DOCSLIB.ORG

Suffering and the Search for Wholeness: Beauty and the Cross in Hans Urs Von Balthasar and Contemporary Feminist Theologies

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Suffering and the Search for Wholeness: Beauty and the Cross in Hans Urs Von Balthasar and Contemporary Feminist Theologies Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2009 Suffering and the Search for Wholeness: Beauty and the Cross in Hans Urs Von Balthasar and Contemporary Feminist Theologies Elisabeth T. Vasko Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Vasko, Elisabeth T., "Suffering and the Search for Wholeness: Beauty and the Cross in Hans Urs Von Balthasar and Contemporary Feminist Theologies" (2009). Dissertations. 282. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/282 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2009 Elisabeth T. Vasko LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO SUFFERING AND THE SEARCH FOR WHOLENESS: BEAUTY AND THE CROSS IN HANS URS VON BALTHASAR AND CONTEMPORARY FEMINIST THEOLOGIES A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM IN THEOLOGY BY ELISABETH T. VASKO DECEMBER 2009 Copyright by Elisabeth T. Vasko, 2009 All rights reserved. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I want thank my doctoral committee at Loyola University of Chicago. I am grateful to all three for their time, commitment, and investment in my development as a scholar and as a person. As my director, Susan Ross saw me through the best and worst parts of this process. She not only taught me the value of thorough and carefully nuanced scholarship, but also the importance of listening to one’s own instinct along the way. Susan’s commitment to women’s leadership in the academy and in the church is reflected in her own scholarship and teaching. Early on in my career at Loyola, Jon Nilson taught me the importance of human authenticity in scholarship and how to spot scotosis . His continual encouragement and support sustained me in times when I doubted my own capabilities. It was Mark Bosco who first introduced me to theological aesthetics. His keen insight, expertise, and willingness to “think aloud” with me made this dissertation a much stronger project. In addition to my committee members, I want to thank all those in Loyola’s Theology Department who supported me along the way. John McCarthy taught me how to analyze arguments and appreciate theological methodology. Catherine Wolf and Marianne Wolfe helped me to navigate logistics of the doctoral program at Loyola. This dissertation would not be what it is without the support of all those women who “heard me into speech.” In a special way, I wish to thank all the women of Piper Hall, including Dawn Harris, Betsy Hemenway, Nicole Meehan, and Carol Coyne. The iii Gannon Scholars not only kept me on my toes, but also continue to give me great hope for the future. Finally, I am grateful to the members of Women in Theology at Loyola, especially Melissa, Jeanine, Rachel, Teresa, Mary, Kathryn, and Emily. Your friendship strengthened my spirit and enriched my scholarship. I want to thank my family for their patience and support throughout this process. Michael Stevens encouraged me to follow my dreams, even when it meant taking the road less travelled. Without his copy-editing assistance, this project would surely be less clear. I am also grateful to Therese Stevens. She is the one who has taught me to seek wholeness even in the midst of brokenness. Thank you to Emily, Martha, Ellen, and Dee for believing in me and celebrating my accomplishments along the way. I also want to thank my friends in Chicago and beyond for keeping me and my scholarship grounded in the present moment. Finally, I want to thank Scott, my life-long partner, for his patience through the ups and downs of my studies and for his willingness to learn alongside me. Your unconditional love and support has given me new eyes to see beauty—in people and in myself. iv Dedicated to the Women of Success in Kenya TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...............................................................................................iii ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER ONE: GOD-TALK, BEAUTY AND THE CROSS...................................... …1 The Return of Beauty to Theology: The Rise of Theological Aesthetic Discourse....... 3 What is Theological Aesthetics?............................................................................. 5 Beauty and Aesthetics............................................................................................. 6 Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Theological Aesthetics: Form and Splendor ..................... 10 The Beauty of the Cross: Historical Trajectories and Contemporary Trends ............. 15 The Cross, Spiritual Beauty, and Moral Beauty: Augustine ................................. 15 The Attractiveness of Divine Glory: Karl Barth ................................................... 18 The Beauty of the Cross as a Response to Secularism ......................................... 20 The Beauty of the Cross and Human Suffering: A Way of Solidarity .................. 25 Statement of the Problem............................................................................................ 27 Dissertation Methodology: Feminist Hermeneutics ................................................... 30 Christian Feminist Theological Discourse: On the Non-Neutrality of God-Talk. 34 Edwina Sandys’ Christa ........................................................................................ 37 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 40 CHAPTER TWO: BALTHASAR’S THEOLOGICAL AESTHETICS: NUPTIALITY AND THE CROSS................................................................................................ 42 Aesthetics and the Need for New Perception ............................................................. 44 Participation as Rapture and Beholding...................................................................... 46 Receptivity and Grace................................................................................................. 50 Revelation, Metaphysics, and the Analogy of Being.................................................. 57 vi Identity-in-Difference and Sexual Difference............................................................. 63 Sexual Difference and Theological Personhood......................................................... 68 Analysis....................................................................................................................... 82 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 90 CHAPTER THREE: THE DRAMA OF REDEMPTION: THE POWER OF LOVE AND VIOLENCE........................................................................................................... 93 Divine Glory and the Drama of Redemption: Transitioning from Aesthetics to Dramatics ............................................................................................................. 94 Revelation as a Battlefield .......................................................................................... 99 Humanity’s No: The Apocalyptic Rhythm of Sin..................................................... 102 Going to the Cross: Balthasar’s Soteriology............................................................. 107 Abandonment, Representation, and Obedience: Christ’s Pro nobis ................... 108 Cross, Eucharist, and Ecclesia .............................................................................110 Salvation as a Work of Love................................................................................111 Love as Kenosis : Self-Emptying and Receptivity .....................................................111 Kenosis , Impassibility, and Suffering ........................................................................115 Heresy and Harlotry: The Battle of the Logos.......................................................... 126 Suffering, Punishment, and the Aesthetics of Atonement......................................... 130 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 139 CHAPTER FOUR: CHRISTA : CONTEXTUALIZING BEAUTY AND THE CROSS FOR THE SAKE OF SUBJECTIVITY.............................................................. 142 Feminist Theological Methodology Revisited: The Power of Naming .................... 147 The Silence/s Patriarchy Keeps and Feminist Speech about the Cross .................... 149 Idolatry, Representation, and the imago Christi ....................................................... 157 Female Symbols for God.................................................................................... 159 vii Womanism and the imago Christi ....................................................................... 165 Redemptive Suffering and the Quest for Wholeness................................................ 170 Divine Suffering as God’s Compassion Poured Out........................................... 170 Christa/Community and the Embodiment of Eros for Mutual Relation............
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Spring Newsletter
    New Camaldoli Hermitage SPRING 2017 CONTEMPLATION IN ACTION “The mysticism of compassion does not aim at a blind experience of God that is devoted exclusively to one’s own interiority, but to the disruptive experience that occurs when dealing with others, in the dynamics of interpersonal encounters, face to face. This is an experience that is mystical and political at the same time.” ~ Johann Baptist Metz pages 2–7 IN THIS ISSUE 2 Message from the Prior: A Time of Need and Gratitude 2 In Memoriam: Br. Emmanuel Wassinger, OSB Cam 3 Br. Emmanuel: Stories Gathered Along the Way 4 Contemplation in Action 5–6 Subversive Orthodoxy—Robert Inchausti 7–9 Reflections ­­ on a Comtemplative Life in Action 10 Becoming Shelter—Deborah Smith Douglas 11 Spirituality with Open Eyes—Prior General Alessandro Barban quoting Johann Baptist Metz 12 World Day of Peace—Fr. Cyprian Consiglio 13 Oblates and Contemplation in Action— Fr. Robert Hale 13 Vita Monastica 14 Monastery of the Risen Christ 14 Development 15 Activities and Visitors 62475 Highway 1, Big Sur, CA 93920 • 831 667 2456 • www.contemplation.com 62475 Highway 1, Big Sur, CA 93920 • 831 667 2456 • www.contemplation.com Message From the Prior In Memoriam: Br. Emmanuel A Time of Need and Gratitude Wasinger, OSB Cam As many of you know by now, the central coast of California was walloped by an atmospheric river of rain this winter, which destroyed sections of Highway 1 and badly damaged our own entrance road. Our property is right in the middle of the most fragile part of the coast, and the worst damage to Highway 1, called Paul’s Slide, was just south of our own entry road.
    [Show full text]
  • HOLY BEAUTY a Reformed Perspective on Aesthetics Within a World of Unjust Ugliness John W. De Gruchy Much of My Theological Ende
    HOLY BEAUTY A Reformed Perspective on Aesthetics within a World of Unjust Ugliness John W. de Gruchy Robert Selby Taylor Professor of Christian Studies Director of the Graduate School in Humanities University of Cape Town Much of my theological endeavour over the years has focussed on the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. During the past decade my focus has shifted to the relationship between Christianity and democratic transformation and, more recently to theological aesthetics and to the role of art in transformation. This latter interest has clearly not meant a lessening of concern for theological engagement with public life. That remains constant both out of the conviction that theology and ethics cannot be separated, and the fact that the struggle against the legacy of apartheid and injustice more generally remains. The transition to democracy requires an ongoing struggle for social transformation. My interest in theological aesthetics, then, is not an opting out of a commitment for social justice but an attempt to address a set of issues that have previously been neglected by those of us who were engaged as theologians in the struggle against apartheid. To emphasise this point let me say that I wrote these words in the midst of a workshop of `Christianity, art and healing’ where the focus was on the new holocaust facing sub-Saharan Africa, the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Nadine Gordimer, the celebrated South African novelist, has noted that art is `at the heart of liberation.’1 The struggle against apartheid certainly produced an artistic creativity of a remarkable kind and intensity.2 It is remarkable, then, that theologians engaged in the struggle did not take this into account in doing theology.
    [Show full text]
  • Do This in Memory of Me‖: the Genealogy and Theological
    ―DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME‖: THE GENEALOGY AND THEOLOGICAL APPROPRIATIONS OF MEMORY IN THE WORK OF JOHANN BAPTIST METZ A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Candace Kristina McLean J Matthew Ashley, Director Graduate Program in Theology Notre Dame, Indiana April 2012 © Copyright 2012 Candace Kristina McLean ―DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME‖: THE GENEALOGY AND THEOLOGICAL APPROPRIATIONS OF MEMORY IN THE WORK OF JOHANN BAPTIST METZ Abstract by Candace Kristina McLean Many theologians have been influenced by Johann Metz‘s theology of memory. To examine Metz‘s sources and how others expand upon his work, I propose a two-part thesis. Part one arises from critical appraisal of sources upon which Metz relies in formulating his idea of memory. While the thinkers Metz draws upon are secular Jewish philosophers, Metz appropriates key notions in specifically theological ways by linking them with the memoria passionis of Jesus Christ and the Jewish religious roots of memory. Furthermore, Metz‘s apocalyptic/eschatological hope for the future differs from secular and postmodern hopes for something surprising, new, and redemptive because Metz advocates real, faith-filled content for these ideas. Part two of the thesis is critical-constructive. Metz‘s idea of memory has the potential to be more than an anthropological category. While reticent to speak of God‘s memory, anamnestic reason becomes a way of speaking about God‘s work of salvation for and with humanity. This becomes clearer when his idea of memory is considered in conjunction with the theology of God‘s memory in the writings of Latin American Candace Kristina McLean liberation theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez.
    [Show full text]
  • The Intermediate World: a Key Concept in Beautiful Thinking
    Open Philosophy 2018; 1: 50–58 Dorthe Jørgensen* The Intermediate World: A Key Concept in Beautiful Thinking https://doi.org/10.1515/opphil-2018-0005 Received February 28, 2018; accepted April 25, 2018 Abstract: The term ‘the intermediate world’ is a key concept in Den skønne tænkning (Beautiful Thinking) and the metaphysics of experience presented by this book. The metaphysics of experience is about the experiences of transcendence and beautiful thinking that take place in the intermediate world. In the article “The Intermediate World,” this subject is introduced through a discussion of thoughts and concepts formulated by Paul Klee (Zwischenwelt), Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (beautiful thinking), Aristotle (phantasia), Immanuel Kant (expanded thinking), Mark C. Taylor (imagination), and Eugenio Trías (the limit). The text depicts the intermediate world as the level of experience at which the understanding does not yet distinguish between subject and object. The intermediate world is thus not a realm between human and world, nor is it something outside the world we know. The intermediate world is rather the present world in its most original state: the ‘place’ where we find the source of all experience and cognition, a source called ‘basic experience’ characterized by sensation, faith, and comprehension. In this realm, imagination is active and takes the form of an objective force rather than a subjective mental power. Imagination opens mind and world, thus allowing not-yet- actualized possibilities to become perceivable. Keywords: experience, metaphysics, Klee, aesthetics, imagination, Baumgarten, sensitivity, Trías, limit, thinking 1 Introduction The expression ‘beautiful thinking’ derives from §1 in Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten’s Aesthetica.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT Love Itself Is Understanding: Balthasar, Truth, and the Saints Matthew A. Moser, Ph.D. Mentor: Peter M. Candler, Jr., P
    ABSTRACT Love Itself is Understanding: Balthasar, Truth, and the Saints Matthew A. Moser, Ph.D. Mentor: Peter M. Candler, Jr., Ph.D. This study examines the thought of Hans Urs von Balthasar on the post-Scholastic separation between dogmatic theology and the spirituality of Church, which he describes as the loss of the saints. Balthasar conceives of this separation as a shattering of truth — the “living exposition of theory in practice and of knowledge carried into action.” The consequence of this shattering is the impoverishment of both divine and creaturely truth. This dissertation identifies Balthasar’s attempt to overcome this divorce between theology and spirituality as a driving theme of his Theo-Logic by arguing that the “truth of Being” — divine and creaturely — is most fundamentally the love revealed by Jesus Christ, and is therefore best known by the saints. Balthasar’s attempted re-integration of speculative theology and spirituality through his theology of the saints serves as his critical response to the metaphysics of German Idealism that elevated thought over love, and, by so doing, lost the transcendental properties of Being: beauty, goodness, and truth. Balthasar constructively responds to this problem by re-appropriating the ancient and medieval spiritual tradition of the saints, as interpreted through his own theological master, Ignatius of Loyola, to develop a trinitarian and Christological ontology and a corresponding pneumatological epistemology, as expressed through the lives, and especially the prayers, of the saints. This project will follow the structure and rhythm of Balthasar’s Theo-Logic in elaborating the initiatory movement of his account of truth: phenomenological, Christological, and pneumatological.
    [Show full text]
  • Beauty As a Transcendental in the Thought of Joseph Ratzinger
    The University of Notre Dame Australia ResearchOnline@ND Theses 2015 Beauty as a transcendental in the thought of Joseph Ratzinger John Jang University of Notre Dame Australia Follow this and additional works at: https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses Part of the Philosophy Commons COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Copyright Regulations 1969 WARNING The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any further copying or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act. Do not remove this notice. Publication Details Jang, J. (2015). Beauty as a transcendental in the thought of Joseph Ratzinger (Master of Philosophy (School of Philosophy and Theology)). University of Notre Dame Australia. https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/112 This dissertation/thesis is brought to you by ResearchOnline@ND. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of ResearchOnline@ND. For more information, please contact [email protected]. School of Philosophy and Theology Sydney Beauty as a Transcendental in the Thought of Joseph Ratzinger Submitted by John Jang A thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Philosophy Supervised by Dr. Renée Köhler-Ryan July 2015 © John Jang 2015 Table of Contents Abstract v Declaration of Authorship vi Acknowledgements vii Introduction 1 Structure 3 Method 5 PART I - Metaphysical Beauty 7 1.1.1 The Integration of Philosophy and Theology 8 1.1.2 Ratzinger’s Response 11 1.2.1 Transcendental Participation 14 1.2.2 Transcendental Convertibility 18 1.2.3 Analogy of Being 25 PART II - Reason and Experience 28 2.
    [Show full text]
  • Passionate Theology
    Passionate Theology. Desire, Passion and Politics in the Theology of J B Metz∗ - Part II H Murray Hofmeyr (University of Pretoria) ABSTRACT Passionate Theology. Desire, Passion and Politics in the Theology of J B Metz - Part II The author argues that a theory of concupiscence (desire), the subject of much of Metz’s early work (during his “transcendental phase”) implicitly plays a decisive role in his Political Theology. The implied concept of concupiscence is explicated with the aid of the major categories of a theory of reification as developed by Lukács, Benjamin and Adorno. The main categories of Metz’s Political Theology (notably asceticism, theodicy, negative theology and praxis) are linked to the (implied) central concept of concupiscence, eventually described as the might of what is. As this might seems to be absolute, the problem of the praxis of the believer becomes acute. Metz calls for a theology that integrates into its concepts, societal, historical and cultural contexts. His notion of praxis as privation is interpreted in terms of longing and resistance. 1 ASCETICISM AS POLITICAL-THEOLOGICAL CATEGORY 1.1 The three aspects of non-identity According to Metz the concept of God is practical. This means that theology is situated. For Metz, as a European theologian, his context is characterised by the experience of non-identity. He resolutely proposes correctives to theological designs that he suspects of too much identity. The non-identity in terms of which Metz describes his context has three aspects: the unresolved project of Enlightenment; the catastrophe of Auschwitz; and the problem of the relationship of the First and Third Worlds (Metz 1992b:10).
    [Show full text]
  • The Proof of Beauty: from Aesthetic Experience to the Beauty of God
    ISSN 1918-7351 Volume 2 (2010) The Proof of Beauty: From Aesthetic Experience to the Beauty of God John D. Dadosky I was feeling part of the scenery I walked right out of the machinery My heart going „boom boom boom‟ “Hey” he said “Grab your things I‟ve come to take you home.” Peter Gabriel, “Solsbury Hill” Introduction Hans Urs Von Balthasar (1904-1986) decries the forgetting of beauty in contemporary philosophy and theology. The loss of transcendental beauty implies a separation and collapse of the other transcendentals: unity, truth and goodness. According to Balthasar, Thomas Aquinas represents the climax of Western philosophy as one who is able to ground a philosophy of beauty for a theological aesthetics. Balthasar eschews any contemporary attempts to transpose Aquinas within a post-Kantian context and as a result, Balthasar‟s magnificent attempt to restore beauty within his multi-volume trilogy, Herrlichkeit, Theodrama, and Theologik, is not able to speak to those outside of the Christian narrative. This is because of his prior philosophical presuppositions that rely specifically on special categories (those specific to Christian theology) that do not give enough attention to general categories (those shared with other disciplines).1 For Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984), general categories are derived from human intentional consciousness. Consonant with Balthasar‟s suspicion of the philosophical turn to the subject, Lonergan labored to respond to the same turn with Insight: A Study of Human Understanding2 and provides a Catholic 1 Concerning this issue, see Robert M. Doran, “Lonergan and Balthasar: Methodological Considerations,” Theological Studies 58 (1997): 61-84.
    [Show full text]
  • Father Matthew L. Lamb
    Fr. Matthew L. Lamb’s C.V. December 31, 2017 Father Matthew L. Lamb Priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Professor of Theology Ave Maria University 5068 Annunciation Circle #203 Ave Maria, Florida 34142-9670 Tel. 239-216-1024 [email protected] [email protected] I. EDUCATION: 1974 Doktor der Theologie summa cum laude, Catholic Faculty of Theology, Westfälsche Wilhelms University, Münster, Germany. 1967-71 Doctoral studies, University of Tübingen (one semester) and Münster (six semesters). 1966 S.T.L. cum laude [9 out of 10], the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy. 1964-67 Graduate studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. August 14, 1962 ordained to the Roman Catholic Priesthood, Trappist Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Conyers, Georgia; now a Roman Catholic priest incardinated in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. 1960-64 Theological studies at the Trappist Monastic Scholasticate, Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Conyers, Georgia. 1957-60 Philosophical studies at the Trappist Monastic Scholasticate, Conyers, Georgia. II. TEACHING: A. Marquette University, College of Arts & Sciences 1973-74 Instructor in Systematic Theology B. Marquette University, Graduate School 1974-79 Assistant Professor of Fundamental Theology 1979-85 Associate Professor of Fundamental Theology C. University of Chicago, Divinity School & Graduate School 1980 Visiting Associate Professor in Philosophical Theology. Page 1 of 46 Fr. Matthew L. Lamb’s C.V. December 31, 2017 D. Boston College, College of Arts and Sciences, Graduate School 1985-88 Associate Professor of Theology 1989 - 2004 Professor of Theology E. Ave Maria University, Department of Theology 2004 - 2014 Professor of Theology and Chairman 2015 - Professor of Theology III.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding Von Balthasar's Trilogy*
    doi: 10.11144/javeriana.tx67-184.uvbt Understanding Comprensión de la trilogía de Hans Urs Von Balthasar Von Balthasar’s Resumen: El artículo expone la estruc- Trilogy∗ tura de pensamiento de Hans Urs Von Balthasar a partir de la síntesis que este logró en su “Trilogía teológica”: “Estética Rodrigo Polanco∗∗ teológica”, “Teo-dramática” y “Teo- lógica”. Debido a que la Trilogía está basada en los tres trascendentales del ser (belleza, bondad y verdad), este estudio, RECIBIDO: 24-12-16. APROBADO: 08-03-17 luego de revisar las fuentes e influencias que recibió Von Balthasar a lo largo de su vida, describe su comprensión de la Abstract: The article presents the structure relación entre filosofía y teología y ex- of Hans Urs Von Balthasar’s thought from the pli ca cómo toda la revelación trinitaria synthesis he achieved in his “Theological Trilogy”: se puede expresar muy bien a partir de “Theological Aesthetics,” “Theo-Drama,” and la manifestación (belleza), donación “Theo-Logic”. Because the Trilogy is based on the (bondad) y comprensión (verdad) de Dios. three transcendentals of Being (beauty, goodness, Palabras clave: Hans Urs Von Balthasar, and truth), this study—after reviewing Balthasar’s trilogía teológica, influencias de Von influences throughout his life—describes his Balthasar, pensamiento de Von Balthasar, understanding of the relationship between teología de Von Balthasar. philosophy and theology and explains how the trinitarian revelation can be aptly expressed through God’s manifestation (beauty), bestowal (goodness), para citar este artículo: and comprehension (truth). Polanco, Rodrigo. “Understanding Von Key words: Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Theological Balthasar’s Trilogy”. Theologica Xa veriana Trilogy, Balthasar’s Influences, Balthasar’s Thought, 184 (2017): 411-430.
    [Show full text]
  • Solidarity and the Reshaping of Spirituality
    Solidarity and the Reshaping of Spirituality William Reiser, SJ The word 'solidarity' has become as firmly a part of our contempo­ rary theological and spiritual vocabularies as the expressions 'faith and justice' and 'the preferential option for the poor'. Not only has solidarity been a favorite expression in the homilies, addresses, allo­ cutions and encyclicals of John Paul II, who knew its sociological real­ ity very well from the labor movements in his native Poland, but it also appears with remarkable frequency in a wide range of religious as well as non-religious writing.1 Indeed, we might not be far from the mark in suggesting that the term 'solidarity', more aptly and more adequately than 'spirituality', summarizes for today's believer what living in Christ is all about. As a religious term, solidarity enjoys an important advantage over 1. See for instance, On Socinl Co11cern (Sol/icitudo Rei Socia /is), Nos. 38-40. The Pope interprets the term religiously: 'Solidarihj is undoubtedly a Clrristinn virtue' (David O'Brien and Thomas Shannon [eds.], Catholic Social Thought: The Docu111e11- tnry Heritage [Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1992), p. 423). Also, see the Index entries under 'solidarity' in J. Michael Miller (ed.), The Encyclicals of john Pnu/ II (Huntington, IN; Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 1996), as well as the entries in Giorgio Filibeck (ed.), Human Rights in the Teaching of tire Church: From john XXllI to John Paul JI (Va tican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994). The term had been used by Pius XII (On the Unity of H11111n11 Society [Summi Po11tificat11s], Nos.
    [Show full text]
  • How Superman Developed Into a Jesus Figure
    HOW SUPERMAN DEVELOPED INTO A JESUS FIGURE CRISIS ON INFINITE TEXTS: HOW SUPERMAN DEVELOPED INTO A JESUS FIGURE By ROBERT REVINGTON, B.A., M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts McMaster University © Copyright by Robert Revington, September 2018 MA Thesis—Robert Revington; McMaster University, Religious Studies McMaster University MASTER OF ARTS (2018) Hamilton, Ontario, Religious Studies TITLE: Crisis on Infinite Texts: How Superman Developed into a Jesus Figure AUTHOR: Robert Revington, B.A., M.A (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Professor Travis Kroeker NUMBER OF PAGES: vi, 143 ii MA Thesis—Robert Revington; McMaster University, Religious Studies LAY ABSTRACT This thesis examines the historical trajectory of how the comic book character of Superman came to be identified as a Christ figure in popular consciousness. It argues that this connection was not integral to the character as he was originally created, but was imposed by later writers over time and mainly for cinematic adaptations. This thesis also tracks the history of how Christians and churches viewed Superman, as the film studios began to exploit marketing opportunities by comparing Superman and Jesus. This thesis uses the methodological framework of intertextuality to ground its treatment of the sources, but does not follow all of the assumptions of intertextual theorists. iii MA Thesis—Robert Revington; McMaster University, Religious Studies ABSTRACT This thesis examines the historical trajectory of how the comic book character of Superman came to be identified as a Christ figure in popular consciousness. Superman was created in 1938, but the character developed significantly from his earliest incarnations.
    [Show full text]