A journal of academic theology

Research Article

The Thology and Times of William of Tripoli O.P.: A Different View of Islam

The 13th century, the age of universities and cathedrals, was a time when Europeans journeyed to unknown realms and encountered different religions. It was also the age of Crusades. William of Tripoli spent his life and ministry in the world around Acre in the Latin Kingdom, a crossroads for art, trade, and contacts between Christians

When Meats Are Like Medicines: Vitoria and Lessius on the Role of Food in the Duty to Preserve Life

Early Modern theologians Francisco de Vitoria and Leonardus Lessius analyzed the nature and limits of the obligation to preserve one’s life through the use of food. Vitoria described the ethical foundations of and the circumstances that might limit such an obligation, while Lessius argued for a virtuous approach to nutrition that eschewed both indifference and

The Soteriological Significance of the Feast of Mary’s Birth

By reviewing the unique characteristics of the Byzantine feast of Mary’s Birth, the article articulates the feast’s significance as an integral contributor to the salvation of humankind. The article first traces the historical emergence of Mariology to establish trends in Marian soteriology, then analyzes the liturgical contents of the feast to project a theological thesis.

Spirituality and Citizenship: Sacramentality in a Parable

The author finds resonance between the hitherto largely unrelated discourses of spirituality and citizenship. Drawing on Rahner’s transcendental anthropology and Moltmann’s sacramental theology of history, he proposes a spirituality that emphasizes the anonymous action of the Holy Spirit within a strong Christology. This proposal embraces the Social Quality model of citizenship and integrates Chantal Mouffe’s

Neo-Thomism and the Theology of Religions: A Case Study on the Belgian and U.S. Textbooks (1870-1950)

Scholars are currently giving serious thought to Thomas Aquinas’s theology of religions. This fact led the author to explore the connection between Aquinas’s thought on the subject and that of the Neo-Thomists of the 19th and 20th centuries. Starting from the analysis of textbooks, he illuminates the structure of the theology of religions that characterized

Catholicism and Liberalism: Two Ideologies in Confrontation

The author argues that the Catholic Church’s social teaching is marked by a critical view of the ideology of Enlightenment Liberalism and of the concept of free market economy when taken as the guiding mechanism of free modern society. Since the great divorce between throne and altar with the French Revolution, the Church’s opposition to

Interpretation of Jesus’ Prohibition of Anger (Mt 5:22): The Person/Sin Distinction from Augustine to Aquinas

Christian reflection on the morality of anger must address Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:22: “whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” One interpretation of this passage found in the Christian tradition relies on what is called here the “person/sin distinction”: anger at persons is sinful, while anger at sin is permissible.

Response to Neil Ormerod and Beyond

In an article in the September 2007 issue of this journal, Neil Ormerod had included David Coffey in his critique of Rahner, whose thought he had contrasted with Lonergan’s on the Trinity and related subjects. Ormerod’s article was occasioned by publicity given by Robert Doran to a trinitarian hypothesis of Lonergan. Here Coffey comments on

The Synthesis of All Heresies: 100 Years On

The condemnation of Roman Catholic Modernism in 1907 was a traumatic event—in the dual sense that it reflected the traumatic impact of intellectual and political modernity on the Church, and in that it induced a climate of repressive reaction that affected Catholic scholarship for decades thereafter. The issues raised by the Modernists form an integral

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