Academic literature on the topic 'Catholic Church. Archdiocese of Bangalore (India)'

AbstractDuring my first twelve years in India I studied Hindu art and philosophy, encountering "inculturated" Catholic Christianity for the first time. When I returned to the United Kingdom, I was struck by a manifest separation between the dry, orderly church, and the imaginative world of "New Age" networks such as Dances of Universal Peace. In 1999 I received a major commission to re-design a church in Wales. This opening allowed me to use art as a means to bring some of the insights gained in India into a Western Christian context. After this public work, I made a series of personal pictures that depicted the healing and empowering effect of the new public images (archetypes) on my inner world. I then tried to connect the work in the church to liturgy but found no opening in the UK. In 2003, I returned to India to the Fireflies Intercultural Centre in Bangalore. There I found a "laboratory of the spirit" that provided the right conditions for serious religious experimentation. In 2007, I found a way to express the vision of the artwork in the Welsh church via an embodied liturgy. Using masks representing the Elements, I worked with an Indian Catholic priest to create a cosmic Easter Triduum.

Purpose The Catholic Church expects theological institutes, priests and seminarians to be well-informed, critical and creative users of information and communications technology. Currently, most theological institutes use the traditional face-to-face teaching method. An attempt to implement blended learning as an innovative teaching and learning modality for communication theology was made at the Saint Peter’s Pontifical Institute, Bangalore, India, using the lab-rotation model for one semester. This paper aimed to study the two important course outcomes: participation and satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach The course was designed using the analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation (ADDIE) model, developed, implemented and evaluated for 21 first-year theology students. The combination of descriptive and quasi-experimental research used an online questionnaire containing statements on a five-point Likert scale. The study evaluated the potentials of blended learning as an innovative modality through student participation and satisfaction. Findings This research found that a high level of participation augmented satisfaction among the students during the implementation of the blended learning modality. The positive results revealed that future shepherds in the Catholic Church could effectively integrate information and communications technologies (ICTs) in their life and mission and serve digital citizens. Research limitations/implications The research was conducted in St. Peter’s Pontifical Institute of Theology (SPPI) for an elective course, Communication Theology, taught once a week. Only two outcomes; participation and satisfaction were studied. The respondents were 21 first-year theology students of the SPPI, which could have limited the generalizability of the results. They were not allowed to use any gadgets. So this research had to adopt a lab-rotation model wherein the students followed part of their course in the computer room. Practical implications This pilot experience in blended learning modality will help SPPI recognize the advantage of such an approach and possibly decide to adopt it as one modality in the institute. It may also serve as a model for other Catholic schools and this could trigger the wider adoption of blended learning among Catholic schools. Results of the study can demonstrate to the faculty how blended learning is designed and a sample module can easily guide them on how it may be implemented. Hence, this can equip them already with knowledge and skills about the new modality. Social implications The positive learning experiences will help the professors to further discover and adopt new and existing learning technologies that can enhance the learning atmosphere for post-millennials. They can now innovate teaching and learning strategies to best address the learning needs in their classroom, given the pervasiveness of ICTs in the everyday lives. This study will also provide a new learning option for the students as they undergo a new student-centred learning exercise. Originality/value The pioneering effort of integrating ICTs in the form of blended learning in theology curriculum was executed in SPPI. The application of the blended learning approach to teaching communication theology is innovative in that educational technology is not only applied to theology courses but involves the promotion of technology use among future religious leaders. From a long-term perspective, this attempt can transform traditional face-to-face dominated teaching approaches.

Recent studies have shown that philosophy and theology, two disciplines separated and distinguished from each other for more than five hundred years, are closer in reality than how philosophers and theologians of today understand them. This is even more evident in those who reflect on the socalled “death of metaphysics” and the “end of philosophy” that Martin Heidegger proclaims. This, however, cannot escape the question of dealing with St. Thomas Aquinas’ philosophical and theological enterprise, whose intellectual spirit is characterized by delving both into philosophical and theological questions. This work tries to place St. Thomas Aquinas within this framework, ultimately showing that he exemplifies a lively interaction and interpenetration between these two disciplines. To show this, the paper goes through a brief survey of the historical distinction which finds its roots in St. Thomas himself. Afterwards, it provides a new understanding of the relationship between philosophy and theology primarily found in Jean-Luc Marion. Through this, one sees that in fact, St. Thomas does philosophy and theology ruly, that while speaking of a distinction between these two disciplines, his whole intellectual project can be seen as both hilosophical and theological, in which one cannot be spoken of without the other. References Abulad, Romualdo E. “Atheism as a Prophetic Voice in the Era of Paradigm Shift.”Diwa 38, no. 2, 2013: 77–90. Caputo, John D. Philosophy and Theology. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2006. de Lubac S.J., Henri. “On Christian Philosophy.” Translated by Sharon Mollerusand Susan Clements. Communio 19, 1992: 478–506. ______________. The Mystery of the Supernatural. Translated by Rosemary Sheed.London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1967. de Torre, Joseph M. “Thomism and Postmodernism.” In Postmodernism and ChristianPhilosophy, edited by Roman T. Ciapalo, 248–57. Washington, D.C.:Catholic University of America Press, 1997. Eco, Umberto. “In Praise of Thomas Aquinas.” The Wilson Quarterly 10, no. 4, 1986: 78–87. Elders, Leo L. “Faith and Reason: Synthesis in St. Thomas Aquinas.” Nova et Vetera8, no. 3, 2010: 527–52. Garrigou-Lagrange O.P., Reginald. The One God: A Commentary on the First Partof St. Thomas’ Theological Summ. Translated by Bede Rose. London: B.Herder Book Co., 1944. Jones, Brian. “‘That There Were True Things To Say:’ The Scandal of Philosophyand Demonstrating God’s Existence in Thomistic Natural Theology.” TheNew Blackfriars 95, no. 1038, 2013: 412–29. Kant, Immanuel. The Conflict of the Faculties. Translated by Mary J. Gregor. NewYork: Abaris Books, Inc., 1979. Kerr O.P, Fergus. “The Varieties of Interpreting Aquinas.” In Contemplating Aquinas,edited by Fergus Kerr O.P., 27–40. London: SCM Press, 2003. Marion, Jean-Luc. “‘Christian Philosophy’: Hermeneutic or Heuristic?” In The Visibleand the Revealed, edited by John D. Caputo, translated by ChristinaGschwandtner, 66–79. New York: Fordham University Press, 2008. ___________________. “Evidence and Bedazzlement.” In Prolegomena to Charity, translatedby Stephen E. Lewis, 53–70. New York: Fordham University Press, 2002. ___________________. On Descartes’ Metaphysical Prism : The Constitution and the Limitsof Onto-Theo-Logy in Cartesian Thought. Translated by Jeffrey L. Kosky.Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. ___________________. “On the Foundation of the Distinction between Theology andPhilosophy.” Edited by Philippe Capelle-Dumont. Translated by JohnCarlo P. Uy and Eduardo Jose C. Calasanz. Budhi: A Journal of Ideas andCulture XIII, no. 1–3, 2009: 15–46. ___________________. “The ‘End of Metaphysics’ as a Possibility.” In Religion After Metaphysics,edited by Mark A. 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Pope John Paul II. “Fides et Ratio.” The Holy See, 1998. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_15101998_fides-et-ratio_en.html. Pope Leo XIII. “Aeterni Patris.” Logos 12, no. 1, 2009: 169–92. St. Thomas Aquinas. Commentary on the Metaphysics of Aristotle. Translated byJohn P. Rowan. Vol. 1. Chicago: Regnery, 1961. _______________________. On Being and Essence. Translated by Armand Maurer. Toronto:The Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies, 1949. _______________________. Summa Theologica. Vol. 1. New York: Benziger Brothers Inc.,1948. Suarez, Francisco. “Metaphysical Disputations.” In Descartes’ Mediations: BackgroundSource Materials, edited by Roger Ariew, John Cottingham, andTom Sorell, 29–50. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. te Velde, Rudi A. “Understanding the Scientia of Faith: Reason and Faith in Aquinas’sSumma Theologiae.” In Contemplating Aquinas, edited by FergusKerr O.P, 55–74. London: SCM Press, 2005. Turner, Denys. Faith, Reason, and the Existence of God. New York: Cambridge UniversityPress, 2004. White, Thomas Joseph. “Engaging the Thomistic Tradition and ContemporaryCulture Simultaneously: A Response to Burrell, Healy, and Schindler.”Nova et Vetera 10, no. 2, 2012: 605–23.