Many things are unique to Catholic schools, but one of the most important and distinctive is Theology. All students at Cardinal Gibbons are required to take Theology classes.
Unlike math or English, Theology has many different facets and teachings that are easily muddled. When considering this, some questions arose, such as how a theology teacher would be able to teach a subject that is debated within the church.
Dr. Bristow, a freshman theology teacher, said that the magisterium, which is the teaching authority or office of the Catholic Church, guides the Conference of Catholic Bishops in setting the Theology curriculum.
So how much freedom do theology teachers have in their teaching? Gibbons is a very unique school in regard to this, since theology teachers have a large amount of freedom.
“At Gibbons, we have a lot of freedom. So long as you don’t go outside the bounds of Catholic orthodoxy, you can teach multiple subjects in multiple ways, and you can have different perspectives from somebody else and still be called Catholic,” Bristow said.
When teaching issues in his classroom that may be subject to debate, sometimes the magisterium does not have a single answer.
“What I try to do personally is say that this might be a debated topic and that other people, or other theologians, priests, or religious people, they might see things a little bit differently,” Bristow said.
An example of a topic that is widely debated in the church is: evolution versus creationism.
When asked what he teaches on evolution, Bristow said, “Both or neither, depending on how you articulate those.”
“It’s such a wide debate. If you say creation theology, if you just mean that God is the source and upholds all of existence, and you call that creationism, then yes, I teach creationism,” Bristow said. “But if you mean a literal seven days like creationism and a literal understanding of Genesis, then no, I do not. Evolutionism, if you teach that God works through evolving organisms to get to where we are today, and that’s how God set forth creation, then the church is okay with that.”
