PACIFICA

AUSTRALASIAN THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

Volume 12, Number 2, June 1999

Contents, Abstracts and Notes on Contributors

Articles

 

ORMOND RUSH, Determining Catholic Orthodoxy: Monologue or Dialogue 123

Abstract: This article examines the notion of orthodoxy and the appropriate process for its determination in the Catholic Church. After outlining extreme approaches to the question, the article proposes that any approach to the determination of orthodoxy must make clear its position on three areas of theological enquiry: the theology of religious language; theological epistemology; and theological hermeneutics. It is then proposed that the determination of orthodoxy is a dialogic process of reception within the church.

 

ANDREW HAMILTON, Eucharist, Theology and Discipleship 143

Abstract: The author begins by describing the qualities of Eucharistic celebration in functioning Australian Eucharistic communities. He then summarises the eucharistic theology of Josef Ratzinger, who provides a well-argued basis for criticising these qualities. Because discipleship is expressed in local situations, we should expect to find the life of the local communities taken into the celebration of the Eucharist. Within the acceptance of Apostolic proclamation and office, we should also expect to find a democratic and demotic spirit because these express the shape of discipleship in Australia, and so may not improperly be called the gift of Australia to the universal church.

 

ROBERT CROTTY, The Two Magdalene Reports on the Risen Jesus in John 20 156

Abstract: This article offers a review of previously suggested structures of John 20 and proposes an alternative structure based on both linguistic and thematic grounds. The theological message of the text delineated by this structure indicates the resurrection event as narrated in John 20 depicts the completion of Jesus’ ministry and concludes the gospel message. Hence-forward, the interpretation of Scripture, hê graphê, and the preaching of the word, legein, would replace the original event for subsequent potential and actual Christians. Mary Magdalene, as she exists in the Johannine narrative, provided the living link between original events and the subsequent interpretation and preaching of the Christian community.

 

JOHN CHRYSSAVGIS, Ministry, Disability and Brokenness: Orthodox Insights into the Authority of the Priesthood 169

Abstract: Christian ministers must learn to acknowledge the authenticity – and thereby the authority – of their own weakness and woundedness. From an Orthodox Christian spiritual perspective, the awareness of one’s imperfection and brokenness can, paradoxically, become a source not only of personal blessing but also of ordained vocation. The idealisation of physical beauty and external wholeness, frequently at the exclusion of difference and brokenness, is more characteristic of classical Greek aesthetics than of Christian asceticism. The notion of prayerful waiting introduces a third expression of our brokenness, the shattered world around us as we stand – or kneel – before the twenty-first century. The brokenness of creation reveals a further aspect of the role of the priest.

 

CHARLES HILL, A Spiritual Director from Antioch 181

Abstract: Along with the Gospels, the Psalter was a staple of spiritual formation for Christians in the early centuries of the Church. Hence, many psalm Commentaries were composed, often taking pride of place in an author's literary output. Theodoret of Cyr likewise, though a busy pastor in a time of theological turmoil, composed such a work to help people understand this favourite book as they sang it. Drawing on his pre-decessors from Antioch and Alexandria, and betraying current trends in Christology, scriptural interpretation and ascetical practice, he offered with typical conciseness "some benefit in concentrated form" that today we might find at variance with our expectations of a spiritual director.

 

TONY KELLY, Whither "Australian Theology"? A Response to Geoffrey Lilburne 192

Abstract: This reflection offers a positive appreciation of Geoffrey Lil-burne’s call for a greater contribution from the Protestant traditions to a contextualised Australian theology. His critique of my own methodology suggests a number of clarifications of the meaning of "context", "spirituality", "the self" and the relationship of a specifically Christian theology to such issues.

 

TREVOR HOGAN, The Radical Irony of Tradition: Revis(ion)ing Australian Anglo-Catholicism 209

Abstract: This essay uses the recent revisionary histories of Australian Anglo-Catholicism by Colin Holden to revisit the antinomies of conservatism and radicalism in traditions (theological and political). In particular, it highlights the radical ironies contained within "retro-radicalism" of Anglo-Catholicism whereby the renewal of tradition requires both the recognition of its own plural and conflictual history and an active engagement with contemporary challenges. By developing a peripheral vision of the peculiar and contingent stories of provincial and regional traditions of one reform movement within Australian Anglicanism, Holden’s histories offer a rich and complex vision of recurring global themes of centre and periphery: of empire and colony, imperialism and nationalism, race and culture, city and country, church and state. It is concluded that the future of Anglo-Catholicism, after the fact of its historic decline, must perforce lie in a rediscovery of its radical kernel: namely, of a sacramental connecting of ritual and art to the politics of socialism and associative democracy, and in both keys reaffirming a theology of the Trinitarian God.

 

Book Reviews

DAMIAN WYNN-WILLIAMS,

The State of the Pentateuch: A Comparison of the Approaches of M. Noth and E Blum Joseph Sobb 225

 

JUDITH LIEU,

The Gospel of Luke Francis J. Moloney 227

 

E. BYRON ANDERSON AND BRUCE T. MORRILL (eds),

Liturgy and Moral Self: Humanity at Full Stretch Before God Patrick Fahey 230

 

MICHAEL L. GAUDOIN-PARKER,

Hymn of Freedom: Celebrating and Living the Eucharist Tom Knowles 231

 

ROSEMARY WILLIAMS,

Recasting the Stone: Human Suffering and the Business of Blame Christine Burke 233

 

ELIZABETH A. JOHNSON,

Friends of God and Prophets: A Feminist Theological Reading of the Communion of Saints John Wilcken 235

 

RAYMOND E. BROWN,

Christ in the Gospels of the Ordinary Sundays Moira O’Sullivan 238

 

Shorter Notices

JUDITH A. MERKLE,

A Different Touch: A Study of Vows in Religious Life Tony Kelly 239

 

LOUGHLAN SOFIELD, ROSINE HAMMETT, CARROL JULIANO,

Building Community: Christian, Caring, Vital Paul O’Bryan 240

 

JOAN GOLDING AND PETER WOOD,

Coming out Coming Home. Growth in Freedom for the Parents of Gay and Lesbian Children Mary Scarfe 241

 

NINIAN SMART,

The World’s Religions (2nd edition) Ross Langmead 242

 

BRENDAN LOVETT,

A Dragon Not for the Killing: Christian Presence to China Tony Kelly 243

 

MCD Research Reports

DOCTOR OF THEOLOGY 244

MASTER OF THEOLOGY 247

MASTER OF MINISTRY 247


Notes on Contributors

Ormond Rush is a Catholic priest from the diocese of Townsville. He lectures in systematic theology at Pius XII Seminary, Banyo, and is currently the Dean of the Brisbane College of Theology. His doctoral dissertation has been published as The Reception of Doctrine: Appropriating Hans Robert Jauss’ Reception Aesthetics and Literary Hermeneutics (Rome: Gregorian University Press, 1997).

Andrew Hamilton S.J. completed his doctorate in patristics at the University of Oxford and lectures in christology and church history at the United Faculty of Theology. When not writing and teaching, he also serves as historian and theologian for the Jesuit Refugee Service.

Robert Crotty is presently Professor of Religious Education and Dean: Research Degrees in the Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of South Australia. Earlier he studied theology and biblical studies in Australia, later in Rome and at the École Biblique in Jerusalem.

Rev Dr John Chryssavgis was born in Australia and served the Greek Orthodox Church here as Sub-Dean of St Andrew’s Theological College in Sydney. Since 1995 he has been Professor of Theology at Holy Cross School of Theology in Boston, USA. His recent publications include The Way of the Fathers: Exploring the Patristic Mind and Beyond the Shattered Image: Orthodox Insights into the Environment.

Charles Hill teaches in the School of Studies in Religion in the University of Sydney. He is author of translations of the commentaries of St John Chrysostom on Genesis and the Psalms. Publication of his translations of the commentaries of Theodoret of Cyr on the Psalms and the letters of Paul is forthcoming.

Tony Kelly C.Ss.R. was recently appointed to the Chair of Theology at Australian Catholic University. He has been President of Yarra Theological Union, and taught there for many years. He continues to be based in Melbourne.

Trevor Hogan teaches and researches in the School of Sociology, Politics and Anthropology, La Trobe University in Melbourne. He is a co-ordinating editor of Thesis Eleven, an international social and political theory journal published by Sage, London. Recent publications include articles on Thomas Carlyle and Sismondi; Zymunt Bauman and the New Poor; urban sociology; social policy; and Christian socialism.