bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Moral Development as Self-Transcendence
Authors: Conn Walter E.
Published: August 2016

This essay explicates a contribution of developmental moral psychology to religious ethics in the task of interpreting the relationship between religion and morality. It argues that a criterion of self-transcendence is implicit in the developmental perspectives of major psychological theorists, and from this that the same drive for self-transcendence which grounds religious experience also constitutes the dynamic factor in moral consciousness—that both authentic morality and genuine religion are expressions of a single radical dynamism of the human spirit.
Matthew 15:29-31: An Overlooked Summary
Authors: Ryan Thomas J.
Published: August 2016

Matthew's adroit use of the summary passage at critical junctures in his Gospel to provide the reader with christological and ecclesiological insights has long been noted and the most important of these passages studied. However, for a number of reasons Matthew 15:29-31 has not been extensively probed. Ryan views this summary as the third in a triad of summary passages found between Matthew 11:2-16:20 concerned with the healing activity of an already rejected Jesus and the prophesied obduracy of the religious leadership which will culminate in the death of the Messiah-Son of God.
Why Teach Theology to a Catholic College Student Today?
Authors: Tripole Martin R.
Published: August 2016

Theology has a problem Justifying itself to its students as well as to itself. Its proper role is to bring the student to a deeper Christian faith experience. Two methods for doing this are the “general religious experience” approach and the method which concentrates on the uniqueness of Christ and his message and an interpersonal encounter with him. The latter method is preferred, and has proven most useful in rekindling the faith among college students.
Which Catholic Theology?
Authors: Gray Donald P.
Published: August 2016

Catholic Christianity entails a commitment to both identity and universality. These two polarities can be blended in differing ways. A traditionally ecclesiocentric form of Catholic belief, emphasizing identity, is presently giving ground to forms of belief that are more ecumenically sensitive, whether they adopt a Christocentric or a theocentric focus. Today Catholic theology is giving greater attention to the dimension of universality. Theological education in a college setting should be doing likewise.
Horizons on Christianity's New Dialogue with Buddhism
Authors: Knitter Paul F.
Published: August 2016

A survey of recent Christian literature on the dialogue with Buddhism reveals a conversation which is new in both spirit and content. This article summarizes these new directions in five areas: (1) the methodology of dialogue; (2) the nature of the Ultimate and of religious language; (3) religious experience as an experience of selflessness; (4) the value and need of acting in the world, and (5) the unique, salvific mediation of Jesus and Gautama. In each of these areas, suggestions are offered as to how the new insights from the dialogue with Buddhism might aid in clarifying questions and incoherencies in present-day Christian doctrine and practice.
Graceful Work: Practical Theological Study of Spirituality
Authors: Wolfteich Claire
Published: August 2016

This article calls for closer conversation between two growing academic fields: the scholarly study of spirituality and practical theology. Practical theology investigates the contemporary situation as it relates to questions of faith, ministry, and public religious leadership. Practical theology loses its center when it neglects the critical study of spirituality. Practical theological study of spirituality can help to integrate the three dominant methods in spirituality scholarship: the anthropological, the historical-contextual, and the theological approaches. The integration of these three approaches promotes a mutually critical correlation between the Christian tradition and the contemporary situation. Reflection on the practices of ministry students and teachers further reveals the importance of practical theological study of spirituality, which should inform the practice of teaching, the conception of theological education, and the formation of ministry students.
Process Theology and Liberation Theology: Theological and Ethical Reflections
Authors: O'Connor June
Published: August 2016

Process theology, inspired by the thought of Alfred North Whitehead, and liberation theology, prompted by the experience of oppression in Latin America, are two distinct and separate forms of contemporary Christian theology that both provoke and compel our attention. Although they vary dramatically in the standpoints from which they speak, the audiences to whom they speak, and the languages with which they speak, process and liberation theologies nonetheless share some striking similarities of viewpoint that bear ethical import. The author thus details their positions on existence in community, freedom and creativity, and resonsibility for the future, as well as the differences noted above, and claims that it is on ethical grounds that their contributions are most profound and their potential impact most far-reaching.
Genre as Hermeneutical Instrument: Mary Gordon's Novels as Test Case for the “Catholic” Novel
Authors: Gerhart Mary
Published: August 2016

Whether a book is a “good book” is a matter not only of taste but also of genre. The genre of every book sets up certain expectations which the reader must engage and assess in order to understand the text. The reader uses genre to differentiate among multiple ways in which texts “work.” Genre minimally enables the reader to avoid the uncritical expectation that the success or failure of a text depends on the presence or absence of a particular theme. Maximally, a generic analysis can suggest new ways of disclosing the religious significance of literary texts. Genre as hypothesis provides a heuristic method for interpreting a text by itself and in relation to others. Generic analysis overcomes the deficiencies of thematic analysis to show how Mary Gordon'sFinal Paymentssucceeds as an action novel andThe Company of Womenas an apologue.
Christian Spirituality and Social Justice
Authors: Lamb Matthew L.
Published: August 2016

The nuclear arms race and increasing possibility of nuclear destruction demands a fundamental recovery of the Christian spirituality of social justice. After discussing common misconceptions of this spirituality, as well as the dead end offered by atheism insofar as it undialectically negates God consciousness, I will show how recovery of the Christian spirituality of social justice offers the possibility of converting the human drama of history away from death and toward life. Such spirituality unites the Mystery of God with the mystery of human personhood and reveals the redemptive solidarity of God with the poor and oppressed victims of history.
The Church and The Family: An Ethical Task
Authors: Farley Margaret A.
Published: August 2016

There has been a kind of “turn to the family” on the part of the Christian churches in the past decade, manifesting a concern for what is judged to be the western family in “crisis.” Unfortunately, the voices of religion have had little more effect than the voices of psychology or sociology in either healing or empowering the family, and they have had perhaps less success in interpreting the difficulties which beset the contemporary family as an institution. This failure may represent simply the intractability of the problems which individuals and families face. It may also, however, represent an almost tragic perception on the part of many persons that the Christian tradition regarding family life is today too oppressive to yield a prophetic, a healing or a freeing word.
The Death of God: a Symbol for Religious Humanism
Authors: Sabatino Charles J.
Published: August 2016

Thomas Altizer develops the theme of the death of God as an attempt to reverse the emphasis on transcendence which is central to a more traditional theology. He believes a theology of transcendence establishes a dichotomy between God and humanity which is unfaithful to the meaning disclosed in the Christ event. His concern is to interpret the positive aspect of God's death as an example of a self-giving which, by becoming empty, is able to stand open to all. By making use of themes from Buddhist thought, Altizer develops a richly paradoxical theology whose negations, when properly understood, hold within them even deeper affirmations.
The Feminist Turn in Ethics
Authors: Maguire Daniel C.
Published: August 2016

Anyone who plies the noble art-science of social ethics (moral theology, Christian ethics), while taking no account of the feminist turn of consciousness, is open to charges of professional irresponsibility and incompetence. No. That is not an overstatement or an overblown rhetorical lead-in. The history of ethics is turning an epochal corner. To miss the turn is to be lost and useless.

Feminism is concerned with the shift in roles and the question of the rights that have been unjustly denied women. But all of that, however important and even essential, is secondary. The main event is epistemological. Changes in what we know are normal; changes in how we know are revolutionary. Feminism is a challenge to the way we have gone about knowing. The epistemological terra firma of the recent past is rocking and as the event develops, it promises to change the face of the earth.

The main impact of feminism will be felt in the area of moral knowledge. That, of course, is broader than ethics since all of the social sciences are heavy with moral assumptions and evaluations. Economics, politics (simplistically called political science), education, journalism, business administration, engineering, et al. are all intra-familial siblings of social ethics, although educational systems have treated them as separable strangers. (This mischievous separation, indeed, is a natural target of the emerging feminist consciousness.)
Recovering from Nuclear Codependence
Authors: McCormick Patrick T.
Published: August 2016

With the revolutions in Eastern Europe precipitating a radical transformation of the Cold War which has dominated East-West relations for the past half century, there is a need and an opportunity to examine anew the processes and structures of modern warfare. By constructing a model of the Cold War as an addictive system in which the Americans and the Soviets have cooperated as “nuclear” codependents in the addictive process of the arms race it may be possible to gain a more realistic (dynamic and systemic) understanding of the forces driving global militarism as well as some insights into the dangers which lie ahead as the United States attempts to withdraw and recover from this reality.
Resources for a Democratic Catholic Church
Authors: Bianchi Eugene C.
Published: August 2016

This article explores sources in the Christian tradition that can be helpful for re-shaping present Roman Catholic ecclesial polity. The underlying theme is that the Catholic Church, in order to enhance efforts at church reform, needs to re-structure itself from a monarchical polity to a democratic one. A theological subtheme argues that the monarchical polity is not mandated by the gospel, but is rather a creature of history. Furthermore, the monarchical polity is a root cause obstructing reform in specific areas. By selectinglocifrom early church history to the present time, democratic movements and ideas are highlighted as constituting an important part of Catholic history. Certain of theselocihave not yet been examined for their democratic potential. This democratic tradition can be a springboard for moving toward a democratic church in the twenty-first century.
The Evolutionary Categories of Juan Luis Segundo's Theology of Grace
Authors: Stefano Frances
Published: August 2016

Juan Luis Segundo is widely known as a liberation theologian but his use of evolutionary categories to develop a theology of grace is little appreciated. Challenging the pessimistic logic of the second law of thermodynamics, Segundo defines evolution as an ecological project which results in the creation of what is new. Displaying a logic that is dialectical but not linear, the evolutionary project has as itstelosthe continual manifestation of freedom (or whatever is analogous to it) in a universe which, because of the high visibility of suffering, appears tragic and seemingly futile. In the human sphere, freedom is manifested wherever action integrates random elements like suffering and negativity to function efficaciously as love. The sign or mark of evolutionary change which accompanies creation of what is new, freedom is not the cause of love but is manifested gratuitously within it. Love is essential to God's eschatological will to create a world that is good. Wherever it is found, love enjoys ontological causality in the eyes of God and contributes to realization of theeschaton. There, definitively manifested in glory, the blossoming of freedom that accompanies love will be revealed for what it has been all along: substance of a new creation that is the eschatological materialization of grace.
Death as a Hermeneutic
Authors: Carmody John
Published: August 2016

During a recent meeting of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theologians in Graz, Austria, as various speakers discussed the concept of the good life, on the way to preparing a statement on global ethics, I found thoughts of death shifting the horizon within which I was considering the different arguments. Similarly, during recent work on a Jectio divina of John's Gospel, I felt myself drawn to images magnifying the theme, “in him was life,” because I wanted help contending with death. The following brief elaboration of these two experiences may illustrate concretely Nietzsche's dictum that all who philosophize defend themselves. As well, it may expose the roots of a thesis that deeper interpretation is usually religious, because usually we forge it at the crossroads of our contingency and the necessity that there be more. Following the exposition of these two possibilities, I shall suggest a few implications for pedagogy.
Feminist Theology, Roman Catholicism, and Alienation
Authors: Gillis Chester
Published: August 2016

The topic of this article is the effects that the writings of feminist theologians, many of whom are Roman Catholic, have upon Catholic students. The questions it attempts to answer are: Has feminist theology served to alienate American Catholics further from the church, discouraging them from identifying with the tradition or institution, or has it awakened them to retrieve the tradition in a creative way and to take responsibility within the institution and reshape it? The article further seeks to differentiate between spirituality, theology, and religious institution. How will Catholicism affect the larger culture if this generation is alienated from institutional identification? If they settle permanently on alternative forms of religious identification and spiritual fulfillment the face of Catholicism in the future will be even more conservative than it is today. However, feminist theology may be the basis for hope. Seriously attended to by the church, it could help to inform the consciousness of the next generation.
Panentheism from a Trinitarian Perspective
Authors: Bracken Joseph A.
Published: August 2016

Classical models of the God–world relationship tend to emphasize the transcendence of God at the expense of God's immanence to the world of creation. Neo-classical or process-oriented models, on the other hand, tend to emphasize the immanence of God within the world process at the expense of the divine transcendence. Using the distinction originally made by Thomas Aquinas between person and nature within the Godhead, the author offers a modified process-oriented understanding of the God–world relationship in which the transcendence of the triune God to creation is assured but in which creatures derive their existence and activity from the divine nature or ground of being along with the divine persons. Ultimate Reality, therefore, is not God in a unipersonal sense, nor the three divine persons apart from creation, but a Cosmic Society of existents, both finite and infinite, who are sustained by one and the same underlying principle of existence and activity.
The Biblical Heart and Process Anthropology
Authors: Doud Robert E.
Published: August 2016

This article aims to integrate the biblical theological idea of the heart with Alfred North Whitehead's ideas concerning human selfhood. It begins with a biblical theological description of the heart, drawing to a focus upon Ezekiel's idea of God creating in us a new heart. It then interprets these ideas by correlating them with key ideas of Whitehead, such as actual entity, actual occasion, living person, historic route, the four phases of the actual entity, initial aim, and subjective aim. This correlation peaks in the idea that for process anthropology a new heart is created in us every new instant.
Neither Idolatry nor Iconoclasm: A Critical Essentialism for Catholic Feminist Theology
Authors: Dallavalle Nancy A.
Published: August 2016

Following the work of gender theorists who find the terms “male” and “female” to be socially constructed, feminist theology has tended to repudiate essentialism. The position that results is one of agnosticism about biological sexuality, a position that is only reinforced by the essentialist excesses that ground the discussion of the “psycho-physical structure” of women found in official Catholic teaching. This article suggests that the polarity of feminist theology and official Catholic teaching on questions of sex and gender can be overcome by using the framework of a “critical essentialism,” a position that retrieves the Catholic theological tradition of reflection on “male” and “female” while allowing its claims to be appropriately winnowed by the insights of gender theorists.
To be Catholic or Not to Be: Is it Still the Question? Catholic Identity and Religious Education Today
Authors: Phan Peter C.
Published: August 2016

Recent social studies have show that there are, especially among young American Catholics, different conceptions of what constitutes a Catholic. Factors contributing to this new understanding of Catholic identity include religious pluralism and the divergent conceptualizations of catholicity and Catholicism in contemporary theology. As a consequence, different criteria are used to define what it means to be a Catholic. These variations pose serious challenges to religious educators whose task is to shape the religious identity of the students.

The study begins with a survey of the history of the concept of catholicity as well as of the criteria for Catholic identity. In view of the variations in the understanding of catholicity, the work discerns four challenges for religious education with its task of fostering Catholic identity: how to maintain a fruitful balance between Vatican II's recognition of the ecclesial nature of non-Catholic Christian communities and its claim that the Catholic Church possesses the fullness of the means of salvation; between Vatican II's call for dialogue with non-Christian religions and its insistence on the distinctiveness of Catholic beliefs and practices; between the legitimate concerns of “communal Catholics” and the necessity for all Catholics to participate fully in the Catholic symbol and ethical system; and between the spiritual and institutional, the invisible and visible elements of the church. The article concludes by suggesting an indirect method to develop and strengthen Catholic identity by means of the “deep structures” of the Catholic faith, with particular focus on Christian doctrines.
Postmodernity and Pedagogy: Connecting the Dots
Authors: Downey John K.
Published: August 2016

This article calls for an acceptance of a constructive postmodernity and links that epoistemology with the use of collaborative learning techniques. If we and our students live in a postmodern world, then our pedagogy must make sense within that same postmodernity. To ignore these epistemological horizons is to split our intellectual commitments from our teaching. The tone of the work is set by a sketch of the muddled term “postmodern.” Four markers are developed to situate postmodernity's ironic sense of reality and to link it to a suspicion of any universal master narrative. Why should teachers care? Because learning should reflect our picture of knowing. We teach a world in what we do. The pedagogical practices most in line with the postmodern vision involve collaborative learning, which itself represents a departure from the classic vision of knowing. The article ends with a coda on the theologies resonant with these commitments.
A Theology of the Religions and/or a Comparative Theology?
Authors: Duffy Stephen J.
Published: August 2016

An important but little-noticed debate is quietly going on between some theologians of the religions and some comparative theologians. The former, without negating the need for comparative theology, insist on the need for a theology of the religions; the latter call for a moratorium on construction of theologies of religion and a focus instead on comparative work. This essay sides with the theologians of religion and argues that contrary to the one-sided position of the comparativists and the premature judgments of some theologians of the religions, there is a need for both a theology of the religions and comparative analysis and synthesis because the two are the distinct but inseparable and integral a priori and a posteriori moments of a single theological project which aims at bringing Christianity into fruitful engagement with the non-Christian traditions. Because this engagement is essential to Christianity, the present debate is an important one even though it goes on in a field little tended, unfortunately, but many theologians.
“No One, Not Even God, Can Take the Place of the Victim”: Metz, Lévinas, and Practical Christology after the Shoah
Authors: Simon Derek
Published: August 2016

The legacy of the Shoah invades christology as one of its most basic postfoundationalist challenges in the demise of modernity. Fackenheim heuristically amplifies the rupture of the metaphysical narratives of soteriology by the radical evil and sufferings in Auschwitz. As a representative instance of reorienting theological discourse through exposure to the trauma of the Shoah and the testimony of its Jewish survivors, Metz grounds practical christology in the biblical memory of suffering and an eschatological delimitation of time. Lévinas' phenomenology of the self counters residual issues in Metz and mediates a postfoundationalist framework for re-visioning christology after the Shoah. The phenomenological transposition of the notion of substitution to the ethical order rehabilitates Metz's practical christology and articulates the messianic significance of human agency as a sociopolitical responsibility for the sufferings of the broken and the dead.
Education for Justice: Stitching a Seamless Garment
Authors: Incandela Joseph M.
Published: August 2016

This essay aims to present the challenges of teaching Catholic social thought to undergraduates at a Catholic college. It begins with a review of the three foundational principles of the Church's social tradition: dignity, community, and preferential option for the poor. It next moves to three primary obstacles to making these concepts come alive for college students: (1) the prevalence of social and economic stereotypes, (2) a Romanticized reduction of Christianity which emphasizes charity to the neglect of justice, and (3) an unwillingness to allow the resources of one's faith to challenge the policies of one's government. The essay concludes with some reflections on the appropriateness of all of these subjects at a college dedicated to the liberal arts. Throughout this paper, generous use is made of writings by my students that demonstrate the pedagogical principles and pitfalls I narrate.
Excellence in Teaching and a Spirituality of Desire
Authors: Lane Belden C.
Published: August 2016

Three-fourths of the 180 Centers for Teaching Excellence found in U.S. colleges and universities have been developed over the last decade. Excellence in Teaching has never been discussed more. Yet clarity about what actually constitutes quality in teaching is not at all apparent. This essay suggests a contrast between two ways of conceiving excellence in teaching—an excellence of achievement as compared to an excellence of desire. The one, based on a marketing model of education, stresses measurable outcomes, with an emphasis on the acquisition of information. The other, drawing from themes in the history of Christian spirituality, evokes a wisdom tradition that nourishes unsatisfied desire as a principal goal. In the latter, less importance is ascribed to the teacher's self-conscious need to call attention to his or her particular competence. Set free from “the maintenance of control,” the teacher can be more open to a common search (and excellence) to which everyone contributes.
Feminist thought and Systematic Theology
Authors: Turner Pauline , Cooke Bernard
Published: August 2016

Trying to answer the question, “How can a teacher of systematic theology incorporate the insights provided by feminist thinkers?”, we faced several major problems and made a few rather arbitrary choices. Ultimately it is impossible to separate systematic theology from biblical or historical studies or distinguish it satisfactorily from the study of spirituality or morality. What we say here, then, must be complemented by the other essays in this series. Besides, the impact of feminist thought on Christian theology is not a peripheral or additional thing; incorporating feminist theology into systematics does not mean only an addition of topics. Rather, the research and reflection of feminist scholars demand revision of our basic approach to doing theology; they recast the basic evidence on which we must reflect; they challenge the presuppositions and methodology with which we previously approached the classic topics of theology.

What we are talking about is not how to teach a special branch or brand of theology, but simply teaching systematic theology more adequately and critically, trying to lead students to understand accurately and personally what is meant by “grace” and “salvation” and “Jesus as the Christ” and “Church” and “God.” In our trying to reach this goal, present-day feminist thought has proved a rich and indispensable resource—this we will try to explain in relation to four large areas of what generally is thought of as “systematic theology.” Rather than sketch a course in “Systematic Theology from a Feminist Perspective,” which would be both interesting and valuable, we will try to indicate ways in which the entire content of theology needs to be changed by feminist understandings.
Native American Shamanism and the American Mind-Cure Movement: A Comparative Study of Religious Healing
Authors: Porterfield Amanda
Published: August 2016

Both Native American shamans and mind-cure practitioners dispel disease by visualizing it in symbolic form and enable recovery by invoking symbols of well-being. This paper shows how comparative study of shamanism and mind-cure furthers understanding of the techniques of symbolic healing characteristic of each religious tradition. Mind-cure techniques of hypnotic suggestion illumine the Native American idea that prayers, songs, and stories are spiritual forces. Conversely, the performing arts practiced by Native American shamans contribute to further understanding of the effective healing techniques practiced by Mary Baker Eddy and her teacher, Phineas P. Quimby. The paper also comments on the implications of studying particular forms of Christian theology and practice, such as the mind-cure movement, in light of shamanism.
The Foundations of the Professions and of Professional Ethics: A Critical and Constructive Study
Authors: Walter James J.
Published: August 2016

The purpose of this article is to study critically the positions of six authors on the foundations of the professions and of professional ethics. These positions are placed along a continuum which is created by correlating two variables that appear in each author's writings. The implied or explicit anthropology and metaethical theory of the authors are central concerns of the study. The issue whether the professional is governed by role-specific duties or by role-distinctive duties is analyzed in depth. In the end, the author cannot accept any of the six positions and so the final section of the article fashions a constructive proposal grounded in a social metaphysics of the human person.
The American Catholic Bishops' Peace Pastoral: A Critique of its Logic
Authors: Murnion William E.
Published: August 2016

A critique of the distinction in the Peace Pastoral between stating moral principles and addressing concrete questions. The distinction seems to be an example of the invalid dichotomy between analytic and synthetic truths; it is also inapplicable to the bishops' condemnation of nuclear war as a concrete action immoral in principle. Thus the use of the distinction introduced confusion into the bishops' interpretation of the principles of just war and obscurity into their conclusion about the concrete question of nuclear deterrence. A dialectical methodology, critically sounder and implicit in much of the pastoral, would have made their argument more consistent and more cogent.
Autobiographical World Theology
Authors: Kramer Kenneth P.
Published: August 2016

Traditionally, western theologies have been systematic, orthodox, dogmatic, and ecclesiastical. Recently, however, liberal, neo-orthodox, philosophical, and radical theologians have begun to reform the theological enterprise, and in turn to prepare the way for what has been called “world theology.” Whereas the traditional theologian viewed other faith communities as less truthful than his or her own, the world theologian is the Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist who views other theologies and world views non-exclusivistically, and from within the other's viewpoint.

W. C. Smith captures the Janus-nature of this emerging world theology in one sentence—“All theology is self-theology, and yet it must exclude no one.” According to this assessment, today's theological task must be autobiographical (self-theology) and world-oriented (excluding no one). Each person's life-story is significantly related to each other's, for without personal history (autobiographical and biographical) theology reverts to a scholasticism of structures, rules, and restrictions, and without a world-orientation, theology retreats into exclusivistic, specialized edifices, and thereby surrenders any claim to speak to and for all humans.
Object Relations Theory, Mothering, and Religion: Toward a Feminist Psychology of Religion
Authors: Jonte-Pace Diane
Published: August 2016

Although psychoanalytic object relations theory has been acclaimed for its ability to revitalize the psychological understanding of religion, the implicit sensitivity of object relations theory to feminist concerns has not been recognized. This paper suggests that object relations theory shares with feminist thought three central foci: relationality, mature dependency, and a revaluing of the mother-infant relationship. Through this coincidence of concern object relations theory can move toward a feminist psychology of religion which avoids not only Freud's reductionism toward religion, but also his patricentrism. The psychological antecedents of religious experience, ritual, and the image of God are examined from the object relational perspective, and are located in the maternal-infant matrix. It is suggested that this linkage of culture and mother offers a radical challenge to the psychoanalytic perspective.
Horizons on Bernard Lonergan
Authors: Shea William M.
Published: August 2016

Bernard Lonergan's importance to Catholic theologians is existential as well as theoretic. For many he bridged the culture and the church. Three of the themes prominent in his recently published A Third Collection exemplify his service to his colleagues: community, history, and praxis. Lonergan shared the burden of alienation of his fellow Catholics from the culture, and in his struggle to understand and change, illuminated a path for them. Recent literature displays his influence: David Tracy's Plurality and Ambiguity, Tad Dunne's Lonergan and Spirituality, Vernon Gregson's Lonergan, Spirituality, and the Meeting of Religions, Hugo Meynell's The Theology of Bernard Lonergan, and the essays in the Festschrift, Religion and Culture: Essays in Honor of Bernard Lonergan.
East in the West: Resolving a Spiritual Crisis
Authors: Pieris Aloysius
Published: August 2016

The so-called “Oriental religions” dismissed only a century ago as primitive and pagan have registered in recent times a steep ascent to prominence not only in terms of their proven capacity to articulate the cultural ego of some of Asia's decolonized nations, but also as spiritual movements now seeping into Western cultures, threatening to be respectable alternatives to traditional Christianity. Disturbing news of Western youth streaming into Asia like a river flowing backward to its source is given wide coverage in the media.
John Dunne's Journey of the Mind, Heart, and Soul
Authors: Collinge William J.
Published: August 2016

This paper looks back over the eight books of John S. Dunne as forming a unified theological project in two phases, each comprising four books. Dunne's first phase is a “journey of the mind,” in which Dunne is concerned with knowing and unknowing, with understanding and insight, and his basic epistemological stance is developed. His second phase is a “journey of the heart,” in which he moves from the basic loneliness of the human condition, to the “heart's desire” for God, to the presence of God in the desiring. Several changes in Dunne's understanding of the human relationships with God, others, and self are traced here. Dunne's most recent book adds a “pilgrimage of the soul” to those of mind and heart, so this paper moves to a discussion of the meaning and development of Dunne's idea of “soul.” It concludes by considering Dunne's work as spiritual writing and as theology.
Integrating Feminist Perspectives with the Religious Studies Curriculum: Setting the Question
Authors: Carmody Denise Lardner
Published: August 2016

My assignment is to set the question for our teaching workshop on integrating feminist perspectives into the religious studies curriculum. In reflecting on this assignment in light of the full program sketched in the brochure for the workshop, I found three journalistic questions coming to mind. The six specialized sub-workshops seemed to deal quite comprehensively with the question of how to effect the integration of feminist perspectives into the religious studies curriculum. Mary Jo Weaver's plenary address promised to treat from the perspective of American religious history where American women now are and may hope to arrive tomorrow. That left the matter of why we should be assembled here this evening, and though I'm sure that many of the other presenters will address it substantially, I have taken it as the proper focus for this kick-off presentation. Inevitably, speaking about why it is important to represent women's voices will imply how we may best accomplish this, but let us begin by reminding ourselves of the telos of our workshop—the prospective good that brings us together. My ruminations on this topic will have three sub-topics; students' needs, intellectual justice, and fidelity to God.

This past semester I taught two typical courses: “Women and World Religions” and “The New Testament and Literature.” Both courses are part of the Tulsa Curriculum, our general education sequence. Each course had about thirty students, but only two of those in “Women and World Religion” were men, while “The New Testament and Literature” had about fifteen men. It is hard to say, though, which sex was more in need of feminist perspectives.
Shigaku Zasshi Summary of Japanese Scholarship for 1999: Shang, Zhou, Spring and Autumn
Authors: Junya Takatsu
Published: August 2016

Last year (1999), the People's Republic of China celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, and made well known the progress of many national projects. Among them, relevant to this column, is the “Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project,” which aims at establishing an absolute chronology of the historical events before the first year of Gonghe [i.e., 841 b.c.e.]. Meanwhile, last year was also the centennial of the discovery of the Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Many related conferences and events were held. Among them, during the last few years, has been the investigation of several walled settlements that predate the Yinxu period. Moreover, in early 2000, the largest urban site of the Shang dynasty was discovered to the northeast of Yinxu. Though its details have not yet been fully reported, much attention has been focused on this discovery.
Shigaku Zasshi Summary of Japanese Scholarship for 1999: Warring States, Qin and Han
Authors: Kiyoshi Miyake
Published: August 2016

At last year's (1999) general meeting of the Nihon Shin Kan shi kenkyūkai (Japanese Qin-Han History Research Group), cosponsored by the International Congress of Chinese Historical Studies, entitled “The World of Chinese (Qin-Han period) History: a system of integration and pluralistic development,”1 TAKATSU Junya , TOMIYA Itaru and DU Zhengsheng presented lectures related to the theme of unification [192]. Mr. Du in particular was most conscientious of the “unification” theme, discussing the topic, “Ancient Chinese Pluralistic Society and the Surge towards Unification.”2 Under this title he makes the following six points: 1) tracing the gradual process of expansion within the areas that were included in the concept of “Zhongguo” according to the written historical materials; 2) examination and organization of the theories regarding how many cultural areas into which the Neolithic Age should be divided; 3) the signs of religion as seen in the archaeological materials in accordance with the phases of political development; 4) the distribution and interrelationships of walled settlements; 5) investigating the area of the Shang and Zhou courts’ influence through the style of bronze pieces and the distribution of burial goods; 6) inferences that can be made by comparing “rishu” (almanacs) and cultural trends from the standpoint of social strata.
Yao, Shun, and Prefiguration: the Origins and Ideology of the Han Imperial Genealogy
Authors: Sukhu Gopal
Published: August 2016

With the weakening of the Zhou royal line many began to wonder if someone qualified to replace it might not be found in another lineage. The myth of the sage king Yao ceding his kingdom to Shun, an unrelated commoner, helped to make licit the yearning for such a figure, and at times argued for meritocracy, an ideal some thinkers counterposed against the sanctity of hereditary monarchy. After the fall of the Qin that ideal and the myth remained closely associated through most of the Former Han dynasty.

Sometime in the latter half of that period, however, certain scholarly circles connected with the imperial house began to develop the doctrine that the Han Lius were in fact descended from Yao, a doctrine which became orthodoxy with the rise of Wang Mang. After the establishment of the Later Han dynasty, Guangwudi (r. 25–57) attempted to force this doctrine and a prophetic literature supporting it, called chenwei (usually translated apocrypha), on the newly rehabilitated Imperial Academy. Some of these texts were created by applying to the Spring and Autumn Annals a hermeneutic mode that many Western scholars still hold does not occur in the history of Confucian scholarship: typological allegory—in this case to show that the rise of the founder of the Han was prefigured in the Annals. Meanwhile, ideologues excluded from the academy, but favored by the emperors, were putting the image of Yao to an unprecedented use—to support an ideology wherein the right to rule was unquestionably tied to heredity regardless of merit.

This article discusses some of the political developments and the exegetical interventions that helped produce these new uses of the Yao/Shun myth.
Some Notes on the Organization of the Han Dynasty Bamboo “Annals” Found at Fuyang
Authors: Pingsheng Hu
Published: August 2016

The Fuyang bamboo-strip “Annals” was compiled prior to 165 B.C., at least sixty or seventy years earlier than Sima Qian edited the various chronological tables in the Shiji. The “Annals,” which begins about the time of the Gong He interregnum of the Western Zhou and continues through the time of Qin Shi huangdi, seems to be incompatible with the “Qin Records” and was perhaps compiled using the “Historical Records” of some state other than Qin. It possibly includes two different types of tables: one in which years denominate the vertical columns and statenames the horizontal rows, with events recorded therein horizontally; and one that records the number of years that the feudal lords reigned. Although extensive damage makes it impossible to reconstitute the “Annals,” it can still provide useful information regarding some historical questions, such as the Warring States-period states of “East Zhou” and “West Zhou,” the appellations “Current King” and “Current Duke,” etc.
The Theory of Law in the Ching-fa
Authors: Turner Karen
Published: August 2016

The Ching-fa, one of the four “lost” books attached to the Ma-wang-tui Lao tzu, addresses issues of universal concern for legal theory. This paper examines how the Ching-fa's nine short theaties present fa linked with tao as a Law or model for guiding and judging the legitimacy of the ruler's use of coercion. I attempt to demonstrate that the conception of a universal and timeless Law offered a more universally applicable standard for governing than did the old laws based on the practices of the ancient sage kings. The text's notion of law linked with a timeless, natural principle, tao, is compared with early Western theories of universal law and its relation to justice. I conclude that the content and ultimate purposes of law are different in these early traditions but that in both cases the emerging imperial states were better served by theories of law based on abstract standards rather than on particular histories and customs.
The Early China Forum An Examination of Whether the Charges in Shang Oracle-Bone Inscriptions are Questions*
Authors: Xigui Qiu
Published: August 2016

Oracle-bone scholars have long uniformly read the charges (i.e., the portion that mentions the event being divined) of Shang oracle-bone inscriptions as questions. Since the 1970's, many foreign oracle-bone scholars have proposed a new view that the charges are never questions, or at least are generally not questions. Whether or not the charges are actually questions is a very important question bearing not only on oracle bone studies, but also on research on ancient divination and on ancient Chinese grammar. Based on an examination of a great number of Shang oracle-bone inscriptions, the author of this essay believes that charges that can now be determined to be questions are mainly those choice-type charges in early inscriptions that contain the final particles yi and zhi, and true-or-false type charges that contain yi. Charges of the type “V bu V” (such as “rain not rain” [yu bu yu]) and “V bu,” regarded by many as choice-type questions, are actually comprised of the charge and a verification or use notation, the “bu V” being a verification and the “bu” being either a verification or a use notation (similar to the notation bu yong, “do not use”). Charges that can now be determined not to be questions are mainly in those inscriptions with complex charges, such as “this *spring the king ought not ally with Wang Cheng to attack Xia Wei, (for if he does) he will not receive divine assistance” (jin ?chun wang wu bi Wang Cheng fa Xia? Wei, fu qi shou you you, and “On ren we ought not hunt, (for if we do) it will rain” (ren wu tian, qi yu), the syntax of which shows that they cannot be questions.
The “Question” Question*
Authors: Nivison David S.
Published: August 2016

When we read Shang oracle-bone inscriptions, we should distinguish between what the diviner is saying (in the “charge,” mingci) and what he is doing in the whole divination rite. What he is doing is not always seeking information; and even when he is doing this, what he says is usually not a question. This paper offers various arguments and examples to show this. For example, Li Xueqin's research proves that the oracle language possessed grammatical forms, such as final particles and final negatives, for marking a sentence as a question. Therefore, the first assumption should be that when a diviner does not use these forms, he does not intend a sentence to be understood as a question. And when two sentences in the same inscription — e.g., the charge and the prognostication — are alike in form (both of them being without final negatives or interrogative particles), it is a mistake to construe one of them as a question and the other as a statement.
7. Yin Dynasty Jades
Authors: Nai Xia
Published: August 2016

This paper tries to study the typology, terminology, and functions of the jades of the Shang dynasty by using an archaeological approach based mainly on archaeological materials from scientific excavations. This contrasts with the old method which relied upon questionable textual evidence and less well-documented jades in public and private collections. The main points of the paper are as follows:

(1) Ceremonial jades: Some jades of the Shang dynasty were ceremonial not practical objects, but the system of six jades called rui yu (auspicious jades) in the three Books of Rites is a fabrication devised by the Confucian scholars of the period of the late Zhou and early Han dynasties, who used what they could find of the surviving jade objects and customs of use and supplemented old texts and oral traditions with their own imaginations so as to make the system perfectly rational according to Confucian standards. In our excavations, we have not found a single case in which the jades were grouped in a set of six, nor have we found any evidence to verify the uses mentioned in the Books of Rites.
17. The Cosmological Meaning of the Ten

Gan

and Twelve

Zhi

in Shang Civilization
Authors: Kiyoshi Akatsuka
Published: August 2016

In the Shang, time was represented by a system of combining shi gan (ten stem signs) and shi-er zhi (twelve branch signs), a complete cycle taking sixty days.

Many interpretations, some dating back to the Han period, have been made as to the meaning of the signs. I question the suitability of these theories and, using the original meaning of the characters together with different words of similar sound propose the possibility of a systematic interpretation. Shi gan symbolize stages in the development of a barley seed from germination in the earth to fruition, while shi-er zhi are taken to be stages from the conception of a child up to acceptance into the family. The cycle of the two sets of signs represents the idea of the diffusion of two forces within the cosmos: that which gives life to plants and all living things and that which gives them form and substance. Attention is also drawn to the relationship of the former with sun-worship and to that of the latter with moon-worship.