Journey across the desert

Thirty years ago, my father, Charles Davis, then a secular priest and considered by many the leading Catholic theologian in Britain, publicly denounced the Roman Catholic Church as corrupt, and left. It was a move which sent shock waves around the Catholic world. At the same time he married my mother, then Florence Henderson, a long-standing member of the international Catholic lay women’s organisation, the Grail. They had become friends through their joint work in the ecumenical movement in Britain. She followed him in his decision to leave the Church and together they went into a form of exile, which my father, in different contexts, has often referred to as the desert. It was in the desert that my brother and I were born and raised.
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Posted: January 25, 1997 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6547
Categories: Opinion, The Tablet • In this article: Christian, Christianity, church, church reform, theology Transmis : 25 janvier 1997 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6547
Catégorie : Opinion, The Tablet • Dans cet article : Christian, Christianity, church, church reform, theology

Liberating Mary

In the furore surrounding the ex-communication of Fr Tissa Balasuriya, very little has been said about the overall project of his book, Mary and Human Liberation. Beyond specific theological questions, Fr Balasuriya’s treatment of Mary touches on issues which go to the heart of the conflict between traditionalists and reformists which is dividing the Catholic Church today.

As in so many of Christianity’s decisive theological moments, the role of Mary is pivotal. The saying, “As Mary goes, so goes the Church,” is as true today as it was of the fifth century when the Council of Ephesus affirmed Christ’s divinity by declaring Mary Theotokos, or Godbearer.
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Posted: March 8, 1997 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6554
Categories: Opinion, The Tablet • In this article: Catholic, feminist, liberation, Mary, theology Transmis : 8 mars 1997 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6554
Catégorie : Opinion, The Tablet • Dans cet article : Catholic, feminist, liberation, Mary, theology

Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism

More than 25 years ago in Northern India I first met Fr Dupuis. That meeting prefigured my contact with his remarkable book, and was also thoroughly physical. As he gunned his Yugoslavian motorcycle along narrow roads in the foothills of the Himalayas, I clung to him for dear life and prayed not to fall into the cavernous valleys that flanked our route to a high-altitude Buddhist monastery. After visiting the monks Dupuis roared off down another road to a self-help Tibetan refugee camp directed by the Dalai Lama’s sister-in-law and then to a mountaineering school run by the Sherpa Tensing who had conquered Mount Everest in 1953 with Sir Edmund Hillary. These visits shaped my first impressions of Jacques Dupuis as someone who wanted direct contact with other religious traditions and was certainly not content to learn about them simply by reading texts at his desk.
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Posted: January 24, 1998 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6701
Categories: The Tablet • In this article: dialogue, interfaith, salvation, theology Transmis : 24 janvier 1998 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6701
Catégorie : The Tablet • Dans cet article : dialogue, interfaith, salvation, theology

Bishops between a rock and a hard place

Catholics are permitted to support attempts to limit the evil aspects of an abortion law, says Pope John Paul in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae. In Germany, however, the moral complexities have made the Church draw back, which threatens to reduce its influence in society. A journalist on the weekly Rheinischer Merkur highlights the German bishops’ dilemma.
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Posted: August 21, 1999 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6689
Categories: The Tablet • In this article: abortion, Catholic, ethics, social policy, theology Transmis : 21 aoüt 1999 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6689
Catégorie : The Tablet • Dans cet article : abortion, Catholic, ethics, social policy, theology

Cardinals in conflict

The recent elevation of 44 new cardinals may have seemed to show that for the Catholic Church, it was business as usual. In reality the ceremony marked a radical break. For this first consistory of the new millennium was at the same time a farewell ceremony for a whole era — the era of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The eminent prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), that capable and controversial guardian of Roman Catholic orthodoxy, had enjoyed a monopoly of spiritual power under papal primacy. Now that was challenged. The consistory was both an individual personal drama and an institutional setback to Roman centralism.
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Posted: April 28, 2001 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6706
Categories: The Tablet • In this article: church, ecclesiology, Joseph Ratzinger, Second Vatican Council, theology, Walter Kasper Transmis : 28 avril 2001 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6706
Catégorie : The Tablet • Dans cet article : church, ecclesiology, Joseph Ratzinger, Second Vatican Council, theology, Walter Kasper

Feminism, Vatican-style

Rome’s new document on men and women shows that feminists and the Church have more in common than perhaps either realises, but Catholic theology has yet to describe the sacramental nature of women.
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Posted: August 7, 2004 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6756
Categories: The Tablet • In this article: Catholic, Christian feminism, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, theological anthropology, theology, women Transmis : 7 aoüt 2004 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6756
Catégorie : The Tablet • Dans cet article : Catholic, Christian feminism, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, theological anthropology, theology, women

Benedict XVI and the Future of Interreligious Theology

“Benedict XVI and the Future of Interreligious Theology” is the subject of a talk by Francis Clooney, S.J., at 8 p.m., March 24, 2006 at Sam Sorbara Auditorium in Brennan Hall, 81 St Mary Street, Toronto. The evening is sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in collaboration with the University of Toronto’s Centre for the Study of Religion, Regis College, and the University of St Michael’s College. For more information call (416) 926-7115 or (416) 926-1300 ext 3317.

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Posted: March 16, 2006 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=215
Categories: News • In this article: Benedict XVI, events, interfaith, Joseph Ratzinger, theology Transmis : 16 mars 2006 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=215
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : Benedict XVI, events, interfaith, Joseph Ratzinger, theology

Catholic women in ministry – a review

CATHOLIC WOMEN IN MINISTRY: Changing the Way Things Are, by Marie-Louise Ternier-Gommers. Novalis (Montreal, QC ). © 2007, 216pp., $21.95. Reviewed by Gertrude Rompré.
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Posted: August 21, 2007 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=338
Categories: News • In this article: books, Catholic, ecclesiology, ministry, ordination, theology, women Transmis : 21 aoüt 2007 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=338
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : books, Catholic, ecclesiology, ministry, ordination, theology, women

Evangelicals and Social Engagement

Evangelical theology stresses the importance of a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ and sees the transformation of individuals as an important part of the transformation of the world. However, the notion of a purely privatized faith in which the gospel only affects individual, personal or family life but has no wider implications for society must be rejected as inadequate.
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Posted: September 15, 2007 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=349
Categories: News • In this article: environment, Evangelicals, justice, peace, social policy, statements, theology, World Evangelical Alliance Transmis : 15 septembre 2007 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=349
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : environment, Evangelicals, justice, peace, social policy, statements, theology, World Evangelical Alliance

The God of Women & the Women of God

The God of Women & the Women of God

The Friends of Sophia fall program features a series with Dr. Mary T. Malone, retired chair of Religious Studies at St. Jerome’s University & the University of Waterloo. Dr. Malone is the author of numerous publications including Women and Christianity (3 vols, 2000-2003) and Praying with the Women Mystics (2006). Dr. Malone will make three presentations:

• Women Mystics, 1150-1450 CE — Sunday, September 21, 2 to 4 pm in St. Andrew’s College Lounge
• Retrieving Women’s Christian Story — Monday, September 22, 11:30 to 1 pm in St. Thomas More College, room 344A
• Do the Medieval Women Mystics Have a Message for Our Time? — Monday, September 22, 7:30 pm in St. Thomas More College Auditorium. Reception to follow.

The Friends of Sophia is an interdenominational group of women, dedicated to nurturing Christian feminist spirituality through educational opportunities, shared experience and liturgical celebration. For further information email mbeavis [at] stmcollege [dot] ca or ursula.wiig [at] usask [dot] ca.
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Posted: September 18, 2008 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=495 In this article: feminist, Friends of Sophia, Saskatoon, theology Transmis : 18 septembre 2008 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=495 Dans cet article : feminist, Friends of Sophia, Saskatoon, theology