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"More recently, cognitive psychologists have used the resources of psychological science to study the foundations of religion, and to discuss and possibly illuminate issues of concern for theologians. The new field, known as the cognitive science of religion (CSR), draws from work by Ernest Thomas Lawson, Robert McCauley, Pascal Boyer and Justin Barrett, among others. Many of its scholars are inspired by a spirit of collaborative work with theologians and philosophers of religion, emphasizing the need of serious cross-training between disciplines. Driven by the same spirit, the present issue of Scientia et Fides documents instances of integrative work at the intersection of psychological science and philosophical or theological knowledge, specifically centered around our understanding of what a person is. We hope that, apart from their individual worth, as a whole these contributions will stimulate further interdisciplinary studies, in order to achieve genuine science-engaged philosophy and theology, and a science that is aware of philosophical and theological discussions." (from the introduction)

Una clave de lectura de la encíclica «Fratelli tutti» es entenderla como una reacción frente al individualismo que caracteriza la sociedad postmoderna. En esta nota se ponen de relieve los rasgos generales de este individualismo, sus raíces y principales manifestaciones, de acuerdo con la encíclica. Así mismo, se expone la crítica al individualismo y la respuesta que la encíclica propone tanto desde la perspectiva personal (cultivo de las virtudes sociales) como desde la óptica de la sociedad. Esta encíclica supone aplicar en el campo social el intento de frenar el subjetivismo y relativismo que realizó Juan Pablo II en «Fides et ratio».

On the one hand, the theologian who engages natural science provides a service to the church. Because faith naturally seeks understanding, fides quaerens intellectum, a healthy appropriation of the...

In the light of the eudaimonic principle of pleasure/enjoyment, the question is posed: What is meant by a spirituality of happiness? In terms of the eucharistic perspective of graceful living, and the view that human beings are actually playful artists (homo ludens), a practical theology of joy is proposed: fides quaerens beatitudinem – faith seeking joyful happiness. In the light of the Christian connection between a benevolence of grace and the biblical notion of the beatitudes, happiness is presented as a kind of makariology: the interplay between the benediction of a blessing and the fortitude of a peaceful mind. “Beatific enjoyment” (fruitio beatifica) is proposed as a practical theological conceptualisation of the “praxis of God”.

The text analyzes the relationship between Science and Faith in the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. The analysis is based on the position of the Vatican Councils I and II about the importance of Faith and Reason for man, in his search for truth; simultaneously, the orientations of popes Leo XIII and John Paul II were taken into account, in their Encyclicals Aeterni Patris and Fides et Ratio, respectively; some speeches by Popes Paul VI, Benedict XVI and Francis before the Pontifical Academy of Sciences were also analyzed. The Church has sought from the First Vatican Council to the present to bring, harmonize and complement the relationship between Faith and Reason; its interest is not limited to promoting scientific research; it also aspires that knowledge be ordered to the welfare of the human being, and the horizon of faith is recognized in the search for truth.

Odlomci enciklike Fides et ratio koji su izričito posvećeni sv. Tomi Akvinskomu tvore svojevrsni zgusnuti sažetak, odnosno sintezu cjelokupne enciklike. Ti odlomci sadrže glavne teme koje su razrađene u drugim dijelovima enciklike (filozofija otvorena vjeri, teologija pozorna na filozofiju i dr.). Naučavanje enciklike o ulozi tradicija u intelektualnom životu daje opravdanje stalnih preporuka Crkve o povlaštenom nauku sv. Tome, kako u filozofiji, tako i u teologiji., The paragraphs contained in the encyclical Fides et Ratio which are explicitly devoted to Saint Thomas Aquinas comprise a condensed summation, or rather synthesis of the entire encyclical. These paragraphs incorporate the main themes which are expounded in other sections of the encyclical (philosophy opened to faith, theology mindful of philosophy, etc.) Encyclical teachings on the role of tradition in intellectual life justifies the constant recommendations of the Church regarding the favoured teachings of Saint Thomas, as in philosophy, so too in theology.

‘Faith’ is one of Christianity's most significant, distinctive and complex concepts and practices, but Christian understandings of faith in the patristic period have received surprisingly little attention. This article explores two aspects of what Augustine terms fides qua, ‘the faith by which believers believe’. From the early second century, belief in the truth of doctrine becomes increasingly significant to Christians; by the fourth, affirming that certain doctrines are true has become central to becoming Christian and to remaining within the church. During the same period, we find a steady growth in poetic and imagistic descriptions of interior faith. This article explores how and why these developments occurred, arguing that they are mutually implicated and that this period sees the beginning of their long co-existence.

In her influential monograph Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches, Theresa Morgan has convincingly shown how closely the early Christian discourse on ‘faith’ was bound up with similar notions in the broader Greco-Roman world, particularly in relation to the system of patronage, with both humans and deities fulfilling the role of (trustworthy and trusted) patrons. Thus, she has shifted attention from πίστις/fides as a primarily ‘theological’ notion to an interpretation along more ‘social’ lines and situated it in realm of human and divine/human relations. She also analyses this in relation to the Gospel of Mark, showing how Mark also fits this general picture. This note builds on Morgan’s work and will further develop one aspect of Mark’s use of the language (and concept) of patronage and πίστις. This is its subversive character, which is present to a lesser extent in Morgan's work; by calling for πίστις directed to him on the part of the people that he encounters, Jesus also draws these people away from other allegiances and ‘πίστις commitments’, that is, intersubjective relationships based on trust and leading to personal allegiance.

From the viral social media feeds showing Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng in fervent prayer for the nation, to professed Christian Thuli Madonsela's careful expression of the separation between religion and state, faith identity in the public sphere emerges as anything but a straightforward matter. By placing 'Christian' in parenthesis, the 2019 theme of the Theological Society of South Africa conference acknowledged that leaders operate in negotiated spaces and confirmed the complexity of the context in which we attempt to conceptualise leadership from a theological perspective. This raises the question of the role that personal faith convictions play and may be allowed to play in public life. While conceptualising leadership from a faith perspective in a context that is at once secular(ising) and post-secular(ising) may be complex, evidence emerging from leadership studies of the importance of spirituality in leadership necessitates such a reflection. This article considers the problem from a theological point of view, drawing on Schleiermacher and Bonhoeffer's later letters from prison to provide a theological foundation for a public spirituality of leadership.

This study examines the meaning of πίστις Χριστοῦ with respect to the political and religious situations of Paul’s Galatian recipients, including the issue of circumcision. When the apostle sent his letter to the Galatian churches, the Gentile believers were returning to the Roman imperial cult; by doing so, they were accepting the emperor as the ultimate authority and benefactor and incorporated into the reciprocity of fides. Through πίστις Χριστοῦ, our apostle criticised and superseded this Roman imperial ideology and the imperial cult. Paul’s πίστις Χριστοῦ was intended to advocate Christ’s faithfulness in opposition to Caesar’s faithfulness. He exhorted the recipients to live in a relationship of πίστις with Christ, not Caesar. Christ’s faithfulness and ‘the believer’s faith in Christ’ are not mutually exclusive. Paul deliberately intended the ambivalence of the Greek phrase to denote the reciprocal πίστις between Christ and the believer. The apostle defined the believer’s relationship with both the Jewish tradition and the Roman Empire concurrently.

In my contribution to the symposium on Teresa Morgan's Roman Faith and Christian Faith, I set the stage for three questions. First, in the Graeco-Roman view, when you put/maintain faith in someone, is the cognitive aspect of your faith compatible with scepticism about the relevant propositions? Second, did some of the New Testament authors think that one could put/maintain faith in God while being sceptical about the relevant propositions? Third, in her private writings, Saint Teresa of Calcutta described herself as living by faith and yet not believing; even so, by all appearances, she was an exemplar of faith in God. Would people during the period of your study tend to see her as an exemplar of faith in God?

Faith is an important concept in early Christianity. But what did the word pistis (and its Latin equivalent fides) mean in the everyday language of Greeks and Romans? In her important study, Teresa Morgan rightly insists that we need to pay as much attention to the way words worked in the mentalité of the wider social world with which Christians were seeking to communicate as we do to the ways they are used in the New Testament. This article seeks to summarize Morgan’s understanding of pistis in the classical world and its impact on NT texts, focusing on the two major themes of pistis as relationship ( believing/trusting in) and pistis as propositional belief ( believing that).

This article investigates the link between the Roman notion of fides and the contemporary notion of fiduciary duties. Etymologically, the word “fiduciary” derives from fides. The Roman fides was a very complex concept, blending religious, social, and legal valences. The religious and social fides entered Roman law in a substantive form, as bona fides, and as a standard of judgment, in the form of bonus vir. It is submitted that a close analogy can be drawn between bonus vir and the contemporary fiduciary standards.

The Catholics order is from the way they worship to the way they behave ( lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi ). Protestants, on the other hand, commence with the question, ‘What are we to believe?’ The Protestant order would therefore be lex credendi, lex orandi, lex vivendi. Lex credendi is the law of belief (what we believe). Lex orandi, lex credendi , literally means the law of prayer (the way we worship) is the law of belief (what we believe) or the law of praying ( lex orandi ) constitutes or establishes the law of believing ( lex credendi ). As we believe, so we live ( lex credendi ) forms the basis and foundation of both the Catholic doctrine and the Catholic moral life. Lex orandi , the law of prayer (the way we worship) has to do with the enactment of the liturgy itself. In this article, I argue that the liturgy of life ( lex vivendi ) makes apparent what we believe. Lex vivendi [the rule of life] therefore pertains to how one should conduct oneself in a specified way, especially in relation to others regarding the teachings of the church as well as to ethical and social questions. Lex vivendi has to do with the faithful living of the Gospel. This article will therefore attend to the following: the meaning of lex credendi, lex orandi, lex vivendi ; expansion of adage to lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi ; justice and lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi ; interplay between lex credendi, lex orandi, lex vivendi in Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA). Contribution: From the perspective of Protestant dogmatics, this article aims to contribute to the reflection on the notion fides quaerens intellectum [faith seeks understanding].

This article seeks to explore the identity of the Creator God in Karl Barth’s doctrine of creation. Attention is given to his understanding of the eternal covenant God has made with humanity and how we are cared for within a covenantal fellowship. The study also concerns itself with how Barth’s distaste for the notion of analogia entis is somewhat unsustained in his treatment of creation. I argue that, to some extent, the analogy of being vis-à-vis the cosmos is complementarily employed with analogia fides in Barth’s articulation of creation care. This is the case as he reconfigures the talk on creation rigidly in and through Jesus Christ as Creator and creature.

The occasion for the elaboration of this issue was the tenth anniversary of the death of Mariano Artigas, which took place on December 23, 2006. A period of ten years is a good excuse to do something allowed by the academic life though, paradoxically, not usually encouraged by its demands, namely, to take a moment to stop, to look back, and to think.I had the opportunity to work alongside Artigas during the last six years of his earthly life. Those years left a mark in me of which I am starting, I believe, to be conscious. In the contributions made in this issue, many of those who participated—who represented only a portion of those who desired to contribute but have unfortunately not been able to do so for many different reasons—manifest the footprint that knowing Artigas or reading his works has left not only in their academic life, but also in their personal life. [...]

Juvencus’ epic portrayal of Christ establishes a new kind of Christian heroism, a concept refined through intertextual engagement with the Old Latin Bible, the Aeneid, and imperial Latin epic. Christ-as-verbum, The Word, wields verbal power against the furor of the enemies of salvation. His virtus, transcending and redefining the martial valor of the Vergilian tradition, is derived not from human achievement but from the vertical economy of grace—it is a gift (munus, donum) of God the Father streaming abundantly from heaven to earth. Juvencus takes advantage of the expanded semantic range of virtus in late antiquity to subvert and repurpose the heroic core of Latin epic: the miracles (munera, dona) of Jesus expose the helplessness of humanity, and restore it to physical and spiritual health through forceful word-deeds (vitalia gesta, vitalia verba). Through its close identification with fides, Christ’s expansive virtus imparts heroic stature to even the weakest disciple.

Teresa Morgan’s Roman Faith and Christian Faith provides a major new study of the lexicon of ‘faith’ (pistis/fides) in the early Roman Empire. This review essay provides a summary of the book’s contents as well as a critical assessment. The book begins with study of uses of pistis and fides in Greek and Roman sources, in domestic and personal relations, in military and religious contexts. It then moves to the Septuagint, before turning to the New Testament, which is considered in detail. The early Christian sources are unusual in the prominence and weight they give to pistis, but their usage nonetheless fits within the wider social and cultural matrix, in which pistis and fides primarily express the notion of trust and express the importance of trust and fidelity in a wide range of social and religious relationships. In these early Christian sources there is a heavy focus on divine-human pistis, but this creates networks of trusting and trustworthiness that are crucial to the formation and cohesion of early Christian communities. Some critical questions may be raised – for example, concerning Morgan’s heavy focus on divine-human pistis, and her arguments against the early emergence of a titular usage of pistis to denote the early Christian movement – but overall this is an important study which should reconfigure our sense of early Christian (and especially Pauline) pistis, which is less about ‘belief’, whether salvific or propositional, and more about relationships of trust, which are the foundation of community.

Taking into account the suggestions offered in the Encyclical «Fides et Ratio» (1998) and in the «Decree on the reform of ecclesiastical studies of philosophy» (2011), this paper presents some arguments in order to show the importance of philosophy in the priestly formation. Philosophy helps in the search for the truth, forms the critical sense, and structures the mind. Furthermore, the paper underlines the fact that human reason is the faith’s condition and constitutive moment and explains why philosophy is indispensable for the theological formation. Finally, the paper highlights the importance of philosophy in the life of the priest as a shepherd.

There is an ongoing debate in New Testament scholarship on the correct interpretation of Paul’s pistis Christou formulations: are we justified by our own faith/trust in Christ, or by participating in Christ’s faith and faithfulness towards God? This article contributes to the position of purposeful or sustained ambiguity by reading Paul’s imitation – and faith(fulness) – language against the background of Hellenistic-Roman thought on and practice of imitation. In particular, the mimetic chain between teachers and students training for a philosophical disposition, and the philosophical topos of ‘becoming like God’ (homoiōsis theōi) offer material valuable for comparison. Since pistis, fides and cognates are used in these settings as both a quality to imitate and as attitude towards a model, and since, conversely, imitation is very much involved in Paul’s pistis-vocabulary, it makes sense to read pistis Christou as shorthand for a mimetic movement of faith(fulness) via Christ towards God.

Unquestionably, philosophy has acquired a somewhat new register lately. First, I discuss the appearance of the theological virtues in contemporary (continental) philosophy. This appearance is heralded in Nietzsche’s famous preface to The Gay Science. The event remains at this point curious and without explanation. In a second step, I explore current French philosophy and culture as the frame and/or the effect of this appearance. At this point, I still cannot find the philosophical meaning of the virtues, only the condition of possibility of their ‘extra-theological’ relevance. At most, I can reopen the religious nature, element or register of thought, of philosophy. I will do that by introducing eschatology and desecularisation, implying that modern rationalist allegedly areligious atheism is actually a hyper-religious theism. Desecularisation can only be understood within the frame of an ‘open world’, within a world-as-opening. World then becomes the event of meaning and the thought that thinks t...

Prilog iznosi na vidjelo prisutnost enciklike Fides et ratio Ivana Pavla II. u nas, i to povodom njezine dvadesete obljetnice izlaska. S tim ciljem kronološki pokazuje osvrte na nju u našoj znanstvenoj periodici, koja se mahom vezuje uz filozofsko– teološke institucije na našem nacionalnom korpusu. Članci su većinom izlazili u časopisima Crkva u svijetu, Obnovljeni Život, Vrhbosniensia i Bogoslovska smotra, a gotovo zanemarivo na drugim mjestima. Napisi su bili prigodničarskoga karaktera, tj. izlazili su povodom objave enciklike i obilježavanja njezinih godišnjica. Riječ je o veoma dobrim prikazima čitavoga dokumenta, odnosno pojedinih njegovih dijelova u kojima je riječ o problematici kojom se autori inače bave u svojem znanstvenom radu. Oni su slijedeći okružnicu pisali o povijesno bremenitom odnosu razuma i vjere, odnosno filozofije i teologije kao znanosti o vjeri, o načelnoj otvorenosti ljudskoga duha prema istini koja je i transcendentnoga karaktera, o nužnosti filozofije za teologiju, o prirodnim znanostima i enciklici, o grozoti nihilizma koji predstavlja pravu negaciju ljudskosti te o ponudi poruke Isusa Krista koju je filozofiji pružio Ivan Pavao II. Valja spomenuti da su se pojedini autori znali i kritički osvrnuti na neke dijelove enciklike., This article highlights the presence in Croatia of John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et Ratio on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of its publication. Hence, the article gives a chronological list of reviews on the encyclical in Croatian scientific periodicals, which are generally associated with philosophical–theological institutions in Croatia. Articles were published in the journals Crkva u svijetu (The Church in the World), Obnovljeni život (Renewed Life) and Bogoslovska smotra (The Seminarian Review) and in other places also, though the latter are almost negligible. Writings were occasional in nature, i.e., they were issued at the time of the publication of the encyclical and on the marking of its anniversaries. The aforesaid are very good presentations of the entire document or of individual sections on whatever problem the authors deal with in their scholarly endeavours. Following the encyclical, they wrote about the meaningful relationship between reason and faith throughout history, or rather philosophy and theology as the sciences of faith, of the openness, in principle, of the human spirit to the truth which is of a transcendent nature, of the necessity of philosophy for theology, of the natural sciences and the encyclical, of the abomination of nihilism which is a true negation of humanity, and of the offer of Jesus Christ’s message which John Paul II proposed to philosophy. It must be mentioned also that certain authors tended to make critical references to some sections of the encyclical.

Jacques Dupuis, Paul Griffiths, and other scholars investigate the salvation available for those of other religions rather than the question of the divine revelation to which they might respond with faith. Biblical usage illustrates how faith is a diversified reality, including faith as content ( fides quae) and as commitment ( fides qua). Faith, described in Hebrews 11:1–3 more theologically than christologically, is then exemplified not only by Abraham and his descendants but also by pre-Israelites (Abel, Enoch, and Noah) and by the ‘outsider’ Rahab, a prostitute. When we unpack Hebrews 11:6, we can see in detail what ‘pleasing God’ through faith entails—for Christians and others. While both groups share in varying degrees the obedience of faith ( fides qua), for the latter the content of faith ( fides quae) can match the lesser requirements of Hebrews 11:1–3.

The classical definition of theology is ‘faith-seeking understanding’ (fides quaerens intellectum). The focus is on the understanding/interpretation of the object of Christian faith: God. There is another root for the quest for understanding, namely the praxis situation of faith. People live in particular historical contexts that have their own distinctive problems and possibilities; thus, the focus on place and space in a theology of home. A praxis approach is to learn life and the gospel from below, thus the emphasis on a grassroots ecclesiology that is structured like an oikos, a familial dwelling place. This understanding of the dynamics of the fellowship of believers as oikodomein is captured by the Zulu notion for the yearning for home (home sickness): Ekhaya. It is argued that Ekhaya thinking is an alternative route for an operative ecclesiology that caters for the need of marginalised, oppressed, displaced and homeless people. Practical theology is thus described as fides quaerens domum et locum [faith-seeking home and place], namely to inhabit. An Ekhaya approach to practical theological ecclesiology is about critical reflection through the eyes of those who are weak and who don’t count for much by the standards of successful people and institutions.

On January 29, 1655, Van Aitzema informed Milton that he had commissioned a Dutch translation of Milton’s Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce for two reasons: (1) In Fides publica, Alexandre Morus, a leading French Calvinist minister co-opted by the Royalist exiles in the Dutch Republic, had attacked Milton for his newfangled interpretations of scripture on divorce. As Morus himself was not only suspected of Amyraldian heterodoxy but had seduced Madame Salmasius’ lady-in-waiting while a guest in the Salmasius household, there was lively gossip not so much about Milton’s character as Morus’ disgraceful behavior. (2) Many Dutch were indeed interested in how Milton argued in favor of dissolving marital unions. Three of the most powerful regent families in the United Provinces were even then affected by interrelated domestic scandals, the last of which was just devastating a renowned noble family famous in Dutch military history during the Eighty Years’ War. As Van Aitzema stated, there was in fact muc...

Discussions about theological realism within analytic philosophy of religion, and the larger conversation between analytic and continental styles in philosophy of religion have generated relatively little interest among Catholic philosophers and theologians; conversely, the work of major figures in recent Catholic theology seems to evoke little interest from analytic philosophers of religion. Using the 1998 papal encyclical on faith and reason, Fides et ratio, as a major point of reference, this essay offers a preliminary account of the bases for such seeming mutual indifference and offers some suggestions for future dialogue.

Philosopher and educator Mortimer J. Adler’s affinity for Catholicism began in the 1920s, yet he did not become a Catholic until 1999. Reason and faith battled throughout his life; his long conversion process made Adler—a liberal modern individualist—a better philosopher and provided him an intellectual community, but his conversions to Christianity and Catholicism were, ironically, personal and emotionally therapeutic. He fell in love with Aquinas’s Summa Theologica in the mid-1920s, which transformed his subsequent work. That love grew even as Adler’s ethnic, familial Judaism, evolved into agnosticism. Due to chance encounters and historical circumstance his first important book, Art and Prudence , applied neo-Thomism to the topics of censorship and morality in the cinema. Book-related correspondence reveals Adler’s deepest attractions to, and hesitations about, the Catholic faith. Shortly thereafter his national profile rose in relation to promotion of the “great books” movement, making questions about Adler’s faith a public issue. His two spouses encouraged a long-term membership in the Episcopal Church beginning in the late 1920s, but Adler saw that as a mere affiliation until a 1984 illness prompted a full conversion to Christianity. Twenty-five years later, he converted again, this time to Catholicism.

In his Address to the Roman Rota of 2013, almost precisely on the 30th anniversary of the promulgation of the canon law of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI firmly presented a speech concerning "an irrevocable covenant between a man and a woman", inspired by the celebration of the Year of Faith and a peculiar commentary to the De matrimonio chapter of Canon 1055. The author of the hereby article follows the track of Benedict XVI. Within the notion of "covenant" he not only identifies the key to the contemporary doctrine of marriage, but also points out the role of the keystone in the "program" consolidation of two aspects of matrimonium canonicum: natural and supernatural. On the one hand, the internal truth of the covenant act of marital love, thus the totality of the personal gift, as well as its immanently implied irrevocability, constitute the point of reference for the material frames of the consortium totius vitae. On the other hand, what seems most inspiring is the papal statement regarding the common linguistic roots the Latin terms fides and foedus have.

Martin Luther's statement “faith creates divinity” depends upon the antecedent promise of the crucified and triune God. When considered as a theology of gift, this statement illustrates that faith makes divinity by giving God glory.

Currently, the media is creating an illusion of youthful wellbeing: ‘healthism’. But is life merely about physical health? What is meant by spiritual healing in pastoral caregiving? By means of the ontology of life and an existential analysis of the structure of being, a grid is developed in order to make a pastoral diagnosis regarding the interplay between different aspects and dimensions of the category life . It is argued that, seeing the bigger picture in a pastoral hermeneutics of life, contributes to spiritual healing ( cura vitae ). The basic assumption is that cura animarum should be designed in theory formation in pastoral caregiving as follows: faith care as life care. It is, in this respect, that the Christian spiritual categories of anastrephō, peripateō and hodos can be used in practical theological reflection to describe praxis in practical theology as fides quaerens vivendi [faith seeking lifestyles]. A spirituality of lifestyles points to habitu s [human soulfulness] as new modes of ‘walking with God’ and ‘living with God’ (pneumatological praxis of God). Fides quaerens viviendi should be exemplified by a taxonomy of virtues.

Spirituality, a theological paradigm of the Spirit and hope as cosmogenesis, correlation and mystical experience. Anselm of Canterbury�s well-known enunciated expression fides quarens intellectum (faith seek understanding) in his search for the existence of God, according to me, forms a very important belief synthesis with regard to the term spirituality, and everything that is accompanied with the term. Why? Because Anselm�s evidence for the existence of God was not there to make the non-believers into believers but rather to explain the mystery of faith in the brain and therefore to enhance the phenomenological sensation of the faith experience. Without the illuminating power of the mind, one stands in awe or it can also disappear into the abyss, especially as it is conceptualised in the religious philosophy. Therefore, it is in this spiritual belief that one receives something from the unknown, as man then receive something into the unknown, that we open with our minds � something like the softness as cream as Sheila Cussons wrote. The question therefore is: May we open this unknown, described as this �soft as cream�, or more paternally ascribe it as spirituality. If so, we then stand in awe to the potential to what spirituality is and only then we do not fade into the abyss of that possibility.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Spirituality as a belief synthesis, in a religious and philosophical context, pursues an understanding from a religious paradigm. It entails that the experience of spirituality reveals a working definition, whereby humans, in their vulnerable existence, may find hope in their expectations, experiences, and fears.

In 1944, Bonhoeffer famously asked ‘Who is Christ really, for us today?’ This question is ambiguous: ‘Christ for us’ points to an objective claim concerning the personal identity of Christ, while ‘for us today’ signals the need for ever new subjective value judgements and contextual appropriations. Does emphasis upon the promeity of Christ, like that found in the work of Bonhoeffer, volatilize the identity of Christ? Examination of the theme of promeity in the work of Bonhoeffer himself, as well as that of Kierkegaard, demonstrates that in the hands of both these Lutheran theologians promeity is acknowledged to be intrinsic to the fides quae creditur. The subjective appropriation and contextual character of Christology then proves to be a function of a prior and more decisive reality, namely the very identity of God in Christ for us.

This analysis argues that Thomas More’s Richard III is a work of what Cicero would call studia humanitatis, designed to educate “first citizens” about human nature, the requirements of political life, and the arts needed to fashion justice, liberty, peace, and prosperity. Special attention is given to More’s use of Ciceronian vocabulary (respublica, humanitas, libertas, princeps, privates, fides, consilium) and the vocabulary of centuries-old London institutions (mayor, sheriff, alderman, recorder, independent courts, sanctuary, “senate,” “forum”). The article ends with a summary of young More’s solutions to England’s problems of civil war.

The anonymous “Incipit fides Nicaena” is a unique, though much ignored, Latin text from the later fourth century. Its only critical edition, from a sole ninth century codex, was first prepared in 1913 by Cuthbert H. Turner, under the title of Commentarius in Symbolum Nicaeanum.1 Turner's version was reprinted in the first volume of the Patrologiae Latinae Supplementum (1958).2 There has been almost no further scholarly work done on this text since Turner's edition, nor has it been translated into any European language.3 As a result, no questions have been asked about the bearing of this work on post-Nicene doctrinal history as our understanding of the Nicene-“Arian” conflicts has been reformulated over the last two decades. In this essay, I want to address this gap in our understanding, although it must be said that there are more questions than answers raised by the existence of this small document. Specifically, we will see how this unique text sheds light on the theological influence that the Nicene Creed began to have in western churches in the second half of the fourth century. An attempt will also be made to demonstrate how this primitive explanation of the Creed offers an indication of its own approximate date and context.

This article explores the origin of a 500-year-old misunderstanding over justifying faith. Does God justify the sinner by faith alone (sola fide), as the Lutherans say, or by faith formed by charity (fide caritate formata), as the Roman Catholics say? This is one of the most debated differences between the two traditions. A precise study of the sources and a comparison of the texts of Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther on the interpretation of the fides caritate formata reveals that despite their different interpretations of this formula, they actually have the same understanding of justifying faith, due to their same fidelity to Scripture. It is by drawing on this common source that even today, they show the Churches a path of unity.

Though the obvious understanding of Thomas More’s Epigrammata, initially published with the 1518 edition of Utopia, is that of the poetic portfolio of a rising statesman, the intensity of the proceeding dispute with the French poet Brixius indicates a significance beyond the poems at hand. As his letter in response to Brixius explains, More writes with a particular concern for the plight of poetry and the character of the poet. Though he criticizes Brixius for cheap imitation of the ancients, he adapts and composes lines capable of containing both the mockery and the moralizing of his Latin and Greek predecessors. While it is undoubtedly More’s wit that commends his collection to his contemporaries, it is his commitment to truth that proves transformative in the development of the Renaissance epigram. These often-neglected poems and their commitment to laughter and learning may inform our understanding of the author and his ever-celebrated works.

This article studies whether the theme of gratia fidei is present and thematised in the (pastoral) sermones ad populum Augustine preached during the Pelagian controversy in the same manner as it is...

Nicholas of Cusa (1401–64) was a fifteenth-century German thinker and ecclesiastic best known today for his philosophical/theological writings, in particular De docta ignorantia (On learned ignorance). With the recent completion in 2005 of the Heidelberg critical edition of his works, all of his 293 sermons have been published. These varied sermons fill out a picture of his pastoral thinking and practices that complements the more theoretical treatises and dialogues. In this essay, a single pervasive theme, conformity to Christ (christiformitas), may illustrate both the richness of Nicholas’s sermons and the back-and-forth between his more theoretical ideas and his preaching. “Conformity to Christ”—christiformitas—is mentioned by Nicholas of Cusa from his earliest writings and preaching. He remarked near the end of his best-known work, De docta ignorantia, that the power of faith is such that it brings it about (efficit) or transforms a human being so that she or he is “christiform” (bk. 3, chap. 11). Two other themes in his preaching and writing go hand-in-hand with christiformitas, that of theosis/deificatio/filiatio and that of fides formata caritate (literally, “faith formed by love”). Just how does Nicholas develop the theme of christiformitas in his sermons?

I will defend Strauss’ ancients/moderns distinction to Catholic scholars, especially my friends in this symposium, on the grounds that it is helpful in our own struggle with modernity. I am grateful for their agreement to this conversation and especially to Ken Grasso for organizing it. Modernity is a problem for Catholic thought. Pope John Paul II argues in Fides et Ratio (1998) that modernity has undermined reason as a means to knowledge of truth and urged people of faith to come to reason’s defense. He says reason and revelation stand or fall together against the irrationalism in which modern thought has at last culminated. He means, I think, the thought of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and the popularizations of their “post-modern” progeny. He is particularly concerned about the “de-Hellenization” of modern theology. Modernity’s undermining of reason was also Strauss’ theme. He argued that Western Civilization is a product of the unresolved tension between the claims of Greek philosophy and Biblical revelation.1 This tension generates an energy that enables Western Civilization to renew, and thereby preserve, itself. Strauss lived that tension. Although the claims of philosophy were finally incompatible with those of revelation, he regarded these claims as not resolvable on any basis that both could accept. Accordingly, if reason rejects revelation as a form of genuine knowledge, that is dogmatic and therefore rationally indefensible. Thus, Strauss as philosopher could be neither a convinced believer nor a convinced unbeliever. He apparently lived in sympathy with his Jewish heritage, though not in strict observance of that heritage’s forms. He took pains to re-appropriate that heritage’s questions and learning and not let them be forgotten.2

Barth's Anselm This article focuses on Barth's explication of Anselm's Proslogion 2-4 in his book on Anselm and attempts to show how Anselm helped clarify for Barth the ontological nature of his own early theology, in particular what he meant by the “is” in his affirmation “God is God.” Our contention is that Barth's continual pointing to Anselm's Fides Quaerens Intellectum as a vital key to his own theology should not be overlooked. In fact, we argue that only by returning Barth to Anselm in this way can we begin to understand more thoroughly one of the key contributions of Barth's theology generally and its potential relevance to contemporary onto-theological debates.

When Pope Benedict XVI delivered his September 2006 address at the University of Regensburg, Faith, Reason, and the University, he pined at the diminishment of universal reason in church life. He blamed the Protestant Reformation for beginning a process of dehellenization that has led to the loss of reliance upon reason. Over against the pope's claim, a closer look at Reformation history and Protestant theology will show no diminishment in the role of reason. What is distinctive to the Reformers and today's heirs is reliance on sola scriptura, scripture alone. The role that reason plays for Protestants is to expand our understanding as we reflect on scripture and, not only scripture, but also tradition and expereince. No less than Roman Catholics, Protestants embrace fides quaerens intellectum or “faith seeking understanding.”