Spiritual Maturity and Social Support in a National Study of a Male Religious Order

This national study analyzed the relationship of spiritual maturity and valued relationships with social support and life satisfaction using a random sample of male religious from one Roman Catholic order (N = 251). Four measures were used: (a) NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI; Costa & McCrae, 1992), (b) Spiritual Maturity Index (SMI; Ellison, 1983), (c) Social Support Appraisals Scale (SS-A; Vaux, et al., 1986), and (d) Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). Hierarchical regression results showed that Spiritual Maturity was a significant predictor of Perceived Social Support (F (1, 237) = 20.662, p ≤ .001) and Life Satisfaction (F(1, 237) = 13.205, p ≤ .001). The study also showed that valued relationships inside (versus outside) the order predicted Life Satisfaction (F(1, 236) = 4.722, p ≤ .05). These findings demonstrate the importance of spiritual development and peer relationships as a way of enhancing vocational stability and satisfaction in male religious.     

The Roman Catholic Church and Slavery in José Evaristo d'Almeida's O Escravo (The Slave)

This installment of Dialog's Theology in Film and Fiction series introduces the first Cape Verdean novel, The Slave, by José Evaristo d'Almeida (1856). This vivid story depicts a number of social and moral issues tied together within the tragic plot of the novel. The article discusses the historical relationship of the Roman Catholic Church to slavery, the colonial history of Portugal and Cape Verde, and the theological use of the Bible in this history. This discussion is applied to Almeida's novel, revealing the manifold nineteenth‐century varieties of the literary history and theology of colonialism.     

It's a Total Way of Life? Catholic Priests,Women's Ordination,and Identity Work

Research has shown Catholic priests to be polarized on a few issues, including women's ordination. Explanations have been offered for why priests are initially polarized—particularly the influence of ordination cohort—but not for how attitudes are maintained over time. Using 31 in‐depth interviews with Catholic priests in the United Kingdom, I find that priests are indeed polarized into groups I call “Total Identity Priests” and “Plural Identity Priests.” Taking the example of women's ordination, I show that these two groups of priests maintain their anti‐ or pro‐women's ordination attitudes (respectively) via patterned, everyday identity work, in which they mobilize available cultural schemata. I highlight four areas in which their identity work differs: explicit identity talk, narratives of calling, clericalism and titles, and clothing. This identity work serves to summarize, communicate, and reinforce their personal identities, which in turn reinforce their existing attitudes towards women's ordination.     

Towards a model for evaluating spiritual recollections

Spiritual recollections are often evaluated through the effectiveness of delivery, rather than the outcomes of the recollections. Such preference is understandable given the difficulty in defining and quantifying recollection outcomes. To address this gap, the article proposes a framework for evaluating recollection outcomes rather than delivery, and shows how a Filipino Catholic university makes use of this framework for its spiritual recollections. Using data from the university’s Office of Campus Ministry, the study shows how these outcomes were defined and finds that prayer significantly increases the odds of gaining from the recollection while participation in the alternative multifaith group reduces these odds. The article details the changes that were made in response to these results and ends with possible adaptation of this model in other contexts.     

Religion and Attitudes Toward Abortion and Abortion Policy in Brazil

This study examines the association between religion and attitudes toward the practice of abortion and abortion policy in Brazil. Drawing upon data from the 2002 Brazilian Social Research Survey (BSRS), we test a number of hypotheses with regard to the role of religion on opposition to the practice of abortion and its legalization. Findings indicate that frequently attending Pentecostals demonstrate the strongest opposition to the practice of abortion and both frequently attending Pentecostals and Catholics demonstrate the strongest opposition to its legalization. Additional religious factors, such as a commitment to biblical literalism, were also found to be significantly associated with opposition to both abortion issues. Ultimately, the findings have implications for the future of public policy on abortion and other contentious social issues in Brazil.     

Roman Catholic Approaches to the Qur'an since Vatican II

Vatican II opposes polemical attitudes to Islam but gives no specific guidance on the Qur'an. Modern Roman Catholic writing on the Qur'an includes a considerable variety of approaches. At the positive end of the spectrum: for Christian members of GRIC (Groupe de Recherche Islamo-Chrétien) the Qur'an is “an authentic Word of God, but one in part essentially different from the one in Jesus Christ”; George Dardess affirms that the Qur'an and the Eucharist are both means through which “God shares with us God's self through the word”; for Giulio Basetti-Sani the Qur'an is divine revelation but it does not contradict Christian doctrine; Jacques Dupuis sees the Qur'an as a real but imperfect revelation. More cautious approaches are found in the writings of Jacques Jomier and Christian Troll, for whom the biblical testimony to Christ is the decisive word of God, and not just one divine revelation alongside another in the Qur'an.     

Developments in Catholic Biblical Studies Reflected in Three 20th Century “Catholic Encyclopedias”

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes entries pertaining to biblical studies in three Catholic encyclopedias, the Catholic Encyclopedia(1907-1914) and the original and revised editions of the New Catholic Encyclopedia(1967 and 2003), to determine the degree to which, individually, they represent the “state of the art” at the time of publication and, collectively, whether they accurately reflect developments in Catholic biblical scholarship in the twentieth century. The author concludes that, despite certain inadequacies and gaps in coverage, the three encyclopedias are a valuable resource for tracing the course of those developments.     

Water as Sacrament: Tillich,Gender and Liturgical Eco‐Justice

Theological operations of language that turn physical water into figurative and textual logos‐water are examined in the article with the help of Tillich´s “Nature and Sacrament,” where Tillich reflects the actual relationship between water and word in the sacrament of baptism. Moving to the ecological struggles of contemporary life, the article ponders the scarcity of water in the ecological struggle, and finally the gender implications of figurative water operations.     

Stone,Ken, Practicing Safer Texts: Food,Sex and Bible in Queer Perspective

Abstract

The past twenty years have witnessed much discussion about the place of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people in the Church, particularly through two sets of debates: on whether and under what circumstances LGBT people should be ordained, and on whether and under what circumstances LGBT people should have their marital unions blessed. The past twenty years have also witnessed the creation of various liturgical materials responsive to the needs of LGBT people, particularly for events that are crucial to an LGBT person's life and faith but for which there were no existing rites in public worship. However, by concentrating only on the occasional and extraordinary events in a person and a community's life as "queer worship" (with its double sense of both "unusual worship" and "worship for LGBT people"), we are neglecting the myriad ways in which day-to-day ordinary worship is, and is not, queer. This article therefore examines the ways in which heteronormativity and the demand for "covering" can create tacit prohibitions around worship for LGBT Christians. Arguing for the inherent queerness of Christian worship, it suggests practical ways in which LGBT people's lives can more fully integrate into a community's liturgical life, and vice versa.