The New Prophecies

Having just completed the page on the Montanist heresy of the 2nd century, I cannot help noticing that the Montanist temptation is all too present in our own day. Instead, however, of the extraordinary activity of the Holy Spirit being invoked by those who feel the Church has become too lax, it is invoked by those who feel it continues to be too strict. It has become a commonplace for those who wish to change the teachings of the Church in ways that contradict the tradition of the Church to claim the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, or the prophetic charisma of Pentecost. I will cite only a few examples; anyone following the religious news will be aware of many others.

1. The Roman Catholic priest and moral theologian Charles E. Curran, an exponent of ‘the new moral theology’ of the 1960s, is one of the Roman Catholic theologians who led the opposition to Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanæ vitæ and one of those who rejected the Roman Catholic doctrine that homosexuality is contrary to natural law and intrinsically disordered.

In 1975, he published a rebuttal to charges by Fr Thomas Dubay that the new moral theology had three objectionable features: its frequent dissent from the teaching of the Magisterium, its setting itself up as an alternative magisterium, and its claim to a prophetic voice. Without ever quite denying Fr Dubay’s charges, part of his defence was that ‘One could make a very strong case on the basis of the prophetic function of the theologian for the fact that at times the theologian will have to stand up and disagree with authentic, noninfallible teaching. There can be no doubt that at times in the Old Testament the prophets did speak against what was proposed by the constituted religious authorities. The Constitution of the Church explicitly recognizes the existence of the prophetic office in the Church as separate from the hierarchical teaching office, thus indicating the existence of a possible friction between the prophet and the hierarchical teaching office … one cannot deny that at times the theologian as prophet must speak in a way contrary to that proposed by the teaching office. The theologian should never do this lightly but must try to discern what God is truly asking of us.’ (Charles E. Curran, Ongoing Revision in Moral Theology (1975), p. 59.)

​In 1986, the Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, suspended his right to teach Roman Catholic theology. He continued to teach theology just as he had before, but was no longer able to claim that it was Catholic.

2. In 2004, the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada referred to the Primate’s Theological Commission the question whether the blessing of committed same-sex unions is a matter of doctrine. This led to the submission in the following year of The St Michael Report, whose conclusions are of less interest than the principle it expresses that ‘Our church today has been challenged to be open to the possibility that the blessing of same-sex unions is consistent with the teaching of Scripture and the development of the Church’s tradition. What is required of the Church is to discern the leading of the Spirit in this matter in reasoned and faithful dialogue with Scripture and tradition, and then to respond in love and obedience.’ (Anglican Church of Canada, Report on the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions (2005), p. 13) … As if the Spirit had not been leading for the past two thousand years in Scripture and tradition as always and everywhere received by Christians.

3. Dr Jack Rogers, a minister and one-time Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and emeritus professor of theology at San Francisco Theological Seminary, underwent a conversion to inclusivism of ‘people who are LGBT’ in the Presbyerian Church (U.S.A.), including affirmation of their conduct, and wrote a tract to champion it, Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality: Explode the Myths, Heal the  Church (2006). He set out on a tour to promote the book, reported on his website: ‘… perhaps the highlight was October 11 at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri. … The event was to take place in an historic Baptist church where Martin Luther King, Jr. reportedly had preached. … By the time the event started, an estimated 125 people had crowded into the room … The atmosphere was electric … Then I gave my remarks and the crowd really seemed to get it. Afterwards they asked really thoughtful questions and showed a real commitment to understanding the issues. I came away from the event feeling that the Holy Spirit was at work.’

4. And now in 2015, the Episcopal Church U.S.A. at its 78th General Convention has endorsed same-sex marriage. George Conger on the Anglican Ink website on 29 June described the scene leading up to the vote, including a conversation with the Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon, Suffragan Bishop in Europe. ‘‘God has given us a new revelation not shared with our forefathers in the church,’ the bishop said. ‘As such, we must proceed slowly and with generosity of spirit,’ to ensure that the revelation given to the majority was not in error.’

This elicited a startled response on the Creedal Christian blog, which goes on to ask the questions which led St Irenæus to formulate the criteria of apostolic continuity:
‘Regardless of where one stands on this matter, this is a striking statement to make.
‘ ‘A new revelation not shared with our forefathers.’  
‘In other words, God has given The Episcopal Church a revelation that cannot be found in Scripture or Tradition, a revelation that Jesus, St. Paul and the rest of the New Testament writers, the Church Fathers, the Reformers, the Anglican Divines, etc., did not have access to. Because only in our time has God been gracious enough to share it. And God has given this new revelation only to a select few among all the Christians currently living in the world.
‘But how do we know this is truly revelation from God? By what authority and what criteria does a claim to new revelation get checked out and determined to be true or false?’