The lectionary as a guide to thinking about poverty (original) (raw)
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THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO POVERTY: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE 21st CENTURY CHURCH
Journal of Community Positive Practices, 2021
The concept of poverty is multifaceted as regards to humanity because of its description as being spiritual and material. From its antiquity, poverty has contributed to hunger and other related effects such as diseases which have fuelled the devastations of global community in matters of food production. This article focuses on the Christian response to poverty and its implications to the 21st century Church. It addresses the nature of poverty as absolute and relative. The causes based on the Church's historical proponents, theologians and biblical causes are highlighted. In its implications, one should take a holistic approach towards human sustenance of good life. God is the source of this wealth and material possessions are good and valuable, that man should not pride with it in exclusion of God. In conclusion, transformation of the sinful humanity is the beginning of the alleviation of both spiritual and material poverty. Stewardship and generosity are the gateway out of poverty.
Poverty in the Early Church and Today
2019
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Poverty in the Early Church and Today: A Conversation
Poverty in the Early Church and Today: A Conversation , 2019
This innovative volume focuses on the significance of early Christianity for modern means of addressing poverty, by offering a rigorous study of deprivation and its alleviation in both earliest Christianity and today’s world. The contributors seek to present the complex ways in which early Christian ideas and practices relate to modern ideas and practices, and vice versa. In this light, the book covers seven major areas of poverty and its causes, benefaction, patronage, donation, wealth and dehumanization, ‘the undeserving poor’, and responsibility. Each area features an expert in early Christianity in its Jewish and Graeco-Roman settings, paired with an expert in modern strategies for addressing poverty and benefaction; each author engages with the same topic from their respective area of expertise, and responds to their partner’s essay. Giving careful attention toboth the continuities and discontinuities between the ancient world and today, the contributors seek to inform and engage church leaders, those working in NGOs concerned with poverty, and all interested in these crucial issues, both Christian and not.
In this paper I will present ‘my theology of poverty.’ I will seek to present a synthesis of the learning that I have experienced over the last the semester, as I have journeyed under the watchful eye of my Professor Karen McKinney. I will provide biblical texts that have helped guide my understanding of poverty and also report on skills and techniques that I have learnt to engage biblical texts, in an attempt to discover the meaning of the Holy Scriptures. Furthermore, I will look deeper at the current issues of poverty today, in the light of materials covered in class, as well as contemporary issues of poverty facing our 21st century society. Finally, I will summarize my thoughts, in presenting my theology of poverty and the way in which I intend to live out my convictions that are propelled by my theology.
A few remarks about the lectionary after fifty years of existence
This paper aims to present the historical development of the lectionary for use in the Holy Mass, then to summarize the principles of the present lectionary and its ecumenical meaning, more specifically, its influence on the protestant lectionary. Based on the historical facts and the recent documents of the Holy See, the proposal for partial renewal of the Sunday Lectionary will be discussed. The main method used in the study is the analysis of the historical sources, documents of the Holy See, and theological studies. The critical analysis and comparative method will lead to the synthetic presentation of postulates of the partial renewal of the present lectionary after fifty years of usage in the liturgy. The analysis conclusions provide suggestions for the enrichment of the lectionary: firstly, with the passages from the Old Testament read in their whole context, not only according to the harmonization with the text of the Gospel; secondly, with the thematic selection of the second reading compatible with the first reading, and the Gospel reading; thirdly, with the texts pointing out the role of women in the history of salvation.
2018
The poor continues to struggle in the midst of their powerlessness. What does it mean to be the 'Church of the Poor' in our time? Pope Francis recognizes the challenges and dangers in the mission to protect the powerless. In the face of conflicts, the Catholic Church believes that its evangelizing mission involves a moral as well as a difficult political task. The Church contributes to the realization of social justice. But decades after Vatican II, secularism threatens the important position of the Church in human society. A Church that is silent about violence and oppression is morally troubling. In a way, protecting the dignity of persons is a type of commitment that calls for radical engagement. The question is, how can the Church remain significant in the struggle of the people against injustice? The paper argues that the universal Church should pursue its evangelizing mission of emancipating the oppressed from institutional forces that threaten the dignity of persons through the radical power of Christ's message of love.
The Long Wait of the Poor in the Church
2020
There are serious reasons to argue that with Evangelii Gaudium by Pope Francis, the magisterium of the Catholic Church has finally come to fully acknowledge the function of the locus theologicus played by the poor. This study, which constitutes the first of two articles devoted to the subject, investigates the foundation of this dogmatic datum in two sources of revelation: the Holy Scripture and the recent teachings of the magisterium. To this end, in the first place, it examines the role that the Old and New Testaments entrust to the poor within revelation; then it documents the rediscovery of the poor as theological place in the most important documents of the magisterium, during the time between Vatican Council II and Evangelii Gaudium.
Bible in Africa Studies 12, 2013
The article focuses on the beatitude of the poor in the social and religious con-text of historical Jesus. The original version of this makarism has to be seen as a religious statement which is not meant as a program of social reform. Yet it has political and socio-ethical implications as it connects the poor with God and his kingdom. Those who are searching God have to go to the poor. A pos-sible function of the beatitude of the poor in the struggle against poverty can be seen in the spiritual empowerment it gives to the poor themselves: Poverty is against God’s will; it is no divine punishment and does not separate from God. The poor are people with a future; they will be liberated from suffering. Poverty has no place in God’s Kingdom but will be eradicated.
The Pastoral Review, 2018
We hear the lectionary Sunday by Sunday. We hear it in gobbets of usually no more that dozen sentences, incident by incident, bit by bit. The effect is that virtually everyone gathered for the liturgy