Promoting the Constants of the Mission with Muslims in Today’s Middle East

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-151
Author(s):  
Jules Boutros ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Islamic Fundamentalism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Reign Of God ◽  
The Church

One of the most important facts that the Second Vatican Council has revealed is that the point of the Church is not itself, but to go beyond itself, to be a community that preaches, serves, celebrates, and witnesses to the reign of God with due respect to the text and context. During the past century, the Church of the Middle East experienced the absence of an authentic missionary enthusiasm and the lack of a clear and pertinent theology with which it could face the challenge presented to Christianity by Islam. This challenge resides in its special role and mission before the Muslims, which this paper will further discuss and, in doing so, answer the question, How can the Church of the Middle East try to approach the Muslims in a time of violent Islamic fundamentalism and persecutions, in a region where most of the Christians are opting to remain distant or to emigrate?

scholarly journals The Teaching of the Church on Religious Freedom: A Break or Continuity of Tradition?

2021 ◽  
Vol 90 (5) ◽  
pp. 553-584
Author(s):  
Michał Chaberek
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Pope Benedict Xvi ◽  
Benedict Xvi ◽  
The Past ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Final Acceptance ◽  
The Church ◽  
The French Revolution

This paper elaborates upon the Catholic Church’s teaching on religious freedom in the period from The French Revolution to The Second Vatican Council. Based on quotations from the original documents, the author presents the evolution of the Church’s position that switched from the initial rejection to the final acceptance of the religious freedom over past two centuries. The fact of this dramatic change begs the question about the continuity of tradition and credibility of the contemporary position of the Church. Based on the document by the International Theological Commission, “Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past,” as well as the teaching of Pope Benedict XVI, the author demonstrates that – in contrast to some contemporary interpretations – the hermeneutics of continuity is possible regarding Church’s teaching on religious freedom.

The Council of Basle and the Second Vatican Council

1971 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 229-234
Author(s):  
A. J. Black
Keyword(s):  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Past ◽  
Remarkable Degree ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Church ◽  
Apparent Conflict

Many will have noticed how the renewal of the Church in modern times has drawn together strands of thought and behaviour that were in the past considered discordant. Thus the Second Vatican Council, it seems, in continuing the work of the First, would be likely to draw on that part of the Church’s heritage which had previously been in apparent conflict with the doctrine of papal supremacy: namely, the notion of the supremacy of the Church as a body and of the council or the episcopate. In some ways there is a remarkable degree of continuity between the thought of the Council of Basle (1431–49) and of the Second Vatican Council.

scholarly journals “Sister, This is MY Church!” The Sisters of St. Joseph and Contested Sacred Space

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan P. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Gendered Spaces ◽  
Cultural Symbols ◽  
The Past ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Church

Recently, sociologists who study space have paid more attention to the importance of place, in other words—not just physical locations—but also the meanings, interpretations, and cultural symbols bound up within them. In this paper, I examine the “emplaced” and often gendered lived experiences of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia after the Second Vatican Council. Drawing on archival research and in-depth qualitative interviews with nearly two dozen Sisters of St. Joseph, I analyze how the congregation negotiated and contested gendered spaces in the Church over the past fifty years. I explore the sisters’ occasionally tumultuous relationships and public disagreements with clergy, particularly about use of chapel and school space. I also examine the subtler ways—like presiding over funerals and annulment tribunals—that sisters in the congregation transgressed prescribed gendered boundaries in responding to the sacramental needs of the faithful and marginalized. Overall, I argue that sisters in the congregation adapted to changing pastoral needs and exercised agency as women in developing strategies of action to meet the needs of those whom they served.

Church and Politics in Brazil: The Genesis of Change

1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Bruneau
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
State And Society ◽  
The World ◽  
Preferential Option ◽  
Fundamental Transformation ◽  
The Church

The Catholic Church in Brazil has undergone a fundamental transformation in its role in state and society during the past decade and a half, making it probably the most progressive Church in Latin America, if not the world. Based on theological innovations since the Second Vatican Council (1962–5) and the CELAM meeting in Medellín, Colombia (1968), the Church in Brazil has made a ‘preferential option for the poor’.

scholarly journals “Your one wild and precious life”: Women on the Road of Ministry

2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 202-213
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Active Engagement ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Women In Ministry ◽  
The Road ◽  
The Past ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Biblical Women ◽  
The Face ◽  
On The Road ◽  
The Church

While women continue to engage in ministry in increasing numbers, their presence and activity is an unresolved issue in terms of ecclesial structure and meaning. In the past the effects of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth-century women’s movement combined to open the door to women’s active engagement. The ongoing foundation of women’s vocation to ministry lies, in the present as always, in the significance of baptism; its theology and ritual are the same for women as for men. In the face of current impasse, the dangerous memory of biblical women in ministry at the origins of the church offers inspiration and hope for the future.

Variable oil and argumentative conflict in the Middle East

2020 ◽  
pp. 824
Author(s):  
Malik Daham Mata’ab
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Large Area ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World

Oil has formed since its discovery so far one of the main causes of global conflict, has occupied this energy map a large area of conflict the world over the past century, and certainly this matter will continue for the next period in our century..

The Aggiornamento Phenomenon and the Second Vatican Council

2020 ◽  
pp. 98-105
Author(s):  
Hiermonk Ioann ( Bulyko) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
John Xxiii ◽  
The People ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Pope John Xxiii ◽  
The Church

The Second Vatican Council was a unique event in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Initiated by Pope John XXIII, it was intended to make the Roman Catholic Church more open to the contemporary society and bring it closer to the people. The principal aim of the council was the so called aggiornamento (updating). The phenomenon of updating the ecclesiastical life consisted in the following: on the one hand, modernization of the life of the Church and closer relations with the secular world; on the other hand, preserving all the traditions upon which the ecclesiastical life was founded. Hence in the Council’s documents we find another, French word ressourcement meaning ‘return to the origins’ based on the Holy Scripture and the works of the Church Fathers. The aggiornamento phenomenon emerged during the Second Vatican Council due to the movement within the Catholic Church called nouvelle theologie (French for “new theology”). Its representatives advanced the ideas that became fundamental in the Council’s decisions. The nouvelle theologie was often associated with modernism as some of the ideas of its representatives seemed to be very similar to those of modernism. However, what made the greatest difference between the two movements was their attitude towards the tradition. For the nouvelle theologie it was very important to revive Christianity in its initial version, hence their striving for returning to the sources, for the oecumenical movement, for better relations with non-Catholics and for liturgical renewal. All these ideas can be traced in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and all this is characterized by the word aggiornamento.

scholarly journals ‘Scrupulous and Timid Conformism’: Ireland and the Reception of the Liturgical Changes of Vatican II

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 545
Author(s):  
Gary Carville
Keyword(s):  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Time Span ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
The People ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Short Time Span ◽  
Irish Catholics ◽  
Catholic Tradition ◽  
Short Time ◽  
The Church

The Second Vatican Council and, in particular, its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, changed much in the daily life of the Church. In Ireland, a country steeped in the Catholic tradition but largely peripheral to the theological debates that shaped Vatican II, the changes to liturgy and devotional practice were implemented dutifully over a relatively short time span and without significant upset. But did the hierarchical manner of their reception, like that of the Council itself, mean that Irish Catholics did not receive the changes in a way that deepened their spirituality? And was the popular religious memory of the people lost through a neglect of liturgical piety and its place in the interior life, alongside what the Council sought to achieve? In this essay, Dr Gary Carville will examine the background to the liturgical changes at Vatican II, the contribution to their formulation and implementation by leaders of the Church in Ireland, the experiences of Irish Catholic communities in the reception process, and the ongoing need for a liturgical formation that brings theology, memory, and practice into greater dialogue.

Exploring the Possible Contributions of the African Palaver towards a Participatory Synodal Church

Exchange ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 209-237
Author(s):  
Stan Chu Ilo
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Consensus Building ◽  
Traditional Society ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Church

Abstract This essay argues for a participatory synodal Church and the possible contributions of the African palaver as a model for participatory dialogue in the Roman Catholic Church. The African palaver is the art of conversation, dialogue, and consensus-building in traditional society that can be appropriated in the current search for a more inclusive and expansive participatory dialogue at all levels of the life of the Church. I will develop this essay first by briefly exploring some theological developments on synodality between the Second Vatican Council and Pope Francis and some of the contributions of the reforms of Pope Francis to synodality in the Church. Secondly, I will identify how the African palaver functions through examples taken from two African ethnic groups. I will proceed to show how the African palaver could enter into dialogue with other new approaches to participatory dialogue for a synodal Church.

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