scholarly journals ’Oh, of course, one accepts the Gospels, naturally’: Subversive Use of the Bible in Graham Greene’s Monsignor Quixote

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-201
Author(s):  
Beatriz Valverde
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Graham Greene ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
The Bible ◽  
La Mancha ◽  
National Catholicism ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

When Graham Greene wrote Monsignor Quixote (published in 1982), one of his aims was to reflect critically on the role of the Catholic Church in the Spain of the late 1970s, as well as on the support this institution offered to the former dictatorship of Franco within the so called ‘National Catholicism.’ In this novel, the reader witnesses the evolution of the protagonist, Father Quixote, from a religious living a complacent life in a small village in La Mancha to a priest in rebellion against the conservative hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Spain. Drawing upon Gerard Genette’s theory of transtextuality, I will examine Greene’s use of different religious texts to fight a model of conservative Catholic Church that he rejects. I will focus my analysis especially on the intertextual and metatextual references to the Gospels that the Bishop of La Mancha/Father Herrera and Father Quixote make in their dialogic interactions, references that portray their different vision of the role that the Church should have in society.

Bridging the Gap between Orthodoxy and Orthopraxis: The Catholic Church’s Concern for Migrants

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Reginald Alva
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Global Migration ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

Migration is a global phenomenon. An essential part of the mission of the Catholic Church is to love Christ particularly in the poor and the weak, which includes migrants. The Magisterium of the Church has consistently stressed reaching out to migrants. However, issuing documents would mean nothing if Christians do not implement them in letter and spirit. Christian charity would be meaningless if it remains only as a part of orthodoxy without orthopraxis. The phenomenal rise in global migration has created unfavorable conditions for many migrants. The Church being an ‘expert in humanity’ has a great task to reach out to the least in the society.1 In this article, we shall examine the role of the Catholic Church in bridging the gap between the orthodoxy and orthopraxis in their mission for migrants. We shall base our study on the documents of the Church and actual cases of migrant ministry in the Church.

scholarly journals Kościół katolicki i neopogaństwo niemieckie w myśli Leona Halbana

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 109-125
Author(s):  
Ryszard Polak
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Academic Achievements ◽  
European Culture ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND GERMAN NEOPAGANISM IN LEON HALBAN’S THOUGHTThis article presents the views of Leon Halban referring to the problems of German religiosity. In the first part of the article, the family and the character and the academic achievements of this scholar were characterized. In the next part of the article, his views on the role of the Catholic Church in European culture were analyzed and his position in which he made a critical assessment of German religiosity was presented. Halban assumed that the Christianity practiced by Germans since the Middle Ages did not result from their authentic conversion. The Germans were often religiously indifferent and tended to fall into various heresies and deviations from faith. They also sought to achieve supremacy of the state over the Church in public life and law. Halban argued that a renewal of morality can only be achieved in the Catholic Church, whose ethical principles and doctrine should be propagated and applied in everyday life.

Catholics and their Scriptures: Six Ways of Engaging with the Bible

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-216
Author(s):  
David G. Ford
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Small Focus ◽  
Church Setting ◽  
The Catholic Church

In recent years the Catholic Church has been encouraging its members to engage with the Bible and a variety of resources have been produced to facilitate this. However, national surveys in Britain show that Catholics are some of the Christians least likely to engage with the Bible outside of a church setting. A small focus group of ordinary Catholics spent a year using five different resources to ascertain what ways of engaging with the Scriptures they found most helpful. Six ways were identified: reading the Bible in community; drawing on secondary expertise; valuing the literal and spiritual sense of Scripture; focusing on the Old Testament and the Bible’s unity; using accessible formats; and using a variety of resources. These are presented and discussed in the context of the Church’s recent teaching and instruction on the role of the Bible in the life of the believer.

Feminism and Womanism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Veeneman
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Male Privilege ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
God's Grace ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

This chapter investigates feminist and womanist approaches to theologies of the sacraments in which sacraments are “events in the church in which God’s grace is made present to the community.” Citing the work of Susan Ross, Elizabeth Johnson, and others, the author posits the need for theologies of the sacraments to be reworked in light of the experience of women, particularly regarding the sacraments of Ordination and Eucharist. Ordained clergy should relate the Eucharist to ministry to the poor and hungry. In addition, the patriarchal framework that undergirds male privilege in the Catholic Church has resulted in misunderstanding both the maleness of Jesus and the possible role of women to serve as ordained clergy. Ultimately reevaluating theologies of the sacraments from a feminist and womanist perspective is for the sake of empowering worship and furthering mission in the world.

Catholicism and the Catholic Church

2019 ◽  
pp. 167-186
Author(s):  
Paul Rusnock ◽  
Jan Šebestík
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

Bolzano’s engagement with Catholicism and the Church was both theoretical and practical. In his Lehrbuch der Religionswissenschaft, he examined Catholicism in light of the conceptual tools he had developed for the study of religions in general. Practically, his concern was to develop interpretations of Catholic teachings that would be compatible with the demands of reason but also maximally conducive to the virtue and happiness of those who accepted them. In many cases, these interpretations put him at odds with strong conservative currents of Catholic opinion. The focus in this chapter is on a relatively small number of points in Bolzano’s presentation of Catholicism which the authors think are especially interesting from a philosophical point of view. In particular, the subjects discussed are his conception of miracles and revelation, the constraints he places on the interpretation of revealed doctrines, the role of consensus in Catholicism, and the sources and kinds of authority within the Church. (150 words)

scholarly journals The Role of the Altar and Tabernacle in the Catholic Church Interior in the Light of Post-conciliar Recommendations and Architectural Arrangement of the Church Interior

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 250-277
Author(s):  
Mirosław Bogdan
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Code Of Canon Law ◽  
Community Of Faith ◽  
Liturgical Renewal ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

The article defines the role of the altar and tabernacle in the contemporary architectural sacred interior treated as domus ecclesiae, designed to fulfill liturgical functions in accordance with the post-conciliar renewal of Vatican II. The article takes into account the problem of celebrating Holy Mass. by the celebrant with his back to the tabernacle located centrally behind the post-conciliar altar. With reference to the irreversibility of the liturgical renewal, apart from the ordinary form of the Roman rite, the existence of the extraordinary (Tridentine) form of this rite, also accepted by Vatican II, is taken into account.  By presenting the presence of the post-conciliar altar brought closer to the zone of the faithful, the meaning of the Code of Canon Law is defined. The article, defining the irreversibility of the liturgical renewal, presents the location of the tabernacle separated from the altar, built architecturally in the nave or chapel of the church. At the same time, the aesthetic beauty of the liturgical interior furnishings is determined, when all this exists in accordance with the post-conciliar ordinances and serves to build a community of faith.

scholarly journals Clergy (Kler) by Wojciech Smarzowski – The Image of Catholic Priests in Polish Movies After 1989

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-94
Author(s):  
Piotr Zwierzchowski
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Catholic Priests ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

Clergy (Kler, 2018) by Wojciech Smarzowski has aroused great controversy and many discussions about the position and role of the Catholic Church in contemporary Poland. I would like to look at the portraits of priests in the film in relation to the images previously created in Polish cinema. I am not going to analyze particular examples, but point to selected motifs and characters in order to interpret the images of clergymen and the church in their context. I will consider both the construction of individual characters and the image of the Catholic Church as an institution.

scholarly journals THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CATALONIA. FROM CATACLYSM IN THE CIVIL WAR TO THE “EUPHORIA” OF THE 1950S

2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-100
Author(s):  
Andrew Dowling
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Cultural Activity ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
National Catholicism ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

In the summer of 1936, with the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, the Catalan Church underwent a ferocious assault, without precedent in modern European history. Catalan society in the early decades of the twentieth century had been divided over its relationship to the Catholic Church, with some sectors being profoundly anti-clerical. Yet by the early 1960s, attitudes towards the Catholic Church had changed. This article is concerned with reconstructing Catalan and Catalanist Catholicism from one of profound crisis during the Civil War to its re-emergence from the confines of Spanish National Catholicism. Francoist victory in the Spanish Civil War meant the ending of indigenous Catholic traditions. However, from the mid-1940s we can trace the slow reconstruction of Catalan traditions, language and culture. All of the major expressions of Catalan identity until the 1960s were enabled due to this Catholic patronage. Whilst the Church was unable to reverse secularization trends, this involvement in cultural activity would transform its place within wider Catalan society. By the end of the period examined in this article, historic and deep rooted anti-clericalism in Catalonia was ending.

A Diachronic Analysis of the Religious Role of the Woman in Euskal Herria: The Serora and her Helpers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roslyn M Frank
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
High Status ◽  
Religious Institution ◽  
Hypothetical Model ◽  
Diachronic Analysis ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way ◽  
The Catholic Church

<p>In the churches of Euskal Herria there exists today a religious institution of great antiquity and one that clearly demonstrates the high status traditionally afforded to the female in Basque culture. The serora, also referred to as sorora, freila, benoîte, benedicta and beata, is a woman who acts as an adjunct to the priest in the ritual activities of the Catholic Church. In the 20th century her continuing presence represents an anachronism and anomaly when viewed in light of repeated decisions by the Catholic hierarchy concerning the officially approved role of women in the Church. The morphology of this institution will be viewed from two perspectives. First, it will be analyzed synchronically as a set of functions or structures constituting the field of activity of the serora. Then, in order to understand the significance of the survival of these functions, a diachronic approach will be utilized to trace their evolution back into the indigenous religious structures and associated patterns of belief. Having established a hypothetical model for the pre-existing morphology of the institution, it will be possible to describe the way in which the earlier set of structures was modified by increasing contact with the forms and contents of Christianity. With the passage of time the formative elements of the indigenous substratum become overlaid and modified by their fusion with Christianity. Nonetheless, as will be demonstrated, the syncretistic processes at work allowed the earlier structures to survive under the guise of what are understood to be Christian rituals and symbols. Thus, the original indigenous patterns continued to function as generative infrastructures latent even in their modern counterparts. In the latter sections of the paper the duties and responsibilities of the serora are compared with those associated with the Beguines and a new etymology of the term “Beguine” is put forward.</p>

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