Cardinal Walter Kasper speaks about 'the God question' in Oxford

A PROFUSION of clerical black, dotted here and there with Dominican white and Franciscan brown, filled the auditorium of St John's College, Oxford University, last week to hear Cardinal Walter Kasper speak about "The Timeliness of Speaking of God".
Cardinal Kasper, who is the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, drew a large audience to the lecture, which was sponsored by The Catholic Herald. Fr Richard Finn OP, the Regent of Blackfriars Hall, introduced the inaugural John Henry Newman lecture, organised by Blackfriars, Campion Hall, Greyfri ars and St Betters Hall. He said that the lecture series "honours Cardinal Newman by seeking to carry forward his concern for the mutually enriching relationship of faith to reason" as well as his concern "for the place of religion in the university and in our wider culture".
Cardinal Kasper said: "It is with a sense of deep gratitude and honour that I respond to the invitation to take part in this series of Newman lectures. The figure of John Henry Newman has accompanied my whole theological life since I started to study theology in the early 50s of the last century. Heinich Fries in Tiibingen and later Gottlieb SOhngen in Munich introduced me to his thinking. In my research for my doctoral thesis I discovered Newman's relations with the Catholic Tiibingen school of theology, especially with Johann Adam Mohler, to whom I am indebted in a particular way. Maier and Newman are the two most important forerunners who prepared the way for the renewal of Catholic theology in the 20th century, for ecumenism and for the Second Vatican Council. Newman's concept of tradition and of the development of doctrine are still of interest today for a correct understanding of the historicity of the Church, her foundation in the tradition of the Fathers on the one hand and, at the same time, her openness toward new challenges.
"In this sense Newman's Grammar of Assent, his reflections on the foundations of faith, the relation between faith and reason, on education and the essence of the university remain of fundamental importance.
"In this lecture I want to take up the most central and fundamental question of theology and perhaps one of the most challenging problems for theology today: the 'God question' . For I am convinced that the time is now right to speak of God."
The cardinal then took questions from the audience, which were fielded by Fr Felix Stephens OSB • the Master of St Benet's Hall. After the talk the Dominicans hosted a reception for the cardinal at Blackfriars Hall. Among the many distinguished guests present were the new Prior Provincial of the English Dominicans Fr John Farrell OP, the Prior of Blackfriars Fr Simon Gaine, Fr Jerome Bertram of St Aloysius, Oxford. the the Eastern Orthodox Metropolitan Kallistos Ware and Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham.