{"id":2177,"date":"2026-06-01T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vaticanfiles.org\/?p=2177"},"modified":"2026-05-22T17:56:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T15:56:28","slug":"vf256-letter-to-catholic-theologians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vaticanfiles.org\/en\/2026\/06\/vf256-letter-to-catholic-theologians\/","title":{"rendered":"256. \u201cLetter to Catholic Theologians.\u201d I Am Not One of Them, But I Read it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I am not a Roman Catholic theologian, and so this letter is not addressed to me. As an Evangelical theologian, however, I am seriously engaged in trying to understand Roman Catholic theology, and so this letter interests me. I am referring to the Letter to Catholic Theologians<\/em><\/a> (2026) by Monsignor Antonio Staglian\u00f2.
 
Bishop Staglian\u00f2 is no ordinary voice in the landscape of contemporary Roman Catholic theology. He is, in fact, the president of the Pontifical Academy of Theology<\/a> (PATH), whose mission is to promote dialogue between faith and reason and to deepen Christian doctrine following the indications of the Pope. 
 
Staglian\u00f2 is also the author of books with titles as explosive as Pop-Christology<\/em> or as evocative as Theology on One\u2019s Knees<\/em> (all titles are in Italian). He is a masterful orator who likes to quote Kant, Heidegger, and H\u00f6lderlin, and makes constant references to quantum physics and the ever-expanding frontiers of AI. During his years as bishop of Noto (Sicily), he attracted some attention for the pop culture references (songs, movies, etc.) that found their way into his homilies, shaped around what he called \u201cpop theology<\/a>.\u201d In short, despite holding an institutional papal position, Staglian\u00f2 is anything but a conventional thinker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this Letter<\/em>, Staglian\u00f2 summarizes what he has written extensively about in recent books and condenses it here into a few pages. It concerns his proposal to embrace what he calls \u201cChristic Enlightenment\u201d to overcome the dictatorship of the \u201cEnlightenment Metaverse\u201d and give theology a place in public debate and in people\u2019s lives. His language may seem esoteric, but it is explained.
 
Staglian\u00f2 begins with his interpretation of the current reality: Our age is no longer merely a time of secularization (positive, because it acknowledges pluralism), nor is it a time of secularism (negative, because it is ideological and antithetical to religions). We are in an era of de-Christianization, of de-culturalization, in which the symbols, beliefs, practices, and lived experiences of faith are being displaced and replaced by the blind algorithms of technology.
 
At the heart of the present-day crisis lies the loss of credibility of Christian Revelation, which is not considered worthy of being taken seriously; indeed, it is perceived as backward in thought and antagonistic to individual freedom. At best, it is relegated to the private sphere of belief but not to that of knowledge, which is the field of scientific reason only. The weight of the Christian narrative has evaporated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For Staglian\u00f2, this cluster of oppositions to Christianity is called the \u201cEnlightenment Metaverse\u201d: a closed system of thought that denies Revelation and defies the knowledge of the faith it appeals to. According to Enlightenment dogma, \u201cfaith believes and does not know; reason knows and does not believe\u201d (27).
 
In this context, there is no place for theology in public discourse; at best, it can aspire to cultivate a niche, secondary historical interest, without any epistemological claims beyond its own parched little garden. Indeed, for Martin Heidegger, the believer is incapable of thinking and must therefore step outside the modus credendi<\/em> (i.e., the believing mood) if he is to be considered a voice worthy of being heard.
 
After his assessment of today\u2019s challenge, here begins Staglian\u00f2\u2019s pars construens<\/em>. The \u201cEnlightenment Metaverse\u201d should not be countered by an impossible return to pre-modernity or a nostalgic recovery of Tradition (as Roman Catholic traditionalists would have it). The proposal is to usher in the era of \u201cChristic Enlightenment.\u201d Instead of playing defense, theology must move forward to overcome the Enlightenment challenge, i.e., by proposing an even greater and more demanding Enlightenment. \u201cChristic\u201d does not mean Christ-centered or Bible-focused. In Staglian\u00f2\u2019s language, the allusion to Christ in \u201cChristic\u201d means greater, deeper, and wider than the Enlightenment project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How? By practicing transdisciplinarity (thus becoming literate in the various languages and codes of knowledge), engaging in dialogue with everyone on the basis that everything is theion <\/em>(divine), and developing the capacity for analogical imagination that can fertilize different categories (for example: the dual nature of Christ and the wave-particle complementarity of quantum mechanics). In doing so, an \u201cunlimited space\u201d (33) opens up in which theology rediscovers its public vocation and its epistemic power.
 
Staglian\u00f2 claims to find inspiration from the intellectual lineage that stretches from Augustine, through Thomas Aquinas, and culminates in the 19th-century Roman Catholic theologian and philosopher Antonio Rosmini (38).
 
There are at least a couple of points that, upon reading the \u201cLetter,\u201d an Evangelical reader might suggest by way of commentary.
 
The first is that Staglian\u00f2\u2019s reading of the \u201cEnlightenment Metaverse\u201d appears to be heavily influenced by the militant atheism of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens in Great Britain of the 1990s, which is now outdated. Not that the mainstream scientific community today is favorable toward theology or religions in general, but it no longer seems as oppositional and confrontational as Staglian\u00f2 portrays it. Dawkins himself is favorable to \u201ccultural Christianity,\u201d<\/a> which is considered a bulwark against hyper-technological nihilism and totalitarian Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is to say that the cultural dominance of the \u201cEnlightenment Metaverse\u201d is less evident, and its relationship with theology is more nuanced than the way Staglian\u00f2 describes it.
 
The second point is that, however much it is expressed in lively, pop-culture language, Staglian\u00f2\u2019s theological framework is the old Thomism rejuvenated by John Paul II in the encyclical Fides et Ratio<\/em> (1998<\/a>). According to this, faith takes on reason and science and elevates them by expanding their scope. It is the old Thomist project of integrating Aristotelianism and Christianity that Staglian\u00f2 would now like to apply to scientism. As Thomas synthesized Aristotle and Christ, so Staglian\u00f2 wants to befriend the Enlightenment and Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This Thomist approach assumes the neutrality of reason and science and the possibility for them to be elevated to a superior level.
 
Staglian\u00f2 rightly acknowledges that men and women are \u201creligious beings\u201d: The relationship with God, however much it may be denied or opposed, cannot be suppressed. This said, after the Fall, all of humanity is \u201cbroken\u201d and corrupt, with no possibility of self-redemption. For this reason, reason must not simply be elevated or refined (i.e., the Thomist project), but radically redeemed by Christ (i.e., the Gospel mandate). Thus, the overall framework is not \u201cnature-grace<\/a>,\u201d as Thomas and Staglian\u00f2 would say, but \u201ccreation\/Fall\/redemption,\u201d as the Bible teaches.
 
It seems, then, that Staglian\u00f2\u2019s \u201cChristic Enlightenment\u201d is the latest version of the Thomist attempt to absorb reason and science into the Roman Catholic synthesis, without actually reforming much. A more promising path is to recognize Christ\u2019s lordship over all reality (reason and science included), to take every thought captive to Christ according to Scripture (2 Corinthians 10:5), and to commit ourselves to the renewal of the mind (Romans 12:1-2).<\/p>\n

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