The author observes that, while pluralist theologians and philosophers of religion have made claims asserting an identical, transcendent reality referred to by world religions, they have not noticed the fundamental problem facing such claims. Necessarily, abstract terms such as “reality” and “thing,” of which the claims have need, lack criteria of sameness; and a term
This article follows recent scholarship in identifying a robustly pro-Nicene trinitarianism in Augustine’s De Trinitate. In particular, a “Johannine logic” is identified and traced as an exegetical basis for his dogmatic articulation of the doctrine of God. This logic unfolds in the Pater–Filius relationship of the Son’s begetting, incarnation, and christological forms as “servant” and
Amidst multiple conflicting interpretations of Newman’s 1845 conversion, this article offers a new, synthetic interpretation by distinguishing and integrating negative deconversion and positive conversion moments within a six-year, three-phase process: reflection and theological judgment, discernment and judgment of conscience, and deliberation and decision.
The few extant studies of Jesuit martyr and theologian Yves de Montcheuil focus on his life and theology. This article combines these considerations with philosophical and political ones by examining how Montcheuil’s spiritual resistance to Nazism emerges from his study of action and justice in the thought of Nicolas Malebranche and Maurice Blondel. Montcheuil’s oeuvre
Following Bernard Lonergan’s lead, a systematic-theological account of the human world in relation to God will have a trinitarian “shape,” inasmuch as finite, contingent realities participate in the divine relations that constitute the three who are God. While Robert Doran has proposed an excellent beginning of such an account, the author argues that this proposal
In response to a recent article by Robert Doran, this article compares and contrasts the systematic coherence of Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan—how they interrelate the divine mysteries of the Trinity, incarnation, grace, and beatific vision. It argues that on all grounds Lonergan’s position provides a more satisfying response to relating these mysteries to one
The author accepts two of Charles Hefling’s corrections, but the second in a qualified fashion: Lonergan’s appeal to love as a starting point for the psychological analogy is open to an analogy based in religious love. Christiaan Jacobs-Vandegeer’s article in the March 2007 issue of this journal highlights the distinction of sanctifying grace and charity.
The author aligns the modern structuralist emphasis on the meaning-generating capacity of “oppositional pairs” with Augustine’s penchant for the ancient rhetorical trope of “antithesis.” The resultant rereading of De Trinitate uncovers Augustine’s rhetorical construction of a christocentric theological epistemology that undergirds the work’s structure, polemical agenda, and the classic theologoumenon of the trinitarian image in
The article explores the relationship between theology and metaphysics in the light of Bonaventure’s theology. His trinitarian theology grounded in self-communicative love and ontology of personhood renders new insight into his metaphysics of Christ the center. The emergence of creation ex amore through the centrality of the divine Word enables Bonaventure to recast metaphysics in
The article argues that Pope Benedict XVI’s inaugural encyclical,Deus caritas est, places the Church’s competency in the area of charity, not justice. Achieving justice pertains to the role of the state in the political process. The Church’s role regarding justice is indirect, through her social teaching and the activity of the lay faithful as citizens.
