Issue 105/2 (2024) of the magazine “Gregorianum” is available, quarterly published by the Gregorian University.

ARTICULI

Luca Di Gioia, La questione del realismo nel simbolismo biblico della luce. Un’analisi in prospettiva filosofica ed antropologica

Abstract - The symbolic juxtaposition that biblical revelation makes of light with faith represents, from both a philosophical and a theological point of view, a decisive passage in the history of thought and civilization, which marks a gap with respect to both the approach of philosophical anthropology and philosophical rationalism. The article is aimed at highlighting some fracture thresholds between these different ways of conceiving the symbolism of light so as to underline their strong implications with respect to anthropology, ontology and, more generally, the way we conceive the relationship between God, ourselves, and the world.

Keywords: light – darkness – reality – salvation – creation – symbol – otherness – realism

 

Margaret Beirne, Acts 15. A Model for a Spirit-led Synod process

Abstract - Although Nicaea is commonly identified as ‘the first ecumenical Council’, the narrative account of ‘the Council of Jerusalem’ in Acts 15 makes a strong claim as its biblical precedent. In the Lukan narrative, the elders of the neophyte Christian communities came together to resolve a significant issue in the early Church. Guided by the Spirit, they worked through a process that sets a pattern for communal discernment in today’s Church. Such an interpretation has been explored by several writers, but what I identify in this paper is the vital element of personal conversion on the part of the key participants. It is precisely this experience that enabled them to reach a peaceful resolution, and to receive joyful acceptance when they disseminated the decision to the nascent Christian communities. The paper concludes by outlining how this biblical narrative provides a fitting model for the Synod process.

Keywords: Council – Jerusalem – communities – Spirit – discernment – Synod

 

Christian Barone, Esperienza e cognizione incarnata nei processi di integrazione mentale: l’apporto dell’analisi poetico-cognitiva alla teologia

Abstract - The article aims to introduce the branch of neuroscientific research that goes by the name of Cognitive Poetics, the purpose of which is to investigate the cognitive mechanisms (conceptual blending) involved in the enjoyment of a narrative text and that enable the reader/hearer to identify with the text, to actively participate in its process of signification by drawing on his or her own emotional, experiential, and cultural experience. The application of the toolkit offered by Cognitive Poetics to the Lucan parable of the Good Samaritan and other Gospel pericopes allows us to highlight the importance accorded by the synoptic narratives to the corporeality of Jesus. In particular, the “apocalyptic” connotation with which the evangelist Luke sketches the dimension of Jesus’ “feeling” in his visceral participation in the suffering of the People and creation.

Keywords: Neuroscience – embodied cognition – experience – corporeality – apocalyptic

 

Carla M. Thomas, OP – Desmond C. Buhagar, S.I., The Satir Model of Family Therapy and Amoris Laetitia: Extending the Horizon of the Family as Domestic Church

Abstract - This article brings together insights from the Satir Model of family systems therapy and key themes from Amoris Laetitia (AL) to provide an interdiscipli­nary analysis in support of an inclusive ecclesiology of families as domestic church. While the domestic church remains the privileged hermeneutic for theological reflection on the Christian family, it addresses, at present, preemi­nently mainstream families who are constituted by sacramental marriage and represented by the nuclear ideal. This article suggests that further theological reflection may be needed on the domestic church, as a model that could take account of other family organizations and structures that are in keeping with the spirit of AL. The core constructs of the Satir Model of family therapy align with the thematic orientation of AL, and together, offer resources that sup­port and encourage continued development of the theology of the domestic church.

Keywords: Satir family therapy – Amoris Laetitia – domestic church – families – humanism – gradualism – holiness – Vatican II – magisterium – ecclesiology

 

Angela Rinaldi, La Lettera al Popolo di Dio di Papa Francesco. Chiamata universale e sinodale al Safeguarding

Abstract - In the last few decades, the phenomenon of abuse of minors and vulnerable people within the Catholic Church has been reflected and studied from several points of view, which contributed to enrich the reflection on the topic.

In this context, the Church released various pastoral and canonical docu­ments. Among the pastoral ones, it is possible to find the Letter to the People of God, written by Pope Francis in 2018. This article wants to describe the context and the message of the Letter and, in light of the main principles of the Social Teaching of the Church, to affirm and explain the importance of the creation of a Safeguarding system within the Church, which cannot be separated from what we call Synodality. Some of the main principles are co-responsibility and “the same feeling” of the Church-People of God as an an­tidote to all forms of elitism and clericalism, which contributed to the culture of silence of the past years.

Keywords: abuse – Catholic Church – Letter to the People of God – power – clericalism – Synodality

 

David Angeles Garnica, The Platonic Root of Thomas Aquinas’s Cosmovision

Abstract - The writings of the Angelic Doctor reveal a distinction between several pivotal terms: via (argumentation), positio (conclusion), and positionis radix (foundational principle). In this paper, we focus on the Thomistic evaluation of platonic thought, specifically in its use of the terms via, positio, and radix, focusing primarily on Aquinas’s final work, the unfinished De substantiis separatis. We argue that Aquinas held a sharp critic of the platonic via, shared some elements of the platonic positio, and that his integration of the platonic radix – i.e., the good as the first exemplar agent – was fundamental in the development of his stereoscopic vision of the cosmos. The integration of the platonic radix is the key element to his notion of the double status of the form within the material world, and for his understanding of separates substances. Finally, we study one consequence of this platonic radix in the ‘inner cosmos’ of the contemplative life of the soul. This contemplation is exercised by the intellect through the intuitus simplex.

Keywords: Plato – Thomas – via – positio – radix

 

Ana Lucía Montoya Jaramillo, Una lectura ricoeuriana de lo que hace la atención: el paso de la “objetividad a la existencia” en Lo voluntario y lo involuntario

Abstract - This article offers a reading, under the influence of Ricoeur, of the restorati­ve function of attention in philosophical practice. The guiding thread of the re­flection is Ricoeur’s concern, present in Freedom and Nature, to find a starting point that allows one to move from “objectivity to existence”. This is framed in the “will to restore” that guided his early intellectual production and is done in dialogue with Husserl’s phenomenological method and Marcel’s concept of participation. The article analyzes the restorative path proposed in this work on two levels, the first level involves the restoration of subjectivity thanks to the phenomenological method and the second level involves the ontological dimension. It is proposed to identify, in the concept of contemplative partici­pation, the sought after starting point for philosophy that fosters thinking in the service of restoration. The article concludes by exploring how attentio­nal practice, understood as contemplative participation, has ethical and social consequences.

Keywords: Ricoeur – attention – E. Husserl – phenomenological method – G. Marcel – participation

 

Sherel Jeevan Joseph Mendonsa, S.I., The Non-interventionist Objective Account of Divine Action: A Wittgensteinian critique

Abstract - The objective of this article is to make a critique of one of the scientific accounts of divine action, which is abbreviated as NIODA (Non-interventionist objective divine action). The NIODA account subscribes to quantum theory to explain divine action. After discussing the account from the philosophical perspective, the article considers two points of criticism from the Wittgensteinian perspective. The first point is that the account does not sufficiently consider the difference between religious and scientific language-games. The second point is that the account assumes that the scientific paradigm is universally applicable including to the realm of religion. Such an assumption is unwarranted from the Wittgensteinian perspective. The article concludes by clarifying that the purpose of critiquing the NIODA account is not to challenge the project of dialogue among science, philosophy and theology which the account strives for. On the contrary, the purpose is to contribute to such a project by raising some issues that need to be integrated into future research of this project.

Keywords: Divine action – divine providence – quantum theory – Wittgenstein – language-games – philosophy of religion

 

Marc Grenier, Jesus as Ecologist: A Catholic View of Creation and the Ecology

Abstract - This essay provides only a brief exploratory examination of the part played by the natural world in different aspects of the life and teachings of Christ which resonate with ecological messages for humanity. There are also implicit ‘not’ messages to all humanity both rich and poor and everyone in between leading to a more profound understanding of humanity’s relationship to the environment which makes Christ the perfect ecologist, so to speak. Nowhere does Christ advocate revolutionary political overthrow in the name of ecological crisis or blame the existence of money nor the rich for the ills of the environment or society, for that matter. Christ is presented as a living model of how humanity is instructed to relate to a natural world created by God with mutual respect and reverence. From a Catholic viewpoint, the fact that God is dynamically present within the natural world means that all of created order is at once both physical and spiritual. From the very beginning, Christ is ushered into the human world via a birth caressed by nature, as made clear in the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke. At baptism, again we see nature taking central stage in supernatural drama filled with episodes of purification – even in the way John the Baptist is dressed for the occasion. Lastly, the canvass of the natural world even provides the vivid background and testimony of nature as restoration and renewal in the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Christ. The implications of viewing nature as metaphor, teacher, purifier, restorer, renewal, and sacred are presented.

Keywords: Catholic – biblical – creation – God – environment – ecological crisis – nature – natural world – spiritual – metaphor – purification – restoration – renewal

 

NOTA

Arabic Printing for the Christians in Ottoman Lands. I. Feodorov, Arabic Printing for the Christians in Ottoman Lands. The East-European Connection (Y. Ashenafi), 457-460.

 

RECENSIONES

Biblia: C. Di Sante, Giustizia biblica e grazia. Tra colpa, pena, riparazione e rinascita (G. De Virgilio), 461-463; P. Rocca– N. Calduch Benages – F. Ficco, ed., Il fuoco della Parola. Il lezionario e l’eucologia della solennità di Pentecoste (C. Obeid), 464-465.

Theologia: P. Domini, L’herméneutique de la foi dans la pensée et l’oeuvre de J. Ratzinger – Benoît XVI (A. Pidel), 465-467; M. Ferrari, Venga il tuo regno. Dalla tirannia dell’istante alla pienezza del tempo (H. M. Yáñez), 467-469; M. Gagliardi, Rivelazione, ermeneutica, e sviluppo dottrinale in Joseph Ratzinger. Un contributo indiretto alla sinodalità (A. Pidel), 469-472; M.-G. Lemaire, ed., Henri de Lubac: Tome 3, Enseignement et désert 1930-1960 (J. Servais), 472-474; M.-G. Lemaire, Prendre conscience du Christ. Du surnaturel à l’intelligence spirituelle de l’écriture : le mouvement de la conversion chez Henri de Lubac (J. Servais), 474-475; B. Valuet, o.s.b., Dieu joueur d’échecs ? Prédestination, grâce et libre arbitre. Tome 1 : De l’Écriture à saint Albert le Grand, Tome 2 : Relecture de saint Thomas d’Aquin (J. Servais), 475-477.

Ius Canonicum: C. Burgun, Accompagner le départ d’un membre de sa communauté. Approches canoniques et pluridisciplinaires (B. Malvaux), 477-478; M. Hermes, Datenschutz der katholischen Kirche im Spannungsfeld zwischen kirchlicher Selbstbestimmung und europäischem Datenschutzrecht (M. Ambros), 478-480; L. Sabbarese, La tutela dei minori e degli adulti vulnerabili nella Chiesa italiana. L’indagine previa (D. G. Astigueta), 480-481.

Philosophia: V. Carraud, Pascal: de la certitude (S. D’Agostino), 482-484; T. Conti, L’umano e il presagio del divino. L’homo religiosus tra interiorità, misticismo e trascendenza (R. Lucas Lucas), 484-485; M. Rodríguez Díaz, Género, jóvenes e iglesia. Juntar las piezas (R. Lucas Lucas), 485-486; A. Schnell, Die Erscheinung der Erscheinung: J. G. Fichtes „Wissenschaftslehre von 1804 – Zweiter Zyklus“ (J. Stoffers), 486-488.

Historia Ecclesiae: J. Barclay Llyod, Dominicans and Franciscans in Medieval Rome: History, Architecture, and Art (V. Š. Dóci), 488-490; H. Schilling, Das Christentum und die Entstehung des modernen Europa (D. Pfitzer), 490-493.

Judaica: R. Sadin – A. Mercier, L’antisémitisme ou le Dragon à quatre têtes (R. Starnitzky), 493-494.

Spiritualitas: D. Bonhoeffer, «Poi è arrivato qualcos’altro». Dalla riflessione biblica all’incontro con la Parola (E. Panato), 495-496.

 

LIBRI NOSTRI

A. Lusvardi, Baptism of Desire and Christian Salvation (497).

 

OPERA ACCEPTA

(498-500)