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Theologian calls Catholics to engage Biblical texts
By Rebecca Bostic, The Catholic Sun
November 1, 2007
Theologian Gina Hens-Piazza said violence in the Bible should not be ignored at last month’s Theology in the City lecture, a series sponsored by Brophy College Preparatory.
“Avoidance would possibly be a strategy if our own world were placid, non-violent and committed to peace. But as we know from our experience, this is not the case,” the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley professor told the nearly 100 people gathered Oct. 21.
“Therefore a decision to look the other way, to gloss over these occasions, to read past these texts, I think has fatal consequences,” she said. “Whether in our lives or in these texts, a decision to ignore acts of cruelty, acts of savagery, speaks of a complicity toward such things.”
Theology in the City is a series of talks that apply theological principles and Catholic morality to current issues. Brophy’s director of development, Patti Franz, brought the series to the diocese to help satiate local Catholic’s hunger for theological reflection and dialogue.
Hens-Piazza’s presentation, “Dealing with Violent Biblical Text in an Age of Violence,” encouraged Catholics to confront violent biblical passages.
“The violence against humans in some of these texts is repugnant. The failure of morality in here is sometimes reprehensible,” she said.
Chris White, a health teacher and athletic trainer at Brophy, took the message to heart.
“It’s easy and comfortable to ignore the Old Testament as I have done for most of my life because I just can’t relate to it. I never could relate to it,” White said. “I learned it’s important not to ignore it and her guidelines for how to deal with it — in what I thought was a very positive way — are really very helpful.”
Charlie Daschbach, a member of the Theology in the City planning committee, hoped attendees would be inspired to engage the Bible.
“We looked at different topics that can speak to today’s Catholics in terms of what’s going on in our world and this topic just hit a nerve,” Daschbach said.
He said that the purpose of the series is to inspire discussion of theological issues within the community. Hans-Piazza’s did just that — she opened his mind to the application of the Old Testament to contemporary life, Daschbach said.
“Both testaments need to be working together in our faith in understanding the world as God’s revelation,” he said.
Yet, as Hans-Piazza noted, focusing on violence in the Bible is not a comfortable undertaking.
“It may require a commitment to revising or revisiting or perhaps even repenting by confessing our sins,” she said. “It may also require that we look to others in our community to read with us and help us better understand what is there.”
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