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Aquinas's thoughts about the human soul present us with a puzzle. On the one hand, Thomas has been applauded within the analytic tradition as an anti‐dualistic thinker, who emphasises the animal nature of human beings and denies that there could be disembodied human persons. Yet on the other hand he holds, as a faithful Catholic theologian, that the human soul survives death, and maintains that the post‐mortem soul, prior to its reunification with the body is the subject of characteristically personal intellectual activities. This paper reviews the state of the debate regarding whether these commitments of Aquinas's can be reconciled, and concludes that they cannot in his own terms. However, a recognisably thomist approach to the post‐mortem survival of the soul is available, proceeding on the basis that to be rationally ensouled is to have a life‐story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catholic and Protestant theologians believe that the resemblance between Christian and non-Christian ethics is due not only to desecration, but also to the fact that we live in the same historical order. Gustavo Gutierrez insists that there are no two histories, one profane and one sacred, juxtaposed and intimately connected, but a single history of human destiny, irrevocably assumed by Christ, the Lord of history. The naive optimism of a moral theology that does not consider human limits, and that considers human actions as if the eschatology had already been achieved, has led to an improper methodology, based exclusively on natural reason. Bernard Häring insisted, however, on the need for moral theology to be based on Scripture and grace, and not just on reason and human nature. Charles E. Curran expressed his right to disagree with the non-infallible teaching of the authority of the Catholic Church, emphasizing that Catholics could in theory and practice disapprove of papal teaching and remain faithful to the Catholic Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The virtue of religion should be practiced by individuals and societies. Catholic theologians have disagreed about how religion can be practiced in the U.S. Msgr. John A. Ryan believed it could be practiced by the state, while John Courtney Murray, S.J., believed it could only be practiced by American civil society. Scott Hahn and Brandon McGinley are chiefly concerned with showing how the virtue of religion can be practiced in civil society by individuals, families, and the Church. Only then will it be possible to reconsider liberal politics. But what comes next? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The secularization of the doctrine about Ethics was not a result of the protestant mentalities, but a work of much of the Catholic theologians during the late Middle Ages. Those men were faced with the need to fight against the pelagian and semipelagian doctrines which, since not distinguishing between the natural and supernatural world, so easily led to Pantheism. This task (let us call it apologetic) was not carried out by the Aristotelians, but by those who we now call Nominalists though, perhaps, we should better call them Nominals. Their solution consisted in heavily separating the natural world from the supernatural one, so that the natural, including the Natural Law, as it is natural, is part of what already is or exists, in the same way as the rest of Nature, and its compliance is morally irrelevant. Momentarily they moved away from Pelagius, but they contributed to spread the idea of a natural ethics which would exist out of Theology and would have a «rational» force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Johann Michael Sailer was a Catholic theologian and philosopher whose career spanned the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Still relatively unknown outside of Catholic historiography, Sailer was a major contributor to the Catholic Enlightenment, and a significant touchstone for the Catholic revival movement. This essay explores his contribution to the Catholic reception of Kantian philosophy and, more specifically, analyzes how Sailer offered a critique of everyday reason for people "as they are". This critique stressed the deeply constitutive role of everyday experience in the formation of reason and evolved as part of a broader concern to secure the foundations of popular Enlightenment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The late great James Hal Cone (1938–2018) challenged white Christians to confront the sin of white supremacy. This article contends that white Catholic theologians collectively have yet to accept Cone's righteous challenge. A scrutiny of the programming of the annual meetings of the Catholic Theological Society of America and publications in Theological Studies provides the evidence. Having made the case that white US Catholic theologians have not adequately processed Cone's challenge, the article argues that an important reason for this failure is fear and proposes specific, concrete action steps for professional societies and scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Second Vatican Council was not only a meeting of bishops from around the world, it was also an assembly of theologians. Prominent among those gathered were the Dominican theologian Yves Congar and the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner. Both offered a positive theology of grace outside of Christianity, an embrace of true inculturation within the church, and both saw the council as a beginning in opening up the church to theological variety appropriate to become a global presence in a new era. During the council, Congar and Rahner worked together, developed a friendship, and found that they had harmonious theological perspectives that allowed them to become valuable allies in shaping the final outcome of the council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights the history of sociology in Belgium. Topics include the conflict between the sociologists and the Catholic theologians; the history of colonialism in the nation, the relations between these elements of sociology and various international organizations in the twentieth century; and the relationship between sociology and the nation-state and the need of the revival of the social sciences courses in the university system that would allow gradual political development in the nation.

In the twilight of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century, Catholic theologians and journalists who identified as members of the neoconservative political movement crafted a narrative of John Paul II's encyclical Centesimus Annus as a representing a sea-change in Catholic social teaching. In this neoconservative reading, the Catholic Church embraced a specifically American style of late twentieth century laissez-faire capitalism. However, an examination of Centesimus Annus reveals that the text is consonant with the teaching of twentieth century popes. What is more, recent publications enable us to get a clearer view of how neoconservatives were able to craft their narrative of the encyclical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pentecostals can be understood as contemporary Christian mystics, and doing so can aid one in both understanding and caring for them. The task of understanding them is facilitated by this category in that it allows one to inhabit a different mindset from what is typical in contemporary settings. Pentecostalism and charismatic movements work out of distinct, fundamental claims that together work as a kind of worldview, one that operates from a hyperawareness of God's presence and a sensed empowerment of the mystic's self. The task of caring for them should honor these claims all the while being open to the Spirit's presence and work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the mysticism, metaphysics and the theology of theologist Martin Luther. Topics include Luther speaking about biblical foolishness; his theology about a desire to learn and more concerning God, Christ, man, and what all things are; and seeing the god by Luther where he had revealed himself as per his theology.

The article discusses the three catholic views on curiositas. Topics include catholic tradition seeing curiositas as a serious sin a person needed to resist; the medieval theologians reviving the juxtaposition of curiositas and its corrective virtue studiositas; and the Roman Catholic moral theology for the same.

Pedagogy in moral theology follows some of the particular concerns Catholic theologians have had since the Second Vatican Council as well as the aftermath of John Paul II's encyclical on moral theology, Veritatis splendor. Most of the textbooks reviewed here teach virtue, Christian practice, and Thomas Aquinas's theology, as largely positive responses to the Council and John Paul II. Catholic moral theology thus appears as a relatively stable field, though the authors use multiple approaches. There are, however, some moral theologians offering alternative perspectives on moral theology. One book reviewed here contends with Humanae vitae and resists both Thomas Aquinas's authoritative voice and Veritatis splendor 's argument against proportionalist thought. The textbooks offer a range of pedagogical tools for varying student levels. Two of the overall gaps in the field, as indicated by these textbooks, might be more direct engagement with Scripture, and a proper locating of Catholic social teaching within moral theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This response to the above seven articles engages with some of the significant ways in which each takes forward the theological discussion of grace. While some areas of disagreement arise, the overall sense is of a conversation that is moving beyond Paul and the Gift, using its contribution to open fresh avenues for understanding between Catholic and Protestant theologians on this deeply controversial topic, and new possibilities for conversation between biblical exegesis and theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hundred years after the publication of the first edition of the commentary to the Epistle of the Romans (1919), the famous Barthian consideration of the analogia entis as «an invention of the Antichrist» and «the reason why I cannot become a Catholic» regains its prevalence. Nonetheless, this assertion has evolved as time goes by. In this article, we will study the answers given by Catholic thinkers as Erich Przywara, Gottlieb Söhngen, Jérôme Hamer, Henri Bouillard, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Hans Küng, and some more recent authors of the Italian and Anglo-Saxon areas. The opposition between analogia entis and analogia relationis, concretized in analogia fidei, has developed several interpretations in different directions. This article will suggest the continuity between both dimensions –which are inseparably united to charity– by alluding to their Trinitarian origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the involvement of Thomas of Bailly (d. 1328), secular master of theology and penitentiary of the diocese of Paris, in the examination of extracts taken from Marguerite Porete's "Mirror of Simple Souls." To date, no one has examined the precise theological formulations that led Thomas and twenty other theologians to recommend that the Mirror be consigned to the flames. By examining Thomas's career and writings, this article unearths the theological scaffolding that the extracts brushed aside, enriching our understanding of one of the most famous heresy trials of the Middle Ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1968, Mary Daly published The Church and the Second Sex, one of the first monographs in the field of Catholic feminist theology. On the fiftieth anniversary of its release, this article remembers the book not only as an important historical milestone in Catholic theology, but also as an early and still-resonant articulation of issues that have concerned US Catholic feminist theologians since. This return to 1968 also puts into focus how the field has moved beyond Daly’s original project, clarifying important characteristics of the current discourse and its trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the evolutionary genetics and human origin. Topics mentioned include the human origin based on theological narratives, the perception of Catholic theologians on the genetic evidence of human origin, and the genetic traits of human ancestors. Also mentioned was the biblical teaching on the creation of Adam and Eve by God.

The ecofeminist cosmologies of Indian scientist Vandana Shiva and Catholic theologian Ivone Gebara are examined. At the centre of each author’s discourse is their feminist epistemology that occasion a new way of knowing, incorporating each thinker’s social locations as nexus for authority. For Shiva, the feminine principle of Prakriti, or the awareness of nature as a living, interdependent force, is realized through the inclusion of women as sources of expertise and knowledge. Gebara rejects classical theology and philosophy as androcentric, anthropocentric, and hierarchical. Instead Gebara envisions a revised epistemology of inclusivity with emphasis on multiplicity and unity initiated by an ecofeminist Trinitarian cosmology. Taken together Shiva and Gebara provide an epistemology that privileges the paradox of unity through diversity and difference as a solution to society’s current ecological crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some Catholic theologians are redefining the meaning of "direct" and "indirect" by including only the agent's intention in defining the moral object, while simultaneously excluding the physical actions that the agent consciously and deliberately chooses. The net effect is that these theologians now approve of many kinds of abortions traditionally understood to be morally evil in situations of maternal-fetal vital conflict. Such an error has grave implications for Catholic bioethics and health care. When the intentionalist method is applied to other disputed questions in bioethics, however, it becomes clear that its ideology is fundamentally erroneous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a transcript of an interview conducted by Susan Ross on 12 January, 2017, with Professor Bryan Massingale. Following the election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency, there was a surge in the number of racial and ethnic attacks on minorities across the country, and an increased concern over the place of minorities in the United States. During the previous two years, a number of shootings of black men and women had attracted much attention and protest, particularly around the Black Lives Matter movement which began after the killing of Michael Brown in the summer of 2014. Massingale is a leading voice among Catholic theologians and has spoken widely on the situation of African-Americans in the US and particularly in the US Catholic Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Old Catholic theologians have often underlined the relationship between papal supremacy and infallibility and the priority of the former: the pope has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, therefore he must be obeyed; but at the same time, he may be obeyed, because he will not mislead the Church due to his infallibility. This article analyses this relationship, applying differentiations on two axes: on the one hand, Bocheński's typology of epistemic and deontic authority; on the other hand, the notions of personal, formal and constitutional authority. The fact that the infallibility dogma of Vatican i considers papal authority at the same time as epistemic and constitutional authority, is identified as a major weakness of the dogma. The article will then approach the question how church leaders should practise their deontic authority in a context where their (and everybody else's) epistemic authority is considered to be fallible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a report from a February 17-19, 2017 conference hosted by the Forschungsgemeinschaft 20. Juli 1944 e.V. historical society in Königswinter, Germany on the role of Christianity and religious belief in the anti-Nazi movement. Topics of presentations delivered include religious resistance to Nazi anti-religious propaganda, personal religious and ethical conflicts among German soldiers of the Bundeswehr, and anti-Nazism among Catholic theologians.

This article is a response to Elisabeth T. Vasko's essay 'Civic Learning and Teaching as a Resource for Sexual Justice: An Undergraduate Religious Studies Course Module' published in this issue of the journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolution as a theory is today proclaimed widely, accepted by many as a fact and is often reflected even in South Africa in prescribed textbooks for schools and universities. The main question to be discussed in this reflection is whether the idea of evolution always remains a mere theory. Does it not often, even unintentionally, eventually develop into an evolutionistic faith or worldview and thus would become to Christians an unacceptable worldview? Different contemporary secular thinkers openly acknowledge the dependence of their theory of evolution upon an agnostic or an atheistic faith and/or, vice versa, their evolutionary theory leading toward unbelief. Some Christian-reformed natural scientists (1) clearly rejected the hypothesis of evolution, including an evolutionistic worldview. Others (2), again including those from the reformed Christian tradition, are of the opinion that, after God (before time) created everything, reality unfolded or developed under His guidance. In the case of a third group of (3) Christian evolutionary scientists it seems as if the compromise or synthesis which they tried to achieve between their Christian convictions and their scientific hypotheses could not be achieved. Finally they had to choose in favour of the one or the other. A first article (cf. Van der Walt, 2016a) already discussed these varying and even clashing viewpoints among Christians. It focussed on the position of an earlier, well-known reformed theologian from the Netherlands (Abraham Kuyper) and a South African Christian philosopher (Hendrik Stoker). A second contribution on the same issue (cf. Van der Walt, 2016b) shifted attention to the viewpoints of three biologists from the reformed Christian circle, viz. Harry Diemer, Duyvené de Wit and Jan Lever. The first two of them may be regarded as representatives of position (2) above, while the third initially belonged to (2) but after about 1970 gradually developed towards (3). The present article follows Lever's thinking from about the seventies up to 2010. An increasing tension developed between his Christian belief in the Bible, and God as Creator and his zoological research according to an evolutionary paradigm. It gradually becomes evident that he ascribed such weight and even revelationary power to his scholarly results that it eventually clashed and overpowered his Christian worldview, replacing it with an evolutionistic world-picture or even a (semi-)evolutionistic worldview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses origin of Hungarian Roman Catholic theologian Ottokár Prohászka alongwith information on extremist rights in Hunagry during 1920. Topics discussed include Prohászka's promise to renew and modernize Catholicism, use of the term "Hungarist" by Hungarian national socialist and Nazi movement for their ideologies and concern for Catholic youth on the popular anti-Semitic assumption.

The ongoing decrease of membership and influence of the mainline Christian churches in Germany provokes the question of whether Christian theological departments should continue to have a predominant position at state universities guaranteed by the constitution and state-church treaties. This situation is exacerbated when universities refuse to hire competent candidates for theological departments because they lack the required denominational profile. Further, there is a widening gap in student numbers between denominationally driven theological departments, and religious studies departments that also cover non-Christian religions, despite the fact that they share methodologies and theories, especially in philological and historical research. So this article tries to describe the relation between the disciplines of theology and religious studies in a more complex way. It uses a system-theoretical approach to show that theology addresses the problem of self-application, which religious studies cannot solve alone. Why do religious studies focus on religious studies? It argues that the discipline of theology can be integrated into religious studies departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2013 marked the 450th anniversary of the publication of the Brest Bible (1563), the first Protestant (Reformed) translation of the entire Bible into Polish. This translation coincided with the mature phase of the Polish Renaissance, which was at the same time a key period in the history of Reformed thought. According to researchers, the Brest Bible is characterized by typographical and translational novelty and numerous linguistic qualities which have also gained recognition for it among Catholic theologians and contemporary Bible translators. This article presents the current state of research on various aspects of the language of the Brest Bible as carried out by Polish linguists. It demonstrates the high value of the language of the Brest Bible, its place among Polish biblical translations and the important role it played in the development of Polish language and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concilium commemorates the life and work of Otto Hermann Pesch (1931–2014), the Catholic historian of dogma, ecumenical theologian and former Dominican and Professor of Controversial Theology in the Protestant Theology Faculty of the University of Hamburg, Germany from 1975 to 1998. Pesch was celebrated well beyond the German-speaking world as an expert on the theology of Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther and was the author of central works, including a multivolume ecumenical study of Catholic dogma published in 2008–10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s Catholic moralists have discussed whether the use of condoms to prevent the transmission of the virus that causes AIDS is morally permissible. In 2004 Rev. Martin Rhonheimer argued that the use of condoms by HIV-discordant married couples, although not prudent or advisable, was nevertheless not intrinsically wrong. Many other Catholic moralists strongly disagreed with him. This paper analyzes both sides of the argument and concludes that the practice is not morally permissible even for an infertile married couple because the use of a non-perforated condom, by preventing male ejaculation into the vagina, deprives the act of its essential ordination to procreation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces Catholic developments in an ecclesiology that recognizes the essential missionary nature of the church. Starting from Vatican II it treats various documents of papal magisterium, and then surveys selected documents of episcopal magisterium in the last fifty years. After a survey of Catholic theologians who build their ecclesiology on the church's missionary nature, the author outlines in very brief detail his own project for the construction of a missionary ecclesiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author focuses on theologian Hans Küng who represents the spirit of openness and zeal for a Church reform that allowed the Catholic Church to transition from the medieval age and post-Reformation to the contemporary era. He discusses topics including the spirit of the Vatican II, the Christology of Küng in his book "The Council and Reunion, and his theology of religions that is found in the lecture he given at the International Eucharistic Congress in India in 1964.

The author argues that adolescents are not only philosophers, as Kohlberg and Gilligan once claimed, but should also be viewed as theologians. This view corresponds to what has been called “lay theology” or “ordinary theology.” Moreover, the article takes up the double question what adolescents might benefit from theology and what theology might benefit from adolescents. On this background, a systematic understanding of adolescents as theologians is offered, distinguishing between theologyofadolescents,withadolescents, andforadolescents. In a final section, theological views concerning adolescence as a stage in the human lifecycle are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]