Roger Haight

In this paper, delivered as a faculty presentation, I explore Paul Ricoeur’s notion of the second naiveté as it manifests itself in post-critical theology and progressive Christianity. In the course of traversing Ricoeur’s hermeneutical arc, I explore how the concept of symbol can fill the space left by the divergence of belief and faith. As well as exploring a significant trajectory of contemporary theology, it also represents a stage in my own personal search for an intellectually sustainable form of faith.

This essay examines a particular chapter of Roger Haight’s acclaimed and controversial work, Jesus, Symbol of God (JSG). A past-president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, Haight is no amateur theologian, but this book resulted in an investigation and subsequent decision that he no longer teach in a Catholic Theological Faculty. This essay will examine chapter fifteen of Haight’s work. To do so, it will be necessary to briefly recount the methodological steps within Haight’s overall argument in his book so that we can more closely consider each argument in this chapter. After presenting Haight’s argument, I shall then explain the condemnation from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and conclude with some observations. It should be stated from the beginning that Haight is a respected theologian and an obedient Jesuit who has not sought to defy the CDF in their responsibility of safeguarding orthodoxy. The motivations for his writing this work were simply to imagine a possible future teaching, given today’s pluralist and post-modern worldview. In writing from America, arguably closer to such intellectual currents than perhaps Rome is, a reading of Haight’s work and an understanding of the errors in his thinking are an invaluable aid to enabling one to theologise correctly and responsibly today.