While speaking out against the status quo of his day, Jesus referred to himself and his message as new wine poured out into new wineskins. Today consecrated life is living a time of deep change and is discovering the "new wine": Where shall we put this wine, in old wineskins or in new wineskins? These guidelines test the wineskins made to preserve the new wines that the Spirit continues to give to his Church, inciting us to initiate changes through concrete action in the short and long term.It is an exercise in "ecclesial discernment" through which consecrated men and women are called to undergo new changes so that ideals and doctrine become real in our lives: systems, structures, diaconia, styles, relationships and language. These guidelines are the product of what emerged from the events held during the Year of Consecrated Life.

The institution of monasticism in the Christian Church is in general decline, at least in so-called “first world” nations. Though there are many reasons for this, monastic leaders are confronted by the reality of fewer communities, monks, and nuns nonetheless. At the same time, many younger Christians are rediscovering the rich heritage of the monastic tradition. Though they themselves might not be called to join a traditional monastery, they are eager to appropriate monastic practices in their own lives. This had led to a movement known as the “new monasticism” or “secular monasticism.” Despite lacking a unified vision and any central organization, these new/secular monastics are attempting, in their own ways, to carry on the tradition and practices of Christian monasticism. As well, there is a movement within historical Christian monasteries to pour new wine into old wineskins. Traditional forms of monasticism are also generally flourishing in developing nations, breathing new life into monasticism. This volume looks at the current monastic landscape to assess where monasticism stands and to imagine ways in which it will grow in the future, leading not only to a renewed Christian monasticism but to new monasticisms.

These Guidelines are brought together as an exercise in evangelical discernment, wherein we strive to recognize - in the Light of the Spirit - a call for religious men and women which God causes to resound in our historical and social situation itself.

Patterns of migration for the purpose of religious mission are an unexamined dimension of the immigration narrative. Catholic sisters from many countries around the world come to the United States to minister and to study. Sociologists from Trinity Washington University and CARA at Georgetown University combined forces to document and understand this contemporary and historical phenomenon. Together, they located more than 4,000 "international sisters" who are currently in the United States for formation, studies, or ministry, from 83 countries spread over six continents. Through surveys, focus groups, and interviews, they heard the stories of these sisters and learned of their joys and satisfactions as well as their struggles and challenges. This book examines the experience of these sisters in depth and offers valuable suggestions for religious institutes, Catholic dioceses and parishes, and others who benefit from their contributions. More broadly, this book also raises awareness of immigration issues at a time of great contention in the public policy debate in the United States. Illustrated with instructive graphics and tables, it is an accessible and inviting resource for academics and the media, as well as bishops, and leaders of Catholic health care, social service, education, pastoral, and philanthropic institutions.

This book highlights the transformative potential of democratic Church and Christian community in India. In the light of both ongoing and, also to some extent, foregone sociopolitical and theological challenges confronting Indian Christianity, this book invokes the need to democratize Indian Christianity in terms of its theology, liturgy, teachings, practices, resources, leadership roles, and institutional power relations/sharing by keeping contemporary “social realities” of Indian Christians at the core of its approach and discourse. It explores internal challenges – of caste, class, gender, and regional contestations – and external forces of communalism and majoritarianism confronting Indian Christianity today. Further, it underlines the importance of dignity, equality, fraternity, freedom, and responsibility emerging at an organizational level through strong mechanisms of deliberation, decision-making, and execution. A major contribution to religious studies in India, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of religion, especially Christian theology, South Asian studies, politics, and sociology.

"A valuable theological and pastoral resource for the conversion, transformation and revitalization needed in consecrated life today"--

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.

Our contemporary culture is dominated by two extremes relativism and fundamentalism. Neither is desirable: relativism claims that all questions of truth are irrelevant, whereas fundamentalism insists on sole possession of absolute truth. Internationally renowned sociologist of religion Peter Berger has gathered a group of scholars to consider how, from out of different traditions, one can define a middle position between both extremes. / After an extensive introductory overview by Berger, three essays ( sociological descriptions ) give an objective picture of how relativism and fundamentalism play out in today s world. In the second part ( theological directions ) authors from several different Christian traditions and one conservative Jewish tradition flesh out a normative middle ground that is neither relativist they affirm specific truth claims nor fundamentalist their affirmations include tolerance of the claims of others.