The Reception of Athanasius within Contemporary Roman Catholic Theology

2010 ◽  
Vol 90 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 311-337
Author(s):  
Arwin van Wilgenburg
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Historical Interpretation ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Salvation History ◽  
The Trinity

This article gives a brief overview of the reception of Athanasius in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Roman Catholic theology. Besides papal documents, mainly German theologians are discussed. First, Johann Adam Möhler’s Athanasius der Grosse (1827) is analyzed. Möhler was convinced that Athanasius was of great importance for modern society. However, Möhler’s attempt to give Athanasius a prominent position in contemporary theology seemed to fail. Although Athanasius is not absent in nineteenth-century dogmatic compendia, nor in papal documents of the last two centuries and many dogmatics of the twentieth century, his quantitative reception is rather poor, especially in comparison to Augustine. The dogmatic compendia and Neo-Thomistic theology did not have an interest in a historical interpretation of Athanasius and Thomas, himself, hardly referred to Athanasius. Moreover, the Trinitarian and Christological dogmas were not really contested. This changed in twentieth-century theology, because of a new understanding of historical development and the rise of phenomenology and existentialism. The doctrines of the Trinity and Christology were reinterpreted from the perspective of salvation history (Heilsgeschichte). Many theologians wanted to correct the anti-Arian tendency, stressing that Christ was truly God and truly man. Athanasius overlooked Christ’s humanity and the Alexandrian Logos-Sarx-Christology needed the complementation of the Antiochene Logos-Antropos-Christology. Nevertheless, Athanasius’s has received great formal authority within Roman Catholicism. He is a Saint and honored as doctor ecclesiae, because of his impact on Christian doctrine and the development of monasticism.

scholarly journals ‘Something is recognised’: A liberal Protestant reflection on Erik Borgman’s cultural theology

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Benjamins
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Specific Character ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Way

The Dutch Roman Catholic theologian Erik Borgman (1957), who developed a cultural theology, was appointed as a visiting professor at the liberal Protestant theological Mennonite Seminary in Amsterdam. In this article, his progressive Roman Catholic theology is compared to a liberal Protestant approach. The historical backgrounds of these different types of theology are expounded, all the way back to Aquinas and Scotus, in order to clarify their specific character for the sake of a better mutual understanding. Next, the convergence of these two types of theology in the twentieth century is explained with reference to the philosophy of Heidegger. Finally, the difficulties posed by postmodern philosophies to both a progressive Roman Catholic theology and a liberal Protestant theology are shown. It is asserted that both types of theology claim that the insights of their particular tradition can be relevant beyond this tradition to modern and postmodern humans.

Webster's Response to Alyssa Lyra Pitstick, Light in Darkness

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Webster
Keyword(s):  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Contemporary Christian ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
Hypostatic Union ◽  
Divine Perfection ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Many ◽  
Acts Of God ◽  
The Trinity

Though rarely addressed in a direct way, the theology of God's perfection is a central point at issue in contemporary Christian dogmatics. A good many debates of the moment turn on how the perfection of God's life is to be conceived: debates about the relation of the so-called immanent and economic Trinity; about the propriety of explicating the person and work of Christ through the metaphysics of divine and human natures; about the applicability of kenosis to account for the relation of the divine Word to the human career of Jesus; about the constitutive significance of temporality for the being of God; and much else besides. Recent disagreements amongst Barth scholars about the issue of the relation of the doctrine of divine election and the doctrine of the Trinity are in some measure animated by differing conceptions of the perfection of God, and one of the many ways of profiting from Dr Pitstick's book is to read it as, in part at least, an essay in defence of a certain construal of divine perfection. Indeed, one of my hopes for the book is that, once the noise of battle has subsided and the wounded have been dressed and taken to shelter, we may be able to engage peaceably and constructively with some of the material dogmatic issues to which it has drawn our attention. I do not propose to comment in detail on Dr Pitstick's evaluation of Balthasar; any judgements I might reach would be those of a mere amateur, one of those Protestants who in the 1970s discovered in Balthasar something which kept us reading Roman Catholic theology after Lonergan had wearied us and before we had been pointed to the treasures of ressourcement theology. Instead, I want to draw out from the book three doctrinal topics of capital importance: the ‘finished’ character of the redemptive work of Christ on the cross; the relation between theology and economy in the doctrine of the Trinity; and the doctrine of the hypostatic union – in all of which topics, of course, we are pressed to attend to the perfection of God and the acts of God.

Dealing With Development: The Protestant Reviews of John Henry Newman’s An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, 1845–7

2004 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 357-364
Author(s):  
Erik Sidenvall
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Central Topic ◽  
The Future ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Impact

The greatness of John Henry Newman’s Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine has been acknowledged many times since it was first published in 1845. Its international repute was secured by the beginning of the twentieth century; for example, the future Archbishop of Uppsala, Nathan Söderblom, writing on the modernist movement, described it and its author in 1910 as ‘the most significant theological work, written by England’s foremost theologian, and together with Leo XIII, the most important man in the Roman Catholic Church during the last century’. This estimation is confirmed by the impact Newman’s book has had on twentieth-century theology. One recent observer has judged that it is ‘significant, less for its positive arguments … [than] for its method of approach to the whole problem of Christian doctrine in its relation to the New Testament’. In other words, Newman’s book touches on a central topic of modern theology.

scholarly journals Perils and Possibilities of Multiple Religions Belonging: Test Case in Roman Catholicism

Open Theology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Feldmeier
Keyword(s):  
First Principles ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Theology Of Religions ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Religious Other

AbstractAfter reviewing various forms of multiple religious belonging, the author argues for the necessity of preliminary first principles, primarily coming from a considered form of a theology of religions. While an exclusivist theology would not allow multiple belongings, forms of inclusivism, pluralism, and postmodern mutualism provide possibilities. Since Roman Catholicism takes the most typical inclusivist position and has documented authoritative magisterial texts regarding Christianity and the religious other, the author makes a test case from the official Roman Catholic position. These he uses to guide theological possibilities and limitations. Ultimately, what he argues is that the Catholic position is not completely coherent and itself weaves some pluralist and postmodern principles into its supposedly rigid inclusivist position. As a test case, it shows the problems in creating a complete and absolute paradigm regarding Christianity‘s relationship with other religions. He finally argues for a modestly faithful form of Catholic theology that allows for some forms of multiple religious belonging, but also shows how full-fledged multiple identities are fraught.

Church

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam DeVille
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Geographical Scope ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

The chapter traces developments in ecclesiology through the twentieth century, as the ecumenical movement unfolded, and raises questions about the relationship between the church and the communion of the Persons of the Trinity, and about the nature of the Church as eucharistic and sacramental. Further more practical questions about authority, primacy, and synodality (or conciliarity) are also examined in light of the work of multilateral ecumenical dialogues (especially within the World Council of Churches), and bilateral dialogues, particularly the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and the international Roman Catholic–Orthodox theological dialogue. Considerable progress has been made on all these questions, but new issues have recently arisen, and these are briefly treated, including questions of imperfect communion, of the ordination of women and of those in same-sex relationships, and questions of geographical scope relative to jurisdiction and canonical territory.

Barth and Roman Catholic Theology

2019 ◽  
pp. 669-686
Author(s):  
Paul D. Molnar
Keyword(s):  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Karl Rahner ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Analogy Of Being ◽  
Hans Urs Von Balthasar ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Analogia Entis ◽  
The Trinity

Taking Barth’s doctrines of revelation and the Trinity as a starting point, this chapter places Barth’s thought primarily in conversation with Walter Kasper. It considers Kasper’s work as an attempt to integrate insights drawn from Barth and Karl Rahner, while placing their views within the wider context of post-Vatican II Roman Catholic theology, as well as the thinking of Hans Urs von Balthasar. By focusing on the different attitudes of Barth and Kasper to the analogia entis (analogy of being), the chapter proposes that the primary issue related to ecumenical unity that emerges concerns whether, and to what extent, contemporary theologians are willing to allow Jesus Christ himself to stand as the first and the final Word in all theological reflection.

Art and Politics at the Vatican Congregation for the Oriental Churches, 1917-45

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-57
Author(s):  
Roy Robson
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Russian Orthodoxy ◽  
Art And Politics ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Commissioned Works

AbstractIn the period 1917-45, the Roman Catholic Church vacillated in its views of Russian Orthodoxy and the Russian Revolution. Some forces in the Vatican focused on the “consecration” of Russia, connoting support for Orthodoxy. Others preferred to push for the “conversion” of Russia to Roman Catholicism. The tension between these competing views can be seen in the Vatican's patronage of the arts. From 1925-1945, the Congregation for the Oriental Churches commissioned works by four artists—Leonid and Rimma Brailowski, Pimen Sofronov, and Jérôme Leussink. Collectively, their work illustrated the changing mixture of politics, piety, and aesthetics that characterized Rome's view toward Russia in the first half of the twentieth century.

Mary and Roman Catholicism in Mid Nineteenth-Century England: The Poetry of Edward Caswall

2004 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 308-318
Author(s):  
Nancy M. de Flon
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Immaculate Conception ◽  
The Church

In her article on the nineteenth-century Marian revival, Barbara Corrado Pope examines the significance of Mary in the Roman Catholic confrontation with modernity. ‘As nineteenth-century Catholics increasingly saw themselves in a state of siege against the modern world, they turned to those symbols that promised comfort’, she writes. Inevitably the chief symbol was Mary, whom the ‘patriarchal Catholic theology’ of the time held up as embodying the ‘good’ feminine qualities of chastity, humility, and maternal forgiveness. But there is another side to Mary that emerged as even more important and effective in the struggle against what many Catholics perceived as contemporary errors, and this was the militant figure embodied by the Immaculate Conception. The miraculous medal, an icon of Catherine Laboure’s vision of the Virgin treading on a snake, popularized this concept. The crushing of the snake not only had a connection to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception; it also symbolized victory over sin, particularly the sins of the modern world. ‘Thus while the outstretched arms of the Immaculate Conception promised mercy to the faithful, the iconography of this most widely distributed of Marian images also projected a militant and defiant message that through Mary the Church would defeat its enemies’.

Henri de Lubac’s wending naar de kerk

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-233
Author(s):  
Sjoerd Mulder
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
The Social ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The Church ◽  
Historical World

Abstract In the last thirty years, theologians such as Milbank and Hauerwas have allowed ecclesiology to play a fundamental role in theology. This move is grounded in their conviction that the meaning of Christianity consists primarily not in its theory and doctrine but in its lived form, which is the church. Interestingly, this contemporary 'turn to the church' in many ways resembles an earlier revival of ecclesiology in the beginning of the twentieth century in Roman Catholic theology. In this paper, I will focus on the work of Henri de Lubac, and demonstrate how the particular way in which he develops his idea of the church might offer valuable insights for contemporary theology. First, I sketch how his particular understanding of the church as the social and historical embodiment of God's gracious action immediately implied an embrace of the social and historical world. Second, I argue that notwithstanding all his emphasis on the church, his particular understanding of the church as springing from the Eucharist means that the church is never idolized but always points beyond itself to God. I conclude by relating these insights to the contemporary turn to the church.

Barth and Roman Catholicism

2019 ◽  
pp. 146-161
Author(s):  
Keith L. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Analogy Of Being ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Analogia Entis ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Over Time

This chapter provides an interpretative lens for understanding Karl Barth’s dialogue with Roman Catholicism. The central argument is that Barth’s engagement with Roman Catholic theology changed over time, even as his core theological convictions remained constant. This argument is defended through an examination of Barth’s theological development, his debates with his Catholic contemporaries, and the dramatic changes in Roman Catholic theology during the twentieth century. A number of important specific issues are explored, including Barth’s criticism of the Roman Catholic analogia entis (analogy of being), Hans Urs von Balthasar’s interpretation of Barth’s theology, Barth’s reception history amongst Roman Catholic theologians, Barth’s visit to Rome after the Second Vatican Council, and the question of Barth’s interpretation of Roman Catholic primary texts.

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