The Self-Secularization of Religion

2020 ◽  
pp. 57-70
Author(s):  
Olivier Roy
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Traditional Society ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Pastoral Work ◽  
Christian Democracy ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Social ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
Religious Dogma ◽  
The Church

This chapter focuses on the Catholic Church's transition to modernity, which did not initially occur by way of theological reform. It came about through pastoral and missionary praxis as well as the rise in power of lay Christian actors: between two popes known for their intransigence, Pope Leo XIII, without compromising on any religious dogma, opened the way for the Church to engage with secular politics. Moreover, Pope Leo XIII took into account the ‘social question’, acknowledging that people were no longer living in a traditional society. The issue was no longer to bring the faithful back to church. The Church now had to reach out to secular society, which meant organizing open, socially oriented pastoral work and using secular political instruments—in other words what was to become Christian democracy—which no longer required religious observance but simple adherence to secularized Christian values. Ultimately, for global Catholicism, the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) hailed the adaptation of theology and ritual to modernism, ending a decades-long fight. Some have described it as a Protestant approach, or a Catholic version of the self-secularization of religion.

Exploring the Possible Contributions of the African Palaver towards a Participatory Synodal Church

Exchange ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 209-237
Author(s):  
Stan Chu Ilo
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Consensus Building ◽  
Traditional Society ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Church

Abstract This essay argues for a participatory synodal Church and the possible contributions of the African palaver as a model for participatory dialogue in the Roman Catholic Church. The African palaver is the art of conversation, dialogue, and consensus-building in traditional society that can be appropriated in the current search for a more inclusive and expansive participatory dialogue at all levels of the life of the Church. I will develop this essay first by briefly exploring some theological developments on synodality between the Second Vatican Council and Pope Francis and some of the contributions of the reforms of Pope Francis to synodality in the Church. Secondly, I will identify how the African palaver functions through examples taken from two African ethnic groups. I will proceed to show how the African palaver could enter into dialogue with other new approaches to participatory dialogue for a synodal Church.

scholarly journals O krok dalej w przybliżeniu słowa Bożego. Poznańscy bibliści w służbie orędziu Starego i Nowego Testamentu.

2020 ◽  
pp. 35-58
Author(s):  
Janusz Nawrot
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Social Community ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Present Generation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Church

On the occasion of 100 years of existence and activity of Adam Mickiewicz University in Pozna, one may sum up the contribution of the Faculty of Theology which has existed as part of the uni- versity for 20 years. This contribution has concerned the research and teaching arenas combined with a commitment for the social community of the Wielkopolska province. What is specific of the faculty is its ability to work both on the scientific and didactic levels as well as on the church level, which requires considerable knowledge and time in order to competently combine the requirements of working at university with demands of the Catholic Church managed by the Second Vatican Council. The scientific and popular scientific initiatives in the widely understood biblical studies represent a valuable contribution to the celebration of 100 years of the Pozna university. Like other scientific disciplines, they can proudly make their own contribution to the development of sci- ence in our city, as well as the entire country. One can only hope that the present generation of sci- entists will take the baton passed to them in the relay race of generations, and will make their own contribution to the science thereby honouring Pozna as an important scientific centre in Poland.

From Confession to Reconciliation, Vatican II to 2015

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick W. Carey
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Paradigmatic Shift ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Dramatic Decline ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Church

This chapter delineates the dramatic decline between 1960 and 2015 in the practice of sacramental penance and other penitential practices and a weakened consciousness of the biblical penitential language associated with the practices. The American cultural revolution of the 1960s and the paradigmatic shift in theology at the Second Vatican Council influenced those developments. The post-conciliar church, however, created new sacramental rites of confession that emphasized the social and ecclesial dimensions of sin and reconciliation, hoping to generate a renewed penitential consciousness. A loss of the sense of sin, though, made it very difficult for popes, bishops, and priests to revive the penitential confessional tradition. In its long history, the church experienced major changes in the theology and practice of penance, but the rapidity of the change in the fifty years after Vatican II was unprecedented, with the possible exception of the changes that took place during the Protestant Reformation.

The Laity and the Ecumenical Spirit, 1889–1893

1964 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19
Author(s):  
John Rickards Belts
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Social Order ◽  
American People ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Historical Criticism ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Social ◽  
Centennial Celebrations ◽  
The Church

In the late 1880's new sounds reverberated throughout the Catholic Church in America. Rapid urban growth and the rising tides of immigration required new perspectives on religion in the social order: science and historical criticism involved philosophy and theology, and rumblings of internal as well as external controversy were heard in the Church. The layman was achieving status in business and politics and, as he became more vocal on civic and cultural issues, he played a larger role in representing Catholicism before the American people. Self-critical voices sounded forth in the Catholic press, and churchmen were calling upon the laity. When the conjunction of several major centennial celebrations occurred in 1889, laymen leaped into the breach and started a trend in Catholic thought and action that has much to say to our generation, especially in the light of the Second Vatican Council.

scholarly journals The Social Sciences, Pastoral Theology, and Pastoral Work: Understanding the Underutilization of Sociology in Catholic Pastoral Ministry

Open Theology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 531-546
Author(s):  
Vivencio O. Ballano
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Pastoral Theology ◽  
Pastoral Ministry ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Pastoral Work ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Technological Culture ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Social

AbstractApplying sociological imagination and theological perspectives and using some secondary literature that focus on the American pastoral experience, this article explains why sociology and the social sciences are underutilized in the pastoral ministry of Catholic priests despite the Catholic Church’s openness to human sciences’ contributions to evangelization after the Second Vatican Council. In particular, it examines how the (i) uneasy alliance between Catholic theology and sociology, (ii) overemphasis on the invisible and theological dimension of the Church in current ecclesiologies, (iii) highly philosophical and theological clerical education which sidelines the empirical sciences in clerical pastoral work, and (iv) dominance of the individualist approaches of clinical psychology in pastoral theology have greatly contributed to the neglect of sociological inquiries and perspectives in clerical formation and pastoral ministry. It also argues that a genuine pastoral care must be based on a holistic and empirical assessment of the pastoral needs of parishioners by priests using sociology and the social sciences before it prescribes a plan of action for pastoral care to accurately inculturate the Christian message in today’s technological culture.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church: An Appraisal

Horizons ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-310
Author(s):  
Francis J. Buckley
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Social ◽  
Question And Answer ◽  
Social Teachings ◽  
Church Councils ◽  
The Church ◽  
Answer Format

AbstractThe format is a scholastic treatment of creed, sacraments, morality, and prayer with many allusions to Scripture, church Councils, and teachings of the magisterium, particularly in the social teachings of the church. This Catechism could have been written before the Second Vatican Council with references to Council documents added later, much as the biblical references were added as “proof-texts.” The biblical, liturgical, ecumenical, and catechetical movements have not had a substantial impact on the structure or content of the Catechism. There are many excellent features of the Catechism. It avoids the question-and-answer format. It dropped the major doctrinal errors. Its expanded development of prayer is superb. The greatest weakness of the Catechism is its steadfast refusal to distinguish teachings of the magisterium which demand an assent of faith from teachings which demand some other interior assent.

scholarly journals The priorities of the Catholic social doctrine in the definitions of the Second Vatican Council

2013 ◽  
pp. 69-76
Author(s):  
Valentyna Bodak ◽  
Liudmyla O. Fylypovych
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Social Doctrine ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Doctrine Of The Church ◽  
The Church

The Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church has had a fatal significance in its history. In addition to the important documents that were adopted by the Council, and then creatively developed by the theorists and practitioners of the Church, Catholicism was enriched with a new awareness of significant changes in the world. The Church acknowledged that there have been radical transformations in the outlook and behavior of people, in particular Catholics, in their attitude to issues of faith, to God, to the relationship between God and man. But perhaps the most influential for the further development of Catholicism in the world was the social doctrine of the Church, which eventually turned into a social doctrine. The latter is understood not only as a list of practical guidelines for solving the "social question", but also not a sum of knowledge in contemporary sociology1, but a set of religious beliefs developed by theologians and endorsed by the whole Church in the form of a body of special documents on the Church's views on society and social issues. In addition to the general theological principles of attitude towards peace and relations with society, the Catholic social doctrine contains the historical work of the Church in solving social problems in different epochs, recorded information about the social challenges of the past and present, eschatological expectations and real forecasts for the future of mankind.

scholarly journals THE INCULTURATION OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERCULTURAL AND INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUES OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

2018 ◽  
pp. 144-155
Author(s):  
Nikolai V. Chirkov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Missionary Work ◽  
Social Doctrine ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

In the missionary work of the Roman Catholic Church among non-Christian peoples and cultures, the Church resorts to the use of strategies for the inculturation of Christianity, based on the establishment and development of intercultural and interreligious dialogues. Based on the analysis of the official documents of the Roman Catholic Church (declaration of the Second Vatican Council, social doctrine of the Catholic Church, encyclicals and apostolic exhortations of the pontiffs), the author attempts to reveal the problems of the inculturation of Christianity rising in the context of intercultural and interreligious dialogues and making impact on the missionary work of the Catholic Church. Thanks to the reforms and subsequent decisions of the Second Vatican Council, the aspects, goals, tasks, and instructions for the dialogue of Christianity with non-Christian religions were formulated and set out. In future, the topic of intercultural and interreligious dialogues was developed and expressed in the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, as well as in the encyclicals and apostolic exhortations of the Roman Catholic pontiffs. According to the Roman Catholic Church position, interreligious and intercultural dialogues are aimed at mutual enrichment of various spiritual cultures, and their development should prepare the ground for further evangelization.

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