Trent Pomplun
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195377866
- eISBN:
- 9780199869466
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377866.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter follows Desideri back to India after church authorities have informed him that he must cede the Tibetan mission to the Capuchins. Since scholars of Desideri have often seen him as a ...
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This chapter follows Desideri back to India after church authorities have informed him that he must cede the Tibetan mission to the Capuchins. Since scholars of Desideri have often seen him as a practitioner of the Jesuit missiological method of “accommodation” or “inculturation” promoted by the Jesuits Matteo Ricci and Roberto de Nobili, this account will dwell on the politics underlying the Chinese and Malabar Rites controversies. By following the various trails that branch from the battle between Desideri and the Capuchins, the reader will be led into the underbelly of these controversies, the cloak and dagger world of Jesuit espionage, and all manner of early modern bureaucratic machinations.Less
This chapter follows Desideri back to India after church authorities have informed him that he must cede the Tibetan mission to the Capuchins. Since scholars of Desideri have often seen him as a practitioner of the Jesuit missiological method of “accommodation” or “inculturation” promoted by the Jesuits Matteo Ricci and Roberto de Nobili, this account will dwell on the politics underlying the Chinese and Malabar Rites controversies. By following the various trails that branch from the battle between Desideri and the Capuchins, the reader will be led into the underbelly of these controversies, the cloak and dagger world of Jesuit espionage, and all manner of early modern bureaucratic machinations.
Avery Dulles
- Published in print:
- 1987
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198266952
- eISBN:
- 9780191600555
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198266952.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The catholicity of the Church is her participation in the divine catholicity, made present in time through Christ and the Holy Spirit. The Church is a visible sign or sacrament of a universal ...
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The catholicity of the Church is her participation in the divine catholicity, made present in time through Christ and the Holy Spirit. The Church is a visible sign or sacrament of a universal communion, symbolically realized at Pentecost but never completely achieved within history. The ‘catholic principle’ imparts reverence for and confidence in the visible structures of mediation given to the Church by God; it should never be allowed to turn the attention of the faithful away from God. Catholicity today confronts three major obstacles: the confessional divisions among Christians, the cultural captivity of the Church, and the apparently greater capacity of some secular movements to overcome human divisions. In the last analysis, catholicity, with its transcendent ground, is uniquely qualified to overcome these obstacles.Less
The catholicity of the Church is her participation in the divine catholicity, made present in time through Christ and the Holy Spirit. The Church is a visible sign or sacrament of a universal communion, symbolically realized at Pentecost but never completely achieved within history. The ‘catholic principle’ imparts reverence for and confidence in the visible structures of mediation given to the Church by God; it should never be allowed to turn the attention of the faithful away from God. Catholicity today confronts three major obstacles: the confessional divisions among Christians, the cultural captivity of the Church, and the apparently greater capacity of some secular movements to overcome human divisions. In the last analysis, catholicity, with its transcendent ground, is uniquely qualified to overcome these obstacles.
Philip Jenkins
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195146165
- eISBN:
- 9780199834341
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195146166.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter discusses the impact of demographic change (Southern population growth and Northern population decline) on the form of Christianity that is likely to be practiced in the future and ...
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This chapter discusses the impact of demographic change (Southern population growth and Northern population decline) on the form of Christianity that is likely to be practiced in the future and points out that claims that the Southern churches have strayed from older definitions of Christianity are greatly exaggerated. However much Southern Christian types have diverged from older Christian orthodoxies, they have in almost all cases remained within recognizable Christian traditions. The first part of the chapter looks at various aspects of inculturation (interpreting the Christian proclamation in a form appropriate for particular cultures) in relation to determining what are the core beliefs and what are the cultural accidents of Christianity; these aspects include architecture, liturgy and religious language, changes in patterns of worship and their underlying beliefs, and the implications of the emphasis on popular belief and tradition for the veneration of the Virgin Mary in Southern Catholic communities. The second part of the chapter discusses patterns in the emerging Southern churches that go beyond familiar Christian traditions, even as far as a thinly disguised paganism, which is manifested in belief in spirits and spiritual powers (which have their strongest impact on terms of healing and miracles and exorcism) and the concept of spiritual welfare (confronting and defeating demonic forces). The third part of the chapter discusses the cultural conflict over literal interpretations of exorcism and spiritual healing in the Bible, the acceptance by the Southern churches of the Old and New Testaments as documents of immediate relevance, their emphasis on aspects of Christianity that have become unfamiliar, and their revival of ancient customs. Last, the Southern churches – the ‘new’ Christianity – are discussed in terms of their sectarian character, and how this is likely to change in the future as they grow and mature, and become more like the major churches.Less
This chapter discusses the impact of demographic change (Southern population growth and Northern population decline) on the form of Christianity that is likely to be practiced in the future and points out that claims that the Southern churches have strayed from older definitions of Christianity are greatly exaggerated. However much Southern Christian types have diverged from older Christian orthodoxies, they have in almost all cases remained within recognizable Christian traditions. The first part of the chapter looks at various aspects of inculturation (interpreting the Christian proclamation in a form appropriate for particular cultures) in relation to determining what are the core beliefs and what are the cultural accidents of Christianity; these aspects include architecture, liturgy and religious language, changes in patterns of worship and their underlying beliefs, and the implications of the emphasis on popular belief and tradition for the veneration of the Virgin Mary in Southern Catholic communities. The second part of the chapter discusses patterns in the emerging Southern churches that go beyond familiar Christian traditions, even as far as a thinly disguised paganism, which is manifested in belief in spirits and spiritual powers (which have their strongest impact on terms of healing and miracles and exorcism) and the concept of spiritual welfare (confronting and defeating demonic forces). The third part of the chapter discusses the cultural conflict over literal interpretations of exorcism and spiritual healing in the Bible, the acceptance by the Southern churches of the Old and New Testaments as documents of immediate relevance, their emphasis on aspects of Christianity that have become unfamiliar, and their revival of ancient customs. Last, the Southern churches – the ‘new’ Christianity – are discussed in terms of their sectarian character, and how this is likely to change in the future as they grow and mature, and become more like the major churches.
Richard Lennan
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199271467
- eISBN:
- 9780191602108
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199271461.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
In the light of the book's analysis of both the challenges facing the embrace of ecclesial faith and the resources of that faith, this chapter endeavours to express the possibilities for the church ...
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In the light of the book's analysis of both the challenges facing the embrace of ecclesial faith and the resources of that faith, this chapter endeavours to express the possibilities for the church in the present. Of particular interest is the capacity of the church to undertake ‘inculturation’ in contemporary culture without the loss of its specific identity. In order to establish that point, the chapter returns to ‘tradition’ with a view to establishing that tradition, grounded as it is in the Holy Spirit, is able to develop, to be about change as well as preservation; tradition, then, can be a stimulus to creativity. The specific examples of possibilities for change that the chapter examines are ministry in the church and the role of women in the church. Concludes with an attempt to nominate the factors – pre‐eminent among which is openness to the Spirit – that might enable the communion of the church not only to develop alternatives to ‘the peril’, but also make more inviting the risk of ecclesial faith.Less
In the light of the book's analysis of both the challenges facing the embrace of ecclesial faith and the resources of that faith, this chapter endeavours to express the possibilities for the church in the present. Of particular interest is the capacity of the church to undertake ‘inculturation’ in contemporary culture without the loss of its specific identity. In order to establish that point, the chapter returns to ‘tradition’ with a view to establishing that tradition, grounded as it is in the Holy Spirit, is able to develop, to be about change as well as preservation; tradition, then, can be a stimulus to creativity. The specific examples of possibilities for change that the chapter examines are ministry in the church and the role of women in the church. Concludes with an attempt to nominate the factors – pre‐eminent among which is openness to the Spirit – that might enable the communion of the church not only to develop alternatives to ‘the peril’, but also make more inviting the risk of ecclesial faith.
Nicholas M. Creary
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823233342
- eISBN:
- 9780823241774
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823233342.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
Catholic theologians have developed the relatively new term inculturation to discuss the old problem of adapting the church universal to specific local cultures. Europeans needed a thousand years to ...
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Catholic theologians have developed the relatively new term inculturation to discuss the old problem of adapting the church universal to specific local cultures. Europeans needed a thousand years to inculturate Christianity from its Judaic roots. Africans' efforts to make the church their own followed a similar process but in less than a century. This book provides an examination of the Catholic church's pastoral mission in Zimbabwe or of African Christians' efforts to inculturate the church. Ranging over the century after Jesuit missionaries first settled in what is now Zimbabwe, this book reveals two simultaneous and intersecting processes: the Africanization of the Catholic Church by African Christians and the discourse of inculturation promulgated by the Church. With great attention to detail, it places the history of African Christianity within the broader context of the history of religion in Africa. This work aims to contribute to current debates about the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe and throughout Africa.Less
Catholic theologians have developed the relatively new term inculturation to discuss the old problem of adapting the church universal to specific local cultures. Europeans needed a thousand years to inculturate Christianity from its Judaic roots. Africans' efforts to make the church their own followed a similar process but in less than a century. This book provides an examination of the Catholic church's pastoral mission in Zimbabwe or of African Christians' efforts to inculturate the church. Ranging over the century after Jesuit missionaries first settled in what is now Zimbabwe, this book reveals two simultaneous and intersecting processes: the Africanization of the Catholic Church by African Christians and the discourse of inculturation promulgated by the Church. With great attention to detail, it places the history of African Christianity within the broader context of the history of religion in Africa. This work aims to contribute to current debates about the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe and throughout Africa.
John Early
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813040134
- eISBN:
- 9780813043838
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813040134.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
The book describes the interaction in Maya communities between Maya and Catholic theological worldviews from the middle to the end of the twentieth century. Both worldviews were experiencing periods ...
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The book describes the interaction in Maya communities between Maya and Catholic theological worldviews from the middle to the end of the twentieth century. Both worldviews were experiencing periods of crisis. The Maya crisis was rooted in loss of land and extreme poverty. This brought their theology into question since the covenant with their gods was supposed to protect their communities. The Catholic Church, following the Liberal suppression, had returned to Maya communities. It attempted to evangelize them according to the Catholic worldview formulated by the sixteenth-century Council of Trent. This did little to alleviate the Maya crisis. This shortcoming was systemic within Catholicism resulting in a crisis due to the inability of Tridentine theology to give meaning to people's lives in the twentieth century. A progressive sector of Catholicism attempted to confront the crisis by the Action Catholic movement with its foundation in biblical theology. In numerous Maya communities, groups studied biblical liberation and implemented it in programs of empowerment and social justice. But due to continuing structures of injustice, urban ladino Marxists infiltrated some Action Catholic communities resulting in armed rebellions. Assisting Maya liberation resulted in conversion experiences for some Catholic priests that led them to challenge the existing order of the Catholic Church and national governments. The study of the biblical liberation also led to the need for liberation from western theological categories by the development of a Maya Christian theology based on the Maya wisdom of ancestors manifested in the many myths of the Maya tradition.Less
The book describes the interaction in Maya communities between Maya and Catholic theological worldviews from the middle to the end of the twentieth century. Both worldviews were experiencing periods of crisis. The Maya crisis was rooted in loss of land and extreme poverty. This brought their theology into question since the covenant with their gods was supposed to protect their communities. The Catholic Church, following the Liberal suppression, had returned to Maya communities. It attempted to evangelize them according to the Catholic worldview formulated by the sixteenth-century Council of Trent. This did little to alleviate the Maya crisis. This shortcoming was systemic within Catholicism resulting in a crisis due to the inability of Tridentine theology to give meaning to people's lives in the twentieth century. A progressive sector of Catholicism attempted to confront the crisis by the Action Catholic movement with its foundation in biblical theology. In numerous Maya communities, groups studied biblical liberation and implemented it in programs of empowerment and social justice. But due to continuing structures of injustice, urban ladino Marxists infiltrated some Action Catholic communities resulting in armed rebellions. Assisting Maya liberation resulted in conversion experiences for some Catholic priests that led them to challenge the existing order of the Catholic Church and national governments. The study of the biblical liberation also led to the need for liberation from western theological categories by the development of a Maya Christian theology based on the Maya wisdom of ancestors manifested in the many myths of the Maya tradition.
Nicholas M. Creary
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823233342
- eISBN:
- 9780823241774
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823233342.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
In 1962, the Southern Rhodesian Catholic bishops appointed a commission to investigate the mission of the Catholic Association and its relationship to other Catholic organizations in the colony. The ...
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In 1962, the Southern Rhodesian Catholic bishops appointed a commission to investigate the mission of the Catholic Association and its relationship to other Catholic organizations in the colony. The organization had petitioned the bishops to delete the word “African” from its title and establish it as the “territorial administrative body for all Catholic Action within Rhodesia.” The bishops approved the name change with the proviso that it not “be implied that is to be the parent body of all Catholic Action. This chapter shows the operation of two separate yet intersecting processes: the Africanization of the Catholic Church and the discourse of inculturation. To the extent that VaShona Catholics made the church their own, it was generally over and above the objections of the Jesuit leadership of the Zambezi Mission and usually with their grudging acceptance.Less
In 1962, the Southern Rhodesian Catholic bishops appointed a commission to investigate the mission of the Catholic Association and its relationship to other Catholic organizations in the colony. The organization had petitioned the bishops to delete the word “African” from its title and establish it as the “territorial administrative body for all Catholic Action within Rhodesia.” The bishops approved the name change with the proviso that it not “be implied that is to be the parent body of all Catholic Action. This chapter shows the operation of two separate yet intersecting processes: the Africanization of the Catholic Church and the discourse of inculturation. To the extent that VaShona Catholics made the church their own, it was generally over and above the objections of the Jesuit leadership of the Zambezi Mission and usually with their grudging acceptance.
John D. Early
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813040134
- eISBN:
- 9780813043838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813040134.003.0028
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
Samuel Ruíz García was consecrated the bishop of the San Cristóbal diocese on January 25, 1960, and remained until 1999 when he reached the mandatory retirement age for bishops. In forty years of ...
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Samuel Ruíz García was consecrated the bishop of the San Cristóbal diocese on January 25, 1960, and remained until 1999 when he reached the mandatory retirement age for bishops. In forty years of wrestling with the problems of Catholicism and the Maya, the bishop pioneered significant changes in the relationship between the non-western Maya tradition and a western-oriented Catholicism. This chapter sketches his evolution from a conservative Tridentine Catholic to a promoter of an inculturated Maya Christianity with a theology based on the wisdom of the ancestors and synthesized in the life and teachings of Jesus. His evolution gives further insight into the evolution of religious worldviews and how they break out of their ethnocentrisms and degenerations when stimulated by cross-cultural experiences.Less
Samuel Ruíz García was consecrated the bishop of the San Cristóbal diocese on January 25, 1960, and remained until 1999 when he reached the mandatory retirement age for bishops. In forty years of wrestling with the problems of Catholicism and the Maya, the bishop pioneered significant changes in the relationship between the non-western Maya tradition and a western-oriented Catholicism. This chapter sketches his evolution from a conservative Tridentine Catholic to a promoter of an inculturated Maya Christianity with a theology based on the wisdom of the ancestors and synthesized in the life and teachings of Jesus. His evolution gives further insight into the evolution of religious worldviews and how they break out of their ethnocentrisms and degenerations when stimulated by cross-cultural experiences.
John D. Early
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813040134
- eISBN:
- 9780813043838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813040134.003.0029
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
This chapter describes the Catholic effort of inculturation, the attempt to develop a Catholic theology and church based upon Maya culture instead of the western imposed forms that presently exist. ...
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This chapter describes the Catholic effort of inculturation, the attempt to develop a Catholic theology and church based upon Maya culture instead of the western imposed forms that presently exist. Bureaucratic Catholicism slowly began to wrestle with the problem of inculturation at Vatican Council II and the conferences of Latin American bishops. In the Maya area, groups composed predominantly of Maya Catholic priests met to make explicit an already existing Maya theology. Some Maya parishes have established the permanent diaconate as a hopeful step toward a married Maya priesthood. The question is: Will these efforts be fully recognized and allowed to advance by bureaucratic Catholicism so that a distinctively Maya Catholicism will be fully integrated and accepted as orthodox Catholicism?Less
This chapter describes the Catholic effort of inculturation, the attempt to develop a Catholic theology and church based upon Maya culture instead of the western imposed forms that presently exist. Bureaucratic Catholicism slowly began to wrestle with the problem of inculturation at Vatican Council II and the conferences of Latin American bishops. In the Maya area, groups composed predominantly of Maya Catholic priests met to make explicit an already existing Maya theology. Some Maya parishes have established the permanent diaconate as a hopeful step toward a married Maya priesthood. The question is: Will these efforts be fully recognized and allowed to advance by bureaucratic Catholicism so that a distinctively Maya Catholicism will be fully integrated and accepted as orthodox Catholicism?
Daniel J. Harrington, S.J.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199863006
- eISBN:
- 9780199979967
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199863006.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Written by Harrington from a Catholic perspective, this chapter notes the presence of the so-called Apocrypha in the Catholic (and Orthodox) Old Testament. Next it explains modern Catholic biblical ...
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Written by Harrington from a Catholic perspective, this chapter notes the presence of the so-called Apocrypha in the Catholic (and Orthodox) Old Testament. Next it explains modern Catholic biblical interpretation in light of official documents from popes (Divino afflante Spiritu), church councils (Dei verbum) and the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Then it shows how Catholics have come to accept biblical criticism as indispensable (but within limits), while insisting also on the importance of the spiritual sense of Scripture, the patristic tradition, and the challenges posed by actualization and inculturation. It illustrates the Catholic approach with reference to Exodus 3–4.Less
Written by Harrington from a Catholic perspective, this chapter notes the presence of the so-called Apocrypha in the Catholic (and Orthodox) Old Testament. Next it explains modern Catholic biblical interpretation in light of official documents from popes (Divino afflante Spiritu), church councils (Dei verbum) and the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Then it shows how Catholics have come to accept biblical criticism as indispensable (but within limits), while insisting also on the importance of the spiritual sense of Scripture, the patristic tradition, and the challenges posed by actualization and inculturation. It illustrates the Catholic approach with reference to Exodus 3–4.
Avery Cardinal Dulles
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823228621
- eISBN:
- 9780823236619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823228621.003.0023
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines the papacy for the Catholic Church, looking into the institutional structures that would guarantee its stability and unity. The discussion deals with ...
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This chapter examines the papacy for the Catholic Church, looking into the institutional structures that would guarantee its stability and unity. The discussion deals with Vatican I and Vatican II, Pope Paul VI's style, John Paul II and the global church, new institutions of unity, John Paul II's take on inculturation, ecumenical outreach, the principle of subsidiarity, patristic models, proposals for reform, and the dialectic of centralization and diversity. The chapter holds that developments that have taken place with and since the two Vatican councils can scarcely be reversed. The global Church, in a world of rapid communications, demands a primatial office that holds all local and regional churches in dialogue and reaches out to the whole world with the truth and love of Christ.Less
This chapter examines the papacy for the Catholic Church, looking into the institutional structures that would guarantee its stability and unity. The discussion deals with Vatican I and Vatican II, Pope Paul VI's style, John Paul II and the global church, new institutions of unity, John Paul II's take on inculturation, ecumenical outreach, the principle of subsidiarity, patristic models, proposals for reform, and the dialectic of centralization and diversity. The chapter holds that developments that have taken place with and since the two Vatican councils can scarcely be reversed. The global Church, in a world of rapid communications, demands a primatial office that holds all local and regional churches in dialogue and reaches out to the whole world with the truth and love of Christ.
Chloë Starr
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300204216
- eISBN:
- 9780300224931
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300204216.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The Christian intellectuals and leaders who inherited the mission legacy and its rhetoric and remained within historic denominations occupied a demanding mediating position: interpreting Christian ...
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The Christian intellectuals and leaders who inherited the mission legacy and its rhetoric and remained within historic denominations occupied a demanding mediating position: interpreting Christian thought to China and Christ into Chinese modes. Zhao Zichen (T. C. Chao) was at the forefront of those conceptualizing and realizing a Chinese Protestant church. Chapter Three discusses Zhao’s 1935 Life of Jesus (Yesu zhuan), a semi-fictional biography written to respond to the call for a new “Chinese Christian Literature.” In its study of this highly readable short work, replete with Chinese literary references, the chapter focuses on the structure of the narrative, on Jesus’ self-understanding as the Messiah and on the role of landscape in the novella.Less
The Christian intellectuals and leaders who inherited the mission legacy and its rhetoric and remained within historic denominations occupied a demanding mediating position: interpreting Christian thought to China and Christ into Chinese modes. Zhao Zichen (T. C. Chao) was at the forefront of those conceptualizing and realizing a Chinese Protestant church. Chapter Three discusses Zhao’s 1935 Life of Jesus (Yesu zhuan), a semi-fictional biography written to respond to the call for a new “Chinese Christian Literature.” In its study of this highly readable short work, replete with Chinese literary references, the chapter focuses on the structure of the narrative, on Jesus’ self-understanding as the Messiah and on the role of landscape in the novella.
S. J. Michael Barnes
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780823278404
- eISBN:
- 9780823280513
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823278404.003.0015
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Michael Barnes, S.J., proposes fruitful parallels between comparative theology and pastoral theology. Both can provide reflection on the inner or contemplative dialogue provoked by the myriad ...
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Michael Barnes, S.J., proposes fruitful parallels between comparative theology and pastoral theology. Both can provide reflection on the inner or contemplative dialogue provoked by the myriad relationships that make up the Church’s “outer life”—relationships with the poor, the marginalized, the disadvantaged, the unbeliever—and that remain essential even alongside efforts to build relationships with those who profess different religious faiths. As Barnes sees it, contextual pastoral responsibility and interfaith engagement are practices of faith characteristic of a Church called to engage in serious witness to and learning from the people among whom we actually dwell. This vital contextualization broadens the context for the work of “reading” in comparative theology: in today’s pluralist world, “living interreligiously” demands attention not just to the traces of divine wisdom revealed in ancient texts, but also to places and monuments, ancient artifacts and contemporary cultural icons that shape and deepen faith within a community, while also instigating conversation and debate beyond familiar boundaries.Less
Michael Barnes, S.J., proposes fruitful parallels between comparative theology and pastoral theology. Both can provide reflection on the inner or contemplative dialogue provoked by the myriad relationships that make up the Church’s “outer life”—relationships with the poor, the marginalized, the disadvantaged, the unbeliever—and that remain essential even alongside efforts to build relationships with those who profess different religious faiths. As Barnes sees it, contextual pastoral responsibility and interfaith engagement are practices of faith characteristic of a Church called to engage in serious witness to and learning from the people among whom we actually dwell. This vital contextualization broadens the context for the work of “reading” in comparative theology: in today’s pluralist world, “living interreligiously” demands attention not just to the traces of divine wisdom revealed in ancient texts, but also to places and monuments, ancient artifacts and contemporary cultural icons that shape and deepen faith within a community, while also instigating conversation and debate beyond familiar boundaries.
Arij Roest Crollius
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823243198
- eISBN:
- 9780823243235
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823243198.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
After studies in his native Netherlands, the Lebanon and Egypt, the Jesuit, Roest Crollius, moved to Rome where he was based for forty years, mainly at the Gregorian University. From here he became a ...
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After studies in his native Netherlands, the Lebanon and Egypt, the Jesuit, Roest Crollius, moved to Rome where he was based for forty years, mainly at the Gregorian University. From here he became a world traveller to articulate and promote inter-faith and intercultural studies and advise his manifold superiors. Three elements of Christian-Muslim relations are discussed: institutionalised dialogue, research and teaching, and the study of Sufism, with particular attention to Ibn al-Farid, Ahmed Ghazali and Dara Shikoh. During decades spent in pursuit of this work, two further important initiatives are covered: the development of Jewish studies in Rome and the growth of Christian communities in the local culture of the people, for which the term inculturation was coined and defended.Less
After studies in his native Netherlands, the Lebanon and Egypt, the Jesuit, Roest Crollius, moved to Rome where he was based for forty years, mainly at the Gregorian University. From here he became a world traveller to articulate and promote inter-faith and intercultural studies and advise his manifold superiors. Three elements of Christian-Muslim relations are discussed: institutionalised dialogue, research and teaching, and the study of Sufism, with particular attention to Ibn al-Farid, Ahmed Ghazali and Dara Shikoh. During decades spent in pursuit of this work, two further important initiatives are covered: the development of Jewish studies in Rome and the growth of Christian communities in the local culture of the people, for which the term inculturation was coined and defended.
Jeremy Clarke
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9789888139996
- eISBN:
- 9789888268443
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888139996.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Once the art school of Furen Daxue was established, there was much discussion within Chinese Catholic circles about the merits of producing Christian themes through Chinese art. Some thought the idea ...
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Once the art school of Furen Daxue was established, there was much discussion within Chinese Catholic circles about the merits of producing Christian themes through Chinese art. Some thought the idea was a good one while others thought it was not possible. Yet the development of a Chinese style of Christian art, especially when it comes to Marian images, has been a long-standing feature of the Chinese Catholic Church. To that end then, these artists were not only participating in a proud tradition, they were also connected to the modernizing currents present within Chinese art circles at the time. Several works are discussed, including the devotion known as Sheshan Shengmu.Less
Once the art school of Furen Daxue was established, there was much discussion within Chinese Catholic circles about the merits of producing Christian themes through Chinese art. Some thought the idea was a good one while others thought it was not possible. Yet the development of a Chinese style of Christian art, especially when it comes to Marian images, has been a long-standing feature of the Chinese Catholic Church. To that end then, these artists were not only participating in a proud tradition, they were also connected to the modernizing currents present within Chinese art circles at the time. Several works are discussed, including the devotion known as Sheshan Shengmu.
Maya Mayblin, Kristin Norget, and Valentina Napolitano
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520288423
- eISBN:
- 9780520963368
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520288423.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Religion
The chapter discusses what a contemporary Anthropology of Catholicism would look like, both through and beyond the ‘sacramental imagination’, as a political and institutional form, a contested set of ...
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The chapter discusses what a contemporary Anthropology of Catholicism would look like, both through and beyond the ‘sacramental imagination’, as a political and institutional form, a contested set of practices, and an embodied and ethical orientation to the world. Through a discussion of ethnographic works on Catholicism both new and old, this chapter reflects both on what is distinctive about Catholicism as a ‘religious’ form, and how a focus on Catholicism can open windows onto areas of debate within the discipline of anthropology more widely.Less
The chapter discusses what a contemporary Anthropology of Catholicism would look like, both through and beyond the ‘sacramental imagination’, as a political and institutional form, a contested set of practices, and an embodied and ethical orientation to the world. Through a discussion of ethnographic works on Catholicism both new and old, this chapter reflects both on what is distinctive about Catholicism as a ‘religious’ form, and how a focus on Catholicism can open windows onto areas of debate within the discipline of anthropology more widely.
Ludovic Lado
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520288423
- eISBN:
- 9780520963368
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520288423.003.0018
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Religion
This chapter looks at a particular instance of the local production of Catholicism in Cameroon by focusing on the agency of a ritual specialist and promoter of inculturation, Father Hebga, a Jesuit ...
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This chapter looks at a particular instance of the local production of Catholicism in Cameroon by focusing on the agency of a ritual specialist and promoter of inculturation, Father Hebga, a Jesuit charismatic priest, who negotiates the related contradictions through ambiguous processes of religious and cultural hybridization. The leading pastoral concern at the heart of his praxis is the satisfaction of the needs of the faithful searching for healing in the framework of the catholic charismatic renewal. As one of the pioneers of Catholic charismatic renewal in Sub-Saharan Africa, Hebga’s agency mediates between the institutional constraints of the church hierarchy and the religious needs of the masses. The wider ideological framework is the discourse of Inculturation which has dominated theological debates in Africa Catholicism since the 1970s. In this context we see how Father Hebga operates as a cultural broker of postcolonial discourses, vying to restore the dignity of Africans violated by symbolic violence associated with the slave trade, colonization and Christian missionization.Less
This chapter looks at a particular instance of the local production of Catholicism in Cameroon by focusing on the agency of a ritual specialist and promoter of inculturation, Father Hebga, a Jesuit charismatic priest, who negotiates the related contradictions through ambiguous processes of religious and cultural hybridization. The leading pastoral concern at the heart of his praxis is the satisfaction of the needs of the faithful searching for healing in the framework of the catholic charismatic renewal. As one of the pioneers of Catholic charismatic renewal in Sub-Saharan Africa, Hebga’s agency mediates between the institutional constraints of the church hierarchy and the religious needs of the masses. The wider ideological framework is the discourse of Inculturation which has dominated theological debates in Africa Catholicism since the 1970s. In this context we see how Father Hebga operates as a cultural broker of postcolonial discourses, vying to restore the dignity of Africans violated by symbolic violence associated with the slave trade, colonization and Christian missionization.
Jeffers Engelhardt and Philip Bohlman (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199737642
- eISBN:
- 9780190490133
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199737642.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music, Performing Practice/Studies
The chapters in Resounding Transcendence are unified by a common concern for the ways sacred music effects cultural, political, and religious transitions in the contemporary world. Together, the ...
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The chapters in Resounding Transcendence are unified by a common concern for the ways sacred music effects cultural, political, and religious transitions in the contemporary world. Together, the contributors describe the ways musical transition sounds belief and action together in forms of transcendence immanent in religious practice and ritual, particularly in the texts and contexts of sacred music. Sacred musical practice unleashes transcendence through socially engaged believers who re-sound belief systems through the ways music brings about direct and meaningful change, locally and globally. The contributors examine sacred musical experiences in different religions, cultures, and regions of the world. The chapters that present Christian musical traditions find them in Estonia, Greece, India, Indonesia, and Trinidad. Music affords complex and contested experiences in the chapters about the hybrid ontologies of sacred music in Islam, with case studies from Bangladesh and Tunisia. In chapters on Jewish music in the United States and Buddhist festivals in Taiwan, media both traditional and modern accelerate and channel the ways believers reflect the experiences of a contemporary world. The politics of religion and music form a counterpoint that runs through the book, connecting chapters on the symbolic resistive power of Christian music in predominantly non-Christian nations in Asia and the Middle East, no less than in the fraught Christianity that reflects the fragile politics of Eastern Europe. Transcendence takes new and increasingly complex forms in a modern world, resounding in the history of the present that this volume richly re-sounds.Less
The chapters in Resounding Transcendence are unified by a common concern for the ways sacred music effects cultural, political, and religious transitions in the contemporary world. Together, the contributors describe the ways musical transition sounds belief and action together in forms of transcendence immanent in religious practice and ritual, particularly in the texts and contexts of sacred music. Sacred musical practice unleashes transcendence through socially engaged believers who re-sound belief systems through the ways music brings about direct and meaningful change, locally and globally. The contributors examine sacred musical experiences in different religions, cultures, and regions of the world. The chapters that present Christian musical traditions find them in Estonia, Greece, India, Indonesia, and Trinidad. Music affords complex and contested experiences in the chapters about the hybrid ontologies of sacred music in Islam, with case studies from Bangladesh and Tunisia. In chapters on Jewish music in the United States and Buddhist festivals in Taiwan, media both traditional and modern accelerate and channel the ways believers reflect the experiences of a contemporary world. The politics of religion and music form a counterpoint that runs through the book, connecting chapters on the symbolic resistive power of Christian music in predominantly non-Christian nations in Asia and the Middle East, no less than in the fraught Christianity that reflects the fragile politics of Eastern Europe. Transcendence takes new and increasingly complex forms in a modern world, resounding in the history of the present that this volume richly re-sounds.
Marzanna Poplawska
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199737642
- eISBN:
- 9780190490133
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199737642.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music, Performing Practice/Studies
This chapter examines religious inculturation in Javanese Protestant hymnody. Inculturation is often marked by struggle and contestation, and this chapter reflects on the transitional and transitory ...
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This chapter examines religious inculturation in Javanese Protestant hymnody. Inculturation is often marked by struggle and contestation, and this chapter reflects on the transitional and transitory character of inculturation through an analysis of the Javanese Protestant hymnody called l angen s ekar. Langen s ekar refers not only to a genre but also to church music groups that perform these songs. The first part of the chapter analyzes vocal compositions by Pak Darsono Wignyosaputro, a representative of the Javanese Protestant Church and the foremost composer of l angen s ekar, which maintains a connection with traditional gamelan music. The second part of the paper examines the performance practice of the l angen s ekar group Mudi Rahayu, which creatively employs Protestant hymns and uses the kentrung genre in their inculturative practice. Associated with Islam, kentrung is considered by some as “improper” church music, while for others it is simply a medium with no Islamic linkage.Less
This chapter examines religious inculturation in Javanese Protestant hymnody. Inculturation is often marked by struggle and contestation, and this chapter reflects on the transitional and transitory character of inculturation through an analysis of the Javanese Protestant hymnody called l angen s ekar. Langen s ekar refers not only to a genre but also to church music groups that perform these songs. The first part of the chapter analyzes vocal compositions by Pak Darsono Wignyosaputro, a representative of the Javanese Protestant Church and the foremost composer of l angen s ekar, which maintains a connection with traditional gamelan music. The second part of the paper examines the performance practice of the l angen s ekar group Mudi Rahayu, which creatively employs Protestant hymns and uses the kentrung genre in their inculturative practice. Associated with Islam, kentrung is considered by some as “improper” church music, while for others it is simply a medium with no Islamic linkage.
Graham A. Duncan
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198702252
- eISBN:
- 9780191838934
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198702252.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter notes that increased pluralism, movement, and transnationalism have meant inevitable change for dissenting Protestantism. A result of experiential transculturality has been the rise of ...
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This chapter notes that increased pluralism, movement, and transnationalism have meant inevitable change for dissenting Protestantism. A result of experiential transculturality has been the rise of religious practice marked by hybridity, and scholarship intended to explain it. This chapter unpacks the meanings of terms such as ‘inculturation’ as ‘adaptation’, ‘innovation’, and ‘reflexivity’, and explores the ways in which these emerge in the intercultural settings of Protestant Christian mission in the Majority World. A result of this analysis is to point to the ways in which secularity and transnationalism actually ‘manufacture’ dissent from dominant orthodoxies, sparking religious revitalizations and new identities. The chapter quotes E. W. Blyden’s prescient observation that Africa would be the ‘spiritual conservatory of the world’. The term ‘dissent’ needs to be revalued to include growth, reinterpretation, resilience, redefinition, and revitalization. This keeps it true to the semper reformanda principle of Reformational Dissent.Less
This chapter notes that increased pluralism, movement, and transnationalism have meant inevitable change for dissenting Protestantism. A result of experiential transculturality has been the rise of religious practice marked by hybridity, and scholarship intended to explain it. This chapter unpacks the meanings of terms such as ‘inculturation’ as ‘adaptation’, ‘innovation’, and ‘reflexivity’, and explores the ways in which these emerge in the intercultural settings of Protestant Christian mission in the Majority World. A result of this analysis is to point to the ways in which secularity and transnationalism actually ‘manufacture’ dissent from dominant orthodoxies, sparking religious revitalizations and new identities. The chapter quotes E. W. Blyden’s prescient observation that Africa would be the ‘spiritual conservatory of the world’. The term ‘dissent’ needs to be revalued to include growth, reinterpretation, resilience, redefinition, and revitalization. This keeps it true to the semper reformanda principle of Reformational Dissent.
