Information Needs and Behavior of Catholic Priests in Croatia

This article presents a segment of the results gathered in a doctoral study that investigated information needs and behavior of Catholic priests in Croatia. The study focused on parish priests in particular and their information needs and behavior in the liturgy and care-giving role. The research was conducted with the help of quantitative and qualitative methodology. Print questionnaires were filled out by 327 respondents, while in the follow-up interviews 20 respondents took part. Research results show that respondents, in the care-giving role and liturgy, require information about theology, general culture, psychology, and pedagogy. More than half of respondents find information for liturgy on religious websites and in their personal parish libraries. However, in their care-giving role they seek information most often from their parishers, members in parish pastoral and economic boards, and from colleagues at their regular meetings organized by the (arch)diocese. Both in liturgy and care-giving role, respondents use religious publications to a much larger degree than secular books, magazines, or newspapers. The respondents explained that in liturgy they consult colleagues and parishers in order to exchange advices and ideas, while in the care-giving role some respondents also prefer to seek an advice from an expert in specific field. The results of this study can help Catholic Church and theological faculties when preparing the information literacy courses for future parish priests.     

Catholic Priests' Knowledge of Pastoral Codes of Conduct in the United States

This exploratory study investigated Catholic priests' knowledge and perceptions of pastoral codes of conduct and their perceptions about the processes for reporting misconduct. Overall, respondents understood that they had to breach confidentiality when parishioners divulged a threat to harm self or others or when there was an allegation of misconduct involving a colleague. Fewer respondents understood that information received in spiritual counseling or spiritual direction must be maintained confidentially. Respondents were aware that their codes of pastoral conduct offered guidance about engaging in dual relationships (i.e., friendships with parishioners), but most respondents included parishioners in their circles of friends.     

Transhumanism and Roman Catholicism: Imagined and Real Tensions

Abstract

Transhumanists have asserted that religious people would both oppose life extension and allowing people with extended lives to die. In this paper, coming from a Roman Catholic perspective, I refute four myths associated with these claims: that the Church materially opposes life extension, that it conceptually opposes the very idea of life extension, that it opposes human genetic manipulation, and that it opposes letting people die in hospitals. I then propose that there are four real tensions that are much more significant: that material immortality is highly improbable, that injustice and inequality are major concerns, that transhuman omnipotence is impossible, and that utopianism is extremely dangerous.     

Challenging the By-Product Theory of Religion in the Cognitive Science of Religion

In this short article I argue that neurotheology should be conceived and practiced within a theological framework. Taking the case of Catholic theology as an example, five proposals are provided that offer a glimpse and, in my estimation, a realistic account of a (future) Catholic neurotheology. I identify two possible modes of how to practice Catholic neurotheology and conclude that any Catholic neurotheology that attempts to be practiced in accordance with these five proposals will be extremely challenging for Catholic theology.     

The military chaplain: a study in ambiguity

This article looks at the ambiguities in the role of the military chaplain from three points of view. The first considers the nature of the constituency within which the chaplain ministers, paying particular attention to the degree – or otherwise – of secularisation and the reasons for this. The second examines the role of the chaplain in relation to the two institutions which he or she serves (i.e. church and state) and the tensions that emerge as a result. These are articulated in terms of ‘an angle of eschatological tension’. The third is concerned with ‘the roles within the role’ – that is the variety of tasks that make up the role of chaplaincy and the degree to which these are compatible with each other. The significance of theology in the resolution of the ensuing issues is set against diminishing societal resources in terms of religious literacy.     

Liturgy and drama: a context of catharsis and transcendence?

This article is concerned with the role of liturgy and drama in the life of the Church and especially with regard to church growth. The assumption that traditional liturgy has only a tangential role in mission is questioned by comparing liturgy and drama and their role in evangelism. Christian worship from the fourth century began to be dramatised; this was a process reinforced by allegorical interpretations of the liturgy. That development and the para-liturgical dramas created from the tenth century onwards were in response to evangelistic needs. Mystery plays, the Holy Week liturgy and popular devotion in medieval Christianity in the West tended to focus on the passion of Christ. They were like tragedy in creating an encounter with death which could lead to catharsis and self-transcendence. Parts of the Holy Week liturgy are looked at in that light. The final section of the article deals with the way the liturgy offers an opportunity for corporate and personal renewal both in terms of inward preparation and outward proclamation of the Easter mystery. In these ways liturgy offers a context for an experience of God and can be seen as having an important role to play in church growth.     

Moved by the Spirit: Theological Literatures of LGBT Advocacy

Debate over the question of how to effectively acknowledge and advocate for the presence of LGBT people as legitimate members of religious denominations and a population entitled to ministry has generated a substantial body of monographic literature within the field of theology. The earliest works were published during the era of the homophile movement in the 1960s prior to the Stonewall riot in 1969 that marks the beginning of the contemporary gay and lesbian civil rights movement. The subsequent decades have witnessed an expansion and diversification of this genre with the emergence of specific liturgies and ceremonies addressing significant LGBT life events, autobiographies and biographies of openly lesbian and gay clergy, and writings confronting issues of ethnicity and activism.     

Living in the Borderlands—An Identity and a Proposal

Abstract :  We live in the borderlands, a place not of separation but of coming together, of connection. The continuing efforts to discern what it means to express who we are as religious people, and what it means regarding the religious identity of those who live in the borderlands is the focus of this study. In many ways, this identity is one that is in the process of being restored, renewed, and reaffirmed after many years of a combination of benign neglect and overt suppression.     

THE FAUST CHALLENGE: SCIENCE AS DIABOLIC OR DIVINE

Abstract. The Faust motif provides an opportunity to explore the spectrum of attitudes among Christians toward science and technology by placing them into a historic context. Depending on one's understanding of the relationship of God and the world, the accomplishments of a Leonardo, a Paracelsus, a Faust, an Oppenheimer, or some future scientist credited with the “production” of the first successfully cloned human being can be interpreted as divine or diabolic in origin. I use the example of Faust to demonstrate that the Christian assessment of the scientific enterprise is closely correlated to the level of doctrinaire dualism informing the particular version of Christianity that inspires the assessment. I show that, contrary to what seems obvious, Faust's damnation originated not in medieval times but in early modern northern Europe, reflecting a dualistic obsession with human sinfulness more characteristic of Reformation Germany than of Renaissance Italy. Encouraged by hellfire‐and‐brimstone preachers, the common folk saw demons, devils, and witches in every dark corner, while humanist scholars sought to recapture the brilliant past of the Greeks and the Romans. Goethe's interpretation represents a return to earlier versions of the story, while some continue to accuse contemporary Faustians of Satanic connections for seeking forbidden knowledge and daring to play God by manipulating the stuff of life.