From Alpha To Omega: A Blueprint For A New Apologetic
Roger Nesbitt
The impact of new knowledge and thinking, mainly from science and the scientific vision of the world, has provoked a serious crisis within Christendom. The “old synthesis” of Catholicism, embracing theology, philosophy, catechetics and apologetics has been seen as inadequate for a new age. It could not answer the new questions being asked. We who are living through this crisis know there must be an answer or Christianity is finished. I would like to suggest a few points for consideration.
1. The pre-conciliar Church had a worked out synthesis that was complacent, conservative in the bad sense, unresponsive to change and to the new knowledge. Some movements were positive—biblical theology, patristics, a more pastoral approach to problems, a yearning for a development in catechetics and the liturgy, but the problem of the relationship between science and religion was almost untouched. Generally the “conservatives” in philosophy did not, or would not, see the problem, making a rigid distinction between metaphysics and physics. Science and religion were seen as two separate exclusive spheres of influence. Some were very conservative about evolution and almost dismissive of it as irrelevant to the contemporary thomistic metaphysics which could not be improved. Dissatisfaction with this pre-conciliar approach caused considerable pressure to build up under the surface of a seemingly serene Church.
2. The Second Vatican Council took the lid off the pressure cooker! There now emerged a whole regiment of theologians, becoming more and more modernist and liberal, capitalising on the yearning for change, and determined not only to rebel but to destroy everything about the “old church” with its old synthesis. The Council documents in fact remained orthodox and beautiful because of the sheer weight of tradition and the helping hand of Paul VI. But following the Council, the modernists took over most of the intellectual centres in the Church—the seminaries, the Catholic universities, the newly formed catechetical centres. Their agenda was to destroy the old synthesis, only rarely substituting any real development of doctrine. Indeed it became part of their agenda that there could no longer be any synthesis. On relations with science and Catholic philosophy they were not terribly interested, since the power of the mind to know God by natural reason was, to them, not important. Indeed philosophy itself was not given any priority, and relations with science were rendered irrelevant for reasons other than those of the conservatives before the Council. The old was destroyed but nothing was put in its place. The fruits of this revolution are known and recognised by all of us in the decline in every statistic of the Church’s life and the utter confusion among the People of God.
3. Some positive signs of the times have however been apparent. There is the change of emphasis within the scientific community. From the evidence of science itself there is a yearning for a new synthesis centred once more on the unity of the whole of creation. An interesting series of writings from the late seventies, continuing through the eighties and nineties, showed that science was again at the threshold of God. Natural theology, rejected by the modern theologians, was coming back through the scientific vision of creation, and crucial questions were once more being asked about the origins of the universe and the place of man within it.
The second positive sign is the renewed yearning within the Church for orthodoxy, and a realisation that the fruits of the post-conciliar modernist revolution have largely been disastrous. We can see this in the publication of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church which seeks to integrate the insights of Vatican II and the positive developments in theology. Both the Church and the world are, in some ways at least, searching for a new vision for the next Millennium.
Into this situation there entered quietly, and from an unexpected and humble source, a claim to give an answer to our problem—God’s Master Key: the Law of Control and Direction—seen in the writings of Agnes Holloway and developed providentially by Fr Edward Holloway. Agnes Holloway herself admitted that the message she was given could have been attained without a private revelation, but that because of the weakness of mankind it was necessary for God to give this revelation to the Church at a time of great intellectual crisis. Although when Agnes Holloway was given the message the crisis was not apparent, we have now witnessed the collapse of the Church in so many areas and her prophecy has proved true. However I think it is very important to stress that the ideas depend on their own inner strength, and not on their origin in a private revelation.
At the centre of the message given to Agnes Holloway is God’s Master Key: the Law of Control and Direction. I do not wish to describe the Law here in detail; this is elaborated in Catholicism: a new synthesis and will be developed in several articles to be published in this and forthcoming issues of Faith Magazine. I would only say that it does have enormous repercussions in the whole of theology, philosophy and catechetics and of their vital relationship with the scientific vision of creation. God’s Master Key is breathtaking in its simplicity but contains enormous power and depth to develop and to unify Revelation and Reason for this age. I would simply like to draw attention to some key aspects of this Law, some of which will be elaborated in the articles from the Symposium that will follow in future issues of Faith. An overview may be helpful and serve to highlight some of the main conclusions which God’s Master Key brings to Catholic theology and thinking:
1. The Law applies firstly to the philosophy of science and the creation of the world. It argues of necessity to the existence of God from matter in evolution. This is very much in harmony with modern science and the traditional teaching of the Church.
2. Most important of all is the approach and explanation of the creation of man and the relation of matter to spirit within the context of evolution, especially the explanation of the relationship between the brain of man and the soul of man. This perspective has also received support from modern science, though less so than the above. This aspect of the Law is absolutely crucial. From this distinction of spirit and matter in man depends the whole of theology and revelation.
3. Man, because of his spiritual nature yearns for, and seeks, his purpose and his destiny in God alone, in God’s wisdom and in God’s love. There follows as part of the “Law of Control and Direction” the very fruitful idea of God as the “Environer” of Man from the beginning. This creative thought sets the scene for the expected development of Revelation under the same Law. The concept of God as Environer, the sunshine of the soul, gives a fresh understanding of grace and revelation.
4. The Path to Christ is shown as a coherent development according to this same law of the wisdom of God. There will be gradual and progressive stages of revelation culminating in the One who is to come.
5. The Law also gives a unique understanding of Original Sin and the damage caused by sin in a way hitherto missing within the context of evolution and the scientific vision of creation.
6. At its centre the Law reveals that Christ was predestined from the beginning, before the world was made, as God made flesh for man, the fulfilment of the whole of creation and revelation. The Scotist view of the incarnation is clearly taught.
7. There also follows a key understanding of the Redemption, teaching that Christ is Saviour before sin and Redeemer only since sin. This gives a very rich and coherent understanding of Our Lord’s suffering for us culminating on the cross.
8. Under the same Law of Control and Direction we see the expected necessity of the sacramental system as continuing the work of Christ in his Church, especially the Most Blessed Sacrament as Christ Incarnate in person.
9. The Church is also seen, under the “Unity Law of Control and Direction”, as essential to the very plan of God from the beginning: to provide—as a spiritual, visible, sacramental society—God’s “ecosystem” for man. This Church contains within itself the power to define doctrine in the name of Jesus himself, as an essential part of its nature.
10. From this Law there follows the necessity of the Virgin Birth, the unique vocation of Mary and a theology of gender which is so necessary for today. We see that Christ must be of the male sex but we see also the different roles of man and of woman, of the new Adam and the new Eve, in the plan of God from the beginning. Flowing from this is an ontological understanding of the maleness of the priesthood and of the role of the Church as the female principle etc.
11. God’s Master Key also gives new insights for a re-alignment and most necessary development of the perennial philosophy, as seen in Fr Holloway’s Philosophical Perspectives 1, 2, (and 3 yet to be published).
12. For many of us the teaching on the analogy to the Blessed Trinity seen reflected in the soul of man is also extremely helpful. (Catholicism, Ch. 15)
13. The Law shows that, in this vision, Christ is the Lord of Creation and the Lord of History. God’s Master Key integrates in one vision Creation and the Incarnation, science and religion, revelation and reason. It therefore proposes nothing less that a complete re-alignment of Catholic philosophy, theology, catechetics and apologetics for the new age, utterly orthodox and a genuine development of doctrine.
14. Finally, the Law gives an exciting vision of the Catholic faith, coherent in itself, and in total harmony with a scientific perspective on creation. It is this inner vision which Faith seeks to convey and to propagate for the glory of God so that all things are seen in Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, and that many more may be drawn to him.
I have shown elsewhere the remarkable convergence between the teaching contained in the Law of Control and Direction with that of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church. This also shows the orthodoxy which springs from God’s Master Key, an orthodoxy which it defends and supports. The Catechism teaches the existence of God from creation, and evolution is accepted; man is clearly made in God’s image, and the teaching on original sin is uncannily like that contained in the New Synthesis. Another interesting perspective is that in the Catechism Christ is presented as the fulfilment of creation, and predestined before creation. The New Synthesis fits into the Catechism as a hand in a glove. The Catechism seeks to integrate the insights of Vatican II with the whole wisdom of the Church, ancient and modern, in one unified presentation, but it does not quite achieve this. I would like to suggest that the Law of Control and Direction gives us the means of recapitulating in one synthesis the teaching of Vatican II, of the Catechism, and of Pope John Paul II in Tertio Millennio Adveniente, with the scientific vision of creation seeing Christ, in the words of the Catechism and Tertio Millennio Adveniente as “The Lord of the Cosmos and Lord of History”.
Apologetics since Vatican II has been almost eliminated, by the wave of liberalism, from the life and teaching of the Church. The traditional apologetics was based on proving the existence of God, the historicity of the Gospels, the divine nature of Christ seen in his miracles, especially his resurrection, and the divine character of the true Church with its four marks of One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. With the Faith vision I think that we can improve on this by giving more rigorous and up-to-date arguments for God and for the soul of man in the context of evolution. Above all we can point to the whole sweep of salvation history culminating in Christ as a unique line of revelation unlike any other in history. We can also show the uniqueness of the Church, not only necessary from the Incarnation with the four marks, but we can add “Sacramental” as an essential mark and also “Infallible” as a sign of divine teaching authority, as we would expect the Church to be if Christ is true God and true man. Will not the coherence and vision of the Unity Law and the synthesis of a new vision be a powerful witness in itself to Christ and the Faith? The interlocking unity of this vision is a sign of its divine origin. There is considerable urgency in this need for a new apologetic as we approach the millennium. The evangelical Protestant Alpha Course is now being appropriated by some Catholics. I think that we can, and we should, as soon as possible, develop an alternative, with working groups on each of the main themes. It seems to me that the very concept of Jesus Christ as the “Master Key to the Meaning of the Universe” is itself an apologia, with its proposition that only he can answer the yearning and the questions in the mind and heart of modern man.
Pope John Paul II in Tertio Millennio Adveniente outlines a perspective on Christ as Lord of Creation which is, in a number of ways, very close, to that of the Faith Synthesis. In all our thoughts and discussions within the Faith Movement, I think we need to keep before our eyes this central coherent vision of God’s Master Key, which is the ultimate raison d’être for the Faith Movement. This vision was given at a time of great crisis to renew the Church and to lead to a new evangelisation. We seem to have forgotten that it is impossible to evangelise without an apologetic.
These are challenging but hopeful times. Let us pray for a new preaching of the Gospel, based on a new synthesis of religion and science, with a new Catechism and a new apologetic, but always of the same faith handed on to us. We are just on the threshold of this work, of sowing the mustard seed. There is still so much to be done before the new vision outlined all those years ago in such humble circumstances reaches its fulfilment. Let us also pray that the recent Faith Theological Symposium will, under God’s guidance and by his providence, make a small contribution to developing this work to the glory and praise of God in Jesus Christ.
Roger Nesbitt
The impact of new knowledge and thinking, mainly from science and the scientific vision of the world, has provoked a serious crisis within Christendom. The “old synthesis” of Catholicism, embracing theology, philosophy, catechetics and apologetics has been seen as inadequate for a new age. It could not answer the new questions being asked. We who are living through this crisis know there must be an answer or Christianity is finished. I would like to suggest a few points for consideration.
1. The pre-conciliar Church had a worked out synthesis that was complacent, conservative in the bad sense, unresponsive to change and to the new knowledge. Some movements were positive—biblical theology, patristics, a more pastoral approach to problems, a yearning for a development in catechetics and the liturgy, but the problem of the relationship between science and religion was almost untouched. Generally the “conservatives” in philosophy did not, or would not, see the problem, making a rigid distinction between metaphysics and physics. Science and religion were seen as two separate exclusive spheres of influence. Some were very conservative about evolution and almost dismissive of it as irrelevant to the contemporary thomistic metaphysics which could not be improved. Dissatisfaction with this pre-conciliar approach caused considerable pressure to build up under the surface of a seemingly serene Church.
2. The Second Vatican Council took the lid off the pressure cooker! There now emerged a whole regiment of theologians, becoming more and more modernist and liberal, capitalising on the yearning for change, and determined not only to rebel but to destroy everything about the “old church” with its old synthesis. The Council documents in fact remained orthodox and beautiful because of the sheer weight of tradition and the helping hand of Paul VI. But following the Council, the modernists took over most of the intellectual centres in the Church—the seminaries, the Catholic universities, the newly formed catechetical centres. Their agenda was to destroy the old synthesis, only rarely substituting any real development of doctrine. Indeed it became part of their agenda that there could no longer be any synthesis. On relations with science and Catholic philosophy they were not terribly interested, since the power of the mind to know God by natural reason was, to them, not important. Indeed philosophy itself was not given any priority, and relations with science were rendered irrelevant for reasons other than those of the conservatives before the Council. The old was destroyed but nothing was put in its place. The fruits of this revolution are known and recognised by all of us in the decline in every statistic of the Church’s life and the utter confusion among the People of God.
3. Some positive signs of the times have however been apparent. There is the change of emphasis within the scientific community. From the evidence of science itself there is a yearning for a new synthesis centred once more on the unity of the whole of creation. An interesting series of writings from the late seventies, continuing through the eighties and nineties, showed that science was again at the threshold of God. Natural theology, rejected by the modern theologians, was coming back through the scientific vision of creation, and crucial questions were once more being asked about the origins of the universe and the place of man within it.
The second positive sign is the renewed yearning within the Church for orthodoxy, and a realisation that the fruits of the post-conciliar modernist revolution have largely been disastrous. We can see this in the publication of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church which seeks to integrate the insights of Vatican II and the positive developments in theology. Both the Church and the world are, in some ways at least, searching for a new vision for the next Millennium.
Into this situation there entered quietly, and from an unexpected and humble source, a claim to give an answer to our problem—God’s Master Key: the Law of Control and Direction—seen in the writings of Agnes Holloway and developed providentially by Fr Edward Holloway. Agnes Holloway herself admitted that the message she was given could have been attained without a private revelation, but that because of the weakness of mankind it was necessary for God to give this revelation to the Church at a time of great intellectual crisis. Although when Agnes Holloway was given the message the crisis was not apparent, we have now witnessed the collapse of the Church in so many areas and her prophecy has proved true. However I think it is very important to stress that the ideas depend on their own inner strength, and not on their origin in a private revelation.
At the centre of the message given to Agnes Holloway is God’s Master Key: the Law of Control and Direction. I do not wish to describe the Law here in detail; this is elaborated in Catholicism: a new synthesis and will be developed in several articles to be published in this and forthcoming issues of Faith Magazine. I would only say that it does have enormous repercussions in the whole of theology, philosophy and catechetics and of their vital relationship with the scientific vision of creation. God’s Master Key is breathtaking in its simplicity but contains enormous power and depth to develop and to unify Revelation and Reason for this age. I would simply like to draw attention to some key aspects of this Law, some of which will be elaborated in the articles from the Symposium that will follow in future issues of Faith. An overview may be helpful and serve to highlight some of the main conclusions which God’s Master Key brings to Catholic theology and thinking:
1. The Law applies firstly to the philosophy of science and the creation of the world. It argues of necessity to the existence of God from matter in evolution. This is very much in harmony with modern science and the traditional teaching of the Church.
2. Most important of all is the approach and explanation of the creation of man and the relation of matter to spirit within the context of evolution, especially the explanation of the relationship between the brain of man and the soul of man. This perspective has also received support from modern science, though less so than the above. This aspect of the Law is absolutely crucial. From this distinction of spirit and matter in man depends the whole of theology and revelation.
3. Man, because of his spiritual nature yearns for, and seeks, his purpose and his destiny in God alone, in God’s wisdom and in God’s love. There follows as part of the “Law of Control and Direction” the very fruitful idea of God as the “Environer” of Man from the beginning. This creative thought sets the scene for the expected development of Revelation under the same Law. The concept of God as Environer, the sunshine of the soul, gives a fresh understanding of grace and revelation.
4. The Path to Christ is shown as a coherent development according to this same law of the wisdom of God. There will be gradual and progressive stages of revelation culminating in the One who is to come.
5. The Law also gives a unique understanding of Original Sin and the damage caused by sin in a way hitherto missing within the context of evolution and the scientific vision of creation.
6. At its centre the Law reveals that Christ was predestined from the beginning, before the world was made, as God made flesh for man, the fulfilment of the whole of creation and revelation. The Scotist view of the incarnation is clearly taught.
7. There also follows a key understanding of the Redemption, teaching that Christ is Saviour before sin and Redeemer only since sin. This gives a very rich and coherent understanding of Our Lord’s suffering for us culminating on the cross.
8. Under the same Law of Control and Direction we see the expected necessity of the sacramental system as continuing the work of Christ in his Church, especially the Most Blessed Sacrament as Christ Incarnate in person.
9. The Church is also seen, under the “Unity Law of Control and Direction”, as essential to the very plan of God from the beginning: to provide—as a spiritual, visible, sacramental society—God’s “ecosystem” for man. This Church contains within itself the power to define doctrine in the name of Jesus himself, as an essential part of its nature.
10. From this Law there follows the necessity of the Virgin Birth, the unique vocation of Mary and a theology of gender which is so necessary for today. We see that Christ must be of the male sex but we see also the different roles of man and of woman, of the new Adam and the new Eve, in the plan of God from the beginning. Flowing from this is an ontological understanding of the maleness of the priesthood and of the role of the Church as the female principle etc.
11. God’s Master Key also gives new insights for a re-alignment and most necessary development of the perennial philosophy, as seen in Fr Holloway’s Philosophical Perspectives 1, 2, (and 3 yet to be published).
12. For many of us the teaching on the analogy to the Blessed Trinity seen reflected in the soul of man is also extremely helpful. (Catholicism, Ch. 15)
13. The Law shows that, in this vision, Christ is the Lord of Creation and the Lord of History. God’s Master Key integrates in one vision Creation and the Incarnation, science and religion, revelation and reason. It therefore proposes nothing less that a complete re-alignment of Catholic philosophy, theology, catechetics and apologetics for the new age, utterly orthodox and a genuine development of doctrine.
14. Finally, the Law gives an exciting vision of the Catholic faith, coherent in itself, and in total harmony with a scientific perspective on creation. It is this inner vision which Faith seeks to convey and to propagate for the glory of God so that all things are seen in Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, and that many more may be drawn to him.
I have shown elsewhere the remarkable convergence between the teaching contained in the Law of Control and Direction with that of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church. This also shows the orthodoxy which springs from God’s Master Key, an orthodoxy which it defends and supports. The Catechism teaches the existence of God from creation, and evolution is accepted; man is clearly made in God’s image, and the teaching on original sin is uncannily like that contained in the New Synthesis. Another interesting perspective is that in the Catechism Christ is presented as the fulfilment of creation, and predestined before creation. The New Synthesis fits into the Catechism as a hand in a glove. The Catechism seeks to integrate the insights of Vatican II with the whole wisdom of the Church, ancient and modern, in one unified presentation, but it does not quite achieve this. I would like to suggest that the Law of Control and Direction gives us the means of recapitulating in one synthesis the teaching of Vatican II, of the Catechism, and of Pope John Paul II in Tertio Millennio Adveniente, with the scientific vision of creation seeing Christ, in the words of the Catechism and Tertio Millennio Adveniente as “The Lord of the Cosmos and Lord of History”.
Apologetics since Vatican II has been almost eliminated, by the wave of liberalism, from the life and teaching of the Church. The traditional apologetics was based on proving the existence of God, the historicity of the Gospels, the divine nature of Christ seen in his miracles, especially his resurrection, and the divine character of the true Church with its four marks of One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. With the Faith vision I think that we can improve on this by giving more rigorous and up-to-date arguments for God and for the soul of man in the context of evolution. Above all we can point to the whole sweep of salvation history culminating in Christ as a unique line of revelation unlike any other in history. We can also show the uniqueness of the Church, not only necessary from the Incarnation with the four marks, but we can add “Sacramental” as an essential mark and also “Infallible” as a sign of divine teaching authority, as we would expect the Church to be if Christ is true God and true man. Will not the coherence and vision of the Unity Law and the synthesis of a new vision be a powerful witness in itself to Christ and the Faith? The interlocking unity of this vision is a sign of its divine origin. There is considerable urgency in this need for a new apologetic as we approach the millennium. The evangelical Protestant Alpha Course is now being appropriated by some Catholics. I think that we can, and we should, as soon as possible, develop an alternative, with working groups on each of the main themes. It seems to me that the very concept of Jesus Christ as the “Master Key to the Meaning of the Universe” is itself an apologia, with its proposition that only he can answer the yearning and the questions in the mind and heart of modern man.
Pope John Paul II in Tertio Millennio Adveniente outlines a perspective on Christ as Lord of Creation which is, in a number of ways, very close, to that of the Faith Synthesis. In all our thoughts and discussions within the Faith Movement, I think we need to keep before our eyes this central coherent vision of God’s Master Key, which is the ultimate raison d’être for the Faith Movement. This vision was given at a time of great crisis to renew the Church and to lead to a new evangelisation. We seem to have forgotten that it is impossible to evangelise without an apologetic.
These are challenging but hopeful times. Let us pray for a new preaching of the Gospel, based on a new synthesis of religion and science, with a new Catechism and a new apologetic, but always of the same faith handed on to us. We are just on the threshold of this work, of sowing the mustard seed. There is still so much to be done before the new vision outlined all those years ago in such humble circumstances reaches its fulfilment. Let us also pray that the recent Faith Theological Symposium will, under God’s guidance and by his providence, make a small contribution to developing this work to the glory and praise of God in Jesus Christ.