, written thousands of years ago in a society nearly unrecognizable from our own, which were then translated and interpreted many times over, I wouldn’t even be here as a student at BC; I would be the “weaker vessel,” the bringer of original sin! But we know this is not true.
My interpretation: The future of the Church depends on inclusivity.
This argument does not suggest that the Church’s teachings themselves ought to change, but I do believe that the way in which the teachings are incarnating themselves in our human societies does desperately need change.
Let’s look at the numbers for this: a 2011 Pew Research poll shows that “those who have left Catholicism outnumber those who have joined the Catholic Church by nearly a four-to-one margin.” The most cited reasons for leaving the Church include being “unhappy with teachings on homosexuality,” “unhappy with the way religion treated women,” and the clergy sexual abuse scandal. Many of these reasons come down to control and abuse of power, where we inherently isolate members of the population when we ought to be welcoming them as they are. We are a Church that is based in the greatest commandment of love; faith, hope, and love are the abstractly divine measures of our kinship with God, not the calculated performance of theological piety.
BC’s Theology Department has empowered me, a Catholic woman, to foster my faith as something greater than a recitation of creed—it has emphasized the immeasurable significance of care and compassion for the rich and the poor, the marginalized and the powerful, the clothed and unclothed, the familiar and unfamiliar, the hungry and fed, our enemies and friends. It’s taught me how to live.
This is not heresy. This is what a Jesuit education is. This is what God is.
Mary Rose is a Senior majoring in English and Perspectives and minoring in Management for Social Impact and Public Good. In addition to reading and writing, she enjoys bopping with the Full Swing dance team, working at the Church in the 21st Century Center, and leading projects for IATG: The Feminist Society of BC.
- An Open Response to “A Better Place” - May 1, 2022
- It’s Not Heresy: The Church’s Future Depends on Inclusivity - May 1, 2022
- An English Major’s Five Steps to Finding God - April 29, 2022