Vol. 6 (2018) - Issue 2

Vol. 6 (2018) - Issue 2

March 28, 2024 2024-04-02 20:34

ABSTRACTS

CHRISTOLOGIE PAULINIENNE EN PH 2, 1-11 RECEPTION AFRICAINE

The current study examines the Christ hymn of Philippians (Ph 2, 1-11) and provides an African reception. Writing this hymn from his hard prison in Ephesus, the apostel Paul intends to exhort the community of Phillipi to unity. This community he loves very much – it is the first he evangelised in Europe – is suffering internal as well as external dissensions and divisions, though it isn’t very turbulent. Many critiques see in this hymn essential elements of Paul’s christology. The author examines this already abondantly studied hymn in two times. Firstly, it introduces to the text. Secondly, it highlights the kenosis Christology, the Christology of exaltation and the Christification of Christian action, as they are developed in the hymn. The author ends with an African reception which shows how Paul shows how an African Christology could proceed.

POSTMODERNITY, CULTURAL CRISIS AND RELATIVISM

The current article addresses Postmodernity as a Western phenomenon that represents the end of Western thought as the absolute norm for what is true and right, in its metaphysical and essentialist version, yet replaces it with consumerism. A Western standard (essentialist rationalism) is replaced with another Western standard (materialistic consumerism); the dominance of the civilising mission in the name of rational and religious superiority is replaced with another dominance hidden behind the veil of pluralism and relativism, namely the dominance of capitalism and consumerism. Henceforth value is conferred by the ability to participate in the market and to consume the goods produced by transnational corporations. The Nation-State as ultimate instance ascribing value disappears and capital, with consumerism as its complement, prevails. Even religious traditions survive only as products of choice for the believer who is transformed into a consumer of “faith”. To believe is no longer to accept some timeless “truth” or an eternal worldview, but to choose among the many “faith” systems on the menu the one that fits one’s subjective feeling of the moment

ÉSOTÉRISME : LE SALUT PAR LA CONNAISSANCE

The current paper which was originally an opening conference at the Institut de Théologie de la Compagnie de Jésus (ITCJ) competently sheds light the concept of esoterism and shows its limits. The autor unfolds the caracteristics of esoterism identified as gnostic, hermetic and occult. Esoterical knowledge is pictured as a secret knowledge, hidden from outsiders, and a mystical dimension of reality. Its access modus is initiation and its preservation modus is secret. The autor argues that this mystical knowledge has no scientific character, since it depend on a subjective factor, namely, the level of initiation of the adept.

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