Digital Commons Network^™

How The Catholic Church Came To Oppose Birth Control, Lisa Mcclain

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark “Humanae Vitae,” Pope Paul VI’s strict prohibition against artificial contraception, issued in the aftermath of the development of the birth control pill. At the time, the decision shocked many Catholic priests and laypeople. Conservative Catholics, however, praised the pope for what they saw as a confirmation of traditional teachings.

Julie Hanlon Rubio, Hope For Common Ground: Mediating The Personal And The Political In A Divided Church. Reviewed By Travis Ryan Pickell., Travis Ryan Pickell

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Review of Julie Hanlon Rubio, Hope for Common Ground: Mediating the Personal and the Political in a Divided Church Moral Traditions series (Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2016). xxi + 242 pp. ISBN 978-1-62616-306-5

It is no secret that we live in a time of intense polarization, perhaps especially in the American political context. This situation may be explained in a number of ways. Some will point to increasing economic inequality or socioeconomic and racial ‘sorting’. Others may point to the concurrent rise of ‘identity politics’ and the ‘politics of resentment’. Others will highlight the effects of technology, including the …

Calvin's Political Theology And The Public Engagement Of The Church: A Response To Keith Sewell, Matthew J. Tuininga

Pro Rege

Response by Tuininga to Keith Sewell's review of Tuininga's book (Pro Rege, v. 46 no. 3, March 2018, pp.42-44.

A Catholic Perspective On Marriage And The Gift Of Children - With Special Attention To Herman Dooyeweerd's Social Ontology Of Marriage, Eduardo J. Echeverria

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Impact Evaluation Under The Banner Of The Cross: An Integrated Approach To The Evaluation Of Poverty Alleviation Programs, Stephen M. Pitts

Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations

This thesis proposes normative criteria of individual and social welfare to evaluate poverty alleviation programs. Since World War II, both governments and NGOs have implemented a variety of development projects to address the poverty of individuals and groups around the world. The emerging field of impact evaluation applies a methodology borrowed from clinical drug trials to measure the effect of these projects on the populations that they serve. Sixty years of the history of development reveal that despite the sophistication of the statistical techniques, the field cannot offer basic guidance on what outcomes to measure.

In response, this thesis develops …

Virtue Ethics As Moral Formation For Ignatian Education In Chile, Juan Pablo Valenzuela

Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations

The Catholic Church in Chile is in a state of moral perplexity. On one side, the hierarchy of the Church, moral theologians, and teachers propose and teach a morality based on rules and principles that does not take account of the context of the country and creates a distance from the moral perspective of the majority of the Chilean people. On the other side, Catholic people are abandoning the Church, especially because of her approach to moral issues and her rule-based moral teachings. The problem of this moral perplexity lies in the deontological approach through which the Church proposes and …

A Pastoral Approach To The Topic Of Sexuality In Priestly Formation Programs In Parts Of Eastern Europe, Vitaliy Osmolovskyy

Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations

In this thesis, I explore a pastoral approach towards the topic of sexuality during priestly formation programs in parts of Eastern Europe, at the same time, identifying many elements that surround this particular topic in the different societies where the candidates were raised. In this world of rapid change, one in which life moves quickly and people often seek novelty, it is necessary to hold on to the fact that we are sexual beings, ones open to growth and maturity. Regardless of vocation, sexuality remains an essential component of who we are. This work engages relevant literature, ecclesial documents, some …

Calvin Theological Seminary Forum: Summer 2018, Matthew J. Tunninga, Jeffery A. D. Weima, Lyle D. Bierma, Bruce Buursma

Calvin Theological Seminary Forum (2002- )

3 - On the Potter's Wheel by President Jul Medenblik
4 - The Grace of Discipline by Matthew J. Tunninga
8 - Dare to Discipline! by Jeffery A. D. Weima
12 - Practicing Church Discipline: Wisdom from the Field by Jul Medenbik + Sarah Schereiber
15 - What's New @ Calvin Seminary
16 - Phd Program Celeberates Silver Anniversary by Lyle Bierma
18 - Retirement Profile: Michael Williams by Bruce Buursma
20 - Distinguished Missionaries
22 - Distinguished Alumni
26 - Recent Faculty Publications + New Faces

The Craftsman Mirroring The Creator: Explorations In Theatrical Theology, Andrew Noah

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

This will be my presentation given to theology faculty on Scholarship and Creativity Day required for the Theology Capstone course. I will be discussing the idea that when doing theology in a theatrical mode, it becomes a way to focus on God working in the world and our call as the audience to take part in the performance. Because God does not just exist in the abstract, but makes Godself known through the senses, theatre, as a sensual art, becomes the perfect mode to explore and make relevant God’s divine revelation.

The Contemplative-Prophetic Spirituality Of Thomas Merton: Its Relevance For The Consecrated Life In India, Fabian Jose

Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations

Consecrated life in the Catholic Church is a vital and healing presence in Indian society. Religious men and women make an integral contribution to the society through their institutions in the fields of education, spirituality, medical care, social services, and other charitable activities. In the present context of India, however, consecrated men and women can experience challenges of relevance and identity in their vocations. These concerns have their basis in the fundamental need for a renewal of religious life itself in India, one which is imbued with a Christ-centered spirituality and reflects the prophetic charism that marks apostolic religious life. …

Virtues/Pāramitās: St. Ignatius Of Loyola And Sāntideva As Companions On The Way Of Life, Tomislav Spiranec

Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations

This dissertation conducts a comparative study of the cultivation of the virtues in Catholic spiritual tradition and the perfections (pāramitās) in the Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions in view of the spiritual needs of contemporary Croatian young adults. The comparison is carried out through the exploration of two key texts: The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, a sixteenth-century Basque Catholic, and the founder of the Society of Jesus, and The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryāvatāra) of Śāntideva, an eight-century Indian Mahāyāna monk.

The study links the central teachings of the Catholic faith to the daily life and identity of young Catholics …

Department Of Catholic Studies Newsletter, 1.1, Michelle Loris

Catholic Studies Newsletter

Inaugural issue of the Department of Catholic Studies Newsletter.

Assisted Death: Historical, Moral And Theological Perspectives Of End Of Life Options, Catherine Bando

LMU Theses and Dissertations

The paper explores historical positions on suicide and philosophical, theological, and moral positions on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. In 1900, most people died from infectious diseases, which have relatively short periods of morbid decline. With advances in the biomedical sciences, people are living longer, and most people die from chronic diseases, which are usually accompanied by prolonged periods of morbid decline. In addition to living longer, people today are generally more individualist and seek methods to control many aspects of life. While assisted death is rarely used, it represents a means to control end-of-life suffering. The paper demonstrates that there …

Eighteenth-Century Forerunners Of Vatican Ii: Early Modern Catholic Reform And The Synod Of Pistoia, Shaun London Blanchard

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation sheds further light on the nature of church reform and the roots of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) through a study of eighteenth-century Catholic reformers who anticipated Vatican II. The most striking of these examples is the Synod of Pistoia (1786), the high-water mark of "late Jansenism." Most of the reforms of the Synod were harshly condemned by Pope Pius VI in the Bull Auctorem fidei (1794), and late Jansenism was totally discredited in the increasingly ultramontane nineteenth-century Catholic Church. Nevertheless, many of the reforms implicit or explicit in the Pistoian agenda - such as an exaltation of …

A Wesley Bibliography, Kenneth J. Collins

Papers

No abstract provided.

The Right To Religious Freedom - A Theological Comment, Hille Haker

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Every time I cross the border to the United States, I thank God I am a legal immigrant, white, and a citizen of the European Union and Germany, coming from a country and entering another where I expect my rights to be protected. The laws of the land may in part differ from the European ones, and even clash with some of my religious values and convictions. But since morality and positive laws never entirely coincide, the laws of a nation-state challenge me to reevaluate my convictions as much as I will challenge the rightness of some of the United …

Reflections On The Contingent Workforce At Catholic Colleges, Matthew J. Gaudet

General Engineering

Contingent or “adjunct” professors are highly educated and often excellent educators, yet they are suffering from a nationwide epidemic of low wages, a lack of benefits, poor working conditions, short and sporadic contracts, and—to make ends meet—long commutes that often involve two, three, or even more institutions. This story of contingency on American campuses is fast becoming a well-tread narrative, not only in periodicals that focus on academic life (e.g. the Chronicle of Higher Education, Vitae, Insidehighered.com), but also more recently, in mainstream news outlets as wide spanning as the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, Forbes, The Atlantic, …

The Christian Concept Of The Nature Of Motherhood And Its Implications In A Contemporary Context, Christine Fisk

Theses

The contemporary context presents countless ideologies and conflicting views about what femininity is and what it is not. In particular, the modern pursuit of equality and autonomy has resulted in the perception of motherhood as inconvenient in some quarters or, worse yet, inconsequential. This thesis considers the question as whether or not motherhood is separable from womanhood, and if there is indeed any inherent value to motherhood. The intent of this thesis was to go beyond the variety of views of what motherhood is to the two primary female figures in Scripture – Eve and Mary - to discern what …

The Unity Of The Virtues In A Missionary Key, Andrew J. Kim

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

The thesis of the unity of the virtues—one must possess all of the virtues to possess even one of them—was upheld in different forms by Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas. However, contemporary moralists almost universally decry this thesis as distorting the nature of virtue as it is materialized in the lives and actions of ordinary people. Unfortunately, academic discourse regarding the unity of the virtues has tended to be either entirely theoretical or narrowly limited to particular individuals or groups as “test cases” regarding the validity of the thesis. It is both significant and reinvigorating, therefore, that in his apostolic …

The Sate Of Israel, Mythology, And The Valorized Bible, Gregory Jeffers

Conversations: A Graduate Student Journal of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology

I argue that the Christian Neo-conservatives (like many before them, including the Medieval crusaders) read the bible mythologically, and thus uproot the the bible from its traditional moral, theological, historical, and grammatical anchors in service to a specific eschatological vision. This shift is rhetorical in nature in that those receiving the biblical text now are not the same as those who originally received it, nor are they the same as the scholars, theologians, and historians who have been careful to read the text with integrity. The shift in audience is a shift in interpretive communities and thus a shift in …

"Justice And Mercy": The Question Of Discordancy, The Development Of Doctrine And African Catholicism, John Segun Odeyemi

Journal of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium

The call for Justice and Mercy in the teachings of Pope Francis raises critical questions across theological and secular contexts. In the light of the Pontiff’s call for a Jubilee year of Mercy, in Evangelii Gaudium, and references in his teachings to these themes, I intend to investigate the theological meaning of Justice and Mercy and to reconcile these with what Pope Francis means. Then proffer as a concrete example, discordancy in Africa as an opportunity for a doctrinal and magisterial definition on the use of condoms as prophylactics to show a Church that acts mercifully and does justice.

Black And Brown Pauls: A Pauline Case Of Racial Profiling; A Hermeneutical Reading Of Acts 21:27‐40a And 22:23‐29 And The Reality Of The African American And Hispanic Communities In The United States, Dempsey Rosales Acosta

Journal of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium

The present study analyzes the socio-historical context and setting narrated in the canonical episode of Paul’s arrest and his treatment in Jerusalem according to the narrative of Acts 21:27-40a and 22:23-29. The pericopes become the fundamental platform through which it is possible to present both a hermeneutical and theological interpretation of the liabilities and ultimate consequences of racial profiling, especially when it is exercised by the civil authorities, an institutionalized power, or a general culture. The diachronic and synchronic exegetical analysis of the pericopes are combined with the methodological approaches of cognitive semantics and the practical theology that lead to …

Introduction: Ethnography, Moral Theory, And Comparative Religious Ethics, Bharat Ranganathan

Religion Faculty Publications

Representing a spectrum of intellectual concerns and methodological commitments in religious ethics, the contributors to this focus issue consider and assess the advantages and disadvantages of the shift in recent comparative religious ethics away from a rootedness in moral theory toward a model that privileges the ethnography of moral worlds. In their own way, all of the contributors think through and emphasize the meaning, importance, and place of normativity in recent comparative religious ethics.

There Are No Strangers Among Us: Catholic Social Teachings And U.S. Immigration Law, Terry Coonan

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Evangelium Vitae: Crossing The Threshold Of Law With The Gospel Of Life, David A. Daigle

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

What Is Written In The Law? How Do You Read It? Homily At The Red Mass, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania October 8, 1996, Monsignor William Smith

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

On Religious Legal Ethics, Thomas L. Shaffer

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Vatican Ii: The Impact On American Society - The Pas De Deux Between Rights And Responsibilities, Robert J. Araujo, S.J.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The Church, The Law, And The Advancing Armies Of Death, Nat Hentoff

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Withholding Or Withdrawing Artificial Nutrition And Hydration From Terminally Ill And Permanently Unconscious Patients: Some Recent Case Law And Contemporary Catholic Theology, Peter J. Ausili

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.