Irish Theological Quarterly

This essay is about Catholic theological ethics and an explanation of competing answers to questions raised by Catholic ethicists. The core of the essay is a presentation of the cognitional theory of perspectivism as a counter to the concerns of relativism raised by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. The essay considers the foundational theory of natural law and contrasts its 19th-century neo-Thomist understanding with Aquinas’s own understanding of natural law as reason. As a concrete illustration of the theories of perspectivism and natural law, the essay considers the question of contraception and its competing Catholic answers.

At a time when we are asked to investigate the origins of the diaconate, this paper argues that it is no easy task to recover its history nor relate that history to later questions on the nature of ordination. However, early canonical sources do throw important light on that history, and the case examined here is that of the Collectio canonum hibernensis and texts related to it. This later seventh- and early eighth-century material shows that while the diaconate was recognized as one of the sacred orders, it was, in effect, seen primarily as a function within the liturgy.

This paper reflects on Philip Jenkins’s three-part work, The Next Christendom, The New Faces of Christianity, and Europe’s Religious Crisis and brings Jenkins into conversation with the Vatican II document, Nostra Aetate, with a view to mapping out new and meaningful ways of engaging Islam in dialogue as Christianity continues to make its inexorable movement southward. Using Jenkins’s work as an entry point for a new way of being Church in a contemporary global context, the paper argues that the new Christian expansion should be understood along the lines of Bernard Lonergan’s ‘achievement of common meaning.’ Because the transformation has been realized by the collaborative efforts of individuals and communities, what is needed is for the believing Christians to appropriate and engage Nostra Aetate in a way that meets the changing needs of our time.

This article explores the theological, juridical, and pastoral context of Roman Catholic archives, and diocesan and parochial archives in particular, through the lens of a letter circulated by the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church, The Pastoral Function of Church Archives. The letter acknowledges the spiritual importance of church archives for the believing community as a vector of the tradition but also recognizes the cultural and historical significance of church archives both for Catholics and the wider community. While the legal requirements of canon law are fundamental to the discussion, the commission invites the church to move beyond a narrow juridical understanding of archives. A convincing contribution to an emerging theology of church archives, with concrete suggestions for the establishment and improvement of diocesan archival services, the document constitutes a particular challenge to Irish dioceses where the archival sector remains underdeveloped.