The
Keys of the Kingdom:
A Tool's Witness to Truth
S. L. Jaki
The hallowed phrase, "the keys of the kingdom", is easily the most
striking among the powerful phrases of the Bible. Yet it has also become
perhaps the most overlooked among such phrases. Worse, this happened, tellingly
enough, in an age in which Catholics have grown boastful of their biblical
reorientation. It is also the age in which lifeþindividual, corporate,
national, and globalþhas become dependent on keys as never before.
Modern man no longer reflects on the technical
marvels of individuality that dangle on his key ring. Nor does he suspect
that his indispensable keys came into widespread use in the centuries immediately
preceding Christ.
Christ's words to Peter, "I give you the keys
of the kingdom of heaven,"
have therefore a special cultural setting. They are to be seen also
in the light of the age-old modern marvel of specific power which is tied
to keys that ought to be always specific or strictly individual if they
are to be useful. This is the gist of the first two chapters, dealing respectively
with the history of key-making and with the biblical theology of keys.
The third chapter is an analysis of all major
patristic and medieval texts on the keys of the kingdom. It is followed
by a discussion of the interpretation of Christ's words about Peter's keys
by Reformers and Counter-Reformers. The fifth or concluding chapter is
a probing into the only meaning that ought to be given to the 'open church'
-- this chief shibboleth of post-Vatican II times -- if the significance
of one's very own keys is not to be jeopardized.