Arts and Humanities Commons^™

AT A FAMILY Christmas gathering

recently, one of the women opened

her gift. She found a bottle of Chanel

No.5. Need more be said about her reaction...

Why? This particular designer brand name

has been almost cauterised into our modern

consciousness—much to the dismay of its

competitors. Think of the billions of dollars

spent annually on perfume, eau de Cologne

and after-shave lotions. Or in the advertising

industry that surrounds them...

IN LITERATURE speaking of touch, prayer

and God, the text most often used is one

cited in the previous article on Sight in this

journal. In 1 John 1:1, the witnesses of the

incarnation say how 'we...have touched with

our  hands...the Word,  who  is  life.' This

underlines what is more explicitly stated in the

Prologue of John's Gospel: 'The Word was

made flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his

glory, the glory that is his as the only Son of

the Father, full of grace and truth' or in Paul's

comment that 'the full content of divine nature …

Perhaps the most neuralgic issue shaping the Catholic Church’s relationship

to wider contemporary society is abortion.  In Australia, the Church’s efforts to

counter abortion’s increasing incidence and after-effects are evident in Bishops’

statements,   websites   such   as Walking   with   Love, and, from   lay-inspired

movements such as the Rachel’s’ Vineyard Retreat.1

Further, research is bringing a   greater   appreciation   of   the   trauma   and   long-term   effects   of   the   abortion experience.      Given   that,   it   is   reasonable   to   assume   its   influence,   in   some

instances,   on   marital   consent.      Investigating   this   question,   then,   is   a   timely

exercise.  At the same time, it can provide an insight into a …

IN 1942 AT OXFORD, in a sermon

The Weight of Glory,  CS Lewis began: ‘If you

asked twenty good men today what they

thought to be the highest of the virtues, nine-

teen of them would reply, Unselfishness’. He

went on to say that if they had asked the early

Christians, they would have replied, ‘Love’.

Theological discussion on conscience in the light of recent Church documents has tended to focus predominantly on its relationship to the truth and specifically as moral judgment in a particular situation. However, conscience has a more foundational sense. I argue that, in Gaudium et Spes and Veritatis Splendor, conscience understood as primordial moral awareness is presented in the setting of four epistemological processes which mediate the intuitive and affective appreciation of value, namely through a) participation in a divine-human dialogical relationship of love, b) participation as recognition of the true self, c) participation as collaboration in divine providence and wisdom …