A journal of academic theology

Research Article

What Does Mumbai Have to Do with Rome? Postcolonial Perspectives on Globatlization and Theology

Does postcolonial theory that cogently presents postcolonial perspectives on globalization have relevance for theology? The article argues that postcolonial theory’s emphasis on eschewing identity-based strategies for liberation is an urgent necessity in a globalized and militarized world. Postcolonial theorists seek justice and care for the poorest women and children of the Global South, arguing that

Religious Pluralism in an Era of Globalization: The Making of Modern Religious Identity

Impacted by the technologies that make the world a single place, the theological discourse on religious pluralism comes to expression in the era of globalization as religious differences are in ever greater contact. However, the construction of religious identity that emerged in the early stages of globalization may need to be rethought and theologies constructed

Where Is the Church? Globalization and Catholicity?

Theological considerations of the cultural effects of globalization have focused largely on homogenization: the erosion of local cultures by some dominant globalizing culture. This article considers three contrasting analyses. Globalization also fosters cultural fragmentation and purification, the abstraction of culture and social space from geographical space, and a reduction of culture to identity. These additional

Crises and Other Moral Developments

A bibliographical review of themes in fundamental moral theology over the past four years evidences an astonishingly frequent reference to crises—in identity and in the Church. Reviewing the literature also yields other more promising developments wherein ethicists are becoming more theological and historical in their work.

Bioethics

The AIDS pandemic has focused renewed attention on the relationship between the promotion of health and the protection of human rights. Recent work by Paul Farmer and others challenges bioethics to address urgent questions of global health equity not only on the level of method but in the form of strategic partnerships with the most

Environmental Ethics

Catholicism, with other religions, continues the critical grounding of ecological concern within its tradition. Contemporary theologians offer varying approaches to environmental ethics, from ecologically sensitive Christian humanism to a more radical repositioning of the human person within a creation charged with inherent value. A common emphasis is the connection between ecological damage and social justice.

Interpreting Vatican II: A New Pentecost

Pope John XXIII’s prayerful phrase “a new Pentecost” linked Vatican II with the Holy Spirit and has interpretative potential. It focuses the pneumatological dimensions of the epochal event and documents. The article considers Pentecost in the constitution of the church, emphasizes the pneumatological difference, underlines the finality of Vatican II toward renewal in the church’s

The True Ultimate End of Human Beings: The Kingdom Not God Alone

The author argues against the view that the true ultimate end of human beings is only in God, attained by the beatific vision. The alternative proposed is that human beings’ true ultimate end is fulfillment in God’s kingdom, a communion of divine Persons and created persons, in which human members will be fulfilled with respect

Prolegomena to Meaning or What Is Literary about the Torah?

The drastic economy of biblical narrative style is not simply to be equated with an absence of style but rather represents a distinctive narrative poetics, which turns in particular on the opaqueness of characters’ inner lives and thus on the essential ambiguity of character motivation. Such practical criticism, by rigorously lingering over the details and

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