International Theological Commission Research Articles

Harmony or Discordance between Sacramental and Liturgical Theology?

This paper aims to show a way of approximating between liturgical studies and sacramental theology, trying to undo a too formal separation between the two sciences. The paramount cause is to be found at the request of Sacrosanctum Concilium, starting from the link between the two to achieve a greater and more fruitful participation of those faithful to the sacraments. In the words of Card. Ratzinger, this request has not been fully met. The dichotomy and relationship between the notions of theoria and praxis in both sciences are presented as the need for a solid foundation or philosophical frame of reference with a metaphysical or realistic background, attending to the problems raised by the International Theological Commission in the document on “The Reciprocity between Faith and Sacraments in the Sacramental Economy” (1999). The pathway is open, some solutions are proposed, and an attempt is made to show the importance of this subject for the understanding of man himself and his Christian life.

Ecumenical impulses in the documents of the International Theological Commission

Since the Catholic Church has entered the current of modern ecumenism, her ecumenical commitment has become of utmost importance. However, the most significant manifestations of the ecumenical attitude – apart from the lively participation in it of the entire ecclesial community – should be sought primarily in those institutions that are paramount in shaping the doctrine of the Church, pointing out prospects for development and stimulating appropriate action. One such institution is the International Theological Commission, which, despite its auxiliary character, represents the theological circles of the Catholic Church from all over the world, has great scientific potential and is able to show the perspectives of faith in the context of the rapidly changing and constantly evolving modern world. Building Church unity is an extremely important and difficult, so necessary is to examine the ecumenical inspirations contained in the documents of this Commission. To do this it is first necessary to identify these impulses from the content of the documents and then to bring them together in a systematic way in order to arrive at a holistic picture, evaluation and reception of the results.

The Meaning of Sacraments as “Signs of Faith” – Reciprocity between faith and sacraments

God, through the Church, enters into a personal dialogue with man out of his desire to save him. This dialogue is carried out in different ways and based on certain criteria. One of these is the sacramental reality. The sacraments are a concretization of the divine action that fully realizes the mystery of salvation. In 2020, a document of the International Theological Commission was published with the title: Reciprocity between faith and sacraments in the sacramental economy. Here it is reaffirmed that the essence of faith is found in the principle of sacramentality. This principle represents the very nature of Christian revelation, namely, the dialogical response of the believer and the Christian community, such that there is no authentic sacramental celebration without faith. The theological study has always linked the doctrine of the sacraments and their celebration to the gift of faith that the believer receives from God exclusively based on the merits of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, Christ, giving birth to the sacraments, also gives them the ontological power that works on the inner plane in the human being. This gives the believer a certain spiritual experience that enables him to live and act as a person of faith. It is therefore important to understand the relationship between faith and sacraments, starting from the meaning of the notion of faith

Synodality and the Second Vatican Council

Synodality and the Second Vatican Council Christopher Ruddy THE INTERNATIONAL Theological Commission’s 2018 document, “Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church,” posits a bond between synodality and the Second Vatican Council: “The fruits of the renewal promised by Vatican II in its promotion of ecclesial communion, episcopal collegiality, and thinking and acting ‘synodally’ have been rich and precious. There is, however, still a long way to go in the direction mapped out by the Council.”1 The ongoing worldwide synodal process, officially convoked by Pope Francis in October 2021 and culminating in two sessions at the Vatican to be held in October 2023 and 2024, has likewise repeatedly affirmed that link: a synodal Church shaped by the council, and a council whose ecclesiological vision is coming to fruition in an increasingly synodal Church. The pope himself has drawn attention to the conciliar roots of the synodal “journey,” referring frequently, for instance, to Lumen Gentium’s teaching that “the entire body of the faithful, anointed as they are by the Holy One, cannot err in matters of belief. They manifest this special property by means of the whole peoples’ supernatural discernment in matters of faith when ‘from the Bishops down to the [End Page 211] last of the lay faithful’ they show universal agreement in matters of faith and morals” (LG, 12).2 Sixty years after the opening of Vatican II, as the pope and numerous other Church leaders and commentators have suggested, the ecclesial renewal set in motion by the council is now reaching a new, mature, and perhaps decisive stage: “It is precisely this path of synodality which God expects of the Church of the third millennium.”3 Because this ongoing synodal journey has generated both enthusiasm and concern among bishops, theologians, and the broader Church, it is necessary to examine the link between synodality and Vatican II. I will look first at the development of the theme of synodality in recent decades, particularly by the International Theological Commission and Pope Francis. Second, I will examine key teachings from Vatican II that undergird an authentic conception of synodality. Third, I will explore conciliar teachings that have been misinterpreted or neglected in some of the synodal discussion to date. I will conclude with a reflection on contemporary dangers that threaten the Synod on Synodality. I “Synodality,” the International Theological Commission holds, is a neologism that has emerged in recent years as a “sign of something new that has been maturing in the ecclesial consciousness starting from the Magisterium of Vatican II, and from the lived experience of local Churches and the universal Church since the last Council until today.”4 Given such newness [End Page 212] and the still-largely embryonic state of reflection on the nature of synodality, it is necessary here to give close attention to recent theological and magisterial commentary, some of which remains at the level of generality and exhortation rather than systematic elaboration. One key contribution has come from the late French Dominican theologian Jean-Marie Tillard, who wrote extensively on ecclesiology and ecumenism. In his 1995 L’Église locale, he describes synodality (synodalité) as “nothing other than the unfolding of the ‘catholic’ dynamism . . .: the communion of all and in all between all the members of the family of God and all their human places.”5 He fleshes out these words elsewhere in the same book: The walking of the local Church is governed neither hierarchically where one imposes his will nor democratically or “parliamentarily” where everything is done collectively by votes on motions proposed, amended, and accepted by a majority of voices. It is governed synodally where, at all its levels, the entire community is active but respectful of each one’s function, some of which have been given with the sacrament of [ordained] ministry. One of the difficulties of our age comes precisely from the democratic mores of the western world. . . . Everything takes place on the same level. In the local Church, on the contrary, everything is located at the intersection of two levels whose point of communion is relation to Christ: in one case Christ understood in his members, in another Christ heard in the sacramentum of his...

The Pneumatology of the Synodal Church

The Pneumatology of the Synodal Church Peter Casarella I. The Voice From The Empty Chair THE GIFT AND AGENCY of the Holy Spirit are necessary for and central to a Church that aims to embark on a synodal path. The Holy Spirit guides the entire people of God, and the ecclesial discernment that allows the people to follow in the footsteps of Christ is also a product of the work of the Spirit. This recognition of a profoundly pneumatological presence of God on the path to synodality marks Pope Francis’s thought: “Synodality is an ecclesial journey whose soul is the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit there is no synodality.”1 Even before becoming pope, he emphasized the metaphor of the Holy Spirit at work in a symphony and suggested that the harmonizing (but not homogenizing) of difference would be the mark of the Spirit in this new ecclesial mode of discernment. More recently, synod participants and even Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, have symbolized openness to the Spirit by maintaining an empty chair at synodal gatherings.2 The Spirit lends harmony to differences that are often discordant, if not in opposition to one another. The Spirit [End Page 271] connects these diverse viewpoints because the Spirit is connection itself. The Trinitarian revelation of the Spirit is thus equally relevant: “Without the Holy Spirit who is the bond of both, one cannot understand the connecting unity between the Father and the Son.”3 The Holy Father makes the same point about the reliance of the synod itself on the unifying work of the Spirit: May this Synod be a true season of the Spirit! For we need the Spirit, the ever-new breath of God, who sets us free from every form of self-absorption, revives what is moribund, loosens shackles and spreads joy. The Holy Spirit guides us where God wants us to be, not to where our own ideas and personal tastes would lead us. Father Congar once said: “There is no need to create another Church, but to create a different Church” (True and False Reform in the Church). For a “different Church”, a Church open to the newness that God wants to suggest, let us with greater fervour and frequency invoke the Holy Spirit and humbly listen to him, journeying together as he, the source of communion and mission, desires: with docility and courage.4 Listening to the Spirit is what prompts members of the Church, including the bishop of Rome, to chart out a new synodal path. The report on synodality of the International Theological Commission refers to this prompting as “the parrhesia (‘boldness’) of the Spirit.”5 But the work of the Spirit in a synodal Church does not end with the initial impulse to embark on a new path. The Spirit is invoked and needed also in the process of discernment itself and in the culminating stage of the enactment of the fruits of discernment. In short, the Spirit participates in the beginning, middle, and end of the synodal process (and even, pivotally, in [End Page 272] the reiteration of the process). This essay examines the development of this thought in the pontificate of Francis. At the center of this development is an ongoing question concerning the “when” and “how” of the Spirit. Is synodality altogether new? If synodality is not new, why do we need it now? How will we know the difference between genuinely synodal and false reform, particularly given the strife for the global Church that has attended the German Synodal Way? Francis has much to say about the “when” and the “how,” even though most reporting of his call for a synodal Church has not focused on this fact. The kairós of this Spirit is likewise frequently invoked but not always grasped, especially since kairós is a qualitative and not merely a quantitative category.6 The Spirit of a synodal Church unfolds as a breath of God’s Spirit and as a guide for the Church, and the timing and mode of the unfolding must first be laid out on its own terms. In...

Faith and the Sacraments: A Commentary on the International Theological Commission's The Reciprocity between Faith and the Sacraments in the Sacramental Economy ed. by Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M.

Reviewed by: Faith and the Sacraments: A Commentary on the International Theological Commission's The Reciprocity between Faith and the Sacraments in the Sacramental Economy ed. by Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M. Michael Brummond Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M., Cap., ed. Faith and the Sacraments: A Commentary on the International Theological Commission's The Reciprocity between Faith and the Sacraments in the Sacramental Economy Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2022 187 pages. Paperback. $34.95. Anyone engaged in pastoral ministry is aware of the frequent disconnect experienced between faith and the sacraments. In some cases, people participate in the sacraments with little evidence of faith; a kind of ritualism or sacramental automatism. Alternatively, the sacraments are viewed as superfluous to a meaningfully lived faith. This pastoral crisis is at the heart of the volume edited by Fr. Thomas Weinandy. Weinandy was appointed by Pope Francis to the International Theological Commission (ITC) in 2014 and was part of the group that worked on the topic of faith and sacraments, ultimately leading to the document which is the subject of this book. The ITC document (hereafter Reciprocity) articulates the theological relationship between faith and the sacraments and addresses related pastoral concerns. The present volume is a collection of essays summarizing and offering commentary on each section of Reciprocity, as well as a translation of the document itself. While robustly theological, the telos of the work is ultimately pastoral, "aimed at aiding priests and seminarians as they address or prepare to address the pastoral and theological concerns they encounter or will encounter on a daily basis" (ix). The opening chapter by John P. Yocum summarizes the contemporary relevance of the problem, tracing the philosophical roots of the crisis, the cultural phenomena antagonistic to Catholic faith, common attitudes among faithful and clergy, and pastoral failures that undermine the reciprocity between faith and sacraments. To demonstrate that the situation may rightly be called a crisis, the chapter marshals several recent surveys indicating lack of practice or doctrinal adherence among Catholics. The author also emphasizes the link between philosophical-theological errors and pastoral practice: "The questions addressed in a systematic way by professional [End Page 137] philosophers are, or are derived from, the basic questions that every human being asks," (4) questions related to the human desire to know objective reality, and the possibility of divinization. In the second chapter, Christopher Ruddy offers a summary of the main themes from Reciprocity on the dialogical nature of the sacramental economy. He briefly notes the strengths and weaknesses of this section of the document, points that are valid though somewhat anemic given the robust quality of Reciprocity at this stage. The real strength of this chapter lies in drawing attention to "more original, primary crises of faith and sacramentality" (24). The author notes that various scandals—sexual, financial, etc.—make belief difficult. Faith is also complicated by sociocultural conditions, including the growth of phenomena such as secularism and "moralistic therapeutic deism" (25). Sacramentality itself is absurd to a materialistic, scientistic worldview. He also notes that the response to Covid has unmasked this crisis, making explicit in many Catholics the attitude that sacraments are truly superfluous. In response, the author appeals to a more transcendent, eschatologically oriented liturgy as an avenue into the sacramental worldview. In the next essay, Jennifer Newsome Martin turns to the reciprocity of faith and the sacraments of Christian initiation. The author advocates for a theologically charged pastoral vision which should "prioritize rigor and beauty over accessibility in order to communicate the sophistication, complexity, mystery, and metaphysical seriousness of the Catholic intellectual tradition" (30). The sections on the individual sacraments of initiation highlight the need for mystagogical catechesis and offer concrete, challenging, and realistic suggestions for sacramental formation for these sacraments, oriented to genuine personal discipleship. The author suggests, for instance, formation in contemplative prayer, lectio, Bible reading, service, close friendships within the community, as well as the establishment of a framework of flexible curriculum so that "sacramental preparation would be more uniform, consistent, and theologically responsible" (41). In chapter four, John S. Grabowski discusses Reciprocity's treatment of faith and marriage. Of particular interest in this chapter are...

시노달리타스의 핵심 요소로서 신앙 감각과 그 식별

Synodality is the most important keyword for the Catholic Church of Today. It gives us the task of the integration between charismatic communion and hierarchial communion in the ecclesiological dimension. For this, it is important to understand the concept of sensus fidei (sense of the faith) as a charismatic gift for the faithful. Especially, the discernment of the ex-pressions of sensus fidei of the faithful in the application and practice of synodality is importantly needed. According to the recent documents of the International Theological Commission, the criteria for discerning the right ex-pressions of sensus fiei are faith, active participation in the life of the Church, listening to the word of God, openness to reason, adherence to the Magisterium, holiness such as humility, seeking the edification of the Church, loci theologici (the proper places for theology), and etc. After all, sensus fi-dei is a concept in a hermeneutical circle, since it is by itself one of the most important criteria for synodality, and at the same time, it should be continuously discerned by other criteria.

Love Builds Communion between Persons (UUS, n. 21): Christological-Ecclesiological Key to Confirm the Identity of Marriages of Baptised Non-Catholics

The words derived from the Ut unum sint encyclical as well as the fruits of the newest research by theologians (among others the members of the International Theological Commission) on the meaning of the Catechism formula of Christian Marriage: “the Sacrament of Faith in the Service of Communion” — became an inspiration to attempt to verify the assumptions confirming the sacramental Identity of Marriages of Baptised Non-Catholics. The author assumes that the today’s challenge for the study of canon law should be to explore more the subject matter of the “the mystery of communion” (UUS, n. 5) in all the complexity of its detailed issues, including the development of relevant conclusions in the canonical (lawmaking) and canonical-pastoral (application of the law) spheres. This is in the name of the rule that church legislation, especially in clarifying key/systemic issues — and among such is the issue of the universality of Bellarmine’s principle of eo ipso sacramentum — is always based on the widely adopted theological foundations.

Synodality: Some Scriptural Perspectives on Communio, Peripheries and the Sensus Fidei

Synodality:Some Scriptural Perspectives on Communio, Peripheries and the Sensus Fidei Jessie Rogers (bio) Keywords synodality, sensus fidei, Synod on Synodality, Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church, Second Vatican Council, Pope Francis, International Theological Commission, Austen Ivereigh, Evangelii Gaudium, Pieter de Villiers, Willie James Jennings, Yves Congar Synodality is so much more than the current pope's pet project or a passing fad. 'It is precisely this path of synodality which God expects of the church of the third millennium.'1 The challenge of synodality – to walk together as the whole people of God – is consonant with fundamental convictions that find expression in the New Testament. Scripture, therefore, offers a rich resource for helping us to imagine the life and mission of the church in a synodal key. And that which we can imagine, with the Spirit's help, we can become. In this article I look at an image from St Paul and a story from the Acts of the Apostles, asking what light they shed on our own synodal journey. I Paul, writing to the believers in Corinth, reminds them that they together are part of the one body of Christ: 'For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptised into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit' (1 Cor 12:12–13 NRSV).2 There is an essential unity among all the baptised brought about by the Spirit. But this unity is not uniformity. Paul playfully invites his hearers to imagine a body that lacks diversity: a whole body that is just an eye or only a nose (1 Cor 12:17). That is not going to work! He also asks them to consider how each part is essential to the whole. When each part is not playing its role, either because it does not recognise its own value (1 Cor 12:15–16) or because other parts of the body are dismissive of it (1 Cor 12:21), the body is not functioning as God intended. This is an ecclesiology of communion, the participation of all the baptised in the life and ministry of the church. And it is not only participation; the very identity of the church as the body of Christ [End Page 13] consists in the communion of the members who, by the Spirit, are included in Christ and therefore connected to God and to one another. Paul's vision is not only local. In his opening greeting, the apostle reminded the Corinthians of the larger body of which they form a part. In their own calling they are 'together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours' (1 Cor 1:2). The body of Christ, which has a distinct local expression, is also a universal reality. This scriptural image highlights the diversity of gifts given to the body. There are a variety of gifts and callings, a diversity of activities and service, but they are given by the same Spirit, in service of the same Lord, activated by the one God, and to be exercised for the common good (1 Cor 12:4–7). This diversity is important. I sometimes hear understandings of synodality expressed that chafe against the distinctive role of the episcopacy. If the Synod on Synodality ends up with bishops discussing synodality in Rome, it is suggested, then how can it be about the whole people of God walking together? St Paul, writing at a time when the church did not have the developed structure it has today, lists a number of different charisms and callings (1 Cor 12:28). To hear this text today is to accept that there are those who are called to lead and to teach. The problem should not lie with this differentiation; the issue is with how leadership in the church has been understood. The church is not a monarchy presided over by a pope. It is not...

“Accompanying Migrants” as a Touchstone of the Realisation of the Synodal Church Idea. A Canonist’s Remarks

“Synodality is a style, it is walking together, and it is what the Lord expects of the Church in the third millennium” (Francis). The specific motto and wording of this study in the quoted “programme” thought of Pope Francis, articulated in the Address to Members of the International Theological Commission (2019). The Pope expresses appreciation for the extensive work of the Commission crowned with the “theological clarification” of the mentioned idea, and above all by demonstrating the importance in the perception of the mission of the Church today. If, in the opinion of the Holy Father, factual and competent expert argumentation, step by step, reveals the truth that “a synodal Church is a Church of participation and co-responsibility,” such a determination cannot remain without impact on the praxis of undertaking the most serious pastoral challenges of the present time — on various levels of realization: local, regional, and universal, including ecumenical commitment. This applies in its entirety to the creation of strategies and specific actions of the Church towards the growing phenomenon of human mobility, especially in its forms that manifest themselves as dramatic and devastating to families and individuals. What we mean here is the Church’s multi-track postulate — or more precisely: communion, synodal — efficiency (with its determinants: dynamics, efficiency, effectiveness), for which in 2016 Francis coined the term: “accompanying migrants”. Consequently, in recent years there have been a number of normative and operational activities of the present successor of St. Peter, which in our time — rightly called: “the era of migration” (Francis) — set a new trend of clothing/embellishing the aforementioned critical area of salus animarum with synodal accents. As it is showed in the study, a canonist, with the horizon of the principle of ius sequitur vitam before his eyes, cannot remain passive towards the pressing challenges delineated here. Indeed, within the orbit of the study of canon law a weighty question appears — what conclusions of a canonical nature stem from the “millennium” project of the realization of the Synodal Church Idea.

The Criteria of “Authentically” Catholic Theology: Reading Theology Today a Decade Later

In light of the fecundity and diversity of Catholic theology since Vatican II, a 2012 report of the International Theological Commission (ITC) identified perspectives, principles, and criteria—distinctive family traits—of Catholic theology, what Pope Benedict XVI called its “genetic code”: primacy of the Word of God; the faith of the Church as its source, context, and norm; the science of faith; drawing constantly on the canonical witness of Scripture; fidelity to the Apostolic Tradition; attention to the sensus fidelium; responsible adherence to the ecclesiastical magisterium; practiced in collaboration with the whole company of theologians; in dialogue with the world; giving a scientifically and rationally argued presentation of the Christian faith; integration of plurality in the intellectus fidei; and sapiential. This article marks the 10th anniversary of the ITC report by offering a critical commentary on the criteria, examining the possibilities, limitations, and tensions inherent in each, and the ongoing relevance of these criteria for contemporary Catholic theology. It argues that although the aim of the ITC report is not to promote uniformity but to avoid fragmentation, and its framework is an ecclesiology of communion, when the interpretative possibilities of theology are discussed, the report tends to retreat from these possibilities and adopt a restrictive emphasis on conformity. The article then examines what Pope Francis (2013–) says about the characteristics of Catholic theology and the role of theologians in his major documents and his addresses to faculties of theology. It argues that Francis makes a distinctive contribution to consideration of what is “authentically” Catholic theology, and may offer a less restrictive understanding of such theology for the diverse academic, cultural, and ecclesial contexts in which Catholic theologians find themselves.

‘A Church that Listens’: Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church

AbstractThe long-term ecclesiological trajectory of Pope Francis is towards a synodal Church. He has chosen this topic for the next World Synod of Bishops in 2022. Though a key theme of his pontificate, synodality is a contested notion. In 2018 the International Theological Commission (ITC) published its reflections on synodality in the life and mission of the Church. This article traces the understanding of synodality in the ITC document, offers an appraisal, and looks at some of the challenges facing Francis’ synodal project.

The Teaching of the Church on Religious Freedom: A Break or Continuity of Tradition?

This paper elaborates upon the Catholic Church’s teaching on religious freedom in the period from The French Revolution to The Second Vatican Council. Based on quotations from the original documents, the author presents the evolution of the Church’s position that switched from the initial rejection to the final acceptance of the religious freedom over past two centuries. The fact of this dramatic change begs the question about the continuity of tradition and credibility of the contemporary position of the Church. Based on the document by the International Theological Commission, “Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past,” as well as the teaching of Pope Benedict XVI, the author demonstrates that – in contrast to some contemporary interpretations – the hermeneutics of continuity is possible regarding Church’s teaching on religious freedom.

Synodality and the Australian Plenary Council: Listening to and Looking at those who are Living in the Spirit

In response to Pope Francis’s call for greater synodality in the Church, the Catholic Church in Australia has been preparing for a plenary council. Both Pope Francis and those preparing for the council have especially stressed the need to listen to the Holy Spirit through listening to each other. It is the burden of this article that while such ‘listening’ is necessary it is not sufficient. Using the plenary council as an example, and engaging with the work of the International Theological Commission and Ormond Rush on the sensus fidelium and synodality, it will be argued that although ‘listening’ is an essential prerequisite for success, for true synodality to occur we must also be ‘looking’ in order to see what the Holy Spirit is already ‘doing’ in the Church. This argument will be supported by examining the biblical meaning of koinonia (communion) and homothumadon (of one accord). These are essential for discerning what the Spirit wishes to say at this time to the Church.

Machine or Melody? Joseph Ratzinger on Divine Causality in Evolutionary Creation

In a document penned under the direction of its then-president Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican’s International Theological Commission observed that many neo-Darwinian materialists and their Christian critics share a misunderstanding of the nature of divine causality. This article explores the thought of Joseph Ratzinger in view of proposing the features of a path that seeks to eschew these faulty understandings of how God causes evolutionary change within our world, thus providing an alternative to the Intelligent Design movement’s approach to creation. . Ratzinger has a deep respect for the integrity of nature, rejecting the notion that God is a “craftsman” who “tinkers” with the world. According to Ratzinger, evolutionary change occurs “precisely in the processes of a living being” even as human beings are “not the mere product of development.” Finally, the emeritus pontiff insists that creation is an ever-present act that unfolds “in the manner in which thought is creative,” a dynamic that he describes variously as a story, drama, melody, and symphony. Wedding these and other key insights, this article submits that Ratzinger’s thought on evolution should lead us to conceive of creation less along the lines of an intelligently designed machine and more as a masterpiece story that is continually being told as its plot unfolds naturally over the course of time.

Bonavetura da Bagnoregio – una teologia affettiva o sapienziale?

The author in this study responds to the ambiguity about the concept of the theology of Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, specifically the expression that refers to “affective theology”. Based on the source texts, he proves that Bonaventure's theology is sapiential, not just emotional and devotional. The term “affective” is necessary to understand as a synecdochical expression of the sapiential character of Bonaventure’s theology. In the introduction to the Bonaventure’s Commentary of the Sentences the author discovers a text in which Bonaventure portrays theology as wisdom in the middle of an imaginary cross with axes: intellect – affection, and contemplation – practice. This fact is up-to-date as the International Theological Commission, in one of its latest papers, encourages today's theologians not to forgive the sapiential dimension of their work.

The Indissolubility of Marriage in Support of Family Life

In recent decades, Piet Fransen, S.J. (1913– 1983) and others have questioned whether the Council of Trent in 1563 dogmatically defined the indissolubility of marriage. Even the International Theological Commission in 1977 maintained that Trent did not intend to define the indissolubility of marriage but only the Church’s authority over marriage. Drawing upon Scripture, the Fathers, and the magisterium—as well as studies by E. Christian Brugger and others—this article argues that Trent did indeed define the indissolubility of marriage. It further argues that marital indissolubility reflects the covenant between God and the human race established by the Incarnation, and it also provides the necessary support for family life as willed by God.

Ekskluzywizm ewangelikalny

Within the Christian theology of religions one distinguishes three basic paradigms: exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism. Pluralism considers all religions as equal ways of salvation leading to God. It denies that Jesus Christ is the unique Savior of the world. Inclusivism maintains the unicity and salvivic universality of Jesus Christ, but affirms that explicit faith in Jesus Christ is not necessary for salvation for unevangelized people. Exclusivism is the view that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of the world and that one must believe God’s special revelation that culminates in the gospel of Christ in order to be saved. Evangelical theologians principally maintain this position. Interestingly enough, on the one hand they affirm that children who die in infancy (as well as people who are mentally incompetent) are included within the circle of God’s saving grace and will be saved; on the other hand, they say that since the first coming of Christ the only way of salvation is explicit faith in him.The article is divided into three parts. The first part examines the argument of those theologians about the fate of children who die in infancy and then compares it with the teaching of the Catholic Church expressed by the International Theological Commission in its document The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized (2007). The second part examines the biblical and theological arguments advanced by evangelical theologians in favor of exclusivism. In the third part these arguments are discussed from the perspective of Catholic theology. For Catholics as much as for evangelicals, there is no doubt that Jesus Christ is the unique Savior of the world and that salvation has always been by grace through faith. The difference concerns the content of this saving faith. Must it have as its object an explicit knowledge of Jesus Christ, as is argued by the evangelical exclusivists?

Dar nieomylności. Od Pastor aeternus do Sensus fidei

Second Vatican Council took over from the first Vatican Council the doctrine on infallible teaching of the Bishop of Rome, approved it and presented in more complete context. It is the teaching of Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium on infallibility of bishops when together with the pope they exercise the Church's Magisterium, and on supernatural sense of faith of all people, thanks to which they cannot get lost in faith. International Theological Commission issued “Sensus fidei” in the life of the Church, a document which deals with the issue of supernatural sense of faith of all people of God. This document presents sufficient theology of sensus fidei and therefore it is possible to attempt to place the dogma about the pope’s infallibility into more complete context which sensus fidei is a part of. Three carriers of infallibility in the Church: the pope, the college of bishops and sensus fidei are complementary to one another when it comes to explanation and defence of the divine Revelation. None of them can form anything new in relation to the Revelation. All together serve infallibility given to the Church by the Spirit of Truth.

W poszukiwaniu nowego paradygmatu: teologia spotkania jako nowy sposób uprawiania refleksji nad Objawieniem

This paper argues that today the current question – one of the most important in theology – is: which theological paradigm should be applied today? We have to remember that this question is not groundless. According to the International Theological Commission, the sheer fulness and richness of Revelation is too great to be grasped by any one theology. In fact gives rise to multiple theologies as it is received in diverse ways by human beings. The author argues that in contemporary theology should appear paradigm of encounter. Theology of the encounter should exa mine the religious experience of human being. In this experience, happens the encounter between God and man. God initiates the dialogue.