Retrieving Charisms For The Twenty-First Century

The growing shift in Catholic moral theology from reflecting on rules alone to focusing on the identity and formation of persons as moral agents prompts a further question: What impact do recent changes in the identity and formation of Catholic moral theologians themselves have on how that discipline is practiced? Young Catholic moral theologians experience a sharply different professional formation and a changed location of ongoing professional life than prior generations of moral theologians. How do these differences influence the field of moral theology as a whole? New Wine, New Wineskins: A Next Generation Reflects on Key Issues in Catholic Moral Theology addresses these questions and more by offering a snapshot of how a new generation of Catholic moral theologians understands not only topics in the field, but the effects of their own identity and formation on their treatment of those topics. The distinctive contribution of this volume is the interweaving of three key concerns, all of which arise out of a critical self-reflection on the task of moral theology today: the character and adequacy of training and ongoing formation in the field of Catholic moral theology, the purpose and nature of teaching Catholic moral theology, and the fittingness of methodological debates with regard to the needs of the Christian life. Each essay makes a contribution to its specific area of interest-ranging from economic ethics, to Patristic rhetoric, to the nature and development of practical reasoning-while probing what exactly young Catholic moral theologians are doing, and how they can do what they do better.

Vatican II has become a place-marker in the ecclesiastical and ideological geography of contemporary Catholicism. Yet forty years later, few who refer to the council and its teachings, whether with approval or criticism, demonstrate a solid grasp of those teachings. Even fewer are aware of the important debates that have taken place in the past four decades regarding the council's authentic reception and implementation of its documents.

2020 Catholic Press Association first place award, theology--theological and philosophical studies This book is unique in the literature about Vatican II. From the manifold issues debated at the council and formulated in its sixteen documents, Ormond Rush proposes that the salient features of “the vision of Vatican II” can be captured in twenty-four principles. He concludes by proposing that these principles can function as criteria for assessing the reception of the conciliar vision over the last five decades and into the future. There is no other book that attempts such a comprehensive synthesis of the council’s vision for renewal and reform of the Catholic Church.

Following the Second Vatican Council, when each Religious Institute was encouraged to research its charism, some Institutes experienced a tension between their charism and their mission, or even difficulty identifying what their charism was. This book is a study of the theological understanding of charism and of mission in relation to Religious Life within the Catholic Church. While this topic has featured in much Roman Catholic theological literature since Vatican II, there appears to be a dearth of in-depth studies. This book addresses this apparent lacuna. It draws particularly on the work of two major theologians, Jean-Marie Roger Tillard OP and Sandra Marie Schneiders IHM, who have reflected at length on charism and mission in the period leading up to Vatican II and on the implementation of its documents with respect to Religious Life. The very significant contributions of Tillard and Schneiders on the topic provide Religious, as well as others who want to know and understand Religious Life, with an interesting and motivating insight into charism and mission in Religious Life. Within the Roman Catholic Church, a “Year of Consecrated Life” has just drawn to a close, and this book forms a background and a response to Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter to “all Consecrated People on the occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life” (November 2014), which invited Religious to reflect on these aspects that are essential to the life they have chosen to live.

Winner of the 2010 Lynlea Rodger Australia Theological Form (ATF) Press Theological Book Prize The Eyes of Faith presents a systematic theology of the sense of the faithful (sensus fidelium) and shows the fundamental and necessary interrelationship between sensus fidelium, tradition, Scripture, theology, and the magisterium. Ormond Rush provides fresh perspectives on a number of issues. He proposes that tradition and Scripture are the products of the sensus fidelium and that the inspiration of Scripture is best understood in terms of the Holy Spirit working through the sensus fidelium. In addressing the role of the sensus fidei in the lives of individual believers, the book provides a unique approach to the way Christians make sense of their faith within the diverse contexts of daily life. It shows how the imaginative capacity of the sensus fidei forms a foundational notion for understanding the diversity of spiritualities, inculturations, and contextualizations of the Gospel in the history of the church up to the present. This ecclesial activity of interpreting the Christ event through the sensus fidelium enables the church to proclaim the Gospel in new times and cultures throughout history. The Eyes of Faith proposes that, for an effective teaching of the faith to contemporary Christians, the distinctive roles of the magisterium and of theology must be conceived primarily in terms of, and in relationship to, the ecclesial Spirit-given capacity of the sensus fidelium. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ormond Rush is lecturer of theology and former president of St. Paul's Theological College in Banyo, Australia, and is president of the Australian Catholic Theological Association. He is the author of Still Interpreting Vatican II: Some Hermeneutical Principles and The Reception of Doctrine: An Appropriation of Hans Robert Jauss' Reception Aesthetics and Literary Hermeneutics. PRAISE FOR THE BOOK: "In addition to its internal argumentation, the book's extensive footnotes, Scriptural references, and Church documents will make it a tremendously valuable tool for advanced researchers in several theological areas, including pneumatology, ecclesiology, Scripture studies, and hemeneutics. . . . Highly recommended." -- C. A. Montevecchio, Choice "Some works of scholarship stand out, providing a point of reference and showing the way forward. Orm Rush's study is in this class, and it is not surprising that its first release by CUA Press is a splendid hardback volume. This work makes a significant contribution to Catholic Theology." -- Rev. John Thornhill SM, The Australasian Catholic Record "Rush provides a theologically perceptive panorama of the sensus fidelium at work in the church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In addition to offering numerous insights--usually beneficial and sometimes provocative--Rush's study is extraordinarily well-researched. . . . [T]his volume is an outstandingly creative and comprehensive theological study of the grace of the Holy Spirit acting through the sensus fidelium in the reception of revelation in the church."--John Ford C.S.C., Theological Studies "Rush has here provided us with a sophisticated study of theological hermeneutics, as well as a foundational work in ecclesiology."--Lawrence S. Cunningham, Commonweal "This detailed and well-argued book explores the phenomenon of reception in both the Bible and in contemporary Roman Catholic tradition. . . . An insightful study for those interested in the newest wave of Roman Catholic dogmatic theology, which tends to draw deeply from biblical sources as well as Vatican teaching, this book genuinely advances discussions of the doctrine of reception." --Aaron Klink, Religious Studies Review

Ministry is often examined in terms of who the minister is, not what the minister does. But the vocation to ministry must be understood as a call to identity as well as to practice, one that is rooted in Jesus' life and ministry as well as the Spirit's charisms. InIntroducing the Practice of Ministry Kathleen A.Cahalan defines ministerial leadership as carried out through the practices of teaching, preaching, pastoral care, worship, social ministry, and administration for the sake of nurturing the life of discipleship in the community of believers. In her examination of charisms for each of the practices of ministry, Cahalan presents readers with a Trinitarian foundation, noting that the practices of discipleship and ministry have their origin in the very practices of God." Kathleen A. Cahalan is associate professor of theology at Saint John's University School of Theology, Seminary in Collegeville, Minnesota. She is author of Formed in the Image of Christ: The Sacramental-Moral Theology of Bernard Häring (Liturgical Press, 2004) and Projects That Matter: Successful Planning and Evaluation for Religious Organizations (Alban Institute, 2003). She is the past-president of the Association of Practical Theology. "

This book applies a novel method of critical reading of Lumen Gentium and Mystici Corporis in combination with redaction-historical analysis to channel the Second Vatican Council’s modest attempts at pneumatological renewal into a more open and receptive faith practice and theology.

The role of lay ecclesial ministers—professionally prepared laity who serve in leadership roles—is becoming critically more important in the life of the Catholic church. In Lay Ecclesial Ministry, theologians and pastoral leaders from diverse disciplines provide a deeper understanding, envision future direction, and offer inspiration for these new ministers and the community of the church. Building on the themes of the first official document addressing lay ecclesial ministry, Co-workers in the Vineyard of the Lord, approved by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2005, this book delves deeply into key topics. Authors reflect on dimensions of the Catholic tradition to enrich our understanding of this new reality of lay ministry in the church, to envision future developments, and to offer inspiration. Contributors draw on a variety of theological perspectives, including canon law, church history, ecclesiology, liturgy, and scripture, to ground understanding of lay ecclesial ministry within the Catholic tradition and to chart direction for further response to this newly emergent ministry. The book also offers inspiration and models of service to lay ministers, looking to stories of the saints and communities of vowed religious. Lay Ecclesial Ministry is an essential resource for the Catholic community in understanding and building upon this new and increasingly important component of church life.

"In these three essays - which were presented as keynote lectures at the 2004 conference of the National Association of Diaconate Directors - Professors Cummings, Ditewig, and Gaillardetz construct theologies of the diaconate in conversation with one another and the church. The result is essential reading for deacons, aspirants to the diaconate, deacon directors, as well as the other orders of the clergy, and the laity" -- Book jacket.