Political Theology: an Introduction
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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. -
The Christian Realist Perspective: the Political Theology of Augustine
The Christian Realist Perspective: The Political Theology of Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Reinhold Niebuhr Tsoncho Tsonchev A Thesis in The Department of Theological Studies Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts (Theological Studies) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada July 2015 © Tsoncho Tsonchev, 2015 ABSTRACT The Christian Realist Perspective: The Political Theology of Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Reinhold Niebuhr Tsoncho Tsonchev Christian political theology deals with the problems of the ultimate questions: the existence of God and the application of His law in the realm of human relations. Through exploring the political theology of Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Reinhold Niebuhr, this study discusses the great issues of war and peace, the character of human nature, the necessity of political responsibility, the importance of moral choices, the functions of authority, and the meaning of history and progress. It argues that Christian realism withstands the serious critiques leveled against it, provided that the complementary strengths and weaknesses of these three figures is taken into account. iii Acknowledgements I would not have been able to write this work, if I had not had the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge and erudition of the scholars at Concordia University Department of Theological Studies. In the past three years, their open to discussion and debate seminars introduced me to the great works of religious thought and gave me the audacity to express my views. The people who helped me most in this rewarding intellectual journey are Dr Jean-Michel Roessli, Dr Christine Jamieson, Dr Marie-France Dion, Dr Paul Allen, and Dr Lucian Turcescu. -
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. -
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). -
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. -
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. -
“Politics and Beatitude”, Studies in Christian Ethics
SCE0010.1177/0953946816684448Studies in Christian EthicsGregory 684448research-article2016 Article Studies in Christian Ethics 2017, Vol. 30(2) 199 –206 Politics and Beatitude © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0953946816684448 journals.sagepub.com/home/sce Eric Gregory Princeton University, USA Abstract The limits and secularity of political life have been signature themes of modern Augustinianism, often couched in non-theological language of realism and the role of religion in public life. In dialogue with Gilbert Meilaender, this article inverts and theologizes that interest by asking how Augustinian pilgrims might characterize the positive relation of political history to saving history and the ways in which political action in time might teach us something about the nature of salvation that comes to us from beyond history. This relation of continuity and discontinuity eludes dogmatic formulation, but the goal of the present article is to see where a shared Augustinianism and a shared commitment to aspects of the liberal political tradition might find illuminating disagreement. Keywords Meilaender, Augustine, Augustinianism, politics, eschatology, salvation I remember the anxiety in seeing Gilbert Meilaender raise his hand to ask the final ques- tion. It was one of my first conference presentations many years ago at the Society of Christian Ethics. I was a graduate student ruminating on the nature of desire and the relation of the love commands. Like the Israelites exploring Canaan, I felt like a grass- hopper among giants in the land. Meilaender’s frank question about my reconstruction of Augustine characteristically revealed basic issues about Christian tradition and human experience. -
Comparative Political Theology
Comparative Political Theology Author: Erich Kofmel Managing Director, Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS) University of Sussex and Sciences Po/The Institute for Political Studies in Paris [email protected], [email protected] Fourth General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), Section "Political Theology as Political Theory", Panel "Political Theology and Theological Politics", University of Pisa, Italy, 6 September 2007 Abstract: For a research project I engaged in from 2004-2007, I gathered and analysed statements made by representatives of Islamist terrorist movements on the Internet and compared key themes of their ideology (such as "democracy", "capitalism", "globalization", "colonialism" and "underdevelopment") to the writings and ideology of authors in various traditions of Christian "political theology". In this paper, it is being established that there are clear similarities in the socio-political analysis advanced by Christian political and liberation theologians and representatives of Islamist terrorist movements and radical Islam, respectively. The paper also offers a short history and extended discussion of the concept of "political theology" and elaborates on radical Islam's understanding of theology and politics. Primary and secondary literature on Christian and Islamic political and liberation theologies and radical Islam are being reviewed (including the most recent writings on "political theology" emanating from, mainly leftist, theory circles in Europe and the US). In an attempt to expand the term "political theology" to cover the socio-political analysis, arguments, and ideology of radical Islam, anti-liberalism is revealed as the single most important factor underlying all political theology. The argument is made that being anti-liberal means being (at least potentially) anti-democratic as well. -
Hope in Action
Introduction "Always be ready . ." “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15). Within this biblical charge, addressed to early Christian communities suffering religious persecution at the turn of the second century, we find a concentrated expression of a task that has persistently pressed itself upon Christian theology. What is that hope which would sustain Christian communities down through the centuries? How might theologians offer an account of that hope responsive to the distinct demands of their time? Although the history of Christian theology might be read profitably as an effort to respond to these questions through the range of traditional theological topoi, beginning in the 1960s a number of prominent theologians in Europe would move these questions to the center of their theological projects as they attempted to renew the Christian tradition’s reading and appropriation of the doctrine of eschatology. Examined from a new historical vantage point, they identified in this doctrine a potent and compelling resource for offering a defense of the Christian’s hope under the conditions of the modern world. Two Catholic theologians who contributed to this turn to eschatology in the mid-1960s and for whom eschatology has been a 1 HOPE IN ACTION crucial concern ever since are Edward Schillebeeckx (1914–2009) and Johann Baptist Metz (b. 1928).1 In their early writings, each of these theologians worked to uncover the manner in which the Christian’s eschatological expectations for the future radically impinge on the present. -
Theology, Politics, and Antimodernism in Nazi Germany: Problematizing Theological Rhetoric and Political Theology
Butler University Digital Commons @ Butler University Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS College of Liberal Arts & Sciences 3-10-2013 Theology, Politics, and Antimodernism in Nazi Germany: Problematizing Theological Rhetoric and Political Theology Brent A. R. Hege Butler University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/facsch_papers Part of the European History Commons, Political History Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Hege, Brent A.R. "Theology, Politics, And Antimodernism In Nazi Germany: Problematizing Theological Rhetoric And Political Theology." Politics and Religion 6.1 (2013): 195-204. Available from: http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/facsch_papers/302 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Digital Commons @ Butler University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Butler University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Featured Reviews 195 release of nineteen other captured Indians, or refusing to shoot the Indian, which the captain says will lead him to shoot the nineteen others (95). Fisher notes that philosophers disagree about what the botanist ought to do, which he takes as a weakness of absolutist theories. But the point of Williams’ example, which he offered in an exchange over utilitarian- ism, is that morality involves more than weighing and numbers, even of lives. It also involves agency, intention, and responsibility. Williams means for his reader to feel the pull of the notion that some things ought not to be done despite the consequences of not doing them. -
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. -
Konturen 1 (2008) 1 Political Theology Revisited: Carl Schmitt's Postwar
Konturen 1 (2008) 1 Political Theology Revisited: Carl Schmitt’s Postwar Reassessment Peter Hohendahl Cornell University The essay examines the pronounced theological turn of the late Carl Schmitt, especially in his Politische Theologie II (1970). He aim is to understand what Schmitt meant by a “Catholic intensification” in the relationship between theology and political theory. The essay gives equal attention to Schmitt’s polemic against the theologian Peterson, who denied the possibility of political theology, and the dialogue with the philosopher Hans Blumenberg, who had severely criticized Schmitt’s conception of secularization. The essay shows that in both instances the opposition merely encouraged Schmitt to sharpen and clarify his own theological position, which includes heretical Gnostic elements. In the present discourse on Carl Schmitt the importance of the theological aspect of his work is still controversial (Hollerich 2007, Müller 2003). One could even speak of a divide. While Continental critics have, by and large, acknowledged the significance of Schmitt's theological thought, especially German scholars, the Anglo-American discourse has mostly deemphasized this aspect as a minor part of his political theory. After all, in Politische Theologie (1922) Schmitt speaks of analogies between theological and political concepts and reminds his readers of a historical dimension of modern political theory that is ultimately rooted in theological thought. Moreover, Schmitt himself later informed his readers that he always understood himself as a legal theorist without any ambition to intrude into the discipline of the theologians. In short, one could treat the theological aspect of Schmitt's early theory as an interesting extension of his legal and political theory without paying too much attention to it.