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Irish Theological Quarterly | 1990
Thomas Corbett
These words of Alfred North Whitehead still ring true today, for we live in a culture dominated in many ways by the marvels, methods and horrors of science; while at the same time we see people struggling in different ways to preserve and promote religious forms of life and thought. The successes of science have given it a very high profile in recent centuries, but already in our century the threat of technological takeover, the dilemmas of genetic engineering, the nuclear terror and planetary destruction have conspired to make human beings take another and different look at their world and the meanings to be found in it or given to it. In this great quest both the scientific and religious communities are seen to have a vital role to play and hence the title of this lecture here today is science and religion. For both science and religion are not just methods of study and research with defined objects and objectives; they are also to be thought of as generators of myths, symbols, perspectives and perceptions of reality and value, which play important roles above and beyond the individual findings of scientists and theologians. But
Irish Theological Quarterly | 2000
Thomas Corbett
ners. But Nichols points out that, for Balthasar, this is a solidarity which extends as far as substitution; God’s Other takes the place of sinners by taking the ’No’ of their godforsaken freedom upon himself so that they might share in his obedient ’Yes’ to God. Here, according to Nichols, all the theological treatises from De Deo Uno to the De Ecclesia come together at the supreme nodal point where the Son endures the most bitter separation from the Father so that those who have distanced themselves from God might be redeemed by being drawn into the eternal event of separation and unity. ’ Nichols had completed his guidebook before the last volume of the Dramatics, Das Endspiel, was translated into English. Hence, chapters fourteen to eighteen are based on his own translation although the Ignatius Press translation (in most cases) was substituted when volume five of TheoDrama became available. If the whole of Theo-Drama is best understood as eschatology, Nichols now skilfully highlights the major themes of its explicitly eschatological volume: the gathering of worldly time into God’s super-time, the place of worldly becoming in the surprise-provoking eventfulness of the eternal processions, suffering and receptivity in God, the nature of Christian hope, the respectful accompaniment of human freedom in the descent to hell, the Last Things as such, the fulfilment of finite freedom in the ever-greater liveliness of trinitarian freedom and earth’s enriching the heavenly play. Again, the nature of the text as a guidebook means that it offers analytic exposition rather than critique. It comes to an end with a summary of Balthasar’s own recapitulation of this part of the trilogy and his understanding of the Eschaton in terms of the divine persons giving each other the divine play in which the world is amazingly involved. No Bloodless Myth confirms Aidan Nichols as an authority on the writings of Hans Urs von Balthasar. This
Irish Theological Quarterly | 2000
Thomas Corbett
ment, separation and descent are to be situated in terms of the eternal events of self-giving and self-emptying love (p. 79). God is Unbounded Love, manifested in the death, descent and resurrection. Sebastian Moore seeks to develop a more psychological mediation of the Trinity for ’a full psychological appropriation of the story of Jesus’ (p. 92). He employs narrative, psychology and intentional analysis in order to reconstruct the disciples’ experience and to locate the ’grassroots derivation of the Trinity’ in the power of the psychological transformation of the disciples’ experience in the Paschal Mystery and their conversion to it. Chapters five and six provide extended comment on the thematic contribution and methodological importance of the authors. Their common dissatisfaction with the traditional theology is examined in some detail and their differences among each other are analysed with the help of Bernard Lonergan’s analysis of intentionality. Clearly this is new territory for those versed in the scholastic presentation of the central doctrine of our faith. There is a very deliberate move away from the metaphysical categories of that presentation and a move from a more substance-grounded understanding of being to a more relational and communicative notion of person. There is a new ontology of love, and a somewhat radical reshaping of the divine perfections as attributes of self-giving is intimated. Anne Hunt moves carefully in this delicate
Irish Theological Quarterly | 1994
Thomas Corbett
in Christianity itself. For Christians, this historical account uncovers much of the repressed material over the centuries. It traces the development of anti-semitism from the Greco-Roman world through the period of the early Church, the Middle Ages, the post medieval anti-semitism until the full flowering in the Shoah (Holocaust), followed by anti-semitism in the post-holocaust world, with a concluding chapter on &dquo;Reconciliation&dquo;. The purpose of his book clearly suggests that only a courageous confrontation of such &dquo;buried demons&dquo; of the past will lead both Christian and Jew to a coresponsibility which is essential to mutual understanding and co-operation in the future.
Irish Theological Quarterly | 1992
Thomas Corbett
publication. Most useful to the student is the provision of a systematic list of themes or subjects. These lists contain all that is relevant throughout the earlier work to any subject of study or research, with reference facilitated by the numbering system adopted. They are, as far as one can see, exhaustive, with several subsections in some areas chosen: Patrologie, Persona, Pneumatologie are examples one would choose to illustrate the thoroughness. There are other analytical indices to volume one: an alphabetical listing of
Irish Theological Quarterly | 1992
Thomas Corbett
a M. Phil at the University of Dublin, compares and contasts &dquo;Minjung&dquo; theology and &dquo;theology after Auschwitz&dquo; with a view to throwing some light on that debate. This &dquo;Minjung&dquo; theology was developed in Korea in the 1970s in the midst of the struggle for human rights and democracy and sees the &dquo;oppressed&dquo; (Minjung) as God’s people. &dquo;Theology after Auschwitz&dquo; emerged in the 1960s in Germany, with its ecclesiology of the one people of God and its opposition to the idea of messianic politics. This book situates each theology in its historical context and social setting and examines each under five headings, methodology/ hermeneutics, exegesis, christology, ecclesiology and political theology. Chapter three institutes a dialogue between the two with a focus on the relationships between &dquo;contextuality&dquo; and &dquo;correlativity&dquo;. It concludes that there can be no abstract ecumenical theology nor can there be a truly ecumenical theology that is not responsible to and struggles with the whole scripture and whole tradition (p. 211). Catholicity and ecumenism are nothing more than nice irrelevant words if solidarity in space and time is refused (p. 211) and if special note is not taken of Jesus, the rejected messiah who remains messiah of Israel. This study is well documented (no sources in Korean?), well structured and informative. It leaves the reader with a sense of the challenge of a truly ecumenical theology in a divided world.
Irish Theological Quarterly | 1991
Thomas Corbett
Theism to the Crucified God (Chapter VII). Part III, under the general heading &dquo;The Practice of Christians Reinterprets Christianity&dquo;, deals with the problems of Christianity faced with a non-Christian culture. A final chapter on the mission of the Church concludes that testimony of the gospel in the life of Christians is always possible, &dquo;even though the time is not always ripe for clear and explicit words to be spoken about Jesus Christ either in our secularized and pluralist western societies or in other countries in which another great religion is the domi-
Irish Theological Quarterly | 1991
Thomas Corbett
The scope of this book is ambitious and daring. It pictures our humanity with the wheel of evolution in one hand, and dormant, but surely within is the drive and potential to steer our world and ourselves towards the highest levels of human consciousness. The authors’ insights are well supported from philosophy, theology and the great world religions. Theirs is a comprehensive presentation, but all through the reader becomes more and more convinced that the book is a systematized presentation of field-work, experienced with groupings of different races, creeds and classes.
Irish Theological Quarterly | 1990
Thomas Corbett
not just as a major probative miracle. A vast literature has probed the scriptural witness and to a less extent the theological significance of the event known as resurrection. In these two very useful books Gerald O’Collins attempts to discuss and evaluate a lot of the scriptural and theological writings of recent years. Jesus Risen begins by correctly pointing to the need to hear not only what the scholars but also what the sufferers and worshippers say about the resurrection. However, O’Collins keeps rather close to the academic and scholarly people as he investigates the resurrection in modern theology (Jesus Risen, Chs. 2 and 3). On his general principle of making a reasonable case for the facts reported and then reflecting theologically on these facts he devotes Chapter 4 to establishing the resurrection as an event warranted by the appearances and the empty tomb. A particularly useful Chapter 5 &dquo;Believing in the Risen One&dquo; recognizes that faith involves confession and story. It gives three presuppositions and five tests for validing the Easter faith. These five are partial continuity with expectations of Israel, coherence, reliable witness, vindicated in public practice and personal experience, which provide provisional but adequate verification of the resurrection. The remaining chapters (6-9) deal with the resurrection as the focus of revelation the truth about God from which everything else follows (Jesus Risen, p. 148) and how to communicate this. An appendix deals with the nature of the appearances of the Risen Christ, rejecting the thesis that the humanity of the transfiguration of Jesus in Mark is primary and gnostic. Interpreting the Resurrection deals in short chapters with four major problems in the stories of the resurrection. In a chapter on what the appearances were like O’Collins insists that they were unparalleled, elusive and not well defined as &dquo;mystical&dquo;. On the question &dquo;Did Jesus eat the fish?&dquo; O’Collins argues that Luke uses the fish eating for theological reasons but &dquo;does not want his readers
Irish Theological Quarterly | 1990
Thomas Corbett
myself to looking at the topic from a theological, as distinct from the social, historical or practical point of view. I do this by examining certain notions and proposals which have emerged in recent discussions worldwide in the conviction that our progress towards Christian unity in Ireland is part of the general movement of the churches across the world. You will pardon me for the place and attention given to the Roman Catholic perspective; I offer you the ideas and debates from this perspective as invitation to you to analyse and if necessary criticise them and in the hope that they may help all of us to rethink our views in the process of growing together.
