Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 1995 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

INTRODUCTION
Special focus of this Jaarboek 1995 is the theological work of prof.
dr. F.J.A. de Grijs, whose photograph is on the opposite page. July
1995 the first director of the Thomas Instituut and professor in
Systematic Theology, the History of Dogma and the History of
Theology at the Catholic Theological University of Utrecht finished
the official part of his academic career. Ferdinand de Grijs initiated
the Jaarboek in 1981 and founded the Thomas Instituut in 1990.
On this occasion three scholars honour De Grijs with a
special contribution to the Jaarboek 1995. Herwi Rikhof, who
succeeded De Grijs both on his chair and as director, gives an
overview of the theological work of De Grijs. This work is coined a
'theology of provocative receptivity'. 'Provocative' in the litteral sense
of the word, because of De Grijs' insistence upon theology as teamwork
and upon its character as a critical dialogue. 'Receptivity'
intends to portray a theological methodology that attempts to ascribe
an essential position to that part of theology that was formerly called
'speculative theology', in which the focus is upon God and all things
related to Him; a theological methodology moreover, that prescribes a
large attention to developing an openness for that which is strange,
entailing among other things the patient craft of reading texts and
doing historical research; and above all a theological methodology that
takes its starting-point in the ever greater mysteries of faith: God
Triune and Incarnate.
Rikhof presents a number of central themes: what is theology,
the art of doing theology, the interpretation of Thomas Aquinas,
Thomas Aquinas on power and might, and the theology of Church and
power.
Next is Frans Haarsma, former professor in Pastoral
Theology of the Theological Faculty of the Catholic University of
Nijmegen and teacher of De Grijs at the seminary of the archdiocese
of Utrecht, i.e. Rijsenburg. Haarsma, in his unique contribution,
discusses the educational and theological climate in which the teacher
Haarsma and the student De Grijs worked and studied, both of them
finally acknowledging themselves to be students of prof. Kreling o.p.
Haarsma gives us an interesting historical view on the way in which
the theological 'revolution' from manuals to scriptural theology took