Presence Of Church Research Articles

Routine and Authority

Abstract The purpose of this article is a comparative analysis of the post-Soviet reappearance of the Russian Orthodox Church in two rural Komi communities. We aimed to study local perceptions of restoring the Russian Orthodox Church's presence in particular localities. We conducted ethnographic fieldwork in two communities and spoke to local clerics and the inhabitants of the villages under study. Our field research also involved participant observation and literature analysis. The collected evidence indicates that the community with more distinctive folk Orthodox traditions more or less plainly contested the priests’ authority. Still, people generally perceived the renewal of the Russian Orthodox Church's presence positively. We argue that the Russian Orthodox institutions and priests did not necessarily replace folk Orthodox specialists’ authority, but rather diversified local religious scenes.

Finding Place in the Archive: A Case Study of St. John [Colored] Missionary Baptist Church, 1866–1900

AbstractThis article explores the ongoing preservation efforts of The St. John Fundraising and Preservation Committee at St. John Missionary Baptist Church (SJMBC). The church, founded in 1869 by former slaves, is located in Fort Bend County, Texas, a county which held the second‐largest slave population in the state in 1860. SJMBC sought to develop an archive of historical records to narrate St. John's early history, particularly at sites it intersected with the history of Fort Bend County, Missouri City, and the Dew Brothers plantation during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Because the majority of the church records were lost in a fire in 2006, Friends of St. John needed to locate other sites in the archive where the church's presence and significance were recorded. They recruited researchers, public scholars and architects and developed relationships with nearby universities and churches to aid in their mission. Highlighting several types of source materials such as a slaver's account book, maps, census, deed, and school records and tax assessments held by the county, SJMBC established a historical narrative of the church through a calculated juxtaposition to well‐established historical narratives of significant white people and events in the county.

Participation in God and the Nature of Christian Community: Robert Jenson and Eberhard Jüngel

AbstractThis article explores the theme of the church's participation in God by way of two contemporary theologians' accounts of the matter: Robert Jenson and Eberhard Jüngel. Specifically, the question of how Jenson's and Jüngel's respective accounts of the church's participation in God determine their accounts of the church's presence in and to the world is explored. The theme of ‘mission’ is taken up along the way, and it is suggested that Jenson's construal of the church's place in God prevents a sustained account of the church's sending into the world. Jüngel's construal of the church's participation in God, it is argued, allows for an alternative depiction of the church's presence in and to the world that accounts for the fundamentally missionary nature of the Christian community.

Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People (review)

Reviewed by: Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People Phillip C. Naylor Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People. By Martin McGee, O.S.B. (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press. 2008. Pp. xxii, 191. $18.95. paperback. ISBN 978-0-809-14539-3.) The Evian Accords of 1962 liberated the Catholic Church as well as Algeria from colonialism. With Algerian independence, the Church undertook an existential, transformative project to take into account decolonization's dislocations. From 1962 to 1964, approximately 900,000 European settlers ( piedsnoirs) left Algeria. During the colonial era, the Church's principal mission was to serve this Christian population that Algerians intensely identified with oppression, although religious orders, notably the White Fathers and Sisters, [End Page 896]provided charity for Muslims too. Critical of colonialism that deepened during the War of Liberation (1954–62), Archbishop Léon-Etienne Duval (elevated to cardinal in 1965) perceived two insistent postcolonial imperatives: (1) the perpetuation of the Church's presence; and (2) the reorientation of the Church's mission. According to Father Martin McGee, O.S.B.: "Cardinal Duval's ministry in Algeria could be summed up in the word friendshipand its corollary dialogue, both of which he saw as the keys to the future" (p. 26). Although the Second Vatican Council called for interfaith encounter, Duval already practiced this position. Inspired by Augustinian "fraternal love," Duval carefully cultivated positive relations with nationalist governments transferring vacant properties to Algerian authorities, while engaging in private coopération(teaching and training), featuring Muslim access to Catholic schools and libraries. By separating the Church's mission and identity from the colonial past, Duval preserved a presence, albeit a small but significant one. McGee states: "By refusing to identify the Gospel message with a particular culture or race, Cardinal Duval won acceptance for the remnant of the Christian Church left after independence" (p. 27). In many respects, Duval's praxis, carried on by his successor Archbishop Henri Teissier, and, in particular, the witness of the nineteen murdered religious, remain paradigms for inaugurating and increasing interfaith relations between Christians and Muslims. McGee's book examines the fragility, vulnerability, and tragedy of the Catholic postcolonial history in Algeria. The book is divided into three parts. The first part provides an overarching general historical "background." A nonspecialist could have benefited from a more detailed account of Algeria's history from 1962 to 1992, e.g., its multiple economic and social problems that the Church also addressed. Nevertheless, McGee's principal intention is to chronicle Christian witness and martyrdom. In part 2, he devotes most of the book to a series of biographical portraits of the nineteen Catholic religious who lost their lives from 1994 to 1996, victims of the escalating extremism of Algeria's civil strife (intermittent violence still occurs in Algeria). Their poignant stories and writings affirm an extraordinary testament. Among those killed were nuns in Algiers, priests in Tizi-Ouzou, and monks in Tibhirine. The third part considers "the future" of the Church in Algeria. To McGee, there will be a future as long as the Church practices a theology of "encounter" that respects Muslims and their traditions. Indeed, the "Algerian Church" serves rather than proselytizes Muslims. On the other hand, Evangelicals pose problems for the Church and the already greatly diminished Christian presence in Algeria. Overreacting to reports of Evangelical conversions in Berber Kabylia, the government passed a law in 2006 that severely restricted Christian activities. McGee adds appendices featuring the "Reflections of Msgr. Teissier" and the interreligious "Ribat Es-Salam." To partake in the "sacrament of encounter," there must be "mutual understanding." Murdered as he entered his residence in Oran, Bishop Pierre [End Page 897]Claverie constantly emphasized the importance of empathy, dignity, and love for the other. The courage displayed by the martyrs astounds and inspires. They served Arab and Berber Muslim communities, knowing that extremists targeted their lives. Their love for the Algerian people ultimately equated with their love for Christ. McGee's book is well written and is especially timely and important. It is not a eulogy for lost lives but an appeal for continued Christian charity, humanity, and engagement. If there is to be a substantial and sustained spiritual encounter between...

“THE DAY WHEN HE WAS TAKEN UP…”—A MEDITATION FROM ACTS 2:1–9

ASCENSION DAY 1997, MORGES, SWITZERLAND The Day The on which Jesus ascended is a tucked neatly in between commissioning Jesus presented his disciples and baptizing with Holy Spirit's power that he promised would accompany them on way. In details of Luke's account, it is carefully marked as a that came giving instructions through Holy Spirit to apostles whom he had chosen. It followed days when he had been appearing to speaking to them, staying with them. On other side of this there would be waiting. What is promised is not yet here. A strict order compels them not to leave Jerusalem. At Holy Spirit's fiery coming, he told them, you will be baptized, you will receive power, you will be my witnesses. In traditions of church's worshipping life, resurrection and Pentecost have played large. The relation of both to mission of God into which church is implicated has been crucial for church's self-understanding. But this day in between, of ascension, has been treated more as a passing comment, an almost irrelevant footnote. Perhaps it is now, in light of swirling dynamics in our contemporary world of globalization and fragmentation, dominance and liberation, healing and violence, that we can see in Ascension Day a paradigm for church's presence and missional identity. Perhaps we can recognize in the when Jesus was taken up (as also ten days following) a liminal moment very much like our own, and one which therefore orients us to our vocation. Luke makes it apparent that of ascension was poised - suspended, as it were - between heaven and earth, between beginning and end. This was not culmination - too much was yet awaiting fulfillment of God's intentions. Nor was it beginning - so thoroughly had Jesus' incarnation and suffering and death and resurrection begun triumph of God's reign. Ascension Day stood wonderfully between, as we ourselves stand continuously between beginnings and endings of God's designs. We stand after garden of Genesis where something went dreadfully wrong. We stand after flowering of nations and diversity of peoples (Gen. 10) and powerful human instinct to construct a resolution, to fix earth and achieve by effort knowledge and grandeur of God (Gen. 11). We stand after modern project of mastery by autonomous rationality and rational choice market forces in a technologized world. We inherit it all. We stand also before coming world of God's reign, captured so vividly by vision in revelation to John of a sparkling city, with a garden in midst of it and tree of life rooted on banks of river that runs through it. We live with memories of dreams Jesus painted in those forty days before he was taken up, dreams that echoed visions of prophets, fueling a hope grounded in reality of Jesus' resurrection. And ten more days of waiting were like our own, imagining what yet comes in fulfillment of words of Amos and Isaiah: Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream (5:24). They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for earth will be full of knowledge of Lord as waters cover sea (11:9). We know ourselves to be implicated in liminality of of ascension, even now in our own time. We can feel it in this world of globalization and fragmentation. The big news of this week has been falling from power of President Mobutu of Zaire. But many more clues spill from pages of this week's newspapers and magazines. Nike is in pursuit of dominance in world's sportswear market. Swissair defends (in its own in-flight magazine) why they hired non-Swiss to be top executives charged with success of company, and why they declared some flights non-smoking - in answer to challenge by one reader who said smoking infringed on personal freedoms and rights. …

The Politics of Liberation

Though the Catholic church in Mexico has maintained a solid reputation as a conservative social force from the time of the conquest, since Vatican II in the late 1960s a wing of the clergy influenced by liberation theology has made itself known throughout the country in popular struggles seeking political rights and social justice, changing forever the nature of the church's presence within Mexican society. The past two decades especially have seen Catholic priests and bishops become prominent protagonists in various popular movements that are part of a wider mobilization of particular social sectors previously silent, or at least regarded as negligible players in the political field (Otero, 1996; see also Foweraker and Craig, 1989). In recent years, with the worsening of the economic crisis and popular indignation over the neoliberal policies of the Mexican government, the involvement of the progressive church in the broad-based grassroots movement both increased and diversified. While the Mexican state is busy trying to deal with the erosion of its authority and legitimacy, a niche is gradually being shaped for the Catholic church-or at least a faction thereof-to exert significant social influence in a new kind of relationship with a nascent but as yet insecure civil society.

The Specific Missionary Vocation in the Post Vatican II Period

Vatican II has created a new context in which the specific missionary vocation has been redefined. The content of this vocation continues to be sending messengers to bring the gospel to those who have not heard it and to plant the church where it has not previously existed. Now, however, in contrast to the past the church itself is missionary, and this missionary focus is central to the church's presence and service in the world.

The left and the Catholic question in Spain

Conflict between the Left and Catholicism has played a major role in twentieth-century Spanish politics. The Church in Spain, as elsewhere 'in its historic heartlands', has served as the bulwark of order, representing one of the most important obstacles to the legitimation of the parties of the Left and to their accession to power. Controversy over its place in society contributed decisively to the outbreak of the Civil War. After the Franco victory in 1939, the Church and Catholicism served as the principal ideological pillars of the regime. Despite the important socio-structural changes of the last four decades, the Catholic Church's presence and influence continue to generate tension in Spain. Thus, even today, as Juan Linz has noted, 'religion continues to be the decisive variable in accounting for the moderate and conservative electoral choices of the voters. In fact, it is a more important factor than social class.' The Left has been forced to devise a strategy for dealing with the Catholic phenomenon in Spain. A first line of attack, in line with the anti-clerical tradition of its Latin European counterparts, was a call for a frontal assault on the Church. The Anarchists, Communists and Socialists pursued this strategy in the years preceding the Civil War and for the first two decades of the Franco regime. Eventually, under the impetus of changes taking place in Spanish society and among Catholics, as well as of lessons learned from having allowed the Right to exploit religion in its favour, a less conflictual alternative emerged. Socialists and Communists—the Anarchists having lost their prominence in the Left by the 1950s—inclined their parties toward more flexible postures. As we shall see, the degree of interest and innovation in policy was not the same among the two parties, but both sought to break the marriage between Catholicism and social/political conservatism. This essay will analyse the evolving policies and attitudes of the Socialists (PSOE: Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol) and Communists (PCE: Partido Comunista de Espana) with respect to Spanish Catholicism. The first section explores the role of the Church and subculture in Franco Spain and discusses the reasons for and extent of their evolution. The second section focuses on the PSOE and PCE analysis of and response to that phenomenon, and the final section assesses the efficacy of those policies and the place of the Catholic Church and subculture in Spain today.

Notes for a Theology of Liberation

T GET at the theological meaning of liberation, we first have to define our terms. That will make up the first part of this article. It will permit us to emphasize that in these pages we are particularly sensitive to the critical function of theology regarding the Church's presence and activity in the world. The principal fact about that presence today, especially in underdeveloped countries, is the participation by Christians in the struggle to construct a just and fraternal society in which men can live in dignity and be masters of their own destinies. We think that the word development does not well express those profound aspirations. Liberation seems more exact and richer in overtones; besides, it opens up a more fertile field for theological reflection. The situation of Latin America, the only continent of underdeveloped and oppressed peoples who are in a majority Christians, is particularly interesting for us. An effort to describe and interpret the Church's ways of being present there will enable us to pose the fundamental question upon which we can then turn our theological reflection. That will make up the second part of this article. This will permit us to see that asking the theological meaning of liberation is really asking the meaning of Christianity itself and the Church's mission. There used to be a time when the Church answered problems by calmly appealing to its doctrinal and vital reserves. Today, however, the gravity and scope of the process we call liberation is such that Christian belief and the Church itself are called radically in question. They are asked what right they have to address the mighty human task now before us. A few paragraphs will allow us to outline that problem, or rather to state, without attempting to answer them, the new questions.