Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE MRT5080

 
TITLE Theology of Culture

 
UM LEVEL 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course

 
MQF LEVEL 7

 
ECTS CREDITS 5

 
DEPARTMENT Moral Theology

 
DESCRIPTION The study-unit offers a method for theological reflection in and on the context in which the Gospel is made incarnate. Culture is the human environment that reflects the concrete ways in which we live our natural and supernatural call to transcendence and the ills of our fallenness. In this context, the Christ event invites not just to personal sanctification but to participation in God's new creation. This call is lived by the church in the mutual self-mediation of the Christian life and culture under the dual aspect of the evangelization of culture and the inculturation of the gospel. Both dynamics presuppose ongoing discernment as we read the signs of the times to strategically sow seeds for a truly human integral flourishing.

Study-Unit Aims:

- To reflect on the Christian life as a being in the world but not of the world;
- To reflect more deeply not just on the role of human action in the transformation of culture, but also on that of human skill, artisanry and work;
- To understand that particular challenges to authentic flourishing that specific forces in the contemporary cultural context pose e.g. secularity, the ethic of authenticity, the ethic of total work, technology, "technocratic paradigm" etc.;
- To reflect on how the church is being called to respond to challenges in our particular cultural context that, at their core, remain spiritual; e.g. power and responsibility; the truth of our creaturehood in relation to the Creator;
- To consider strategies of teaching and nurturing according to Pope Francis' principle that "time is greater than space".

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:
- integrate the roots of philosophy and work of culture in paideia;
- appraise the theological significance of culture as the expression of the human being created to be a “co-creator”;
- examine the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary secularity and technocracy;
- evaluate how philosophical biases shape ethical and political decision-making;
- formulate the different modes – personal, in the public sphere – in which the Church can act to inspire authentic human flourishing in culture.

2. Skills:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:
- carefully study texts from the Magisterium, contemporary theologians and philosophers;
- evaluating arguments and deliberation in a group setting.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

Main Texts:

- Appleby, Scott R. The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation, New York: Rowman and Littlefield 2000.
- De Lubac, Henri. The Mystery of the supernatural. Crossroad Publishing, 1998, 2016.
- Eberstadt, Mary. How the West Really lost God: A New Theory of Secularization. Templeton Press, 2013.
- Gallagher, Michael P. Clashing Symbols. An Introduction to Faith and Culture. London, 2004.
- Kaveny, Cathleen. Prophecy without Contempt: Religious Discourse in the Public Square. Harvard UP, 2016.

Supplementary Readings:

- Bellah, Robert. Habits of the Heart. University of California Press, 1985. (For a collection of essays and resources by same author: http://www.robertbellah.com/index.html)
- Bartolo, J., Anton Buhagiar et al. Religious Beliefs and Attitudes of Maltese University Students Revisited – 2009. Malta: University Chaplaincy, 2009.
- Coleston, Frederick, Nietzsche: The Philosopher of Culture. London 1942.
- Feser, Edward. The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2008.
- Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, 1973.
- Gorringe, T.J. Furthering Humanity: A theology of culture. Ashgate, 2004.
- Guardini, Romano. Letters from Lake Como: Explorations in Technology and the Human Race. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994.
- *Guardini, Romano. The End of the Modern World. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 1998.
- Hefner, Philip. The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, and Religion. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.
- Jaeger, Werner. Early Christianity and Greek Paideia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1961.
- Lakoff, George, and Johnson, Mark. Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books, 1998.
- Loos, Amandus William, ed. Religious Faith and World Culture. New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1951.
- Magesa, Laurenti. Anatomy of Inculturation: Transforming the Church in Africa. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2004.
- Maritain, Jacques. Christianity and democracy. London: The Centenary Press, 1945.
- Micklethwait, John and Adrian Wooldridge. God Is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World. London: Penguin, 2009.
- *Mitchell, Jon P. Ambivalent Europeans: Ritual, Memory and the Public Sphere in Malta. London: Routledge, 2002.
- Narvaez, Darcia. Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom. New York: W.W. Norton, 2014.
- *Niebuhr, H. Richard. Christ and Culture (Expanded Edition – 50th Anniversary). Harper Collins, 2001.
- Norris, Philippa and Ronald Inglehart. Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
- O’Brien, William J., ed. The Labor of God: An Ignatian View of Church and Culture. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1991.
- O’Malley, John W., S.J. Four Cultures of the West. Cambridge: Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 2004.
- Palmer, Frank. Literature and Moral Understanding: A Philosophical Essay on Ethics, Aesthetics, Education, and Culture. Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press, 1992.
- *Pieper, Josef. Leisure: The Basis of Culture. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2009.
- Porpora, Douglas. Landscapes of the Soul: The Loss of Moral Meaning in American Life. Oxford University Press, 2001.
- Ruthven, Malise. Fundamentalism: The Search for Meaning. Oxford University Press 2004.
- Schreiter, Robert J. The New Catholicity: Theology between the Global and the Local. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1997.
- *Tanner, Kathryn. Theories of Culture: A New Agenda for Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997.
- *Taylor, Charles. A Catholic Modernity? Oxford University Press, 2001.
- *Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 2007.
- Taylor, Charles. Modern Social Imaginaries. Duke University Press, 2004.
- *Taylor, Charles. The Ethics of Authenticity. London, 1991.
- Taylor, Charles. Varieties of Religion Today. William James Revisited. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2002.
- Williams, Rowan. Lost Icons: Reflections on Cultural Bereavement. New York: T&T Clark, 2000.
- Wilsey, John D. American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015.
- Woods Thomas E. Jr. How the Catholic Church built Western Civilization. Regnery Publishing, 2005.
- Yoder, John Howard, Diane M. Yeager, and Glen H. Stassen. Authentic Transformation: A New Vision of Christ and Culture. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994.
- Young, Frances M. Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture. Hendrickson Publishers, 2002.

 
ADDITIONAL NOTES Pre-requisite Qualifications: Undergraduate study-units in Moral Theology.

Pre-requisite Study-units: FDT3160 - Christian Anthropology

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture and Seminar

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Assignment Yes 100%

 
LECTURER/S

 

 
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The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

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