Faith Embodied in Attitudes: Ethics of Dialogue and Brotherhood of All People in the ‘Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together’ in Abu Dhabi and the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti

This text is concerned with the ethical approach of inter-faith relations and the dialogue of culture in two documents of Pope Francis: ‘On Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together’ and the encyclical Fratelli Tutti. This ethical approach refers to God the Creator of all and the call to brotherhood of all human beings and refers to faith as a response to Revelation. Faith also forms ethical approaches for interreligious dialogue. Pope Francis’ approach in the documents is that the theological truth and values of religious traditions are embodied in attitudes of social friendship. Francis challenges us to build a specific environment that he calls a ‘new culture of dialogue’, having frequently called for the growth of a culture of encounter that is capable of transcending political and social barriers and encourages creating a specific culture of social and ‘political love’.

Finding Faith between the Sciences: The Cases of ‘The Outer Worlds’ and ‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’

Science fiction, as a genre, has always been a place for religion, either as an inspirational source or as a part of the fictional universe. Religious themes in science fiction narratives, however, also invoke the question of the relationship, or the absence thereof, between religion and science. When the themes of religion and science are addressed in contemporary science fiction, they are regularly set in opposition, functioning in a larger discussion on the (in)comparability of religion and science in science fiction novels, games, and films. In the games The Outer Worlds and Mass Effect Andromeda, this discussion is raised positively. Involving terminology and notions related to deism, pantheism, and esoterism, both games claim that science and religion can co-exist with one another. Since digital games imbue the intra-textual readers (gamer) to take on the role as one of the characters of the game they are reading (avatar), the discussion shifts from a descriptive discourse to a normative one in which the player cannot but contribute to.

Francis’ Idea of the Church: Outline of an Ecclesiology

In the past eight years, since the election of Francis as the first Latin American pontiff in history, the Church has experienced new manners of being and acting. Even though she has also been in a constant state of aggiornamento, Francis’ vision has contributed greatly to this concept of being a perfect image of the ideal Church of Christ (cf. Ecclesiam Suam 10) and a better servant of humanity. The objective of this study is to present an outline of Francis’ main ecclesiological concepts, in the awareness that this endeavour can never be completely exhaustive. For this reason, the article is divided into two main sections. In this first one, the bedrocks of his ecclesiological thoughts are studied. These include his Jesuit vocation, the CELAM conferences and vision, and the Argentine theology of the people. In the second section, his main ecclesiological themes are analysed: the people of God, a poor Church for the poor, ecumenism, reform, and an ecological Church.

Charles E. Curran, Sixty Years of Moral Theology: Readings in Moral Theology no. 20

Book review on Charles E. Curran, Sixty Years of Moral Theology: Readings in Moral Theology no. 20, New York: Paulist Press, 2020, 255 s., ISBN 978-0-8091-0665-3.

David Vopřada, Tertulián: O modlitbě

Book review on David Vopřada, Tertulián: O modlitbě, Praha: Krystal OP, 2020, 107 s., ISBN: 978-80-7575-076-1.

Claudio Antonio Testi, La Logica di Tommaso d'Aquino: Dimostrazione, induzione e metafisica

Book review on Claudio Antonio Testi, La Logica di Tommaso d'Aquino: Dimostrazione, induzione e metafisica, Bologna: Edizioni Studio Domenicano, 2018, 255 p., ISBN: 8870949737.

Barbora Šmejdová, Rozumové argumenty a pohádkové světy. Jazyk apologetiky podle C. S. Lewise

Book review on Barbora Šmejdová, Rozumové argumenty a pohádkové světy. Jazyk apologetiky podle C. S. Lewise, Praha: Karolinum, 2020, 99 s., ISBN: 978-80-246-4712-8.

Making Fraternity an Essential Link in Christian-Muslim Relations

The article provides a survey of ideas and initiatives advanced by Christian and Muslim religious leaders and believers towards a mutual religious rapprochement in the past more than fifty years. On the Christian side, the process was started at the Second Vatican Council and developed with the great personal involvement of all popes of the following half-century. Muslim positive initiatives, from official centres as well as from committed intellectuals, have appeared somewhat later and still have to combat hostile moves of partisans of radical Islamism. Our article discusses the culminating point reached so far in the positive efforts of Pope Francis in his meetings with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayyib, including their agreement on the fraternity as a desirable bond for all believers in God. Our reflections try to mark out the main points of understanding achieved by the two religious leaders in the document signed by them in Abu Dhabi in February 2019 and, thereafter, further developed by the Pope in his comprehensive encyclical Fratelli tutti, issued in Vatican on the feast of Saint Francis in October 2020.

God’s Providence and the Plurality of Religions

The ‘Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together’, co-signed on 4 February 2019 by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayeb, states: ‘The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings.’ The article presents the starting points of correct hermeneutics of this statement. It points out that it is a positive reformulation of the anti-discrimination human rights declarations, which list the criteria according to which people cannot be discriminated. It shows the compatibility of the statement with the Quran, which presupposes a plurality of successive and graded revelations of God and religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It then represents the reactions with which Catholic theologians responded to the statement: the accusation of the Pope of heresy; the claim that while God’s creative will has instilled a natural religion in human beings, it does not positively seek a plurality of religions; the claim that non-Christian religions are an evil by which God allows to achieve greater good; the claim that all religions are wanted by God’s Providence in what is true, good, and beautiful in them as the preparation for the salvation of man in the encounter with Christ. In the end, it discusses the idea of St. John Paul II, who, for several years before the creation of the Abu Dhabi declaration, combined this last idea with the work of the Holy Spirit.

Conversion as the Path to the Recovery of Humanity in the Context of St John Paul II’s Theology of Holiness

The study focuses on Pope John Paul II’s view of conversion as an essential aspect of holiness. It explores why he emphasises the personal conversion of a Christian to God, and in a broader context, how conversion relates to the recovery of humanity and human dignity. The reflection is based on the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, especially as presented in the documents Gaudium et Spes and Lumen Gentium. Conversion is viewed from the perspective of spiritual theology and the union between God and the human person and focuses on some related features from John Paul II’s ‘Trinitarian’ group of encyclicals. The reflection also examines the importance of Christian conversion to God as an internal process of transformation in the human person in the context of both internal ruptures and external existential threats.