Views and Counterviews

Mark S. Hanson, An Open Letter to Dialog Readers, p. 78 John Benson, A Response to “New Age” Lutheranism, p. 79     

When the Common Good Takes the Grand(est) Stage The Cosmic Common Good: Religious Grounds for Ecological Ethics,Daniel P. Scheid,Oxford University Press, 2016 (ISBN 978‐0‐19‐935943‐1), xvi + 248 pp., hb £19.99

Rooting itself in Catholic social teaching rather than theology of creation, this book develops a novel approach to Catholic ecological ethics. It argues that the traditional conception of the social common good should be fully broadened to encompass all creation, including abiota. Furthermore, the book suggests a comparative‐theological approach to ecological ethics through careful conversations with Buddhist, Hindu, and American Lakota conceptions and practices. While its vision of the cosmic common good at times appears too inclusive and perhaps ‘too good to be true’, this book is a valuable contribution to Christian ecological ethics and includes a fresh comparative‐theological take on ecological questions.     

Impressions of the Church of Sweden: liberal and catholic with nuances of Lutheranism

The Church of Sweden is difficult to describe or to characterise, whether as a Folk Church, a national church, as catholic or liberal, or as, in some sense, Lutheran. This article refers to aspects of its complex relations with the Roman Catholic Church and with Lutheranism at large. The author detects, from ecumenical agreement and practice, an incipient new communion of churches, based on a common claim to be catholic and also to be open to developments in society. This group includes the Church of Sweden, the Church of England, the Episcopal Church in the USA, the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht and the Philippine Independent Church, all of which are in communion with each other. The author's presentation is set out in relation to the Church of Sweden's liturgical and sacramental life, its church–state relations, and in an account of the rather asymmetrical shape of ecumenism in Sweden, in all of which the question of gender plays a role.     

Keeping,caring and claiming: O’odham Indians at Mission San Xavier del Bac

According to scholars, Native American Catholics live two parallel religious lives: ‘institutional’ Catholicism is juxtaposed to ‘popular religion.’ The Tohono O’odham of Southern Arizona seem to be a prominent example of this: the O’odham practice santo himdaq devotion to santos in small chapels. These devotions and indigenous practices contrast with the institutional church. Seemingly, ‘indigenised’ Catholicism is dearer to these Native groups than the central, official Church. However, this paper examines San Xavier Mission Church’s centrality both to Mission clergy and to O’odham Catholics as a place of mutual reverence. The historical examinations of the Mission Church have fixated on its Spanish origins without examining its importance to the O’odham. The church was left in the care of O’odham Indians for decades in the nineteenth century during the years of secularisation (1841–1912). I examine this care, the significance of the Mission Church to establishing the San Xavier Reservation, and the O’odham adoption of the church as their own, as well as comparing ‘institutional’ Catholicism with santo himdaq. The mission sheds light on the fluidity of missional power and social relations, the problems with essentialising Catholicism, and the changing nature of religious exchange, importance and practice over time.     

Human Rights and Pluralism in CatholicSocial Thought

The essay argues that a Catholic tradition of natural law and its conception of human rights depend on the continuing life of institutions that stand apart from and sustain standards of justice independent from the modern state and its corresponding economy. Christians contribute to a defense of human rights precisely as members of their Churches, through their social and institutional presence across the globe. Catholic social thought deals with matters of human rights from within a tradition of natural law that assumes a common human end, a common good. This ecclesiological tradition of the human good is precisely what Catholics have to offer in a context of pluralism. The Church has a task of sustaining institutions where its practical rationality about human goods offers a practical alternative in a world where the self-interest of states and purely economic interests win the day.     

Homosexual Applicants to the Priesthood: How Many and Are They Psychologically Healthy?

The current investigation evaluated the psychological profiles of applicants to seminary who were identified as being either homosexual or heterosexual in orientation. The MMPI-2 from 63 seminary applicants conducted between 1990 and 2004 was reviewed. Results indicate that 49 applicants (78%) identified themselves as being heterosexual while 14 applicants (22%) identified themselves as being homosexual. Few psychological differences emerged on the MMPI-2 when comparing heterosexual to homosexual applicants.     

Pilot Study of Psychopathology Among Roman Catholic Secular Clergy

This pilot study gathered information regarding overall levels of psychopathology in a nationally selected, random sample of U.S. Roman Catholic secular (i.e., diocesan) priests using the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R; Derogatis, 2004). The study yielded a response rate of 45%. One-half of the participants reported marked psychological problems, with interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, and depression most strongly correlated with the instrument’s overall index of psychopathology. Four dimensional scales were elevated (i.e., obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, psychoticism), as were two indices (i.e., GSI, PST). Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Psychological Assessment of Homosexual Tendencies in Potential Candidates for the Roman Catholic Priesthood

While the recent Instruction by the Congregation for Catholic Education concerning the criteria for the discernment of vocations with regard to persons with homosexual tendencies has offered a clear direction to bishops and religious superiors in screening candidates, a discussion by psychologists on methods of assessing the presence of such tendencies within individuals is necessary. This paper will review relevant assessment techniques and suggest how psychologists can address this issue in evaluation reports, including making specific recommendations relevant to the issue of homosexual tendencies.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
James Burtness, Consequences: Morality, Ethics, and the Future
Heup Young Kim, Wang Yang–Ming and Karl Barth: A Confucian–Christian Dialogue     

Introduction to Focus Issue on Laudato Si'

The encyclical Laudato si’ can be read as a religious ethic in several different ways. Contributors to this focus issue read it as magisterial teaching, as environmental thought, as Global South criticism, as Latinx theology, and as philosophy of religion. Foregrounding South American and Latinx receptions, the cumulative argument of this focus issue is that LS represents a cultural event that invites interpretations from contexts and disciplines beyond North Atlantic theological ethics.