Spiritual Direction in the Roman Catholic Tradition

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 290-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rev Gene Barrette
Keyword(s):  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Spiritual Direction ◽  
Church History ◽  
Spiritual Transformation ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Spiritual Director ◽  
Catholic Tradition ◽  
The Impact

This article presents the practice of spiritual direction in the Roman Catholic tradition. Specific attention is given to: definition and description of spiritual direction, scriptural roots, Roman Catholic specificity, practice in the early Church and association with the beginning of Monasticism, and the impact of Vatican II. The development of different forms of spiritual direction is presented within the context of the variety of theological, philosophical, cultural, and historical biases evident throughout church history. The process of authentic spiritual transformation and the role of the spiritual director plays are described–-both as it was understood historically and in terms of the present practice. Contrasts between spiritual direction and traditional psychotherapy are proposed.

Spiritual Direction in the Orthodox Christian Tradition

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 276-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Gregory Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Spiritual Maturity ◽  
Spiritual Direction ◽  
Spiritual Transformation ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Orthodox Christian ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
Spiritual Director ◽  
Historical Sketch

This essay examines the practice of spiritual direction in the Orthodox Christian tradition. Spiritual direction is first defined as leading the believer to the knowledge of God. A historical sketch of the practice of direction is followed by an outline of the process of spiritual transformation as seen in the Orthodox tradition. The role of the Orthodox spiritual director is analyzed along with the duties of the disciple. An analysis of the indicators of spiritual maturity notes the importance of the attainment of dispassion and the development of virtue. Conventional psychotherapeutic methods are compared with Orthodox spiritual direction, noting circumstances under which the Orthodox spiritual director would make a referral to a mental health professional.

Resources for a Democratic Catholic Church

Horizons ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-226
Author(s):  
Eugene C. Bianchi
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Church History ◽  
First Century ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Church Reform ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
Democratic Tradition ◽  
Catholic History ◽  
Reform Needs

AbstractThis article explores sources in the Christian tradition that can be helpful for re-shaping present Roman Catholic ecclesial polity. The underlying theme is that the Catholic Church, in order to enhance efforts at church reform, needs to re-structure itself from a monarchical polity to a democratic one. A theological subtheme argues that the monarchical polity is not mandated by the gospel, but is rather a creature of history. Furthermore, the monarchical polity is a root cause obstructing reform in specific areas. By selecting loci from early church history to the present time, democratic movements and ideas are highlighted as constituting an important part of Catholic history. Certain of these loci have not yet been examined for their democratic potential. This democratic tradition can be a springboard for moving toward a democratic church in the twenty-first century.

Back to the Future: The Fathers Refounded and the Recovery of Early Christianity

2020 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 399-403
Author(s):  
Robin Darling Young
Keyword(s):  
Early Christianity ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Church History ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
American Universities ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Historical Investigation ◽  
Apostolic Succession

The Fathers Refounded, Elizabeth Clark's magnificent sequel to Founding the Fathers, describes in abundant detail how the overlapping disciplines of early church history and patristics became established in several American universities. It examines the work of three historians of early Christianity and their accomplishments and difficulties—and along the way it reminds its readers more than once that historical investigation poses a danger to the security of religious dogmatists. Take, for instance, the work of George LaPiana: As an Italian exile and historical scholar whose investigations of early Christian associations in Rome undermined the accustomed Roman Catholic story of apostolic succession and episcopal authority, his work could be ignored during his lifetime by the triumphalist representatives of seemingly unquestioned dogma. An example is the work of LaPiana's American contemporary, Monsignor Joseph (“Butch”) Fenton, writing only a few years before the Second Vatican Council would vindicate the historical approach when it endorsed patristic theology as an inspiration for aggiornamento, the “updating” of Catholic thought.

The Classical Sources of Evangelical Devotion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Bruce Hindmarsh
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Church History ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Imitation Of Christ ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Catholic Tradition ◽  
Devotional Reading

For all its seeming newness, evangelicalism revived ancient ideals. Evangelical use of Scripture was especially similar to ancient patterns of devotional reading. Moreover, evangelicals routinely appealed to confessional formularies (Anglican and Reformed) and creedal standards, and to precedents in church history from the Puritans, the Reformation, and beyond, stretching back to the early church. Evangelicals’ concern for true religion meant that they were also able to assimilate spiritually edifying sources from the Catholic tradition and from the Middle Ages. The reception history of Henry Scougal’s Life of God in the Soul of Man and Thomas à‎ Kempis’s Imitation of Christ illustrate a process of simplification, naturalization, and democratization of mystical and ascetical ideals. The libraries, book lists, and church histories of evangelicals further illustrate a wide range of sources, critical to evangelical spiritual life and identity.

scholarly journals What did Women do for the Early Church? The Recent History of a Question

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 261-281
Author(s):  
Judith M. Lieu
Keyword(s):  
Social Values ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Church History ◽  
Alternative Conceptions ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Religious Context ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

The question posed in the title deliberately reverses one that has accompanied me through my academic career: what did the early church do for women? The reversal signals what will prove to be an underlying theme of what follows, namely the role of women in history as objects or as the subjects of action and of discourse. Yet already the question as conventionally phrased highlights different points of stress that reflect where it belongs within reflective historiography, the subject of this volume. Firstly, ‘What did the early church do?’ The coming of early Christianity, it is implied, brought blessings or perhaps curses, evoking a way of writing church history which goes back to Eusebius and which continues both through Edward Gibbon and through those who still portray the social and religious context of the time as one of the inarticulate search for alternative conceptions of the divine or for alternative social values that Christianity would answer. Secondly, ‘for women’: thus, a deliberate rejection of any universalizing interpretation of such effects; a recognition, or at least a suspicion, that any apparently universalizing claim is actually spoken from a ‘normal’ that is already gendered as male; an invitation to ask how women’s experience could be recovered, what the sources would look like, and, indeed, whether it can be recovered from the extant sources.

The Impact of Non-Roman Catholic Observers at Vatican II

Ecclesiology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-312
Author(s):  
Donald W. Norwood
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Considerable Influence ◽  
Church Unity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church ◽  
Domestic Affair

Not all accounts of Vatican II, 1962–65, recognize that the 200 carefully selected non-Roman Catholic Observers had a considerable influence on the Council and on its major documents about the Church, Church unity, liturgy, the Jews and religious freedom. Their impact is assessed both by Roman Catholic theologians like Congar and Willebrands and Observers such as Bishop Moorman and Robert McAfee Brown together with comments Karl Barth later made on some of the documents in his discussions with Pope Paul VI and others, including Ratzinger and Rahner in Rome. An attempt is made to explain how the Observers had the influence they did. One conclusion is that they helped the Council evolve from what could have been a purely domestic affair and a rubber-stamping exercise dealing with 70 documents, already prepared by the Curia, and Commissioners appointed by the Pope, into a genuinely ecumenical, deliberative, debating and decision-making council of the worldwide Church.

Mission and Evangelization

2016 ◽  
pp. 328-345
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Keating
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Theology Of Mission ◽  
Catholic Tradition

This chapter examines the theology of mission and evangelization in the Catholic Church. It begins with a brief overview of how mission developed in the Catholic tradition up to the twentieth century, with particular emphasis on the biblical grounding for a universal mission and the crucial transitions the early Church made from being a Jewish movement to a Gentile-inclusive movement that engaged with and accommodated itself to Greco-Roman culture. It then considers developments in the period leading up to and including the Second Vatican Council, along with the ‘missionary crisis’ and other challenges following Vatican II. Finally, it discusses important continuities and changes in the Catholic theology of mission and evangelization and describes the characteristics of this theology today.

Render Unto Caesar… What? Reflections on the Work of William Cavanaugh

2009 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-605
Author(s):  
Paul S. Rowe
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
The State ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
The Past ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Catholic Tradition ◽  
The Church

AbstractAn increasing concern for the place of religion in global politics in the past decade is reflected in the work of William Cavanaugh, a political theologian coming from the radical orthodox movement of the Roman Catholic tradition. Taking aim at key tropes in international relations, Cavanaugh introduces a strong critique of the legitimacy of the state and against its martial attitude. This review questions the historicity and generalizability of Cavanaugh's analysis. It also challenges Cavanaugh's exaltation of the church from both an internal and external perspective. Finally, it considers the expanded role of the state as compared to Cavanaugh's vision of the martial state. By way of conclusion, it questions the extent to which Cavanaugh provides an alternative to consigning religious groups to civil society or a workable role for Christian engagement with global politics, even though he provides us with a strong critique of the state.

Shifts in Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant Ecclesiology from 1965 to 2006

Ecclesiology ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Fahey
Keyword(s):  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Ecumenical Dialogue ◽  
World Council ◽  
Select Bibliography ◽  
Communion Ecclesiology ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

AbstractDrawing upon his thirty years experience of teaching ecclesiology, the author tries to identify some developments and paradigm shifts he recognizes as having influenced theological reflection on the Church in Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant contexts. He contrasts the present-day situation of Catholics to the isolationist doldrums that characterized the post-Modernist and pre-Vatican II eras. The impact of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches was already notable when Catholics belatedly began to participate in ecumenical dialogue. Various advances in ecclesiology can be identified, especially the use of 'communion' ecclesiology. Negatively, the achievements of ecumenical exchanges are little known by the faithful and rarely cited by church leaders. Canonical regulations especially affecting eucharistic hospitality do not take into consideration the doctrinal consensuses that have emerged. A select bibliography is appended.

scholarly journals A Protestant perspective on Vatican II & 50 years: An engagement with dissent

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham A. Duncan
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Church History ◽  
Negative Response ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Church Hierarchy ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Younger Generation

The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) is regarded by many in Protestant circles as one of the most significant processes in ecumenical church history during the 20th century. At the time hopes were high that closer cooperation was a reality to be embraced and achieved. Concurrently, a younger generation of Roman Catholic theologians began to make their mark on the ecumenical theological scene. Their work has provided a bridge between the two ecclesiastical traditions, notwithstanding the subsequent negative response of the Roman church hierarchy. Despite important advances, recent pontificates have destroyed much of the enthusiasm and commitment to unity. This article examines the disjuncture in views regarding the outcomes of the Council and points of contact with Protestant thinking.

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