Since Amoris Laetitia is a post-synodal document, the large part of the book is devoted to the theological analysis of the two Synods of Bishops convoked by Pope Francis in the first years of his pontificate: the extraordinary in October and the ordinary that took place a year later.

The main topics for the two synods were determined, however, in the speech given by Cardinal Walter Kasper during the cardinals consistory in February whose main aim was to prepare the possibility of admitting divorced persons who live in second unions to Holy Communion. The arguments of Cardinal Kasper are presented in the first chapter of the book and confronted with the most significant statements of the Magisterium of the Church on the issue of admittance to the Holy Communion.

This book is a study at the intersection of Church history, the history of theology, and systematic theology: dogmatic and moral. Kupczak is interested in the chronology of the events connected to the two synods on the family but in the context of theological problems discussed therein: the theological significance of contemporary cultural changes; the relation of the Church to the world; the understanding of the indissolubility of the sacramental marriage and the Eucharist; the methods of ethically assessing human acts, particularly the concept of so-called intrinsically evil acts intrinsece malum ; and the relation of conscience to the general moral norm.

The uniqueness of this book consists in combining the historical analysis of the events leading to the publication of Amoris Laetitia with research of the theological discussion that ensued.

Since Amoris Laetitia is a post-synodal exhortation, this book rests on the assumption that crucial for its understanding is a thorough analysis of its genealogy. Only in the light of this historical and theological perspective the debates surrounding Amoris Laetitia may be understood. The Apostolic Exhortation is appreciated as an aid to reflection, dialogue and pa. A practical guide to understanding and implementing Amoris Laetitia. The pastoral implications of this document will be of interest to church professionals.

Preaching is a relational act. This book explores the relationship between the preacher and the assembly as a spousal relationship. Written by a parish pastor with a doctorate in preaching and rooted in the Roman Catholic notion of the priest as bridegroom of the church, this work examines characteristics of the spousal relationship between husband and wife and then provides an analysis of the ministerial priesthood through this nuptial lens.

This nuptial reflection on the ministerial priesthood is then applied to preaching. This book presents a nuptial hermeneutic or vision for preaching and the implications of this vision for the assembly, the preacher, the homily, and the homiletical method.

The appendices include a one-page strategy for preaching summarizing the homiletical method, a rubric for homily evaluation by members of the assembly, and two sample homilies.

Amoris laetitia calls on the Church to minister in a different way to families. In this document, Pope Francis offers a new vision of pastoral care that insists that the Church has a mission to accompany, discern, and integrate families into the Body of Christ, no matter the challenges in their lives. Francis, Amoris Laetitia , Francis, Amoris Laetitia , 95— Francis, Amoris Laetitia The book situates marriage and family life as a central focus for transformation in the Christian life.

Questions at the end of each chapter help the reader reflect on how parishes can implement the vision in Amoris laetitia. An initial clue to answering these questions is found in Amoris Laetitia , no. This volume explores the implications of this vision, with particular regard to the divorced and remarried. Rather, we should gratefully seize the challenge that the apostolic exhortation contains and understand Amoris laetitia as a Kairos moment in order to let the era of mercy, which Pope Francis has introduced by advancing the work of his Here I am not going to attempt to establish whether Amoris laetitia either accomplishes or sets out to accomplish a development in moral theology or whether it correctly utilizes texts cited.

The text, laden with spiritual points and practical wisdom suitable to every couple and to those people who hope to build a family, affirms the Church's teaching that stable families are the building blocks of a healthy society and a place Amoris Laetitia , no. Official papal documents on marriage, sexuality, and the family are rarely popular, but Amoris Laetitia defied public This book aims to provide a contribution to this hotly debated topic in the field of Catholic theology.

Skip to content. Dated 19 March and released on 8 April It follows the Synods on the Family held in and Its introduction and nine chapters comprise numbered paragraphs.

Quotations are drawn from earlier popes, documents of the Second Vatican Council and regional bishops' conferences, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr..

The cardinals, bishops, theologians, priests, lay Catholics found themselves on the opposite sides of this crucial and complicated discussion. Like his predecessors, Pope Francis asks that as pastors we discern amongst the various situations experienced by our faithful and by all people, the families, the individuals. Such discernment is necessary constantly, not only in exceptional cases. Discernment is a constant process of being open to the Word of God to illuminate the concrete reality of every life; it leads us to be docile to the Spirit; it encourages each of us to act with all the love possible in concrete situations.

Discernment thus encourages us to grow from good to better. One of the characteristics of discernment, according to St Ignatius of Loyola, is the insistence not only on taking the objective truth into account, but also on expressing this truth with a good, a constructive spirit. Discernment is the dialogue of the shepherds with the Good Shepherd in order to always seek the salvation of the sheep.

The mentality of Pope Francis is one of dialogue. Dialogue means that we must not to take what we ourselves think for granted, nor what the other thinks. Francis shows us two types of persons for whom dialogue is not possible because both "boil down" or reduce to themselves. Some reduce their own being to what they know or feel he calls this "gnosticism" ; the others reduce their own being to their strengths he calls this "neopelagianism". Dialogue involves belief in our essence as social beings and in our individual incompleteness — and this is basically positive, because it prevents us from closing in on ourselves and opens us to the love from which we come.

For the culture of dialogue, the inclusion of everyone is essential. But to say that we are all subjects does not mean a mere sum of all individuals; rather it means that the sum of all is understood as a people. The Pope suggests that we explicitly dwell on this way of understanding the Church, as the faithful people of God.

Such inclusion involves the effort to accept diversity, to dialogue with those who think differently, to encourage the participation of those with different abilities. This means that pastors have the obligation to discern situations well cfr Familiaris Consortio n.

Therefore, pastoral concern should not be interpreted as opposed to law. On the contrary: love for the truth is the basic point of encounter between the law and pastoral care.

Truth is not abstract; it integrates itself into the human and Christian journey of each believer. Pastoral care is also not a merely contingent practical application of theology. We are not meant to fit pastoral care to doctrine, but to preserve the original, constitutive pastoral seal of doctrine.

The language of mercy embodies the truth in life. The Pope's concern is therefore to re-contextualize doctrine at the service of the pastoral mission of the Church. The human body, oriented interiorly by the sincere gift of the person, reveals not only its masculinity or femininity on the physical plane, but reveals also such a value and such a beauty as to go beyond the purely physical dimension of sexuality In this manner awareness of the nuptial meaning of the body, connected with man's masculinity-femininity, is in a way completed.

On the one hand, this meaning indicates a particular capacity of expressing love, in which man becomes a gift. On the other hand, the capacity and deep availability for the affirmation of the person corresponds to it.

This is, literally, the capacity of living the fact that the other—the woman for the man and the man for the woman—is, by means of the body, someone willed by the Creator for his or her own sake. The person is unique and unrepeatable, someone chosen by eternal Love. For this reason detachment from ethos is demanded "for the benefit" of eros.

Also the words of the Sermon on the Mount would seem to hinder this "good. Obstinately accepting it and upholding it, we will never reach the full dimensions of eros. That inevitably has repercussions in the sphere of praxis, that is, in our behaviour and also in the concrete experience of values.

Whoever accepts the ethos of Matthew must know that he is also called to full and mature spontaneity of the relations that spring from the perennial attraction of masculinity and femininity.

This spontaneity is the gradual fruit of the discernment of the impulses of one's own heart. They demand from man that, in the sphere in which relations with persons of the other sex are formed, he should have full and deep consciousness of his own acts, and above all of interior acts.

They demand that he should be aware of the internal impulses of his heart, so as to be able to distinguish them and qualify them maturely. Christ's words demand that in this sphere, which seems to belong exclusively to the body and to the senses, that is, to exterior man, he should succeed in being an interior man.

He should be able to obey correct conscience, and to be the true master of his own deep impulses, like a guardian who watches over a hidden spring. Finally he should draw from all those impulses what is fitting for purity of heart, building with conscience and consistency that personal sense of the nuptial meaning of the body, which opens the interior space of the freedom of the gift.

In Christ's words on continence for the kingdom of heaven there is no reference to the inferiority of marriage with regard to the body, or in other words with regard to the essence of marriage, consisting in the fact that man and woman join together in marriage, thus becoming one flesh. Christ's words recorded in Matthew as also the words of Paul in 1 Cor 7 give no reason to assert the inferiority of marriage, nor the superiority of virginity or celibacy inasmuch as by their nature virginity and celibacy consist in abstinence from the conjugal union in the body.

He proposes to his disciples the ideal of continence and the call to it, not by reason of inferiority, nor with prejudice against conjugal union of the body, but only for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. At many Wednesday general audiences during , Pope Francis dedicated his catechesis to the topic of the family.

He reflected on the family in the light of scripture and tradition, social realities and challenges, current roles and future possibilities. And this new beginning happens within a family, in Nazareth. Jesus was born in a family. Children are the joy of the family and of society. They are not a question of reproductive biology, nor one of the many ways to fulfill oneself, much less a possession of their parents Children are a gift, they are a gift: understood?

Children are a gift. Perhaps we are not always aware of it, but the family itself introduces fraternity into the world! The Son of God was not spared this stage. It is the mystery that we contemplate every year at Christmas. The Nativity Scene is the icon which communicates this reality in the simplest and most direct way. This tells us that it is not man alone who is the image of God or woman alone who is the image of God, but man and woman as a couple who are the image of God.

Their relationship will be undermined by a thousand forms of abuse and subjugation, misleading seduction and humiliating ignorance, even the most dramatic and violent kind. Jones,Ted A. The contributors think through different religious traditions to understand and address inequality. They make practical proposals in relation to concrete situations like mass incarceration and sweatshops. They also explore the inner experience of life in a society marked by inequality, tracing the contours of stress, hopelessness and a restless lack of contentment.

This book honors the work of Jon P. Gunnemann, who has been a leading scholar at the intersections of religion and economics. Spirit and Capital in an Age of Inequality will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students and scholars of religion and economics. It will be useful to policy-makers and activists seeking a more thorough understanding of the role of religion and theology in public life. Author : Rausch, Thomas P.