A Priest and Thelogian

“One becoming priest must be a theologian.
Not a schoolboy who snakes his way through examinations,
because otherwise one won’t get ordained.
We don’t need to be theological geniuses.
But we have to be human beings and Christians
who love theological knowledge,
who are there for it with mind and heart.
For us there can in the long run be no really spiritual life
without an intellectual life.
In theology we have to allow ourselves
to be challenged as whole persons
with all we are, with mind and heart,
with the whole weight and seriousness of existence in our times,
with all the experience of our lives.
Not only what is written in schoolbooks belongs to theology.
Just as Thomas did, so must we.”

Karl Rahner, “Thomas Aquinas: Patron of Theological Studies,” in The Great Church Year, 1994.