Pub Date : 2023-04-15DOI: 10.1177/00211400231166049b
Andrew Meszaros
The heterogeneity of this collection demonstrates not only the abundance of the riches available in Newman’s life, thought, and spirituality, but the breadth of the friendships inspired by Ian Ker. Such variety in the fellowship of homage to Ker is particularly appropriate for Newman studies, considering the saint’s genius for friendship. But the work is not only for those who knew and loved Ian Ker personally; its scholarship commends it to every serious collection of Newman studies.
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Pub Date : 2023-03-17DOI: 10.1177/00211400231160383
C. Deane‐Drummond
Integral ecology has arguably received more attention from theologians, ethicists and others compared with other ideas arising out of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’. In this article I explore what are reasonable alternative ways of understanding what Pope Francis intended in using the language of integral ecology, and critically explore its theological foundations and point to some implications for practice. I trace its development to a theological response in dialectical relationship with his understanding of an alternative technological paradigm. Unlike the latter, integral ecology is grounded in traditional Catholic concepts of creation and resonates with natural law understood to be broadly inclusive rather than narrowly proscriptive. While to a degree plagiarizing on earlier concepts of integral human development, it has its own distinctive message to carry. Moreover, I suggest that without adequate reference to theological foundations integral ecology morphs into much more general notions of multi-disciplinarity and trans-disciplinarity, which, while valuable in themselves, fail to get to the heart of Pope Francis’s intended mission.
{"title":"Pope Francis’s Integral Ecology Paradigm: An Exploration of Its Theological Foundations and Ethical Implications","authors":"C. Deane‐Drummond","doi":"10.1177/00211400231160383","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00211400231160383","url":null,"abstract":"Integral ecology has arguably received more attention from theologians, ethicists and others compared with other ideas arising out of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’. In this article I explore what are reasonable alternative ways of understanding what Pope Francis intended in using the language of integral ecology, and critically explore its theological foundations and point to some implications for practice. I trace its development to a theological response in dialectical relationship with his understanding of an alternative technological paradigm. Unlike the latter, integral ecology is grounded in traditional Catholic concepts of creation and resonates with natural law understood to be broadly inclusive rather than narrowly proscriptive. While to a degree plagiarizing on earlier concepts of integral human development, it has its own distinctive message to carry. Moreover, I suggest that without adequate reference to theological foundations integral ecology morphs into much more general notions of multi-disciplinarity and trans-disciplinarity, which, while valuable in themselves, fail to get to the heart of Pope Francis’s intended mission.","PeriodicalId":55939,"journal":{"name":"Irish Theological Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47621837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-17DOI: 10.1177/00211400231160645
P. McGavin
The author here reflects on textual witnesses of the role of Joseph of Nazareth in the human development of Jesus of Nazareth to build a culturally embodied theology that is intended to offer for us and for others some suggestive scriptural perspectives on the complex topic and ‘task’ of growth toward human maturity in our contemporary contexts.
{"title":"‘Incarnational Theology’ Understandings and the Scriptural Witnesses to St Joseph in the Human Maturation of Jesus of Nazareth","authors":"P. McGavin","doi":"10.1177/00211400231160645","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00211400231160645","url":null,"abstract":"The author here reflects on textual witnesses of the role of Joseph of Nazareth in the human development of Jesus of Nazareth to build a culturally embodied theology that is intended to offer for us and for others some suggestive scriptural perspectives on the complex topic and ‘task’ of growth toward human maturity in our contemporary contexts.","PeriodicalId":55939,"journal":{"name":"Irish Theological Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65397864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-17DOI: 10.1177/00211400231160385
Robyn Horner
‘The Leuven Project: Enhancing Catholic School Identity?’ appeared in the May 2022 edition of ITQ.1 Motivated by concerns that the article misrepresents the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) research in the academic forum and fundamentally rejects the theology of the Second Vatican Council from which it springs, I write to clarify some of its misconceptions and critique some of its theological assumptions. In particular, Dr McGregor’s claims that the ECSI Research has a ‘very novel account of revelation and especially of the meaning of “symbol”’ (2) colour the entire article and preempt its construal of the authors on whose work it comments: Didier Pollefeyt and Lieven Boeve.
{"title":"Enhancing Catholic School Identity: A Response to Peter McGregor","authors":"Robyn Horner","doi":"10.1177/00211400231160385","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00211400231160385","url":null,"abstract":"‘The Leuven Project: Enhancing Catholic School Identity?’ appeared in the May 2022 edition of ITQ.1 Motivated by concerns that the article misrepresents the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) research in the academic forum and fundamentally rejects the theology of the Second Vatican Council from which it springs, I write to clarify some of its misconceptions and critique some of its theological assumptions. In particular, Dr McGregor’s claims that the ECSI Research has a ‘very novel account of revelation and especially of the meaning of “symbol”’ (2) colour the entire article and preempt its construal of the authors on whose work it comments: Didier Pollefeyt and Lieven Boeve.","PeriodicalId":55939,"journal":{"name":"Irish Theological Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46778542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-15DOI: 10.1177/00211400231160651
Vincent Birch
There are three aspects of the problem of development of doctrine with which approaches have had to contend: the historicity of doctrines, the role of reason in development, and the supernatural motion of development. Historically, there has been a tendency to give primacy to one of these aspects at the expense of others, which has led to various forms of reductionism. I propose that Bernard Lonergan’s thought, which is often overlooked in development scholarship, can provide organizing principles for the conversation about doctrinal development so that the historical, rational, and supernatural aspects of the problem can be non-competitively situated. By putting Lonergan into dialogue with different kinds of theorists, I simultaneously advance an interpretation of his thought on development that accentuates the underestimated role of reason in his account.
{"title":"Growth of the Christian Idea: An Application of Bernard Lonergan’s Thought to Discourse on Doctrinal Development","authors":"Vincent Birch","doi":"10.1177/00211400231160651","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00211400231160651","url":null,"abstract":"There are three aspects of the problem of development of doctrine with which approaches have had to contend: the historicity of doctrines, the role of reason in development, and the supernatural motion of development. Historically, there has been a tendency to give primacy to one of these aspects at the expense of others, which has led to various forms of reductionism. I propose that Bernard Lonergan’s thought, which is often overlooked in development scholarship, can provide organizing principles for the conversation about doctrinal development so that the historical, rational, and supernatural aspects of the problem can be non-competitively situated. By putting Lonergan into dialogue with different kinds of theorists, I simultaneously advance an interpretation of his thought on development that accentuates the underestimated role of reason in his account.","PeriodicalId":55939,"journal":{"name":"Irish Theological Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47247428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-10DOI: 10.1177/00211400231160870
P. Moser
How, according to the best Biblical theodicy, does God justify God’s allowing extreme suffering and evil? According to this article, the Biblical God is Lord of the future as well as the present and uses the future to fulfill divine promises to humans. The future fulfillment, coupled with present divine proximity to humans, includes restoring and saving them in full righteousness, given their losses from suffering and evil. This lesson is part of a widely neglected Biblical theodicy of restoration for humans in divine righteousness at God’s appointed time. Such righteousness aims to renew people for their lasting moral good in relationship with God and others. Benefiting from some Old Testament writers, the apostle Paul, and Jesus, the proposed theodicy illuminates God’s intention in bringing about a world that undergoes severe suffering and evil. It fits with humans’ ‘knowing in part’ and thus their being unable to justify God, but it leaves room for God justifying God in righteousness to be fulfilled, coupled with present divine proximity to humans in need.
{"title":"Biblical Theodicy of Righteous Fulfillment: Divine Promise and Proximity","authors":"P. Moser","doi":"10.1177/00211400231160870","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00211400231160870","url":null,"abstract":"How, according to the best Biblical theodicy, does God justify God’s allowing extreme suffering and evil? According to this article, the Biblical God is Lord of the future as well as the present and uses the future to fulfill divine promises to humans. The future fulfillment, coupled with present divine proximity to humans, includes restoring and saving them in full righteousness, given their losses from suffering and evil. This lesson is part of a widely neglected Biblical theodicy of restoration for humans in divine righteousness at God’s appointed time. Such righteousness aims to renew people for their lasting moral good in relationship with God and others. Benefiting from some Old Testament writers, the apostle Paul, and Jesus, the proposed theodicy illuminates God’s intention in bringing about a world that undergoes severe suffering and evil. It fits with humans’ ‘knowing in part’ and thus their being unable to justify God, but it leaves room for God justifying God in righteousness to be fulfilled, coupled with present divine proximity to humans in need.","PeriodicalId":55939,"journal":{"name":"Irish Theological Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48372139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-01DOI: 10.1177/00211400221150549
J. Sullivan
Sub-titled ‘The Catholic Humanist Rhetoric of As You Like It’, this book has three purposes. First, the author, a Professor of English at Crandall University in Canada, sets out to examine Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy through the lens of the Catholic Humanism which is the play’s cultural backdrop. Second, he intends to highlight the play’s blend of eloquentia and sapientia, of wit and wisdom, as exemplified by such major exponents of Catholic Humanism as Thomas More and Erasmus earlier in the 16th century. Thirdly, he argues that this under-estimated play serves as an outstanding example of the Catholic Humanist rhetoric that is a central feature of Shakespeare’s art. Many insights are offered that enhance our appreciation of the rich subtlety of the play with regard to its vocabulary and verbal exchanges, its characterization and plot. Maillet effectively demonstrates how deeply the play is suffused with Catholic Humanist assumptions and perspectives. The book is divided into two parts. In Part One, ‘Understanding Catholic Humanism’, there are nine chapters, which, after looking briefly at the antecedents of Catholic Humanism in scripture and tradition, quickly surveys some of its exponents in Italy (Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, St Francis of Assisi, and Michelangelo) and England (Chaucer, William of Langland, Julian of Norwich, and John Colet). This selection might be considered a little idiosyncratic by some readers. One chapter is devoted to Erasmus and two to Thomas More. Part One culminates with a chapter on renaissance rhetoric and one on the play’s immediate context in 1599. Part Two, ‘As You Like It and the Rhetoric of Catholic Humanism’, has ten chapters, each of which analyses a scene in the play. The commentary here is so exhaustively detailed that, except for the most enthusiastic students of the play, it becomes tedious. Underlying the Catholic Humanism that pervades As You Like It there is a theological anthropology, an understanding of human nature and personhood. But this emerges here only gradually and through small examples, whereas it would have helped the reader if a succinct overview of key features of Catholic Humanism and of a Christian anthropology had been provided before going into detail. The same applies to the play: the assumption of the author seems to be that readers already possess knowledge about its plot; a 1150549 ITQ0010.1177/00211400221150549Irish Theological QuarterlyBook Reviews book-review2023
{"title":"Book Review: If Is the Only Peacemaker","authors":"J. Sullivan","doi":"10.1177/00211400221150549","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00211400221150549","url":null,"abstract":"Sub-titled ‘The Catholic Humanist Rhetoric of As You Like It’, this book has three purposes. First, the author, a Professor of English at Crandall University in Canada, sets out to examine Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy through the lens of the Catholic Humanism which is the play’s cultural backdrop. Second, he intends to highlight the play’s blend of eloquentia and sapientia, of wit and wisdom, as exemplified by such major exponents of Catholic Humanism as Thomas More and Erasmus earlier in the 16th century. Thirdly, he argues that this under-estimated play serves as an outstanding example of the Catholic Humanist rhetoric that is a central feature of Shakespeare’s art. Many insights are offered that enhance our appreciation of the rich subtlety of the play with regard to its vocabulary and verbal exchanges, its characterization and plot. Maillet effectively demonstrates how deeply the play is suffused with Catholic Humanist assumptions and perspectives. The book is divided into two parts. In Part One, ‘Understanding Catholic Humanism’, there are nine chapters, which, after looking briefly at the antecedents of Catholic Humanism in scripture and tradition, quickly surveys some of its exponents in Italy (Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, St Francis of Assisi, and Michelangelo) and England (Chaucer, William of Langland, Julian of Norwich, and John Colet). This selection might be considered a little idiosyncratic by some readers. One chapter is devoted to Erasmus and two to Thomas More. Part One culminates with a chapter on renaissance rhetoric and one on the play’s immediate context in 1599. Part Two, ‘As You Like It and the Rhetoric of Catholic Humanism’, has ten chapters, each of which analyses a scene in the play. The commentary here is so exhaustively detailed that, except for the most enthusiastic students of the play, it becomes tedious. Underlying the Catholic Humanism that pervades As You Like It there is a theological anthropology, an understanding of human nature and personhood. But this emerges here only gradually and through small examples, whereas it would have helped the reader if a succinct overview of key features of Catholic Humanism and of a Christian anthropology had been provided before going into detail. The same applies to the play: the assumption of the author seems to be that readers already possess knowledge about its plot; a 1150549 ITQ0010.1177/00211400221150549Irish Theological QuarterlyBook Reviews book-review2023","PeriodicalId":55939,"journal":{"name":"Irish Theological Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41926486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-01DOI: 10.1177/00211400221150549a
Liam M. Tracey
brief summary before throwing us in medias res would have assisted those readers who are unfamiliar with this play. Elements of Catholic Humanism are treated serially, without reference to an overall schema or structure; thus readers are unclear as to which elements are central and necessary and which aspects are accidental and peripheral. Themes in the play include ‘the role of comedy and tragedy, of good and evil, in art; the human desire for peace; human disagreement over fundamental concepts such as gender and the meaning of socially essential concepts as authority and marriage; and, perhaps more important of all, the relationship between divine and human nature’ (p. 19). Grace and free will; divine providence and human choice; love and laughter (both God’s and ours); God’s use of the foolish to teach wisdom (itself connected to selfknowledge); the church as a community of grace; the sacramental imagination—all these are illustrated in the dialogue of the play as explained by the author. The world of nature comes across as a better teacher than the world of the court that surrounds the monarch. A love of counterfeit (dissembling, disguise, imagination, and of play) surfaces often as a theme as does the role of words in building a healthy human society and the reign of peace (p. 89). Despite disguises—both those that effectively hide those who are speaking and those that are seen through—Maillet shows that Shakespeare teaches that ‘Real love ultimately leads towards revelation of identity and the realm of eternal being’ (p. 227). Rhetoric is used to inspire the play’s participants (and their audience) to virtuous action. The play revolves around a series of debates and exchanges, for example, between Jacques and Touchstone, Celia and Rosalind, Oliver and Orlando. There is no doubt that Shakespeare is truly artful in how he presents these exchanges and in his capacity to make words dance and sing in our minds and hearts. However, I did not find the constant reference to technical terms related to rhetoric (these are carefully explained in a sixpage glossary at the end of the book) helped me better understand the author’s argument, nor did I understand the significance he puts on the word ‘if’, though this may simply be due to a shortcoming in the reviewer. Apart from scholarly literature about the play, the author draws valuable insights from multiple different performances of the play (on stage and in films) in diverse locations and across many decades. Indeed, anyone involved in acting in or producing this play, as well as members of the audience, would benefit greatly from how Maillet unpacks the nuances, double meanings, and other subtleties deployed by Shakespeare.
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Pub Date : 2023-02-01DOI: 10.1177/00211400221150549c
Luke Macnamara
In broad terms, the central theme of O’Rourke’s inquiry is the question of identity in Joyce’s writings. The question of identity is ultimately a philosophical question; the principle of identity is considered the first law of reality, and in Joyce’s work and life the question of the self and its identity loom large. Who is he? Irish, Catholic, European, himself? Identity also brings the questions of change and permanence, unity and diversity to the table. These are questions which Aristotle had addressed, using the categories of potency and act, matter and form, substance, accident and soul. Joyce found these categories invaluable in grounding the enduring identity of his characters. Throughout Ulysses, dialogues between Stephen Dedalus and Bloom and Buck Mulligan offer us a privileged view of the contrast between the reductionist approach of Mulligan and Bloom to human self-identity, (‘sure it’s all just corpuscles or whatever’) and Stephen’s own Aristotelian sense of the presence of an eidos, form or rationale giving shape and animation to the material ‘stuff’ of the world, be that stuff cells or atoms or corpuscles (cf. pp. 50–51, 109–10). Finally, Joyce’s theory of aesthetics owes much to Aquinas, though for O’Rourke he missed out on the metaphysical heart of Aquinas’s thought on beauty as a transcendental quality of reality, turning Aquinas into an aesthete. Ironically, the aesthetics which drove him from the Church, according to one critic quoted by O’Rourke, is derived from Aquinas, albeit from Joyce’s partial reading of him (p. 204). Joyce, Aristotle, and Aquinas is a tour de force which helps to see Joyce against the background of his initial philosophical formation in Aristotle and Aquinas, a formation which moulded his approach to the philosophical questions which arise in his works; questions which the philosophia perennis, the philosophical tradition emerging from classical thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle had raised and were creatively received and rethought by Aquinas and other medieval thinkers, Christian and Muslim.
{"title":"Book Review: Saint Mary of Egypt. A Modern Verse Life and Interpretation","authors":"Luke Macnamara","doi":"10.1177/00211400221150549c","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00211400221150549c","url":null,"abstract":"In broad terms, the central theme of O’Rourke’s inquiry is the question of identity in Joyce’s writings. The question of identity is ultimately a philosophical question; the principle of identity is considered the first law of reality, and in Joyce’s work and life the question of the self and its identity loom large. Who is he? Irish, Catholic, European, himself? Identity also brings the questions of change and permanence, unity and diversity to the table. These are questions which Aristotle had addressed, using the categories of potency and act, matter and form, substance, accident and soul. Joyce found these categories invaluable in grounding the enduring identity of his characters. Throughout Ulysses, dialogues between Stephen Dedalus and Bloom and Buck Mulligan offer us a privileged view of the contrast between the reductionist approach of Mulligan and Bloom to human self-identity, (‘sure it’s all just corpuscles or whatever’) and Stephen’s own Aristotelian sense of the presence of an eidos, form or rationale giving shape and animation to the material ‘stuff’ of the world, be that stuff cells or atoms or corpuscles (cf. pp. 50–51, 109–10). Finally, Joyce’s theory of aesthetics owes much to Aquinas, though for O’Rourke he missed out on the metaphysical heart of Aquinas’s thought on beauty as a transcendental quality of reality, turning Aquinas into an aesthete. Ironically, the aesthetics which drove him from the Church, according to one critic quoted by O’Rourke, is derived from Aquinas, albeit from Joyce’s partial reading of him (p. 204). Joyce, Aristotle, and Aquinas is a tour de force which helps to see Joyce against the background of his initial philosophical formation in Aristotle and Aquinas, a formation which moulded his approach to the philosophical questions which arise in his works; questions which the philosophia perennis, the philosophical tradition emerging from classical thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle had raised and were creatively received and rethought by Aquinas and other medieval thinkers, Christian and Muslim.","PeriodicalId":55939,"journal":{"name":"Irish Theological Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46022803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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