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Human Speech and God's Word: On a Latent Divine Attribute

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Beáta Tóth
Beáta Tóth*
Affiliation:
Sapientia College of Theology
*
1364 Budapest, Pf. 235, Hungary. toth.beata@sapientia.hu
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Abstract

The idea that God speaks to humans and responds to their call is often taken for granted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. This paper reflects on the significance of the fact that God is Deus loquens: one who speaks in revelation and who is also inner Trinitarian eternal utterance. To outline an anthropology and a theology of speech, two Hungarian interlocutors are summoned: twentieth century poet János Pilinszky (1921-1981) and exegete and literary critic István Jelenits (b. 1932), whose accounts are instructive concerning the nature of human and divine communication. As a next step, the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini (2010) by Pope Benedict XVI is examined, which can be seen as providing the outlines of a systematic “theology of the word.” Such theology is aware that the word of God is an analogical concept rooted in the Trinitarian reality of divine communication.

Keywords

God's WordJános PilinszkyIstván JelenitsBenedict XVIVerbum Domini
Type
Catholic Theological Association 2019 Conference Papers
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 101 , Issue 1092 , March 2020 , pp. 218 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

1 Pilinszky, János, “Apocrypha”, in Dávidházi, Péter et al. (eds.), The Lost Rider: A bilingual anthology (Budapest: Corvina, 1997), pp. 415; 417Google Scholar.

2 Mezei, Balázs M., Radical Revelation. A Philosophical Approach (London/Oxford/New York/New Delhi/Sydney: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017), pp. 120-123CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 A collection of these essays (about five hundred pieces) was published posthumously in János Pilinszky, Szög és olaj [Nail and Oil] (Budapest, Vigilia, 1982), edited by István Jelenits.

4 Key essays are in this respect: “Néhány szó a szavakról” [Some words on words], in Pilinszky, Szög és olaj, pp. 223-224; “Ige” [Word], Ibid., pp. 293-294; “Én Jézusom” [My Jesus], Ibid., pp. 397-399; “Isten nevét hiába ne vedd” [You shall not take the name of God in vain], Ibid., pp. 89-90; “A Szentírás margójára” [To the margins of sacred Scripture], Ibid., pp. 111-112; “Jegyzetek a Genezishez” [Notes on the Book of Genesis], Ibid., pp. 144-147. I present here my own rendition of Pilinszky's scattered remarks.

5 Jelenits, István, “Deus Loquens”, in Jelenits, István, Élet és evangélium [Life and Gospel] (Budapest: Új Ember, 2001), pp. 17-30Google Scholar. The lecture was given in 1980 to students of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.

6 Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini of the Holy Father Benedict XVI to the Bishops, Clergy, Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful on the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church. http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20100930_verbum-domini.html (10.08.2019.). This document intends to further develop the legacy of the Vatican II dogmatic constitution on revelation, Dei Verbum (1965). My account relies on Part One of the document which lays down the theoretical foundations (points 1-28.)

7 This is also reflected by many of the subtitles of the document, such as, “The God Who Speaks”, “Our Response to the God Who Speaks”, “The Word of God and the Church”, “The Liturgy, Privileged Setting for the Word of God”, “The Word of God in the Life of the Church”, “The Church's Mission: To Proclaim the Word of God to the World”, etc.

8 Verbum Domini, 6.

9 This idea may have an analogue in Balázs M. Mezei's claim that revelation has two interrelated aspects: revelation ad intra, that is, within the dynamism of self-donating love of the Trinitarian persons, and revelation ad extra, in terms of God's self-revelation in salvation history. See Mezei, Radical Revelation, pp. xviii-xxi.

10 Herbert Haag, for example, goes so far as to claim that biblical scholarship cannot rely on the idea of God as elaborated in the doctrine of God by systematic theology since the latter's concerns differ markedly from the ones of the Bible. Haag, Herbert, “Isten” [God], in Haag, Bibliai lexikon (Budapest: Szent István Társulat, 1989), p. 698Google Scholar. Herbert Vorgrimler likewise registers a regrettable fissure between the philosophically constructed divine attributes and God's biblical self-revelation, which, in his view, is also reflected in the language of liturgical prayer as well. Vorgrimler, Herbert, “Isten tulajdonságai” [Divine Attributes], in Vorgrimler, Új teológiai szótár [Neues Theologisches Wörterbuch, 2002] (Budapet: Göncöl, 2006), p. 301Google Scholar.

11 See, for example, Breuning, Wilhelm, “Isteni tulajdonságok” [Divine Attributes], in Beinert, Wolfgang (ed.), A katolikus dogmatika lexikona [Handbook of Catholic Theology] (Budapest, Vigilia, 2004), p. 300Google Scholar. Wolfhart Pannenberg likewise considers love to be an adequate basis for expounding the essential continuity between the philosophical and the biblical divine attributes. Pannenberg, Wolfhart, Rendszeres teológia [Systematische Theologie], Vol. 1. (Budapest, Osiris, 2005), pp. 301-304Google Scholar.

12 See Pannenberg, Rendszeres teológia, pp. 257-304.

13 See Augustine, The Trinity, esp. Book IX.