Diocese of Brooklyn

Abstract William Inge, Edward Gordon Selwyn, and Charles Gore represent three Anglican responses to John Henry Newman’s Essay on the Development of Doctrine. Development sought to account for doctrinal changes in Christianity by characterising Christianity as a ‘real idea’, expressing an object in the mind that can only be shown in its fullness by encounters with different philosophies over time. This was part of a wider intellectual movement in the 19th century away from static ideas of doctrinal history and towards more dynamic and subjective treatments. Inge, Selwyn, and Gore all make use of Newman after the First World War. Inge argues Newman abstracts historical facts from their realities, and abandons the old concept of tradition, where the church is the custodian of revelation, in favour of a relativistic concept, new in each generation. Selwyn makes use of Newman’s idea to argue for the autonomy of religious experience as a source of human knowledge mediated through religious traditions. Gore argues Newman enables ‘mobility’ in communicating Christianity to different cultures but argues development can be used justify distortions of the first revelation. The test of their authenticity should be whether they are inclusive of those Christ would be inclusive.

A Book Note short review of Africans in Diaspora and Diasporas in Africa, edited by Bulus Galadima and Sam George (Carlisle, Cambria, UK: Langham Global Library, 2024).

In this paper, we investigate a relic that has attracted the attention of many believers in the world of Christianity: the blood of Saint Januarius. We do this taking into account that any relic triggers a conflict of interest, which makes it difficult to understand the object under investigation. In this case, there are experiments that support the presence of blood in the ampoules. Others furnish results that confirm the hypothesis of forgery. In fact, the results obtained through spectroscopy claim that the Cathedral of Naples holds the blood of the Saint. Conversely, the thixotropy supports the hypothesis of forgery. However, these statements could also arise from the aforementioned conflict, or they could be true. In addition to these, we include both our comments and the experiments of the Geraci team on the ampoules preserved in the Cathedral. It was in 2010 when the above-mentioned team demonstrated that the ampoules of the Saint contain blood. They investigated, through continuous observations, the ampoules of Saint Januarius and also studied, through experiments, the blood of a 300-year-old relic held by the Camaldolese monks. Professor Geraci and his team observed that changes in state depended on chemical reactions that can take place in the blood. Unfortunately, the results and considerations of this work were published in a daily newspaper and not in a peer-reviewed, double-blind scientific journal.

In order to explain the finitude of life within the horizon of Christian religious experience, theology has developed a treatise called eschatology. This article aims to contribute to the eschatological reflection on death from a Christian perspective, with the help of the thought of Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. It is divided into three sections: 1- The problem of death in contemporary society: between denial and naturalization; 2- Indications of the view of death in Sacred Scripture; 3- The Christian meaning of death. Currently, according to Ratzinger, the idea remains among all sections of society, from believers to non-believers, that “death must come suddenly, without giving us time to think or suffer”, because naturalization has not had its intended effect: the end of fear in the face of the finitude of life. As a result, the idea emerged that this phenomenon of dying, not yet assumed and experienced as a necessary and uncontrollable fact, should be controlled with the help of scientific techniques, through methods such as euthanasia or assisted suicide. Thus, for modern Western man, death has become synonymous with failure, impotence and shame. They try to overcome it at any cost and, when this is not achieved, it is hidden and denied. Therefore, this article relays the essence of the Christian faith, the idea that human life is greater and more comprehensive than its biology, and that, after death, a new life is contemplated, one that is more perfect because it is eternal and imperishable.

Espiritualidade litúrgica