bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Art as Made and Sensuous: Hegel, Danto and the ‘End of Art’
Authors: Gaiger Jason 
Published: August 2016

Hegel's lectures on aesthetics embrace the world history of art in its broadest sense, encompassing the advanced cultures of Asia, Egypt, and Mesopotamia as well as the specifically European tradition that extends from Classical Antiquity through to the art of the Nazarenes and the burgeoning Romanticism of his own day. This attempt to bring the different stages and forms of art into a coherent system and to tell the story of their successive unfolding from the standpoint of philosophy lies at the very heart of Hegel's aesthetics. Indeed, the detailed attention that Hegel pays to the historical development of art has led Ernst Gombrich to recognise him as the founding father of the modem discipline of art history, with all the ambivalence that this expression conveys. In this paper, however, I am concerned less with the way in which Hegel's aesthetics have informed, and continue to inform, our ongoing attempts to understand the art of the past than with the relevance that his ideas still possess in relation to the art of the present. I shall argue that Hegel's aesthetics can tell us a great deal about contemporary art and that, read in the right way, his views provide an important corrective to a significant strand of contemporary art theory.I want to start by addressing something that must be regarded as a considerable obstacle to any such endeavour: Hegel's theory of the ‘end of art’. If, as popular conceptions of this theory would have it, Hegel saw the development of art as in some way a completed historical enterprise superseded in his own time by the new science of philosophy, not only would there seem to be little meaningful role left for art to play in his larger philosophical system but also little that such a philosophy of art can contribute to helping us understand the new and unexpected directions that art has taken, and continues to take, right up to the present day. This interpretation of Hegel's views remains highly problematic and anyone familiar with Hegel's method of argumentation will remain dissatisfied with such a one-sided representation of his position. Nonetheless, the extant text of the Lectures on Aesthetics does appear to offer some support to such claims.
The Spirit of Place: The Columbia River Watershed Letter and the Meaning of Community
Authors: Burton-Christie Douglas 
Published: August 2016

ABSTRACTThis article examines the theological and ecological significance of the International Pastoral Letter on the Columbia River Watershed issued by the U.S. and Canadian Bishops in 2001. It argues that through its inclusive, participatory process, its emphasis on the watershed as a significant locus for theological reflection, and its strong moral, spiritual vision regarding what a watershed is and can be, the Letter makes a significant contribution to Catholic teaching on the environment. However, the article also claims that due to its generalizing rhetorical style, its weak vision of spirituality and its lack of a critical, prophetic edge, the Letter fails to realize its full potential. The article poses questions about the central meaning and purpose of such pastoral letters and about what the Roman Catholic community can learn from the present Letter that might strengthen future attempts to address environmental or other pressing concerns.
Hollywood's Absent, Impotent, and Avenging God in the Classroom
Authors: O'Keeffe Michael E. , Waller Kathleen 
Published: August 2016

ABSTRACTThe focus of this article is twofold. First, recognizing the influence of the mass media on the religious views of many undergraduate students, it examines the negative depiction of God in several popular American films and concludes that the image of God as absent, impotent and demonic ought to be addressed in the classroom. The second issue concerns the use of film in the classroom—both to encourage students to sharpen their understanding of contemporary theology, and to then use this theology as a basis for understanding and evaluating the religious messages carried by contemporary films. The films explored are What Dreams May Come, Dogma, The End of the Affair, The Rapture, and Stigmata.
Catholicism & Sexuality: The Sounds of Silence
Authors: McCormick Patrick T. 
Published: August 2016

ABSTRACTThe episcopal silence and secrecy associated with the recent pedophilia scandal echoes a larger inability of the Catholic episcopal hierarchy to enter into open and honest dialogue about a wide range of sexual issues. For more than three decades the chasm between official teachings on sexuality and gender and the belief and/or practice of the majority of Catholic laity, clergy and theologians (and an unknown number of bishops) has been growing. Still, attempts to address or bridge this divide have met with a fourfold silence. It is a silence that has kept bishops from speaking their true minds, a silence sought by restricting, investigating and sanctioning theologians, a silence that renders pastors mute or covert on sexual matters, and a silence that ignores the experience and voices of women. Such a silence undermines magisterial authority and deprives Catholics of a useful and persuasive sexual ethic, while marginalizing those willing to speak out and demoralizing those who feel they cannot.
Teilhard's Vision and the Environment
Authors: Hill Brennan R. 
Published: August 2016

ABSTRACTPierre Teilhard de Chardin was a pioneer in integrating modern science and Christian theology. He was also a mystic who throughout his life and writings attempted to share the ways in which the divine was the source, power and goal of all creation and to point out how spirit glowed within all of matter. Teilhard's vision of the earth can be most helpful today as we attempt to restore and sustain our environment. In this article I will explore Teilhard's deep reverence for the cosmos and humanity, as well as his views on how God's power works through Christ and the church. Along the way I will suggest how this vision might be linked to our contemporary concerns for our environment. I will close with some recommendations for updating Teilhard's vision so that it might better serve our present day needs.
Continuity Amidst Disruption: The Spirit and Apostolic Succession at the Reformation
Authors: Thompson-Uberuaga William 
Published: August 2016

What light might a greater attentiveness to the role of the Holy Spirit radiate over the tangled question of apostolic succession and the validity of orders? Here I have in mind the question of orders in the Protestant communities, as understood from a Roman Catholic perspective, although the question is relevant to some of the Eastern Orthodox and other Eastern Christian churches as well. For although it is commonly held, given the teaching of Vatican II (Unitatis Redintegratio, Decree on Ecumenism, no. 15) and later papal teaching (John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, no. 50), that Catholics recognize the validity of orders of the Orthodox, the recognition is not always mutual.The typical Roman Catholic view of the “Protestant question,” if I may abbreviate it in this way, is that an unbridgeable break—a radical disruption—occurred at the Reformation in both the form and the matter of apostolic succession. That is, the teaching (or doctrine) about orders, as well as the concrete, institutionalized forms of its presence in the threefold diaconate-priesthood-episcopacy, were fatally disrupted at the Reformation. Apostolic succession was thereby fatally flawed, at least as regards ordained ministry. And this fatal flaw was in turn reflected in the liturgical rites and larger ecclesial institutional forms of the Protestant communities.
Towards a Comparative Christology
Authors: Carmody John 
Published: August 2016

AbstractThis article speculates on opening Christology to categories from the comparative study of religion. First, it describes the taxonomical work of scholars like R. Otto, M. Eliade, and G. Van der Leeuw, suggesting how such might be applied to New Testament data. Next, it studies Jesus as a numinous figure, concluding that he manifests the holy in the peculiar modality of love. “Holy Love” to Jesus' signal relation with God. It concludes that such insights are complementary, if not superior, to those from ontological approaches.
Three Types of Monastic Temple in Hindu India
Authors: Sadler Albert William 
Published: August 2016

AbstractMuch of what is vital in contemporary urban Hinduism is centered in maths, temples maintained by religious orders. The activities of both monks and laymen in these centers reflect the unique solution of their community to the perennial Hindu problem of balancing Wisdom, Ecstasy, and Works. Maths of the ancient Shankara Order clearly reflect the dichotomy between the monks' quest for wisdom and the laymen's practice of devotion, as noted by Max Weber; maths of the medieval Chaitanya Order show, in their layout, the centrality of kirtan (ecstatic communal worship); maths of the modern order of Sri Ramakrishna reflect the modern emphasis on practical service to the community through education and medicine. In each case, the configuration of the monastic-temple enclosure reflects the spirit of the community and the order.
Faith as Freedom: Solidarity with the Alienated and Confidence in the Future
Authors: Gutierrez Gustavo 
Published: August 2016

AbstractAn introductory discussion of Christian perspectives on freedom is followed by a consideration of the developments that preceded the genesis of Liberation Theology. That leads into the issues: Given the complexity of contemporary structures in a technological society where the number of those marginated by the system has become acute, who is my neighbor and how do I concretely love him or her? Transformation of history requires action flowing from faith and a willingness to live conflict. But how does one announce God as Father in a non-human world? What are the implications when we tell a non-person that he or she is a son or daughter of God? Believers must develop a critical consciousness and a praxis which confronts the actual conditions of life. To be a Church is to be in solidarity with all who suffer but we must remember that the gospel message is not ideological since it does not identify with any social form. It hopes against hope.
How My Mind Has Changed, 1960-1975
Authors: Curran Charles E. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractA distinguished Catholic moral theologian outlines in a systematic way the changes that have occurred in his understanding of Catholic moral theology during the last fifteen years. This historical developmental essay touches on various concrete issues while reviewing the contexts which influenced them and the stance with which they were addressed. Ethical models and methodologies are reviewed and official Church teaching discussed. While the changes of the last fifteen years are seen as enormous, it is maintained that they are in continuity with the best of the Roman Catholic theological tradition.
American Catholics and Revival Religion 1850–1900
Authors: Dolan Jay P. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractBy studying the parish mission under the rubric of revivalism the author claims that revival religion enjoyed widespread popularity in the American Catholic community in the second half of the nineteenth century. This conservative tradition had a wider appeal and exerted a greater influence among the bulk of Catholics than the liberal progressive gospel of Americanization.The parish mission had its roots in Europe and was introduced to the U. S. by various religious orders, the Redemptorists and Jesuits in particular. By comparing the parish mission with Protestant revivals the term Catholic revivalism emerges as the most apt description for the religion fostered at the mission.To illustrate the meaning of revival religion among Catholics the author studies handbooks for Catholic revivals, sermons of mission preachers and newspaper accounts of the mission. In particular he concentrates on the sermons of Redemptorist and Paulist preachers. From these sources the article argues that Catholics were being nurtured in an evangelical piety that stressed individual conversion; the preachers proclaimed a theology of individualism that was rooted in the theme of repentance and pressed upon the people in an urgent, emotion-filled manner. The moral qualities of right behavior were also stressed and chief among these was the spirit of temperance. A notable difference from Protestant revivalism was the Catholic emphasis on the sacrament of penance in the personal experience of conversion. Catholic revivals encouraged a sacramental evangelicalism that emerged as a major motivating force in the religion of American Catholics in the nineteenth century.
History, Religion, and Ideology: the Caleb Tradition
Authors: Flanagan James W. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractThe interaction among religion, ideology, and history must be kept in mind if one is to understand any of these or their role in society. Within the Hebrew Bible, the Caleb Tradition illustrates how religion and politics influenced several writers' interpretations of early Judahite and Israelite history, and in turn, how their histories were employed for religious and political ends. By recognizing these relationships, the reader is able to unravel one of the most complicated periods in Israel's history, which has been obscured by early historians-politicians-theologians. The study also suggests problems that may be expected when a biblical basis is proposed for modern society.
Eve, Mary and the Historians: American Catholicism and Women
Authors: Kenneally James J. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractIn viewing women as other “Mary's” many American Catholics have contested movements such as suffrage and higher education, believing them to be threats to a stable society and women's natural position in the home. Such a concept contained the seeds of its own destruction, for other Catholics, on the basis that pious, pure, females were superior to males, advocated that women's influence be extended beyond the immediate family. Contrasted with this “Mary” perception was that of woman as a tempting “Eve” whose societal activities must be confined, since she might undermine male spirituality. These stereotypes, each contributing to anti-feminism, have also influenced historians of Catholicism who tend to ignore the lives and problems of Catholic women. At this juncture in American Church history there is need for-an analysis of feminism's apparent erosion on the faith of Catholic women, and of an explanation as well of how prominent, influential women were able to reconcile their lives outside the home with their Church.
The New Religious Dimension in Western Marxism: I
Authors: Siebert Rudolf J. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractFor decades, orthodox Marxists understood Marxist dialectical materialism merely as a turning upside down of Hegel's absolute idealism. Humanistic Marxists have corrected the Marxist concept of the relationship between economic basestructure and cultural superstructure which in turn leads them to a more differentiated view of religion as part of the cultural superstructure. Since the 1920's, Western Marxists discovered that the relationship between Hegel's idea dialectics and Marxian reality dialectics is much more complicated than orthodox Marxists and their opponents, the positivists, previously assumed. Marxist dialectical materialism is not necessarily an ontological materialism, but rather a regional one. That allows Humanistic Marxists today to speak more favorably about some metaphysical and theological trends and to produce a more adequate and deeper critical theory of religion than Marx himself was able to create.
Revelation and Relativism in the Theology of H. Richard Niebuhr
Authors: Ede Alfred J. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractH. Richard Niebuhr's theological perspective was formed at a time when Protestantism was adjusting to a radically altered position on the American landscape, similar in many ways to the present American Catholic predicament. This essay initiates a dialogue between Niebuhr and Catholic theology at a point that is key to his thought, the theology of revelation. The positions of Niebuhr and Vatican II's Dei Verbum, although developed within different theological frameworks, provide a basis for beneficial discussion. Both view revelation as the self-disclosure of God in Jesus Christ to an historical community that is the bearer of that revelatory experience. For Niebuhr, however, revelation of the God of radical monotheism elicits a faith response to the center of being and value that shatters the boundaries of all closed societies and redirects all moral considerations. His development of the theological implications of historical relativism offers a corrective for the Church's henotheistic tendencies to distort its own meaning and mission by fashioning a closed society. Vatican II took steps to extend the vision of the Church beyond the confining barriers of past ecclesiologies. Niebuhr's theology provides one possible framework within which those first steps can be explored toward a more truly catholic understanding of faith.
Dante's Divine Comedy: An Introduction to Medieval Theology
Authors: Egan Keith J. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractThat the Commedia of Dante can be a stimulating initiation for undergraduates into the rich and exciting world of Medieval Theology is the conclusion of an experiment at Marquette University. The distinct advantages and some of the hazards encountered by the teacher of this course are shared in this article. Students in this experiment had the opportunity not only of becoming acquainted with the theological insights of the medieval world but were also able to enter into the discipline of Dante that integrated the tasks of poet and theologian.
Toward a Moral Theology of Social Consciousness
Authors: Rigali Norbert J. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractA certain “rugged individualism,” characterizing classical Catholic moral theology, can be traced to theology's defining love according to the model of appetite. This model of love, in turn, is part and parcel of the prepersonalistic, static “faculty psychology” that logically and inevitably flows from the Aristotelian, substance-accidents worldview. To overcome classical individualism in principle and to become solidly established as a socially conscious science, moral theology must operate from a new understanding of love—love understood according to the model of freedom.
World Religions and the Finality of Christ: a Critique of Hans Küng'sOn Being A Christian
Authors: Knitter Paul F. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractKüng's case for the relevance of Christianity and his program for dialogue with other religions include claims for the exclusive uniqueness and normativity of Christ. This article raises the following questions: (1) Are such claims necessary for personal commitment to Christ and for fidelity to the New Testament witness? (2) Do they allow for genuine dialogue with other religions? (3) Are they even possible in the light of prevalent norms for theological and historical-critical methodology?
Film as Hierophany
Authors: Bird Michael 
Published: August 2016

AbstractWithin the discussion of religious art there arises the fascinating question of how art can engender the awareness of those special (hierophanous) moments in culture where the sacred dimension breaks through into otherwise profane experience. This question requires a consideration of the peculiar relationship which a given art form has to its world (e.g., imitation vs. interpretation, recording vs. transformation).The special potency of cinematic art in its relationship to physical and spiritual reality, and to surface and depth, is the subject of the present article. While religion-and-film discussions frequently focus upon religious themes in film, the purpose of the following analysis is that of considering a theology of film, taking account of fundamental questions of cinematic theory. Among thinkers whose systems suggest possibilities for dialogue are theologian (Paul Tillich), a phenómenologist (Mikel Dufrenne) and a “school” of film theorists, including especially the followers of André Bazin.
An Objective Disorder: Homosexual Orientation and God's Eternal Law
Authors: Bonsor Jack A. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractRecent declarations by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith have disallowed any effort to rethink the tradition's negative evaluation of homosexuality. Citing Thomas Aquinas, the CDF appeals to eternal law as an important warrant for its position. Homosexual orientation is an objective disorder. It is an inclination to intimacy which violates God's design for human sexuality. This claim excludes further consideration of the topic. This study examines Aquinas' claim to know God's eternal law. At the heart of Aquinas' argument is the simile that creation is like a human artifact and God like an artist. When we know the work we know the Artist's intent. Heidegger's hermeneutical account of the work of art suggests that Aquinas has overlooked the historical grounds for the relationship between artist and artifact. Aquinas has the simile wrong. If Heidegger's approach is a reasonable alternative to that of Aquinas, then a space is opened within Catholic discourse to rethink the question of homosexuality.
An Abyss at The Heart of Mediation: Louis-Marie Chauvet's Fundamental Theology of Sacramentality
Authors: Miller Vincent J. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractIn his imposing work, Symbol and Sacrament, Louis-Marie Chauvet creatively explores the implications of symbolic mediation for the whole of Christian theology. Central to Chauvet's “fundamental theology of sacramentality” is the assertion that there is an inescapable absence within any mediation of presence. With this critical principle, he attempts to counter ecclesial triumphalism. Despite this critical concern, Chauvet's impressive project suffers from a naive optimism concerning symbolic mediation. Religious symbols are misused not only by those who assume direct, unmediated presence but also by those who coopt them to ideological ends. Chauvet's theology provides no principle of discernment concerning the possibility of the corruption of the Christian symbol tradition. His use of the notion of Gelassenheit to describe the proper posture toward religious symbols stifles critical reception. This article offers suggestions for correcting these shortcomings in Chauvet's worthwhile project using the thought of Levinas, Habermas, and Ricoeur.
Hazards of the Therapeutic: On the Use of Personalist and Feminist Teaching Methodologies
Authors: Homan Ken 
Published: August 2016

AbstractThis article expands a project begun as a participant in the first American Academy of Religion and Lilly Endowment Teaching Workshop on Religion. The original project examined feminist teaching methodologies and how a male theology professor could use these methodologies in a general undergraduate theology classroom. This work describes the processes of feminist and personalist teaching methodologies and analyzes their impact on undergraduate theology classrooms.While these approaches help students come to a greater sense of participation in and ownership of their knowledge, there has also been the attending risk that such pedagogies seemingly involve the student too intensely, too personally, and the course becomes a form of therapy. This study examines how this therapeutic turn appears to develop. It concludes with a discussion about the need for clearly articulated teaching methodologies and how their use where appropriate helps us anticipate and respond to therapeutic classroom dynamics.