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The difference between theology and philosophy is usually marked by the distinction between faith and reason. Paul Ricoeur does not ignore this epistemological difference between these two schools of thought, but he insightfully proposes that the connection between reason and faith must be preceded by the relationship between reason and hope. Hope represents the point of encounter between these two areas of thoughts in the way that it portrays the scope of theological and philosophical investigation. Therefore, the present article aims to articulate the basic components of this perspective of hope as a theological and philosophical horizon. Overall, the scope of hope does not only reaffirm the limits of reason in theology and philosophy, but also highlights the possibilities of reasoning, which emerged through this encounter between theology and philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risking the word in the pulpit, in one's life, in the work of an entire life. According to Vieira, from the Sermons to the History of the Future, the word makes a way for itself. Besides of the rhetoric artifices and the politico-religious conveniences, Vieira establishes the action bases as response to the God's word, and in fidelity to the same by adopting as paradigm the History of Israel, a revealing, and always the first one, History of the God's initiative. A History that also reveals the right paths and the wrong paths of the human response, of the historic responsibility that such a response holds. When Vieira proposes the reading of the way God works, of the alliance of God with the humankind, Vieira dangerously aligns himself with the row of those who make trouble. Vieira reminds the impossibility of sheltering oneself under the concept of election. The purification of this concept, as well as the concept of 'being Christian' is unpostponable. Nevertheless, the Vieira's position is not free from theological issues. The risk of his word that opens this debate equally indicates to the man the reasons for hoping and believing in the promise, the key for reading the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the result of research carried out in 2012, by the Center for Public Policy and the Institute of Sodology of the Catholic University of Chile on the Catholic Church in that country. The data of the study show a crisis situation of Chilean Catholicism. This crisis has many causes, intra and extra ecclesial: a profound cultural change, a crisis of the Church's missionary identity, a crisis of confidence, a crisis that calls for a new evangelization. The finding of the limits of the presence and influence of the Catholic Church in the post-modern era is a timely challenge to assert the importance of the proposal of Christianity as a path to personal happiness and to help build a society where justice, peace and freedom reign. The authentic Christian lives the faith committed to the integral reality of the human being and of society. Such commitment is linked to the eschatological sense of faith and ecclesial life. Christians are called to keep alive the hope, trying to overcome the crisis through the experience of conversion and forgiveness in the following of Jesus Christ, always attentive to the signs of the times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]