
Pope Francis: Purely male theology is half-hearted
Vatican City - Not complete without female theologians: According to Pope Francis, theology needs the contribution of women. He explained to academics from all over the world what he thinks theology should look like.
Published on 09.12.2024 at 19:39 –Pope Francis has honoured the commitment of women in theology. "There are things that only women understand, and theology needs their contribution! A purely male theology is a half-hearted theology. There is still a long way to go here," he said on Monday in the Vatican. As reported by Vatican Radio, the Pope received around 500 theologians from all over the world and called on them to be humble and understandable.
Theology should contribute to a new way of thinking and not just allow rationality to prevail, he emphasised. To do this, it must avoid simplifications and ideologies: "They flatten everything into a single idea, which they then repeat compulsively and instrumentally." The Pope went on to explain that the "antidote to simplification" is interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, i.e. collaboration with other academic disciplines. It is about "fermenting" the form of theological thinking with that of other sciences.
Francis pleaded in favour of general, low-threshold accessibility to theology. For some years now, there has been an interest among adults in many parts of the world to resume their education, including academic education: "Men and women, especially middle-aged men and women, who have perhaps already completed their studies, want to deepen their faith, want to take a journey of thought and often enrol at a university." According to the Pope, theology should become a "travel guide" and "open the door" to interested people. He appealed: "Make sure that these women and men find an open house in theology, a place where they can set off again, where they can search, find and search again." (KNA)
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