This article calls for closer conversation between two growing academic fields: the scholarly study of spirituality and practical theology. Practical theology investigates the contemporary situation as it relates to questions of faith, ministry, and public religious leadership. Practical theology loses its center when it neglects the critical study of spirituality. Practical theological study of spirituality can help to integrate the three dominant methods in spirituality scholarship: the anthropological, the historical-contextual, and the theological approaches. The integration of these three approaches promotes a mutually critical correlation between the Christian tradition and the contemporary situation. Reflection on the practices of ministry students and teachers further reveals the importance of practical theological study of spirituality, which should inform the practice of teaching, the conception of theological education, and the formation of ministry students.

Recent debate regarding the implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae has led many Catholic colleges and universities to reexamine their identity in relation to the church. Often departments of theology and religious studies are charged with maintaining the “Catholic” character of a campus, with negative effects. Much of the reaction to Ex Corde has been framed in terms of free speech, American systems of tenure, and religious diversity. This paper, however, suggests that holiness, understood as an ever-deepening awareness of Mystery (Rahner) or as “a passion for the impossible” (Caputo) might be a more fruitful context for dialogue between Catholic institutions of higher education and the Vatican.

This article examines political and liberation theologies as instances of apocalypticism, focusing in the work of Johann Baptist Metz and Jon Sobrino. The first section develops a heuristic framework for identifying and analyzing apocalyptic discourse in general, using the historical work of Bernard McGinn and the rhetorical analysis of Stephen O'Leary. The second section applies this framework to Metz and Sobrino, arguing that their theology is a legitimate, provocative, and instructive instance of apocalyptic discourse today, in part because of the way it integrates apocalyptic eschatology with Christology. In a final section, the intelligibility proper to this apocalyptic discourse is discussed by arguing a correlation with mystical theology with its discursive pair of cataphasis and apophasis. Just as this pair finds its context of meaning in the practice of contemplative prayer, apocalyptic affirmations and the reserve expressed in the eschatological proviso find their context of meaning in the practice of opting for the poor.

One of the primary concerns of feminist theology is to promote the full humanity of women and men by questioning forms of thought that demean human persons. The Christian doctrine of a triune God is open to such critique, because it has traditionally been presented in terms that are exclusive and even oppressive to some. Joseph A. Bracken, S.J. proposes a process model of the Trinity that is significant for contemporary feminist theology, because it potentially promotes human flourishing. It does this in at least two ways. First, because this model does not rely on relationships of origin to distinguish the divine persons, it invites the development of inclusive metaphors that embrace human diversity. Secondly, it proposes a nonhierarchical, interrelational view of the Trinity that is arguably compatible with the faith experience of persons who are subject to any sort of oppression. Further, this model illustrates the participation of human persons in the dynamic interrelationship shared by the divine persons.

Theological reflection on the problem of consumerism is often guided by the implicit assumption that beliefs and values are the principal causal factors within human action and culture. As a result, the most common tactic for countering consumerism is to contrast its premises and values with those of the gospel. Such an approach comes naturally to theology, a discipline in which the importance of belief is foundational. This approach is inadequate for addressing the problem of consumerism, however, because it overlooks its most fundamental challenge: the commodification of culture. The most pernicious effects of consumerism are manifest not by changes in the “content” of beliefs but in their underlying form. Religious and ethical beliefs are commodified—reduced to objects of exchange and consumption, to shallow, interchangeable commodities. Drawing from the extensive scholarship on the commodification of culture, this essay explores the effects of consumerism upon religious belief and practice. Guided by this analysis it will attempt to reconceive tactics for countering consumerism's negative effects.

According to the classic Catholic doctrine of property, owners who have more than they need are obliged to share their surplus with others who have less than they need. From the patristic era to the work of John Paul II, this obligation has been understood to arise most fundamentally from the character of the objects owned: the material world is a gift from the Creator, intended to meet the needs of all humanity. Three centuries ago, John Locke argued that 99 percent of the value of modern wealth is attributable not to natural resources but to human labor and invention, implicitly restricting the classic obligations of property owners to a mere 1 percent of wealth. Catholic moral theology has yet to integrate Locke's insight about human creativity and economic productivity into an adequate doctrine of property. This article surveys the problem and provides an outline of a constructive response.

Recent attention given to the globalization of ethics, the prospects for a common morality, as well as related issues such as inculturation, pluralism, and multiculturalism all provide a challenging context for critical reflection on how theological ethics can be done in light of some of these challenges. A concrete course on “Cross-Cultural Models of Christian Ethics,” taught regularly at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, with participants from diverse theological and cultural backgrounds is presented with a view to stimulate further reflection on both the theological issues connected with doing cross-cultural ethics in the Christian theological tradition as well as aiding concrete curricular development in this area.

This essay aims to present the challenges of teaching Catholic social thought to undergraduates at a Catholic college. It begins with a review of the three foundational principles of the Church's social tradition: dignity, community, and preferential option for the poor. It next moves to three primary obstacles to making these concepts come alive for college students: (1) the prevalence of social and economic stereotypes, (2) a Romanticized reduction of Christianity which emphasizes charity to the neglect of justice, and (3) an unwillingness to allow the resources of one's faith to challenge the policies of one's government. The essay concludes with some reflections on the appropriateness of all of these subjects at a college dedicated to the liberal arts. Throughout this paper, generous use is made of writings by my students that demonstrate the pedagogical principles and pitfalls I narrate.

Three-fourths of the 180 Centers for Teaching Excellence found in U.S. colleges and universities have been developed over the last decade. Excellence in Teaching has never been discussed more. Yet clarity about what actually constitutes quality in teaching is not at all apparent. This essay suggests a contrast between two ways of conceiving excellence in teaching—an excellence of achievement as compared to an excellence of desire. The one, based on a marketing model of education, stresses measurable outcomes, with an emphasis on the acquisition of information. The other, drawing from themes in the history of Christian spirituality, evokes a wisdom tradition that nourishes unsatisfied desire as a principal goal. In the latter, less importance is ascribed to the teacher's self-conscious need to call attention to his or her particular competence. Set free from “the maintenance of control,” the teacher can be more open to a common search (and excellence) to which everyone contributes.

This article describes the reasons that a late medieval spiritual classic, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, was recently adopted as a textbook for a freshman course in “Christian Formation” at a mid-sized Evangelical Protestant university (Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, WA) and how it is taught there. It enumerates seven objections which contemporary American Evangelicals might raise to Thomas' spirituality, but shows how these very objections reveal a great deal about the religious and cultural ethos of those who make them. Since one of the course objectives is precisely to help students evaluate and critique their own culture and spirituality theologically, The Imitation proves to be singularly useful as a textbook. Excerpts from student writing assignments are analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of this way of using a classic from the Devotio Moderna with “postmodern” collegians.

Theoretical reflection on interreligious questions can be deeply enriched by the praxis of dialogue. The article describes an undergraduate course in which the students and professor engaged self-critically in such dialogue both with texts and one another in the classroom and with local representatives of three religions in a public symposium. In the latter context, students' encounter of the religious “other” was sharpened by having students, rather than the outside experts, present the papers on the course themes—a feature that also stimulated broader interest among the college community. Such a course illustrates the value and the limitations of a dialogical pedagogy in which attention is simultaneously given to learning about both other religions and the students' points of view, in their distinctness and in their interaction.

The title of my reflections is “Between a Rock and A Hard Place,” which I think aptly describes the situation of Catholic theologians in the United States since the bishops' meeting of November 1999. The imagery refers to the rock of Peter, the hard place to the problems the mandatum raises for ourselves and our Catholic colleges and universities. My question is: What can the social sciences tell us about our present dilemma? First, I will look at the history of the problem as we have experienced it in the U.S. Next, the bishops' document is now in the hands of the Roman Curia, so I will look at the role of that institution. And finally, I will review quickly events to date in the light of evidence from the social sciences and suggest a possible strategy to deal with the situation in our U.S. context.

In this article, the author responds to several recent scholarly criticisms of his book The Divine Mother: A Trinitarian Theology of the Holy Spirit. In responding to these objections, he argues that, by invoking the logic and metaphysics of Charles Sanders Peirce in rethinking the foundations of trinitarian theology, he has formulated a theological construct of the trinity as community, which differs substantively from the efforts of other contemporary theologians to do the same, while at the same time avoiding inadequacies present in their constructs.