Modern theology has attended explicitly to issues concerning method, that is, how theological authors creatively offer interpretations that advance disciplinary knowledge. This article explores the role of aporias—logical impasses—in theological interpretation. After considering two philosophical paths for negotiating the aporia in the work of Nicholas Rescher and Jacques Derrida, it applies these interpretive paradigms to what it calls the central Christian aporia. It argues that mindfulness about the role of aporias in theological method enhances appreciation for the complexity of theological hermeneutics.

This article attempts to bridge the post-Vatican II “conservative–liberal” divide in theology by appealing to the interpretive category of aesthetics. It delineates two aesthetical sensibilities toward Catholic tradition in the contemporary Church—a classical sensibility and a developmental sensibility for the traditionally beautiful. Regarding both as authentically Catholic, the author explores the differing styles of theology