By Mary Lackie

Lisa Booth wanted to be a theologian and musician.

So she combined her studies and is now the only Catholic girl pursuing an M.A. degree in theology at Emory University’s Divinity School. The school has two other female students and 600 males.

“I was literally brought up in the Church. I had always been on a religious kick, but I couldn’t buy the traditional answers,” Miss Booth said.

What does theology mean to her? Miss Booth answered, “I think the task of theology is to relate God to man and man to God. That is the definition and the task.”

“I don’t like the words ‘growth and development.’ Theology is a continuum. The Catholic Church existed from Trent to Vatican II without growing. Now it is growing by leaps and bounds.” The pretty 24-year-old theology student credits ecumenical involvement for the new benefits in the development of theology. She said ecumenism has shifted theology to a practical level where the average person could understand and relate God to man.

Miss Booth said, “All the walls are knocked down and there is room to move. Instead of operating in narrow cubicles of thought, we can reach the people.”

To avoid living in a theological cell, Miss Booth spends her weekends and evenings as choir director and organist at St. Timothy’s Methodist Church, Stone Mountain, and works with the theology school’s men’s choral group at Emory University.

She said, “Get out and do something, or you will just grow fat and lazy. Theology and taxes scare people away faster than anything, but if you get out in the world, it helps. You have something to reflect upon. You can’t just sit around waiting for the light to come. You have to keep working, taking steps to find an answer. Theology is something to grapple with.”

Miss Booth views theology as more than a search for the truth. She said, “It is man having to live with man, and with or without God, learning to adjust to himself one way or the other and then acting upon his judgement.”

In her opinion, Dr. Thomas J. Altizer is the best theologian that could have happened to any theology. “To say that he was widely misrepresented is an understatement. He hit at the problem of faith, in an era that he calls ‘Godless.’ Altizer simply saw the problem -- that God had no meaning in this world.”

Miss Booth observed, “We pushed God up on a shelf and He is all dusty like childhood things we’ve put away. Then Altizer took him down and broke Him. It shook up people on a theological level. Now even business men, who never thought about it, are arguing faith during their luncheon.”

Today Christians are asking, ‘Whose side is God on?’ ‘What does it mean to be a Christian?’ ‘Why don’t we just turn in our cards and go home?’ Miss Booth said. Vatican II has given the laity a chance to grow up, to use their consciences and their intelligence.

She said, “Some of the laity are ready for this responsibility and some aren’t. If some laymen want to be Peter Pans the rest of their lives, that’s their little wagon and they can haul it around. When they get to Heaven, they can say they didn’t want to play that way.”

As a musician, Miss Booth is especially interested in liturgical changes.

Miss Booth graduated from Wesleyan College with a Bachelor’s degree in music. She said, “Liturgy is the concern of many Catholics. Catholics especially feel shrouded by ritual. They are afraid of congregational participation and many dislike the terrible gospel hymns. It is the laity that will bring about the changes, and when Christian commitment changes them, it bothers them and it hurts.”

Miss Booth said, “The priest is not here to show us that he is a regular guy. He is here to show us the Church is in the world.”

What kind of seminarians are needed to bring the Church to the world? Miss Booth answered, “We need men with a college education. We need students who are willing to get out and get their hands dirty, their wings broken, and their halos tarnished.”

“They should study theology and know it, so they can weed out what is irrelevant and rebel against what is outdated. But I have no time for these rebels without a cause. Before you can change you have to know what and why you are throwing it out. The seminarian has to stop being a spectator and be one of the players.”

Commenting on the seminaries, Miss Booth said, “Denominational seminaries are passe. There ain’t no such animal anymore. With the ecumenical movement, we are working together, and the whole quality of seminary training has improved as a result.”

At Emory University, where there are Methodists, Church of Christ members, Presbyterians, Baptists and Catholics in the classes, everybody raises questions, and those things which are relevant will sustain and last, Miss Booth said.

There is a problem with the ecumenical movement, Miss Booth noted. “It bothers me that some people do not want to reach out -- they say, ‘it’s all right for Methodists, or Catholics, or members of the Eastern Churches to dialogue, but not me, buddy, I’m sticking with my religion.’ But if the ecumenical movement does anything at all, it strengthens religious faith.”

To develop an informed laity, Miss Booth said it is the responsibility of the parish to offer adult education programs in all areas of the Church teachings. “Courses should be offered in liturgy, hymnology and other fields. Courses in theology should include the ‘death of God’ theology, so the people will know what they are fighting against,” she said.

Miss Booth said, “In a city the size of Atlanta qualified teachers should be no problem. There are theologians at Emory, priests who have been well-trained in a particular area, and teams of priests and ministers who could offer a specialized course and are in a position of authority on a subject. But don’t just give the people somebody reading from a book.”

If a man will use his intelligence to find the best solution to a situation, turn to books, for study and reflection, Miss Booth said, the future of the Church will be bright. She said, “Such a man will be able to live the gospel, the good news, and accepting this responsibility, will be able to do anything.”