Theology at the Service of People
In the past, the presentation of theology, of systematic reflection of the Christian religious and spiritual life, of “faith, seeking understanding” was conceived as something quite separate from the experience of people. It was thought to serve by protecting the Revelation of the Faith of Jesus Christ from distortion or error. This is still true. However, as theology sought to protect the transcendent from the mundane, it became more distant from people’s lives and lived experiences. Thus, the great body of the Church lived varying types of devotions as their religious sense, disconnected from the theological foundations of the Christian Faith. With the Second Vatican Council, as with so many things, there was an effort to renew the relationship between people’s lived experience of faith with the theological foundations of Christian Faith. Thus, theology serves people in their experience of life and spiritual formation.
In this edition of Offerings: Journal of Oblate School of Theology, we celebrate the reconnection in three diverse expressions of theology that relates faith to Faith. Nicodemus Tebatso Makhalemele’s The Theology of Sickness and Suffering according to Pope John Paul II: A Contribution towards Pastoral Care of the Sick provides a humane and humanizing response to the real pastoral needs of suffering people. Marek Rostkowski’s Il Rolo dei Laici nella Cooperazione Missionaria sscondo I Documenti della Chiesa Prima dei 1978 informs us of the roel and importance of Lay participation in the missionary efforts of the Universal Church. The First Annual Frank Motalbano, OMI Lecture by Fr. Frank Motalbano celebrates the critical study and reflection on the Sacred Scriptures as a pastoral act of the highest order. In each of these ways, the vital relationship between the mundane of people’s lived experience of sickness and suffering, participation in the Universal Church’s mission and the pastoral use of the Sacred Scriptures provides theological light for life and insight for sight, reconnecting people with the theological foundations of the Christian Faith in profound and useful ways.
Ronald Wayne Young, O. M. I.
Editor
Offerings: Journal of Oblate School of Theology
Contents
Editor’s Notes Theology at the service of People
THE THEOLOGY OF SICKNESS AND SUFFERING ACCORDING TO POPE JOHN PAUL II: A Contribution towards Pastoral Care of the Sick -Nicodemus Tebatso Makhalemele
Il ruolo dei laici nella cooperazionemissionaria secondo i documenti della Chiesa prima del 1978 -Marek Rostkowsk
First Annual Frank Montalbano, OMI Lecture: “I Know Him in Whom I Have Believed” -Frank Motalbano
Book Review -M. Christine Morkovsky
Dissertations and Theses of 2006-7