Elizabeth Johnson,the United States Bishops,and Thomas Aquinas: An evaluation

Abstract

This essay evaluates one important aspect of the assessment made by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in their recent Notification of supposed doctrinal errors made by Elizabeth Johnson in Quest for the Living God. Taking up the Committee’s own reference to Thomas Aquinas as a legitimating authority, and using the work of both Rudi Te Velde and W. Norris Clarke, I argue that both the Bishop’s Committee and Johnson have trouble straddling the middle ground of the analogical language and thinking that they nevertheless advocate. Ultimately I contend that in their defensive critique of Johnson the Committee tends toward an objectivism that is explicitly eschewed by Aquinas, while Johnson’s concern for God’s ineffability leads her to marginalize consideration of the analogical similarity between God and creatures.