The Magisterium & Ecumenical Councils and General Documents Essay

The Magisterium & Ecumenical Councils and General Documents - Essay Example An Outline of Nichols’s Treatment of the Relationship between Theologians and the Magisterium According to the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, lumen Gentium, the magisterium, i.e the pope and the bishops of the Catholic Church constitute the teaching authority of the Church. Having direct apostolic succession from the disciples of Jesus Christ, the magisterium of the Church has legitimate authority from Jesus Christ himself to preach and to spread the Gospel everywhere, to the ends of the world. As such, the catholic faithful are expected to faithfully respect and obey the teachings and the directives of the magisterium. But, although the Magisterium derives its authority from Jesus Christ himself, due to natural human limitations, sometimes the directions and the teachings of the magisterium are in need of refinements and improvements. This fact has led to the debate and the controversy between the relationship of the theologians, who often propose refinements of the tea chings of the magisterium, and the magisterium, which constitute the legitimate teaching authority of the Church. The following is the outline of the relationship between theologians and the Magisterium according to Nichols. ... the Holy Spirit will always shower abundant spiritual gifts upon the members of the Magisterium, thus giving them the directives on how to lead the people of God in accordance with the will of God. In this view, the Holy Spirit will guide the Magestrium in all the teachings of the church and rid the Church of errors. The theologian therefore is expected to abide by the teachings of the Magisterium and to be guided by all the teachings of the Magisterium in all their interpretations of the Scriptures and the traditions of the Church. In this view, the theologian is not given any clear cut distinctive role in the Church because their functions is merely to make known/ to interpret the teachings of the Magisterium. The main problem with this approach is that, the rightful distinctive position of the theologian among the people of God is not recognized and respected. Theologians are treated merely as the other faithful. The work of the theologians is not viewed as an ecclesial duty given by God for the good of all the members of the Church and, therefore, the theologian is not viewed as possessing a divine calling for the good of the Church. For this reason, theologians are not accorded their rightful distinctive position among the members of the Church. With this approach, theologians, therefore, are not encouraged to come up with divergent opinions, but instead they are expected to limit their studies to what is already accepted by the Magisterium. The second view of the relationship between the Magisterium and the theologians is the view that the theologian’s work is a direct derivative of the ordinary Magisterium. According to this view there is a master- servant relationship between the work of a theologian and Magisterium. Magisterium is the master while the