Teologia, jaką uprawia abp Alfons Nossol

Abstract

The archbishop of Opole diocese and the professor of dogmatic theology, Alfons Nossol, is a man of paradox and compatible dualism. His episcopal mitre and the professorial chair, as Wacław Hryniewicz writes, remain in the state of constant tension, as both of them require full commitment, while the mind, heart, stamina and life itself exist only in the singular. Attempts to link those apparent opposites eventually lead to paradoxical expressions, such as “the thinking heart” or “the loving mind” The specific character of theology cultivated by A. Nossol consists in focusing everything on the human being, who by nature, is a religious creature – homo religiosus. This is because theology, which “talks about God”, must at the same time talk about the man. John Paul II in his first encyclical “Redemptor hominis” emphasized that “all the ways of the Church lead to the man”, and that “the man is the first and most fundamental way of the Church” Hence, A. Nossol draws a conclusion that a man is a question, and Jesus Christ is the definitive reply. A man is the God’s concrete place on the earth, homo – locus theologicus. Theology cultivated by A. Nossol is on the one hand unusually difficult, systematic, dogmatic, requiring faith and thinking, but on the other hand, it is existential and unusually close to every man. There are many theoretical speculations in it, based particularly on German theology, but still, they always have their practical grounds and existential applications as well as they are stimulating for imagination and thinking. In the centre of this theology, there is God – Jesus Christ and the man oriented to God. Theology approached this way is not only learning, but above all, the art of life, leading to joy, happiness and eventually to salvation.