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Volume 12, Issue 2, June 1999
Articles
Determining Catholic Orthodoxy: Monologue or Dialogue
Ormond Rush, pp.123-142
This article examines the notion of orthodoxy and the appropriate process for its determination in the Catholic Church. After outlining extreme approaches to the question, the article proposes that any approach to the determination of orthodoxy must make clear its position on three areas of theological enquiry: the theology of religious language; theological epistemology; and theological hermeneutics. It is then proposed that the determination of orthodoxy is a dialogic process of reception within the church.
Eucharist, Theology and Discipleship
Andrew Hamilton, pp.143-155
The author begins by describing the qualities of Eucharistic celebration in functioning Australian Eucharistic communities. He then summarises the eucharistic theology of Josef Ratzinger, who provides a well-argued basis for criticising these qualities. Because discipleship is expressed in local situations, we should expect to find the life of the local communities taken into the celebration of the Eucharist. Within the acceptance of Apostolic proclamation and office, we should also expect to find a democratic and demotic spirit because these express the shape of discipleship in Australia, and so may not improperly be called the gift of Australia to the universal church.
The Two Magdalene Reports on the Risen Jesus in John 20
Robert Crotty, pp.156-168
This article offers a review of previously suggested structures of John 20 and proposes an alternative structure based on both linguistic and thematic grounds. The theological message of the text delineated by this structure indicates the resurrection event as narrated in John 20 depicts the completion of Jesus’ ministry and concludes the gospel message. Hence-forward, the interpretation of Scripture, hê graphê, and the preaching of the word, legein, would replace the original event for subsequent potential and actual Christians. Mary Magdalene, as she exists in the Johannine nar-rative, provided the living link between original events and the subsequent interpretation and preaching of the Christian community.
Ministry, Disability and Brokenness: Orthodox Insights into the Authority of the Priesthood
John Chryssavgis, pp.169-180
Christian ministers must learn to ac-knowledge the authenticity – and thereby the authority – of their own weakness and woundedness. From an Orthodox Christian spiritual perspective, the awareness of one’s imperfection and brokenness can, paradoxically, become a source not only of personal blessing but also of ordained vocation. The idealisation of physical beauty and external wholeness, frequently at the exclusion of difference and brokenness, is more characteristic of classical Greek aesthetics than of Christian asceticism. The notion of prayerful waiting inroduces a third expression of our brokenness, the shattered world around us as we stand – or kneel – before the twenty-first century. The brokenness of creation reveals a further aspect of the role of the priest.
A Spiritual Director from Antioch
Charles Hill, pp.181-191
Along with the Gospels, the Psalter was a staple of spiritual formation for Christians in the early centuries of the Church. Hence, many psalm Commentaries were composed, often taking pride of place in an author's literary output. Theodoret of Cyr likewise, though a busy pastor in a time of theological turmoil, composed such a work to help people understand this favourite book as they sang it. Drawing on his pre-decessors from Antioch and Alexandria, and betraying current trends in Christology, scriptural interpretation and ascetical practice, he offered with typical conciseness “some benefit in concentrated form” that today we might find at variance with our expectations of a spiritual director.
Whither “Australian Theology”? A Response to Geoffrey Lilburne
Tony Kelly, pp.192-208
This reflection offers a positive appreciation of Geoffrey Lil-burne’s call for a greater contribution from the Protestant traditions to a contextualised Australian theology. His critique of my own methodology suggests a number of clarifications of the meaning of “context”, “spirit-uality”, “the self” and the relationship of a specifically Christian theology to such issues.
The Radical Irony of Tradition: Revis(ion)ing Australian Anglo-Catholicism
Trevor Hogan, pp.209-224
This essay uses the recent revisionary histories of Australian Anglo-Catholicism by Colin Holden to revisit the antinomies of conser-vatism and radicalism in traditions (theological and political). In particular, it highlights the radical ironies contained within “retro-radicalism” of Anglo-Catholicism whereby the renewal of tradition requires both the recognition of its own plural and conflictual history and an active engagement with contemporary challenges. By developing a peripheral vision of the peculiar and contingent stories of provincial and regional traditions of one reform movement within Australian Anglicanism, Holden’s histories offer a rich and complex vision of recurring global themes of centre and periphery: of empire and colony, imperialism and nationalism, race and culture, city and country, church and state. It is concluded that the future of Anglo-Catholicism, after the fact of its historic decline, must perforce lie in a rediscovery of its radical kernel: namely, of a sacramental connecting of ritual and art to the politics of socialism and associative democracy, and in both keys reaffirming a theology of the Trinitarian God.
Book Reviews
The State of the Pentateuch: A Comparison of the Approaches of M. Noth and E Blum
Damian Wynn-Williams
Joseph Sobb pp.225-227
The Gospel of Luke
Judith Lieu
Francis J. Moloney pp.227-229
Liturgy and Moral Self: Humanity at Full Stretch Before God
E. Byron Anderson and Bruce T. Morrill (eds)
Patrick Fahey pp.230-231
Hymn of Freedom: Celebrating and Living the Eucharist
Michael L. Gaudoin-Parker
Tom Knowles pp.231-233
Recasting the Stone: Human Suffering and the Business of Blame
Rosemary Williams
Christine Burke pp.233-235
Friends of God and Prophets: A Feminist Theological Reading of the Communion of Saints
Elizabeth A. Johnson
John Wilcken pp.235-237
Christ in the Gospels of the Ordinary Sundays
Raymond E. Brown
Moira O’Sullivan pp.238-238
A Different Touch: A Study of Vows in Religious Life
Judith A. Merkle
Tony Kelly pp.239-240
Building Community: Christian, Caring, Vital
Loughlan Sofield, Rosine Hammett, Carrol Juliano
Paul O’Bryan pp.240-241
Coming out Coming Home. Growth in Freedom for the Parents of Gay and Lesbian Children
Joan Golding and Peter Wood
Mary Scarfe pp.241-242
The World’s Religions (2nd edition)
Ninian Smart
Ross Langmead pp.242-243
A Dragon Not for the Killing: Christian Presence to China
Brendan Lovett
Tony Kelly pp.243-243
Contributors
ORMOND RUSH is a Catholic priest from the diocese of Townsville. He lectures in systematic theology at Pius XII Seminary, Banyo, and is currently the Dean of the Brisbane College of Theology. His doctoral dissertation has been published as The Reception of Doctrine: Appropriating Hans Robert Jauss’ Reception Aesthetics and Literary Hermeneutics (Rome: Gregorian University Press, 1997). ANDREW HAMILTON S.J. completed his doctorate in patristics at the University of Oxford and lectures in christology and church history at the United Faculty of Theology. When not writing and teaching, he also serves as historian and theologian for the Jesuit Refugee Service. ROBERT CROTTY is presently Professor of Religious Education and Dean: Research Degrees in the Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of South Australia. Earlier he studied theology and biblical studies in Australia, later in Rome and at the École Biblique in Jerusalem. REV DR JOHN CHRYSSAVGIS was born in Australia and served the Greek Orthodox Church here as Sub-Dean of St Andrew’s Theological College in Sydney. Since 1995 he has been Professor of Theology at Holy Cross School of Theology in Boston, USA. His recent publications include The Way of the Fathers: Exploring the Patristic Mind and Beyond the Shattered Image: Orthodox Insights into the Environment. CHARLES HILL teaches in the School of Studies in Religion in the Uni-versity of Sydney. He is author of translations of the commentaries of St John Chrysostom on Genesis and the Psalms. Publication of his translations of the commentaries of Theodoret of Cyr on the Psalms and the letters of Paul is forthcoming. TONY KELLY C.Ss.R. was recently appointed to the Chair of Theology at Australian Catholic University. He has been President of Yarra Theological Union, and taught there for many years. He continues to be based in Melbourne. TREVOR HOGAN teaches and researches in the School of Sociology, Politics and Anthropology, La Trobe University in Melbourne. He is a co-ordinating editor of Thesis Eleven, an international social and political theory journal published by Sage, London. Recent publications include articles on Thomas Carlyle and Sismondi; Zymunt Bauman and the New Poor; urban sociology; social policy; and Christian socialism.
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