This is a look at the rise and development of religious studies in the United States, at the terms and implications of its “charter,” and then at current models and perennial phobias (theologizing being an example of the latter). There follows a plea for people working in religious studies to complete the hermeneutical circle, to return to the essence, to explore and act out the religious wager. The paper closes with a glimpse at two possible roles for such a revisioned venture: symbol repository for the university, seminary for an expanded and critical civil religion.

This article expands a project begun as a participant in the first American Academy of Religion and Lilly Endowment Teaching Workshop on Religion. The original project examined feminist teaching methodologies and how a male theology professor could use these methodologies in a general undergraduate theology classroom. This work describes the processes of feminist and personalist teaching methodologies and analyzes their impact on undergraduate theology classrooms.

While these approaches help students come to a greater sense of participation in and ownership of their knowledge, there has also been the attending risk that such pedagogies seemingly involve the student too intensely, too personally, and the course becomes a form of therapy. This study examines how this therapeutic turn appears to develop. It concludes with a discussion about the need for clearly articulated teaching methodologies and how their use where appropriate helps us anticipate and respond to therapeutic classroom dynamics.

This article calls for closer conversation between two growing academic fields: the scholarly study of spirituality and practical theology. Practical theology investigates the contemporary situation as it relates to questions of faith, ministry, and public religious leadership. Practical theology loses its center when it neglects the critical study of spirituality. Practical theological study of spirituality can help to integrate the three dominant methods in spirituality scholarship: the anthropological, the historical-contextual, and the theological approaches. The integration of these three approaches promotes a mutually critical correlation between the Christian tradition and the contemporary situation. Reflection on the practices of ministry students and teachers further reveals the importance of practical theological study of spirituality, which should inform the practice of teaching, the conception of theological education, and the formation of ministry students.

Interreligious dialogue, like all else, is having its own way in Asia and reveals its own theology of religion. This has to be seen against the background of what transpires in the Western patriarchate in the same field of theology. Here I will focus on one particular model which has created tension between the two magisteria that function dialectically in the church today: the “academic magisterium” of the theologians and the “pastoral magisterium” of the bishops and in particular the bishop of Rome. They differ in their responses, but they begin their theology of religion by asking almost the same question.

There are three basic theoretical approaches to the study of literature and religion that can profitably be appropriated by the religious critic of cinema—heteronomy, theonomy, and autonomy; but the greatest of these is autonomy, which explores those dimensions of the formal structure of film that represent the visual analogue of religious or sectarian questions. Inasmuch as all of our culturally typical films are stories, the autonomy of film is preserved if the religious critic approaches film as visual story. The extremes of story, myth and parable, yield substructures that correspond to differing responses to the fundamental religious questions about our relationship to the universe, to others, and to ourselves. Moreover, certain cinematic elements are more suitable than others for the visual representation in story of our basic religious concerns.

While the writings of Thomas Merton sustain their popularity twenty-five years after his untimely death, his later reflections on Eastern religions have led some to believe he was no longer really a Christian in his last years. This article places the question within the current discussion of Christianity and other religions and then argues for the centrality of Merton's Christianity in his appropriation of other traditions of transformation. It does this by underscoring his focus on experience rather than doctrine and suggesting the abiding Christian center of that appropriation.

In the concern for inclusiveness, one area that has been largely neglected is the discrimination against left-handedness. This paper looks briefly at some of the scriptural and social stigmas and implications attached to left-handedness. Using Luther's theology of the cross as its basis, a left-handed theology is introduced. Arguing for the need for a theology which focuses on those who are marginalized, a left-handed theology offers a model whereby God's left hand offers to those who are in “minority” positions grace and solidarity. This is contrasted to the right hand of God, which portrays a God of power, strength, and triumphalism. The hand of God which one chooses to relate to determines, then, how one does theology, and how a theological inclusiveness is developed.

It is difficult to speak calmly and quietly about what one loves passionately, and next to my wife and my children I love the Catholic church more than any other thing. The passion for it has perdured all the years, and grows stronger the longer I live in it even though it must be said that my years with it have been far from easy. I do not love the church because I examined it and found it lovable; I loved it long before I could have examined it, and no examination has lessened my love for it. I cannot go back far enough in time or dig deeply enough in my psychic archaeology to find the root of that love. I think the root is the grace of God, yet I do have memories of important places and persons.

The debate about salvation history brings to the surface a variety of issues, problems, and proposals that can be designated with some justice postmodern. In an effort to explore these contested issues, I offer a composite portrait of the meaning and uses of the concept of salvation history, drawing attention to its importance for recent Roman Catholic theology. I then review the various kinds of criticism leveled against salvation history models in an attempt to show that Peter Hodgson's contention is warranted: that is, the concept salvation history is problematic both as a category for interpreting the scriptural witness and as a pivotal category for fundamental and systematic theology. Thus, postmodernity, understood in broad terms, should mean the end of salvation history. The final section will explore how the legitimate concerns that generated interest in salvation history models can be recast in light of these broader postmodern approaches.

The article is divided into two parts. The first deals with the subject of spiritual discernment in Christian tradition: its nature, importance in the spiritual life, and the aspects of the spiritual life on which it bears. The second part deals with Catherine of Siena's particular approach to the subject of discernment: an explanation of the three images she uses to illuminate the meaning and operation of discernment and an exploration of the theological sources of her teaching on this subject.

This essay clarifies the foundation for a discipleship of equals by bringing feminist scholarship to bear upon conflicting religious assumptions regarding women. To this end, it surveys significant scholars as well as issues: past, present, and future. It evaluates the outcome of the three phases of study in women's history (I); it urges present action in four areas which are essential for equality in the Church (II); and it speaks words of hope for difficult times to come (III).