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Volume 2, Issue 1, February 1989
Editorial
Mark Coleridge, John Honner S.J., Francis J. Moloney S.D.B., pp.iii-iv
PACIFICA began its life in the bicentennial year of the European presence in Australia. Our first Editorial, written to mark the appearance of a new Australian journal, dwelt on that coincidence. Along with all the razzmatazz of 1988, Australians have in the past year been prompted both to look back to their roots and to look forward into their future. This new journal hoped "to be one meeting point where all these different voices might be heard, and where theology might be shaped to serve the faith in this region and beyond". John Molony, in his very readable Penguin Bicentennial History of Australia, concludes that the historian looking back into the past must not play the role of the prophet, but rather echo the psalmist in singing praise to God for God's blessings in the midst of suffering and conflict. Such sung praise may also be prophetic, despite Molony's disclaimer, for to commit oneself to the recognition of the presence of God in this sometimes confusing world at the end of the second millenium is indeed a prophetic gesture. To proclaim a contemporary understanding of that presence is, we humbly believe, the abiding prophetic task of Pacifica. Once upon a time God's presence in the world seemed more evident. Western culture could not be understood, for example, without some link to the Christian tradition. Not so today! Australians look no longer solely to the West for their cultural models; and, despite the enduring faith of individuals in God, connections between the God of our forbears and the culture of our society become increasingly more tenuous. Thus Pacifica is designed to offer a platform for the voices of those who are attempting to search the intersections between God and the complex secular human story experienced in this part of the world. Our first volume presented studies of the biblical traditions about God and creation, of the use of imagination in reading the Scripture which tells us about God, and of the mystery of God's presence in the face of nuclear holocaust. Consideration was given to the figure of a prophetically anointed Jesus Christ, who challenges the cultural absolutes of our time (and of all times), as understood by Luke, Athanasius of Alexandria, and Hans Urs von Balthasar. The problems of ecumenical debate, the interface between contemporary physics and theological worldviews, and the urgent contemporary discussion of the beginnings of human life have also been studied within our pages. We are, however, hopefully only beginning our task. In order to be loyal to our own project and the demands of our readers, certain critical issues need to be addressed. Are we, for example, fulfilling our expressed hope that "will consistently reflect both its Catholic provenance and its ecumenical associations"? Is there sufficient discussion of current biblical and theological issues of direct significance to our region, or are we merely echoing European debates? Have we addresses issues relating to the call for a spiritualiity for our time and place? It is certainly a joy that we look back on the achievements of Volume One of Pacifica. As we offer this first number for 1989, and as we consider the many articles now being submitted for publication, we have high expectations that the depth of focus we demand will be matched by a broader range of interests. It is particularly pleasing that this and future numbers will offer studies from New Zealand, the Philippines, and China. While we intend to maintain the demanding standard of scholarship that we have set ourselves, we also hope that each number will include studies accessible to a more general readership. In its first year Pacifica attracted over 600 subscribers and citation in the major periodical indexes. Your support in increasing the numbers of our subscribers is requested. The journal has been highly commended; we ask that you assist us in bringing in to the attention of likely readers. Your responses to our recent questionnaire have both endorsed our work and, as well, set us further challenges. To ignore your replies would be to risk disservice to our subscribers and to the region we claim to address. We to not intend to run such a risk.
Articles
On Earth as in Heaven: Corresponding to God in Philippine Context
Brendan Lovett, pp.1-25
This article attempts to dispel confusion about the demands of faith and the concrete path of witness by promoting a better understanding of the dynamics of the integral human good. The article falls into two sections: Part One is devoted to illuminating the Law of the Cross under which the Church should operate; Part Two follows on the realisation that living in accord with this Law demands insight into the dynamics of the integral human good. Life under the Law of the Cross is actualised in the concrete mission of establishing the integral scale of values in human-earth and inter-human relations, establishing the appropriate relation between the social infrastructure and the cultural superstructure of society. This serves to clarify the dynamics of historical salvation and the concrete paths to be followed in participating in such salvific process.
The Status of Biblical Narrative
Stephen Prickett, pp.26-46
Biblical scholarship has yet fully to come to terms with the problematic status of the narratives which constitute so large a part of its subject. Neither proposals that they be treated as “history” nor as “fiction” address the fact that our modern concepts of both history and (to a lesser degree) of fiction are themselves derived to a surprising degree from those narratives themselves. Rather than encapsulating them in anachronistic straightjackets, we should therefore rather try to ask what we have lost by being no longer able to read them in their own terms. Such an approach would not involve putting the clock back, nor breaking with the great hermeneutical tradition, but would rather be an extension of it to meet the challenges created by the continuing evolution of our modern scholarly skills.
Israel Among the Nations
Henri Cazelles, pp.47-60
The Old Testament reflects the historical, cultural and social experiences of the thousand year period during which it took shape. Ancient Israel borrowed much from the surrounding world and its cultures. These borrowings, however, are consistently subjected to the radical critique enabled by the Bible’s peculiar faith in the one God. The Bible is not tied to any particular culture, but it uses cultures both to give expression to the unique religious experience perfected in Jesus Christ and to unite people of all cultures into the one body.
Science Versus Religion in Nineteenth Century New Zealand: Robert Stout and Social Darwinism
John Stenhouse, pp.61-86
Though for Sir Robert Stout the theory of evolution had relegated Christianity to the status of a relic of our benighted past, his scientific rhetoric was misleading and virtually propaganda. He blended the prestige of Darwinian evolution with Spencerian philosophical ideas to produce a potent ideology. This was used to attack groups like the clergy, the wealthy, the unproductive poor and the non-white races, all of whom stood in the way of “progress”. The source of antagonism to Christianity lay not in science, but in political developments associated with the rise of the middle classes.
The Four Senses of Scripture: Lessons from the Thirteenth Century
John Hilary Martin, pp.87-106
There is much in medieval hermeneutics that can be conveniently forgotten. But medieval exegesis did allow a sense of theme and unity to come to the fore. The existence of a list of texts, even if it is a changing list, is what is of significance: it stands as an indication that there was a body of opinion, fairly widely shared, which thought that these texts were dealing with, common religious themes. Hidden under the letter, so to speak, there was a point of view which was present to the consciousness of authors writing in that living tradition. The existence of these shared religious themes and symbolic values was the very reason why these authors had taken up their pens. When approaching Scripture medieval exegetes assumed that they would be able to find common themes among the types and symbols which constantly appeared and reappeared in the sacred text.
Book Reviews
Being Poor: A Biblical Study
Leslie J. Hoppe
John Wright pp.107-112
Psychological Aspects of Pauline Theology
Gerd Theissen
Brendan Byrne pp.112-115
Ministry in Australian Churches
W.Tabbernee (ed.)
John Wilcken pp.115-117
Striking Home
Nigel Watson
Patrick Bishop pp.117-118
Prate, Prattle or Preach
Ivor Bailey
Patrick Bishop pp.117-118
The Theology of Joseph Ratzinger: An Introductory Study
Aidan Nichols
Anthony J. Kelly pp.118-120
The Mystery of the Triune God
John J. O'Donnell
Anthony J. Kelly pp.120-122
Contributors
Brendan Lovett, Dr.Theol. (Münster), of the Missionary Society of St. Columban, was the first director of the Mission Institute at North Turramurra in Sydney. He has lectured since 1980 in systematic theology at the inter-diocesan theologate in Ozamiz City, for North-Western Mindanao, in the Philippines. He has recently published Life Before Death: Inculturating Hope. Professor Stephen Prickett is Head of the English Department at the Australian National University in Canberra. He recently published Words and the World: Language, Poetics and Biblical Interpretation (Oxford University Press). Henri Cazelles, S.S., was Professor of Old Testament at the Institut Catholique de Paris (1954-81) and the Director of the Ecole Practique des Hautes Etudes (1973-80). He is retiring secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission (1984-88) and author of several books and articles. He has been declared a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur by the French Government in recognition of his service to scholarship. His most recent books are Naissance de l'Eglise, secte juive rejete? (1983) and Histoire politique d'Israel jusqu'a Alexandre (1983). John Stenhouse, B.A. (Hons.), Ph.D., studied history at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. He was Visiting Scholar at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada, 1986-87 and Post-Doctoral Fellow at The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A., 1987-88.
John Hilary Martin, O.P., completed studies in philosophy and theology with a Master of Divinity and S.T.Lr. degrees from St. Albert's College in California. He completed an M.Litt. at Oxford in medieval history in 1960 and his Pph.D., specialising in history and the history of religions, at the University of California in 1978. Fr. Martin has taught at the Dominican School at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, where he also held the office of Dean, and in 1988 lectured at the Yarra Theological Union in Melbourne.
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