I’m reading Bernard Ruffin’s biography of Padre Pio, and love this juxtaposition:
Padre Pio was almost an exact contemporary of Rudolf Bultmann the German Lutheran theologian who, out of a regard for the difficulty modern men and women have in accomodating the traditional teachings of Christianity to their twentieth century perceptions, devised a theology that ‘demytholigized’ the gospels, stripping away such uncomfortable baggage as miracle and other accoutrements of a ‘first century worldview’ in order to get at what he believed to be the essential kernel of truth underlying all the ‘mythological’ paraphernalia…how different was Padre Pio in style and results! Without publishing a book or delivering a single university lecture, he convinced thousands, even in the age of ‘historical criticism’ of the Bible and the ‘Death of God ‘theologians, that miracles are not mythology but reality. Through his life and ministry thousands came to accept the Bible and all the historical doctrines of Christianity.
It might be added that Bultmann succeeded in doing just the opposite.
There is a delightful detail in Paul Thigpen’s modern re working of Dante’s Inferno called My Visit to Hell. There is a circle in which the modernist theologians are all consigned to eternity in a diabolical seminary being tortured by demons. They have to eat burning books, and the books they have to eat are their own. A maniacal demon–force feeding Bultmann screams in crazed delight, ‘de-mythologize that if you can…’
Greetings, Father! Beautiful web design! (Contents is awesome too).Your son in Christ,-Theo
“It might be added that Bultmann succeeded in doing just the opposite.”I don’t think so. Bultmann, like Schliermacher before him, is increasinly just a name relegated to the footnotes of historical theology, known only to theological geeks such as myself.The influence of Padre Pio, on the other hand, like that of another of his contemporaries, the Orthodox bishop St. John Maximovich, only increases and will remain for all time.
Hmmmm. Bultmann had a few worthy points; his tendency toward shunning what amounts to a fundamentalistic approach to Holy Writ, warning against the dangers that such a literalist approach to Scripture would pose (and does pose) to the church-within-modernity (whatever one thinks of modernity)was prescient.Otherwise, his theology was deficient in obvious ways. I never jumped on the Pio cult-bandwagon. I respect Pio’s following, but preoccupation (obsession) with signs and wonders is such a problem, particularly when we have water-stain Virgins and tree-wart Virgins being regarded as miraculous and worthy of attaching to the liturgy; the diocese of Watsonville, CA, for example, approved the concelebration (about 20 priests on hand) of the Eucharist beneath the aforementioned tree-wart because the tree-wart had really jazzed the Latino community there. A condescending move, IMO. Pio’s holiness, rather than some of his more radical “signs,” should be the focus of his cult, and so often I find fellow Catholics fixated on his stigmata, etc. Yes, we need healthy, orthodox belief in the miraculous–particularly the clear “signs” worked by Christ as related in the Gospels.My point–I guess–is that right now is that far too many Catholics are so poorly catechetized that they fixate on parlor-tricks and hoaxes for their perception of the miraculous. Take the “Little Audrey” mess in Worcester. Thousands flocked to that sideshow to collect the holy “oils” dripping from plaster statues, and testing revealed it was chicken fat and Wesson oil. The bishop looked the other way, pretty much.Do a Google News on “the Virgin Mary” and most of the data you get back, on any given day, concerns Catholics or other people who are seeing Mary in ice-formations, strange rocks, or various foods.Ugh. Mary is worthy of sublime news coverage, not grotesque coverage. Like you, I wish we could find a balance between the trivialization of the miraculous and an unwavering respect and appreciation for it, when it really does apparently manifest itself. (Love the imagery of Bultmann being force-fed his own pages, btw…Dante would be proud). Cheers~
Father, thanks for the note about Paul Thigpen’s My Visit to Hell. I think I’d like to read that. As it happens I’m currently in the middle of another book that also takes the reader through Dante’s Hell. It is Escape From Hell, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The authors are quick to say that theirs is “a fantasy novel, not a treatise on theology and salvation.” Nevertheless, it offers some interesting things on which to chew.
I recall a New Testament class in seminary when our professor hypothesized what Bultmann might say if he were presented with the bones of Jesus that had been recovered from an archeological dig. “Hmmm. So, he actually was an actual person after all!”Interesting that Ruffin is a Lutheran pastor (of the evangelical catholic stripe). He appeared recently on Fr. Groeschel’s program talking about Padre Pio.
“The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God”So Scripture sums up all the Bultmanns who have ever lived.I came to Christianity from atheism. Right from the beginning, while still searching for the truth, I recognised the liberal theologians as being crass hypocrites of the first order. I kept thinking, “If they believe what they are saying then why aren’t they agnostics or atheists.” Their theology eliminated any need for God.What does it get back to? Once again – PRIDE. If you accept miracles, then you accept an Almighty God who really does run this universe. And hey… maybe you had better let Him be boss and maybe you had better obey His Commandments rather than your own.Bultmann and his cronies are to be condemned for the way they tried to tear down the faith, while not being honest about it, like an atheist would be. I once attended a lecture, at a leading university, by a self confessed atheist philosophy lecturer who wanted to discuss the existence of God. Right at the beginning of his lecture he said; “For the definition of God, I am taking the traditional Christian definition, I am not interested in any of these liberal theological definitions because they are all *****!”What an admission! I could respect that man and his lecture was at least honest. A Christian would be able to have an honest debate with him. What I can’t respect is the Bultmanns and others who call themselves Christians yet so eliminate the miraculous that they are realyy atheists. They uses a term called “God” simply to support their lifestyle and the sale of their books.
Wow! Beautiful web design! I dont remember it looking this good last I looked:) Interesting posts as usual though.
Father Dwight, On a similar note, St. Bernadette and Friedrich Nietzsche were born in the same year too: 1844. Try juxtaposing the idea of “God is dead” (i.e. can no longer can give meaning to the lives of modern men) with Lourdes. James Chastek
The first part of this post is great.The second half seems a bit vindictive, in my opinion. I’m not sure I would describe the depiction of a human soul being tortured in hell as a “delightful detail.” I’m not bracketing the reality of judgment for sin and error. But, as finite beings, our understanding of how God metes out judgment will always be limited. At the very least, it seems to me that we should grieve over lost souls, rather than deriving pleasure from their being damned.
What little I have read on Padre Pio has astounded me. What a profound love for Christ! Something we should all follow after!-g-