Ecclesial Community Research Articles

"Beyond the Dumping Ground": A Critique of the Basic Ecclesial Community Model as a Strategy for Development in an Urban Site

Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) are small communities of Christians organized by church workers seeking to transform the prevailing society into a more equitable and just society. The paper looks at an organized scavenger community located in an urban dump site. The untenable conditions of the site work against the organizers' intention to develop a self-sustaining community. Hence, they overemphasize income-generating strategies, instead of social transformation, because they must help to meet the basic needs of the residents. Unlike rural BECs which may opt to lessen their contact with the capitalist marketplace to develop more communal agrarian modes of practice, urban BECs may not so easily meet their daily subsistence needs outside the market system. This raises other questions: Are church-led and bottom-up initiatives enough without material support from the government? Is there a point at which capitalism becomes a sufficiently dominant ideology to render ineffective alternative courses of ac...

Miracle‐Working Icons, Laity, and Authority in the Russian Orthodox Church, 1861–1917

In 1912 priest Ioann Paryshev from Siberian diocese of Eniseisk posed following question in a letter to Holy Synod: How does one distinguish between and special (that is, miracle-working) icons?' Although seeming only to request a definition of the miraculous, Paryshev's query was closely tied to question of who had prerogative to distinguish between and miracle-working icons. Thus it touched on a set of issues which members of Orthodox establishment in Russia had been heatedly debating for previous decade: definition of community called the Church, and roles and functions of its members, especially laity.2 Ultimately, Paryshev's question concerned issues of authority-lay and hierarchical, individual and communal-in matters concerning the holy. This article examines Russia's culture of icon veneration as an arena in which these difficult issues of authority surfaced in critical decades preceding Russia's 1917 revolutions. It traces role that common believers played in shaping this culture of icon veneration, and manner in which that culture, in turn, empowered them in an ecclesial community whose institutional structure did not lend them much credence.3 In particular,

Las Fundaciones canónicas en el ordenamiento jurídico español: algunas consideraciones

Pious Foundations are one of the traditional and classical forms by which the Catholic Church has realised, in a stable form, «works of piety, of the apostolate or of charity, whether spiritual or temporal» (cc. 114, 2; 1303, 1.1). For the church this institutional, social, and charitable action is very important since it forms part of the essence of the ecclesial community as well as manifesting the community. This article examines the repercussions of some recent Spanish civil laws, which have, or could have, repercussions on the activity of canonical foundations. It especially analyses : (1) the regulation by which Pious Foundations can be entered in the Register of Religious Bodies of the Ministry of Justice, thus acquiring civil juridical personality without loss of canonical status ; (2) the treatment of donations and financial activity of Pious Foundations according to recent Spanish fiscal laws. The author is of the opinion that these new civil laws may favour the activity of foundations of the Catholic Church if these are adapted to current ecclesiastical and social conditions.

Règne de la Mère ou fonction du Père ? Une approche psychologique structurale de la dynamique religieuse

Using a case study of spiritual paternity in the context of a monastic community, this article attempts to show how the paternal fonction, in the psychoanalytical meaning of the term (Lacan) — a symbolic function to be distinguished from that of the agent - is fundamental in the psychological structuring of religious experience. Next to a first basic framework provided by the maternal atmosphere of the ecclesial community (cf. «Mater Ecclesia»), the paternal function takes the religious man away from the hold of the immediacy of the material world, which is typical of the reign of the mother, and allows the articulation of several psychological realities of religious life and thus becomes a factor of spiritual progress. Finally the psychoanalytical theory concerning paternity shows itself to be useful in order to distinguish between the necessity of this function and the various ways of exercising it and its deviations and also in order to formulate new hypotheses for the psychological understanding of contemporary forms of religiosity.

Corporate Life in the University of Paris, 1249–1418, and the Ending of Schism

As many had done long before, John Henry Newman, in his sermon of 1842 on ‘The Christian Church an imperial power’, drew his model of the corporate life of the Church from the state: ‘We know what is meant by a kingdom. It means a body politic, bound together by common law, ruled by one head, holding intercourse part with part, acting together’. This description, little changed, could have applied as well to the university community of Newman's Oxford, and it is not implausible that an experience of fellowship there, strained and divided as it sometimes was, could have provided an unconscious model for his understanding of the ecclesial community. Even if it did not become explicit in Newman's thought, the analogy of head and members was present to the thinking of university men at Paris with regard to their own corporate life in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, particularly when relations were strained and division of the body threatened. Whatever the origins of conciliarist theory, then, in the reflections of canonists and theologians, there was an experience of ecclesial community in the corporate life of medieval Paris that could have given living content to speculation about the Church in the most influential intellectual centre of Christendom. The shaping of that experience deserves some attention as a matrix for conciliarist thought.

Les laïcs : à la recherche d'une définition

To the question : what is a "Lay Person ?", one can answer, so it seems, in three points : a. he/she is a disciple of Christ, a "Christian", with ail the doctrinal and spiritual richness this term indicates ; b. he/she enjoys an existence in the world, "secular", which is "full", meaning "in allfields" ; c. he/she can participate in a "multiformous" way in the activities of the life of the ecclesial community.

Base Ecclesial Community A Protestant Perspective

Base Ecclesial Community A Protestant Perspective

Toward Developing an Adequate and Comprehensive Understanding of Evangelization

This article seeks to explore the evangelizing mission of the church within the contemporary world. It takes as one of its major theological sources, Paul VI's Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Nuntiandi, and attempts to explore systematically the meaning, importance, and purpose of the ecclesial community for humanity. The perspective of this exploration is from the viewpoint of Jesus Christ as universal Savior.

The “Parable” of the Sheep and the Goats: A Challenge to Christian Ethics

A HE began his panorama of the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman empire, Adolf Harnack quoted Mt 25:35-36: was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; I was in prison and you came to me As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me, and wrote: These words of Jesus have shone so brilliantly for many generations in his Church and exerted so powerful an influence that one may further describe the Christian preaching as the preaching of love and charity. The portrayal of the last judgment in Mt 25:31-46, where this saying appears, is one of those texts which has inspired and challenged generations of Christians. It has recently been called a summary of the gospel and is one of the most widely cited biblical passages across confessional and even religious boundaries. The classic interpretation emerges directly from the text. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will judge all peoples. The criterion of judgment will be works of charity and mercy shown toward the marginal, the poor and the suffering of the world, the least of Jesus' brothers and sisters, who generally throughout Christian history have been equated with suffering Christians or members of one's ecclesial community.

The Protestant Predicament: From Base Ecclesial Community to Established Church—A Brazilian Case Study

The Protestant Predicament: From Base Ecclesial Community to Established Church—A Brazilian Case Study

Simul Justus et Peccator: Ecclesiological and Ecumenical Perspectives

AbstractThe Lutheran formula “simul Justus et peccator” originally applied to the individual Christian believer. However, it can also apply to the ecclesial community of believers and it can also have ecumenical dimensions and consequences. This article investigates these dimensions and consequences in view of the discussions which were occasioned by Vatican II.

Théologie et monde «pluraliste »

; From a theological standpoint, the existence ofthe Church will continue until the end of time within the context of individual and collective opposition to the expansion of the Messianic Kingdom. Consequently, a quadruple function must be assured in the ecclesial community : deployment, cooperation, defense and anticipation. The unity of the Church is thus constituted of diverse and sometimes divergent elements, the activity ofwhich is required for the common good.

The Subjectivity of the Theologian

THE SUBJECTIVITY OF THE THEOLOGIAN When freedom is really understood, it is not the power to be able to do this or that, but the power to decide about oneself and to actualize oneself.1 -Karl Rahner AOD DEAL OF the very best theological writing in the past few years has had to do with method in theology, the taSik of theology, and the relation of the theologian to the church.2 I take these to be issues in fundamental theology or, perhaps better, issues fundamental to theology. The question raised here falls in the same arena: why and to what extent is self-reflection vital to theological reflection? In order to answer my question I must risk the charge that I am willing to return theology to a private and pietistic exercise, for I am convinced that some attempts, otherwise entirely praiseworthy, to support theology's public and academic character run the opposite risk of abstracting theology from its existential practice and conditions. I fear that theology 1 Foundations of Christian Faith (New York: S.eabury Press, 1978), p. 88. •For important statements from a variety of perspeclives, see: P. Tillich, Systematic Theology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965) I; Bernard Lonergan, Method in Theology (New York: Seabury Press, 1972); Schubert Ogden, "The Task of Philosophical Theology" in Robert Evans, ed., The Future of Philosophical Theology (Philadelphia: Westminster PreGs, 19'71) pp. 55-84, and "What is Theology ?" in Journal of Religion 44 (1978), pp. 22-•W; Van A. Harvey, "The Alienated Theologian," in Evans, pp. 113-148; David Tracy, Blessed Rage for Order (New York: Seabury Press, 1975); Gordon Kaufman, An Essay on Theological Method (Missoula, Montana: Scholars' Press, 1973); John Connolly, "The Task of Theology," Proceedmgs of the Catholic Theological Society of America 29 (1974), pp. 1-58; Karl Rahner, "Reflections on Methodology in Theology," in Theological Investigations (New York: Seabury Press, 1974) 11:68-114; Robert Doran, Subject and Psyche: Ricoeui·, Jung, and the Search for Foundations (District of Columbia: University Press of America, 1977); Thomas Omen, " The Preunderstanding of the Theologian," read at the Karl Rahner Symposium, Marquette University, 1970. 194 THE SUB.TECTIVITY OF THE THEOLOGIAN 195 may become the speech of professors who do not realize that they are confessors as well. On the other hand, while I both recognize the ecclesial roots of theology and rejoice in its connection with and service to the ecclesial community, I am equally concerned that the roots and service not be taken to relieve theologians of personal and individual responsibility for believing what they believe and, especially, for unsparing criticism of it. I fear that theologians may become once again mere spokespersons for the ecclesial community and its liturgical and administrative leaders. The concern that dictates this essay, then, is that the theologian not evaporate in the cloud of demands on the part of the academy for abstraction from the personal conditions of faith and belief or in the cloud of the church's demands for the sacrifice of critical intelligence in its service.3 This essay, therefore, is in part about the believing of the theologian. At the outset, however, I wish to make one point in order to avoid misunderstanding. Belief is in one important way absolutely unimportant to theology.4 What I believe to 3 I think that theology answers for itself its questions on its methods, tasks, and relations with the church, including the relation between theology and beliefs. The assumption I made throughout this essay and nowhere herein argue is this: the intellectual autonomy of theology is inviolable just as it is in any other science or discipline. Theology is not subject to " authority " any more than is philosophy or philology. I am aware that this position has considerable implications for the theology of revelation and Catholic thrologies of church office and order. One of the concerns of this paper is to suggest that theology is nonetheless religious and to propose that its link to the church be other than that of authority and obedience. 4 The nature of belief and believing is itself a complex issue. I am taking belief here in a rather commonsensical and traditional sense, an assertion...

El dinamismo apostólico de la familia cristiana

The author speaks as a pastor with personal experience of thirty years as a priest and thirteen as a bishop. The apostolic dynamism of the family is not so much a theory as a very specific subject which has had manifestations in the past and, at the same time, is very relevant today. The historical manifestations are to be found starting with the New Testament itself: it is enough to recall the names of Cornelius, Aquila and Priscilla, Tabitha, etc. The effectiveness of the family apostolate can be seen also in China (V. Labbe), in Japan (Nagasaki) and in many places in Latin America. This effectiveness has deep theological roots: it is the fruit of the sacramental grace of matrimony which is, in turn, the starting point of the family. The sacrament of Matrimony, in effect, also confers on the spouses graces with a view to their social mission, the formation of a family and an active presence in human society and in the ecclesial community. Secondly, it has roots in the nature of the christian family which is a domestic church, that is, a community of faith, of chariy, of prayer and of apostolate. The apostolic thrust of the christian family acts at two levels: one, the internal, which is in function of and at the service of the family itself; the other, the external, which is at the service of the Church and of the whole of society. The apostolate of the christian family with respect to itself includes the education of the children in the faith because the parents are the primary catechists; it includes the transmission of ethical values from generation to generation and the teaching of the finest humanism, namely, the formation of persons. The external apostolate of the family (the social level of dynamism) can be considered either in relation to civil society or to the Church. In relation to civil society, the family is above all the instrument which prepares children to enter society in a responsible manner. Secondly, the family is the best school of social virtues, and this all the more so when it is a large family. In relation to the Church, the family is a true ground which finds its place with the diocese, the parishes and the persons. The apostolic dynamism of the family finds itself threatened by several dangers: lack of love, lack of unity, lack of openness, lack of authority and lack of prayer. The pastoral approach to the family should put itself at the service of the family by removing these threats. In order to do so it should base itself on a sound theology and be attentive to the teachings of the Magisterium. It needs, at the same time, to take into account the five following aspects. A family pastoral approach should foster the christian life of healthy families and, in so far as it is possible, heal broken families. It should be ready to cooperate with all those organisations or persons who work for the good of the family, provided that they base themselves on principles that are not opposed to christian ideals. It should take into account the many modern family movements. It should tend to educate the members of the family towards love. Finally, a family pastoral approach cannot be exclusivist: it should bear in mind all the social, political and economic realities in order to provide a full and effective answer to the problems.

Ten Years of Change in the Church: Puebla and the Future

The Puebla meeting of the Latin American bishops in early 1979 capped a decade of far-reaching and surprising change in the Catholic Church. A new, local-level unit—the “ecclesial base community” or CEB—has given Catholicism a vitality in society it has not known for centuries. At the same time, the Church has achieved an unprecedented integration as an institution nationally and regionally, in Latin America as a whole. It has found itself, through an unexpected historical dynamic, increasingly committed to the cause of the poor in deed as well as word, And it has been thrust into political confrontations with state authority throughout the region with an intensity and scope unmatched since the nineteenth century.

Le mouvement pentecôtiste chilien et la politique

This article is an interpretation of the principal results of a survey conducted in 1971 and 1973, regarding the attitude of chilean Pentecostals towards the political life of their country. On the basis of this study it appears that during Allende's period there was a big difference in the political sympathies between the Pentecostal leaders — mainly oriented towards the right — and the mass of the Pentecostal faith ful — who in a large majority entertained sympathies for the left. In spite of this difference in political orientation, the leaders and the other Pentecostals joined in a common position of condemnation of active participation in the political struggle fought at that time, and in general they adopted an attitude of reserve in regard to anything concerning politics. This lign of conduct was not only caused by a concern about dissension in the ecclesial community, but it was also motivated by the idea that politics, as it existed before the coup of 1973, was morally reprehensible. If this background is taken into account, there should be not too much attention paid to the manifestations of support of the present system of government expressed by many Pentecostal leaders in the past few years. It is improbable that these manifestations reflect the feelings of the mass of the Pentecostal believers.

Frontiers for the Church Today by Robert McAfee Brown

394 BOOK REVIEWS that it fails to deal principally or exclusively with such questions is to evince a lack of philosophical precision. Professor Centore's criticism of The Problem of Evolution on this score, thus, exemplifies the second of the two common faults of book reviewers that I mentioned at the beginning , namely, the fault of criticizing a book for not dealing with topics the reviewer would have preferred to read about. I hope my remarks have made clear that The Problem of Evolution deserves a more careful reading than some would have us believe, and that it should be a book of general interest to the readers of this journal. Institute for Philosophical Research Chicago, Illinois MoRTIMER J. ADLER Frontiers for the Church Today. By Robert McAfee Brown. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973. Pp. 166. $5.95. Robert McAfee Brown over the last two decades has made significant contributions to our understanding of twentieth-century Christianity. He has demonstrated the enviable ability both to perceive problems and to offer realistic solutions. It is no surprise, therefore, that his latest book evidences these same qualities. It is not a thorough systematic treatment of the theology of the Church, but rather a collection of pointed observations on several critical issues facing the Church today. His controlling image is that of the frontier, because, as he states, "The Church in our day is called to live out a frontier existence." (p. xiii) To use the term frontier is to suggest spontaneity, adaptability, mobility, and creativityattitudes that are urgently needed in the present ecclesial community. In this context he discusses mission, ecumenism, revolution, technology, structures , images of the Church, and the liturgy (" the peoples' work ") . His thoughts are provocative and challenging. The basic theological underpinning that Brown espouses is that of secularization theology. His thesis is that the Church is not an end in itself but exists for the world. An ecclesia gloriae with its triumphalism and self-perpetuating institutionalism is clearly rejected. Moving beyond an earlier generation of secular theologians, Brown insists that we must affirm the unity of the entire human family and the nonsectarian concern for mutual help. In other words, the major problems of any one segment of humanity are the problems of all humanity. Consequently, Christianity, if it is to faithful to its vocation, must grasp this universalist theme and act positively on it. Brown writes with a sense of urgency, but he never resorts to strident BOOK REVIEWS 395 rhetoric. He is obviously not satisfied with the present state of the Church and the world, but he refrains from tiresome carping or excessive negativism . His criticism is rather one of loyal opposition, a " healthy iconoclasm ," (p. 47) a" lover's quarrel." (p. xii) Brown believes in the Church and is committed to it, but he wants to see it become more sensitive to socio-political needs, more a reconciling agent of God's mercy, more a defender of the rights of the dispossessed. This means, of course, that the Church has to become less " other world " oriented, less and exclusivist assembly, and less than simply a haven for affluent believers. Of special interest in this book are the sections dealing with the penetential dimension of the Church, the value of Christianity, the nature of genuine ecumenism, the necessity and expendibility of structure, and the images of the Church. Brown devotes two chapters to images and presents some fascinating and refreshing thoughts on the Church as diaspora, counterculture, servant, movement, and cantus firmus. Two areas, however, seem to be neglected in Brown's admittedly selective analysis of the Church. Both would have afforded a needed balance and perspective. The first is an explicitated eschatology. Contemporary ecclesiology (Protestant as well as Catholic) places a growing emphasis on the proleptic relationship between the Church and the Kingdom; in so doing it delineates more precisely the nature of the Church and its mission. The second is the charismatic aspect of the Church with the affirmation of the dynamic and creative role of the Holy Spirit. Inclusion of these two points would have rounded out Brown's discussion of the Church, giving it, moreover, a fuller theological dimension. Frontiers for the...

God’s vengeance… to wipe away the tears of the oppressed: a reading of 1Revelation 6:10

In times of crisis and conflict, when injustice and impunity cast a pall over the land, Christians can experience a common feeling: the wish that God intervene in history and bring justice, which does not seem to come through human efforts alone. However, this longing for justice can hide a certain desire for revenge. That is the feeling of the slaughtered people of Revelation 6:10 who cry out to God for revenge. This article proposes, from the analysis of the biblical book, that the way that God responds to the victims’ clamor of vengeance is not by attacking the oppressors but by wiping away the tears of the oppressed, giving them consolation and comfort. From the point of view of the relationship between orthopraxis and orthodoxy, it implies that, by the ecclesial community, assume as a first response this way of God’s acting, that is to say, to offer effective comfort and relief to victims.

The Ecclesiastical Role of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of confi rmation in the Teaching of Benedict XVI

Formation of an ecclesial community constitutes the basic moral call arising from reception of the sacrament of confi rmation. Formation of the person should also aim at accomplishing this objective. The Holy Spirit given in the sacrament of confi rmation plays a fundamental role in building the Church. Opening up to the gift of the Holy Spirit and submission to His direction allows to fi nd the proper place in the Church and accept full responsibility for destiny of the Church. The ecclesial role of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of conformation sounds signifi cantly in the teaching of Benedict XVI. In his speeches and documents, the Pope repeatedly brought the truth about the special power of the Holy Spirit and His gifts into building the community dimension of the life of the Church. Therefore, in this refl ection – based on allocations of Pope Benedict XVI – the ecclesiological role of the Holy Spirit, coming in the sacrament of confi rmation, was presented.