Spiritan Life No. 04 -- December 1991 -- Mission Sources Justice and Peace Number 4 -- CONTENTS -- Foreword – (pg 5) -- "Practical Union", by Maurice Gobeil -- (pg 7) -- Theft of the Vision Quest, by Dermot McLoughlin -- (pg 19) -- Missionary and Mission, by Eugene Uzukwu -- (pg 29) -- Blessings or Curses?, by Joseph Harris -- (pg 43) -- What does the 500th Anniversary mean to us Spiritans? by John Kilcrann -- (pg 53) -- The 5th Centenary of Evangelisation, by Jesus Cabellos -- (pg 65) -- A Spiritan in Mexico considers, by Antoine Mercier -- (pg 75) -- Evangelisation and Religions in Dialogue in Mauritius, by Raymond Zimmermann -- (pg 87) -- About the Chapter..., by Georges Thibault -- (pg 99) -- Challenges of the Changed Times -- (pg 103) -- Spiritan Life Reviews -- (pg 105) -- Other Spiritan Publications -- (pg 107)

Thesis advisor: James T. Bretzke / Starting from the reality that we all live in multicultural pluralistic societies, and as such we cannot ignore each other but all must share our respective religious-cultural heritages and learn from one and another, this dissertation argues that although the theological dialogue among religions is to be promoted and developed constantly, we also have to give major space to other forms of dialogue, namely a dialogue based on bioethical issues and/or daily life-related problems that is part of our everyday religious experience. Therefore, in order to show this is possible, although with many difficulties to be faced along the way, the dissertation proposes disability as a common ground for Muslim-Christian dialogue and collaboration in the context of Turkey. The dissertation is structured into four chapters. Chapter I is focused on some characteristics of interreligious dialogue and, more particularly, on Muslim-Christian dialogue and disability. This chapter provides a broad descriptive introduction and establishes the framework within which these are considered: i.e., The Republic of Turkey, Islam and the presence of the Latin Catholic Church in Turkey. The chapter begins with a review of the foundations and history of the development of interreligious dialogue in the Catholic Church. Next, it proceeds with a presentation of Turkey and the major actors of Muslim-Christian dialogue in the country. Then, it concludes with a global focus on the situation of disability in Turkey. Chapters II and III are dedicated, respectively, to the Muslim and Catholic Church’s perspectives on disability, and so, share the same structure: Following general introductions to Islam and the Catholic Church, they analyze the Scriptures of their respective traditions, the Quran and the Bible, and their other major sources such as the Hadith and Islamic law in the former, and the Code of Canon Law, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the latter. By focusing on various topics such as marriage of persons with disabilities, abortion of disabled fetus, Christian initiation and access to the sacraments, degrees of disabilities as impediment for priestly ordination, these two chapters aim to find the reverberations of the scriptural narratives in the teachings of these two traditions. After examining the historical development of some theodicy approaches to the dilemma of human suffering, the problem of evil, the existence of disabilities and God’s love, and wisdom and justice, this chapter ends by highlighting some applications in their contemporary contexts. In this regard, Chapter II presents two examples from Turkey: the controversial Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen’s approach to people with disabilities as “garip” (piteous, pitiful) and Muslim-Turkish scholar Mustafa Naci Kula’s research on the relationship between attitudes toward persons with disabilities and religious attitudes, which has provided considerable insight on the perception of disability in Turkish society. Parallel to this, Chapter III presents a Catholic figure, Nancy Mairs, who, in her writings, by dealing with personal disabilities, offers a contemporary version of classical theodicy approaches found in Catholic teaching in thinkers such as Augustine, Aquinas, and Irenaeus. The final chapter, Chapter IV, by the method of comparison, highlights relevant commonalities and differences and proceeds by discussing some relevant issues related to Muslim-Christian dialogue. Then, by reflecting on how disability can be a common ground on which to build fertile dialogue and collaboration, it concludes with a proposal which privileges five among many other possible topics: (1) Sin and disability seen as punishment; (2) Consanguineous marriages (3rd and 4th degree); (3) Abortion as a method to prevent birth of potentially disabled child; (4) Abuse of disabled women and children; and, (5) Charity and praying together. The first topic is based on the conviction that disability is given by God as a punishment for sin; it is one of the major beliefs that is shared among Muslims and Christians. The second, third and fourth topics are related to some social problems in Turkish society, namely, consanguineous marriages, abortion as a prevention of potentially disabled children, and the abuse of women and children with disabilities. Finally, the fifth topic aims at constructing dialogue and collaboration between Muslims and Christians through charitable works in Turkey. These topics are points related to the four main forms of dialogue proposed by Dialogue and Proclamation (1991) of Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, which are considered in this dissertation in a three-fold version: (1) Theological dialogue; (2) Dialogue of life experience and action; and, (3) Dialogue based on religious life experience. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Thesis advisor: Catherine Cornille / The purpose of this dissertation is to retrieve the early Panikkar's christology of religions, especially in "Meditacion sobre Melquisdedec" and Le mystere du culte dans l'hindouisme et le christianisme. As opposed to the later Panikkar's pluralist, cosmotheandric christology, the early Panikkar privileges the primacy of Jesus Christ amidst a wider considersation of the value and significance of the religions. This dissertation will also situate the early Panikkar's christology of religions against the background of Dominus Iesus and recent systemtatic theologians seeking to move beyond pluralist christologies. The early Panikkar's understanding of Incarnation meets their criteria for an inclusivist theology of religions, but also challenges the asymmetricality of their christologies, expanding the possibilities for inter-religious learning and transformation. Specifically, Panikkar's early dialogue with karman and advaita illuminates the meaning of Jesus' sacrificial existence and the Church's eucharistic participation in that existence through comparison, shedding light upon the centrality of liturgical and paschal transformation in the Christian tradition. This christocentric comparative theology will be constrasted with Panikkar's later, syncretistic appropriation of Hinduism, influenced by Abhishiktananda's quest for Hindu-Christian synthesis, and will conclude by calling for a renewal of interest in neglected aspects of Panikkar's vast corpus. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Spiritan Life No. 01 -- 1989 December -- Mission Sources Justice and Peace Number 1 -- CONTENTS -- Foreword -- (pg 5) -- Introduction -- (pg 7) -- The Seminary of The Holy Spirit During The French Revolution (1789 - 1799), by Jean Godard, C.S.Sp. -- (pg 9) -- True Spirituality... Really Authentic and Genuine, by Eugene Hillman, C.S.Sp. -- (pg 45) -- The Holy Spirit and The Congregation, by Michael O'Carroll, C.S.Sp. -- (pg 57) -- Towards A Spiritan Identity, by Maurice Gobeil, C.S.Sp. -- (pg 67) -- Dialogue Between Christians and Muslims, by Robert P. Ellison, C.S.Sp. -- (pg 69) -- The Land War in Brazil, by Michael Drohan, C.S.Sp. -- (pg 79) -- Spiritan Witness at The Frontiers, by Brian O'Rourke, C.S.Sp. -- (pg 85) -- Spiritan Life Review -- (pg 91) -- Other Works by Spiritans -- (pg 95)

This dissertation develops a constructive theological interpretation of the Body of Christ metaphor in order to provide a distinct understanding of Christian identity to assist Christians in responding to religious diversity. Presently, two academic approaches guide contemporary Christian theological responses to religious pluralism: theology of religions and comparative theology. They offer resources and insights into Christian responses, but questions remain regarding the relationship of Christian identity to contexts of religious diversity. Revitalizing the Body of Christ metaphor through engagement with contemporary theologians, this dissertation interprets their insights about alterity and embodiment regarding religious difference. Focusing on concepts of embodiment, relationality, diversity and praxis, the Christian identity that emerges is neither exclusive nor contained, but open and interdependent. This provides a framing of Christian identity that assists Christians in relating to religious diversity with openness. Chapter one surveys contemporary approaches that have guided the Christian theological response to religious diversity. Turning to the Body of Christ metaphor in the New Testament writings of Paul, chapter two demonstrates the original power of the metaphor to shape the values and worldview of early Jesus-followers. Chapters three and four explore womanist, feminist, queer, and crip theologies for critiques and contributions to the theological significance of bodies. Offering warnings about the failure to attend to the realities of difference, they offer essential theological insights into conceptions of bodies, hierarchy, and difference. The content they provide for the Body of Christ metaphor shapes Christian self-understanding in a manner that opens the Christian community as it engages other religious bodies. The final chapter provides a constructive interpretation of the Body of Christ and points to distinctive practices that guide the Christian community into a new embodiment of this metaphor. The identity provided by the metaphor shapes Christian relationships with each other and the world through practices of discernment, re-membering, and partnership. It challenges Christians to value fluidity and porousness, putting them in tension with dominant conceptions of Western society, and, through relationality and appreciation for the other, it calls Christians to engage religious diversity with actions of social justice.

After the Second Vatican Council, which took place in 1962-1965, the Catholic Church reached out to both co-religionists and non-Christians. As the second largest religion in the world (after Christianity), the Muslim world began to react to this call for dialogue. Without a worldwide religious authority, Muslim scholars and communities have tried to understand and respond to this call for dialogue in their own way. Turkey, as one of the most influential and modern Muslim majority states, joined the discussion about interreligious dialogue, especially with Christians. Very diverse in culture, religion, and thought, Turkish scholars' discussions and critiques of the dialogue requested by the Christian world have clearly contributed to interreligious dialogue on a global scale in the last decades. This dissertation examines the development of interreligious dialogue in Turkey and the works of prominent and widely recognized Turkish theologians as a response to the Christian call for dialogue. It explores the problems, challenges, and future of the perception of interreligious dialogue in the Turkish context, in particular, the views of three influential Turkish scholars: Abdurrahman Küçük, Mahmut Aydin, and Davut Aydüz. The conclusion proposes the Turkish Model for interreligious dialogue. / Religion

In the latter half of the 20th century interreligious dialogue has become a necessary and important feature in human co-existence. This study discusses the dialogue of religious experience. The essentials in this dialogue are mutual understandings of prayer and contemplation as practiced in differing religious and cultural contexts. The dissertation consists of four parts. The first is a survey of missiological theology on interreligious dialogue, contemplation and inculturation in the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council. The second part considers initiatives taken in dialogue in the Benedictine Order from early 1960-ties to mid 1990-ties. Attention is given to "East-West Spiritual Exchange" which has taken place regularly between European participants in "Dialogue Interreligieux Monastique" and Zen Buddhists in Japan. The third section focuses on Japan. Three Japanese Catholic theologians are discussed. In efforts to establish theological and pastoral communication with Zen tradition, moving towards an integration of details emerging from Zen practice to Catholic spirituality, the Japanese theologians theologize in a fashion similar to the Benedictines. The final section analyses initiatives in dialogue of religious experience discussed in the thesis. Key concepts draw attention to distinctive characteristics of specific expressions in dialogue, partly in monastic contexts, partly in Japanese contexts. Because the particular form of dialogue presented is an ongoing process which has only recently commenced, no final results in developments can yet be identified. Suffice it to state that initiatives described are new inputs in Catholic missiological study. Both Benedictine and Japanese theologians have in many ways paved the way for official Catholic theology on interreligious dialogue.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:27:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Anderson Fernandes Tostes.pdf: 792102 bytes, checksum: 3f5ce5c8e14875f00de933fcdaa40f56 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-10 / The Church is a sign and instrument of salvation in the world, and as such it has to work towards the unity of humankind and for the good of all creation. The dialogue, ecumenical and interfaith, is a very important expression of God's Work. And in the context of the Salvific Economy dialogue is to work for dignity and human person promotion, promoting the way for eschatological Kingdom development. It intends to present God's creation as a symbol of His love for humanity. And that relationship ability given to person is also a demand that is willing to meet and dialogue with his resembling. In this context, though, we see the Church, sign and instrument of salvation, and we expect its renewal for approaching increasingly the divine plan to attract to himself all the humanity. It also intends to understand the Church's mission in the plural society resulting of the modernity and post modernity, where multiple cultural and religious offerings seem to relativize the value and action of the Church. Based on that proposing to men the Church as promoting of universal fraternity acting through ecumenical and interreligious dialogue testimony. And still relate religious pluralism with a possible ecumenical ecclesiology, as well as religiousness with theology, all this in view of what the Catholic Church in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, understands by ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. Finally, the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council emphasized the Church's functionality in favor of men, and also recognized that God loves all men without distinction, and wants everyone participate in the complete happiness of his Kingdom. Therefore the Church has a goal to proclaim the universality of salvation, and put it at disposal, it means, not restrict the salvation only those who believe in Christ and entered the Catholic Church / A Igreja é sinal e instrumento de salvação no mundo, e como tal ela deve trabalhar em vista da unidade do gênero humano e para o bem de toda a criação. O diálogo, ecumênico e inter religoso, é expressão importantíssima da Obra de Deus. E no contexto da Economia Salvífica dialogar é trabalhar pela dignidade e promoção da pessoa humana, favorecendo os caminhos para desenvolvimento do Reino Escatológico. Almeja-se apresentar a criação de Deus como símbolo de seu amor pelos homens. E que a capacidade de relacionamento dada ao homem é também uma exigência para que se disponha ao encontro e ao diálogo com seu semelhante. Neste contexto, ainda, se vê a Igreja, sinal e instrumento de salvação, e se espera sua renovação para que se aproxime cada vez mais do projeto divino de atrair a si todos os homens. Também se pretende compreender a missão da Igreja na sociedade plural resultante da modernidade e pósmodernidade, onde as múltiplas ofertas culturais e religiosas parecem relativizar o valor e ação da Igreja. Com base nisso propor aos homens a Igreja como promotora da fraternidade universal agindo através do testemunho do ecumenismo e do diálogo interreligioso. E ainda relacionar o pluralismo religioso com uma possível eclesiologia ecumênica, bem como a religiosidade com a teologia, tudo isto tendo em vista o que a Igreja Católica da América Latina, de forma particular o Brasil, compreende por Ecumenismo e diálogo inter-religioso. Enfim, o Concílio Ecumênico Vaticano II realçou a funcionalidade da Igreja em favor dos homens, e também reconheceu que Deus ama a todos os homens indistintamente, e deseja que todos participem da felicidade completa de seu Reino. Sendo assim a Igreja tem como meta proclamar a universalidade da salvação, e pô-la à disposição, ou seja, não restringir a salvação apenas aqueles que creem em cristo e entraram na Igreja Católica

Spiritan Life No. 03 -- 1991 August -- Mission Sources Justice and Peace Number 3 -- CONTENTS -- Foreword -- (pg 5) -- This is Where We Came From, by Maurice Gobeil -- (pg 9) -- From Carrick-on-Suirto Rome, by Desmond Arigho -- (pg 19) -- Refugees in Southern Africa, by Frans Timmermans -- (pg 25) -- Algeria A Missionary Spirituality in an Islamic Context, by Rene You -- (pg 37) -- Mission "ad gentes" and Traditional Religions, by David Regan -- (pg 55) -- The Terminology and Significance of Evangelization, by Chukwuwa Okoye -- (pg 65) -- Education for a Global Justice, by Eugene Hillman -- (pg 81) -- Pentecostal Expansion in Brazil: A Question for Formation, by Antonio Gruyters -- (pg 93) -- The 500th Anniversary of The Evangelization of the Americas and the Spiritan Chapter 1992, by Bill Headley, David Regan and Maurice Gobeil -- (pg 103) -- Spiritan Life Reviews -- (pg 109) -- Other Spiritan Publications -- (pg 113)

This thesis examines how women negotiate their identification within and as a group when engaging in interreligious dialogue. It is an in-depth case study of the women’s interfaith book groups, the Daughters of Abraham, located in the Greater Boston Area. This focus facilitates an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of relationships within one group, between different groups, and as situated in the American sociocultural context. I explore the tensions arising from religious diversity, and the consequences of participating in an interreligious dialogue group for understandings of religious self and others. Categories such as boundary, power, sameness, difference, self and other serve to explore the complexities and fluidity of identity constructions. I answer the following questions: How do members of the Daughters of Abraham engage with the group’s religious diversity? How does their participation in the Daughters of Abraham affect their self-understanding and understanding of the “other?” What can we learn about power dynamics and boundary drawing from the women’s accounts of their participation in the Daughters of Abraham and from their group interactions? Two interrelated arguments guide this thesis. One, I show that Daughters members arrive at complex and fluid understandings of what it means to identify as an American Jewish, Christian, and Muslim woman by negotiating various power dynamics arising from ideas of sameness and difference of religion, gender, and sociopolitical values. Two, I contend that the collective emphasis on commonalities in the Daughters of Abraham is a double-edged sword. Explicitly, this stress intends to encourage engagement with the group’s religious diversity by excluding those deemed too different. However, whilst this emphasis can generate nuanced understandings of religious identity categories, at times it highlights differences detrimental to facilitating such understanding. Moreover, this stress on commonalities illuminates the power dynamics and tensions characterizing this women’s interfaith book group. Scholarship has by and large overlooked women’s interreligious engagements with explicit ethnographic studies of such being virtually non-existent. This thesis addresses this gap by using ethnographic methods to advance knowledge about women’s interreligious dialogue. Furthermore, it pushes disciplinary discourses by speaking to the following interlinked areas: Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations, formalized interreligious dialogue, interreligious encounters on the grassroots level, women’s interreligious dialogue, a book group approach to engaging with religious diversity, and interreligious encounters in the American context post-September 11th 2001.