The charism of the Society of Jesus is profoundly expressed in its Formula of Life (FL), a text that has historically served as a canonical reference for Jesuit religious profession. However, the liturgical dimension embedded within this profession has remained largely underexplored. This study seeks to address that gap by examining the FL as a liturgical and theological source. Specifically, it (a) investigates the liturgical aspects of the FL, including the ceremony (act of professing), the state of life it inaugurates (a professed one), and the Jesuit way of life it initiates (professed Society); (b) identifies within the text a ritual structure that underpins (c) a theological reflection and (d) a spiritual interpretation of the referent beyond the rite itself. Employing a hermeneutical framework that connects liturgical form (lex orandi), way of life (lex vivendi), and implicit faith (lex credendi), this study proposes that the liturgical nature of the profession is not only canonically effective but also spiritually generative.
This article proposes an interdisciplinary understanding of abuses of power and conscience in the Church, linking them to forms of structural and cultural violence according to Johan Galtung’s Conflict Theory and Theory of Violence. Using the grounded theory method, variables are articulated that allow interpreting these abuses as expressions of unequal and culturally legitimized ecclesial dynamics. The emerging theory helps to clarify the causes of these practices and provides a basis for designing effective preventive policies.
The study aims to examine the particular experience of the baptismal grace on the part of the laity—different from that of the hierarchy and therefore in relation to it—in the origins of the Church. To this end, some testimonies from the first century of Christianity will be examined: Clement of Rome, Hermas and Ignatius of Antioch. It will be noted that, although the term «lay» appears only in Clement, its diffusion was probably broader. In any case, the reality to which it referred did exist: that of the baptized who do not exercise authority in the Church. They live their baptismal grace in a particular way, and because of this particularity they are necessary for the subsistence of the whole ecclesial body. This subsistence is realized in the submission—or obedience—of the laity to the hierarchy, with which the laity form a harmonious unity, and which guarantees anchoring in Christ and receiving his life.
After a thorough and careful exploration, this article finds it plausible to incorporate a new research methodology into theological work, based on the use of introspection and explicitation interviews, which are now widely used in contemplative studies. This is also aided by a theological reinterpretation of decision analysis in the rules of discernment of spirits present in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. The novelty of the method aims to incorporate, with methodological rigor, research on the first- and second-person experiences in the subjective transformation process that occurs through personal relationships with Christian revelation. The consequences of this new perspective could better define the relationship between «what is experienced» of Christian revelation and «what is thought» about it.
Is creation adequately defined by saying only that it is finite? Is it possible to conceive of a mode of actual infinity that is different from the absolute infinity of God? Pannenberg answers yes to the first question and no to the second. In this essay, in dialogue with him, I try to go beyond their answers in order to do justice, also, to a certain type of actual infinity that, while distinct from divine infinity, can nevertheless be detected in created reality.
