Vol. I, Book 1, Ch. 2 http://www.britac.ac.uk/pubs/dialogus/t1d1.html, as translated by John Kilcullen and John Scott (2003).
Dialogus (1494)
Context: It is on account of theology alone that any assertion whatsoever should be called catholic or heretical. For only an assertion which is consonant with theology is truly catholic, and only one which is known to be opposed to theology is known to be heretical. For if some assertion were found to be opposed to decrees of the highest pontiffs, or also of general councils or also to laws of the emperors, nevertheless, if it were not in conflict with theology, even if it could be considered false, erroneous or unjust, it should not be counted as a heresy.
“Theology seeks to explain the meaning of Christian assertions in a language comprehensible to any given age.”
Source: Dynamics Of Theology, Chapter Ten, Method in theology, p. 192
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Roger Haight 21
American theologian 1936Related quotes
What is Art? (1897)
Context: Humanity unceasingly strives forward from a lower, more partial and obscure understanding of life to one more general and more lucid. And in this, as in every movement, there are leaders — those who have understood the meaning of life more clearly than others — and of those advanced men there is always one who has in his words and life, manifested this meaning more clearly, accessibly, and strongly than others. This man's expression … with those superstitions, traditions, and ceremonies which usually form around the memory of such a man, is what is called a religion. Religions are the exponents of the highest comprehension of life … within a given age in a given society … a basis for evaluating human sentiments. If feelings bring people nearer to the religion's ideal … they are good, if these estrange them from it, and oppose it, they are bad.
Source: 1860s, Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863), Ch.2, p. 72
“Some things in life are too complicated to explain in any language.”
Source: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
“Christian theology is the grandmother of Bolshevism.”
Source: The Hour of Decision
Address at the Convocation of the University of Manitoba, October 28, 1952
Speaking Of Canada - (1959)
Source: God of the Oppressed (1975, 1997), p. 128 (1975 edition)
“Theology — An effort to explain the unknowable by putting it into terms of the not worth knowing.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)