Theology Book Chapters

Aquinas and Theology as Conversation

Rev Thomas Ryan SM — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 21:46:55 PDT

I regard it as a privilege to be asked by Dr. Michael Whelan, SM to contribute to this series of lectures marking the Diamond Jubilee of Aquinas Academy. Given the name and originating spirit of the Academy, it is also fortuitous and fitting that one of the topics concerns Thomas Aquinas himself. He lived from 1225 till 1274 as one of the early members of the Order of Preachers.

I would like to build this paper on three quotations. One is from Dr. John Thornhill, SM, second Director of the Academy. In introducing a Course in Theology in Adult Education at the Academy in 1976 he notes that Aquinas’ vision, properly understood, ‘was ready to assimilate all that is valuable in other theological achievements.’ The other two quotes are from Aquinas himself. ‘All truth is from God’ and elsewhere he remarks that ‘whatever its source, truth is of the Holy Spirit’.

Building on these quotations the argument of this paper is basically this: Thomas Aquinas sees theology as a critical conversation and as such, even in its thirteenth century context, this approach seeks and anticipates our democratic sensibility. Aquinas engages in a set of interlocking colloquia about human experience with a range of participants.

Good Teaching, Spirituality and the Challenge of Encountering Cultural Difference in Australia

Glenn J. Morrison — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:51:30 PST

The essay aims to show that nurturing a spirituality of good teaching could provide a more committed and responsible attitude towards education and encountering cultural difference in Australia. Spirituality speaks of relationships, the search for meaning and of having a heart for another. Students demand that teachers should be many things such as passionate, engaging, intelligent, fun, challenging, fair and creative. The more we can develop meaning and a spirituality in teaching, the more we may meet these demands to attend to the students’ enthusiasm, frustration, uncertainty, impatience, fears and dreams. Part I of the essay will explore some Levinasian-inspired ways how spirituality might coincide with good teaching. From raising the question, “What makes a good teacher?”, the essay will touch upon Levinas’ ideas of otherness, encounter and passivity as a means to develop the notion of transcendental knowledge and the ethical qualities of good teaching. Part II studies the connection between lecturing and Levinas’ philosophy by way of examining misconceptions of encountering students from another culture and of developing a spirituality and response of ethics and prayer. Given the diverse cultural landscape in Australia, developing a responsible ethic and spirituality of openness towards encountering cultural difference in the classroom, can hopefully do much to inspire and re-imagine a profound sense of being Australian.

Art for God or to God through Art?

Angela McCarthy — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:41:07 PDT

Christian art has been an integral part of faith and worship for almost two millennia. Is that because the human need to express mystery is captured most fully through our creative processes, or is it because the presence of God within us can surface into the conscious realm most effectively through the creation of beauty? While this might be an impossible question to answer, it also could be the vehicle for examining an understanding of the importance of the connection between God and all that is beautiful. ‘Art demonstrates spiritual facts such as peace, depth, intensity, and so on. Thus art lends form, colour, tension and proportion to the invisible. It harnesses awe and leads dawning comprehension to active creativity.’ Through such creative activity Christians have made visible the reality of God incarnate.

Christians are ‘people of the book’ because of the profound degree of sacredness of the Scriptures and the depth of understanding of Christ as Logos, the Word of God. However, throughout our history the expression of these texts through visual art has led us to a greater depth of understanding of our image of God.

ISBN: 978-1-60899-145-7

Pacifism—Not Passivism

Philip Matthews — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:01:54 PST

For many people in Australia, the label 'peace acitivist' continues to be a pejorative term used to describe 'left-wing radicals' with nothing better to do than protest at any venue that will attract media attention. At the same time Christian pacifists are understood as religious fanatics unable to protect themselves from harm and unwilling to respond against injustice forced upon others. This popular image is given added weight by media outlets that portray political 'peace' activists as violent revolutionaries and religious pacifists as passive bystanders. However, neither of these images comes close to describing the true nature of political peace activists or religious pacifists. This article, whilst taking the opportunity to challenge the view Australians have of peace activism in general, primarily seeks to elucidate the diversity amongs Christian pacifists, with particular emphasis on the Menonite tradition within the Peace Church heritage.

ISBN: 1 920691 162

Catholic Church

Rev Dr Kevin Long — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:35:35 PDT

Catholicism took institutional shape in Western Australia after a Perth schoolteacher, Robert D'Arcy, wrote to church authorities in Sydney in 1841. John Polding, Benedictine Vicar Apostolic of New Holland, raised the question of pastoral while in Rome. (Perth's Catholics comprised 337 in the census of 1848, 7 per cent of the total population, and were generally unskilled and uneducated, socially, economically and politically disadvantaged.) Archbishop Polding returned to Sydney in 1843 and appointed the Irishman John Brady his Vicar General in Perth. Brady, together with a Belgian priest, John Joostens, and a catechist, Patrick O'Reilly, arrived in Fremantle on 8 December 1843 Governor Hutt assigned Brady a land grant on Victoria Avenue. Three weeks later, on 27 December 1843, the foundation stone of the small church of St John was laid: a rare remaining example of early colonial ecclesiastical architecture. It also served as a school, education being an abiding concern of Australian Catholicism.

ISBN: 9781921401152

Inculturating the Easter Feast in Southeast Australia

Clare V. Johnson — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:24:41 PDT

The essays brought together in this valuable collection had their origin in the rich and varied conference 'Christianity and Native Cultures' held at Saint Mary's College in September 2002. For three days scholars focused new attention on multiple points of interaction between Christianity and indigenous cultures throughout the world. The scholars in this collection come from a variety of disciplines to share an understanding of the ways in which literature, art, religion, economics, psychology, women's studies, philosophy, political science and other fields offer valuable perspectives on the contact of Christianity and native cultures and are themselves informed and transformed by that encounter. [Accessed from: http://www.jacketflap.com/bookdetail.asp?bookid=0940121778]

ISBN: 978-0940121775

Ars Liturgiae: Worship, Aesthetics and Praxis - Essays in Honor of Nathan D. Mitchell: Introduction by Clare V Johnson

Clare V. Johnson — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:03:25 PDT

In the Supplement to the 'Hadrianum', an eighth-century sacramentary attributed to Pope Gregory I, Saint Benedict of Aniane (d.821) gathered together a variety of liturgical resources such as votive Masses, reconciliation services, funerals, exorcisms, morning and evening prayer and other miscellaneous blessings. in his introduction to the Supplement, Benedict writes:

'Since there are other liturgical materials which Holy Church finds itself obliged to use, but which [Pope Gregory] omitted because he knew they had already been produced by other people, we have thought it worth our while to gather them like spring flowers, arrange them in a beautiful bouquet and – after carefully correcting and amending them and giving them appropriate titles – present them in this separate work so that diligent readers may find everything they need for the present.'(1)

Taking our lead from Benedict of Aniane, we present in this volume a small "mixed bouquet" of essays in honor of Nathan D. Mitchell on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday.

ISBN: 156854488X

Opting for an Eschatological Interpretation of Interfaith Marriages

Abe Ata et al. — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:53:50 PDT

Interfaith marriage is a strong indicator as to whether a particular group is fully integrated into and accepted by the mainstream community. It is an eschatological vocation for today. As the desire to marry or be committed to a sacred relationship is being questioned, interfaith marriage challenges not only the rationalisation of marriage as a commodity to be consumed and enjoyed, but also national and cultural tendencies of totality and self-interest.

ISBN: 9781921513190

The (im)possibilities of Levinas for Christian Theology: the search for a language of alterity

Glenn J. Morrison — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:16:57 PDT

The paper aims to show how Levinas’ philosophy opens up a style of thinking and suggests a vocabulary of expression that can serve Christian theology, especially by opening the possibility of a language of alterity, or radical “otherness”, in theology. At the very risk of falling into the language of onto-theology, the paper will make use of a number of Levinasian notions to enhance Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theological reading of John 20:19-23 and his analogy of the transcendentals. The sense of the non-phenomenality of Christ’s otherness will be pivotal to our inquiry and our hope to unite theological language and ethical transcendence together.

ISBN: 978-90-429-2119-1

Renewing Christian Theology with Levinas: Towards a Trinitarian Praxis

Glenn J. Morrison — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:28:23 PDT

The chapter aims to use Levinas’ philosophy as inspiration to enrich von Balthasar’s theology as a means to develop a prolegomenon to a Trinitarian praxis. Levinas’ thought has much to offer. Given its complexity, it will perhaps always be an arduous task to utilise it for the benefit of Christian theology. None the less, beyond the language of ontology, analogy and presence, I will aim to show that it is possible to theologise using Levinas’ language of alterity.

ISBN: 978-90-429-2070-5