Roger Haight

When Christian symbols become oppressive and begin to contradict the Christian message itself, the only way to solve the problem is by criticism and reinterpretation.

Roger Haight (born 1936) is an American Jesuit theologian. Haight is the past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America. His views on Christology prompted the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to bar him from writing on theology and to forbid him from teaching.

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Dynamics Of Theology

• Some students cannot accept that radical openness of history, and they lapse into some form of fundamentalism or traditionalism that simply clings to theological formulas of the past.
  • Preface, p. vii

• Theology today may be understood as a discipline which seeks to understand and determine the underlying truth of all reality.
  • Introduction, p. 1

• The presuppositions of biblical scholarship explain better why, as historically conditioned pieces of writing, the scriptures are filled with errors and inconsistencies.
  • Introduction, p. 11

• Faith is a universal human phenomenon. All people live by some faith.
  • Chapter One, Faith As A Dimension of The Human, p. 15

• To describe the phenomenon is to unmask it.
  • Chapter Two, Faith and the Community of Beliefs, p. 35

• Reason operates critically in any number of different ways.
  • Chapter Two, Faith and the Community of Beliefs, p. 39

• Every doctrine from the past cannot be salvaged.
  • Chapter Two, Faith and the Community of Beliefs, p. 44

• Revelation as a consciousness of God's Presence is available to all.
  • Chapter Three, The Structure of Revelation, p. 60

One cannot reason without a conceptual content that is historically mediated.

• One cannot reason without a conceptual content that is historically mediated.
  • Chapter Three, The Structure of Revelation, p. 63

• Each book of the New Testament is in its own way a methodical interpretation of the Christian experience of revelation.
  • Chapter Four, Revelation and Theology, p. 79

• The single most important factor that has undermined the notion of inspiration is the rise of an historical consciousness.
  • Chapter Five, The Status of Scripture in the Church, p. 91

• There are many aspects of the ancient laws of Israel that simply do not mediate an experience of divine will for people today.
  • Chapter Six, Scripture and Theology, p. 118

• A symbol is first of all a finite reality of this world.
  • Chapter Seven, The Symbolic Structure of Religion, p. 133

• A great deal of what we know about reality is accompanied by little more interest than simple curiosity.
  • Chapter Eight, Symbolic Religious Communication, p. 147

• As an appeal to hope the symbol of the kingdom of God is utopic.
  • Chapter Eight, Symbolic Religious Communication, p. 155

• Theology seeks to explain the meaning of Christian assertions in a language comprehensible to any given age.
  • Chapter Nine, The Structure of Interpretation, p. 175

• This dialectical structure must be understood in terms of a dynamic process of communication.
  • Chapter Nine, The Structure of Interpretation, p. 178

Theology seeks to explain the meaning of Christian assertions in a language comprehensible to any given age.

• Theology seeks to explain the meaning of Christian assertions in a language comprehensible to any given age.
  • Chapter Ten, Method in theology, p. 192

• Without a question, without inquiry, scripture and tradition remain mere data.
  • Chapter Ten, Method in theology, p. 194

• Salvation is an individual's personal encounter with God's Presence.
  • Chapter Ten, Method in theology, p. 204

• Theology is an ungainly discipline. Unlike many other pursuits of wisdom, even its most fundamental principles are disputed by those who practice it.
  • Chapter Eleven, Dynamics of Theology, p. 215

• Responsibility to history and tradition creates freedom.
  • Chapter Eleven, Dynamics of Theology, p. 234