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This is a biography of Cardinal John Tong of Hong Kong, which charts his experiences through the Second World War, his time as a seminarian in Macau, and his studies in Rome during the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), which represented a pivotal moment in modern Catholic Church history. Upon his return to Hong Kong, he became a prominent figure within the Church. His story provides a more critical insight into the development of the Church in Hong Kong and China. Since 1979, Cardinal Tong has made over one hundred visits to the mainland of China, thereby making a significant contribution to the development of the Church. This biography constitutes an invaluable historical record of the Church since 1979. The author has made effective use of the personal writings of Cardinal Tong, which have not been previously utilized and have not been included in any published materials until now. This book illuminates the pivotal role of Hong Kong, which has been largely overlooked in previous accounts. The history of the Chinese Catholic Church will undoubtedly require rewriting following the publication of this biography.

This book provides a unique critical perspective on the importance of values to school culture. Drawing on research in Quaker schools in England, and the perspectives of students, it challenges the idea that school evaluation should be primarily based on measurable outcomes and argues that values matter more to learning than is often acknowledged. Furthermore, the book provides important insights on how to research schools that claim to hold similar values, from multi-academy chains to other so-called faith schools. Throughout the text, the author underscores the importance of values to students'dispositions, in order to engage with the learning opportunities their schools provide. He argues for seeing schools as places where equality, inclusiveness and mutual respect should be central, not only to help students understand our fragile, multicultural democracy, but also because these values open up the possibility of learners'increased engagement with curriculum knowledge.

This book sets out to examine the perceptions of the senior management, faculty members, and administrators of Jesuit leadership in four Asian Jesuit universities. The research question is framed as follows: What are the conceptualisation, collaboration with others, and challenges of Jesuit higher educational leadership? The researcher employed a two-stage research approach to gather the sample. The first stage involved qualitative research, including interviews and expert opinions, while the second stage comprised quantitative research in the form of surveys. This study was conducted across the Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan. In total, 30 respondents participated in the interview over the Zoom platform, and 44 completed the online survey. The book made four significant contributions to scholarly literature. First, it conceptualised Jesuit higher educational leadership, which encompassed six features: interpersonal support, community building, selflessness, equality, integrity, and spirituality. Second, it empirically established a scale or a model of Jesuit higher educational leadership. Third, it empirically confirmed that collaboration with others was the mediator between the Jesuit higher educational leadership and the president's performance. Finally, it discovered Jesuit higher educational leaders'challenges, identifying conspicuous similarities and differences between the four universities. The structure of the book is organised into five chapters. Chapter 1 elucidates the background, the gap, the aim, the research questions, the significance of the study, and the organisation of the book. Chapter 2 presents a review of the relevant literature in conceptualising Jesuit higher educational leadership. Chapter 3 explains the study's design, the methodology, findings and analysis of interviews. Chapter 4 presents the methodology, the findings and analysis of the survey. Chapter 5 synthesises all the preceding chapters to respond to the research question posed in the introductory chapter.

This book sociologically investigates the contemporary Catholic Church's stance on gender diversity and “gender ideology” and explores ways to adapt the social science perspectives on sex, gender, and gender fluidity in the Church's moral teachings, applying Pope Francis's inductive synodal theology. Using the sociological theories on gender, moral panics, and morality and drawing on secondary literature, media reports, and church documents, it specifically unpacks the “gender ideology's” alleged grave threats to humanity, family, children, and human dignity as moral panics as well as examines the Catholic morality of gender-enhancement treatment and sex change. Ultimately, this book aims to inculturate or adapt the contemporary sociological gender theory and research in the Catholic Church's moral doctrines as a synodal response to the “signs of the times.” It therefore appeals to church authorities, moral theologians, LGBTQI leaders, as well as scholars and students of sociology, religion, and gender studies.

This book analyzes the exchange relations between the colonies of the Iberian Empires, starting from two cities ports, Buenos Aires and Macau in the period 1580-1700. Agents, who were not professional traders such as the members of the Society of Jesus, and the circulation and consumption of Asian goods in the local populations of Buenos Aires and Macau, were analyzed. Both cases of study will show us how these non-state agents- the Jesuits- build their own networks and exchange channels to Chinese goods distribution (i.e silk, porcelain, musk, amber and others) between Asia and Latin American. This book intends to break with the local scheme of Jesuit studies in order to combine the local scale with analysis of inter-regional processes on a continental scale, from a comparative perspective.

The church doesn't need to be more spiritual. It needs to become more human. Since God decided becoming human was right, so must the church. Jesus'language was consistently understood by nonreligious people. Elitist in-house church language may never reach the growing number of Americans without a religious background who have given up on God. This book views the church as a unique people-group and the reader as an anthropologist. Employing basic ethnographic methods, the reader looks at the church again for the first time without a religious lens. Based upon the premise that all good theology emerges from good anthropology, the book first considers the rituals celebrated around the symbols of a manger, cross, bread, wine, and tomb. Such symbols then become the basis for theological interpretation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is the reader's conversation partner to help make the theological journey from human community to church, manger to incarnation, cross to redemption, and tomb to resurrection. The church will flourish in the twenty-first century to the degree that it proclaims the Gospel using nonreligious language with a human accent.

Qualitative Research in Theological Education brings together a diverse group of scholars to consider the theological values arising from and contributing to their use of qualitative research in scholarship and teaching. The book offers a careful consideration of the pedagogical and administrative challenges involved in teaching qualitative research and its various sub-disciplines such as ethnography. As a whole, the book argues that the teaching of QR methods is critical to the theological, ethical, spiritual, and/or pastoral formation of ministers and theological scholars

Human life. We marvel at its complexity, we wonder at its fragility, and as Catholics we embrace its dignity. But as far back as 1880, the Church has faced the reality that our culture often stands in opposition to God's loving design for life, love, marriage, and family. In Life and Love: Opening Your Heart to God's Design, Terry Polakovic takes us on a fascinating tour of eight Church documents, spanning nearly 140 years, that pertain to human life and love: Arcanum Divinae (On Christian Marriage), by Pope Leo XIII, 1880 Casti Connubii (Of Chaste Wedlock), by Pope Pius XI, 1930 Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life), by Pope Paul VI, 1968 Familiaris Consortio (On the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World), by Pope John Paul II, 1981 Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women), by John Paul II, 1988 Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), by John Paul II, 1995 Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love), by Pope Benedict XVI, 2005 Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), by Pope Francis, 2016 Whether you've read these documents before or are discovering them for the first time, Life and Love will help you understand how the Church consistently and fearlessly offers the only true response to the battles of our time. Click here to register for the related webcast

Ist Theologie eine Wissenschaft? Diese Frage stellt sich durch den zunehmend stärker werdenden Eindruck, dass die Theologie ihre Stellung an der Universität nicht mehr ungefragt voraussetzen kann. Immer wieder wird die Wissenschaftlichkeit der Theologie in Frage gestellt - und zwar zugleich aus dem Binnenbereich der Theologie selbst wie auch von außen, d. h. aus dem Bereich anderer, nichttheologischer Wissenschaften. Dieser Band spielt jeweils beide Fach-Perspektiven über verschiedene Schnittstellen ein und regt Interessierte aller akademischen Fachrichtungen an, sich auf diesen Dialog einzulassen und ihn weiter zu führen.

In this compelling account of the origins and evolution of our secular worldview, Theo Hobson shows how Christian values continue to underpin our public morality, how faith remains indispensable to Western humanism, and how atheistic humanism represeents a dead end. At the same time, he offers a timely warning against the dangers of a religious-secular culture war, given the radically politicized and destructive forms of religion endemic in the world today. Here is a fresh and provocative argument about religion and politics – but one that doesn't fit into the normal boxes. It suggests that although the public creed of the West is best described as'secular humanism'we can only really understand and affirm secular humanism if we see how firmly it is based on Christian norms and values. If we don't, the West is divided: mired in a stagnant stand-off between fundamentalist atheism and an equally hard-line Christian theism. This book offers a more nuanced and historically more persuasive way forward, showing just how much our secular morality owes to Christianity, and how it can only find coherence through a new and positive view of its origins. ContentsIntroduction1 The ideology in the room2 Sowing the seeds3 Mutations of Protestantism4 Struggling to be born5 The secular century6 In our time7 So what? How is Christianity credible?

Sociologist Anthony Blasi analyzes early Christianity using multiple social scientific theories, including those of Max Weber, Georg Simmel, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Max Scheler, Alfred Schutz, and contemporary theorists. He investigates the canonical New Testament books as representative of early Christianity, a sample based on usage, and he takes the books in the chronological order in which they were written. The result is a series of'stills'that depict the movement at different stages in its development. His approaches, often neglected in New Testament studies, include such sociological subfields as sect theory, the routinization of charisma, conflict, stratification theory, stigma, the sociology of knowledge, new religions, the sociology of secrecy, marginality, liminality, syncretism, the social role of intellectuals, the poor person as a type, the sick role, degradation ceremonies, populism, the sociology of migration, the sociology of time, mergers, the sociology of law, and the sociology of written communication. Needing to treat the New Testament text as social data, Blasi uses his background in biblical studies and a review of a vast literature to establish the chronology of the compositions of the New Testament books and to present the'data'in a new translation that is accessible to non-specialists.

Practical Theology and Qualitative Research examines methodologies of the social sciences and questions how they can enable the task of theological reflection. The authors offer the latest thinking on how to use theological learning in practical situations.

We are made for fellowship—fellowship with God and with others. None of us can know who we are by looking only at what is inside us and ignoring our relationships—after all, Christ asks us to be in the world but not of it. This is where sociology, the study of how we fit into groups, comes in. Matthew Vos offers an introduction to sociology and describes how sociology sees and studies the world, the world's issues, and our own troubles—all with the goal of bringing new depth to our understanding of our relationships with God and the world.

This book argues that problems with recognizing the State of Israel lie at the heart of approaches to nationhood and unease over nationalism in modern Protestant theology, as well as modern social theory. Three interrelated themes are explored. The first is the connection between a theologian's attitude to recognizing Israel and their approach to the providential place of nations in the divine economy. Following from this, the argument is made that theologians'handling of both modern and ancient Israel is mirrored profoundly in the question of recognition and ethical treatment of the nations to which they belong, along with neighboring nations. The third theme is how social theory, represented by certain key figures, has handled the same issues. Four major theologians are discussed: Reinhold Niebuhr, Rowan Williams, John Milbank, and Karl Barth. Alongside them are placed social theorists and scholars of religion and nationalism, including Mark Juergensmeyer, Philip Jenkins, Anthony Smith, and Adrian Hastings. In the process, debates over the relationship between theology and social theory are reconfigured in concrete terms around the challenge of recognition of the State of Israel as well as stateless nations.

Die räumliche Präsenz von Religion markiert ihre jeweilige gesellschaftliche Bedeutung. Sowohl über die Architektur religiöser Gebäude als auch über ihren Vollzug im öffentlichen Raum unterstreicht sie ihren Status. Darüber hinaus formiert sich im Raum aber auch die soziale und theologische Gestalt der Kirchen. Räumen kommt so eine zentrale Bedeutung für die Transformation der Religion seit den 1950er Jahren zu, die sich markant verschob: Erstens erhielten klassische religiöse Räume wie Kirchen eine veränderte Gestalt; zweitens besetzte die Kirche nicht-kirchliche öffentliche Räume wie Straßen und Plätze; und drittens entstanden vielfältige neue Räume der religiösen Kommunikation in den Medien.

What does theology have to do with sociology? Do the social sciences in general provide helpful assistance to theologians? Does theology have anything to contribute to social theory? This compendium of essays attempts to address such questions. In so doing, it confronts assumptions about how academic disciplines are best articulated, whether within their own airtight frames or in dialogue with one another. The essays in the first half of the book accomplish this from historical and methodological perspectives, while the remaining essays present case studies or constructive proposals for how theology might engage the social sciences in productive ways. For those particularly interested in the ongoing development of theologies of liberation, this book will be timely. The essays, reflecting a definite international flavor, are written in honor of Lee Cormie, a long-standing advocate of what he calls the'new voices'in theology that have irrupted in the wake of Vatican II. Cormie has spent over three decades teaching theologies of liberation at the Toronto School of Theology on the campus of the University of Toronto. This book continues the many conversations that his teaching has provoked.

'This book, comprising a sweeping range of well-documented articles on Pentecostal theology, hermeneutics, missiology, and the social sciences, provides for the student of Pentecostals a window on contemporary Pentecostal scholarship that discloses vigorous engagement with critical issues. The editors have provided a resource that promises to stimulate further research and reflection.'William Menzies, Chancellor, Asia Pacific Theological Seminary, Baguio City, Philippines. Excerpts from Respondents Jose Miguez Bonino on Changing Paradigms:'An updating of Pentecostal thinking on a whole spectrum of theological disciplines: systematics, missiology, biblical studies, history, and praxis... a wealth of information and reflection.'Vinay Samuel on Global Culture:'Global Pentecostalism can bring a new impetus to the movement for Christian unity... it has much to contribute to the shaping of a new 21st century definition for Christian unity.'Harvey Cox on A Postmodern World:'There was a time when Pentecostals warned themselves and anyone else who would listen not to become entangled with and dependent on the'things of the world.'Pentecostals were suspicious of the passing fads of stylish clothing, the latest hairdo, and glitzy new consumer products. They were also, as it turns out rightly, suspicious that the powerful new mass media could be a seductive lure, tricking people into the empty values of the consumer market culture. Perhaps it is time for a rebirth of that ethic of simplicity, that suspicion for'the things for the world'for which the early Pentecostals were so famous.'

Hidden Threads: A Christian Critique of Sociological Theory, provides a framework for making sense of the social world. Heddendorf finds in sociological theories some'hidden threads'- Christian principles woven into the fabric of society. Early Christian thought was radical in its approach to social life. Jesus provided a different concept of the person, and encouraged his followers to act upon this new understanding. Thus, in the early centuries after Christ, Christian social thought was a dynamic, positive, social force, but today the situation differs. Many Christians readily accept current interpretations of problems as valid. Consequently, in response to these modern explanations, Christians develop a form of secularized thought which supports popular solutions and fails to critically engage with the real issues of the day. Hidden Threads is an examination and Christian critique of sociological theory, demonstrating appreciation for the richness of social life and holding in tension those theories that attempt to explain it.

Dealing with the historical and thematic intersections of Christianity and critical theory, this collection brings together a diversity of specialist scholars in the area. Building on recent discourses in theology as well as their knowledge of hermeneutic and critical traditions, they examine major themes in contemporary critical theory.

This book provides a new introduction to the study of Christian spirituality, exploring it through the human sciences and ranging from philosophy and hermeneutics to psychology, history, sociology and anthropology.Systematic and progressive, it introduces the key approaches and shows how they relate to the understanding, study and practice of spirituality. Covering a vast amount of ground - from traditional themes such as images of God, spiritual direction and pilgrimage to more contemporary issues, such as place and space, cyberspace and postcolonialism - the author takes an ecumenical, inclusive stance, allowing the book to be used in a wide variety of courses and across denominations.

Practical Theology used to be a subject where students were left to fend for themselves, using what they had learnt from their scholarly studies in history, biblical and systematic theology and applying it where they could. Things have moved on however and practical theology is a growing discipline in its own right, and the latest thinking in practical theology; of how to use theological learning in practical situations, is fully explored in this textbook. This text examines methodologies of the social sciences and questions how they can enable the task of theological reflection. They begin by tracing the development of practical theology as a discipline and comment on current methodological practices, and trace the movement from practical theology as applied theology, ie a discipline which simply takes data from the other theological disciplines (historical, systematic and biblical theology) towards a model which understands the practical theological task in terms of the theology of practice. The authors examine the relationship between qualitative and quantitative methods and highlight the significance of both for the task of practical theology. They also take the reader through the actual process of developing and carrying out a research project using the author's own research as case study examples. Case studies include: the rise in spirituality; the decline in church attendance, evidence-based medicine compared to needs-led assessments, the growth in chaplaincy and how it is understood as separate from parish ministry.

Does education have any relation to theology? How do the educator's worldview commitments speak to his or her practice of education? James Michael Lee brought a definite answer to these questions--a firm no to the relations question, and an advocacy for empirical findings over and against any speculative or theoretical positions in reply to the commitments question. Lee claimed to have a universal, neutral metatheory for all religious education, a theory that would apply to all religious educators in any and every religion. But in proposing his theory he overlooked the way that empirical facts express worldviews. This book is a detective story, tracing commitments that lay underneath empirical'neutrality.'In the process the reader will see avenues that unmistakably link education to theology. Education turns out to be a thoroughly worldview-conditioned process. This new work is essential reading for professors and students in both religious and general education.

At a time of the profound crisis of the world capitalist system, a group of social scientists and theologians takes up anew the issue of liberation theology. Having arisen out of the struggle of the poor Churches in the world's South, its pros and cons dominated the discourse of the Churches throughout much of the 1970s and 1980s. Then, dependency theory was considered to be the analytical tool at the basis of liberation theology. But the world economy – since the Fall of the Berlin Wall – has dramatically changed to become a truly globalized capitalist system in the 1990s. Even in their wildest imaginations, social scientists from the dependency tradition and theologians alike would not have predicted for example the elementary force of the Asian and the Russian crisis of today. The Walls have gone, but poverty and social polarization spread to the center countries. After having initially rejected Marxist ideology in many of the liberation theology documents, the Vatican and many other Christian Church institutions moved forward in the 1980s 1990s to strongly declare their “preferential option for the poor”. Now, the authors of this book, among them Samir Amin, one of the founders of the world system approach, take up the issues of this preferential option anew and arrive at an ecumenical vision of the dialogue between theology and world system theory at the turn of the new millenium.

In many places in the Western world, churchgoing is in decline and it cannot be assumed that people have a good grasp of the Bible's content. In this evolving situation, how would'the person on the street'read the Bible? Reading the Bible Outside the Church begins to answer this question. David Ford spent ten months at a chemical industrial plant providing non-churchgoing men with the opportunity to read and respond to five different biblical texts. Using an in-depth qualitative methodology, he charts how their prior experiences of religion, sense of (non)religious identity, attitudes towards the Bible, and beliefs about the Bible all shaped the readings that occurred.