Interpretationsis a collection of essays produced by the distinguished philosopher Jude Dougherty over the past decade, written to inform or to provide commentary on contemporary issues. In probing ...the past to interpret the present they draw upon a perspective that one may call classical, the perspective of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and their followers across the ages, notably Thomas Aquinas, and his modern disciples, such as Etienne Gilson and Jacques Maritain.The first part ofInterpretationsis an attempt to understand modernity's break with the past, the repudiation of Scholasticism and the classical tradition. Dougherty does this by referencing the dominant preoccupations of the Middle Ages, of the Renaissance, of the Reformation, of eighteenth-century British empiricism, and of nineteenth-century German philosophy, drawing upon the readings of Remi Brague, Pierre Manent, and others. What unifies these reflections is the role of religion (both in Christianity and Islam) in society and its impact on the culture, as well as looking at what is called "modernity" where this role becomes reduced or absent.The second part of the volume examines selected addresses by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI from a philosophical point of view. Benedict, like others through the course of history, has recognized the role of religion in producing cultural unity. These essays are an appreciation primarily of the subtlety of the former pontiff's thought.The third part ofInterpretationscollects essays and addresses on the practice and nature of philosophy that Dean Dougherty has given throughout his career at The Catholic University of America, and reflects the trajectory of his career and the development of his thought.
A large number of casualties in our day and our eroded testimony to the world around us, allows for a lot of grieving but also calls for the reassessment of our understanding of sin, forgiveness and ...the context of restoration: the community of the forgiven. True, there is around us a growing concern for the problem of sin. However, it is more a face-saving concern vis-a-vis the secularized world and the Church. Unfortunately, it is less a concern compared to God and His righteous standards. // How do we define sin? How are we to understand the forgiveness of sin? How do we recognize it, how do we administer it? These are some valid questions that need to be addressed. The purpose behind the present research is not to sift the Bible through our experience to accommodate our generation’s understanding of sin but the other way around: to sift experience through the Bible, expose misunderstanding and thus proceed toward restoration through a way of understanding godliness. The intend is not to fill an ontological gap, but rather address the current situation from a biblical and pastoral perspective, into a situation in which theologians and churches together have lost the ability to talk meaningfully about topics such as sin and the internal workings of the human soul and thus have rendered as irrelevant the meaning of Forgiveness that the Gospel brings. The concern in the following pages is to understand the concept of sin and the experiential dynamics of sin and that of Forgiveness and its personal and corporate experience. Even though a better understanding of Forgiveness may not rid our lives of sins nor make us the best forgivers in the world, it will alert us to what is happening around us and offer insight that can become opportunities.
To speak of the methods of theology in the Middle Ages means to recognize the coexistence of pluriform methodological and epistemological postures in theology. In some cases this may be caused by the ...interests that generate them, in others the contexts of reflection and production, or the direct ties with socio-cultural events that feed them and make them diverse. Thus theological knowing from the point of view of its rationality and the way or ways in which it is elaborated and developed in its sphere of tradition and Christian thought supposes an appropriate location in the cultural medium that gave it life and of which it is, at the same time, its expression.
This book is timely and well-planned and more such books are needed as theologians engaged with the Gospel in Latin America have developed new themes and new challenges. The authors reflect well such ...type of contemporary liberation theology and the editor is an internationally well-known theologian. Students,teachers and researchers in the field should find this volume in valuable.
Mario I. Aguilar Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics St. Mary’s College University of St. Andrews, UK
Liberation Theology and Sexuality is a book about ‘doing Liberation Theology in Latin America’ in the Twenty First Century. The style of doing theology remains the same, but this book reflects the work of a new generation of liberation theologians developing a theology that offers a wider and more complex critique of reality, with new perspectives on issues of sexuality, race, gender, culture, globalization and new forms of popular religiosity.
Liberation Theology and Sexuality shows how Christianity in Latin America needs to take into account issues concerning sexuality and poverty, together with traditional religiosity and culture when reflecting on the construction of Christian faith and identity in the continent. For the first time, Liberation Theology and Sexuality presents a unique combination of Latin American theologians from more than one generation, reflecting on depth on the ongoing project of the liberation of theology from economic and sexual oppressions in the continent.
The Enlightenment Bible Sheehan, Jonathan
2013., 20130409, 2013, 2005, 2007, c2005., 2005-01-01
eBook
How did the Bible survive the Enlightenment? In this book, Jonathan Sheehan shows how Protestant translators and scholars in the eighteenth century transformed the Bible from a book justified by ...theology to one justified by culture. In doing so, the Bible was made into the cornerstone of Western heritage and invested with meaning, authority, and significance even for a secular age.
The Enlightenment Bibleoffers a new history of the Bible in the century of its greatest crisis and, in turn, a new vision of this century and its effects on religion. Although the Enlightenment has long symbolized the corrosive effects of modernity on religion, Sheehan shows how the Bible survived, and even thrived in this cradle of ostensible secularization. Indeed, in eighteenth-century Protestant Europe, biblical scholarship and translation became more vigorous and culturally significant than at any time since the Reformation. From across the theological spectrum, European scholars--especially German and English--exerted tremendous energies to rejuvenate the Bible, reinterpret its meaning, and reinvest it with new authority.
Poets, pedagogues, philosophers, literary critics, philologists, and historians together built a post-theological Bible, a monument for a new religious era. These literati forged the Bible into a cultural text, transforming the theological core of the Judeo-Christian tradition. In the end, the Enlightenment gave the Bible the power to endure the corrosive effects of modernity, not as a theological text but as the foundation of Western culture.
The Second Vatican Council and the Common Word document constitute turning points in the history of Christian–Muslim Relations. Nostra Aetate and Lumen Gentium appealed to a shared Abrahamic heritage ...between Christianity and Islam, and the Common Word appealed to a God-based theology, as opposed to the long-standing Prophet-based theology. Authorities in both traditions did so in the search for a shared theological foundation. While the article recognizes the vitality of the two steps, it equally recognizes that there is still much that can be done to advance Christian–Muslim relations. In this context, this article aims to achieve three primary goals: first, to demonstrate the successes of the two initiatives; second, to critically engage with them by examining their limitations; and third, to suggest “practical theology” as a medium through which the aspirations of Vatican II and the Common Word can reach a greater audience. In doing so, it proposes the concept of shahādah “bearing witness”, as opposed to the Islamic concept of daʿwah “making invitation” and the Christian concepts of preaching and messianism.
