On Writing Theology (Again)

Sorry things just keep leaping off the pages for me in light of the ongoing conversation here and over at F&T. From Marion's God Without Being,

To try one's hand at theology requires no other justification than the extreme pleasure of writing. The only limit to this pleasure, in fact, is in the condition of its exercise; for the play from words to Word implies that theological writing is played in distance, which unites as well as separates the man writing and the Word at hand - the Christ. Theology always writes starting from an other than itself. It diverts the author from himself; it causes him to write outside of himself, even against himself, since he must write not of what he is, on what he knows, in view of what he wants, but in, for, and by that which he receives and in no case masters. Theology renders its author hypocritical in at least two ways. Hypocritical, in the common sense: in pretending to speak of holy things. . . . This experience, however, is so necessary that its beneficiary knows better than anyone both his own unworthiness and the meaning of that weakness. . . . He remains hypocritical in another, more paradoxical sense: if authenticity (remembered with horror) consists in speaking of oneself, and in saying only that for which one can answer, no one, in theological discourse, can, or should, pretend to it. For theology consists precisely in saying that for which only another can answer. . . . Indeed, theological discourse offers its strange jubilation only to the strict extent that it permits and, dangerously, demands of its workman that he speaks beyond his means, precisely because he does not speak of himself. Hence the danger of a speech that, in a sense, speaks against the one who lends himself to it. One must obtain forgiveness for every essay in theology. In all senses.

So perhaps their is a morality (or liturgy maybe) in all this but not of motivation because that requires a discernment of degrees but rather of an overall posture in understanding and accepting (prostrate) just what it is one is doing in writing theology. And well I guess writing about theology is just plain damned!