Old Catholic And Philippine Independent Ecclesiologies In History

This study researches the development of the self-understanding of the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht and the Iglesia Filipina Independiente during the 20th century, with special attention for their ecclesiologies of the local and national church.

Old Catholic theology is the theology that is characteristic of the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht. This contribution outlines the main characteristics of and influences on Old Catholic theology, and outlines the extant ecumenical relationships of the Old Catholic Churches.

“An excellent study of churches on the fringe that incubate new ideas and shed new light on mainstream religion.”—Times Higher Education Independent Catholics are not formally connected to the pope in Rome. They practice apostolic succession, seven sacraments, and devotion to the saints. But without a pope, they can change quickly and experiment freely—with some affirming communion for the divorced, women’s ordination, clerical marriage, and same-sex marriage. From their early modern origins in the Netherlands to their contemporary proliferation in the United States, these “other Catholics” represent an unusually liberal, mobile, and creative version of America’s largest religion. In The Other Catholics, Julie Byrne shares the remarkable history and current activity of independent Catholics, who number at least two hundred communities and a million members across the United States. She focuses in particular on the Church of Antioch, one of the first Catholic groups to ordain women in modern times. Through archival documents and interviews, Byrne tells the story of the unforgettable leaders and surprising influence of these understudied churches, which, when included in Catholic history, change the narrative arc and total shape of modern Catholicism. As Pope Francis fights to soften Roman doctrines with a pastoral touch and his fellow Roman bishops push back with equal passion, independent Catholics continue to leap ahead of Roman reform, keeping key Catholic traditions but adding a progressive difference. “Byrne’s enlightening research and analysis will undoubtedly raise awareness of these little-known Catholic denominations.”

The contemporary Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) is in a paradoxical situation: On all levels of Church life, new practices and concepts are considered to belong to Orthodox tradition, yet at the same time Orthodoxy is regarded as the most “unchangeable” and normative of the Christian confessions. So what makes tradition? The nineteen contributions in this volume examine the ambiguities and complexities created by the dynamic between tradition and innovation within the ROC in relation to the fundamental tenets of Orthodoxy. By this focus, the volume offers new insights and highlights the question how to define (Orthodox) Tradition. It addresses “unorthodox” topics of Orthodox paradoxes. Contributors include: Tatiana Artemyeva, Alexei Beglov, Wil van den Bercken, Per-Arne Bodin, Page Herrlinger, Nadieszda Kizenko, Anastasia Mitrofanova, Stella Rock, and Alexander Verkhovsky.

Uniquely authoritative and wide-ranging in its scope, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church is the indispensable reference work on all aspects of the Christian Church. It contains over 6,500 cross-referenced A-Z entries, and offers unrivalled coverage of all aspects of this vast and often complex subject, from theology; churches and denominations; patristic scholarship; and the bible; to the church calendar and its organization; popes; archbishops; other church leaders; saints; and mystics. In this new edition, great efforts have been made to increase and strengthen coverage of non-Anglican denominations (for example non-Western European Christianity), as well as broadening the focus on Christianity and the history of churches in areas beyond Western Europe. In particular, there have been extensive additions with regards to the Christian Church in Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America, and Australasia. Significant updates have also been included on topics such as liturgy, Canon Law, recent international developments, non-Anglican missionary activity, and the increasingly important area of moral and pastoral theology, among many others. Since its first appearance in 1957, the ODCC has established itself as an essential resource for ordinands, clergy, and members of religious orders, and an invaluable tool for academics, teachers, and students of church history and theology, as well as for the general reader.

In 1905 Rev. Francis Clement Kelley founded the Catholic Church Extension Society of the United States of America. Drawing attention to the common link of religion, Kelley proclaimed the Extension Society’s duty to be that of preventing American Protestant missionaries, public school teachers, and others from separating people from their natural faith, Catholicism. Though domestic evangelization was its founding purpose, the Extension Society eventually expanded beyond the national border into Mexico in an attempt to solidify a hemispheric Catholic identity. Exploring international, racial, and religious implications, Anne M. Martínez’s Catholic Borderlands examines Kelley’s life and actions, including events at the beginning of the twentieth century that prompted four exiled Mexican archbishops to seek refuge with the Archdiocese of Chicago and befriend Kelley. This relationship inspired Kelley to solidify a commitment to expanding Catholicism in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines in response to the national plan of Protestantization, which was indiscreetly being labeled as “Americanization.” Kelley’s cause intensified as the violence of the Mexican Revolution and the Cristero Rebellion reverberated across national borders. Kelley’s work with the U.S. Catholic Church to intervene in Mexico helped transfer cultural ownership of Mexico from Spain to the United States, thus signaling that Catholics were considered not foreigners but heirs to the land of their Catholic forefathers.

Im April 2019 wird Jan Hallebeek emeritiert. Damit endet seine aktive Laufbahn als von der Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (1989–1999) finanzierter Forscher, als Extraordinarius an der Theologischen Fakultät der Universität Utrecht (1997–2006) und zuletzt als Professor für Rechtsgeschichte an der Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (seit 1999). Die Stationen seiner Tätigkeit spiegeln zwei seiner Schwerpunkte wieder: die Kirchen(rechts)geschichte einerseits und das klassische römische Recht und die Geschichte des römischen Rechts in Europa andererseits. In glücklicher Weise konnte Jan Hallebeek sein Engagement für die Altkatholische Kirche mit seiner Arbeit als Forscher verbinden. Die Beiträger greifen das breite rechtshistorische und kirchenrechtliche Spektrum auf, das der Jubilar in seiner eigenen Arbeit aufgespannt hat. Jan Hallebeek will become emeritus in April 2019. That will mark an end to his professional career as Researcher and Lecturer on a Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences post (1989–1999), as Professor Extraordinarius at the Theological Faculty of the University of Utrecht (1997–2006), and as Professor on the Chair of Legal History at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (from 1999 onwards). These positions reflect two focal points of his research: on the one hand Church history and Canon Law, on the other hand classical and particularly medieval Roman law and their history. They matched very felicitously his engagement for and in the Old-Catholic Church. The contributions centre on the themes and questions the honorand has pursued in his work till now.

The Orthodox Christian tradition has all too often been sidelined in conversations around contemporary religion. Despite being distinct from Protestantism and Catholicism in both theology and practice, it remains an underused setting for academic inquiry into current lived religious practice. This collection, therefore, seeks to redress this imbalance by investigating modern manifestations of Orthodox Christianity through an explicitly gender-sensitive gaze. By addressing attitudes to gender in this context, it fills major gaps in the literature on both religion and gender. Starting with the traditional teachings and discourses around gender in the Orthodox Church, the book moves on to demonstrate the diversity of responses to those narratives that can be found among Orthodox populations in Europe and North America. Using case studies from several countries, with both large and small Orthodox populations, contributors use an interdisciplinary approach to address how gender and religion interact in contexts such as, iconography, conversion, social activism and ecumenical relations, among others. From Greece and Russia to Finland and the USA, this volume sheds new light on the myriad ways in which gender is manifested, performed, and engaged within contemporary Orthodoxy. Furthermore, it also demonstrates that employing the analytical lens of gender enables new insights into Orthodox Christianity as a lived tradition. It will, therefore, be of great interest to scholars of both Religious Studies and Gender Studies.