“The Holy Ghost needs no ‘Movements'”: Karl Barth in and on the Third Reich

by Joshua Shaw Karl Barth (1886 – 1968) is a controversial and, as seems these days all too common, a polarizing figure; for some he was an outgrowth of the 19th century’s decadent theology, for others the greatest of modern theologians. This fact alone (his polarizing character and the subsequent polarized characterisations) suggests to me… Read More “The Holy Ghost needs no ‘Movements'”: Karl Barth in and on the Third Reich

Fallen Failsafes and a Revolutionary Modern Priesthood

by Clare McGrath-Merkle, OCDS, DPhil Editorial Note: Clare McGrath-Merkle, OCDS is a graduate of Notre Dame of Maryland University (B.A.), St. John’s College, Annapolis (M.A.), Washington Theological Union (M.T.S., with a certificate in Carmelite Studies), The Catholic University of America School of Theology and Religious Studies (A.B.D., spirituality studies), and the University of Augsburg, Germany… Read More Fallen Failsafes and a Revolutionary Modern Priesthood

Book Reviews: Law, Freedom, Emotion, and Pilgrimage in Early Modern Christianity

by Ulrich L. Lehner Merio Scattola and Andreas Wagner, Prinzip und Prinzipienfrage in der Entwicklung des Modernen Naturrechts = The Question of Principles and the Development of Modern Natural Law (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: 2017), 336 pp. Merio Scattola, who died in 2015, belongs to the important historians of natural law, but is too little known outside… Read More Book Reviews: Law, Freedom, Emotion, and Pilgrimage in Early Modern Christianity

Cries for Reform in the Tradition – Bernard of Clairvaux (and Pope Eugenius III)

In the previous post, we saw Bernard of Clairvaux’s way of confronting the spiritual and moral failures of those seeking and holding clerical offices. In On Consideration to Pope Eugenius, his aim is the reform of the papacy. Writing between 1148-53, Bernard sets forth what Oliver and Joan Lockwood O’Donovan call a “mirror” of the papal office.… Read More Cries for Reform in the Tradition – Bernard of Clairvaux (and Pope Eugenius III)

Cries for Reform in the Tradition – Bernard of Clairvaux

by Matthew Gaetano Recent events–political and especially ecclesiastical–have made discussions of fourteenth-century political theology, seventeenth-century Augustinianism, nineteenth-century Romanticism, etc., seem less than timely or appropriate. In light of this situation, I thought that it might be fruitful to see how saints, theologians, and clergymen in the past articulated their cries for reform. A friend recently… Read More Cries for Reform in the Tradition – Bernard of Clairvaux

Between Regensburg and Vatican II: Historical Light and Theological Development

A Review of On the Road to Vatican II: German Catholic Enlightenment and Reform of the Church by Eric J. Demeuse The 1541 Diet of Regensburg—the namesake of this forum—proved a significant dialogue between Catholics and Protestants. Essential agreement was reached on a number of still contentious issues, though lamentably these agreements came to naught.… Read More Between Regensburg and Vatican II: Historical Light and Theological Development

“Third Party” Catholic Reformers of the Eighteenth-Century: Between Jansenists and the Zelanti

by Shaun Blanchard This article seeks to introduce an often-overlooked group of Catholic reformers of the eighteenth-century. Traditionally mistaken for quasi-Jansenists of some kind, the “Third Party” was a loosely affiliated network of like-minded, moderate Catholics who strove for the reform of the Church, sought peace and toleration during intra-Catholic theological wars, and displayed an… Read More “Third Party” Catholic Reformers of the Eighteenth-Century: Between Jansenists and the Zelanti