This paper discusses the irruption of the digital faithful generation of Z in the Indonesian Catholic church and its disruption to citizenship catechesis. The discussion of citizenship catechesis will fall short if we still fixate on the classic definitions of catechesis, the method of catechesis, and the profile of catechists in the apostolic exhortation Cateceshi Tradendae (1979). The predigital world conditions ideas about them. An in-depth discourse on citizenship catechesis needs to depart from the digital faithful generation of Z irrupting (...) in the Indonesian Catholic Church. 'Irruption', according to the liberation theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez, refers to the presence of people who previously lived at the underside of history. Previously being absented, they transform into the subject of history. Irruption is also an ecclesial process. The generation of Z has emerged in the history of the Indonesian Catholic church as homo religiosus digitalis. They bring the disruptive spirit of the digital era to the body of the Catholic church. As digital integrators, they are open to incorporating faith in their lives. Based on their autobiography, homo religiosus digitalis Z lives a connective pedagogy with distinctive characteristics from predigital believers. Their irruption shakes the identity of the catechist and their vocation to "teach the lesson of the faith" to today's disciples of Christ. The irruption of Z's digital faithful generation encourages the further exploration of new methods for citizenship catechesis in the contemporary Indonesian context. (shrink)

The article examines how recovering drug addicts employ testimonies of conversion and addiction to develop and sustain personal identity and create meaning from varied experiences in life. Drawing on 31 autobiographies of recovering drug addicts we analyze conversion and addiction testimonies in two European contexts. The analysis shows how existing frames of reference and self-understanding are undermined and/or developed. We first describe the substance abuse in participants’ addiction trajectory. Next, we outline the religious aspects and the primary conception of recovering (...) addicts’ conversions as an example of spiritual transformation and narrative change. Moreover, participants select and creatively adapt cultural practices in their testimonies. In many of these examples converts clearly employ elements from their personal and family histories, their ethnic and religious heritages, and their larger cultural and historical context to create a meaningful conversion narrative. (shrink)

The impact of sexual abuse on religious functioning is an underresearched area, notably with male victims. We are in need of comprehensive theories and sound research. Based on research by the author on religious coping and the religious dynamics in male survivors, this article outlines parts of a narrative theory, provides a case study, and concludes with implications for research on religious coping with sexual abuse. It is claimed that research should take into account the effect of sexual abuse on (...) religious constructions and the plurivocal nature of the personal narratives. (shrink)

The seventh chapter focuses on the aftermath of the decline of Cartesianism as a leading force in the Dutch academic context. After De Volder and De Raey, indeed, only Ruardus Andala in Franeker carried on the teaching of Cartesian physics (which he taught by commenting upon Descartes’s Principia) and metaphysics, mainly for the sake of contrasting Spinozism and other forms of radical Cartesianism. Thus, Descartes’s philosophy came a dead end on the eve of the eighteenth century. Yet, Leiden Cartesianism (...) and the Leiden experimental tradition (which could include, after De Volder and Senguerd, the activities of Herman Boerhaave), favoured the introduction of Newtonianism as the standard in teaching natural philosophy. This was carried out by ’s Gravesande, who used logic and metaphysics (including rational theology), that is, the chief foundational disciplines in the Cartesian tradition, to introduce students to and justify the assumptions (methodological and ontological) of a Newtonian approach in natural philosophy. This had two outcomes. On the one hand, his arguments in metaphysics (i.e. ontology) have the function of clarifying which objects natural philosophy can investigate. These are natural laws, whose ultimate source in substances or modes cannot be ascertained by intellect alone, as they depend on the power of God. On the other, given the fact that experience is our only means of grasping such laws (which are then mathematically handled) he provides a rational-theological justification of experiential evidence, as capable of providing us with a degree of certainty equal to mathematical evidence. As for the Cartesians, this is still the paradigm of scientific knowledge. Accordingly, with the introduction of Newtonianism foundational disciplines such as logic and metaphysics (including rational theology) served as a justification for and a reflection on a given scientific methodology. Thus, philosophy started to be actually detached from the natural sciences, and to assume a subservient role with respect to them, as once it was the ancilla theologiae. (shrink)

John Fisher, Cardinal-Bishop of Rochester, defended papal supremacy and the indissolubility of marriage in defiance of Henry VIII and Parliament and was the only Bishop who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy.1 He was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1534 and was subsequently executed for treason in 1535. A full appreciation for Fisher's importance in English, continental, and Catholic history should include an examination of Fisher's theology not only because it informed his historic refutation of Henry's claims (...) which won him the martyr's crown, but also because Fisher's works were widely read and often referenced at the Council of Trent.2 Ruard Tapper claimed that 'Fisher's works were in everyone's hands.'3... (shrink)