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Volume 13, Issue 1, February 2000
Editorial
Brendan Byrne , iii
With this issue, the first to bear the year number 2000, Pacifica again acquires a new editor-in-chief, at least in an acting capacity. Dan Madigan, as he announced in the editorial of the previous issue, has moved to Rome at the request of the Jesuit Superior General to establish a new department for the study of religions at the Pontifical Gregorian University. On his return to Australia in late 1997 after completing doctoral studies at Columbia University (he has just reshaped his thesis for publication), Dan generously took on the editorship of Pacifica as just one of a host of responsibilities to which his multiple talents laid him open. While his departure will be a loss from the local scene, the new post in Rome will provide greater scope for the promotion of under-standing and tolerance between faiths, to which he brings such learning and commitment. He goes, then, with our blessing. One of Dan’s last acts as editor was to accept the article under my name that appears – somewhat to my embarrassment – in this issue, the first for which I am responsible. Following a precedent established in connection with the “Beyond 2000” Conference on Theological Education sponsored by the Mel-bourne College of Divinity and the Australian and New Zealand Association of Theological Schools (ANZATS) in Melbourne in July 1998, the next issue of Pacifica (June 2000) will publish a selection of the major papers to be delivered at the ANZATS Conference to be held this coming July in Christchurch, New Zealand, dedicated to the theme of Ecotheology. In this way it is hoped that, as occurred so fruitfully in 1998, participants will arrive already primed and asking the questions that will make the conference an engaging and lively experience for all concerned. Pacifica has not as yet found someone prepared to take on the role of editor-in-chief in a more permanent capacity. For the present I have agreed to hold the position, convinced as I am of the significant role the journal has played and continues to play in promoting theological research, reflection and exchange at the highest professional level. While it has a particular locus in the Australia, New Zealand and Oceania context, we know it is read and respected internationally. Our hope is that it will continue to provide a venue for theological exchange well into the millennium now upon us.
Articles
Towards a Contemporary Australian Retrieval of Sacral Imagination and Sacramentality
Frank Fletcher, pp.1-10
A theologian of Ghana argues that the West is declining in ad-herence to Christian Faith because its cultural meanings which are con-stitutive of the human and the cosmos tend to suppress human sacral imagination and the sacramentality of the cosmos. This author wagers that the Ghanaian’s position is correct and goes on to explore how this sup-pression of sacral imagination has taken place through the cultural changes in the West from pre-modernity to modernity and up to the present. Against the argument behind these cultural changes the author seeks to establish the validity of sacral imagination and sacramentality through a critical appropriation of the human subject as incarnate spirit and symbolic animal. A contemporary Australian spirituality might thus retrieve a capacity for sacral imagination adequate to the mystery carried in this land and to the redemptive hope needed in Australian society.
Implications of an Eschatological View of the Church
Christiaan Mostert, pp.11-24
The church is the “people of God” in a particular way, namely as an eschatological community, living in the present in the light of God’s promised future, already made real proleptically in the ministry of Jesus and in his resurrection from the dead. This eschatological character shapes every aspect of ecclesial life and work. In particular, it makes the church an anticipatory sign of the unity of humankind. Among the implications that follow from such a view of the church are ecumenical ones, with challenges at both local and wider levels. The article concludes with some critical reflections on the three great problems of faith and order: baptism, eucharist and (especially) ministry.
The End of Tolerance
John Henley, pp.25-48
Tolerance has received less critical scrutiny than most liberal values. This article traces the history of tolerance from the time of Locke, through Mill, to the present day. It critically reviews the approaches of Dworkin, Walzer and Rorty, all of which it finds wanting. It notes that Walzer’s “enthusiasm” for diversity represents a shift from liberalism towards pluralism. Theologians such as Biggar and Markham share Walzer’s “enthusiasm” but fail to link it to the distinctive commitment of Christian communities. Hauerwas contends that such commitment offers the prospect of genuine peace. The paper concludes that a true ap-preciation of the Christian virtue of patience supports this contention.
Gospel Narrative and the Jesus of History: Where should Christology begin?
Brendan Byrne, pp.49-66
The prevailing tendency to make a reconstruction of the histor-ical life of Jesus the starting point for christology runs into two serious difficulties. First, such reconstructions vary greatly among themselves and are largely precarious in what they claim to know about Jesus. Secondly, resting upon the historical-critical method, the adequacy of which in theological terms has now come into serious question, they fail to do justice to the narrative quality of the gospels, which resists simple re-duction to history. This article critically surveys the work of Hans Frei, George Lindbeck, David Kelsey, Luke Timothy Johnson and Francis Wat-son and formulates seven principles attempting to state the approp-riate relationship between the gospels and history with regard to christology. It concludes that the starting point for christology must be the canonical gospels. Four related issues are addressed at the end: first the open-ness of a text to multiple meaning; then three concerns arising, respectively, out of liberation theology, feminist interpretation, and the anti-Jewish slant of the gospels.
Towards an Inclusive Vision for Moral TheologyPart II: An Agenda for the Future
James F. Keenan, pp.67-83
In this article, which follows Part 1 published in the previous number of Pacifica, the author argues that that we need to reintegrate moral and practical theology so that the ordinary life of the Church addresses not only the matters that we should avoid but also the matters we should pursue. “We must propose to the Church ways to improve the character of our membership as ethically embodying the Gospel. Above all we must highlight how we are responsible for developing our relationality with God, nature and neighbour.” As a particular case, the author focuses on the church’s failure to respond to violence against women.
Memoir - Man of a Century: Hans-Georg Gadamer
Frans Josef Van Beeck, pp.84-89
Book Reviews
To Advance the Gospel: New Testament Studies
Joseph A. Fitzmyer
Mary Coloe pp.90-91
The Many Faces of the Christ: The Christologies of the New Testament and Beyond
Ben Witherington III
Mary Coloe pp.91-92
The Temptations of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel
Susan R. Garrett
Mary Coloe pp.92-93
Mary Magdalene: The Image of Women through the Centuries
Ingrid Maisch
Elizabeth A. West pp.93-95
Life in the Face of Death
Richard N. Longenecker (ed.)
Merrill Kitchen pp.95-97
Systematic Theology. Volume 3
Wolfhart Pannenberg
Christiaan Mostert pp.98-101
The Eucharist in the West: History and Theology
Edward J. Kilmartin
Stephen List pp.101-103
Catholic and Ecumenical, History and Hope
Frederick M. Bliss
Timothy John Costelloe pp.103-106
Angels of Grace
Anselm Gruen
Graeme Chapman pp.106-107
The Challenge of Cultures: Cross-cultural Relationships, Conflicts, Inculturation
Thomas Menamparampil
James H. Kroeger pp.107-109
Clashing Symbols: an Introduction to Faith and Culture
Michael Paul Gallagher
James H. Kroeger pp.109-111
I Believe, I Doubt: Notes on Christian Experience
Günther Weber
Michael A. Kelly pp.111-113
Matters of Life and Death: Today’s Healthcare Dilemmas in the Light of Christian Faith
John Wyatt
Rufus Black pp.113-115
Duet or Duel: Theology and Science in a Postmodern World
J. Wentzel Van Huyssteen
John Honner pp.115-116
Christ in the Early Christian Hymns
Daniel Liderbach
Scott Cowdell pp.117-118
Walking the Way of Jesus: An Essay of Christian Spirituality
Edward Cuskelly
Michael Whelan pp.118-120
Behold the Cross: Meditations for Lent and Easter
Tony Kelly
Mary Coloe pp.120-121
My Cause is Just: Jeremiah Joseph Doyle, first Bishop of Lismore
Eileen Kelly
Moira O’Sullivan pp.121-122
Liturgy and Hermeneutics
Joyce Ann Zimmerman
Richard Leonard pp.122-123
Contributors
Frank Fletcher Th.D, a member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart order, works as priest assisting the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, Sydney Archdiocese, and has lectured in theology and spirituality at St Paul’s National Seminary, Kensington NSW; Yarra Theological Union, Box Hill, Victoria; and at the University of St Michael’s College, Toronto, Canada. Christiaan Mostert is Professor of Systematic Theology in the Theological Hall of the Uniting Church in Victoria, and as such teaches in the United Faculty of Theology. Formerly he taught theology in Korea and in Sydney, and he has also worked in parish ministry. He has long been interested in the theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg, the subject of his doctoral work, and he is currently working on a book on Pannenberg’s eschatological understanding of God. John Henley is Master of Queen’s College in the University of Melbourne and teaches theological ethics in the United Faculty of Theology. He has long had an interest in the significance of Christian values for a secular society and has been a member of various committees set up to advise government and other institutions on particular social issues, especially in the bioethical area Brendan Byrne S.J. teaches New Testament at the United Faculty of Theology and is currently President of the Melbourne College of Divinity. He is the author of the Commentary on Romans in the Sacra Pagina series (Collegeville: 1996). His next book, a work on the Gospel of Luke, entitled The Hospitality of God, will be published jointly in the United States (Liturgical Press) and Australia (St Paul) later this year. James F. Keenan S.J. is Professor of Moral Theology at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His work on the future of moral theology, of which the second part is published here, was presented to the Catholic Moral Theology Association’s conference in Melbourne in 1999. The first part of this article appeared in Pacifica in October 1999. Frans Josef van Beeck S.J., born in the Netherlands in 1930, has lived and learned (and taught theology) in the United States since 1968. Now a senior professor at Loyola University Chicago, he is working on the next instalment of his systematic theology in process, God Encountered: A Contemporary Catholic Systematic Theology, published by Liturgical Press.
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