The purpose of this study was to assess how graduating students at St. Paul’s High School are fulfilling the characteristics of the Jesuit Secondary Education Association’s Profile of the Graduate at Graduation. These characteristics include being open to growth, intellectually competent, religious, loving, and committed to doing justice. While these five characteristics are identified as desired traits for graduates of St. Paul’s, there has not yet been an evaluation process undertaken in order to gauge student attainment of these characteristics. The methodology involved a document analysis, a collection of data from the sixty-two JSEA schools’ websites, and four interviews with St. Paul’s graduates from 2014. The three-fold approach allowed for a deep understanding of the context and experience of the Profile. This allowed for a reflection that showed there is a successful outline for creating a culture where the Graduate at Graduation is central to the mission of JSEA schools, which in turn makes the characteristics attainable.

[pt] O discernimento é uma dimensão intrínseca à vida cristã. No contato com textos bíblicos podemos atestá-la desde os profetas passando por Jesus, Paulo e João. O discernimento nos insere numa vida de fé dinâmica, constantemente interpelada pela ação do Espírito Santo. Essas interpelações devem nos levar a atitudes concretas, onde o ser humano investe sua liberdade no projeto salvífico de Deus. Nessa dissertação propomos uma compreensão dessa realidade a partir da ótica de Inácio de Loyola, o que representa o modo como ele buscou captar e interpretar a vontade de Deus em sua vida e de como este modo proporciona mais qualidade no seguimento a Jesus Cristo. A marca da sua espiritualidade é o discernimento, o qual é baseado na sua forte experiência de Deus. Inácio enfatiza que Deus se faz ouvir e compreender nos condicionamentos humanos de cada época, nas experiências mais cotidianas; pode ser buscado e encontrado em todas as coisas. Neste panorama, ele resgata a dimensão pessoal da vida cristã, ao mesmo tempo em que proporciona uma unidade antropológica. Pois fala de um estar atento aos movimentos interiores (moções) de consolação e desolação, fazendo disso critério de discernimento. Mais, o discernimento inaciano restaura a liberdade e a responsabilidade na vida cristã, ao admitir que a busca e o encontro da vontade de Deus na vida de cada um cabe à pessoa. Esse traço do discernimento inaciano desemboca numa abertura mais confiante à ação do Espírito Santo e numa vida com mais sentido. / [en] Discernment is an intrinsic dimension of the Christian life. In contact with biblical texts, we can attest it from the prophets through Jesus, Paul and John. Discernment inserts us into a life of dynamic faith, constantly challenged by the action of the Holy Spirit. These challenges should lead us to concrete actions in which the human being invests his freedom into the salvific plan of God. In this thesis, we propose a comprehension of this reality from the perspective of Ignatius of Loyola, which represents the way how he sought to capture and interpret the will of God, and how this provides better quality in the following of Jesus Christ. The mark of Ignatius spirituality is discernment, which is based on his strong experience of God. Ignatius emphasizes that God is heard and understood from the human conditioning of each epoch, from the most everyday experiences; God can be sought and found in all things. Ignatius rescues the personal dimension of Christian life while providing an anthropological unit since he speaks about being aware of the inner movements (motions) of consolation and desolation, making of these the criterion of discernment. Further, ignatian discernment restores freedom and responsibility in the Christian life, since he admits that the search and the meeting of the will of God is up to each person. This feature of the discernment ends in an opening confident to the Holy Spirit and in a more meaningful life.

Michael Servetus (1508 - 1553) and Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 - 1772) are both considered heretics. They share many concepts about the nature of God, especially their rejection of orthodox Nicene and Chalcedonian theology. This thesis explores their respective theologies relating to the Trinity and Christology, with speculation of what sources they may have had in common. While attention is paid to Ignatius, Irenaeus and Tertullian, particular attention is paid to Tertullian, whose work Adversus Praxean lays the foundation of Servetus' ideas and has much in common with Swedenborg's theology. In light of their similarity to Tertullian, the question is asked if Servetus and Swedenborg would have been called heretics prior to Nicaea. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Church History)

L’objet principal de cette étude théologique est le témoignage dans le ministère sacerdotal, analysé à partir du verset Ac 1, 8 . Le milieu antiochien a été privilégié. Il donne l’unité aux textes bibliques et patristiques qui constituent les sources de la thèse. Le témoignage autorisé confié aux apôtres par Jésus Ressuscité s’exprime davantage dans l’enseignement et la liturgie que dans le gouvernement car il ne cesse pas avec la dépossession. De Paul à Ignace et Jean Chrysostome, toujours en référence aux textes prophétiques et à la parole du Christ,on voit s’élaborer une théologie du sacerdoce comme témoignage. / The main purpose of this theological research is to show the testimony in the priestly ministry. Our approach based on the words from Acts 1:8. Biblical and Patristic texts constitutes the sources of the thesis, it is the Antiochian environment that is emphasized and that grants unity to the corpus. The authorized testimony entrusted to the Apostles by Jesus is expressed more in the teaching and the liturgy than in the government because it does not cease with the dispossession. From Paul to Ignatius and John Chrysostom, referring to the prophetic texts and the Word of Christ, we see the development of a theology of the priesthood as testimony.

Art of Jesuit Chapels of the Deceased The theme of this work is presentation of Jesuit Chapel of the Deceased in Bohemia in the Baroque period. The main idea of these chapels are the last idea of man and reminder to purgatory. The presence of purgatory was unquestionable for Baroque society and very often presentation in art. Purgatory was place, which gives hope to the Catholics for salvation and it was great occasional for using special symbols and emblems, it is a way how the remind a believer to the idea of the Last Judgment.

No description available.

The objectives of this study is to investigate how the church has changed over time, with focus on how modernity has influenced the church’s construction of its identity through martyrs’ texts, and to contribute to theory development through analysis. The study takes its theoretical starting point in Rowan Williams perspective on history as stories we tell to understand who we are. My main question is: how are changes in the church’s identity reflected in texts of martyrs from two historical periods? This question is answered through comparative analysis of texts written by martyrs from both the early church and the twentieth century, focusing on how the martyrs interpret and describe their coming martyrdom and suffering. Ignatius of Antiochs letters together with the prison narrative from The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas is compared to texts by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and by four trappist monks from Algeria: the brothers Luc, Paul, Christophe and Christian.  Six motifs are identified as common in the martyrs’ texts regarding their interpretation of martyrdom and its suffering:  1.    Suffering as freedom and liberation, 2.    the transformative suffering, 3.    suffering and martyrdom as argumentation, 4.    suffering as communion with God, 5.    the martyr’s suffering as the special path, 6.    and martyrdom as combat. Changes within these motifs are identified between the historical periods. Central differences between the texts involve a recurring shift from a transcendental to immanent interpretive framework, a movement from power to powerlessness and an increased focus on humanity and mankind in the modern era. The image of God has changed: from identification with the risen powerful Christ, the martyr rather identifies with the incarnated, suffering, serving, powerless and dying human Jesus in the modern era. The self-image of the martyrs has changed: the modern martyrs see themselves not becoming anything other than human, and instead becoming more human through her suffering and martyrdom. The political potential and hope have also changed: powerlessness is premiered, the martyr’s own guilt as human beings replaces the demonization of the other, and the change the martyrs hope for is in the immanent realm of humanity for the common well of all mankind in modern times. These changes can only to some extent, but not fully, be explained and understood by Charles Taylors theory on modernity and suffering presented in his A Secular Age (2007) and Byung-Chul Hans theory on modernity and suffering as discussed in his Palliativsamhället (2021). The immanent frame, the process of disenchantment and the anthropocentric shift helps to understand some of the differences between the eras.  But both Taylor’s and Han’s basic thesis is that suffering is impossible to handle and by default meaningless and negative in the modern west, and that suffering in modernity has lost all its political and societal dimensions that previously could result in the fight for political change, and that there is no possibility to maintain a Christian belief in God whilst suffering. This is by this study proven to be incorrect. The modern martyrs, and the church in the modern era reflected through the texts of the martyrs, is influenced by but not synonymous with the modernity pictured by Taylor and Han. They are not non-modern, but neither do they repeat the same interpretations and theology as their precursors in the early church. Instead, we see in them the expression of a renewed Christian identity. The modern martyrs in this study have, through theological creativity, recontextualized and reinterpreted their faith informed by the experience of modernity as pictured by Taylor and Han. The church has changed over time and it shows through the martyrs accounts and interpretations of their suffering and martyrdom. The renewed identity, both anthropocentric and theocentric, formed through creative theological recontextualization, has made it possible to maintain a Christian belief in God, a hope for a better world and a sense of meaning midst suffering, in the modern era. Taylor’s and Han’s theories about the secularization of the church’s identity and the modern west have not happened in practice.

Michael Servetus (1508 - 1553) and Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 - 1772) are both considered heretics. They share many concepts about the nature of God, especially their rejection orthodox Nicene and Chalcedonian theology. This thesis explores their respective theologies relating to the Trinity and Christology, with speculation of what sources they may have had in common. While attention is paid to Ignatius, Irenaeus and Tertullian, particular attention is paid to Tertullian, whose work Adversus Praxean lays the foundation of Servetus' ideas and has much in common with Swedenborg's theology. In light of their similarity to Tertullian, the question is asked if Servetus and Swedenborg would have been called heretics prior to Nicaea. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Church History)

The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, presuppose Roman Catholicism, but are today made by many who are not Catholics. Moreover, even Roman Catholics who make Ignatian Exercises often are not spontaneously inclined to obey Roman ecclesiastical authority. Neither avoiding the ecclesial dimension nor an authoritarian ‘follow the rules!’ provides spiritual directors with adequate orientation when working with issues at Church frontiers. This dissertation in pastoral theology seeks to navigate a middle position by moving beyond the individualism and the a-historical assumptions of the existing relevant literature. The dissertation remains close to the Ignatian primary sources, in the awareness that the Ignatian tradition needs to be constantly updated and that the contemporary ecclesial frontiers are not fully foreseen in the canonical texts. The main hypothesis is that a notion is needed of a ‘pilgrim Church’ in space and time, with Christians who are related to one another in a deep and fundamental sense. The minor hypothesis is that the individual needs to be open towards and prepared to learn from the Roman Catholic Church, in order to understand and to be profoundly moved by these exercises, but not necessarily to become a Roman Catholic. Having presented and discussed various approaches in the writings of twentieth-century and recent thinkers, this thesis puts forward its own ecclesiological position informed by Charles Taylor, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Karl Rahner. The aim is to take Ignatian studies forward by combining relational anthropology, hermeneutics and a sacramental understanding of the Church, and to apply this synthesis to the practice of giving Ignatian Exercises. The final chapter discusses a selection of cases in the light of my ecclesiological position. The synthesis and application claim originality.

Au début de son Traité fondamental de la foi, Karl Rahner avise le lecteur que l’introduction au concept de christianisme qu’il propose se déploie à ce qu’il nomme un « premier niveau de réflexion » (erste Reflexionsstufe). S’il le distingue explicitement du niveau de réflexion des sciences entendues au sens usuel, il n’en donne pas de définition formelle, s’employant plutôt à le mettre en œuvre. Curieusement, eu égard à l’importance que lui accorde Rahner, la question de ce « plan » alternatif de compréhension et de justification de la foi chrétienne est demeurée pratiquement sans écho (un constat formulé par Max Seckler en 1984 et renouvelé par Karl H. Neufeld en 2006). C'est à cette question du « premier niveau de réflexion » chez Rahner que s'attache la présente étude. Après avoir dressé un état de la question, nous y présentons les jalons du déve-loppement du concept chez Rahner, depuis ses articles sur la formation des prêtres en contexte de pluralisme jusqu’au Traité fondamental de la foi. Nous y montrons ensuite en quoi la référence de Rahner à l'illative sense newmanien, contestée lorsqu’elle n’est pas négligée par les commentateurs, peut être une clé d’interprétation de la notion qui nous occupe, le « sens illatif » (et la Grammar of Assent) éclairant le « premier niveau de réflexion » (et le Traité fondamental), et vice versa. Nous y voyons enfin comment cette référence à Newman met sur la voie des Exercices spirituels d’Ignace de Loyola, lequel aura été pour Rahner non seulement un maître spirituel, mais également un maître de théologie. Ce qui paraissait n’être au début qu’une indication d’ordre didactique se révèle dès lors comme une caractérisation fondamentale de la théologie telle que la com-prend Rahner. / At the start of his Foundations of Christian Faith, Karl Rahner informs the reader that his proposed introduction to the idea of Christianity unfolds on a “first level of reflection” (erste Reflexionsstufe), as he labels it. Although he very clearly differentiates this level from that of the sciences in their usual sense, he does not provide a formal definition of the former, opting rather to implement it in his own work. Considering the importance this alternative “plan” for the understanding and the justification of the Christian faith had for Rahner, it is strangely interesting to note that practically no echo of this matter is found in subsequent literature (as stated by Max Seckler in 1984, and again, Karl H. Neufeld in 2006). The present study is devoted, precisely, to this question of the “first level of reflection”. Following our literature review, we will present the key moments in the development of Rahner’s concept, from his articles on the formation of priests in a pluralistic context to his Foundations of Christian Faith. Next, we will demonstrate how Rahner's reference to Newman's illative sense, though challenged (when not neglected) by commentators, could be a means of interpreting the notion this thesis is concerned with, insofar as the illative sense (and the Grammar of Assent) may shed light on the “first level of reflection” (and Foundations), and visa-versa. Ultimately, we will see how this reference to Newman paves the way to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who was to be, for Rahner, not only a spiritual master, but also a theo-logical master. Therefore, what appeared to be a simple didactical opening statement reveals itself to be, from then on, a fundamental characterization of theology as understood by Rahner.