John Allen, Jr. informs us that Fr. Peter Phan of Georgetown University, a celebrated theologian in many circles, is having his theology investigated by both the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the U.S. bishops. I ran into Dr. Phan at CTSA a couple years ago, and I am familiar with some of his work on inter-religious dialogue. He’s a genuinely sincere and nice man, but I have never really understood what all the fuss was about among those who really admire his works.
The CDF, it seems, has taken special notice of theologians working in the delicate field of inter-religious dialogue. A number of years ago, the CDF investigated the work of Jacques Depuis, who has dedicated much of his effort to understanding the relationship between Christianity and other religions. And let us not forget Roger Haight, whose book Jesus Symbol of God contained fundamental problems in terms of the distinctiveness of Christ’s Incarnation and the salvific efficacy of other religions. Similar concerns were raised in the early eighties with regard to Edward Schillebeeckx’s two tomes on Christology, Jesus and Christ, though Schillebeeckx was never censured.
Henry has some thoughtful posts on inter-religious dialogue, and I highly recommend reading them. Christopher Blosser has assembled some solid background reading on the CDF’s interest in the trends of inter-religious dialogue and theology including its investigations of Depuis and Haight.
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