https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/15192 Thu, 09 Apr 2026 23:14:30 GMT 2026-04-09T23:14:30Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/15289 Title: Retrieving the tradition Authors: Eminyan, Maurice Abstract: When Pius XII issued his Encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu in 1943 only a few Catholic theologians and biblical scholars did realize what its aftermath was going to be. This document, in fact, gave the green light for new methods and principles of interpreting the Holy Scriptures and thus opened fresh horizons for keen theologians and biblical scholars. This article highlights the importance of the Encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu, without which there would have been no new advances in theology. Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/15289 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/15288 Title: The religious perspective of suffering in heart attack : from 'mystery' to the 'Mystery' Authors: Baldacchino, Donia; Tonna, Aaron Abstract: The perceived suffering of individuals may be different during the acute and chronic phases of a heart attack. Existing research on clients with a heart attack has been mainly conducted across the immediate acute phase and the first three to twelve months of recovery. This research has generated inconsistent findings on clients’ experiences of suffering, which might have been due to methodological factors such as the use of cross-sectional research design, and the sole collection of quantitative data which carries limitations in exploring the subjective variables of the religious and/or spiritual dimensions of suffering in illness. These research gaps were addressed by this longitudinal descriptive exploratory study which has collected in-depth data across the first five years of recovery from the onset of the heart attack. Therefore, in order to identify possible fluctuations across time, and provide in-depth data about the perceived religious perspective of suffering, this longitudinal study aims to explore the religious perspective of the mystery of suffering in clients with a first heart attack, both in the immediate acute phase and across the first five years of recovery. Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/15288 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/15267 Title: Vatican II : an exchange of gifts Authors: Farrugia, Edward Abstract: Vatican II was ushered in by an unusually far-sighted pope, St John XXIII, whose announcement of the Council took his own cardinals by surprise, but whose genius for affability won the world over to his plans. It was also accompanied by an unusually gifted reporter, Xavier Rynne, whose verve and insider approach made him pass on to an avid public both babe and bath with. Indeed, Rynne’s real identity, as Redemptorist Father Francis Xavier Murphy, professor at the Lateran University, was one of the best-kept secrets for years after the Council. Starting with his Letters from Vatican City, first published in the pages of The New Yorker, and then as a four-volume work to cover the Council’s four sessions, Rynne’s account is credited with having fixed on the collective imagination the idea that Vatican II was a prolonged tug of war between conservatives and liberals.1 Such sociological tags cannot, however, fully satisfy theological concerns. Here we want to go beyond such journalistic oversimplifications, and go to the heart of the matter by turning to one of Vatican II’s most profound but neglected thoughts: exchange of gifts. Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/15267 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/15266 Title: Spirituality in the Gospel of Luke Authors: Welzen, Huub Abstract: There is a big congruence in materials and construction of the synoptic Gospels. In spite of this congruence the attention for each Gospel has revealed that each of them is pervaded with a specific spirituality. Already in the nineties of the previous century some attention was paid to the way Mark introduces his readers to the mystery of the identity of Jesus and to a way of life that exists in unselfish love. This article will direct its attention to some characteristic features of the spirituality present in the Gospel of Luke. The point of departure is the description of spirituality in the classical work of Kees Waaijman. He calls spirituality the divine-human relational process of transformation. Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/15266 2004-01-01T00:00:00Z