Grace

John Davenant, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity and a British delegate to the Synod of Dordt, was a widely praised English Reformed theologian, but his exposition of the doctrine of predestination has been largely neglected. The present essay shows that, for Davenant, Thomas Aquinas remained among the “sounder scholastics,” whose views on predestination and free choice aligned closely with Reformed theology and helped to illustrate the traditionalism of Reformed theology in the face of Jesuit and Arminian theological innovation.

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My bold suggestions in this paper, as an artisan-anthropologist-therapist, are as follows: (a) human manufacturing of objects brings about individual/collective (deep well-being) experiences of beauty and grace and (b)‘making artifacts’ represents an important ancient continuity in (social-cultural-biological) humanization. Combining these two assertions suggests a universal existence of ‘crafting in the world’. The argument was ignited by the termination of both my mother’s and father’s family blacksmithing workshops in the twentieth century. Being a technical engineer/craftsman in my first career, and being one of six sons, I was deeply puzzled about why and how our transgenerational arts and crafting family tradition would die out when my father closed down his metal construction workshop in 1986. My great-uncles from mother’s side had already closed down their smithy decades earlier.

This essay is adapted from a plenary talk the author gave at the “Growing Apart:
The Implications of Economic Inequality” interdisciplinary conference at Boston College on 9 April 2016, as well as portions of his book Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy, a sociological ethnography based on interviews and observations of unemployed autoworkers in Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Canada, during and after the Great Recession. The essay discusses four themes from this research. First, it provides a sociological understanding of how long-term unemployment and economic inequality are experienced by today’s less advantaged workers. Second, it illustrates how social policy can improve their circumstances. Third, it examines the limits of policy, and how dealing with inequality also requires changing the broader culture. Fourth, it makes the case for one possible approach to bring about that cultural change: a morality of grace.

Tendo como missão oferecer reflexão teológica de qualidade como subsídio para a pesquisa e a prática pastoral tendo em vista o objetivo de promoção da produção acadêmico-científica, a Revista Cultura Teológica (ISSN: 2317-4307), da PUC/SP - Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, celebra o centenário de nascimento de Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns e a sua importância para a Igreja brasileira e latino-americana, organizando uma Edição Especial em sua homenagem que traz a publicação do artigo do Professor-Pesquisador Luiz Carlos Mariano Da Rosa intitulado "Da justificação e a fé como evento escatológico enquanto obediência e decisão fundada no ato da graça de Deus segundo a Teologia do apóstolo Paulo em Rudolf Bultmann". O Dossiê da Revista Cultura Teológica da PUC/SP intitulado “Mística, profecia e pastoreio de D. Paulo Evaristo Arns em São Paulo” tem o objetivo de explicitar tanto quanto possível os principais aspectos da trajetória eclesial de Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns e o impacto de sua ação pastoral, em consonância com o Concílio Ecumênico Vaticano II e a Conferência de Medellín, cujas marcas são percebidas sobretudo na cidade de São Paulo.

Political secularism takes many forms but a fundamental distinction is between radical and moderate kinds. The latter is a genuine secularism and not just a failure to take secularism to its logical conclusion. The failure to appreciate this obscures the secularism that exists in western Europe. Namely, an accommodation of organised religion which sees it as a potential public good or national resource (not just a private benefit), which the state can in some circumstances assist to realise—even through an ‘established’ church. I adumbrate five types of reasons the state might be interested in religion: truth, danger, utility, identity and respect. The challenge facing such secularism today is whether it can be pluralised or multiculturalised, in particular whether it can accommodate Muslims. A ground for optimism is the respect that some people, especially some Muslims, have for religions other than their own.

Cette étude se propose de réexaminer la peinture religieuse de Charles de La Fosse à la lumière de la notion de grâce, comprise dans sa double signification de secours surnaturel de Dieu et de charme indéfinissable. Les grâces divine et esthétique étaient intimement liées au début de l’époque moderne, mais, à la fin du xviie siècle, leur rapprochement était devenu intenable. S’appuyant sur une constellation de débats théologiques, artistiques et rhétoriques contemporains, notre étude tente d’expliquer en quoi la peinture religieuse de La Fosse est symptomatique des rapports de plus en plus ténus entre les deux conceptions. En s’attachant à intégrer ces dernières, ses peintures s’exposent aux problèmes que la grâce présente et en deviennent un véhicule involontaire de l’émergence d’une autonomie picturale moderne.

... Abstract. This article is a development of research into children's literature that investigates how religious concepts are present in the writings of well-known children's authors. Previous work has considered atonement theories and this considers the concept of grace. ...

The author explores the concept of grace and the relationship between grace and Creation in Protestant theology. Martin Luther's Larger Chatecism and K.E. Løgstrup's sermons from Sandager-Holevad are examined and the connection between the concept of grace and aesthetic experience is pointed out. Keywords Grace • Creation • Martin Luther • K. E. Løgstrup I Et av Løgstrups prekenfragmenter fra hans tid som sokneprest i Sandager-Hole-vad dreier seg om disiplenes sorg og bedrøvelse når Jesus forteller dem om sin forestående død. Teksten er Joh 16,16-22, året er 1941. Hvorfor ble disiplene så fulle av sorg og bedrøvelse, når de fikk høre om Jesu død? De ble bedrøvet ikke bare fordi de elsket Jesus, skriver Løgstrup, men også fordi han for dem var selve Sannheten. Sannheten var blitt en person. Sannheten var ikke lenger et sett med meninger om dette og hint, men et liv, et menneskeliv. Derfor er det sannheten som dør, hvis Jesus dør. Men hvordan kan sannheten dø, eller hva betyr det at sannheten dør? Løgstrup skriver:

Discussions of the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Mt. 20.1-16) tend to rely on two key assumptions: (1) the parable eliminates ‘merit’ and replaces it with ‘grace’. (2) The parable is the hermeneutical key to all of Matthew’s other discussions of rewards, if not the entire New Testament. This article challenges these assumptions and offers a reassessment of divine recompense in Matthew. Mt. 19.16-20.16 does not set aside ‘merit’ in place of ‘grace’ but contrasts generous wages faithfully repaid by God with even more generous wages. The Gospel as a whole emphasizes that disciples must earn treasure in heaven and forgive others their debts to enter the kingdom; those who refuse to work and who refuse to forgive will be damned. At the same time, however, God’s repayment of deeds is not according to strict desert, but goes far beyond what workers have earned.

The following paper considers the issue of the sovereignty of God and the role of man’s willing in salvation. ¿Are we saved only by an act of God or in cooperation with God? The paper’s thesis is that Augustine’s understanding of will and grace is more biblical than Cassian’s (Semi-Pelagianism). Once we understand the condition of fallen human will and the necessity of God’s saving grace, we find the answer to our query: our salvation is monergistic. That is, we are indeed saved and rescued by God’s grace alone.
The thesis is developed in two parts. The first section introduces and compares Augustine’s and Cassian’s views. The second section evaluates their accuracy in interpreting the biblical text and in holding a theology consistent with the Bible.

A Course in Empathy, Finding Wisdom: Verbalizing Your Inner Dialogue, Creative Solution Development, Counseling Assessment Self-Healing Life Story Questionnaire, Your Spirituality Score, Counseling for Depression, Practicing the Presence of God: Spiritual Mindfulness

A long chapter for The War of Appearances: Transparency, Opacity, Radiance (V2_Publishing, 2016) building on the findings of “Charis and Radiance,” an essay published two years earlier. It discusses the inherent connection between visibility and radiance within the framework of Plato’s sun model as the source of reality.

Free sample! Available from Brazos (http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/gospel-allegiance/395830) or Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1587434296/)
Is faith in Jesus enough for salvation? Perhaps, says Matthew Bates, but we're missing pieces of the gospel. The biblical gospel can never change. Yet our understanding of the gospel must change. The church needs an allegiance shift. Popular pastoral resources on the gospel are causing widespread confusion. Bates shows that the biblical gospel is different, fuller, and more beautiful than we have been led to believe. He explains that saving faith doesn't come through trust in Jesus's death on the cross alone but through allegiance to Christ the king. There is only one true gospel and one required response: allegiance. Bates ignited conversation with his successful and influential book Salvation by Allegiance Alone. Here he goes deeper while making his acclaimed teaching on salvation more accessible and experiential for believers who want to better understand and share the gospel. Gospel Allegiance includes a guide for further conversation, making it ideal for church groups, pastors, leaders, and students.

This essay inquires into the unique intersection of Erich Przywara and John Henry Newman and explores the re-imagined notions of divine transcendence and the supernatural in their works. Przywara found in Newman a source of inspiration for a more lively presentation of Catholic thought and a model for illuminating the path toward a new Catholic intellectual culture. Newman's work highlights the actively inquiring disposition of faith, an active search for the meaning of its doctrines, a progressive and unceasing journey that comprises the entirety of one's life. By showing the changing Catholic responses to modernity and the evolving theological approaches that would come to characterize later twentieth-century Catholic thought, the paper emphasizes how Przywara and Newman contributed to a more vibrant form of Catholicism and a renewal of Catholic intellectual culture that anticipated the Church's wider opening to the world.

La gracia es una cuestión teológica central que, en la historia, ha dividido a las teologías católica, protestante y ortodoxa. En este manual se entiende la gracia como el efecto personal de la salvación que causa la renovación interior del hombre, lo convierte en hijo y amigo de Dios, y establece con Él un vínculo interior, una Alianza. La Nueva Alianza es, en definitiva, el Espíritu Santo. Al contemplar toda la materia desde esta perspectiva resulta posible enlazarla con la liturgia y espiritualidad cristianas.

El libro trata sobre el Espíritu Santo y la gracia de Cristo según la exégesis de Tomás de Aquino a las cartas de san Pablo. Al hilo del epistolario paulino, el Aquinate relaciona distintos aspectos de una realidad que en los tratados sistemáticos se suele tratar por separado.
¿Qué interés comporta para la actual ciencia bíblica la exégesis de un autor medieval? ¿Por qué no ahondar en el pensamiento del Doctor de la Gracia, san Agustín, cuya fuerte experiencia de Dios se traduce en una teología existencial e histórica, quizás, más acorde con nuestro contexto contemporáneo?
Los comentarios del Aquinate a las cartas paulinas son relevantes para la Teología actual, porque en ellos se encuentra una exégesis hecha con verdadero rigor científico, por un fiel discípulo de san Agustín, con la precisión metafísica propia del Doctor dominico.
La doctrina de la gracia de Cristo que se desprende de la exégesis de Tomás de Aquino, es de carácter bíblico, personal, histórico y dinámico. De este modo, el libro aborda el tema desde un punto de vista trinitario, cristológico, eclesiológico, antropológico y moral. Se obtiene así una visión de conjunto, a la luz de los aportes de los principales tratados teológicos, de un misterio que está en el núcleo de la fe cristiana: el Espíritu Santo y la gracia de Cristo.

Revised and published as a book in 2018.

Dissertation Abstract: Three contemporary problems contextualize my research. First, there is a dispute among Thomists over how often the gifts of the Holy Spirit are operative. Second, contemporary Thomists see Aquinas’s Summa as an integral whole rather than disparate treatises, but this vision has yet to be implemented fully in the exegesis of Aquinas concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit or grace. Indeed, it seems that these two topics must be read together since they are both part of what Albert Patfoort calls Aquinas’s loci of pneumatology. Third, secondary literature pays relatively little attention to the gifts of the Holy Spirit in Aquinas’s thought, though Aquinas himself considers them central. In light of these contexts, I argue (1) that in order to understand fully Aquinas’s thought on the gifts of the Holy Spirit or grace one must read them in light of each other and (2) that by doing this one realizes that the spiritual life is fundamentally pneumatological. The gifts are always operative in the supernatural life.
In the first chapter, I survey a selection of settled positions and ongoing debates surrounding grace and the gifts in Thomism after Aeterni Patris. I find that much of the secondary literature could benefit from a more unified conception of Aquinas’s corpus in which the two topics are brought into dialogue with each other. In the second chapter, I interpret Aquinas’s thought on the gifts in light of his thought on grace. In the third chapter, I elucidate Aquinas’s thought on grace in light of his thought on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the final chapter, I return to the ongoing debates and settled positions in light of the mutual reading attempted in chapters two and three. I argue that the mutual contact of chapters two and three makes a substantial contribution. In other words, in order to rightly interpret St. Thomas on either grace or the gifts of the Holy Spirit one must have information from the other and in so doing one can see that the spiritual life according to St. Thomas is fundamentally pneumatological.

How to balance the gratuity and dear relevance of grace is a perennial difficulty. Drawing on phenomenological analysis, Rahner postulates a Supernatural Existential in part to avoid pitfalls, real or alleged, of the " pure nature " tradition and the " natural desire for the supernatural " tradition. Are there causal grounds for the postulate? Inductive analysis suggests there are not. Indeed, the postulate's viability as an alternative rests on an evasion of the causal question that grounds its power as answer. So, it seems a solution in name only. Notwithstanding, the postulate might be qualifiedly retrieved by causal commitments similar to those of the pure nature tradition Rahner rejected.

This article discusses "grace" with a view to interpreting God  as a benefactor (in light of Seneca and ancient patron-client relationships) who bestows favors on the early followers of Christ s. The perspective sheds light on Paul's word to the Corinthians that they should not receive God's grace in vain (2 Cor 6:1), a warning that creates tensions for interpreters who assume that divine grace is freely given without expecting anything in return. This study shows that the system of gift giving and reciprocity, especially in conversation with Seneca, helps alleviate the tensions. It elaborates on gratitude as the proper human response to divine gift giving and undesirable reprisals as the appropriate consequence for ingratitude.