January 28, 2008
Aquinas
Theology is the study of God and God’s ways. Anytime you slice a golf ball into the woods and mutter or shout an oath that somehow involves God, conscious or no, you’re a practicing theologian of a sort like my father was when I caddied for him and got my earliest religious education. Or at least, you’re into prayer as blessing. Since you probably missed the fairway, however, maybe sometime you’d better consider centering prayer.
Thomas Aquinas probably never played golf, but he was reportedly a practicing theologian. He really got on a roll when he discovered Aristotle along with God and gave him a run for his money. My being an East Texas country preacher and all, I never found that quoting him in my sermon on a given Sunday morning was all that popular.
A further result was that for the same reason Rome took a considerable liking to him and called him Doctor Angelicus, a title with which you can do whatever you choose. He was a Dominican, so he made the Franciscans uneasy. Some Anglicans lean his way, but they’re not the kind one usually finds on vestries. Though as you’ve no doubt heard, we, being broad minded, like to be fair, so we’ve given him a day on our churchy calendars, and today is It.
On the other hand and for all we know, dung beetles may study us and our ways and call it humanology. If so, we would probably be more touched and amused than irritated. One hopes that God feels likewise.
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Note 1: The part herein about God and beetles and us is from Frederick Buechner’s “Wishful Thinking” published by Harper & Row in 1973 on page 91. The rest comes from my earlier childhood education.
Note 2: On a previous subject, viz the sardonic, a reader writes, “I worked once in a veterinary-type laboratory. There was a term used there — risus sardonicus or sardonic grin, the look a dog gets on its face just before throwing up.”
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