The Mystical Body and the True Body of Christ

Last updated on: April 15, 2023 at 6:42 am By Jack Hartjes

One of my favorite images of the Church, from before the Second Vatican Council, is the Mystical Body of Christ. I was disappointed when the Second Vatican Council put People of God instead of Mystical Body in first place among its many images. But Church as Mystical Body gets some rough treatment in Cavanaugh’s fifth chapter. The Church, Cavanaugh says, is not a mystical presence behind the bodies in the real world. It is a bodily presence in that world, the True Body of Christ. On... Read more

A New Christendom Fails to Challenge the State

Last updated on: April 22, 2023 at 7:52 am By Jack Hartjes

My last post on Chapter Three of Torture and Eucharist saw William Cavanaugh’s exposition and critique of Catholic Action. This was the early- and mid-20th-century response of the Church to new, secular, social and political realities. It grew out of a vision of the Church as a New Christendom. In the former Christendom the Church had wielded more secular power than modern states could tolerate. Catholic theologians, like Jacques Maritain, whom I knew as a leading voice in the pre-Vatican II Church, laid the theoretical foundations for this New Christendom.... Read more

Minnesota Bishops’ Integral Ecology Document Disappoints

Last updated on: May 11, 2019 at 6:24 am By Jack Hartjes

I’ve been posting about the response of the bishops of Chile to the oppression of the Chilean people under the Pinochet regime. This post is about another emergency and another group of bishops. Now it’s in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Here the bishop’s response to the way we oppress the natural world comes in a document advocating an integral ecology. “Minnesota, Our Common Home” it’s theologically profound, but, Like the initial actions of the Chilean bishops, it’s also timid,... Read more

Catholic Action and the Ecclesiology of a Disappearing Church

Last updated on: May 8, 2019 at 6:37 am By Jack Hartjes

Torture and Eucharist, Chapter 3 In the 1970’s under the cruel Pinochet regime, the Church in Chile came to realize that its ecclesiology was inadequate to the circumstances. William T. Cavanaugh, in Chapter Three of Torture and Eucharist, explains the origin and fate of that ecclesiology. On Chapter Three of Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ, sixth in the series on William T. Cavanaugh, a Catholic theologian who writes about the Church and its role in culture, politics, and economics. Introduction to... Read more

Evolving Ecclesiology in Chile: COPACHI, the Vicariate and Excommunications

Last updated on: April 15, 2023 at 6:50 am By Jack Hartjes

Torture and Eucharist, Chapter Two: The Church Learns How to be Oppressed William T. Cavanaugh’s second chapter in Torture and Eucharist is a history of the troubles of the people of Chile under the Pinochet regime. The plot of the story, however, revolves around the developing ecclesiology of the Chilean Church. Its concept of itself, its relation to the oppressed people of Chile, and its role in their world all changed in the years from the military coup in 1973 to the regime’s end in 1990. What... Read more

Greta Thunberg, Pope Francis agree: It’s an Emergency

Last updated on: May 3, 2019 at 6:23 am By Jack Hartjes

“I want you to panic” about climate change — Thunberg Donald Trump declares a state of emergency when he can’t get what he wants any other way. Some of us recognize true emergencies that have nothing to do with allegedly porous borders. Pope Francis wrote the encyclical Laudato Si, raising the Church’s level of concern about the environment, including climate change. Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg, with her school strikes for climate change, has raised peoples’ awareness around the world and brought... Read more

Torture, Neo-Liberalism and the Fragmentation of Social Bodies

Last updated on: July 23, 2019 at 4:15 pm By Jack Hartjes

William T. Cavanaugh writes about the brutal regime under Pinochet in Chile. He documents its effects on individuals and the even more ominous consequences for civil society. The aim and result of Pinochet’s repression was the fragmentation of social bodies. The regime tried to eliminate any intermediary between the individual and the power of the state. Toward this end the state used torture and the neo-liberalism Chilean economists learned at the University of Chicago. On Chapter One, Sections Two and three of Torture... Read more

Torture and Society in Pinochet’s Chile

Last updated on: April 22, 2023 at 8:00 am By Jack Hartjes

Chapter One, Part One of Torture and Eucharist by William T. Cavanaugh Torture in Pinochet’s Chile did not only attack individuals. It was part of an assault on society. It aimed to create a certain perception of reality. The state wanted people to imagine enemies, which torture would create and from which the state would rescue society. Torture itself would be one of the necessary means. On Chapter One, Part One of Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ, third in the... Read more

Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics and the Body of Christ, Introduction

Last updated on: April 15, 2023 at 6:58 am By Jack Hartjes

It has occurred to me to wonder about Jesus’ suffering during his trial and execution. How would it compare to the pains that many others have had forced on them? What would Jesus’ sufferings mean for you if you actually suffered more than Jesus? William T. Cavanaugh begins his Torture and Eucharist, on the Chile of the Augusto Pinochet regime, with that question. This is the second post on William T. Cavanaugh’s book Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of... Read more

William T. Cavanaugh, Catholic Theologian, Places Church Firmly in World

Last updated on: April 22, 2023 at 7:59 am By Jack Hartjes

Introduction to the Theologian and his Book Torture and Eucharist William T. Cavanaugh is a Catholic theologian whose interests, besides theology, include economics and politics. The role of the Church in the world of politics and economics is central in his thought. He has been a professor of Catholic studies at DePaul University since 1910. Before that he taught at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is director of the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology.... Read more