The Future of Catholic Theology

About ten years ago I found myself in China teaching a weeklong philosophy seminar on the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Present were forty or so young philosophers from premier Chinese universities. Also present, acting as observers in the back of the room, were members of the Chinese Communist Party. I taught in jacket and tie, but everyone knew that I and one other Dominican professor were priests. The students talked to us more openly at the meals, at crowded tables, where it was not easy to be overheard. Most were non-Christian, but almost all were studying Western philosophy. I will never forget asking one of them why he was present at the seminar, given that the philosopher we were studying was a medieval Western Christian thinker. He said, “Father, the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s severed contemporary Chinese culture from its historical past, its traditional ethical resources. Today we know that communism is a failed system, but what we don’t know is the meaning of life. We wonder whether it might have something to do with Christianity.” I found these words prophetic.