Thesis advisor: Richard R. Gaillardetz / For the Catholic Church, the Second Vatican Council serves as a compass regarding its purpose and direction for the third millennium. Lumen Gentium defines the Church as “a sacrament – a sign and instrument” of “communion with God and the unity of the entire human race.” As a sacrament of unity, the Church calls all “to this catholic unity of the people of God, which prefigures and promotes universal peace” (LG,1). Such catholic unity or catholicity is neither a given nor an abstraction. Catholicity requires the cooperation of human effort with divine grace for the reconciliation of all peoples. To remain faithful to this mission, the Church must first recognize how its own damaged sense of catholicity has resulted in turning brother against brother in the name of Christ. Every time Catholics participated in the homogenizing logics of domination, such as the latinization of Eastern Christians, the colonization of the global South, and current expressions of Eurocentric white supremacy, they have contributed to the woundedness that harms the Body of Christ. In each of these broken relationships, the Church has wandered from its original purpose to the extent that it has allowed itself to become corrupted by forms of power that are not shaped by the foolishness of the Cross (1 Cor 1:18). To transform our wandering back into journeying, the Church must rediscover the meaning and purpose of its catholicity for the third millennium. It must allow the cries of the wounded to reveal the lack of concrete human communion that first exists among the faithful. Only by working towards the healing of these relationships within the Church can it have integrity in preaching unity to the rest of the world. To cultivate this culture of encounter within, I argue that we must reimagine catholicity from an interstitial perspective. This perspective locates catholicity not only between the cultural differences of the Roman Catholic church, but also the ecclesial differences between the Western and Eastern churches of the Catholic communion. The “third space” that emerges at the interstices between faith communities becomes a space of encounter, not only forcing the enunciation of difference, but also the question and the nature of catholic unity amidst difference. Resisting both the centripetal temptation to assimilate difference into the whole and the centrifugal temptation to maintain difference at the peripheries, a reimagination of catholicity from an interstitial perspective emphasizes how the Church itself is a liminal figure, encouraging the faithful to respond more authentically to the call to exist spatially as leaven – transforming society from within - and temporally as pilgrim between the promise and the fulfillment. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

The following study seeks to explore the subjects of Christianisation and Christian identity during the transitional period of the fourth century from an ecclesiological perspective, and argues that the very question of Christian identity is, indeed, an ecclesiological one. It approaches the subject through the writings of Cyril of Jerusalem, specifically his Catechetical Lectures, the earliest complete catechetical programme that has come down to us, making it an invaluable resource for anyone hoping to understand the Catholic Church's efforts to preserve and construct its identity in the wake of Constantine's formal conversion to its faith. Moreover, Cyril, who became bishop of the Holy City around 350, affords us a unique perspective on the question at hand, teaching as he did from the 'very centre of the earth', following the creation of a Christian holy land and pilgrimage centre in the midst of what remained a largely pagan province, and in a city still central to Judaism. The ability to possess the sites and relics associated with the life of Christ and the Prophets for the first time in Christian history not only made the drama of salvation tangible in Jerusalem like nowhere else, but raised new and important questions around the extent to which this sacred topography was compatible with Christianity's departure from the temple-centred worship of the Old Testament. It also provides valuable insight into the relationship between the local and the universal as regards notions of the Church's catholicity, Cyril's definition of καθολικ? in his eighteenth lecture arguably being the earliest. Membership of the Church, and therefore Christian identity, is for Cyril primarily ontological, defined and effected through mysteriological participation, with baptism - the believer's death, rebirth, and union with Christ - representing the dividing line between insider and outsider, a fact enforced by the so-called Disciplina Arcani, by which all knowledge of the Church's sacraments were jealously guarded from the unbaptised. The thesis explores how this notion of ontological membership underpins and informs Cyril's dealings with the various groups against which he sought to define his own community - the Greeks, Jews, and heretics - while also looking at the ecclesiological significance of the baptismal act itself.

This thesis in Church History examines the changing attitudes of Protestants toward Church History. The primary evidence surveyed is statements within major Protestant confessions, as well as the views of selected Reformers. By focusing on how Protestant confessions either quote the church fathers, or affirm the ancient creeds of the Church, the thesis presents a general overview of how Protestants have related to Church History. This thesis takes advantage of many recent studies on the use of church fathers by the reformers, and new critical study of creeds and confessions. A study of selected reformers and Protestant confessions demonstrates that an important part of the Reformation program was the claim to continuity with the early church, as opposed to the perceived innovations of Rome. A brief survey of reformation attitudes towards history also shows that appeals to church history were largely determined by the historical and polemical context of the times. Calvin and Bucer, for instance, make stronger or weaker appeals to church history depending in which polemical context they found themselves. As a result of the hardening of confessional lines, a more critical attitude towards church history developed, especially in Anabaptism and English Puritanism. Whereas the reformers and most Protestant confessions claim continuity with the “ancient church,” the Puritans claimed continuity with the “apostolic” church. This is ironic because the Puritans wanted to reform the English church according to the model of the “best reformed churches,” whose confessions affirm the ancient creeds. Thus, this thesis provides further evidence for the claims of other scholars who have argued that there are two main view of church history within Protestantism: one that stresses continuity with the church in history, and one which stresses interpretation of the Bible free from any historical considerations. As Stephen R. Holmes has suggested, one party sought to “reform” the church while the other party sought to “re-found” the church. If Protestants have developed an anti-historical attitude, it has been partly in response to polemical circumstances. A way out of current Protestant provincialism, particularly in American fundamentalism, may be found in studying the reformers' original, more positive, attitude towards church history. / Dissertation (MA (Church History))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Church History and Church Policy / MA / unrestricted

Herman Bavinck (1854-1921), perhaps the most remarkable dogmatician and intellectual of the Dutch Reformed (gereformeerde) tradition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, committed himself to what he called a 'Reformed' and 'catholic' theological task. For the modern dogmatician, this task is neither repristination nor abandonment of one's confessionalist tradition, but, being driven along by the Scriptural witness, to appropriate 'catholic' dogma to the grammars of modern conceptual frameworks. Such a task led Bavinck to a certain eclecticism in style and source for which he earned in twentieth century scholarship the pejorative label of dualism, applied both to his person and his theological content. Regarding his person, this thesis of the two Bavincks follows a biographical narrative of a student and blossoming theologian divided between the orthodox and modern. Regarding his content, interpreters move to and fro between Bavinck the scholastic and Bavinck the post-Kantian, subjectivist dogmatician. This study nuances this picture and participates in James Eglinton's recent call for an overturning of said dualisms applied to Bavinck's person and work by outlining the most significant example of Bavinck toiling to complete his 'catholic' dogmatic task: his appropriation of Friedrich Schleiermacher. In distinction from Bavinck's milieu, he did not demonize Schleiermacher, but, while willing to critique Schleiermacher's material dogmatics, regarded Schleiermacher as 'deeply misunderstood'. The two primary locales of Bavinck's appropriation of Schleiermacher include (i) the question of the epistemic ground of the unity of being and thinking; (ii) the grammar of subjective and objective religion. In both, Bavinck adopts Schleiermacher's concepts of 'feeling', 'absolute dependence', and 'immediate self-consciousness' to complete his own logic. Understanding Bavinck's adoption of Schleiermacher's conceptual framework, particularly that of the introduction from Schleiermacher's Der christliche Glaube, makes visible just how Bavinck determined to work as a modern theologian post-Kant and within the freeing confines of his orthodox, Dutch confessionalist heritage. His appropriation of Schleiermacher is the paradigmatic example of his commitment to be orthodox - yet modern.

The thesis focuses on the challenge of being church in the postsecular twenty-first century in an authentic way. A shift took place from modernity with concepts such as ʼnationalism‘ and ‗unity‘ to the fragmentation and diversity which are characteristic of the present-day postmodern world. After the Second World War the objective of the Ecumenical Movement was to promote and maintain the unity of the church. The unity of the church has been an issue from New Testament times up to the present day. How the relationship between unity and diversity was understood changed along with changing paradigms. During the first centuries of the church when the ecumenical creeds originated, the relationship between the unity and diversity of the church was interpreted in terms of two aspects, namely the unity of the canon which consists of a diversity of writings and the one Triune God who consists of a diversity of personae. This study argues that the great revolutions in North America and France were the breeding ground for concepts such as ʼnation‘ and ʼnationalism‘. During this period the unity of the church was interpreted in terms of the dominant ideology of nationalism and nation. The revolutions were also a force behind increasing secularisation and the church‘s loss of authority. In Germany the ideology of national-socialism compromised the integrity of the church. In South Africa apartheid had a similar effect. Secularisation, globalisation and fluidity seemingly threaten the unity of the present-day church. This study aims to contribute to an understanding of unity and diversity that could contribute to the integrity of the church in the third millennium without endorsing the hegemony of the authoritarian church. It attributes a positive meaning to plurality, diversity and the ecumenical movement. This is done after the model of the Cappadocian legacy which associated the immanence (being) of the Trinity with the economy (action) of the Trinity. This model provides the key for the solution to the problemstatement of this thesis. The thesis aims to argue for a correlation between, on the one hand Trinity (diversity in unity) and the ecclesiastical creed (confessing the catholicity of the one church), and on the other hand Christian values such as caritas (agapē) and communion (koinōnia). This study draws a correlation between these Christian values and notions from common law, namely dignitas (dignity) and fama (reputation). The epistemological model for describing a social Trinitarian ecclesiology is that of narrative theology. The ecclesiological model is that of ‗heterotopia‘, a Foucauldian conception of anti-binary space over against the 'utopia‘ as an illusioned space. Chapter 1 indicates the direction of the study: the ecclesiological challenge of the unity of the church amid diversity. The tension between unity and diversity is the crux interpretum of the ecclesiology. The Cappadocian legacy regarding the Trinity is explored as a possible solution. Epistemologically speaking, the approach of the study is a Reformed perspective on the human condition and the methodology is that of narrative. In Chapter 2 the narrative of the Cappadocian renaissance is discussed. The Cappadocian correlation between the immanence (being) of the Trinity and the economy (action) of the Trinity is described and the value thereof for a postmodern ecclesiology is explored. In Chapter 3 an alternative narrative for the church is sought by investigating the Catholic theologian, Edward Schillebeeckx‘s ecclesiology in terms of the concept of liquidity. His contribution was to replace the Catholic maxim extra ecclesiam nulla salus est with extra mundum nulla salus. Hereby he trandscends the boundaries of the church to include the whole world in God‘s salvation. From a postmodern perspective the question would be whether he was able to overcome the binary thinking of his time. The Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa is described as a case in point of a church which endorses genealogy and thereby fails to transcend the binary opposition of exclusivism and inclusivity. Nationalism and racism form the ideological underpinnings of this tendency. Theoretically the confession of unity is underscored but it does not manifest in practice. Ecclesiology should overcome binary and linear thinking in order to be relevant to postmodern culture. In Chapter 4 overcoming binary and linear thinking is illustrated by the exploring the autobiography of Protestant theologian, Jürgen Moltmann, in order to ascertain to what extent narratives of inclusivity can be of value for formulating an inclusive ecclesiology for the church in a postmodern world today. Moltmann‘s ecclesiology is investigated in terms of the concept of a social Trinity. From Moltmann‘s narrative it can been seen that he was radically inclusive in practice even before theories of radical inclusivity had been formulated. However, his emphasis on eschatology and hope tends toward apocalyptic utopian thinking. In Chapter 5 Michel Foucault‘s concept of heterotopia is used to describe reconciliatory diversity, which is characteristic of an inclusive postmodern church which is a space where unity is not threatened by diversity, where the one is not afraid of the Other. In Chapter 6 the study concludes with the finding that to be church in the third millennium entails transcending linear thinking, desacralizing time and space and bidding farewell to any notion of genealogy as constitutive for 'being‘ church. The broad space where this is possible in the 'here‘ and 'now‘ is that of heterotopia. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Dogmatics and Christian Ethics / unrestricted

Orientador: Jose Mario Ortiz Ramos / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-05T02:03:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CarranzaDavila_BrendaMaribel_D.pdf: 6546087 bytes, checksum: 1d35b7caf98bfd9ed1e160b3356bfde4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: Esta pesquisa propõe-se a demonstrar como uma terceira onda de recatolização brasileira está sendo constituída, liderada por uma nova face da Renovação Carismática Católica: o catolicismomidiático, cujo emblema é o fenômeno Pe. Marcelo Rossi. O estudo identifica as mutações culturais que alavancam a consolidação dessa recatolização, suas semelhanças com o neopentecostalismo protestante e os conflitos intra-eclesiais gerados por essa ofensiva de reinstitucionalização, inspirada e legitimada no pontificado de João Paulo II. Alerta-se, também, para os traços ¿neointegristas¿ e ¿exculturados¿ que tendem a redesenhar outra fase do catolicismo, a qual vem fermentando nos últimos trinta anos. No âmago dessa discussão, encontram-se os dilemas e os paradoxos que emergem na relação histórica entre a Igreja e a modernidade, quando a primeira apropria-se da cultura midiática, através do uso religioso dos meios de comunicação de massa, no afã de adaptar-se aos sinais dos tempos. A tese consta de três partes: a primeira captura as interfaces da vertiginosa ascensão do jovem sacerdote com a cultura de consumo; a segunda esboça os traços do catolicismo midiático e a maneira como ele configura imaginários, subjetividades e sociabilidades religiosas, veiculando-as na rádio, televisão, internet e cinema, além de analisar os desdobramentos sociais dessas práticas pastorais; e a terceira aproxima o leitor à dinâmica interna de uma instituição milenar, experiente na arte de gerenciar diferenças, negociar hegemonias e de manter um equilíbrio sistêmico. No seu conjunto, esta reflexão ambiciona sugerir a relevância do fenômeno religioso na sociedade contemporânea / Abstract: This research seeks to demonstrate how a third way of the Brazilian re-catholicizing is being constructed under the leadership of a new face of the Catholic Charismatic Renovation: the Media-Catholicism, whose emblem is the priest Marcelo Rossi¿s phenomenon. The study identifies the cultural changes that leverage the consolidation of the current re-catholicizing process. Also, it identifies the similarities with the Protestant Neo-Pentecostalism and the intra-Catholic Church conflicts ¿the last one created by the re-institutionalization effort inspired and legitimated during John Paul II pontifical period. Besides, it calls the attention to the ¿neo-integrist¿ and ¿exculturated¿ traces that tend to re-design another phase of Catholicism, the one that is being leavened for the last thirty years. The dilemmas and paradoxes that emerged into the historical relation between the Catholic Church and modernity are at the center of this discussion. Particularly, when the Church, in the eager to adapt itself to the signals of the time, resorts to the media culture, making religious use of the mass means of communication. This thesis is divided in three parts: the first one captures the interfaces between the vertiginous rising of the young priest and the culture of consumption; the second, sketches the traces of the media Catholicism and the way in which it configures imageries, subjetivities and religious sociabilities, transmitting them through the radio, television, movies and the Internet ¿analyzing, as well, the social outcomes of those pastoral practices; and the third part takes the reader to the interior dynamics of a millenarian institution, well experienced in the art of managing differences, negotiating hegemonies and maintaining a systemic equilibrium. As a whole, this reflection seeks to call the attention to the importance of a religious phenomenon in the contemporary society / Doutorado / Doutor em Ciências Sociais

For at least the past two decades, international Anglicanism has been gripped by a crisis of identity: what is to be the dynamic between autonomy and interdependence? Where is authority to be located? How might the local relate to the international? How are the variously diverse national churches to be held together 'in communion'? These questions have prompted an explosion of interest in Anglican ecclesiology within both the church and academy, with particular emphasis exploring the nature of episcopacy, synodical government, liturgy and belief, and common principles of canon law. However, one aspect of Anglican ecclesiology which has received little attention is the place of provincial polity and metropolitical authority across the Communion. Yet, this is a critical area of concern for Anglican ecclesiology as it directly addresses questions of authority, interdependence and catholicity. However, since at least the twentieth century, provincial polity has largely been eclipsed by, and confused with, the emergence of a dominant 'national church' polity. This confusion has become so prevalent that the word 'province' itself is used interchangeably and imprecisely to mean both an ecclesial province in its strict sense and one of the 39 'member- churches' which formally constitute the Anglican Communion, with a handful of 'extra-provincial' exceptions. The purpose of this research project is to untangle this confusion and to give a thorough account of the development of provincial polity and metropolitical authority within the Communion, tracing the historical origins of the contemporary status quo. The scope of this task is not in any way intended to be a comprehensive history of the emergence of international Anglicanism, but rather to narrowly chart the development of this particular unit of ecclesial polity, the province, through this broader narrative. The historical work of Part One in itself represents an important new contribution to Anglican Studies; however, the project aims to go further in Parts Two and Three to identify from this context key questions concerning the problems facing contemporary Anglican polity as the basis for further theological and ecclesiological reflection. Part Two examines how provincial polity has given way to an assumption of the 'national church' as the building block of the Communion. To what extent is it consonant with Anglican tradition? How is it problematic? What tensions exist with a more traditional understanding of the province? How might all this relate to wider political understandings and critiques of the 'nation- state' in an increasingly globalised world? Along with the emergence of a 'national church' ecclesiology, so too has the role of the 'Primates' been magnified. Part Three charts this development, culminating in a critique of the recent 2016 Primates' Meeting. What is the nature of primacy within Anglicanism and how does it relate to metropolitical authority? What is the right balance of honour and authority as it relates to primacy? How do Anglican understandings of primacy correspond to those of the Roman and Orthodox Communions? Finally, Part Four attempts to give some concrete focus to the preceding discussion through the illustrative example of the Anglican Church of Australia, which is frequently cited as being analogous to the Communion in having a loose federal system and resolutely autonomous dioceses. The prevalence of this 'diocesanism' has recently been criticised by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. However, there has been a recent revival of provincial action within the Province of Victoria in response to these issues which will be evaluated to discern what the Australian example might offer toward a theologically robust and credible ecclesiology for Anglicanism into the twenty-first century.