SO WE BEGIN our third year. Pacifica has found its way into international theological libraries, abstracting and indexing services. Over six hundred regular subscribers receive the journal. For this ready support we are very grateful, and somewhat relieved.
The publication of a new journal is always risky. We knew many problems were entailed in this venture, but some of them have only become obvious in hindsight. One particular difficulty has been the paradoxical nature of our aims: ecumenical, yet with a Catholic base; international, but with Australian origins; scholarly, and yet attending to vital issues. There is an obvious tension in each of these aims and the character of the journal is rather complex as a result. Several themes have clearly emerged in the articles being sent to us. The tension between Western Christianity and indigenous cultures, the demand for a contextualised theology, the religion of the Patriarchs, and the possibility of religious pluralism, for example, are all related topics which have received coverage in this and the previous number of Pacifica. Again, a number of very helpful articles exploring different aspects of the ordination of women are crossing our desk. A third clearly defined set of contributions has to do with the science/theology and creation/ecology debates. Studies published on the ethics of in vitro fertilisation are also to be expected, given the lively debates on this topic that a flourishing Melbourne industry has generated. Finally, and quite different again in style and focus, there have been some studies commenting on recent Roman Catholic teaching.
All of these, in their own way, illustrate the diversity and richness of theological concerns in our region. And they are, of course, the concerns of the wider Church.
While it is never our intention to publish issues of the journal devoted to a particular theme, occasionally articles will be chosen because of the way they fit together with each other. Occasionally, on the other hand, some articles quite obviously clash with each other: this only serves to heighten the very different theological interests we have. The variety in contributions to Pacifica forces its readership to look beyond the boundaries of regional and denominational concerns and to appreciate those difficulties and styles of approach which shape nearby theologies.
We see all this as a positive contribution. But what has been missing from Pacifica ? One of our editorial consultants makes a plea for more lively debate! The pages of the journal are certainly open to those who might wish to voice an argument counter to a position established in any published articles. While we will continue to maintain the scholarly standard of Pacifica, this does not mean that all articles need be of great length or intensely shot through with footnotes.
Secondly, not much has crossed our desk which is concerned with the issues of belief and unbelief in the developed technological cultures of the west. Such reflection seems to us to be vitally important, and we invite contributions on this issue.
Thirdly, subscribers have asked us to provide occasional articles in which current thinking in this or that particular field of theology is reviewed by a leading scholar in the area. This we shall attempt to do.
As we write these words, news has just come to us of the murder of our colleagues – theologians, scholars, and editors of journals – in the University of Central America in El Salvador. That their names might be remembered, and that we may pledge our fidelity to the thousands of powerless, nameless ones who have died before them in El Salvador and elsewhere, we dedicate this issue of Pacifica to the memory of Ignacio Ellecuría (rector), Ignacio Martín-Baró (editor of the influential Estudios Centro Americanos), Segundo Montes, Amando Lopez, Joaquín Lopez Lopez, Juan Ramón Moreno, their helper, Elba Julia Ramos, and her daughter, Carlita (Celina) Ramos.