God, the Future of Man focuses on religion and secularisation, viewed from various vantage points: secularisation and God-talk; secularisation and the church's liturgy; secularisation and the church's new self-understanding; and, finally, secularisation and the future of humankind on earth in light of the eschaton (church and social politics). These thought-provoking reflections are presented against the backdrop of Schillebeeckx's hermeneutic premises. In the concluding chapter his reflections on secularisation culminate in a God concept that can function fruitfully in a modern culture that assigns the future pride of place: God as the future of humankind. Written in a period pregnant with Cultural Revolution and religious change, the book foregrounds the pivotal issue of secularisation in a thought-provoking way. With feverish urgency he reflects on various forms of religiosity in the modern world. His contribution to the debate could just as well have been written today.
This is a unique selection of Edward Schillebeeckx' collection, translated into English here for the first time. This is a collection of essays from one of the most eminent Catholic theologians of the late 20th century. Edward Schillebeeckx Collected Works bring together the most important and influential works of the Dutch Dominican and theologian Edward Schillebeeckx (1914-2009) in a reliable edition. All translations have been carefully checked or revised, some texts are presented in English for the first time. The page numbers of earlier editions are included. Each volume carries a foreword by an internationally renowned Schillebeeckx expert. This edition makes Schillebeeckx available for a new generation of scholars and students.
The existence of the historical Jesus cannot be doubted. But who was Jesus of Nazareth? And who is he for us today? In this controversial work Schillebeeckx offers his 'experiment': an informative and sustained hermeneutical reflection on the story of Jesus. It became a bestseller, and would become the first volume of Schillebeeckx' trilogy on Jesus Christ. He presents a Christology 'from below', rooted in the synoptic gospels, but especially in Mark and in the Q tradition. At the same time he is clearly interested in portraying 'the historical Jesus' as both Proclaimer and Proclaimed. In this major work Schillebeeckx tries to answer questions such as: Is the promise of salvation only to be found in Jesus Christ because he was a gift from God, as the Gospels tell us? What can we say about the inspiration of so many who do not attend church or adhere to any believe they find in Jesus Christ? Schillebeeckx takes us into his promising quest that leads to the ultimate question of what religious truth actually is.
This is a new edition of the 1963 classic which gave Christological thought a new direction. As far back as his first major book Schillebeeckx propounded an anthropological approach to the sacraments. In Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God , he draws on theologically fruitful work by phenomenological anthropologists like Merleau-Ponty, Buytendijk and Binswanger. That makes Schillebeeckx's distinctive idiom and modern approach appealing even today. He rediscovers, as it were from within, the notions forged by scholastic theology, and thus restores to us a theology of the sacraments rooted in the biblical and patristic soil from which they first sprang. Schillebeeckx's speculative synthesis of this quest still has a fresh ring to it. He describes Christ as the primordial sacrament in a reflection on his public ministry, death and resurrection inspired by the universal human search for such a 'sacrament'. He concludes that the church's sacraments have to be an earthly extension of the liberation brought by Christ's story. Schillebeeckx ends by describing sacraments as grace made visible that gives crowning moments in Christian life a mystical quality. Edward Schillebeeckx Collected Works bring together the most important and influential works of the Dutch Dominican and theologian Edward Schillebeeckx (1914-2009) in a reliable edition. All translations have been carefully checked or revised, some texts are presented in English for the first time. The page numbers of earlier editions are included. Each volume carries a foreword by an internationally renowned Schillebeeckx expert. This edition makes Schillebeeckx available for a new generation of scholars and students.
God, the Future of Man focuses on religion and secularisation, viewed from various vantage points: secularisation and God-talk; secularisation and the church's liturgy; secularisation and the church's new self-understanding; and, finally, secularisation and the future of humankind on earth in light of the eschaton (church and social politics). These thought-provoking reflections are presented against the backdrop of Schillebeeckx's hermeneutic premises. In the concluding chapter his reflections on secularisation culminate in a God concept that can function fruitfully in a modern culture that assigns the future pride of place: God as the future of humankind. Written in a period pregnant with Cultural Revolution and religious change, the book foregrounds the pivotal issue of secularisation in a thought-provoking way. With feverish urgency he reflects on various forms of religiosity in the modern world. His contribution to the debate could just as well have been written today.
This reader shows why Edward Schillebeeckx remains one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th century. Spanning more than half a century and including several texts that appear in English for the first time, it enables students to understand how Edward Schillebeeckx's thought resonates with current debates in theology, for instance on ecology and secularization. T&T Clark Reader in Edward Schillebeeckx includes selections from both pre- and post-Conciliar texts that illustrate the evolution in Schillebeeckx's thought, while also pointing towards the deep underlying continuity which comes from his essential commitment to his faith. His Christological Trilogy, which was a touchstone for doctrinal controversy and methodological progress, is represented here, as well as important works on ministry, the sacraments, hermeneutics, secularization, and the environment. These complex theological topics are broken down in every chapter with the help of explanatory notes, discussion questions and further reading suggestions. This reader is an essential resource which will enable students to contextualize and unpack the rich layers within Schillebeeckx's theology.
The Understanding of Faith (1974) is certainly Schillebeeckx's most incisive English publication on theological hermeneutics. It contains his principal ideas on this subject, in which he progressively evolved the hermeneutic thinking that he was to apply in due course in his famous Jesus books. The book centres on two issues: how should the Christian message of God's kingdom be read in our day and age, and can a present-day interpretation of that message still be considered Christian? In short, what are the possibilities and limits of the understanding of faith in our modern age? Of course, hermeneutics as such was not new to Christian theology. Exegetes had been exploring interpretive processes for some time. Schillebeeckx's innovation was to extend hermeneutic thinking to the possibilities and limits of interpreting the entire Christian tradition, including its definition in systematic theology. Inspired by the early Jürgen Habermas's 'new critical theory', Schillebeeckx also expands criticism of ideology in various directions. This was to influence generations of theologians after him, right up the present day.
Christ. The Christian Experience in the Modern World focuses on the question of salvation for all people. Using seven 'anthropological constants', Schillebeeckx innovatively shows the social and political relevance of faith. Inspired by liberation and feminist theologies, he puts strong emphasis on human experience and on the importance of examining church teaching in its historical context. This volume is a testimony of Schillebeeckx' ground breaking attempt to rethink doctrine in the light of the research on the historical Jesus. Instead of starting with Christianity's great creedal statements about Christ and the Trinity, he focuses on the subjective experience of the first generations of believers as expressed in the New Testament. This choice stirred considerable controversy and a Vatican investigation but inspired and still keeps to inspire readers in their personal approach to Christian faith.
Prioritizes survivors of abuse by reexamining Christian ideals about suffering and salvation More than half of women and almost one in three of men in the United States have experienced sexual violence at some time in their lives. Yet our Christian tradition has failed survivors of sexual violence, who have been taught to believe that traumatic suffering brings us closer to God. Incarnating Grace attempts to save our broken ways of talking about God’s grace by unearthing liberating resources buried in the Christian tradition. Christian ideas about salvation have historically contributed to sexual violence in our communities by reinforcing the idea that suffering is salvific. But a God worth worshiping does not want human beings to suffer. Drawing on the sixteenth-century Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila as well as contemporary political and feminist theologians, philosophers, and legal scholars, author and Associate Professor of theology Julia Feder offers an account of Christian salvation as mystical-political. Feder begins by describing the breadth of traumatic wounding and the shape of traumatic recovery, as articulated by psychologists. Since the fullness of post-traumatic healing requires reserves deeper than those which can be articulated by the secular field of psychology alone, the book then introduces the Spanish Carmelite Saint Teresa of Avila and her theological insights, which are most helpful for constructing a post-traumatic theology of healing. Arguing that God stands against violence and suffering, the book also examines the notion of “senseless suffering,” a technical term that comes from Edward Schillebeeckx, a Catholic twentieth-century Flemish priest and theologian. The suffering of sexual violence serves no higher purpose or greater human value and pushes against all ways of making sense of the world as good and orderly. In the following chapters, Feder turns to two Christian virtues that animate post-traumatic recovery, courage and hope, and explores how Christian hope can provide a language to empower courageous activity undertaken toward healing. Incarnating Grace opens a new dialogue about salvation and violence that does not allow evil to have the last word.
This book was originally planned as the 'ecclesiological' third part of Schillebeeckx Jesus trilogy. It indeed concludes his thinking about the relevance of the living Jesus through history, but with a different approach than originally intended. By the end of the 20th century, many believers have left the unworldly 'super-naturalistic' preconciliar church behind. Those who leave the church, often leave a church that claims to be the direct mediator of God's will. However, the church is not a flawless gift from heaven. It is the vulnerable work of human beings which tries to find accurate ways to comply to the heart of the gospel message. In a time that is characterized by polarization in the church, Schillebeeckx does not forget to look at the unprecedented and authentic flourishing of the gospel. This book therefore contains the testimony of a theologian who tried, during the course of his life, to describe what God can mean for people today.
