Roman Catholic Theology Research Articles

The Sacramentality of the Word of God by Jack D. Kilcrease in an Ecumenical Discussion with Roman Catholic Theology

The Sacramentality of the Word of God by Jack D. Kilcrease in an Ecumenical Discussion with Roman Catholic Theology

Lex Orandi, Lex Serviendi: Roman Catholic Theology of Ordained Ministry in Select Texts from the Rites of Ordination

Lex Orandi, Lex Serviendi: Roman Catholic Theology of Ordained Ministry in Select Texts from the Rites of Ordination

What Hath New Haven to Do with Chicago? A Reappraisal

One of the most significant theological debates of the late twentieth century was between the postliberal theology associated with Yale Divinity School and the revisionist theology associated with the University of Chicago Divinity School, led by Lutheran historical theologian and ecumenist George Lindbeck, and theologian Hans Frei at Yale and Roman Catholic theologian David Tracy at Chicago. Given that the fortieth anniversary of The Nature of Doctrine is in 2024, it is time to reappraise the terms of the debate, as well as note the commonalities of these two theological schools, by focusing upon the possible role of correlation in theology, the public nature of theology, and the plain sense of Scripture.

Rare Editions of Blaise Pascal in the Collections of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The Research Department of Rare Books of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences holds valuable copies of early editions of the religious and philosophical works by Blaise Pascal (1623—1662). The article considers the copies of Pascal’s rare editions in the context of the history of publication of his works, the formation of book collections, of which the department’s collection was comprised, first of all the original one, as well as the Mikhalkov collection and the library of the Roman Catholic Theological Academy.

Tėvų vaidmuo ir statusas Romos Katalikų Bažnyčios teologijoje po visuotinio Vatikano II Susirinkimo

In the article we analyse the approach to the family, fatherhood and motherhood presented in Roman Catholic theology. We analyse the period after the Second Vatican Council, and discuss the new opportunities for theological knowledge and analysis, in order to see how a unified approach to man and the family, and how the creation of a relationship with God is developed through the family. We analyse how, by understanding who a person is, we can find answers to questions of the meaning of life, as well as the discovery of the perfection of parenthood. We ask how the question of God and religious knowledge can serve to spread human love in the family.

Transubstantiation Through the Lens of Spacetime Substantivalism

ABSTRACT The doctrine of transubstantiation (as understood by Aquinas and much subsequent Roman Catholic theology) involves the counter-intuitive claim that accidents can come to exist independently of any substance. In particular, the spatial dimensions of bread and wine can come to exist independently. I point out that a key idea that motivated this claim was an aspect of mediaeval philosophy of nature: namely, relationism about space. I argue that if relationism is dropped in favour of substantivalism, then room is made for a model of transubstantiation which needn't involve an implausible commitment to independently existing accidents.

Can we do our scholarship with our backs to Auschwitz? Gregory Baum, evil and the public role of the religious studies scholar

In his 1987 book Compassion and Solidarity, Gregory Baum recounts a story told by the German Roman Catholic theologian and priest Johann Baptist Metz, who, in response to the Holocaust, developed a guiding principle: ‘You cannot do theology with your back turned to Auschwitz’. Baum challenges scholars to ask the same question. What is the cost of doing scholarship with one’s back turned to Auschwitz and other forms of radical evil? Does not business-as-usual scholarship risk conforming to the dominant culture and practices of our time, no matter what? Does it not risk pushing scholars to acquiesce to the neo-liberal model of the depoliticized, neutralized scholar? Baum’s refusal to ‘do scholarship’ with his back to evil highlights the necessity and urgency of using scholarly expertise to participate in public debates. First, society needs the unique expertise of scholars of religion to address its many interconnected crises. Second, participation in public debates affords scholars the opportunity to develop a self-critical spirit and to look for signs of ideological taint and distorting messages in their work. Participating in public debates results in better scholarship, Baum argues, but only if one adopts a critical-humanistic approach rooted in an emancipatory commitment, a hermeneutics of suspicion, and the perspective of the victims, the marginalized and the excluded. In other words, socially engaged scholarship is only valid when it is critical – as well as self-critical – scholarship. Baum’s approach promotes a scholarly humility about truth claims that avoids inauthentic universalisms. David Seljak explores the necessity and urgency of participation in public debates by the religious studies scholar by examining Baum’s biography, public role and its impact on his scholarship.

George Lindbeck: A Biographical and Theological Introduction by Shaun C. Brown

Reviewed by: George Lindbeck: A Biographical and Theological Introduction by Shaun C. Brown Mark Mattes George Lindbeck: A Biographical and Theological Introduction. By Shaun C. Brown. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade, 2022. xii + 170 pp. George Lindbeck (1923–2018) was one of the most important North American Lutheran theologians and ecumenists of the last century. This slender volume, authored by a Christian Church/Disciples of Christ minister, is a highly accessible introduction to Lindbeck's life and work. He presents Lindbeck's contributions through seven motifs: Lindbeck as (1) a Lutheran, (2) a student, (3) a medievalist (an Aquinas scholar), (4) an observer of the Second Vatican Council, (5) a participant in Lutheran–Roman Catholic Dialogue, (6) a "post-liberal" for whom truth is grounded not in experience but instead in adherence to the grammar of faith, and (7) an "Israelologist" who advocated for a continuity between the church and ancient Israel. This book is suitable for those seeking a basic introduction to Lindbeck and to the theological and ecumenical currents that influenced him. Brown notes that Lindbeck was influenced by confessional Lutherans such as Krister Skydsgaard, Peter Brunner, Edmund Schlink, and Arthur Carl Piepkorn. That said, Lindbeck eschewed "denominational Lutherans," who he claimed disassociated Lutheranism from the wider Catholic heritage. He favored a "corrective view of the Reformation," in which Lutheranism is a "reform movement within the Catholic Church" (6). For Lindbeck, the Augsburg Confession agrees, since it is an ecumenical document seeking rapprochement, as much as possible with Rome. Likewise, he accused denominational Lutherans of having a "docetic understanding of the church," unable to appreciate the diachronic continuity of the church across the ages or a synchronic, visible Christian unity between different [End Page 208] confessional traditions (12). For Lindbeck, Luther himself was no denominational Lutheran. He noted that neither of Luther's catechisms "explicitly mention justification by faith alone, total depravity, predestination, or the relation of law and gospel" (14). That said, Lindbeck disagreed with Roman Catholic theologians who urged that Protestants "return" to the Roman Catholic fold on Roman Catholic terms. Instead, Lindbeck favored a convergence of the two traditions as the way to express a future union (36). As a scholar of Aquinas, Lindbeck affirmed that, just like Luther and other magisterial Protestants (42), Aquinas confessed grace alone, rejected semi-Pelagianism, and acknowledged that God alone saves. Thomas did not use the phrase "justification by grace" but Lindbeck sees this as something "more terminological than real" (43). Conversely, Luther did not argue for a "purely external or extrinsic imputation of righteousness" as claimed by some later Lutherans (97). Justification is no mere declaration of forgiveness. Instead, faith unites believers with Christ and transforms them. So, for Lindbeck, there is more shared turf between Aquinas and Luther than what many would think. Lindbeck was postliberal in that he opposed the Liberal Protestant tradition of grounding religious truth in the depths of human spirituality or ethics. Instead, following the lead of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, faith communities have various languages of faith and spirituality. "Meaning is constituted by the uses of a specific language rather than being distinguishable from it" (116). Lindbeck's work is not only ecumenical but also interreligious, particularly because it articulates a relationship between the church and the Jewish tradition. Lindbeck sees the church as "simply Israel in the time between the times," that is, between the first and second comings of Christ. Given his intertextuality, in which it is scripture that sets the terms for experience rather than vice versa, the church should understand its identity from the Bible. Indeed, the church should "claim to be Israel without replacing the Jews" as the messianic people of God (139). This book is a handy reference for students and pastors, a worthy invitation to the thought of George Lindbeck. [End Page 209] Mark Mattes Grand View University Des Moines, Iowa Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

‘One Baptism for the Remission of Sins’: Exploring the Harmony Between Christian Platonism, Reformed Soteriology, and Credobaptism

Abstract In recent years, Protestant theology—particularly of the Reformed and evangelical variety—has shown an increased interest in historical retrieval. Various theologians have engaged in the work of mining the Great Tradition of Christianity in order to resource contemporary theology with wisdom from the past. Presupposed in this work of retrieval is a claim that is by no means a foregone conclusion for Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theologians: the notion that Protestants also lay claim to the Great Tradition of the ‘one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.’ Protestant theologians working on retrieval believe they are drawing from their own heritage, not the heritage of another. While it may appear counterintuitive to do so, this paper seeks to defend this notion by drawing together three terms commonly considered disparate: Christian Platonism, Reformed soteriology, and Baptist sacramentalism. It disputes two popular insistences: first, that Reformed soteriology depends on a nominalism that contradicts the realism of the Christian-Platonic metaphysical tradition; and second, that the Baptist view of baptism amounts to mere symbolism (and thus depends on nominalism in another sense). This paper therefore argues not only that Reformed evangelicals, broadly speaking, lay rightful claim to the Great Tradition (and specifically, its metaphysics), but also that Baptists in particular share this heritage.

Doctrine and Change in Western Dogmatics: The Examples of Michael Seewald and Kevin J. Vanhoozer

This paper argues that there is some ambiguity in Western conservative dogmatics on how much change and development is conceptually possible. It hence explores the potential for change within trends of Christianity related to conservative doctrine, arguing that the authority of doctrine is not as static as often perceived. To make this case, this paper (1) argues that both dogma and doctrine refer to somewhat binding beliefs, hence representing forces that ensure continuity in Western conservative dogmatics—forces that can be assessed only with regards to the faith traditions they stem from. By way of example, this paper (2) summarizes some perspectives on those concepts, as well as the potential for change, in the recent works of two Western theologians (i.e., the work of the German Roman Catholic theologian Michael Seewald and the US-American Evangelical theologian Kevin J. Vanhoozer).

Sixteenth-Century Mission: Explorations in Protestant and Roman Catholic Theology and Practice. Edited by Robert L. Gallagher and Edward L. Smither. Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021. xix +370 pp. $29.99, paperback.

Sixteenth-Century Mission: Explorations in Protestant and Roman Catholic Theology and Practice. Edited by Robert L. Gallagher and Edward L. Smither. Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021. xix +370 pp. $29.99, paperback.

Remembering George Lindbeck at the Centenary of his Birth

Remembering George Lindbeck at the Centenary of his Birth J. Augustine Di Noia O.P., S.T.Mag. WHEN I MOVED INTO St. Mary’s Priory in New Haven in the fall of 1974 to begin graduate studies in the department of religious studies at Yale University, about ten years had passed since the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council.1 George Lindbeck—the man with whom I was to work on the theology of religions and interreligious dialogue—had been among the delegated observers at the council (1962-64), representing the World Lutheran Federation. He had already written a book about his experience and the implications of the council for the future of Catholic theology.2 He was fascinated by the fact that my time of formation in the Dominican Order had coincided with the years of the council and its somewhat tumultuous immediate aftermath. It was not until years later that I would become more reflective about the impact of the council on the formation communities of the Province of St. Joseph. At the time of my conversations with Lindbeck, I recalled my formation years as largely peaceful ones. Considering my experience in the light of the fragmentation that he had seen elsewhere in the post-conciliar Church, Lindbeck marveled at the comparative [End Page 131] tranquility of the situation I remembered and eventually he found a way to interpret it for me. Some of what I learned from him in those conversations I later ventured to formulate in a lecture in 2009 on the occasion of the dedication of the new academic wing and theological library at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. Lindbeck had helped me to see the importance, for the Dominicans, of the relatively calm assimilation of the renewal measures promulgated by the Second Vatican Council. This development was due, at least in part, to the fact that during and after the years of the council the faculty and senior friars in the DHS community and in the province construed the conciliar teachings as being in essential continuity, rather than a disruption or break . . . with previous Catholic teaching and the tradition. As I acknowledged in that lecture: Although there were difficulties, perhaps especially during the 1970s, the council was generally not experienced as a revolution. Without the destructive turmoil that had beset some other Catholic institutions and communities, the fundamental patterns of the Dominican religious and liturgical life of the priory, as well as those of formation and theological education in the Thomistic tradition, while undergoing necessary adjustments, continued more or less undisturbed.3 When I heard Pope Benedict XVI, in his momentous Christmas discourse to the Curia on December 22, 2005, contrast the hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture with the hermeneutic of reform and continuity in the interpretation and implementation of the Second Vatican Council, I naturally thought of Lindbeck who had, over thirty years before, first introduced me to these categories for understanding the postconciliar period. I What I had absorbed in my conversations with Lindbeck about the impact of Vatican II on the eastern province of [End Page 132] Dominican friars was just one element in his analysis of the state of late-twentieth-century theology. For me—and probably for others as well—the immense interpretive power of this analysis only emerged gradually as I began to teach theology after leaving Yale in 1980. In his first-rate new guide to Lindbeck’s life and thought, Shaun Brown notes that “coming out of his experience as an observer at Vatican II,” Lindbeck’s “cautious optimism” about the future of Roman Catholic theology was on display in the book bearing that title in 1970.4 Five years later, however, his essay “The Crisis of American Catholicism” marked a shift in his thinking as he noted that, instead of the “great upsurge of Christian vitality and faithfulness within the Roman Catholic communion . . . the aftermath of Vatican II can be read as disastrous.”5 During our conversations in the following decades, Lindbeck framed his analysis of the fractious state of American theology in terms of a perceptive account of the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. According to this...

A History of Roman Catholic Theological Ethics, by James F. Keenan, SJ

A History of Roman Catholic Theological Ethics, by James F. Keenan, SJ

:Sixteenth-Century Mission: Explorations in Protestant and Roman Catholic Theology and Practice

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Sixteenth-century Mission: Explorations in Protestant and Roman Catholic Theology and Practice, R. L. Gallagher and E. L. Smither

Bellingham WA: Lexham Press. 2021. xix + pp. 370 ISBN 978-168-35946-6

Jesus Christ: The Heart of Paul’s Gospel

precis: Pauline theology has recently experienced a significant surge in interest within both Protestant and Roman Catholic theology, with scholars proposing different theological concepts that they find to be the heart of Paul’s gospel. Yet, none of these proposals regarding the heart of Paul’s gospel have proved as ecumenically useful as one might hope. This essay proposes a more ecumenically fruitful perspective on Paul’s gospel that sees not a “what” but a “who” at the center, namely, the person of Jesus. This proposal is not new, as one can see in the writings of major theologians of three great Christian traditions— Cyril of Alexandria, Martin Chemnitz, and Benedict XVI—which this essay presents before considering the ecumenical utility of such a christocentric approach.

"Church" at the Time of the Reformation: Invisible Community, Visible Parish, Confession, Building … ? ed. by Anna Vind and Herman J. Selderhuis

Reviewed by: "Church" at the Time of the Reformation: Invisible Community, Visible Parish, Confession, Building … ? ed. by Anna Vind and Herman J. Selderhuis Thomas R. Farmer "Church" at the Time of the Reformation: Invisible Community, Visible Parish, Confession, Building … ? Edited by Anna Vind and Herman J. Selderhuis. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021. 480 pp. The Reformation was a stimulus to ecclesiology, forcing theologians to articulate their definitions more precisely in the face of competing confessional claims. Theologians and historians continue to ponder the resulting controversies. This book, containing the proceedings of the Sixth Annual Reformation Research Consortium Conference (held May 26–28, 2016, in Copenhagen), provides scholars with a selection of the fruits of these studies. Collections of essays can sometimes be incoherent, with strong individual essays that do not form an integrated whole. That is not the case here. The wide variety of perspectives in this collection enables readers to approach the topic of ecclesiology in the Reformation from many angles. The book is divided into four parts: "'Church' at the Time of the Reformation" (six essays), "Church and Art" (five), "Church and Ecclesiology" (eight), and "Church and Unity" (six). Thirteen essays deal with Reformed churches, while five essays discuss Lutheran ecclesiology. In addition, five essays examining Eastern Europe, a region often ignored in Reformation studies, are welcome inclusions. This review focuses on two essays of particular interest. Frank Ewerszumrode (249–55) compares Calvin's ecclesiology with that which the Second Vatican Council articulated in Lumen Gentium. The latter specifically describes the Church as "like a sacrament," which might strike some Protestants as claiming that the Church can "do what God alone is capable of doing" (250). But Ewerszumrode notes that Calvin, in his Institutes, refers to the Church as a "tool," which Calvin also uses of the sacraments. Ewerszumrode argues that [End Page 365] for Calvin, the Church functions as an external means to create faith, in a manner similar to the sacraments. The author then points out that Lumen Gentium holds that the Church is an instrument of salvation, not the source thereof. Ewerszumrode thus concludes that Protestants ought not to be unduly suspicious of Lumen Gentium's use of the word "sacrament" to describe the Church, because it uses that term to mean that the Church is an instrument—as Calvin did in the Institutes. Although Calvinist and Roman Catholic theology are usually thought of as being distant, Ewerszumrode's essay suggests that they are not so very far apart. For this reviewer, the most impressive essay was "Does Calvin's Church Have a History?" by Michelle C. Sanchez (440–60). Her goal is much larger than simply describing "the structure and operations of the church in sixteenth-century Geneva" (440); rather, she wants to read Calvin as a theorist and explore how his theory of the Church can subvert arbitrary distinctions between theology and history. Sanchez notes Calvin's claim that the marks of the true Church are the right preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of the sacraments; if one accepts this, she argues, then it follows that the history of Calvin's church extends much earlier than sixteenth-century Geneva, thus making the boundary between the medieval and the modern less secure than one usually assumes and demonstrating the potential of theology to offer historians new insights. Readers will value Sanchez's insightful and thought-provoking essay. Singling out these two essays, does not imply that the others are lacking. On the contrary, scholars (particularly theologians) will find these essays relevant and useful. This book will be a worthwhile addition to seminary and research libraries. [End Page 366] Thomas R. Farmer Belmont Abbey College Belmont, North Carolina Copyright © 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

Metafictional Predestination in Muriel Spark's The Driver's Seat

Muriel Spark’s The Driver’s Seat is a radical metafictional experiment, suggesting the inexorable connections between contingency and a predetermined plot which are so common to many Sparkian novels. Following Marina MacKay’s perception that Spark’s experimental narrative operates “in the conceptual space where the more abstract preoccupations of Roman Catholic theology overlap with the metafictional and fabulist concerns of postmodernism” (2008: 506), this essay will discuss how the notion of predestination reverberates in The Driver’s Seat, not only as a remnant of Spark’s Presbyterian education but also as a postmodern re-visitation of classical tragedy in a metafictional key. Spark’s preference for predetermined plots may echo a long philosophical and theological discussion spanning many centuries about free will and predestination, particularly intense in the times of the Protestant Reformation, but it also reflects the sense of predestination as a necessary ingredient of classical tragedy. In The Driver’s Seat Spark deliberately brought to the fore some conventions of Aristotelian tragedy, although she approached them through an experimental subversion ultimately resorting to comedy and ridicule, on Spark’s own admission her weapons for the only possible art form. Our contention is that the metafictional implications of The Driver’s Seat’s prolepses undermine a Calvinist-like certainty concerning predestined salvation or damnation. By using a partial narrator only capable of producing limited accounts, Spark may be playing with an experimental and essentially postmodern interpretive openness which is in tune with the ultimate uncertainty about each individual’s eternal salvation that is commonly accepted in Catholic thought.

Interpretations of Dante’s Esotericism in the Italian and French Studies in the Middle of the Nineteenth and the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

This article has a historiographic and methodological nature and is devoted to the problematic interpretations of the esoteric content of Dante’s ideas and works by French and Italian scholars from the middle of the nineteenth century to the second half of the twentieth century. Various definitions of Western esotericism are discussed in the light of contemporary approaches. The current interest in the study of Dante’s esotericism and the relevance of this topic are substantiated. The tradition in the interpretation of Dante's esotericism in Italy and France can be traced back to the occultists of the 19th century, who referred to each other's works: G. Rossetti, E. Arou, F. Boissard, J. Péladant, G. Pascoli and others. It has been demonstrated that the studies of Dante's esotericism during 1920s reached a new level of quality, which was adequate to the contemporary scientific requirements for Dante studies: in Italy, this happened in the person of Luigi Valli and his students, Arturo Reghini and then Julius Evola; and in France, at the same time, in the person of René Guénon. The criticism of Valli in the works by Guénon is analyzed in detail. The context of Dante's interpretation by Guénon is revealed in connection with the issue of Templar, Rosicrucian and Islamic influences (Sufism, Arab Neoplatonism). In this respect, a significant difference of tones was observed in the perception of Dante's esotericism within the general paradigm of integral traditionalism between Guénon and his Italian colleagues Julius Evola and especially Guido de Giorgio, whose fundamental work is still unknown to Russian scholars. An intense politicization of the perception of Dante's heritage by Evola and de Giorgio is also remarked in this article. Special attention is then paid to the study of Dante's esotericism by one of the leading Roman Catholic theologian of the twentieth century, Romano Guardini, who engaged a polemic correspondence with the integral traditionalists. Based on the results of our study, it was concluded that the research of Dante's esotericism by French and Italian authors for more than a hundred years can be characterized as a continuous chain of dialogue and polemics of various authors who knew about each other's works and used the appropriate links.

The Crisis of Indian Secularism

Abstract In this paper I suggest that Roman Catholic theologians in India take a second look at the distinction between western and Indian secularisms. Blurring the lines between western and Indian secularisms may help the theological reflection on the so-called crisis of Indian secularism. The key point is the non-ontological, historical character of secularism. A look at the growing literature on western post-secularization, in fact, may offer some suggestions about how to deal with the nationalist mooring of Hindutva philosophy. A possibility exists that both the West and India are eventually entering simultaneously, but not necessarily on the same terms, a post-secular phase.