Christology and ecclesiology, both vital to Flannery O'Connor's thought, are reflected principally in her book reviews, letters, and essays. The reviews in particular (69 of the 143 titles reviewed pertain to subject matter that is religious or theological) attest to the range, depth, and vitality of her own theological investigation. By 1961, O'Connor's theology had been substantially influenced by that of Karl Adam, Romano Guardini, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and Francis Durrwell. Through the influence of these theologians, one can trace in O'Connor's nonfiction the development of her Christology and its impact on her fiction.

This essay clarifies the foundation for a discipleship of equals by bringing feminist scholarship to bear upon conflicting religious assumptions regarding women. To this end, it surveys significant scholars as well as issues: past, present, and future. It evaluates the outcome of the three phases of study in women's history (I); it urges present action in four areas which are essential for equality in the Church (II); and it speaks words of hope for difficult times to come (III).

The feminist critique of theology is a radical and extensive one. This article examines contemporary feminist scholarship as it relates to three strategic issues in theological anthropology: (1) traditional interpretations of woman's nature; (2) the long-standing tendency to justify woman's social inferiority on the grounds of her “natural” inferiority; and (3) the complete oversight of the area of woman's experience. It will then be shown that this particular critique comes to a point of convergence in theological method, thus creating fundamental questions about accepted principles now directing the theologian's work.

This essay presents a psychological approach to understanding the creative functioning of imagination in art and religion. This approach drawn from psychoanalytic object relations theory further illuminates how the classics of art and theology engage the imagination and how distortions of the products of the creative imagination occur. Discussion of a particular innovative theme found in an artwork and related theological reflection in early Christianity exemplifies how both art and theology guide the religious imagination. Finally, various influences on the formation of personal God-imagery are assessed in the light of a case illustration, and the ongoing need for art and theology as tutors to the religious imagination is underscored.

What does church membership mean for women? Texts like Galatians 3:27-28 imply equality; experience contradicts this. Underlying the controversy are assumptions about women's nature as women. Baptismal practice suggests women's equality but experience denies it. Part I examines experience: in lay ministry, in marriage, and as economically marginalized. Turning from experience to theoretical analysis, there are two answers to the question of women's nature: women are inferior, or women are equal. Part II studies the two models at work in the dialogue held between representatives of the Women's Ordination Conference and the U.S. National Conference of Catholic Bishops as participants addressed the question: “What is woman?” Finally the two models are operative in the testimony given in the national hearings for the bishops' pastoral on women. Part III analyzes the reports of the national hearings, uncovering the correlation between model, methodology, and whether a group's feminism leads it to social or issue critique.

The marriage of storytelling and spiritual formation is as old as the religious spirit of humankind. Farid Ud-Din Attar, a twelfth-century Persian poet and mystic, offers an imaginative example of this union in his Conference of the Birds, a tale describing the pilgrimage of all feathered creatures to their king. It is a spiritual journey that moves in five stages from a sense of longing for the inaccessible splendor of the royal court, through hope, boldness, and despair, to a final, shocking encounter with a majesty elusive as it is grand. The use of metaphor in describing passages of the spiritual life is demonstrated here at its best, as Attar explores the metaphors of impassioned love, the mirrored majesty of the king, and God as a treasure hidden in the world. His work suggests many parallels to the language of Christian and Jewish spirituality and his stories richly deserve retelling.

The sacraments represent some of the ordinary activities involved in sustaining daily life, activities which are understood to contain meaning and therefore power. These activities are for the most part the province of women in human societies, probably because of the biological role of women in procreation. One of the ways that men have responded to the connection between women and life sustaining activities is to claim the sacramental reenactments of those activities for themselves, and to maintain that the sacramental reenactments, not the ordinary activities, contain meaning and power. The task for the church is to reconnect sacraments with ordinary life by involving men in direct nurture of life and involving women in sacramental administration, so as to demonstrate the reality of divine meaning and power in life.

The story of Catholicism in the United States can best be understood in light of the struggle to be both Catholic and American. This question of being both Catholic and American is currently raised with great urgency in these days because of recent tensions between the Vatican and the Catholic Church in the United States.

History shows that Rome has always been suspicious and fearful that the American Catholic Church would become too American and in the process lose what is essential to its Roman Catholicism. Jay Dolan points out two historical periods in which attempts were made to incorporate more American approaches and understandings into the life of the church, but these attempts were ultimately unsuccessful.

In the late eighteenth century, the young Catholic Church in the United States attempted to appropriate many American ideas into its life. Recall that at this time the Catholic Church was a very small minority church. Dolan refers to this movement as a Republican Catholicism and links this understanding with the leading figure in the early American church, John Carroll. Carroll, before he was elected by the clergy as the first bishop in the United States in 1789, had asked Rome to grant to the church in the United States that ecclesiastical liberty which the temper of the age and of the people requires.

Although psychoanalytic object relations theory has been acclaimed for its ability to revitalize the psychological understanding of religion, the implicit sensitivity of object relations theory to feminist concerns has not been recognized. This paper suggests that object relations theory shares with feminist thought three central foci: relationality, mature dependency, and a revaluing of the mother-infant relationship. Through this coincidence of concern object relations theory can move toward a feminist psychology of religion which avoids not only Freud's reductionism toward religion, but also his patricentrism. The psychological antecedents of religious experience, ritual, and the image of God are examined from the object relational perspective, and are located in the maternal-infant matrix. It is suggested that this linkage of culture and mother offers a radical challenge to the psychoanalytic perspective.

Contemporary issues in the American Catholic Church can sound like a modern-day confusion of tongues making communication impossible. Furthermore, the traditional marks of the Church have supported the notion that dissent and controversy are to be discouraged. This article examines catholicity and shows that its definitions and uses in history have tied it to uniformity when its essential characteristic may well be the celebration of pluralism. Catholicity is placed in the context of modern mission theory in such a way that current challenges can be interpreted as so many new languages which require patient understanding.