The Love of Many Lands: An Augustinian Theology of Migrant Identity

Last updated on: June 11, 2014 at 10:05 pm By Matthew Tan

The Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology at DePaul University recently held its 2014. The conference is a regular update on the globalisation of Catholicism beyond the familiar bounds of the West and explores the implications of these shifts within the West as well. The 2014 conference focussed on the theme of Catholics in Diaspora and featured the Senegalese born historian Lamin Sanneh, and Baylor University’s Philip Jenkins. The Divine Wedgie and its editor also featured in the conference,... Read more

The Ascension of God and Divinisation of Man

Last updated on: May 29, 2014 at 5:16 pm By Matthew Tan

We tend to think of the Resurrection as both the culmination as well as the end point of the history of salvation, with not a lot going on between then and the eschaton. To this, a sermon by Pope Leo the Great entitled “the Days Between the Resurrection and the Ascension of the Lord” (read in the Office of Readings on Wednesday 28th May), provides a very important corrective. The sermon draws our attention to the important actions for the... Read more

Feedback on “Justice, Unity & the Hidden Christ”

Last updated on: May 22, 2014 at 4:12 pm By Matthew Tan

Justice, Unity & the Hidden Christ appears to be having an impact, with sales recorded in the US, the UK, Australia, Italy, Canada and Ukraine, and with accompanying feedback coming in from the blogosphere (such as Ethika Politika) and social media. What is interesting is the way in which the book seems to be engaged from a number of entry points that go beyond the immediate topic of the book’s analysis. Two sample reviews of the book bear this out.... Read more

Graphics and Augustine: the Lust to be Dominated

Last updated on: May 15, 2014 at 5:07 pm By Matthew Tan

Newscasters have had a field day with the take up of the “#BringBackOurGirls” online campaign, which seeks the release of almost 300 girls held hostage by the Nigerian terrorist organisation boko haram. The campaign has fast veered off in several different directions and has sometimes gone off topic entirely, thanks to the photographic alteration program Photoshop. The most recent example of this involves the antics of lawyer and social commentator, Ann Coulter, who made an attempt to attack Michelle Obama... Read more

The State as Confessor: a View from George Orwell

Last updated on: May 9, 2014 at 4:22 am By Matthew Tan

In his Torture and Eucharist, William Cavanaugh spoke of the modern nation state as a simulacra of the Church. More specifically, he spoke of the state as a kind of simulated liturgy where, through a series of collective actions, the state mimics the Church as a site of gathering. Another way in which the state mimics the Church is in the way it takes on dimensions of the sacramental economy, administering state functions to the citizenry in the same way... Read more

Ecumenism, Abortion and Consumerism: Texts Available Online

Last updated on: May 1, 2014 at 4:20 pm By Matthew Tan

The good folk at Wipf and Stock have made available a sample chapter of Justice, Unity & the Hidden Christ, written by the Divine Wedgie’s Matthew Tan. The chapter is also available for download and can be accessed by clicking here. Another scholarly publication includes an article in Solidarity: the Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics, published out of the University of Notre Dame in Sydney. The article is entitled “Abortion in/as a Consumer Structure“. The abstract to... Read more

Syndicate: A New Forum for Theology

Last updated on: April 24, 2014 at 8:24 pm By Matthew Tan

A number of folk in the theological publishing world have banded together to form a new take on the theological journal, and have named it Syndicate: A New Forum for Theology. Syndicate will use the format of the online symposium and use specific works as starting points to generate theological discussion which is more up to date, readily accessible than the traditional quarterly print journal. As the poster above indicates, the project has already received the attention of... Read more

Adam on Good Friday

Last updated on: April 13, 2017 at 9:00 am By Matthew Tan

At this time, the Church celebrates the passion of its founder, Jesus Christ. The events leading up to his death on Golgotha constitute the most brutal tragedy known to man. Yet the ancient theologians of the school of Alexandria, drawing heavily on the Gospel of John, describe this moment as the time of Jesus’ glorification. In what sense can we, reflecting on the brutality of the cross, at the same time become witnesses to the glorification of the man hanging... Read more

Sin, Multiplicity and Relation

Last updated on: April 11, 2014 at 5:23 am By Matthew Tan

The French Jesuit, Henri de Lubac, provided a fascinating overview of the patristic link between sin and multiplicity in his Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man. This was a point that was taken up in a presentation earlier this week pertaining to migrant identity. While the focus of de Lubac’s writing on this issue was on the multiplicity of self-identification, it is an indication of the pervasiveness of sin when one stops to think of how multiplicity also... Read more

Free Panel Presentation: An Augustinian Theology of Migrant Identity

Last updated on: April 3, 2014 at 4:21 am By Matthew Tan

Readers in the Chicago area might be interested in a free event next week, organised by DePaul University’s Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology. World Catholicism Week is an annual week-long program that further investigates the demographic shift in Catholicism, from an Anglo-American and European spheres to the Asian, African and beyond. This year, the event is run under the theme of Catholicism in Diaspora. The Divine Wedgie’s Matthew Tan is part of the program, and will present... Read more