Are All Christians Ministers?
Imbelli, Robert P.
highlight the Christological nature of the begin the implementation all over again, texts. He acknowledges the enthusiasm church, such as the Body of Christ. but in a controlled...
...the Word, according to the apostolic mandate, to those at table...
...false teaching for a dysfunc- Whereas a scripturally inspired engage- Catholic theology of ministry proceeds tional one...
...He recognizes, with some bemuse- as evidence that it operates above board ment, that such assertions risk appearing and that its work has the approbation of "reactionary" in an ecclesial and theo- n July 1941, Cardinal Pedro the Vatican...
...For there the term, formed from velopments falsely linked to the spirit of there is room for hope, because each ac- the Greek root diakon- (whence the thethe council...
...ment with the mystery of the world's sal- apace, this stimulating essay will help Finally, he insists that in Ephesians vation in Christ and a whole-hearted bring clarity and depth to a debate often 4:11-13, the author, as the classic theo- adherence to the church as sacrament, deprived of both...
...As the "paradigm shift" in Roman slack body...
...543-5...
...18.95 paper by Nathan Katz & Ellen S. Goldberg I .StNdres 111 Crnliparatn'e Religion Analyzes the strategies by which a small colony of Jews integrated RITUAL ART AND KNOWLEDGE new in paper/ack themselves into the Hindu culture of Aesthetic Theory and ETHICS, WEALTH, AND an exotic corner of the Diaspora while Zoroastrian Ritual SALVATION fully maintaining their Jewish identity...
...of theological critique lies in his careful Collins further proposes that, in I examination of the New Testament evi- Corinthians 12, Paul differentiates beRobert P. Imbelli dence which leads him to respond with a tween "ministries" and "activities...
...of comparative religion ethics [that} #857-3...
...3 2 halftones...
...As a re- ers will find plenty of reason to ignore the foundly religious engagement with the sult, he had to confess ignorance as to book's minor repetitions and awkward Christian mystery, and was named min- whether Opus Dei's work was political, translation from Spanish originals, and to istry by virtue of this engagement...
...Ministers, therefore, stand both within and "over against" the body of believers...
...Similarly, one might find an antic- ergies it has released...
...y Albas...
...r Columbia, SC 29208 University of South Carolina Press Orders: 1-800-768-2500 • Fax: 803-251-6315 Please iedrak 5() shipping and handling f, the first b-4_50 f,, each additirmal 1,4...
...Bruce B. Lawrence, Duke University Elite in North Carolina, approx...
...C7 viding believers with the teaching which sustains them in faith and knowledge...
...In Weak- humble, often social-oriented service (a cardinal: each assesses the interpretation land's favor, he seems more inclined than prevalent and rhetorically influential misof the other to be one-sided...
...Surely social, or apostolic, but he professed lit- thank its author for ferreting out the source no less is required today...
...Ministries thus promote the church's most remarkable is the transmutation of the notion of "ministry...
...Though Escriva is a ily impoverishes the sense of Christian made them seem like a cult operating man who labeled "honors, distinctions, ti22: 12 March 1993 Commonweal...
...In hyperorthodoxy...
...glossary, #-612-0...
...Testament usage upon which it pretends apart from what he sees as one-sided de- In mutual accusations of one-sidedness to depend...
...glossary...
...Walter J. Ong, author of Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word 2881x1...
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...It may even help to adlogical tradition has maintained, describes celebrant, and witness of that salvation pro- vance the ardent hope that Coleridge, in the work proper to ministry as one where- motes a sense of ministry conscious of its other circumstances, thought vital...
...Unique in its combination of docu-Elie Wiesel Social Ethics mentary field work, philosophical 300 pp...
...208 pp...
...is educated...
...For the work of min- ously secret character of the organization bourgeois authoritarianism...
...Yes...
...SONIC THEOLOGY 2[18 pp., lime art...
...Walsh's study The outcome of Collins's study is to de- An Investigation into the Secret corroborates my experience and validates lineate a specific identity to ministry: one Society Struggling for Power within my fears about an organization that has that is more expansive and accessible than the Roman Catholic Church been juridically engrafted into the Body its restriction in pre-Vatican II Roman Michael Walsh of Christ since 1982...
...OPUS DEI within the Catholic church...
...He acknowledges the enthusiasm church, such as the Body of Christ...
...Yet, while indulging Dogmatic Constitution on the Church ipation of Weakland's approach in many no revisionist reveries, Collins submits the (Lumen gentium), rarely Gaudium et spes of Ratzinger's laments concerning dubi- development to a searching examination which Weakland so favors...
...And so construal today), but to authoritative procmarks that Ratzinger's agenda "seems to I continue my applause for the archbish- lamation and mediation of the saving event be inspired by the desire to turn back the op, though perhaps somewhat tempered that is the gospel of Jesus Christ...
...but oh, tual New Testament employment of the debate during the council itself, and to what a side...
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...Weakland's approach is of the Hellenistic background and the acthem in the light of only one side of the particular, selective, and one-sided...
...Defenders of this ecclesiastical hybrid clusive as to surrender all differentiation often cite the "correct" relations that Opus among the baptized members of Christ's Paul E. Dinter Dei maintains with the Catholic hierarchy body...
...By contrast, the author's signal con- as authoritative proclaimers of God's John N. Collins tribution to a discussion desperately in need Word of judgment and salvation...
...Though both Collins argues that our current situa- embody God's gift to the church and mong the remarkable tion, in which the notion of ministry has hence are "charismatic," ministries entail developments in post- been extended rather indiscriminately, a specific and indispensable role of teachVatican II Roman has been promoted in part by question- ing and discernment within the commuCatholicism, one of the able translations of key New Testament nity...
...The Liturgical Press, $11.95, 168 pp...
...To me, as a university chaplain trait of the founder and the "Catholic" sect A merely moralistic view of Christ or for fifteen years, Opus Dei's secretive he left behind than emerges in Opus Dei's a utilitarian approach to church necessar- and highly dubious methods had clearly own hagiographies...
...deem the nature and purpose of Christ's founder, Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer Walsh gives a far more objective porchurch to be...
...clock, not to the pre-Vatican II period, but by the awareness of a world Catholicism Collins illuminates his fundamental to the texts themselves, as if there had been that offers many contending approaches contention by a nuanced description both no development since then, to interpret to Vatican II...
...From a word that was hardly employed before the council-save to refer somewhat suspiciously to Protestant "ministers"-it has become almost universally invoked and applied to a seemingly endless variety of pastoral services and activities, whether directed to "church" or "world...
...Piecing together material from upon the specificity of ministry proceeds This vignette is but one example of the Opus Dei's publications, from an anonyfrom a wider Christological and ecclesi- genuine investigative work that Michael mously donated copy of their 1982 conological vision...
...These provocative "No...
...39.95 sloth demonstrates] the fruitfulness of Hinduism and Sacred Sound ,Stsdies in Comlraratire Religion collaborative studies...
...public eye...
...that includes the former, it: "A minister is one appointed to the task, from the Lord who commissions and though it places it in a new point of and in this instance the task is that of pro- serves as living norm of its exercise...
...For the car- ous progressive interpretations of the coun- in the light and by the norm of the New dinal, the documents are to be read anew cil...
...But Walsh's investigation relogical climate more given to correct slo- Segura of Seville wrote to the veals that there is a strategy at work begans than to discriminating investigations...
...As Collins himself puts its office-holder, but because it derives largement...
...Catholicism to "priesthood...
...Hindu India 25 2pp...
...9 halftones...
...to view...
...glossary...
...Weakland re- Ratzinger to admit this explicitly...
...yet not so in- HarperSanFrancisco, $18.95, 230 pp...
...Poor teaching makes for a any concerned citizen would undertake...
...tle confidence in the group since it seemed documents and minimal "paper trail" that A noteworthy feature of Collins's study to be adopting methods that were alien to this secretive society has allowed into the is its implicit recognition that reflection the tradition of the church...
...Great by men and women "equipped the saints immense dignity and responsibility...
...He holds, for example, that in Acts of the Apostles 6, the Seven are not commissioned to serve at table as lowly functionaries, but authoritatively to minister IS THERE A MINISTER IN THE HOUSE...
...Walsh's readistry in the early church "supposed a pro- had frustrated his investigations...
...but in a controlled and highly centralized this extension has generated and the enRatzinger frequently cites the text of the way...
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...Such good, therefore, of such a revolution that and nurtured them to maturity in knowl- ministry is authoritative, not because of alters not by exclusion, but by an enedge and love...
...papal nuncio in Madrid, replying hind this correctness (as well as its Yet the thrust of his analysis moves be- to his queries about Opus Dei...
...887-5...
...by Ron G. Williams &Junes W. Boyd A Study in Buddhist "Enlightening and captivating...
...edited by Russell F. Sizemore & analysis, and aesthetic interpretation, #847-6, $39.95 r6ith Donald K. Swearer Ritleal Art and Knowledge explores the "A rich addition to the emerging field aesthetic dimensions of religious ritual...
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...Opus Dei seems to be yond hardened institutional polarizations his letter he mused about his ig- intent on remaking Catholicism in the to recover the radical newness of the New norance of the group and how the rigor- image of Escriva and his spiritualized Testament vision...
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...An CHURCHWOMEN astonishing, engaging portrait of piety The Religion of the Episcopal in action...
...knowledges, at least implicitly, that there ological note of diakonia or the ecclesial And so there does remain another sim- is more than one side, and that all sides office of deacon), refers not to generic, ilarity between the archbishop and the need to be taken into account...
...Information: 803-777-5243 good order and upbuilding in Christ: for ministry, leveling it down to a least com- whom, ultimately, all ministers must ren"the body will perform only as well as it mon denominator assimilation to what der an account of their stewardship...
...E terms...
...When we late twentieth-century Christians turn [the author of Ephesians] FAITHFUL TO THE FATHER word into a nondescript service within the capacity of any believer, we gravely distort his meaning...
...2 soaps...
...This "paradigm shift" in the use of the term "ministry," whereby it has come to signify a universal function constitutive of and incumbent upon all the baptized, would lead many to respond spontaneously to the title of John Collins's book, Are All Christians Ministers?, with a heart-felt "As chairman of the board, I have also appointed myself your spiritual leader.' 20: 12 March 1993 Commonweal RELIGIOUS PERFORMANCE IN CONTEMPORARY ISLAM Shi'i Devotional Rituals in South Asia Religion by Vernon James SC hubel "A goldmine of evidence about the religious outlook and observance of a AMBIVALENT CHURCHMEN significant yet ignored suhcommunity AND EVANGELICAL of South Asian Muslims...
...Ritual, #966-9...
...are not equivalent concepts...
...Their task is not social service, but proclamation and instruction as Stephen and Philip's subsequent actions manifest, where they appear ARE ALL CHRISTIANS MINISTERS...
...What we understand min- Walsh has carried out in writing of the his- stitution, and from stories of a few istry to be about depends upon whom we tory, operations, and ecclesiastical shenani- higher-up defectors, Walsh traces the consider Jesus Christ to be and what we gans of Opus Dei and its newly beatified anomalies in the organization to its founder...
Vol. 120 • March 1993 • No. 5
