Theology Today

God's love becomes incarnate for our sake, suffers for our sake, and promises us that we will be united eternally with him. If that view of God's love can be stated without resurrection appearances (but not without a resurrection), one can believe in it without believing in resurrection appearance stories. When appearances are regarded only as evidence for the gospel, one can believe in the resurrection without believing in the postresurrection appearance accounts, because the appearances do not add anything to the content of the gospel.

We shall not know the truth until we have learned how the various truths are related, each to every other, omitting none. It is a task that the intellect alone cannot perform, because the truths of heart and and spirit cannot be stated as philosophical propositions or mathematical formulae. We shall never be complete in our living, or our theology or science or history, until we have brought into the dance those realms of our selves that are accessible only by means of images, and until our intellects and imaginations and bodies and spirits are integrated.

Perhaps an analysis of trends in Roman Catholic theology serves best to remind us that increasingly the problems of ecclesiology, humanness, and meaning transcend ProtestantCatholic categories, and that in reflecting upon these matters we have much to learn from our Roman Catholic counterparts.