Catholic Theology Research Articles

Creation and the Great Parent: The Thought of Yang Tingyun, a Chinese Christian in Late Ming China

The paradigm shift from missiology to the study of the Chinese indigenous context has driven scholars in the area of Christianity in late imperial China to the Chinese reactions to the Catholic missions, either positive or negative. As an influential yet controversial model, Jacques Gernet's approach to Chinese responses to Catholicism in late imperial China has been recognised as an essentialist analysis of both Christianity and China, which are treated in that approach as two confrontational and monolithic entities. This article, by contrast, explores the dynamics of Chinese Christians' reception of Christian teaching by focusing on the interiorisation of creation theology in Yang Tingyun, one of the earliest Chinese Catholics in Late Ming China. While accepting the Christian idea that God created the world out of nothing ( ex nihilo), Yang has to respond to the cosmogonic discourses advocated by Song Confucians, who exerted considerable influence on Confucianism in the Ming dynasty. Moreover, his way of expounding the Great Parent, Dafumu, as the Creator and Sustainer further shows an active engagement with both the Christian idea of creation and Chinese traditional discourses of cosmology and ethics. Approaching this concept of the Great Parent will provide a window into Chinese Catholic theology in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 1

The Cross at the Center of the Mystical Body

AbstractThis essay argues the image of the ‘Mystical Body’ or ‘Body of Christ’ is fully intelligible only in light of the Cross. The Body of Christ is a cruciform Body. As the Body of Christ crucified and risen, it is presently being configured to Christ in the world through self-sacrificial love. The essay traces the place of the Cross in some representative twentieth-century Catholic theologies of the Mystical Body, in light of the perspective of Thomas Aquinas. I first survey four theologians from the first half of the century who, in their understandings of the Mystical Body, gave a place to the Cross: Emile Mersch, Fulton Sheen, Charles Journet, and Pius Pasch. Here I also examine Pope Pius XII's encyclical Mystici Corporis. Second, I explore the approach of some notable Thomistic theologians or interpreters of Aquinas from the early 1960s onward: Jerome Hamer, M. J. Le Guillou, George Sabra, Jean-Pierre Torrell, and Herwi Rikhof. In this section, I also examine Vatican II's Lumen Gentium. My third and final section treats Aquinas himself, in order to reflect upon the place of the Cross in his understanding of the Mystical Body, as found in his biblical commentaries and the Summa theologiae.

POPULISME AGAMA DITINJAU DARI PERSPEKTIF TEOLOGI KATOLIK

This study is intended to critically elaborate Catholic Theology on Religious Populism, primarilly as articulated in the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti (On fraternity and social friendship), and its relevance to critically investigate politics of Religious Poapulism in Indonesia. Since the politics of Populism is corraleted with the politic of religious identity, this research then addresses the correlation of those two political phenomena. We utilize literer study as a method in exploring this study. After doing a biblical critical analysis, which in the Christian Theology considered as the biblical theology; we then investigate the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, which gives an extentive account on Populism. Catholic theology, we are convinced, gives important contributions to the project of religious moderation and offers critical thoughts on religious populism: Religious Populism could endanger the democratic foundations, such as the recognizion of plurality, neglecting the richts of the marginalized and minority, and induces the crisis of humanity itself.

Церковь как институт. Полемика в католических журналах «Concilium» и «Communio»

The article analyses the polemics on the institutional and authoritative aspects of life of the Catholic Church in the international Catholic journals “Concilium” and “Communio”, created in the first few years following the Second Vatican Council. The former welcomed reforms and sought to extend the conciliar innovations to various spheres of Catholic Church life; the latter was represented mainly by conservative authors. These journals, which numbered among their authors the most prominent theologians of their time, express different views on the post-conciliar development of Catholicism, illustrate the long-standing conflict between modernism and traditionalism, reveal the specific make-up of the modern Catholic academic community as well as a new phase in the development of Catholic mass-media. The author concludes that the institutional aspect of the life of the Catholic Church constituted an important part of the discussion in these journals, especially in the 1970-ies - the early 1980-ies. Whereas the authors of “Concilium” advocated for democratization of Church life, the limitation of authoritative powers of the bearers of the Church office and the distribution of authority in the Catholic Church, “Communio” attempted to protect the authority of Catholic magisterium, warn against a hasty reinterpretation of the institutional power and emphasize its inextricable connection with the nature of the Church itself. At the same time, “Communio” took care to meet the requirements of the academic genre, while “Concilium” expressed a high degree of critical anti-institutional pathos, which the declared intention to accept Church reform does not directly imply. The texts published in the journals demonstrate a deep-rooted conflict, which dates back to the period of fighting modernism, and, being still unresolved, continues to determine the life of the Catholic Church. The contrasting editorial policies reflect, on the one hand, the intensifying polarization and the pluralistic character of Catholic theology after the Second Vatican Council, on the other hand – a close interaction between the religious and the socio-political life spheres of modern Catholics, which renders the analysis of religious communication even more relevant.

Images as a Resource for Catholic Theology

The aim of this article is to demonstrate why Catholic theology should actively engage with artistic images and elucidate how they could serve as a valuable resource for theological knowledge and content. The discussion is articulated in three distinct steps. Firstly, drawing from theological-historical perspectives within Christian tradition, it is shown that certain images possess significant theological potential. There have been various forms of interaction between theology and the visual representation of faith. The second step discusses the gradual reduction of theological reflection towards rational and conceptual cognition. The author relies predominantly on inner-theological arguments to advocate for the necessity of expanding the intellectual and conceptual horizons of contemporary Catholic theology so as to include the aesthetic dimension. In the final, third part, these insights are substantiated through the examination of two examples from contemporary Catholic theology: the works of Alex Stock and Peter Hofmann, exploring how artistic images can enrich systematic theology by serving as a “locus theologicus”. In conclusion, the author asserts that images have the potential to expand and concretize abstracted topics within dogmatic theology. They can also facilitate the reintegration of fragmented theological disciplines and forge a more direct link between theology and the lived experience of faith.

Catholic theology in the context of postmodernist relativism

The article considers modern Catholic theology in the context set by the postmodern cultural attitudes, namely, the phenomenon of the decline of metanarrations and fundamental relativism, which does not correlate well with the classical theological tradition. Under these conditions, Catholic theology, starting with the Agiornamento tradition, demonstrates new attitudes that can also be considered in the context of the rejection of severe intolerance, that is, a kind of humanization.

In Search of Common Ground: How Can Eastern Orthodox Theology Develop a Natural Law Theory?

While natural law theory plays an important role for Catholic moral theology, it is true that Orthodox ethics has not endeavoured to develop its own theory of natural law. This article demonstrates the existence of the concept of natural law in Eastern Orthodox theology and argues that the main reason for this neglect is Eastern Christianity's traditional focus on faith rather than reason. In addition, the author, based on biblical and patristic grounds, highlights the necessity for a balance between the two to be found and provides a way in which Orthodox moral theology could develop a natural law theory, should it ever feel the need to do so, by first redefining its relationship with the science of philosophy, after so many years of disregard.

War, Peace and Military Chaplaincy: Lessons Learned from Ukraine

Roman Zaviyskyy is a philosopher and theologian and president of the Ukrainian branch of the European Society of Catholic Theology. In June, he spent two weeks in the Netherlands at the invitation of Tilburg School of Catholic Theology to get in touch with colleagues and to conduct research into Catholic thinking about peace and war (supported by the Ladies of Bethany Research Fellowship, established by the Tilburg University Fund). In this interview, I asked him to reflect on the position and tasks of military chaplains in Ukraine, his wartime experiences, questions about peace and war, and Catholic responses to the war.

Ф. М. Достоевский и Ж.-Л. Марион: память в свете понятия conversio

This article attempts to apply the concepts of “conversion” and “memoria” to Dostoevsky's poetics and, in particular, to his use of the “sudden memory” technique. These concepts are adopted from the analysis of the “Confession” of St. Augustine, conducted by the Catholic theologian and phenomenologist Jean-Luc Marion. It is revealed that Augustine's “conversion” should be understood in two senses: institutionally, as an entry into the Church, and phenomenologically, as a turn to the Church. It is indicated that the first meaning presupposes rootedness in tradition and psychological integrity, while the second meaning presupposes psychological duality and the experience of loss of identity. It is the phenomenological meaning that is relevant for Dostoevsky's prose: the author substantiates that it was conceptualized by Bakhtin in the concept of a “threshold situation”. In view of this, the use of phenomenological methods to clarify the path of remembrance in Dostoevsky's works is argued. With the involvement of historical-literary works and the use of philosophical methods, the key concept of Dostoevsky's poetics “suddenly” is analyzed. It is proved, firstly, that the obsessive break in the narrative, which is designated by the writer by the specified concept of “suddenly”, precedes the transformation of the personality of the characters, the “change of mind” they experience; secondly, that although the “threshold situation” and the possibility of “change of mind” are available to every hero of Dostoevsky, not all of them come to the possibility of genuine conversion, that is, to entering the Church. The author comes to the conclusion that the gap between the two stages of “conversion” is due to 1) the tradition in which this or that hero exists and 2) his own capabilities of remembrance.

Biblical Kingship, Catholic Theology, and the Rights of Indians in the Opening of Las Casas’s Short Account

This article introduces the key issues and scope of the 16th-century debate over the rights of the native American peoples encountered by Columbus and the Castilian conquistadores. The historic attempt by theologians and missionaries to limit imperial expansion and to defend the dignity of conquered peoples is an example of Western self-criticism and a fundamental contribution of the Catholic Church to the slow emergence of human rights discourses. This article then focuses on the first pages of Bartolomé de Las Casas’s Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, a text that played a pivotal role in the formation of the Black Legend against Spain, but also in the drafting of the Leyes Nuevas (New Laws) of 1542. While the Short Account’s hyperbolic and explosive prose are well-known, its religious roots can be detected in the prologue and preface, with their discussion of biblical kingship, virtuous Indians, mortal sin, and (un)Christian behavior.

Volunteering as an Instrument for Preparing Young People for Christian Marriage and Family Life

Volunteering is an organized service for people and social groups in need, characterized by selflessness, voluntariness, and regularity. The roots of modern volunteering should be sought in various forms of social commitment and charity activities already existing in the circle of Christian culture in antiquity. Contemporary volunteering is one of the important segments of civil society, which is why it develops well in democratic countries. In totalitarian states, it has no raison d’être, because the necessary condition for its development is the social space of freedom. The aim of this work is to seek an answer to the question: how can the involvement of young people in volunteering contribute to their good preparation for life in a Christian marriage and family? The article is theoretical and falls within the field of practical theology. The author will use the method of secondary analysis of available materials in the fields of philosophy, social sciences, and Catholic theology in order to show the relationship between the involvement of young people in volunteering and good preparation for future tasks of Christian spouses and parents. The starting point of the search will be a presentation of the current condition of marriages and families in Europe. The next step in the research process will be the presentation of the review-focused research methodology, and in the final part of the article, the advantages of volunteering as an instrument of preparing young people to take up the future tasks of spouses and parents will be emphasized.

Mystery and the Problem of Election in Judaism and Christianity

Abstract: In the early Common Era, followers of Jesus approached their contradictory truth claims by arguing that God's nature is enveloped in mysterion , and is ultimately unknowable. Rabbinic writers, however, treated their own truth claims through the lens of sod , a word that denoted a secret body of knowledge that was hidden from most but accessible to some. In the wake of the Enlightenment, and particularly after the Second Vatican Council produced Nostra Aetate in 1965, Jewish theologians have begun to engage with Catholic theology, and in particular with the idea of how mystery can be activated as a meaningfully Jewish category that addresses contradictions related to the claim of Jewish election.

Censorship, Silence, and the Voices of Catholic Feminist Theologians

Abstract: This article argues that theological dissent is not only censored by church institutions but also silenced by mechanisms of self-censoring. Calling for recognition of the intertwining of censorship and shame as analytical categories, the article explores the simultaneity of the silencing of feminist theologians about sexual morality and gender theories, and the silence around the clergy sexual abuse committed by priests as well as the abuse committed by Catholic nuns. It examines the systemic control of critique by the institution of the Catholic Church, which is itself immune to any institutional or theological critique, and calls for a renewal process that involves remembrance, recognition, and responsibility.

Censorship, Silence, and the Voices of Catholic Feminist Theologians

Abstract: This article argues that theological dissent is not only censored by church institutions but also silenced by mechanisms of self-censoring. Calling for recognition of the intertwining of censorship and shame as analytical categories, the article explores the simultaneity of the silencing of feminist theologians about sexual morality and gender theories, and the silence around the clergy sexual abuse committed by priests as well as the abuse committed by Catholic nuns. It examines the systemic control of critique by the institution of the Catholic Church, which is itself immune to any institutional or theological critique, and calls for a renewal process that involves remembrance, recognition, and responsibility.

Критика «традиции» в контексте «психоаналитического метода» экзегезы О. Древермана

The paper examines the functions of “tradition” in the Catholic critical discourse basing on the works of one of the most provocative catholic authors of the second half of the 20th century. The meaning of “tradition” in Catholic theology seems to be rather vague; however, in the works of the 20th century theologians it is possible to trace two most general aspects of the concept: tradition as transcendent truth, given by God, and tradition as order, custom or teaching, created by people, historical in its character. The transcendent core of tradition has a strong positive connotation, while its historical aspect can be subject to critique. The two aspects are used both by the adherents of a conservative policy, and by the supporters of church reform, which testifies to a certain flexibility of the term. Eugen Drewermann, one of the most notable modern critics of the Catholic Church, uses the notion in a negative sense, which magnifies the critical potential of his argument. This critical effect does not result singularly from the definition of “tradition” Drewermann gives in his texts. In order to explicate the specific way the author uses the term and to reconstruct its critical potential, the article analyzes the notion of “tradition” functionally: basing on the author's three-volume thesis, Structures of Evil, where he combined biblical exegesis with current psychoanalytic knowledge, and Depth Psychology and Exegesis, the book where Drewermann continues to develop his innovative exegetical method. This approach makes it possible to trace how the notion acquires negative connotations: by excluding the transcendent aspect from the field of its denotations, by discussing religion in terms of psychoanalysis, as well as by linking tradition to such negatively connoted terms as “fear”, “neuroticism”, “external” and contrasting it to the “objective”, “internal”, “natural” and “true”. Eugen Drewermann’s critical interpretation of tradition based on the psychological understanding of religion in fact deprives Christianity of its transcendent origin and delegitimizes the modern institutional form of Catholicism: which allows the author to radicalize the question of the extent to which the Church is liable to change.

The Holy See and Disability Sport: From Attention to Commitment

Research overviews of and historiography on the attitude of the Catholic Church and theologians towards athletes with intellectual and physical disabilities assume that the Church and theologians have only very recently begun to interest themselves in this subject. Starting from John Paul II’s contribution to this field, and above all from his integral anthropological vision, this article assesses his position by comparing it with that of his two successors Benedict XVI and Francis. Especially the latter’s addresses and interviews and the official documents on sport issued by the Holy See during his pontificate are testimony to his special commitment to athletes with disabilities. The article also examines the history of the Holy See and studies its attention to athletes with a disability. The results of this inquiry are that papal interest in this field is not limited to, nor did it start with the pontificate of John Paul II. Instead, it dates from the very beginning of the modern phenomenon of sport, with Pope Pius X at the beginning of the 20th century, continued by Pius XII and John XXIII. The latter’s speech to the participants of the first Paralympic Games in 1960 is the strongest indication of a pre-John Paul II affirmation of disabled sport. This points to the importance of taking a more nuanced position in the current debate, although it is clear that Pope Francis must be considered the champion of the Holy See’s commitment to the inclusion of athletes with a disability.

Understanding Different Perspectives on Salvation

Salvation is one of the widely bounded themes in the scripture that has gained traction under discourse due to the many perspectives under which it is viewed. This paper presents a discussion on the various perspectives of salvation both from a historical viewpoint and within the current theologies. The aim is to provide an understanding of salvation from different perspectives as observed by Augustine, Roman Catholic, Liberation, Secular, Evangelical and Biblical theologies. The study will promote reflection and debates among the scholars which will enhance problem-solving. The objective was therefore achieved through a review of various literary studies with biblical references to the term salvation and interview proponents of different theologies. The study, however, finds that despite the wide range of how different theologies view salvation, the only way to salvation is properly stipulated in the bible, thus it supports the biblical theory that salvation is by grace through faith, and furthermore, salvation is wholly an act of God. While this study was limited to the analysis of the term through a review of past studies, this paper recommends further study based on contemporary society collecting primary data on how different people view salvation.

Pope Benedict XVI & the French Ressourcement. “Lumen gentium cum sit Christus”

What unites Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI to the French is ressourcement, a controversial movement that initiated a brilliant reorientation of Catholic thought and teaching in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In the light of the significant work that has already been done on Ratzinger’s original contribution to Vatican II, the objectives of the present paper are, first, to situate him as theologian and Christian humanist at the heart of the ressourcement movement and to evaluate his work for peace and harmony in the confines between past and present. It attempts to illuminate a way forward for the Church, based on the anthropological, philosophical, and spiritual foundations of the new Christian humanism of the ressourcement project, championed by the French and their German allies. Secondly, the paper seeks to document the influence of notable, twentieth-century, French Catholic thinkers, theologians and philosophers, on Ratzinger’s thought and future contribution to Church and culture on a global stage, with particular attention to Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac, Jean Daniélou (1905-74), and Jacques Maritain (1882-1973). Thirdly, it presents a fresh consideration of his vision of the Church, his contribution to the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council, and of the turbulent post-conciliar period. The key goals in this domain are, therefore, to articulate Ratzinger’s spirituality and his preponderant contribution to theological anthropology, using the lens of Vatican II. This is a point of some considerable importance and fills a critical lacuna in Catholic theology. As a pertinent comment of Congar’s makes clear. “For there is little awareness of the values of anthropology; we have created an ecclesiology without any anthropology”. Like Congar, Ratzinger sought to construct a theological anthropology concerned to serve the pastoral needs of the Church but without neglecting its cultural and social elements. Spirituality and anthropology are then, unsurprisingly, as luminous, intricately interwoven threads that permeate and fortify his entire theological edifice.

A heuristic framework for video-based teaching and learning scenarios in higher education

Video has been proven to be an effective tool for enhancing the professional vision of higher education students, which is a crucial situation-specific skill within their professional competence. To ensure the successful integration of video in higher education teaching and learning, several implementation actions and processes need to be considered. This paper proposes a heuristic framework for implementing video-based teaching and learning scenarios across various disciplines in higher education. The framework combines existing research strands on professional vision, video implementation, technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), and interactive, constructive, active, and passive (ICAP) learning activities. To highlight the interdisciplinary nature of the framework, examples from four different higher education disciplines (Catholic moral theology, Communication science, German as a second and foreign language, Medicine) are provided. These examples serve to underscore the framework’s applicability across a range of academic fields.

So what are we really talking about? A Corpus Linguistic Analysis of Keywords and Collocations in the »Theologische Quartalsschrift«

This article presents a corpus linguistic analysis of the »Theologische Quartalsschrift«, a German journal on theology. The research identifies topics discussed in Catholic Theology by analyzing 81 volumes from 1925 to 2006 (excluding 1945). By filtering the corpus and focusing on nouns, frequent terms are identified, offering insights into central subjects.The study enhances understanding of German Catholic Theology, providing transparency and objective insights in order to provide a clear explanation of Catholic Theology to outsiders, even in secularized contexts.To insiders, this approach enables the discovery of blind spots and fosters discourse in scientific theology by making discussions explicit.Overall, it demonstrates the usefulness of corpus linguistics in studying theological discourse and sheds light on the topics theologians engage with. The analysis contributes to a more informed and constructive dialogue within the field.