Irish Theological Quarterly current issue

Vatican II and Fundamental Theology

O'Collins, G. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:18:02 PDT

This article describes and evaluates what the teaching of Vatican II has contributed to the development of fundamental theology in four areas: (1) the salvific self-revelation or self-communication of the tripersonal God; (2) the conditions that enable human beings to respond to this divine self-communication with faith; (3) the credibility of God’s self-revelation that makes Christian faith a reasonable option; and (4) the transmission and interpretation (through tradition and the inspired scriptures) of the experience of God’s self-revelation. The article also indicates how the teaching of John Paul II has been significant for developing further fundamental theology: for instance, in what he wrote about revelation being also a present reality communicated through the medium of human experience and about the Holy Spirit operating at the heart of each person’s ‘religious questioning’ (Redemptoris Missio ).

Karl Rahner and Human Nature: Implications for Ethics

Lawler, M. G., Salzman, T. A. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:18:02 PDT

This article opens with the Second Vatican Council’s teaching that the exposition of Catholic moral theology ‘should be more thoroughly nourished by scriptural teaching’ and suggests that it should also be more thoroughly nourished by and linked to Catholic systematic theology. To that end, it examines the transcendental theology of Karl Rahner and asks about its implications for Catholic moral theology. It examines Rahner’s existentials, fundamental, ontological characteristics of human nature that define it, make it specifically human nature, and distinguish it from all other natures. It examines specifically the supernatural existential, God’s unexacted self-offer to every human being born into the world, and the equally fundamental human existentials of freedom and historicity. The import for Rahner of these existentials is that humans are freedom, that they are historical, and that they are unexactedly ordered to God. The implications of this transcendental theology for Christian ethics are examined as a conclusion to the article.

Charles Taylor and Bernard Lonergan on Natural Theology

Ormerod, N. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:18:02 PDT

Following on a previous article concerning the need to develop a contemporary natural theology, the author considers the work of two Catholic philosophers, Charles Taylor and Bernard Lonergan, on the possibility of undertaking a natural theology. The article shows that despite some differences, both writers converge on the central problem of conversion as the key to the development of a natural theology.

Book Review: Systematic Theology: Benedikt XVI. Das Gewissen unserer Zeit. Ein theologisches Portrait. By D. Vincent Twomey SVD. Translated by Peter Paul Bornhausen. Augsburg: Sankt Ulrich Verlag GmbH, 2006. Pp. 168. Price 16.90 (hbk). ISBN 978-3-936484-86-1. Joseph Ratzinger -- Benedikt XVI. Die Entwicklung seines Denkens. By Hansjurgen Verweyen. Darmstadt: Primus Verlag, 2007. Pp. 173. Price 24.90 (hbk). ISBN 9783896785879

Corkery, J. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:18:02 PDT

Book Review: Scripture: The History of the Interpretation of the Gospel of Mark. Volume 1: Through the Nineteenth Century. Volume 2: The Twentieth Century: Books 1 and 2. By Sean P. Kealy C.S.Sp. Lewistown/Queenstown/ Lampeter: Edwin Mellen, 2007. Pp. 567 (vol. 1), 711 (vol. 2) (hbk). Includes indices. Price: $139.95/{pound}84.95 (vol. 1), $159.95/{pound}94.95 (vol. 2). ISBN 978-0-7734-5190-2/0-7734-5190-0 (vol. 1), 978-0-7734-5117-9/0-77345117-X (2-volume set)

McConvery, B. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:18:02 PDT

Book Review: Patristics: Augustine's Early Theology of the Church: Emergence and Implications, 386--391. By David C. Alexander. New York: Peter Lang, 2008. Pp. 451. 70.00 (hbk). ISBN 978-1-4331-0103-8

Osa, D. K. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:18:02 PDT