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| WRITINGS THEOLOGY Most of what I call "spare time" seems to be going into writing theology, trying to deal with some aspects of Catholic thought that might have a better interface with modernity. (I consider addressing modernity, which Vatican II began but which seems to have recently sputtered, the essential task of theology and pastoral life today.) I find I have sketched some nineteen sections already, with a lot of attention going into the relationship of the divine and the created, the idea of salvation and how that happens, and new approaches to grace. Several of these (very) initial draft chapters are viewable on the "documents" section of this website. Feedback is welcome. I am provisionally organizing the work into four areas: Father (creation, grace, causality, etc.), Son (salvation, redemption, sin) and Spirit (church, discipleship, personal renewal) and, lastly, the Kingdom. The draft on sacraments took much longer than I wanted, and more pages than I'd planned. But the basic concepts, the tie-in to discipleship, and an appreciation of the fundamental gestures in sacramental life--all this cannot be easily, or briefly, treated. A final secion on the "eschaton" (the Kingdom) will be the conclusion of this work; I have placed this section in the "documents" page of this website. It was a great relief to sketch this, as it was a range of thinking I had not done before. In all of this, I find the idea of the Kingdom taking on more and more of a structural role in holding the ideas together. I have two exploratory notes in the "documents" webpage, one on the divine self-actualization, which attempts to deal with the problem of God, change, time, etc. The other, on human transcendence, attempts to deal with how to envision the possibility of life beyond what we presently know. Although short, they provide summaries of the direction of my writing and ways to handle issues otherwise not handled all that well in theology. It will take years, if I have that long, to get these ideas down, with the appropriate documentation (references and footnotes) that will be needed. But it's fun to try to nail down what, after 45 years of theological thinking, I actually might think. Doing the exercise helps me pull different ideas together and forces me to relate them to each other. Update: I've linked all the various documents together and come up with a larger number of pages than I suspected, 256, which my computer-savvy friends say is very significant. Now to see how the pieces fit together and what to make of the various ideas. It's been several months since I've gone at these essays, so perhaps I'll see clearer what the underlying continuity between them is. _______ PASTORAL EFFORTS My Manuscript for less-than-active Catholics, called now "Reactivating our Catholic Faith," has been published by Paulist Press. I hope for a publication that will facilitate distribution to Catholics "on the edge" when, for example, they come to church for baptism, weddings, enrollment of school children, etc. This is a large-pamphlet kind of publication which parishes can purchase in bulk. The manuscript "Why Not Consider Becoming a Catholic" was sent to Paulist Press and should be getting on their list for sometime in the future. Time has its own pace at Paulist Press since they have lots of things to consider. This book is not long but it presents a modern apologetic in the form of considerations for thoughtful people about why they should consider becoming a Catholic. I am finishing work on a program called "Seeking Christ," designed to help parishes pastorally involve people who show interest in the RCIA process after the RCIA group has been formed. It has 8 sessions which involve (a) Audio-visual presentation; (b) Scripture Sharing and (c) Take home reflection with an opportunity for journaling. The idea is for a parishioner to be able to share with a prospective Catholic in a one-to-one or one-to-group format. Seekers can take the sessions in any order, and there is not need to complete them all. This is strictly pre-Inquiry material. ______ INACTIVE CATHOLICS PNCEA, our Paulist evangelization office in Washington, has launched "Awakening Faith: Reconnecting with Your Catholic Faith," a program designed to help less-then-active Catholics become active in the faith once again. The program has six basic modules, with four optional ones. Each module forms a process of conversation and sharing around a short reading; these readings, along with the other process elements (introductions, hospitality, reflection, prayer, conversation) help Catholics begin to feel connected to the Church again. The first six modules talk of spirituality, God and Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Forgiveness, the Mass and the Church; the four follow-up modules talk about faith today, love, marriage-divorce-annulments, and the use of money. An initial parish kit, replete with a CD rom with publicity materials for downloading, 3 Parish Guides, 3 Group Leader Guides, and Participants Booklets, along with the US Catholic Catechism for Adults (the program references this Catechism often) sells for less than $60, with options for parishes to buy more packets of other needed items. Supplemental material on the Mass, Reconciliation and Annulments arel also be included for each participant. Fr. Ken Boyack, CSP, is co-author with me of the various elements of "Awakening Faith." Hundreds of parishes have begun "Awakening Faith," almost all of them with very positive feed-back. Testimony from some of these parishes can be found on the Awakening Faith website. Soon the Participant's Booklet and the Group Leader Guide will appear in Spanish on the website as a free download. _____ I'm working on a booklet for prisoners, going through the Bible and giving reflections on figures who have been imprisoned or otherwise trapped. Reaching out to prisoners is one of the great ministries of PNCEA. Society hardly realizes what happens to the imprisoned, or their families. Catholics hardly realize how important supporting the faith of prisoners can be. ______ PAULIST IDEAS I've sketched a little article for the Paulists (in house) exploring whether there is any relevancy to the idea "conversion of America" which comes from our founder. It's an attempt to get back to some of the passion of mission which, in today's very nuanced world, can be quite blunted. You can see this on the "documents" page of this site. A magazine called "Catholic Resources" has asked to print it. ________ Occasional pieces. . . I'm working on an article about parishes and megachurches--what the US phenomenon of megachurches might teach us about directions for our US parishes, and what lessons from megachurches we should just skip. . . . And another piece on what happened with Vatican II, pointing to larger changes around our images of God and the gospel that risk being thrown out with the so-called "restorationist" movements on occasinally hears about. Another theme to explore: whether religions that demand exclusivity (i.e., only their members are saved) are the only ones that grow. If so, why would that be? This is provoked by a friend's question to me: "If Gandhi is saved, why be a Christian?" Hmmm....
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