Wednesday, June 17, 2009

For the sake of precision

When people claim the Blessed Mother of God was the first Christian theologian, they need to realize that they are using "theology" and "theologian" equivocally, in a similar way to when Orthodox polemicists claim that Latins do not have a proper understanding of what "theology" is. Was the Blessed Mother a great Christian contemplative? Undoubtedly. Did she have the gift of wisdom in abundance? The supernatural virtue of faith? And so on? Yes. But did she have the acquired habit of theological science? I question that, and even if she didn't, she had far greater gifts to employ in her spiritual life, and the lack of theologia does very little to diminish her perfection.

No comments: