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The concept of ‘transcendental experience’ is at the core of the theological anthropology of Karl Rahner. Since it alludes to the fundamental structure of human existence, it has to be confronted with the concrete forms that this one assumes. ‘Transcendental’ must then be connected with ‘categorial’. The transcendental experience only exists as categorially mediated; it is necessarily informed by the multiple historical situations where human existence takes place. But we may ask if such an experience is universally plausible; it will not be easy to detect it in some concrete configurations of human existence. We will have to verify its structuring presence in each of those ones. Meanwhile, we may not expect this presence to be always evident. It is possible that the analysis of some configurations of human existence will reveal how they are implicitly structured by the transcendental experience.

The first eleven chapters of the Bible have always posed particular problems of interpretation, in large part because they are read in closed circuit, for want of knowledge of their context. The discovery of creation myths in ancient Mesopotamia, strictly parallel to their biblical relatives, places them in their specific cultural context and contributes to a theological understanding of them. It is just necessary to recognise that the biblical creation narratives are myths and contain the rich spirituality that creation myths possess. They are the result of a religious intuition, of a constantly contemplative attitude in relation to things and to human existence: they see these things and this existence in the light of God, in relation to God and they see God in them. They aim to interpret them, sublimate them, give them the deepest possible meaning, suggesting that the supreme way of looking at them is to see them as dependent on God. To achieve this, in the form of a story, they attribute their existence to a creative act of God “at the beginning” of all that exists. They are, then, essentially authentic acts of faith and theological narrative.

Denouncing the common notion, which sees in theology a justification of the phenomenon of religion, interpreted as a human projection, this article demonstrates to this end, through an analysis of natural language, how anthropology cannot constitute a point of departure. Thus primacy is given to ontology, where both anthropology and theology are rooted. It is the manifestation of being, on an anthropological level, that demands a theology, but not through the short cut of an ontotheology. The ontological argument of Saint Anselm exemplifies the general tenor of the exposition. Christian theology itself, like all knowledge can only be understood within the parameters of ontology. In its turn Christology is based on Trinitarian theology, seen in terms of the expression of being.

This article offers a reading of vol. I of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s work Herrlichkeit from the perspective of a theological view of the reality of communication, seeking to show, on the one hand, how this concept is central to Balthasarian thought and, on the other, how Theology itself has a word to say about communication and about its world. Thus parting from the central concept of ‘beauty’, this article shows how the incarnation of the Word constitutes the possibility of an encounter and communication between God and mankind: Christ is the Truth – the truth of God and the truth of mankind – and communicates it in communicating himself, permitting us to participate in its life.

If in "lay condition" we best express the complexity of the vocation and function of the laity in the Church, ‘lay state’ is the more precise expression used by the 2nd Vatican Council (LG 30. AA 2). It has to be defined in relation to the other ecclesial states: clerical (of the ordained ministers) and religious (LG 30.31). Both the unity and communion of the Church and the apostolic ministry of the Twelve have been, from its origins, constituents of the Church. The mystery of the Church in its unity acts, however, as an icon of God the Trinity, the protological dynamism of creation by the Father, the soteriological dynamism of redemption through Jesus Christ and the eschatological dynamism of sanctification and consummation through the Holy Spirit. We may view each of these ecclesial states – lay, clerical, religious – as marked by a particular charisma in the service of each of these dynamisms. It is in this sense that the ‘secular character’ of lay Christians places them in the ecclesial communion for the service of evangelising the world.

This brief study, something like a brief philosophical essay, seems to recall three theses on the moral ‘philosophy’ of St. Thomas Aquinas, not always taken sufficiently into account: firstly, the novelty of introducing Aristotelian ethics only in the second part, particularly in the first section, of the Summa Theologiae; followed by the motives for introducing a philosophical ethics, a discipline of practical reason, in a theology notably speculative; lastly, a partial rupture initiated by St. Thomas in relation to the traditional framework of ethics of Saints Augustine and Anselm.

According to Ricoeur, the third root of the hermeneutical problem has only been understood in modern times, resulting precisely from the understanding of texts as kerigma. That being so, the biblical text already preserves a specific narrative to which we need to return once more ("reprise"). This return consists of taking the text and its evidence through a suitable reformulation. It is this that would be the task, a difficult task, of those that work with the news of Jesus.

This text seeks to draw a comparison between two Mariological works from two distinct historical and cultural contexts, namely of António de Sousa Macedo, in the 17th century, and Maria Manuela Carvalho, today, in the 21st, in order to show continuity but also a methodological and systemic difference between the two approaches and to show the novelty and contribution of the theological work of Maria Manuela Carvalho, which is the aim of this text of homage, reflecting also the respect and friendship which unites us, as fellow students of many years and pilgrims in the search of the truth that constitutes the logos of theology.

The Jewish identity of the intertestamental period, especially associated with the Pharisees, is based on what we might call ‘privilege of separation’ – to be Jewish is to be separate, to be chosen and apart from all other peoples, especially separate from gentiles and idolaters. This identity hinged on a set of doctrines and practices that were consolidated in the so-called ‘Sinai or Exodus tradition’, brought together in the theology of the Alliance and which had been transformed into a kind of normative and legal code which was the ‘Law’ or ‘Torah’, as a kind of life and manifestation of an individual and particular identity. One of the fundamental elements that conferred upon Israel the certainty of a specific identity, separating it from all other peoples was its conviction that it had received the mission of sanctifying the ‘great Name of God’ among themselves, which, at the same time, constituted both a task and the basis for its own identity. From the time of its liberation and journey in Sinai, Israel experienced the sanctity of Yahweh. From the time of the revelation of Sinai God manifested His sanctity and this would constitute one of the essential bases of Biblical and Jewish identity. The rupture that Jesus brought about with the Judaism of his time, especially with the codes of Pharisaic legalism, is certainly the act and the founding principle of a Christian identity or, if you like, of a New-Testament identity.

The present text focuses on the question of "Ecclesiology" (not simply the "Church") in a world marked by plurality and by signals of contradictory meaning. From this perspective it takes as a horizon of reflection the hermeneutic presuppositions and the elements of criteriology indispensable in terms of the Church’s identity and mission in these circumstances. At the same time, emphasis has been placed on certain practical orientations which it is important to consider with regard to the future. Taking the ecclesiological vision that stems from the 2nd Vatican Council and current reception of the Council’s outcomes as a point of reference, this article is structured into six points, each of which contains a first part concerned with establishing a principle (the elements of criteriology) and a second part focusing more on the practical and pastoral consequences that stem from these criteria. Thus attention is drawn to the importance of the historical awareness in ecclesiology, to the fundamental criterion of the service of the Kingdom of God which underpins the Church’s mission, to the importance of the dimension of community in all of its consequences. This is followed by a reflection on the vision of the Church as unity in diversity, on the configuration of the whole Church as a communion of Churches and, lastly, on the ecclesiological meaning of dialogue as a fundamental attitude of life in a world that is plural and contradictory.

The present study aims to analyse an expression that the blessed Carmelite Elizabeth of the Trinity uses – both in Heaven on Earth, and in the Final Retreat – to define time, the exact origin of which is unknown. Following an introduction in which the problem of temporality is placed within the context and rhythm of her spiritual experience, the traditional frame of reference is called upon in relation to this problem, particularly emphasising the platonic (or neo-platonic) paradigms that influenced the conception reflected by the mystic current. In the second part there is a discussion of the notion of eternity – of ‘eternity begun’ implied in Elizabeth of the Trinity and oscillating between the sense of temporal continuity or its annulment. Afterwards there is a consideration of the differential conjugation of the sense of an eternal ‘progress’ or rather of an interpretation of time as recurrence of a perpetual state. It concludes with this ‘third’ dimension of time, neither heavenly nor eternal, nor of the coming into being on earth, but as if in the manner of the aevum, which further reflects the crucial tension and the Trinitarian experience of her spiritual charisma.

The hypothesis of this study is that the category of the "game" should be considered as an epistemological and hermeneutic element for thinking theologically about creation. From this hypothesis are certainly derived implications for an understanding of the cosmos and of all creatures, particularly the human creature – this is what I wish to show – but also implications for how God is represented. From a theological perspective, thinking of creation as a game leads to the appearance, in all its singularity, of the universe of the freedom of Creation, of the creatures of the Creator, irrespective of any kind of end, cause or will; the universe of gratuity, of gift, of grace, irrespective of necessity and of constraint. Thinking of creation as a game places us at the heart of a dynamism of transcendence which crosses us, builds us and means to us an Otherness which, in its Absolute Somewhere, paradoxically constitutes us. What is missing, then, is an understanding of what the game tells us of truth about the human creature and also an understanding of the power of this existential being to say something of God and of what is at work in the game of creation. This is the aim of the present study.

This text is built around Jesus’ affirmation “You have received with grace, give gracefully”, recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew 10,8. It draws from the OT and the NT, which shows the maternal distress of an attentive and caring God, who looks with a love of his children and towards his children, and who, in the face of our selfishness, self-sufficiency, exclusiveness and self-centredness, sets forth new horizons of openness, of inclusion and of sharing. He also challenges our world of possession with a new model of receiving and giving. Thus a new concept of family and brotherhood is born. The life of Saint Francis of Assisi is put forward as a model of reception of the precepts from the Matthew text.

It is well known that Luke gives considerable attention to the singular status of Jesus, having recourse to a considerable range of narrative typologies. A curious example, and one that encapsulates them all is, however, lexical in nature: the inflections of the verb love. Within the Synoptic Gospels, it is this Evangelist who makes the most frequent use of this verb. Moreover, whenever this verb is significant, it occurs in Jesus’ discourse. Without a doubt its sense extends as far as it was already fixed in Old-Testament tradition, where an experience of love unites the God of the Covenant to the chosen people, through faithfulness to the concrete requirements of the Law (Ex 19, 3-8). But in Luke, the verb love is furthermore inflected in an absolute sense. And this originality functions as an intensifying device (verbal and theological), announcing not only the unheard-of authority with which Jesus develops his prophetic programme, but also permitting a recognition, in Faith, of his identity and of his power to Save. Even for those placed ‘outside the Law’.

Fellowship is a fundamental and permanent challenge in the pastoral work of the Church and, after all, a structuring experience in the life of all: the social sciences endlessly repeat that the giving and receiving of fellowship, loving and feeling loved, is what brings greatest balance to humanity. This text begins by examining the theological basis for fellowship, that is to say the fellowship that has God as subject, in particular through the fundamental characteristics of "condescension" and of "mercy". This is followed by a series of important notes concerning the praxis of fellowship of Jesus, taking three very concrete texts from the Gospels. Lastly, stress is placed on a number of areas and perspectives where fellowship is particularly pressing in our pastoral work in the parishes, movements and other realities.

Mention is regularly made of the difficulty of uniting Christian experience and the dimension of contemporaneousness. Quite often – too often – the impression we gain is that one reality is opposed to the other. Is it in fact viable to build a Christian identity while at the same time assuming the condition of being a citizen? The choice of being a Christian implies ipso facto the dimension of incarnation, which demands the building of the human city at every moment in the historical course of humanity. It is not possible to fulfil Christian commitment without also accepting a commitment and a joint responsibility for the building of human history.

The birth of bioethics represents an ethical growth on the part of humanity. It is a sign of a society which seeks to reach a post-conventional moral level, to use Lawrence Kohlberg’s terminology. This text seeks to justify this statement and to go further, in interpreting this same phenomenon from a theological perspective: when humanity becomes more responsible and creates better conditions for the protection of what is most fragile in life, this seems to correspond to the divine purpose of associating human beings with his creative and redeeming purpose.

The objective of this article is to undertake a reading of Heidegger’s Brief über den Humanismus, taking into account the fundamental meaning of what the philosopher proclaims and, by way of comparison with an existentialist perspective , the humanitas of the homo humanus. It is from this concept that we set out towards an understanding of the Heideggerian Humanitas, in the light of the method of phenomenological Destruktion, so as to be able to understand the ekstatic Existenz of the Dasein, which places the “humanitas of mankind in a sufficiently high position”. For its complete realisation, Heidegger likewise seeks, also in the light of Christian thinking, to think of the essence of humanitas, through the ek-sistência ekstática of mankind, inclining towards the truth of Being and of ‘Care’, open to the deitas and to the Transcendent.

To think of the Church and its History is an exercise inseparable from the naming of the figures involved in them. And arguably one of the most fertile in the art of doing and of founding in 20th-century Portugal was Monsignor Miguel de Oliveira (Válega, 1887-Lisbon, 1968), whose biography and academic writings are sketched here. His multi-faceted research brought him together with a notable group of historians of his time; with them he founded a Study Centre and a thematic periodical, Lusitania Sacra; he also produced a series of studies that to this day constitute solid points of departure for research.