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The Theology of Cardinal Walter Kasper: Speaking the Truth in Love
Kristin M. Colberg and Robert A. Krieg
Cardinal Walter Kasper's contributions to theology, ecumenism, Jewish-Christian relations, and the pastoral life of the church have shaped Catholicism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Acknowledging this, Pope Francis has praised Kasper's “profound and serene” theology. In The Theology of Cardinal Walter Kasper: Speaking Truth in Love, leading theologians from across the United States and Canada explore the full scope of Kasper’s thought on topics such as the character of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, Christology, theological method, and the nature of the church-world relationship. Kasper himself presents four previously unpublished texts: on the interpretation of Vatican II, on forgiveness, on Christian hope, and on the approach to theology today. This volume originated at a conference, at which Kasper was an active participant, in honor of his eightieth birthday. It provides an introduction to Kasper's thought and also an overview of major issues in contemporary Catholic theology.
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Stewardship: Living a Biblical Call
Bernard F. Evans
In Stewardship: Living a Biblical Call, Bernard Evans presents an accessible and easily understood biblical and theological foundation for giving that both parishioners and stewardship leaders will find practical and valuable. In focused chapters, the many aspects of stewardship are named and described, assisting readers in recognizing gifts and actions that make practicing stewardship far more than a financial proposition. Grounded in years of practical work in this area with parish leaders, Evans adeptly ties the Catholic invitation to stewardship to biblical foundations as well as the social teaching of the church. A clear, concise, readable work, Stewardship: Living a Biblical Call also engages key questions of the age, such as ecological stewardship and care for body, mind, and spirit. Evans explores the communal and personal actions that help every believer proclaim the reign of God.
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Distant Markets, Distant Harms: Economic Complicity and Christian Ethics
Daniel K. Finn
Does a consumer who bought a shirt made in another nation bear any moral responsibility when the women who sewed that shirt die in a factory fire or in the collapse of the building? Many have asserted, without explanation, that because markets cause harms to distant others, consumers bear moral responsibility for those harms. But traditional moral analysis of individual decisions is unable to sustain this argument.
Distant Harms, Distant Markets presents a careful analysis of moral complicity in markets, employing resources from sociology, Christian history, feminism, legal theory, and Catholic moral theology today.
Because of its individualistic methods, mainstream economics as a discipline is not equipped to understand the causality entailed in the long chains of social relationships that make up the market. Critical realist sociology, however, has addressed the character and functioning of social structures, an analysis that can helpfully be applied to the market. The True Wealth of Nations research project of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies brought together an international group of sociologists, economists, moral theologians, and others to describe these causal relationships and articulate how Catholic social thought can use these insights to more fully address issues of economic ethics in the twenty-first century. The result was this interdisciplinary volume of essays, which explores the causal and moral responsibilities that consumers bear for the harms that markets cause to distant others.
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Monks and Muslims II: Creating Communities of Friendship
Mohammad A. Shomali and William Skudlarek OSB
If Christians and Muslims are to live in peace, encouraging one another to grow in holiness and working together for the good of all God's creation, they must move beyond politicized and often negative images of one another. Monastic/Muslim dialogue issuing from friendship and focused on revelation, prayer, and witness is an important component in this effort. Indeed, it is essential.
A conference jointly sponsored by the International Institute for Islamic Studies and Monastic Interreligious Dialogue brought together Iranian Shi‘a Muslims and Christian monastics to Qum, Iran. Their first gathering was held a year previous in Rome, Italy and focused on spiritual topics like meditation and prayer. The second meeting in Qum was an occasion to deepen the bonds of friendship that had already been established. The conference theme centered on friendship and the dialogue explored the scriptural, theological, spiritual, philosophical, and practical bases for friendship between monks and Muslims. This follow up book invites readers to listen in and learn from their conversation and witness.
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In the Name of the Church: Vocation and Authorization of Lay Ecclesial Ministry
William John Cahoy
In the Name of the Church: Vocation and Authorization in Lay Ecclesial Ministry presents insights generated in the 2011 Collegeville National Symposium on Lay Ecclesial Ministry, a gathering designed to prioritize the theological foundations for vocation and authorization in lay ecclesial ministry, and make recommendations to advance excellence in this expanding ministry. The essays presented by seven theologians at the Symposium are included, along with thoughtful input drawn from the experiences of lay and ordained ministers who gathered to “amplify the voice and strengthen the national will to promote effective ecclesial leadership practices identified within Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord.”
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The Moral Dynamics of Economic Life: An Extension and Critique of Caritas in Veritate
Daniel K. Finn
Caritas in veritate (Charity in Truth) is the ''social'' encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, one of many papal encyclicals over the last 120 years that address economic life. This volume, based on discussions at a symposium co-sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies and the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, analyzes the situation of the Church and the theological basis for Benedict's thinking about the person, community, and the globalized economy.
The Moral Dynamics of Economic Life engages Benedict's analysis of ''relation,'' the characteristics of contemporary social and economic relationships and the implications of a relational, Trinitarian God for daily human life. Crucial here is the Pope's notion of ''reciprocity,'' an economic relationship characterized by help freely given, but which forms an expectation that the recipient will ''reciprocate,'' either to the donor or, often, to someone else. This ''logic of gift,'' Benedict argues, should influence daily economic life, especially within what he calls ''hybrid'' firms, which make a profit and invest a share of that profit in service to needs outside the firm. Similarly, development - whether of an individual or of a nation - must be integral, neither simply economic nor personal nor psychological nor spiritual, but a comprehensive development that engages all dimensions of a flourishing human life.
The essays, written by social scientists, theologians, policy analysts and others, engage, extend, and critique Benedict's views on these issues, as well as his call for deeper dialogue and a morally based transformation of social and economic structures. -
The "Whole Truth": Re-Thinking Retribution in the Book of Tobit
Micah D. Kiel
Micah Kiel discusses the overly simplistic nomenclature ('Deuteronomistic') given to Tobit's perspective on retribution and attempts to show, by coordinating it with Sirach and parts of 1 Enoch, how the book's view is much more complex than is normally asserted. Kiel argues that the return of Tobit's sight is a catalyst that ushers in new theological insight, specifically, that the world does not run to the tightly mechanized scheme of act and consequence. Kiel's close comparison between Tobit and selected contemporaneous literature provides context and support for such narrative observations. Sirach and parts of 1 Enoch demonstrate how authors at the time of Tobit were expressing their views of retribution in the realm of creation theology. The created order in Tobit is unruly and rises up in opposition to God's righteous characters. By way of this quirky tale, the author of Tobit suggests that God does not function strictly according to old formulae. Instead, a divine incursion into human reality is necessary for the reversal of suffering.--publisher's website.
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Angels and Demons: A Christian Primer of the Spiritual World
Michael Patella OSB
The supernatural world is prominent in many of today's movies, television shows, novels, and the popular imagination. But some of what is presented as grounded in a Christian worldview is in fact far from that. In Angels and Demons, Michael Patella, OSB, offers an accessible and fascinating look at supernatural realities as they really are presented in the Bible and Christian tradition. Among the topics Patella explores with a valuable combination of pastoral wisdom and academic rigor are: the role of angels in the ministry of Jesus; the apocalyptic battle in Revelation; the occult, possession, and the work of Satan; what angels are and what they're not; the Last Judgment: how? when?
Readers will appreciate Patella's level-headed appraisal of the views of the supernatural world in the various sections of the Bible. They will be engaged by his lucid account of "Who's Who in Hell." They will be both comforted and inspired by his foundational conviction that Christ has claimed creation for the forces of good, evil is on the run, and there is no chance of the tide ever turning the other way, evil actions and human suffering notwithstanding.
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Canticum Novum: Gregorian Chant for Today's Choirs
Anthony Ruff OSB
The book contains 100 hymns and antiphons with psalm verses for every season and occasion. Word-by-word English translations of the Latin responses are provided to aid the singers’ understanding. The psalm verses are in Latin and English on facing pages with easy-to-follow pointing to match the psalm tones. The English psalm verses are from the Revised Grail Psalms. A demonstration recording of chants from Canticum novum is also available.
Primarily Latin antiphons with psalm verses; with nine strophic hymns. Chants shown in four-line notation, five-line notation, and lineless neumes of the St. Gall school.
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Sung Gospels for Major Solemnities in Multiple Voices
Anthony Ruff OSB
Proclaim the gospel in song for Christmas, Easter, Epiphany, Pentecost, solemnities, and other special feast days with these settings written for two- or three-part voices, adapted for the English language from settings found in medieval manuscripts. These settings are ideal to make the gospel the high point of the Liturgy of the Word.
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A Virtuous Church: Catholic Theology, Ethics, and Liturgy for the 21st Century
R. Kevin Seasoltz OSB
Today's multicultural and multi-traditioned world greatly influences the life of the Catholic Church. Fr. Seasoltz explores the impact of such trends as globalization, the migration of peoples, the ecological crisis, and the geographical shift in Christianity from the North to the South. He maintains that even in a world strikingly different from that of biblical times, a key to church renewal lies in the moral teachings of Jesus.
Topics examined include the development of "virtue morality" and its practice today; tensions between local churches and the universal church; and the celebration of the liturgy and the sacraments. Throughout, the focus is on the positive: that is, what can be gained from a renewed emphasis on Christian virtues?
Brings together three theological themes: ecclesiology, ethics, and liturgy.
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Monks and Muslims: Monastic and Shi'a Spirituality in Dialogue
Mohammad A. Shomali and William Skudlarek OSB
If Christians and Muslims are to live in peace, encouraging one another to grow in holiness and working together for the good of all God's creation, they must move beyond politicized and often negative images of one another. Monastic/Muslim dialogue - issuing from friendship and focused on revelation, prayer, and witness - is an important component in this effort. Indeed, it is essential. Monastic Interreligious Dialogue is a commission of the Benedictine Confederation that promotes and coordinates dialogue between Catholic monastic men and women and spiritual practitioners of other religious traditions. The organization invited Iranian Shi'a Muslims and Christian monastics to share their faith in a revealing God, their understanding and practice of prayer, and their desire to be witnesses to the world of divine mercy and justice. This book invites readers to listen in and learn from their conversation.
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Dilatato Corde. Vol. 1, January-December 2011
William Skudlarek OSB and Monastic Interreligious Dialogue
"Dilatato Corde is an online publication housed on the [Monastic Interreligious Dialogue's] webstie...At the end of each year a selection of testimonies, reflections, reports, and studies from that volume are published as a book. This is the first of the series"--Book cover.
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Efficacious Engagement : Sacramental Participation in the Trinitarian Mystery
Kimberly Hope Belcher
The long-standing tradition of baptizing infants suggests that the sacraments plunge our bodies into salvation, so the revelation of God’s love in the sacraments addresses the whole person, not the mind alone. In this work, the contemporary Roman Catholic rite of baptism for infants becomes a case study, manifesting the connections between the human body, the ecclesial body, and the Body of Christ. The sacramental life, for children as for adults, is an ongoing journey deeper into the life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
By examining the church’s practice of infant baptism, Kimberly Hope Belcher asks how human beings participate in God’s life through the sacraments. Christian sacraments are embodied, cultural rituals performed by and for human beings. At the same time, the sacraments are God’s gifts of grace, by which human beings enter into God’s own life. In this study, contemporary ritual studies, sacramental theology, and trinitarian theology are used to explore how participation in the sacraments can be an efficacious engagement in God’s life of love.
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The Third Desert : The Story of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue
Fabrice Blee, William Skudlarek OSB, and Mary Grady
Over the course of its history the Christian monastic tradition has developed a "desert spirituality" of solitude, silence, and self-knowledge that fosters openness to the divine presence and its transformative power. Today the divine presence is manifesting itself anew in the "desert of otherness," that sacred space in which we encounter the other as one whose difference, even of religion and spirituality, can enrich us, rather than as one who must be drawn to and converted to our own "truth." The encounter of Christians with other believers will increasingly become a place of hardship and testing that leads to union with the divine. This "third monastic desert" is, in reality, the nucleus of the Kingdom that is coming into being, where communication becomes communion. Such has been the experience of monastic men and women--Buddhists, Hindus, and Christians--who have engaged in dialogue. Having discovered an unanticipated bond between dialogue and silence, openness to the other and interiority, Christian monks invite the whole Church to join them on this journey into the desert of otherness.
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Vatican I and Vatican II as Coherent Christian Discourse: A Relationship of Complementarity, Continuity and Difference
Kristin Colberg
The relationship between Vatican I and Vatican II is largely unexplored terrain in Christian theology. This lacuna in theological scholarship can be attributed, to a great extent, to the fact that the councils' teachings are widely considered incompatible. The church's inability to harmonize Vatican I's and Vatican II's teachings on ecclesiastical authority inhibits not only a more full reception of each council, but contributes to a sense that the church cannot offer a coherent presentation of some of its most central beliefs. This dissertation demonstrates fundamental compatibility between Vatican I and Vatican II by illustrating that they share many of the same intentions and concerns. It employs a method of distinguishing between each council's aims and the strategies in order to illustrate that the differences between them exist on the level of tone, emphasis and form rather that on the level of doctrine. This allows for a more appropriate understanding of their relationship which advances ecclesial self-understanding and promotes coherent Christian discourse. The first chapter engages the issue of Christian coherence as a means of indicating how understanding the relationship of Vatican I and Vatican II contributes to more effective presentations of the Christian message. The second chapter establishes the context in which Vatican I's documents can be read appropriately. Specifically, it looks at the historical and theological factors which contribute to the underlying intent which inform its texts. Chapter three focuses on the way in which Vatican II emerges from the unanswered questions of Vatican I and, in many ways, represents a continuation of its work, rather than a rejection or an overcoming of it. It argues that the differences which have come to define Vatican I's and Vatican II's relationship must be seen within a larger context of their continuity. Finally, chapter four illustrates that a stronger ecclesial self-understanding, made possible be properly relating Vatican I and Vatican II, can edify questions of reception in general and the contemporary debate over Vatican II's interpretation in particular.
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Wrestling with God
Kilian McDonnell OSB
The Bible is full of persons who wrestle with God. As they stumble in their lives, they love and adore their Lord. They also scheme, lie, cheat, steal, quarrel, and fornicate. Abraham, the faith model for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, tells Sarah to lie; Sarah scolds God for ignoring her; Amnon rapes his sister; Judas recognizes Jesus' unconditional love for him; Mary thinks that by distancing himself from her, Jesus hammered a spike into her breast; Peter's wife crawls into their bed and snuggles up; Jesus' relatives think he is crazy. In a word, as seekers of God the biblical characters mirror our lives. Like Jacob we limp away from the wrestling match.
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The Attentive Voice: Reflections on the Meaning and Practice of Interreligious Dialogue
William Skudlarek OSB
For three and a half decades, Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (MID) has been bringing individuals from faiths with a monastic tradition—Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism—to discuss the deeper rhythms and structures of their traditions: the practices, disciplines, and struggles and joys of a vocation.
In these essays, gathered from twenty-five years of the MID Bulletin, the authors describe the ways dialogue with other religious traditions has enhanced their spiritual life, explain why interreligious relations have become such an important element of modern Catholic life, and reflect on the meaning of interreligious dialogue vis-à-vis the Catholic Church’s teaching on revelation and salvation in and through Jesus Christ. In so doing, they show that interreligious dialogue is an engaging, enlightening, and spiritually enriching way to respond to religious plurality.
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Witness to the Fullness of Light: The Vision and Relevance of the Benedictine Monk Swami Abhishiktananda
William Skudlarek OSB and Bettina Baumer
Swami Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux OSB) was a French Benedictine monk who went to India in 1948 and devoted his life to becoming a bridge between East and West, between Hinduism and Christianity. To mark the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of this great pioneer of interreligious dialogue, Monastic Interreligious Dialogue sponsored a symposium in January 2010 at Shantivanam, the ashram he and Abbé Jules Monchanin founded in 1950. This volume charts the influence that Abhishiktananda had on Christianity in India, on other spiritual seekers engaging with Hinduism and Christianity, and the continuing importance of his work today.
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Introducing the Practice of Ministry
Kathleen A. Cahalan
Ministry is often examined in terms of who the minister is, not what the minister does. But the vocation to ministry must be understood as a call to identity as well as to practice, one that is rooted in Jesus' life and ministry as well as the Spirit's charisms. In Introducing the Practice of Ministry Kathleen A. Cahalan defines ministerial leadership as carried out through the practices of teaching, preaching, pastoral care, worship, social ministry, and administration for the sake of nurturing the life of discipleship in the community of believers. In her examination of charisms for each of the practices of ministry, Cahalan presents readers with a Trinitarian foundation, noting that "the practices of discipleship and ministry have their origin in the very practices of God."
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Church and Worship in Fifth-Century Rome: The Letter of Innocent I to Decentius of Gubbio
Martin Connell
The letter of Innocent I to Decentius of Gubbio comes from the fourth century and is therefore very significant for studies of early Roman liturgical history - and is frequently quoted. Here the series provides the full text with an introduction, translation, and notes.
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Celibacy in the Ancient World: Its Ideal and Practice in Pre-Hellenistic Israel, Mesopotamia, and Greece
Dale Launderville OSB
Celibacy is a commitment to remain unmarried and to renounce sexual relations, for a limited period or for a lifetime. Such a commitment places an individual outside human society in its usual form, and thus questions arise: What significance does such an individual, and such a choice, have for the human family and community as a whole? Is celibacy possible? Is there a socially constructive role for celibacy?
These questions guide Dale Launderville, OSB, in his study of celibacy in the ancient cultures of Israel, Mesopotamia, and Greece prior to Hellenism and the rise of Christianity. Launderville focuses especially on literary witnesses, because those enduring texts have helped to shape modern attitudes and can aid us in understanding the factors that may call forth the practice of celibacy in our own time. Readers will discover how celibacy fits within a context of relationships, and what kinds of relationships thus support a healthy and varied society, one aware of and oriented to its cosmic destiny.
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Green Monasticism: A Buddhist-Catholic Response to an Environmental Calamity
Donald W. Mitchell and William Skudlarek OSB
In May 2008, Buddhist and Christian monastics gathered at Gethsemani Abbey, Kentucky, to discuss how their respective religions conceived of our relationship with the planet, and what they felt was the responsibility of their faith traditions, orders, and individual communities toward healing both our inner and outer ecology. Green Monasticism collects the wisdom of these scholars and practitioners in a volume that reflects both deep engagement with and critical thinking about protecting the environment.
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God's Harp String : The Life and Legacy of the Benedictine Monk Swami Abhishiktananda
William Skudlarek OSB
In 1948, the French Benedictine monk Henri Le Saux (1910-1973) visited India for the first time and began a twenty-five year long quest to fathom the depths of Vedanta and the Upanishads. Abhishiktananda ("Bliss of the Anointed One"), as Le Saux renamed himself, sought to retain his abiding Christian faith while personally immersing himself in Hindu spirituality. He also encountered some of the extraordinary sages of the Indian subcontinent, such as Sri Ramana Maharshi and Gnanananda.
These articles about Abhishiktananda, gathered on the one hundred anniversary of his birth, provide not only personal recollections of this remarkable man, but examine the legacy of the life and work of one of the first practitioners of Hindu-Christian dialogue.
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One Heart, One Soul, Many Communities: Proceedings of the 21st Annual Monastic Institute, School of Theology-Seminary, Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321, July 1-7, 2006
Mary Forman OSB
The School of Theology and Seminary of Saint John's University sponsors an annual Monastic Institute to provide continuing education and spiritual enrichment for American monastics and all those interested in monastic spirituality and practice. One Heart, One Soul revisits the 2006 institute and its focus on the future with such important questions as: How do the origins, history, and present state of Benedictine monasticism point to the viability of its future? How can the new intentional communities contribute to the revitalization of Benedictine monasticism today? In what ways do the Benedictine Rule and its array of communal arrangements and the perspectives of these members and oblates inspire and provide the scaffolding for new communities of life and hope in our modern world?
Attempts to answer these questions showcase the theme of unity in diversity and address Benedictine monasticism in broad, institutional strokes as well as in the very specific practices and narratives of monastics, oblates, and others living in various communities. In this volume, you will hear the voices of many community members—young and old, men and women, Benedictines and intentional community members—all speaking from the heart of their lived experience and wisdom.
Contents:
Early monasticism and community movements today: what is old and new and how do they meet? / Columba Stewart -- Global view of monasticism today / Notker Wolf -- The sign of Jonah and a new monasticism / Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove -- "Colloquium": conversations between Abbot Primate Notker Wolf, OSB, and representatives from various communities / Gary Reierson [and others] -- Practices at the heart of community life / Christine D. Pohl -- Newcomers to monastic life / Peter Funk [and others] -- Dialogue of newcomers to monasteries / with Christine Pohl -- How women's experience of monastic life can speak to hungers for community today / Margaret Malone -- Intergenerations in community / Teresa Jackson, Kathryn Casper -- Four concepts of a Benedictine community in the twenty-first century: listening, community, humility, and hospitality / Meg Funk -- Responders to Mary Margaret (Meg) Funk, OSB / Gerald Schlabach [and others] -- "Into the future" panel / Mary Ewing Stamps [and others] -- Summative probings for the movement of monasticism "into the future" / Mary Forman.