Roman Catholic Approaches to other Religions: Developments and Tensions (original) (raw)
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The Mission of the Church in Dialogue with Non-Christian Religions
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The Catholic Doctrine of Non-Christian Religions
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II The English translation of the Conciliar texts used in the present study is that of Vatican Council II, The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, edited by Austin Flannery. When referring to the documents, an abbreviation of the document, the number of the section and the number of the paragraph referred to within that section are indicated. I Karl Rahner blames Augustine and his followers for creating a theological mode of "Augustinischer Heilspessimismus" which prevailed in the Church for over a thousand years.
Faith and Theology: Basic Insights of the Reformation in Ecumenical Debate
Since the beginnings of Christianity, there has been a fundamental tension between faith and theology (if theology is understood as a rational reflection of faith which is internally coherent and can be communicated in intersubjective discourse). The Reformation, with its principle of sola fide on the one hand and its institutionalisation of a Scripture-based academic theology on the other hand, drew particular attention to the tension between faith and theology and suggested new answers to that problem. That effort contributed to a fundamental transformation of academic theology within the faculties of Protestant Theology which emerged as a result of the movement. On the occasion of the anniversary of the Reformation, it is fitting to acknowledge the achievements of academic theology in the Reformers' tradition. In the past decades, however, academic theology has come under considerable pressure. In much of Europe and North America, the process of secularization has led to a massive decline in religious education and – partially as a reaction to this – to a trivialization of theology in many areas of Church life. Academic theology has been widely denounced as dogmatism and even obscurantism. This raises the question as to what extent academic theology itself has encouraged this rejection. At the same time, one can observe a global proliferation of evangelical and Pentecostal groups. These groups sometimes display a certain indifference towards academic theological training, or even reject it altogether, in an effort to defend the inspiration and inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures and to propagate a 'simple' faith instead. Generally speaking, an uncritical biblical hermeneutic seems to be proliferating around the world, and has even taken root in traditional academic institutions. It largely ignores the historical-critical methods of scriptural exegesis as developed by the western Enlightenment and sometimes replaces it with an insufficiently self-critical dogmatism and moralism, thereby disguising considerable claims to social control. The traditional Greater Churches (Großkirchen) which, under the influence of the Enlightenment, were inspired by an educational optimism have hitherto favoured the autonomy of the religious individual. They have, therefore, little to offer in opposition to the formation of antirationalist sets of spiritual values which aim at forming close-knit communities of believers and which are often characteristic of these evangelical and Pentecostal groups. They must, therefore, ask themselves to what extent the relationship between faith and theology as defined in the wake of the Reformation will in future continue to be religiously productive and may thus serve the churches and their congregations. By way of summary, the Wittenberg Conference wishes to reflect critically on the standards of academic theology and its current challenges from an ecumenical perspective. It proposes to do so in three hermeneutical steps: The conference aims, first, to take stock of the worldwide impact of Protestant theology—its contents, standards, and methods—in various political, social, and religious contexts.
The Catholic Church and Other Religions.pdf
In this essay, I will try to outline how the Church’s understanding of other religions has developed through the twenty-one ecumenical councils. The councils will serve as a series of windows looking out on the broad sweep of church history. In paying attention to each of the relevant councils in turn we will not only listen to what they had to say, but we will also try to understand their context.
This article is an attempt to reconstruct part of the redaction history of the 2013 convergence document, The Church: Towards a Common Vision (CTCV). Within Faith & Order one attaches great importance to the reception process of the interim drafts of important multilateral ecumenical documents. It is my contention that CTCV not only had to cope with a late Inter-Orthodox reaction, but also took the 2008 reaction of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity very seriously. My assessment of the impact of this reaction is at the same time a benevolent commentary on CTCV from a Roman Catholic perspective. Other contributions to this thematic issue in Exchange. Journal of Missiologial and Ecumenical Research 44 (2015/3), prepared by L.J. Koffeman & P. De Mey. The articles can be accessed or purchased online at: http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/1572543x - Leo J. Koffeman, "A New Ecumenical Reference Text?" (221-230) - Radu Bordeianu, "The Church: Towards a Common Vision: A Commentary in Light of the Inter-Orthodox Consultation at Agia Napa in Cyprus" (231-249) - Peter De Mey, “The Missing Link between The Nature and Mission of the Church (2005) and The Church: Towards a Common Vision (2013): An Assessment of the Impact of ‘A Catholic Contribution toward Revising The Nature and Mission of the Church’ (2008) (250-269) - Elina Hellqvist, "Satis est - necesse est: The Challenges of the Document The Church of Jesus Christ to The Church: Towards a Common Vision (270-283) - Benebo Fubara-Manuel, "In Communion with the Trinitarian God: A Reformed Reflection on The Church: Towards a Common Vision" (284-301) - Elizabeth Salazar-Sanzana, "The Church: Towards a Shared Vision: A Contribution from Pentecostalism" (302-316)