Images of Eastern Religions and Roman Catholic Identity

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-411
Author(s):  
Enrico Beltramini

Abstract While in the past two decades the Roman Catholic Church has reaffirmed an inclusivist stance with respect to other religions, there is reason to explore the question of whether Catholic teaching is as much about offering a definition of what is true in other religions as it is about defining Catholic identity. In this article, I investigate the representations of Eastern religions within ordinary expressions of Catholic teaching between 1990 and 2000, and I show how Catholic teaching seems to adopt a binary ontology in which the representation of the Other serves to define oneself.

Author(s):  
Branislav Todic

The Old Serbian writer Theodosius wrote his Life of St Sava according to the older hagiography composed by Domentianus in 1253/4. Both authors were Hilandar monks and wrote the hagiographies of the first Serbian archbishop on Mount Athos. Unlike Domentianus?s work, Theodosius?s Life has not been dated with precision. Helpful in establishing the date of his Life of St Sava are its manuscript copying tradition and reception in Serbian literature and the analysis of its content. This paper shows that from 1317 the Serbian writers Nicodemus and Daniel II drew on Theodosius?s hagiography, which pushes its date further back into the past. On the other hand, the content of the Life suggests that it was written between 1284 and 1292 because it refers to the river Sava as Serbia?s border with Hungary (which it became in 1284), and describes the monastery of Zica as it was before the destruction it sustained in 1292. Both pieces of information have long been noticed and properly explained. Helpful in establishing the date of writing with more precision may also be an examination of the reasons which led to the writing of a new hagiography of St Sava only thirty years after the one written by Domentianus. Among several possible explanations proposed so far, the one discussed in detail here is the different attitude of the two hagiographers towards Rome and the Roman Catholic Church. In Theodosius?s case, it is markedly disapproving. Therefore, the assumption that the union of Lyon (1274-1282) and the developments on Mount Athos linked with it were the reason for writing a new hagiography is accepted and strengthened with further arguments. The new Life gave a much more idealized hagiographic portrayal of St Sava and enriched his image with a new perception of Orthodoxy which made sense only at the time of the triumphant mood inspired by the failure of the union. The proposed conclusion is that Theodosius did not begin writing his Life of St Sava until after 1285, when the condemnation of the patriarch John Bekkos of Constantinople and his teachings put an end to the union of Lyon. The Life could not have been written much after that year either because its tendentiousness had lost all significance already in the 1290s.


Author(s):  
C. Michael Shea

For the past several decades, scholars have stressed that the genius of John Henry Newman remained underappreciated among his Roman Catholic contemporaries, and in order to find the true impact of his work, one must look to the century after his death. This book takes direct aim at that assumption. Examining a host of overlooked evidence from England and the European continent, Newman’s Early Legacy tracks letters, recorded conversations, and obscure and unpublished theological exchanges to show how Newman’s 1845 Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine influenced a cadre of Catholic teachers, writers, and Church authorities in nineteenth-century Rome. The book explores how these individuals then employed Newman’s theory of development to argue for the definability of the new dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary during the years preceding the doctrine’s promulgation in 1854. Through numerous twists and turns, the narrative traces how the theory of development became a factor in determining the very language that the Roman Catholic Church would use in referring to doctrinal change over time. In this way, Newman’s Early Legacy uncovers a key dimension of Newman’s significance in modern religious history.


Horizons ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-149
Author(s):  
Jason Steidl

This contribution to the roundtable will compare two forms of protest in the church—one that is radical and challenges the church from the outside, and the other that is institutional and challenges the church from the inside. For case studies, I will compare Católicos Por La Raza (CPLR), a group of Chicano students that employed dramatic demonstrations in its protest of the Catholic Church, and PADRES, an organization of Catholic priests that utilized the tools at its disposal to challenge racism from within the hierarchy. I will outline the ecclesiologies of CPLR and PADRES, the ways in which these visions led to differing means of dissent, and the successes and failures of each group.


Author(s):  
Patrick Flanagan

Benedict XVI, the present pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, published Caritas in Veritate in June 2009. This third papal encyclical of his is distinguished from his others that dealt with the area of theology commonly known as “constructive” or “systematic.” In this most recent publication, Benedict XVI moves his writing into a rich historical arena known as Roman Catholic social teaching. Building upon a solid tradition of popes tackling political, social, and economic issues, Benedict XVI tackles acute contemporary concerns. The key areas Benedict XVI addresses in this encyclical are globalization, the economy, technology, and the environment. Germane to this text, this chapter will seek to explain how globalization is described and critiqued by Benedict XVI in this pivotal letter of his pontificate. While globalization will be the primary focus, because of the interrelationship between the aforementioned topics, attention obviously will also to be given to the other primary areas.


1969 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert L. Michaels

The man of the Revolution disputed the very nature of Mexico with the Roman Catholic. The revolutionary, whether Callista or Cardenista, believed that the church had had a pernicious influence on the history of Mexico. He claimed that Mexico could not become a modern nation until the government had eradicated all the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic, on the other hand, was convinced that his religion was the basis of Mexico's nationality. Above all, the Catholic believed that Mexico needed a system of order. He was convinced that his faith had brought order and peace to Mexico in the colonial period, and as the faith declined, Mexico degenerated into anarchy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Okwudiri Obineche

Jansenism is a seventh-century religious movement within the Roman Catholic Church, named after a Dutch theologian Cornelius Jansen, whose work Augustinus (1640) reviewed the major thoughts of Augustine’s theology. Jansenist teachings were associated with harsh moral rigorism against the Jesuits’ Molinist thoughts. It was first condemned by Pope Innocent X in 1653, and finally in 1713 with many French migrants finding refuge in Holland from persecution. However, having retained traces of its teachings in the same Catholic Church that condemned them, Jansenist thoughts have found flourishing ground in the modern churches of Africa, especially among the African indigenous Pentecostal denominations in Nigeria. This indigenous Pentecostal tradition comprises the African Independent Churches, the Aladura movement, and the African Pentecostal movement, whose belief and practices are in line with the five pillars of Jansenism. This work, therefore, proposes that the reality of history lies with the future; whose interpretation of the past is proved by modern reality, and not by the ancient traditions


1904 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 33-76
Author(s):  
M. G. Routh

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 put an end to the war which had troubled Europe for thirty years, and which had its origin in the bitter religious hatred, intensified by political jealousy, of the partisans of the Reformation on the one hand, and of the adherents of the Roman Catholic Church on the other.


2014 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-151
Author(s):  
Margot Käßmann

AbstractIn contrast to past centenaries, the preparation of the 2017 reformation quincentenary is clearly focused on showcasing an ecumenical and international dimension. It is thus intended to take into account the developments of the past decades regarding the Leuenberg Concord and the dialogue with the Roman-Catholic church and the heirs of the Anabaptist movement. The conceptual focus on the reformation and its meaning for today is accentuated equally with the preparation of an event that will, as a public celebration, reveal the ecclesiastical and secular meaning of the reformation.


Archaeologia ◽  
1827 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 113-116
Author(s):  
John Bruce

The derivation of the word “Mass” having lately been the subject of our conversation, I am induced to offer you the following Remarks upon it, from which I think it will appear that the word, as used to signify the service of the Roman Catholic Church, is wholly distinct, both in derivation and sense, from “mas” the adjunct to Christ, &c. in the words, “Christmas,” “Candlemas,” “Lammas,” &c. In the former sense it seems to come from the Latin “Missa,” and in the latter from the Anglo-Saxon “mærre;” the one having been used in the early ages of the Church as a word of dismission to the congregation, or a part of it, and the other signifying a feast or solemn festival.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document