‘The Child as the Face of God’ (Mark 9 : 36–37)

The high-quality commentary of Joel Marcus on Mark’s Gospel contains at least seven illuminating comments on what he calls ‘the parable of the child’ (Mark 9:36–37). His final comment pushes beyond a mere moral exhortation to welcome or show hospitality to little children. These parables, like others, make Jesus vividly present, and so reveal God, to whom Jesus is ‘strongly connected.’ Marcus should have recognized more clearly the call to recognize in vulnerable, little children the disclosed presence of God who sent his Son into the world. The face of even insignificant children brings us the face of God. The ‘mystery of the child’ reflects the ‘mystery of God.

Fe y cultura

La fe cristiana necesita de una cultura, lo mismo que las culturas humanas necesitan de la fe cristiana. La fe y la cultura son aliados naturales. Hoy más que nunca la fe necesita de la cultura y la cultura necesita de la fe. ¿Por qué? Porque no sólo la fe, sino también la cultura están amenazadas y atacadas por diversas fuerzas destructoras

Jacques Dupuis: The Ongoing Debate

The article evaluates what seven authors (from Terrence Merrigan in 2005 to Keith Johnson in 2011) have written about Jacques Dupuis's theology of religions. Dupuis died in 2004, but the debate about his views continues vigorously. When discussing the mediation of salvation, some, like Dupuis himself, attend to the church's prayers for “others.” But neither he himself nor his critics appreciate how such prayer, being inspired by love, enjoys some efficient causality, and not merely moral and final causality. Nor have other authors yet recognized the significance of Christ's priestly mediation for the theology of religions

The Resurrection and bereavement experiences

This article presents and evaluates an analogy between the appearances of the risen Christ to his disciples and the experiences that many widows and widowers have of their deceased spouses. After his pioneering work on such bereavement experiences (published in 1971), Dr Dewi Rees produced further publications in this area, and in Pointers to Eternity (2010) he has proposed the case for the analogy in detail. This article argues that there are too many dissimilarities for the analogy to be acknowledged as close and illuminating, but recognizes how the work of Rees and his successors can serve to confirm Easter faith and hope for some people, especially the bereaved who experience their dead spouses

Year of Paul 14: In praise of Paul

It is fitting that at the end of the Pauline year, we hear from a renowned scholar how we should above all thank and praise St Paul

‘His life rose with Him’—John 21 and the resurrection of Jesus

The history of Jesus as portrayed in the Fourth Gospel, not least his relationship with Peter and the Beloved Disciple and his role as light and life of the world, rose with him in the final Easter episode (Ch. 21). The questioning style of Jesus and the love exhibited and commanded by him also rose again in that resurrection narrative. Further themes from the history of Jesus, such as meals, the Eucharist, martyrdom, testimony, and truth, also find their place in the account of the risen Jesus