EWTN:CARDINAL KASPER TO RECEIVE HONORIS CAUSA DOCTORATE

VATICAN CITY, FEB 3, 2003 (VIS) - Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, today is being awarded an "honoris causa" doctorate in theology by the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

According to a communique published by the pontifical council, "the motivation of the doctorate - according to the university rector - refers to several aspects of the theological research and writings by Cardinal Kasper" and praises "a theological development that faces questions of truth on the basis of a genuine opening to the spirit of the times."

Cardinal Kasper will deliver a homily during a liturgical celebration in St. Peter's Church, which will be presided over by Cardinal Godfried Danneels, archbishop of Malines-Brussels and grand chancellor of the university
Cardinal Kasper wrote an important theology book called "Jesus the Christ." I personally liken it to water, it has no taste of its own until you think carefully about and then you realize that it does have its own taste. His books tend to show his erudition and understanding of other positions but you can actually read his books and think all he intended to do was a survey and you may not be sure what he actually thinks. However, with help, I found out that his Christology is summed up in one word, "underiveable." What he means is that the person of Christ, including his history, from incarnation to ascension, is underiveable from the preceeding secular history of the world or the nature of things.

Rahner would be a good counter-example. For Rahner, XT is, in a sense, the high point of a system set in motion at the beginning, which presents Christ as though he were a necessary outcome of the world's history and nature or its system. Rahner's thought, I think, has to do with the fact that everything is anthropology and secondly, or perhaps firstly, the eternal Trinity does not differ from the Trinity revealed and experienced in human history. Blah, blah, blah, blah, I bore myself . . .