Theological Studies

The article explores the possibility of a new collaborative venture in systematic theology based in the work of Bernard Lonergan and Robert Doran. A prospectus is offered of five volumes intended as texts to be used at the level of MA and MDiv students.

The article analyzes Jewish–Catholic relations with respect to New Testament interpretation, the apostle Paul, and theology. In the New Testament era, Paul promoted God’s openness to Gentiles. In recent decades, increasing numbers of Jewish scholars have engaged the New Testament and specifically Paul’s letters. This has called forth, for the most part, Christian hospitality toward Jewish interpretations. But the opportunities of this renewed relationship also bring new challenges for cultivating respect; the latter part of this article addresses four of these contemporary biblical, liturgical, legal, and theological topics.

The article reconsiders Anselm’s “ontological argument” by contextualizing it within the conjunction of Neoplatonist exemplarist metaphysics and Christology in the Augustinian tradition of trinitarian theology. It explores tensions in Augustine’s theological epistemology and incarnational theology over the relationship of illumination and grace in the knowledge of God. Anselm wrestles with this tension in Monologion and Proslogion, where considerations of divine self-expression and simplicity provide conceptual resources to address it. In Bonaventure’s Itinerarium, Augustinian trinitarianism, Dionysian metaphysics, and the Anselmian “ontological” argument provide the structure for a Franciscan incarnational theology that reframes the Augustinian tension.

After reviewing some previous contributions to the discussion of continuity and change in the Christian tradition, the article suggests another way of thinking about the problem by using Pierre Bourdieu’s analytic notion of habitus.

The article examines the relationship between ecumenical dialogues and embodied ecumenical practices. By utilizing Michel de Certeau’s theory of strategy and tactics, the authors construct a hermeneutic that aims at forming ecumenists and clarifying the object of their discourse. Specifically, unauthorized practices of collaboration between denominations (i.e., ecumenical tactics) are seen as a formative source for ecumenical dialogue (i.e., strategic ecumenism).

Priest, prophet, and king are three offices attributed to Christ. The threefold office is used in Vatican II as an overarching framework in its articulation of the nature of the church and the participation of all the faithful in the life and mission of Christ. The author argues that the treatment of the sensus fidelium in the council, precisely in Lumen gentium no. 12, is done within the narrow framework of the teaching office. He maintains that further synthesis that includes the kingly and priestly offices is needed.