Christ as the Watermark of Divine Love: Expanding the Boundaries of Eastern Orthodox Ecumenism and Interreligious Encounter

The article is a personal theological reflection on ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue by one of the commission of drafters of the Ecumenical Patriarchate's 2020 social teaching text For the Life of the World: Toward an Orthodox Social Ethos (=FLOW). The text argues that FLOW, despite being innovative for Orthodoxy, needs its boundaries expanded theologically. The section on Christian ecumenism is still quite conservative in character. It acknowledges that the Orthodox Church is committed to ecumenism but it does not explicitly acknowledge the ecclesiality of non-Orthodox churches. The author puts forward a form of qualified ecclesiological exclusivism that affirms that non-Orthodox churches are tacitly Orthodox containing “a grain of Orthodoxy” (Sergii Bulgakov). Strangely, FLOW's section on inter-religious dialogue is much more radical than its section on ecumenism. The author builds theologically on FLOW's positive affirmation of other religions as containing “seeds of the Word”, in particular, Islam containing ‘beauty and spiritual truths' and Judaism as being Orthodoxy’s “elder brother.” The essay ends by sketching a Trinitarian theology of other religions drawing on ideas from Maximus the Confessor, Bulgakov, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Raimundo Panikkar amongst others.

Wages, Work, and the Catholic Social Teaching

The Catholic Social Teaching is a rich and relevant source for studying contemporary problems in society. In this paper, I investigate the question about equal pay in light of the social teaching. During the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in equal pay and related concepts like universal basic income. By equal pay we mean that everyone in society receives the same remuneration regardless of the type of work, level of effort, or unemployed or not. From an economic point of view, there are large negative incentive effects with such an arrangement. The reason is that the principle of ‘equal pay for all’ breaks the relationship between the workers’ effort and the payment associated with the effort. Furthermore, neo-classical economics would argue that there is no incentive to work if there is no financial payoff compared to not working. Also from a Catholic social teaching viewpoint, there is no support for an ‘equal pay for all’ arrangement. However, the social teaching sheds important light on the meaning of work and the right to a living wage.

Pembedayaan Ekonomi umat melalui sedekah dalam pespektif NU

Islam is a belief that has a social teaching dimension, to encourage poverty alleviation through the exploitation (ZIS) of "zakat, infaq, and alms". Furthermore, this charity is an instrument in economic empowerment activities, namely efforts to provide free assistance to help Muslims who are less economically empowered so that they are able to help themselves. NU means the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia. NU means an inseparable part in the dynamics of the history of the development of the Indonesian nation. Indonesia in general. While NU's organizational principles have long held the concept of economic welfare, indirectly NU still seems to not prioritize empowerment in the economic sector. When dealing with the MEA (Asean Economic Community), NU's strategies and actions in carrying out the mandate to increase the welfare of the people must be right. The accuracy of the tactics and actions in question is of course permanent based on a clear religious dimension. Islam kepercayaan yang berdimensi ajaran social, buat mendorong pengentasan kemiskinan melalui eksploitasi (ZIS) “zakat, infaq, dan sedekah” . Selanjutnya Sedekah ini sebagai instrument dalam pada kegiatan pemberdayaan ekonomi, yakni upaya bantuan gratis pertolongan pertolongan pada kaum muslimim yang kurang berdaya secara ekonomi agar mereka sanggup menolong dirinya sendiri. NU artinya ormas Islam terbesar dalam Indonesia. NU artinya bagian yang mampu dipisahkan dalam dinamika sejarah perkembangan bangsa Indonesia. Indonesia pada umumnya. Ketika di dalam prinsip keorganisasian NU sudah lama mengadakan konsep kesejahteraan ekonomi, tetapi secara tidak langsung NU masih terkesan kurang memprioritaskan pemberdayaan pada sektor ekonomi. Ketika sedang berhadapan dengan MEA (Masyarakat Ekonomi Asean), strategi & tindakan NU dalam mengemban amanat buat meninggikan kesejahteraan umat harus dengan tepat. Ketepatan taktik & tindakan yang dimaksud tentu permanen berlandaskan dalam dimensi keagamaan yang jelas.

Learning Through Whatsapp During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study

The COVID-19 pandemic forced lockdowns that severely affected the educational sector. The necessary shift to online learning was hindered in countries that lack communication technologies. In addition, the inadequate media and information literacy among educators and students alike exposed deficiencies in disaster preparedness. This resulted in the use of commonly used applications, such as WhatsApp, as a learning platform. We hereby present the learning experience of a mathematics class of the 10th grade through WhatsApp in a Lebanese public school. After analysis, we assess the initiative using the Rubric for eLearning Tool Evaluation. Although WhatsApp, as a learning tool, was functional, accessible, and technically effective, it hindered the learning experience with the lack of social, teaching, and cognitive presence. We offer our insights and recommendations on improving the learning and communication experience as we continue to navigate the current and any future pandemic.

The catholic church in liberal democracy

The concept of human rights, supposedly of universal importance, is usually derived from the tradition referred to as ‘Western’. Although the ‘classic approaches’ – Greek, Roman and Christian, refer to the norms of natural law, making them the basis or limits of the rights of individuals, in modern approaches the relation is reserved, in the manner that rights become primary to norms. Although liberals of the 17th and 18th centuries consider the law of nature as a tool for their protection, starting from the 19th century, the rights (already called human rights) have been increasingly perceived as positive abilities to articulate own, subjective preferences of individuals. This evolution needs to be accounted for in the studies carried out by representatives of various cultures, since the comprehension of an individual (and even a ‘human person’ as in contemporary Catholic social teaching) as an essentially culturally unconditioned one, is its ineradicable element.

Life to the Full: Sustaining the Catholic Curriculum

Catholic schools. has articulated There are concerns that the curriculum of Catholic schools has been increasingly dominated by pressures to conform to a programme of education legitimised by an intrusive secular state and designated as a ‘national curriculum’. Accordingly, the curriculum of Catholic maintained schools is regulated within a standardised framework that is directed by government. Contentiously, it has been asserted that, as a result, the curriculum in Catholic schools in England has effectively been ‘de-Catholicised’. This claim has been contested. For example, it is maintained that the matter is more nuanced than this and the situation cannot be interpreted in such an unequivocal way. However, it might well be asked: what should a Catholic curriculum look like? In the face of this question, leaders in Catholic schools are encouraged to consider renewing and restoring a distinctive curriculum by permeating it systematically with the principles of Catholic social teaching. Ultimately, the writer argues, the curriculum of Catholic schools should provide students with an understanding of the teachings of Jesus Christ.