French diocese holds first ever Theology Festival

“Theology responds to a fairly universal demand: it can nourish a spiritual quest, but also help us to confront questions that are omnipresent in our existence and in current events, whether it is a question of violence or of love and well-being,” said Fr Pinçon, the biblical scholar and archdiocesa

Mar 31, 2023

By Eve Guyot
“When you hear about an evening of theology, you expect to sit down and listen,” says Michelle, an 84-year-old woman from Lyon, France. But then she smiles and exclaims: “There, we write, we share, we take the microphone!”

Michelle is describing the event that took place in her parish recently, which was called, “Do you have to understand to believe?” But this was not a conference or lecture. Instead, the 70 or so people registered — people of all ages and diverse backgrounds — were invited to give free rein to their thoughts, during what amounted to a vast “brainstorming” session and “ongoing debate”.

The evening was part of the first-ever Theology Festival, a weeklong series of gatherings hosted by the Archdiocese of Lyon and the Lyon Catholic University (UCLy) to basically make theology more user-friendly to ordinary believers.

“Our objective is that everyone leaves with a taste for further reflection,” said Bénédicte Della Faille, director of UCLy’s Pastoral Institute for Religious Studies, and Élie Ayroulet, a priest of the St Joseph’s monastic community and a UCLy professor. The two theologians devised this interactive format for the Theology Festival with Fr Franck Gacogne, the man responsible for overseeing the archdiocese of Lyon’s synodal process.

“We need to show that theology, which has a reputation for being a cold and difficult science reserved for intellectual or religious elites, can speak to everyone and shed light on the world!” said Fr Bertrand Pinçon, a biblical scholar who serves as the archbishop of Lyon’s vicar for faith formation.

Beatrice, a 63-year-old participant, said the exposure to scriptural analysis, reflections by specialists and a re-introduction to the foundations of Christianity have given her “the feeling of consolidating” her faith. She registered for a dozen events, one of which invited her to explore the meaning of baptism beyond the rite.

This science of theology, which is confessional by definition, reaches even the peripheries of the Church. Fr Daniel Molinet, a theology professor at UCLy, opened his course on “the contemporary history of the Church” — which is usually attended by consecrated persons and a few committed lay people — to about 15 new faces.

Among them were two 20-year-olds named Margot and Alexia. Only one of them is a baptised and practising Catholic. She came to deepen her “understanding of the texts”. The other young woman, who is more distant from the Church, said she was attracted by the “cultural, historical and philosophical” contribution of this field of study to her daily life. Both could consider enrolling in formal courses “as early as next year”.

“Theology responds to a fairly universal demand: it can nourish a spiritual quest, but also help us to confront questions that are omnipresent in our existence and in current events, whether it is a question of violence or of love and well-being,” said Fr Pinçon, the biblical scholar and archdiocesan vicar for faith formation.

But he said that, in order to do this, there are other challenges that must be met. The discipline, which remains complex, must also be the object of a work of popularisation and updating, “like redefining vocabulary that is sometimes misused, such as charism, dogmas, or even sin”.

Pinçon said in order to fulfil this mission, theologians must be constantly driven by one question: “How can we give an account of the relevance of the Word by using the words of today and for today’s world?” -- LCI (https:// international.la-croix.com/)