Download or read book Honest Rituals Honest Sacraments written by Joseph Martos and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2017-12-28 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Honest rituals are ceremonial actions that celebrate what is actually happening in people’s lives. Religious rituals, however, often celebrate beliefs and doctrines (e.g., the birth of Christ, God’s forgiveness of sins, or the gifts of the Holy Spirit) that have little to do with people’s experience. Martos argues that early Christian rituals were grounded in experiences such as conversion, community, commitment, and self-giving. Lacking a vocabulary to name such experiences, the authors of the New Testament and other early documents resorted to metaphors such as baptism into Christ, receiving the Holy Spirit, forgiveness by God, and the presence of Christ during worship. By the fourth century, however, those metaphors were taken to be unexperienced metaphysical realities rather than experienced realities. The medieval schoolmen developed philosophical explanations of what went on in church rituals, and the Catholic Church continues to teach that its sacraments are automatically effective despite growing evidence to the contrary. What if religious rituals were to regain their original authenticity? What if the guiding value in designing church ceremonies was honesty rather than liturgical correctness? After liberating the reader from doctrinal constraints, Martos invites Catholics into a re-visioning of the traditional sacraments and a reawakening of ritual imagination in non-Western cultures.
Download or read book Deconstructing Sacramental Theology and Reconstructing Catholic Ritual written by Joseph Martos and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catholic sacramental doctrine has lost much of its credibility. Baptized people leave the church, adolescents stop attending shortly after they are confirmed, supposedly indissoluble marriages regularly dissolve, few go to confession, and many do not believe in transubstantiation. Drawing upon his decades-long study of the sacraments, Martos reveals how teachings that seemed rooted in the scriptures and Catholic life have become unmoored from the contexts in which they arose, and why seemingly eternal truths are actually historically relative. After carefully constructing Catholic teaching from the church's own documents, he deconstructs it by demonstrating how biblical passages were misconstrued by patristic authors and how patristic writings were misunderstood by medieval scholastics. The long process of misinterpretation culminated in the dogmatic pronouncements of the Council of Trent, which continues to dominate Catholic thinking about the church's religious ceremonies. If the sacraments are released from their dogmatic baggage, Martos believes that the spiritual realities they symbolize can be celebrated in any human culture without being tied to their traditional rites.
Download or read book Bringing Bernard Lonergan Down to Earth and into Our Hearts and Communities written by John Raymaker and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-11-29 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bernard Lonergan is a world-renowned philosopher, methodologist, and theologian. The complexity of his work has tended to limit his accessibility to average readers. Bringing Bernard Lonergan Down to Earth seeks to remedy this limitation by showing how Lonergan did address problems of community life. He also broadened his interest after writing Insight to include a reaching into our hearts as modeled, for example, by the genius Blaise Pascal. Lonergan also sought to bridge religious divides. Here the Christian theological virtues of faith, hope, and love are indispensable but that does not curtail from Lonergan's uncanny ability to reach out to secularists by focusing on ethics. The importance of Lonergan's interdisciplinary work is signaled in the book's twelve explorations (in the concluding Part IV) that detail for interested readers his extraordinary ability to solve major philosophical issues.
Download or read book Real Presence written by Regis A. Duffy OFM and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2010-05-01 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why is there so much worship and so little real commitment to living out the Gospel? How can there be so much participation in the sacraments and so little growth and transformation in most of our lives? In this challenging book of practical theology, Regis Duffy tackles vital questions that are seldom asked, let alone answered. Basing his argument solidly on the New Testament and core Christian teaching, Duffy shows how ritual, sacrament, worship, and community have real meaning and worth only when they function as effective symbols of transformation and renewed commitment. What is often lacking is not God's presence, but our own. By relating individual sacraments (Initiation Eucharist, Penance) to studies of the life cycle and stages of faith, Real Presence presents a compelling vision of what genuine participation in the Christian community involves throughout our lives. Contents: - The Cutting Edge of Faith: Commitment - Unearned Gifts and Their Symbols - Conflict as Crossroads for the Christian - A Question of Presence - The People in the Water - Servants at Table - Fragmented Stories - The Future Community Now.
Download or read book The Sacraments written by Joseph Martos and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2009-08-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the sacraments, really? For centuries, the religious lives of Catholics and other Christians have revolved around church rituals with generally accepted individual and social effects. What, precisely, are those effects, and how are they produced? Traditional theology used Greek philosophy to understand the sacraments and how they work. But is there no other way to understand them? In fact, there are a number of ways, and this book invites you to look at the sacraments through a variety of lenses: psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, theology, morality, and spirituality. As the introduction to this volume challenges, "If you read this book, and especially if you engage in the interactive study to which it invites you, your understanding of sacraments will be changed forever." To help personalize your investigation, the author has created a web site with thought-provoking questions that encourage you to interact with the ideas being proposed in this volume. To engage these topics more deeply, see www.TheSacraments.org.
Download or read book Real Presence written by Regis A. Duffy and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2010-05-01 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why is there so much worship and so little real commitment to living out the Gospel? How can there be so much participation in the sacraments and so little growth and transformation in most of our lives? In this challenging book of practical theology, Regis Duffy tackles vital questions that are seldom asked, let alone answered. Basing his argument solidly on the New Testament and core Christian teaching, Duffy shows how ritual, sacrament, worship, and community have real meaning and worth only when they function as effective symbols of transformation and renewed commitment. What is often lacking is not God's presence, but our own. By relating individual sacraments (Initiation Eucharist, Penance) to studies of the life cycle and stages of faith, Real Presence presents a compelling vision of what genuine participation in the Christian community involves throughout our lives. Contents: - The Cutting Edge of Faith: Commitment - Unearned Gifts and Their Symbols - Conflict as Crossroads for the Christian - A Question of Presence - The People in the Water - Servants at Table - Fragmented Stories - The Future Community Now.
Download or read book Ritual in Early Modern Europe written by Edward Muir and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-08-18 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The comprehensive 2005 study of rituals in early modern Europe argues that between about 1400 and 1700 a revolution in ritual theory took place that utterly transformed concepts about time, the body, and the presence of spiritual forces in the world. Edward Muir draws on extensive historical research to emphasize the persistence of traditional Christian ritual practices even as educated elites attempted to privilege reason over passion, textual interpretation over ritual action, and moral rectitude over gaining access to supernatural powers. Edward Muir discusses wide ranging themes such as rites of passage, carnivalesque festivity, the rise of manners, Protestant and Catholic Reformations, the alleged anti-Christian rituals of Jews and witches. This edition examines the impact on the European understanding of ritual from the discoveries of new civilizations in the Americas and missionary efforts in China and adds more material about rituals peculiar to women.
Download or read book Doors to the Sacred written by Joseph Martos and published by Doubleday Books. This book was released on 1981 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Comparision of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church with their counterparts in the other Christian denominations.
Download or read book The Sacraments written by Ernest J. Fiedler and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Sacramental prophetic Vision written by Matthew T. Eggemeier and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In A Sacramental-Prophetic Vision: The Praxis of Christian Spirituality in a Suffering World Matthew Eggemeier argues that the sacramental and prophetic traditions of Christian spirituality possesses critical resources for responding to the contemporary social crises of widespread ecological degradation and the innocent suffering of a crucified people. Eggemeier maintains that the vital key for cultivating these sacramental and prophetic traditions in the present is to situate these spiritualities in the context of spiritual exercsises or ascetical practices that enable Christians to live more deeply coram Deo and in turn to make this presence visible in a suffering world.
Download or read book Why be Catholic written by Richard Rohr and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rohr and Martos answer the question, "Why Be Catholic?" fairly and squarely, showing a deep appreciation about what is good in Catholicism and a penetrating honesty about the Church's shortcomings. They also examine what it means to be Catholic in the United States today. Finally, to answer the title question in a more personal way, they present portraits of some outstanding Catholics, especially those we call saints, who have found personal fulfillment by living their faith to the utmost.
Download or read book Catholic Divorce written by Pierre Hegy and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2006-02-20 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many people believe that the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on marriage is clear and consistent: marriage is a sacrament, the marriage contract is indissoluble, divorce and remarriage are forbidden. In this book, theologians, historians, and sociologists overhaul the church's teaching and practice on divorce and remarriage, as well as personal testimonies from a number of persons who have gone through the annulment process.
Download or read book The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments written by Scott Weeman and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2017-11-10 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of a 2018 Catholic Press Association Award: Sacraments. (Second Place). In the first book to directly integrate the Twelve Steps with the practice of Catholicism, Scott Weeman, founder and director of Catholic in Recovery, pairs his personal story with compassionate straight talk to show Catholics how to bridge the commonly felt gap between the Higher Power of twelve-step programs and the merciful God that he rediscovered in the heart of the sacraments. Weeman entered sobriety from alcohol and drugs on October 10, 2011, and he's made it his full-time ministry to help others who struggle with various types of addiction to find spiritual wholeness through Catholic in Recovery, an organization he founded and directs. In The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments, Weeman candidly tackles the struggle he and other addicts have with getting to know intimately the unnamed Higher Power of recovery. He shares stories of his compulsion to find a personal relationship with God and how his tentative steps back to the Catholic Church opened new doors of healing and brought him surprising joy as he came to know Christ in the sacraments. Catholics in recovery and those moving toward it, as well as the people who love them will recognize Weeman's story and his spiritual struggle to personally encounter God. He tells us how: Baptism helps you admit powerlessness over an unmanageable problem, face your desperate need for God, and choose to believe in and submit to God’s mercy. Reconciliation affirms and strengthens the hard work of examining your life, admitting wrongs, and making amends. The Eucharist provides ongoing sustenance and draws you to the healing power of Christ. The graces of Confirmation strengthen each person to keep moving forward and to share the good news of recovery and new life in Christ. Weeman's words are boldly challenging and brimming with compassion and through them you will discover inspiration, hope, sage advice, and refreshingly practical help.
Download or read book Sacraments Sacramentality written by Bernard J. Cooke and published by Twenty-Third Publications. This book was released on 1994 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cooke reflects on the sacramental liturgies and their relation to love and freedom, reconciliation and concerned service to one another. Includes discussion questions, a bibliography, and an index.
Download or read book Deconstructing Sacramental Theology and Reconstructing Catholic Ritual written by Joseph Martos and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catholic sacramental doctrine has lost much of its credibility. Baptized people leave the church, adolescents stop attending shortly after they are confirmed, supposedly indissoluble marriages regularly dissolve, few go to confession, and many do not believe in transubstantiation. Drawing upon his decades-long study of the sacraments, Martos reveals how teachings that seemed rooted in the scriptures and Catholic life have become unmoored from the contexts in which they arose, and why seemingly eternal truths are actually historically relative. After carefully constructing Catholic teaching from the church's own documents, he deconstructs it by demonstrating how biblical passages were misconstrued by patristic authors and how patristic writings were misunderstood by medieval scholastics. The long process of misinterpretation culminated in the dogmatic pronouncements of the Council of Trent, which continues to dominate Catholic thinking about the church's religious ceremonies. If the sacraments are released from their dogmatic baggage, Martos believes that the spiritual realities they symbolize can be celebrated in any human culture without being tied to their traditional rites.
Download or read book From Wild Man to Wise Man written by Richard Rohr and published by Franciscan Media. This book was released on 2024-02-05 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Richard Rohr’s work has been life-changing in my own experience. Over the last twenty years, no other teacher has had a more formative impact on my mind and heart than this unpretentious Franciscan brother. Being set free from the need to perform—to get it right—has been a particularly important gift for me.”—Belden C. Lane, from the foreword A newly revised edition of Richard Rohr's perennial bestseller, this book reflects and incorporates his years of experience with men's work as well as changes in society. With Richard Rohr as mentor and guide, men—and women who care about men—will want to study and discuss the ideas presented here. A new foreword from Belden C. Lane emphasizes the need for this work to continue.
Download or read book The Immortality Key written by Brian C. Muraresku and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER As seen on The Joe Rogan Experience! A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and the real-life quest for the Holy Grail that could shake the Church to its foundations. The most influential religious historian of the 20th century, Huston Smith, once referred to it as the "best-kept secret" in history. Did the Ancient Greeks use drugs to find God? And did the earliest Christians inherit the same, secret tradition? A profound knowledge of visionary plants, herbs and fungi passed from one generation to the next, ever since the Stone Age? There is zero archaeological evidence for the original Eucharist – the sacred wine said to guarantee life after death for those who drink the blood of Jesus. The Holy Grail and its miraculous contents have never been found. In the absence of any hard data, whatever happened at the Last Supper remains an article of faith for today’s 2.5 billion Christians. In an unprecedented search for answers, The Immortality Key examines the archaic roots of the ritual that is performed every Sunday for nearly one third of the planet. Religion and science converge to paint a radical picture of Christianity’s founding event. And after centuries of debate, to solve history’s greatest puzzle. Before the birth of Jesus, the Ancient Greeks found salvation in their own sacraments. Sacred beverages were routinely consumed as part of the so-called Ancient Mysteries – elaborate rites that led initiates to the brink of death. The best and brightest from Athens and Rome flocked to the spiritual capital of Eleusis, where a holy beer unleashed heavenly visions for two thousand years. Others drank the holy wine of Dionysus to become one with the god. In the 1970s, renegade scholars claimed this beer and wine – the original sacraments of Western civilization – were spiked with mind-altering drugs. In recent years, vindication for the disgraced theory has been quietly mounting in the laboratory. The constantly advancing fields of archaeobotany and archaeochemistry have hinted at the enduring use of hallucinogenic drinks in antiquity. And with a single dose of psilocybin, the psychopharmacologists at Johns Hopkins and NYU are now turning self-proclaimed atheists into instant believers. But the smoking gun remains elusive. If these sacraments survived for thousands of years in our remote prehistory, from the Stone Age to the Ancient Greeks, did they also survive into the age of Jesus? Was the Eucharist of the earliest Christians, in fact, a psychedelic Eucharist? With an unquenchable thirst for evidence, Muraresku takes the reader on his twelve-year global hunt for proof. He tours the ruins of Greece with its government archaeologists. He gains access to the hidden collections of the Louvre to show the continuity from pagan to Christian wine. He unravels the Ancient Greek of the New Testament with the world’s most controversial priest. He spelunks into the catacombs under the streets of Rome to decipher the lost symbols of Christianity’s oldest monuments. He breaches the secret archives of the Vatican to unearth manuscripts never before translated into English. And with leads from the archaeological chemists at UPenn and MIT, he unveils the first scientific data for the ritual use of psychedelic drugs in classical antiquity. The Immortality Key reconstructs the suppressed history of women consecrating a forbidden, drugged Eucharist that was later banned by the Church Fathers. Women who were then targeted as witches during the Inquisition, when Europe’s sacred pharmacology largely disappeared. If the scientists of today have resurrected this technology, then Christianity is in crisis. Unless it returns to its roots. Featuring a Foreword by Graham Hancock, the NYT bestselling author of America Before.
