scholarly journals Between the Center and the Margins: Young Catholics, “Sorta-Catholics,” and Baptismal Identity

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 512
Author(s):  
Rhodora Beaton

Increased pastoral and theological attention to the vocational implications of baptism is sorely needed. As a small contribution to this conversation, this article will examine the insights of young Catholics and their self-described “former Catholic” peers (ages 15–29) regarding key aspects of the Christian life. These insights offer a foundation for evolving understandings of baptismal identity at both the center and the margins of the church. Two recent efforts to formally solicit the opinions of young people will be examined. They are the Pre-Synodal preparations for the 2018 Synod on Young People and the recent study, published by Saint Mary’s Press in collaboration with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) under the title Going, Going Gone: The Dynamics of Disaffiliation in Young Catholics. The responses from these young people, placed in conversation with recent theological work on baptism and the lay vocation, offer possibilities for consideration as Catholics ponder the changing demographics of the Church. The conclusion will argue for the urgent necessity of listening to these voices and will suggest that a mystagogical approach offers one helpful path towards a deeper understanding and practice of the baptismal vocation.

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-167
Author(s):  
Jacek Froniewski

This year in Wroclaw we experienced the European Youth Meeting organized by the Taizé Community. This great spiritual event is an opportunity to reflect more deeply on the importance of the heritage of Brother Roger of Taizé for the contemporary Church. As a starting point for this analysis, author took the biographical background, which will allow the reader to grasp the life context of Roger Schutz’s ecumenical research. Then, in the following points, he describes three essential elements of Brother Roger’s legacy, which are an ever-inspiring gift to the Church on the path of building unity. Firstly, it is a fully original form of Christian life in a monastic ecumenical community. Secondly, on the basis of this concrete experience of the Taizé Community, Brother Roger indicated a deeply existential way of building the unity of divided Christians. And thirdly, in his teaching he outlined a theology of forgiving love as the key to building reconciliation between the Churches. Undoubtedly the most spectacular fruit of his evangelical life are the crowds of young people from various Christian Churches that have invariably gathered around the Taizé Community for decades.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
David Anderson Hooker ◽  
Elizabeth W. Corrie ◽  
Itihari Toure

Abstract Seeking justice, understanding what makes for peace and pursuing it, these are integral aspects of the pursuit of the Good Life. In this chapter three youth and community development experts make the case that 1) a vital aspect of development is empowering adolescents with a faith-informed, community-focused, critical consciousness; 2) young people are formed in community and joy cannot be fully experienced except communally and in the pursuit of JustPeace; and 3) the church has opportunities to intervene at critical junctures in youth formation to help them see the importance of pursuing communal JustPeace for their own ability to live the Good Life. In support of these claims, a framework of radical Identity is postulated and two practices—the Eight Bowls of Life Ceremony for generational identity marking and the Game of Life, part of a three-week intentional community of the Youth Theological Initiative (yti) – are presented. Each practice contributes to formation of justice-seeking identities in adolescents as integral aspects of preparation for the life-long pursuit of God’s joy, God’s good life, and even God’s salvation.


Author(s):  
Haleluya Timbo Hutabarat

Abstrak Latar belakang masalah buku ini adalah fenomena gereja yang kaku. Menggunakan metode etnography, buku ini merupakan sebuah bahan diskusi yang menarik tentang gereja, anak muda dan budayanya. Penulis menghubungkan budaya (populer), anak muda, dengan narasi Injil untuk menghasilkan apa itu gereja. Ia menawarkan eklesiologi gereja yang lebih cair, adaptif dan responsif terhadap akar-akar budaya sehari-hari yang dihidupi. Bagian-bagian setelahnya berisi diskusi tentang bentuk-bentuk praktis yang sangat memungkinkan dari konsep gereja yang cair. Akhirnya, anjuran sikap mental dan spiritual agar sebuah gereja tetap cair dan freshbagi komunitas di dalam dan di sekitarnya adalah keterbukaan. Buku memperkaya diskusi di ranah eklesiologi, liturgi, pembangunan jemaat, pastoral, budaya populer, dan intergenerasional.   Abstract Rationale background of this book is the solid phenomenon of church. Using ethnography methods, this book is an interesting discussion about the church, young people and its culture. The author associate (popular) culture, young people, with gospel narratives to produce what the church is. He offers a more fluid, adaptive and responsive ecclesiology as the roots of everyday culture of church that is lived. This study also recommends the very practical forms of a liquid church. The final suggestion as a mental and spiritual attitude so that church remains liquid and fresh, is openness. This book shares a rich discourse in the field of ecclesiology, liturgy, church building, pastoral, popular culture, and intergenerational culture.


1999 ◽  
pp. 43-52
Author(s):  
Olga Nedavnya

At the end of the second Christian millennium, Christians united in the church of different denominations and ceremonies. The most devoted ones are looking for ecumenical paths, "that all be one." However, every person is free in his own way to build ties with the Lord. But, as emphasized by the first Metropolitan Rusich Ilarion in the "Word of Law and Grace," every person and the whole people are responsible before God. This statement is based on the authority of biblical texts. Therefore, Christians must worry not only about their own salvation, but also about the best, most natural and most useful arrangement of the Christian life of their nation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-114
Author(s):  
Edison R.L. Tinambunan

The development of Christian morality takes a long journey which was started when the Church was born. There were many typical moral cases faced by the Church at each period of time. From one period to another one, moralists came out to solve the cases by giving the right assessment according to the Church’s way of life. A period which was well-known in the journey of Christian morality is the period of the Fathers of the Church. The principle of Christian morality is love which is based on the Gospel and the commandment of Jesus Christ. This was documented in Didache which was used by the Christians at that time. It was the principal moral document of early Christianity. In the development, it was then added by other principals: freedom and justice which were applied in the Christian life. The three principals (love, freedom and justice) formed Christian attitude in respecting other Christians and all people which is applied perfectly by Augustine. The following development of Christian morality was the development of the practice and the profound of what had been laid down before by the Fathers of the Church, with addition of the figure which is excelling in the life as Job, who had been interpreted by Gregory the Great. This writing is ended at this point, because the research is limited from the beginning up to the first development of Christian morality during the period of the Fathers of the Church.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-100
Author(s):  
Don Bosco Karnan Ardijanto

The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. Many faithful celebrate the Eucharist: some experience the Eucharist's impact, but many do not feel the impact of the Eucharist on their daily lives. The Eucharist is the memory of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. He himself is present at the Eucharist. Therefore the Eucharist is a source of grace and blessing to the lives of the faithful: to bring the fruits of redemption and to be the source of life for the faithful; building–living–reviving the Church. The Eucharist is also a source of repentance and forgiveness as well as a source for developing faith, hope, and love. The Eucharist is the offering of Christ and His Church. Therefore, in the Eucharist the faithful offer their entire lives to be transformed into a source of life and blessing for them and the whole world. In the spirit of repentance, the faithful are also called to offer themselves in faith, hope and love. Celebrating the Eucharist and seriously believing its truths will illuminate the daily lives of the faithful and grow in love for the Eucharist, so that they grow in love for God and others in Christ.


Author(s):  
Kyle Hughes ◽  
Donald M. MacRaild

This chapter explores the development of Ribbonism in those two turbulent decades, and considers key aspects of social, religious, and political turmoil that provided a fitting setting for the development of Ribbonism. It shows how Ribbonmen expressed at times a Catholic pro-O’Connellism, even though both the Church and ‘the Liberator’ were hostile to them. The chapter also observes the inability of O’Connell to control Ribbonism in the northern province of Ulster demonstrated in hardening Orange–Green tensions. Finally, the chapter examines canal-based proto-trade union Ribbonism and the organisation’s role as a ‘kind of proletarian underground’: a primitive form of organized labour, controlling the portering and carrying trades around docks and inland waterways



2020 ◽  
pp. 146879412096537
Author(s):  
Alastair Roy ◽  
Jacqueline Kennelly ◽  
Harriet Rowley ◽  
Cath Larkins

The focus of this paper is on the complex and sometimes contradictory effects of generating films with and about young people who have experienced homelessness, through participatory research. Drawing on two projects – one in Ottawa, Canada, and the other in Manchester, UK – we scrutinise two key aspects of participatory research projects that use film: first, how to appropriately communicate the complexity of already-stigmatised lives to different publics, and second, which publics we prioritise, and how this shapes the stories that are told. Through a theoretical framework that combines Pierre Bourdieu’s account of authorised language with Arthur Frank’s socio-narratology, we analyse the potential for generating justice versus reproducing symbolic violence through participatory research and film with homeless young people. In particular, we scrutinise the distinct role played by what we are calling first, second and third publics – each with their own level of distance and relationship to the participatory research process.


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