Abstract
This issue, the first of volume 80, marks a milestone. This year, 2019, is the 80th anniversary year of the journal’s founding in 1939. Actual publication began in 1940. As my predecessor David S. Schultenover will recount in an upcoming article, Theological Studies was founded at a relatively inauspicious time. The Great Depression was still underway, yet, so, too, was the New Deal. The Second World War had not yet begun, although in September, 1939 Hitler invaded Poland and a new war in Europe had started. But, in the church itself, particularly in the United States, great energy was still focused on the needs of Catholic immigrants and intra-ecclesial matters. While a new pope, Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli), was elected on March 1 of the founding year, it would take some time for his papacy to affect theological life within the church.
Still, there was a perceived need for a serious journal of theology for the English-speaking world. While TS was not the first theology journal in North America, it was the first Jesuit journal of theology. The Society of Jesus recognized a need for serious theological reflection, both for the sake of the church’s mission and for the furtherance of theological culture in the Society itself, where so many Jesuits, caught up in the practical work of teaching and other forms of ministry, had little time or taste for theological reading. Jesuit Superior General Wlodimir Ledóchowski wanted to address this situation with a new journal, one that was at one point tentatively to be named Journal of Constructive Theology!
Throughout this anniversary year we will feature some essays to help mark the occasion. We begin with an expansive survey by Roger Haight of North American theology, as reflected in the pages of TS through the past eighty years. Haight locates some order amidst what might otherwise at times seem a confusing profusion of directions in theology. More significantly, he reminds us that there has been a gradual emergence of what he calls an American Catholic theology (“American” here denoting both the USA and Canada)—a theology no longer reliant only on European theology for its inspiration. As we know, in later years, this theology has become a global enterprise, with participation by scholars in Australia as well as Europe, and all the continents of the world. Theology has also become more academic by nature, given the growth of Catholic universities and their departments of theology. And, of course, it has also become a vocation of lay men and women—a far cry from the world of the Jesuit theologates that gave birth to TS in 1939.
Haight’s essay is complemented by that of James F. Keenan, who offers an overview of eighty years of moral theology and theological ethics, especially under the TS moniker of “Notes on Moral Theology” (recently renamed “Notes on Theological Ethics”). Like Haight, Keenan helps the reader discern some order to the development of the questions and of the field itself over the years. The “Notes” section of the journal, in particular, has been a hallmark contribution of TS to American Catholic theology, and in many ways typifies the larger trajectory that Haight describes—in this case, from a theology focused on moral questions for confessors, to a global ethical perspective in line with the expanded global range of vision found within Catholicism. Today, theological ethics and ethical practices are integral to the self-understanding of Catholic faith.
Elizabeth A. Johnson rounds out this issue with a special contribution—a lecture in which she takes the perspective of a church come of age after the Second Vatican Council, and asks what might be the future for women in ministry in that church.
Placed between the bookends of the Haight essay and Johnson’s lecture, there are several other superb essays typifying some of the best scholarship we are pleased to receive and publish: Robert D. Miller II on biblical theology; Peter Joseph Fritz on Rahner; Brian Bajzek on Levinas and Lonergan; Meghan J. Clark on Pope Francis and Catholic social teaching; and Stephen Pope on integral human development. Keenan’s essay in “Notes on Theological Ethics” is complemented by two superb essays offered by Lisa Sowle Cahill and Cathleen Kaveny.
Look to future issues in 2019 through March 2020 marking our anniversary. We will also be featuring “virtual issues” on topics treated through the years, and these will be found on our publishing website, tsj.sagepub.com. These virtual issues are free of charge and can be used for instructional and pastoral use.
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Concluding Note: At this particular moment in the history of publishing the journal, it is worth noting that the current Bishop of Rome has had a profound effect on the development of theological imagination, with a resultant rejuvenation of theology. His four major writings—Laudato Si’, Evangelii Gaudium, Amoris Latitiae, and Gaudate et Exsultate, as well as other contributions—have served as catalyst for scores of submissions to this journal. In fact, by my count we have published at least twenty-five articles that directly engage Pope Francis’s magisterium. More than mere exposition, many of these essays have used Francis as a springboard to fundamental theological reflection. It is significant, I think, that a pope who does not style himself as a theologian continues to have such a creative influence on theology today.